The Commentariat -- Nov. 23, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Your Classic White House Friday Afternoon Holiday News Dump. Despite his natural instinct for science, everything Donald Trump says is wrong (but we knew that):

... Coral Davenport & Kendra Pierre-Louis of the New York Times: "A major scientific report issued by 13 federal agencies on Friday presents the starkest warnings to date of the consequences of climate change for the United States, predicting that if significant steps are not taken to rein in global warming, the damage will knock as much as 10 percent off the size of the American economy by century's end. The report, which was mandated by Congress and made public by the White House, is notable not only for the precision of its calculations and bluntness of its conclusions, but also because its findings are directly at odds with President Trump's agenda of environmental deregulation, which he asserts will spur economic growth. Mr. Trump has taken aggressive steps to allow more planet-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes and power plant smokestacks, and has vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, under which nearly every country in the world pledged to cut carbon emissions. Just this week, he mocked the science of climate change because of a cold snap in the Northeast,tweeting, 'Whatever happened to Global Warming?' But in direct language, the 1,656-page assessment lays out the devastating effects of a changing climate on the economy, health and environment, including record wildfires in California, crop failures in the Midwest and crumbling infrastructure in the South."

Lomi Kriel of the Houston Chronicle: There are "a record 14,030 immigrant children in shelters across the country as of Nov. 15, including more than 5,600 in Texas, according to new federal and state statistics released this week. It is almost three times the number of children in federal detention a year ago, and more than during the Central American child crisis in 2014 that marked the beginning of the exodus from the so-called Northern Triangle countries.... The shelters aren't near capacity because more children are arriving. They are instead being detained longer.... Advocates largely fault a new government requirement, implemented this summer, that requires all adults in a household seeking to care for an immigrant child to submit their fingerprints for a background check. That information is shared with the Department of Homeland Security and at least 41 so-called sponsors lacking legal status have been arrested, according to testimony Matthew Albence, acting deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gave to Congress in September. Previous administrations didn't look into people's immigration status when deciding whether to release children to them."

Greg Sargent: "President Trump has again brushed off the horrifying murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, blithely claiming that the Saudi crown prince 'vehemently denied' any role in the killing. Trump again appears to be contradicting the CIA, which has reportedly determined that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did, in fact, order the assassination.... But, while in some ways Trump's latest comments ... reiterate his reprehensible statement from earlier this week, this time Trump went further, both in taking a cavalier stance toward the murder and in casting doubt on the CIA's reported conclusion.... This raises the questions: What did the intelligence conclude, and is Trump deliberately downplaying it, which would constitute active participation in covering up the truth...? In an interview with me, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) -- the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee -- confirmed that the committee will be examining these and other questions related to Trump's response to the Khashoggi murder and its broader implications."

Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "Conservative writer and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi is in plea negotiations with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, according to a person with knowledge of the talks. The talks with Corsi -- an associate of both President Trump and GOP operative Roger Stone -- could bring Mueller's team closer to determining whether Trump or his advisers were linked to WikiLeaks' release of hacked Democratic emails in 2016, a key part of his long-running inquiry. Corsi provided research on Democratic figures during the campaign to Stone...."

Senator Cindy Still Fighting for Slavery Southern "Heritage." Or Something. Matt Viser of the Washington Post: Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (Rebel-Miss.) has in "several instances ... embrace[d] a pride in the Confederacy and its aftermath.... The U.S. Senate runoff on Tuesday between Hyde-Smith, the appointed Republican incumbent, and Democratic former congressman Mike Espy, who is seeking to become the first African American senator from the state since just after the Civil War, has exploded beyond the boundaries of ideology and politics. The election has turned into a contest pitting the Old South -- marked by pride in the Confederacy and resistance to tearing down monuments commemorating the Civil War -- against the New South, which has sought greater racial harmony, toppled past Confederate icons and taken pride in the surprisingly strong races run this year by several black candidates in the region, even as their contests were marred by racial epithets."

Ewww! Page Six of the New York Post: "The National Enquirer's long-held secrets about Donald Trump may be about to get substantially less secret. Page Six is told that the longtime executive editor of the tabloid, Barry Levine, is penning a book for Hachette about the president. A source says that the book will look into 'Trump and his women,' although other insiders tell us that it could be more wide-ranging, even looking at the formerly cozy relationship between the Enquirer's owner, David Pecker, and Trump. That said, it's unclear exactly what Levine's contract with the Enquirer would allow him to reveal about Pecker. Of course, Pecker has been at the center of an investigation into alleged hush money payouts made to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels -- who both claim to have had affairs with Trump while he was married to First Lady Melania Trump. In August, Pecker was granted immunity in the probe."

Tim Egan of the New York Times: "Our A-plus president didn’t even have enough of a presidential grip to get the name of the ruined town of Paradise right. (He repeatedly called it 'Pleasure.') Nor does he pretend to know the difference between sub-Arctic Finland and arid California. His administration blamed 'radical environmentalists' for the [California] fires. But it wasn't environmentalists who kicked up 50-mile-an hour winds in a state that had seen barely a whisper of rain over the last six months, hot gusts that bounced through canyons thick with man-made combustibles. The national parks, oft-called America's best idea, were created by people who looked beyond their own lives. Those people made great ancestors -- benevolent, farsighted, selfless. What they protected were islands of diversity that humans were fast destroying. Climate change has put these parks in real peril."

*****

Here are troops having Thanksgiving dinner at Camp TrumpStunt at the U.S.-Mexico border:

Here are the Trumpies having Thanksgiving dinner at Fort Mar-a-Lago on the Florida-Atlantic border:

... You can bet most of the people in the shot are paying "guests." Still, you can't be too careful about mingling with the riff-raff; they appear to be cordoned off -- with velvet rope -- from their Imperial Highnesses. I wonder if that clutchbag in the foreground of the picture belongs to Trump's nominee for ambassador to South Africa, luxury handbag designer Lana Marks, who does belong to the Mar-a-Lago club. ...

... Michael Burke of the Hill: "President Trump and his family hosted a Thanksgiving dinner Thursday evening at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, with a menu that featured turkey, a salad bar and seafood.... As reporters were briefly brought into the ballroom, a man performed 'Music of the Night' from the musical 'Phantom at the Opera' at the president's request. The menu for the dinner was a lengthy one and included a full salad bar and a chilled seafood display with crab, oysters, jumbo shrimp and clams. There was also a carving station with turkey, beef tenderloin, lamb and salmon, while the entrees for the dinner were Chilean Sea bass, Red Snapper and ribs. Whipped potatoes, sweet potatoes, vegetables and stuffing were among the sides."

Here's Barbara Bush (who accompanied her then-President husband George) having a Thanksgiving meal with the troops in Saudi Arabia (yes, that Saudi Arabia) during the 1990 Desert Shield operation:

Source: Bush Library.

He's never been interested in going. He's afraid of those situations. He's afraid people want to kill him. -- Former Senior White House Official, on why Donald Trump has not visited troops in combat zones ...

... David Graham of The Atlantic: "Nearly four years ago, my colleague James Fallows wrote a cover story in The Atlantic labeling the United States a 'chickenhawk nation.' Americans today 'love the troops, but we'd rather not think about them,' he wrote...If those trends were apparent at the start of 2015, they are visible in crisp, high-definition detail in the Trump era.... Trump is the perfect chickenhawk president for a chickenhawk nation." --s

... Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump's Thanksgiving began, as his days often do, with an all-caps tweet: 'HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!' Minutes later, he tweeted of potential 'bedlam, chaos, injury and death,' a harbinger of what would be a frenetic Thanksgiving morning. Over the span of a few hours, the president would mix the traditional pablum of Thanksgiving tidings with renouncing the findings of his Central Intelligence Agency, threatening Mexico, criticizing court decisions, attacking Hillary Clinton over her emails, misstating facts about the economy, floating a shutdown of the government -- and per usual, jousting with the news media. Asked what he was most thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day -- a question that for commanders in chief usually prompts praise of service members in harm's way -- Trump delivered a singularly Trumpian answer. 'I made a tremendous difference in our country,' he said, citing himself." ...

... Trump Celebrates Thanksgiving ...

... by Threatening All Migrants. Michael Burke of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday threatened to close off the southern border, telling reporters that he would 'close entry into the country' if immigration gets 'uncontrollable.' 'If we find that it gets to a level where we're going to lose control or people are going to start getting hurt, we will close entry into the country for a period of time until we can get it under control,' he said. Trump added that he meant the 'whole border,' though he appeared to be referring only to the southern border. 'We're either going to have a border or we're not,' he said, adding that Mexico wouldn't "be able to sell their cars" into the U.S. Trump also claimed that the U.S. closed the border earlier this week, though it was unclear what he was referring to. Earlier this week traffic lanes near a key port of entry in San Diego were temporarily shut down. 'Two days ago, we closed the border. We actually just closed it,' Trump said. "We said, "Nobody's coming in." Because it's out of control.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... but by Pardoning a Multi-Billionaire Murderer. Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIA's assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency had 'feelings' but did not firmly place blame for the death. Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing. 'He denies it vehemently,' Trump said of the crown prince. He said his own conclusion was that 'maybe he did, maybe he didn't.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) (See also Reuters report, linked below.) ...

... by Threatening to Shut Down the Government. Roberta Rampton of Reuters: "... Donald Trump warned on Thursday there could be a government shutdown next month over security on the border with Mexico, suggesting he could hold up a funding deal if no more money is provided for a wall between the two countries." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... by Politicizing the Military. Jeremy Diamond & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "... Donald Trump struck a nakedly political tone during a Thanksgiving call with US service members stationed around the world as he steered the conversation toward controversial political topics. Speaking with a US general in Afghanistan, Trump likened the fight against terrorists to his efforts to prevent a group of migrants from illegally entering the United States, and he assailed federal judges who have ruled against his administration. The President also pressed the commanding officer of a Coast Guard ship in Bahrain on trade before touting his trade policies and arguing that 'every nation in the world is taking advantage of us.' US Presidents have traditionally called troops stationed abroad during the holidays to boost morale and remind the country of their service, making Trump's rhetoric yet another striking break from the norms of presidential behavior." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... by Dissing the Judiciary Again. Vanessa Romo of NPR: "As of Thursday morning, President Trump was still ruminating on a rare upbraiding from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, continuing attacks against the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and calling it 'a complete & total disaster.' 'It is out of control, has a horrible reputation,' Trump wrote on Twitter. He insisted judges 'know nothing' about security and safety issues along the border and alleged they are 'making our Country unsafe.' He also said 'there will be only bedlam, chaos, injury and death' unless law enforcement can 'DO THEIR JOB.'... A few hours later during a televised teleconference with members of the military, Trump again bashed the San Francisco-based court. 'We get a lot of bad court decisions from the Ninth Circuit, which has become a big thorn in our side,' he said. 'It's a terrible thing when judges take over your protective services, when they tell you how to protect your border. It's a disgrace.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... by Saying that More Than Anything Else, He's Thankful for Himself. Aris Folley of the Hill: "... when asked by reporters what he is grateful for on Thanksgiving, [Trump said,] 'I've made a tremendous difference in the country.... This country's so much stronger than it was when I took office and you wouldn't believe it. I mean you see it, but [it's] so much stronger that people can't even believe it.... When I see foreign leaders, they say, "We cannot believe the difference in strength between the United States now and the United States two years ago."'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Eliana Johnson of Politico: "... Donald Trump this week presided over an explosive meeting on a new Cabinet order granting the troops deployed at the southern border the right to use lethal force to defend border patrol agents. Several White House aides and external advisers who have supported the president's hawkish immigration agenda attended the Monday meeting, which devolved into a melee pitting two of Trump's embattled aides, White House chief of staff John Kelly and Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, against other attendees, according to three people briefed on the exchange. Kelly and Nielsen initially argued against signing the declaration, which granted the military broad authority at the border, telling the president that the move was beyond his constitutional powers. They were vocally opposed by, among others, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller; Chris Crane, president of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council; and Brandon Judd, president of the border patrol union. Also present was Vice President Mike Pence, who did not take a stand on the issue, according to one of the people briefed on the debate. Kelly and Nielsen eventually came around to the president's position, and the bitter dispute ended Tuesday evening when Kelly, on Trump's orders, signed a Cabinet declaration granting the military the disputed authority. The move ran afoul of the guidance offered by the White House counsel, Emmet Flood, who cautioned that it was likely to run into constitutional roadblocks, according to a second source...." ...

... Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday that American troops stationed at the southwest border would not be armed with guns to confront incoming migrants, despite a White House directive that aims to protect border security officials by pairing them with military forces.... 'We are not doing law enforcement,' Mr. Mattis insisted. 'There is no arrest authority under Posse Comitatus for U.S. federal troops.'" ...

... Heather Hurlburt of New York on John Kelly's strange memo: "It has been very settled law for more than a century that active-duty troops may not be used for law enforcement functions within U.S. borders. That law, the Posse Comitatus Act, was passed just after the Civil War and Reconstruction, specifically to protect state governments from having policies they didn't like enforced by federal military personnel on their soil. The exceptions are extreme.... There are several strange things about this document that immediately jump out. It was called a 'Cabinet order,' but the Cabinet has no constitutional authority to make orders, and certainly not of the military.... This memo, instead of invoking the president's authority, was signed by Chief of Staff John Kelly -- but chiefs of staff have no authority to command anyone except White House employees.... Members of Congress from both parties should be speaking up to demand clarification." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm see that every sensible (and far more knowledgeable) commentator agrees with my initial "Say What?" response to Kelly's memo. Now, based on Eliana Johnson's reporting, I'm beginning to think that Kelly maneuvered to sign the memo because he knew he did not have the authority to direct troops; that is, appeasing bigots Trump & Miller while having no effect on whatever make-work border operations the military is engaged in.

Dominic Evans of Reuters: "A Turkish newspaper reported on Thursday CIA director Gina Haspel signaled to Turkish officials last month that the agency had a recording of a call in which Saudi Arabia's crown prince gave instructions to 'silence' Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi."

"Trump Hired Whitaker to Lock up Hillary." Jonathan Chait: "At the second presidential debate, Donald Trump pointed at Hillary Clinton and issued a chilling threat. 'If I win,' he warned, 'I am going to instruct my Attorney General to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because there has never been so many lies, so much deception....' Trump has repeated variations of this threat many times.... [Tuesday] night, the New York Times reported that Trump repeatedly directed his White House counsel, Don McGahn, to order the Department of Justice to investigate Clinton along with James Comey.... A later version of the story adds a significant new tidbit. Trump 'repeatedly pressed Justice Department officials about the status of Clinton-related investigations, including [Matt] Whitaker when he was the chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions....' In his position working as chief of staff..., Whitaker had not only repeated contact with Trump, but -- as Murray Waas reported reported in a little-noticed scoop two weeks ago -- advised Trump on how to pressure the department into submitting to his demands that it prosecute Clinton. CNN reports that Trump raised this with Whitaker (and his then-superior.Rod Rosenstein) several times. All of these communications ought to constitute impeachable offenses." ...

... MEANWHILE. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The House Judiciary Committee has issued subpoenas for James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, and Loretta E. Lynch, the former attorney general, as part of an investigation into their handling of inquiries into Hillary Clinton's email server and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. The subpoenas, issued on Wednesday by Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, the committee's chairman and a Republican, require Mr. Comey and Ms. Lynch to appear in closed-door sessions with members of Mr. Goodlatte's committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.... On Twitter, Mr. Comey objected to the format.... 'I'm still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions,' he said. 'But I will resist a "closed door" thing because I've seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Let's have a hearing and invite everyone to see.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Goodlatte's last stand here is what happens when a dimwitted partisan starts to believe his own crazy lies. This is Goodlatte's last stand. He has retired.

Clinton Would Build Wall -- Around Western Europe. Matt Stevens, et al., of the New York Times: "Europe's leaders need to send a much stronger message that they will no longer offer 'refuge and support' to migrants if they want to curb the right-wing populism spreading across the Continent, Hillary Clinton warned in an interview published Thursday. Mrs. Clinton said that while the decision of some nations to welcome migrants was admirable, it had opened the door to political turmoil, the rise of the right and Britain's decision to withdraw from the European Union. 'I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame,' Mrs. Clinton said in the interview with The Guardian, which was conducted before the United States midterm elections this month.... Mrs. Clinton's remarks to The Guardian drew criticism and a dose of surprise from an array of scholars, immigration advocates and pundits on both the left and the right, some of whom were so perplexed by the comments that they wondered aloud whether Mrs. Clinton had perhaps misspoken. Mrs. Clinton, many said, has a long history of supporting refugees -- a track record seemingly at odds with her recent remarks. Her immigration platform in the 2016 presidential election boasted that 'we embrace immigrants, not denigrate them.'" ...

     ... Guardian stories by Patrick Wintour, are here and here. They include remarks by former British PM Tony Blair & former Italian PM Matteo Renzi. "The other two interviewees, Tony Blair and Matteo Renzi, agreed that the migration issue had posed significant problems for centrist politics."

Zack Ford of ThinkProgress: "[The] 6,000 troops at the southern border ... the Pentagon now reports, will cost U.S. taxpayers $72 million. Combined with the $138 million spent on the 2,100 National Guard troops that have been deployed there since April, that brings the total cost of securing the border this year to $210 million." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course that's just military costs and does not include the bajillions associated with civilian border patrol ops.

Pelosi's Progressive Backbone. Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "[F]or those whose political horizons go back a bit longer [than the Obama presidency], [Nancy Pelosi] stands out as the exemplary progressive among powerful Democrats. She had a role in stiffening President Obama's spine after Scott Brown threw the future of the Affordable Care Act into doubt, and her opposition to the Iraq War came at a time when the party's other legislative leaders ... and presidential aspirants ... were backing it. But more fundamentally, her reputation as a shrewd and effective leader dates back to the huge fight over privatizing Social Security in the mid-aughts.... Pelosi's insight was that ... [i]f Democrats simply stayed united and critical of privatization, the GOP plan would collapse under its own weight.... It worked. While Democrats refused to engage in the details of the debate, infighting consumed Republicans." --s

Election 2018. Diana Ofusu of ThinkProgress has an in-depth look at demographics in the 2018 midterm elections. Contains lots of interesting data points. --s

Lisa Seville of NBC News (Nov. 21): "A federal judge in Michigan ordered the release of about 100 Iraqi detainees Tuesday, blasting the government for submitting false statements and saying he plans to issue sanctions. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith said delays by the government in responding to court orders and producing documents in response to a class action lawsuit had 'shattered' the families of detained Iraqis facing deportation. 'From the earliest stages of this case,' he wrote, 'the Government made demonstrably false statements to the Court designed to delay the proceedings.' The ruling is the latest in a series of judicial rebukes to the Trump administration's immigration policies, including this week's battle over the administration's new asylum policy."

Pam Belluck of the New York Times (Nov. 21): "More than two decades ago, Congress adopted a sweeping law that outlawed female genital mutilation, an ancient practice that 200 million women and girls around the world have undergone. But a federal court considering the first legal challenge to the statute found the law unconstitutional on Tuesday.... A federal judge in Michigan issued the ruling in a case that involved two doctors and four parents, among others, who had been criminally charged last year with participating in or enabling the ritual genital cutting of girls. Their families belong to a small Shiite Muslim sect, the Dawoodi Bohra, that is originally from western India.... In the 28-page ruling, [Judge Bernard Friedman wrote,] 'Congress overstepped its bounds by legislating to prohibit FGM' because 'FGM is a "local criminal activity" which, in keeping with longstanding tradition and our federal system of government, is for the states to regulate, not Congress.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This looks like a pretty good way for the Supremes to overturn Roe v. Wade; decide abortion is a "local criminal activity" & leave laws governing abortion to the states to write.

Peer Pressure. Linda Greenhouse on how the right-wing Federalist Society continues to impose its influence on Supreme Court justices it has managed to install in the high court.

Nellie Bowles & Zach Wichter of the New York Times: "Joining a long tradition of companies and campaigns that drop bad news on holidays, Facebook on Thanksgiving eve took responsibility for hiring a Washington-based lobbying company, Definers Public Affairs, that pushed negative stories about Facebook's critics, including the philanthropist George Soros. Facebook's communications and policy chief, Elliot Schrage, said in a memo posted Wednesday that he was responsible for hiring the group, and had done so to help protect the company's image and conduct research about high-profile individuals who spoke critically about the social media platform. Mr. Schrage will be leaving the company, a move planned before the memo was released. Facebook fired Definers last week, after a New York Times investigation published on Nov. 14.... This is a change from just a few days ago, when Facebook wrote on Nov. 15 that the Times report was full of 'inaccuracies.' The same day, Sheryl Sandberg, the company's chief operating officer, posted on her Facebook page that she had no idea the company had hired Definers."

E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "The Coast Guard has ordered the company responsible for an oil spill that has been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for 14 years to clean up the environmental catastrophe or face a $40,000 per day fine. The spill has largely gone unnoticed until recently but it is one of the largest spills ever in North America.... Taylor allowed a broken oil platform off the coast of southeast Louisiana to leak an estimated 10,500 gallons to 29,000 gallons of oil per day, five to 13 times larger than the government's initial estimates.... [T]he spill has in fact generated between 1.5 million and 3.5 million barrels. For comparison, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, considered the worst in U.S. history, spilled 4 million barrels and is still undergoing cleanup." --s

I recommend checking out the Democracy Now! interview of, "A.C. Thompson, correspondent for Frontline PBS and reporter for ProPublica.... [O]ne of the key findings [of] ... Thompson's new investigation, 'Documenting Hate: New American Nazis,' [is that] America's perpetual warfare abroad has led to an increase in white supremacist violence at home." The investigation premiered last Tuesday on PBS, you can watch it online here. --safari

DeNeen Brown of the Washington Post: "Olivia Hooker called it 'The Catastrophe,' the notorious 48 hours of fire and death that leveled 'Black Wall Street' in Tulsa. She was 6 at the time of the Tulsa Race Massacre, which erupted on May 31, 1921, when a white lynch mob descended on the courthouse where a black teenager was being held. A group of black war veterans tried to protect the teen, and in the ensuing violence, as many as 300 black people died and thousands more saw their homes and livelihoods destroyed by torch. Some people were burned alive, and 40 square blocks of business and residential property -- valued then at more than $1 million -- were destroyed. Dr. Hooker later was among the first black women to serve in the Coast Guard and retired as an associate professor of psychology at Fordham University in New York. But at the time of her death on Nov. 21 at 103, she had also become one of the last known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre and an enduring witness to what is often regarded as the deadliest episode of racial violence in American history -- and one that was long an afterthought in history texts, if mentioned at all."

Flower Power. Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "The collapse in bee populations can be reversed if countries adopt a new farmer-friendly strategy, the architect of a new masterplan for pollinators will tell the UN biodiversity conference this week. Stefanie Christmann of the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas will present the results of a new study that shows substantial gains in income and biodiversity from devoting a quarter of cropland to flowering economic crops such as spices, oil seeds, medicinal and forage plants.... The essence of the technique is to devote one in every four cultivation strips to flowering crops, such as oil seeds and spices. In addition, she provides pollinators with cheap nesting support, such as old wood and beaten soil that ground nesting bees can burrow into.... In all four different climatic regions that she studied, the total income of farmers increased, though the benefits were most marked on degraded land and farms without honeybees." --s

Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "According to scientists at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, October 2018 marks the 42nd consecutive October, and the '406th consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th century average.'" --s

Beyond the Beltway

California. AP: "A former state senator convicted of lying about his residence and three refugees from Vietnam who could face deportation are among 38 people pardoned Wednesday by Gov. Jerry Brown ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. Brown's pardons also include a man who just lost his Paradise home in a wildfire."

Thanksgiving Day 2018

Migrant Caravan Arrives in Massachusetts, 1620:

     ... Mayhem ensues. Say, maybe Trump is right. Oh wait. The migrant caravans traveling from Central to North America today are made up mostly of people with at least some indigenous heritage. Sorry, White Man, you ignorant parvenu, your family just got off the boat; the migrants' families got here first. Way first.

What was on the table at the first Thanksgiving? Uh, no mashed potatoes & cranberry sauce. No wheat-based bread stuffing and no pumpkin pies:

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. -- Edward Winslow, in a letter to a friend in England

And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. -- Gov. William Bradford, on the immigrants' foodstores in 1621

Syracuse Post-Standard Editors: "Fifty-five years ago today, three shots rang out in Dallas, Texas, killing President John F. Kennedy as he rode in a motorcade.... Thanksgiving would not come for another six days, but Kennedy had already issued the customary presidential proclamation on Nov. 4, 1963. We publish it again in honor of the fallen president and the national holiday we gather today to celebrate." ...

Let us therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings -- let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals -- and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world. -- John F. Kennedy's November 1963 proclamation, in part

The Last Real Presidential Thanksgiving:

The Obama family serve Thanksgiving dinner to military retirees in Washington, D.C., November 24, 2016.

McDonald's employees have the day off,* so Trump must turn to a more traditional repast:

... Actually, many fast food chains, including McDonalds, are open on Thanksgiving Day. Newsweek has a list, tho you should check with your local chain of preference before you go out.

Commander-in-Chief* Shares His Thanksgiving Thoughts about Troops He Stuck at the U.S.-Mexico Border in a Pre-election Stunt:

Don't worry about their Thanksgiving. These are tough people. They know what they're doing and they're great.... You're so worrked about the Thanksgiving holiday for them. They are so proud to be representing our country on the border. -- Donald Trump, answering a reporter's question on his way to a holiday break at Mar-a-Lago

The Truth about Ben Franklin. And Advice for Cooking a Tender Turkey. Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post: "Benjamin Franklin ... had a misunderstood, electric and ultimately homicidal relationship with turkeys.... Going back more than 100 years, many Americans ... have genuinely believed that Franklin thought so highly of turkeys that he wanted one to serve as the country's national bird and symbol.... [In] a letter Franklin sent his daughter ... he wrote: 'For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly.' As for the turkey, Franklin wrote that it 'was a much more respectable Bird.'... But the letter itself -- and in its entirety -- had nothing to do with the national seal. Franklin, a known jokester, was ... attempt[ing] to denigrate the seal of a hereditary club called the Society of the Cincinnati. 'The joke,' according to the Harvard project, 'is based in the idea that the Society's symbol appeared to some to look more like a turkey than an eagle.' Guess you had to be there.... Decades before Franklin was [supposedly] extolling the virtues of turkeys, he was electrocuting them to test the power of electricity.... 'I conceit,' he wrote, 'that the Birds kill'd in this Manner eat uncommonly tender.'"

A Shameful Thanksgiving Dinner at the Old Homestead Steakhouse in Manhattan:

If you're eating a more modest meal at home with family & friends, Conor Friedersdorf of the Atlantic has "13 Easy Tips for Politicizing Your Thanksgiving Dinner."

*****

Afternoon Update:

Trump Celebrates Thanksgiving ...

... by Threatening All Migrants. Michael Burke of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday threatened to close off the southern border, telling reporters that he would 'close entry into the country' if immigration gets 'uncontrollable.' 'If we find that it gets to a level where we're going to lose control or people are going to start getting hurt, we will close entry into the country for a period of time until we can get it under control,' he said. Trump added that he meant the 'whole border,' though he appeared to be referring only to the southern border. 'We're either going to have a border or we're not,' he said, adding that Mexico wouldn't "be able to sell their cars" into the U.S. Trump also claimed that the U.S. closed the border earlier this week, though it was unclear what he was referring to. Earlier this week traffic lanes near a key port of entry in San Diego were temporarily shut down. 'Two days ago, we closed the border. We actually just closed it,' Trump said. "We said, "Nobody's coming in." Because it's out of control.'" ...

... but by Pardoning a Multi-Billionaire Murderer. Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIA's assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency had 'feelings' but did not firmly place blame for the death. Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing. 'He denies it vehemently,' Trump said of the crown prince. He said his own conclusion was that 'maybe he did, maybe he didn't.'" ...

... by Threatening to Shut Down the Government. Roberta Rampton of Reuters: "... Donald Trump warned on Thursday there could be a government shutdown next month over security on the border with Mexico, suggesting he could hold up a funding deal if no more money is provided for a wall between the two countries." ...

... by Politicizing the Military. Jeremy Diamond & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "... Donald Trump struck a nakedly political tone during a Thanksgiving call with US service members stationed around the world as he steered the conversation toward controversial political topics. Speaking with a US general in Afghanistan, Trump likened the fight against terrorists to his efforts to prevent a group of migrants from illegally entering the United States, and he assailed federal judges who have ruled against his administration. The President also pressed the commanding officer of a Coast Guard ship in Bahrain on trade before touting his trade policies and arguing that 'every nation in the world is taking advantage of us.' US Presidents have traditionally called troops stationed abroad during the holidays to boost morale and remind the country of their service, making Trump's rhetoric yet another striking break from the norms of presidential behavior." ...

... by Dissing the Judiciary Again. Vanessa Romo of NPR: "As of Thursday morning, President Trump was still ruminating on a rare upbraiding from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, continuing attacks against the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and calling it 'a complete & total disaster.' 'It is out of control, has a horrible reputation,' Trump wrote on Twitter. He insisted judges 'know nothing' about security and safety issues along the border and alleged they are 'making our Country unsafe.' He also said 'there will be only bedlam, chaos, injury and death' unless law enforcement can 'DO THEIR JOB.'... A few hours later during a televised teleconference with members of the military, Trump again bashed the San Francisco-based court. 'We get a lot of bad court decisions from the Ninth Circuit, which has become a big thorn in our side,' he said. 'It's a terrible thing when judges take over your protective services, when they tell you how to protect your border. It's a disgrace.'"

... by Saying He's Thankful for Himself. Aris Folley of the Hill: "... when asked by reporters what he is grateful for on Thanksgiving, [Trump said,] 'I've made a tremendous difference in the country.... This country's so much stronger than it was when I took office and you wouldn't believe it. I mean you see it, but [it's] so much stronger that people can't even believe it.... When I see foreign leaders, they say, "We cannot believe the difference in strength between the United States now and the United States two years ago.'."

*****

Donald the Dimwit. Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS - Whatever happened to Global Warming? -- Donald Trump, in a tweet yesterday afternoon

In my over three decades of teaching, I have never had a student dumb enough to make the kind of inference Trump is making in this tweet. -- Shibley Telhami, former adviser to the Bush & Obama administrations ...

... "Trump Confuses Climate Change with Weather, Prompting Widespread Despair." Independent: "Donald Trump has once again confused the weather with climate change.... The 72-year-old has long denied the scientific consensus on climate change, claiming in 2012 the phenomenon was a Chinese hoax intended to hurt American exports. Scientists generally prefer the term 'climate change' to 'global warming' because the effects of humans emitting heat-trapping greenhouse gases are more likely to manifest as extreme weather events rather than temperature increases alone. Mr Trump has rejected that distinction as a distraction by the 'dollar sucking wiseguys'[.]... Thirteen minutes after his initial tweet, Mr Trump followed it up with a rambling and inaccurate claim he was being blamed by the media for traffic jams. 'You just can't win with the Fake News Media,' Mr Trump wrote. 'A big story today is that because I have pushed so hard and gotten Gasoline Prices so low, more people are driving and I have caused traffic jams throughout our Great Nation. Sorry everyone!' US media has [Mrs. McC: have!] widely reported on possible record numbers of travellers over Thanksgiving this weekend, but The Independent could find no cases of outlets blaming the president for traffic congestion."

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Less than a day after drawing bipartisan ire for appearing to let Saudi Arabia off the hook for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi..., Donald Trump ... tweet[ed] thanks to [Saudi Arabia] for falling oil prices. 'Oil prices getting lower. Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy! $54, was just $82,' he said. 'Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let's go lower!'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Speaking of Going Lower. Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump sparked an immediate backlash on Twitter early Wednesday after he thanked Saudi Arabia for helping lower global oil prices. Hundreds of tweeters expressed incredulity at Trump's post, which came a day after his bizarre statement that the U.S. would remain a 'steadfast partner' of Saudi Arabia ― even if Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved in the brutal slaying of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi." ...

... Ali Kucukgocmen of Reuters: "Turkey accused the United States on Wednesday of trying to turn a blind eye to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, and dismissed comments from ... Donald Trump on the issue as 'comic'.... 'It is not possible for an intelligence agency such as the CIA, which even knows the color of the fur on the cat walking around the Saudi consulate's garden ... to not know who gave this order'..., said ... Numan Kurtulmus, the deputy chairman of President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party." ...

... ** "Trump Gives Guidance to Autocrats." Mark Mazzetti & Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: Trump's "633-word statement on Tuesday about the brutal killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi showed the extent to which he believes that raw, mercantilist calculations should guide the United States' decisions about the Middle East and the wider world. Tuesday's message could become something of a blueprint for foreign leaders -- a guide to how they might increase their standing in the eyes of the American president as well as how far they can go in crushing domestic critics without raising American ire.... It was also a revealing meditation on the role that Mr. Trump believes facts should play in political decision-making.... The president dismissed not only [the CIA's] assessment but also the very process of seeking the truth, implying that it did not really matter anyway." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... "Maybe He did and Maybe He Didn't!" Won't Fly. Burgess Everett of Politico: "The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is demanding a definitive determination from ... Donald Trump about whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In a letter to Trump, the panel's chairman, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), and ranking member, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), specifically asked on Tuesday whether the administration believed that bin Salman was involved in the murder of Khashoggi.... Under the Magnitsky Act, Trump can be required to make a determination about human rights violations by global leaders. The law requires the president to do so within 120 days of the committee's request, as well as apply any sanctions. Corker and Menendez made their first request on Oct. 10, without specifically asking about bin Salman.... Corker and Menendez's first sanctions inquiry citing the Magnitsky Act ultimately resulted in the administration's sanctioning 17 Saudi Arabian officials following Khashoggi's death." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Charles Pierce: "In the last week, [Trump] has attacked a heroic U.S. admiral who commanded the raid that rid the world of Osama bin Laden, and he did so while William McRaven is fighting leukemia. He did so because McRaven was mean to him. Now, he's letting MBS off the hook, and putting American lives at risk all over the globe, because the Saudis kiss his ass and throw some business his way. And 30 percent of our fellow citizens are fine with this. Elijah Cummings can't get that subpoena power soon enough."

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday finally submitted a set of written responses to Robert Mueller, signaling that he was done for good with the special counsel's questions. But Mueller is far from done with him. The special counsel still wants to question the president over his actions while in the White House -- Tuesday's answers only covered Russian hacking during the 2016 election. It's a fight that could resul in a historic subpoena and eventual Supreme Court ruling.... Next comes the perilous round of negotiations between Trump's lawyers and Mueller's prosecutors covering topics like Trump's intentions when firing FBI Director James Comey in May 2017. That line of questioning -- which Trump says he shouldn't have to answer -- is tied to Mueller's ongoing obstruction of justice investigation." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Eric Tucker, et al., of the AP: "The date had been picked, the location too, and the plan was penciled in: ... Donald Trump would be whisked from the White House to Camp David on a quiet winter Saturday to answer questions from special counsel Robert Mueller's team. But as the Jan. 27, 2018, date neared and Mueller provided the topics he wanted to discuss, Trump's lawyers balked. Attorney John Dowd then fired off a searing letter disputing Mueller's authority to question the president. The interview was off.... Through private letters, tense meetings and considerable public posturing, the president's lawyers have engaged in a tangled, tortured back-and-forth with the special counsel to prevent the president from sitting down for a face-to-face with enormous political and legal consequences.... [Even as Trump said publicly that he really wanted to sit for an interview,] what he didn't mention was that his attorneys had already discussed, and scuttled, the planned interview with Mueller." ...

... Bart Jansen & Steve Reilly of USA Today (Nov. 20): "... Donald Trump's administration released details of acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker's past income and financial holdings ... after watchdog groups complained the information was months overdue.... Whitaker revised the filing five times after being named [acting AG]. Austin Evers, executive director for the advocacy group American Oversight, which called for the release of the document, said Congress should investigate the changes." ...

... Curt Devine, et al., of CNN: "An independent federal investigative agency is looking into whether acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker violated prohibitions on political activities by federal employees by accepting contributions to his 2014 Senate campaign earlier this year. Last January and February, when Whitaker served as chief of staff at the Department of Justice, four individuals donated a total of $8,800 to the committee for Whitaker's unsuccessful 2014 run for a Senate seat in Iowa, according to Federal Election Commission records. Austin Evers, the executive director of the watchdog organization American Oversight, told CNN his group submitted a complaint to the Office of Special Counsel that argued Whitaker may have violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from accepting political contributions. A spokesperson for the Office of Special Counsel confirmed receipt of the complaint and said a case file on the matter has been opened." ...

... Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III asked a federal judge Wednesday to order George Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser to President Trump, to start serving time in prison on Monday as scheduled. Papadopoulos's lawyers had asked U.S. District Court Judge Randolph D. Moss to allow Papadopoulos to delay his two-week prison sentence while a constitutional challenge to Mueller's appointment filed in a separate case in Washington is resolved. But Mueller's team responded that Papadopoulos waived his rights to appeal when he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and that he had failed to file his request in a timely fashion."

Even CJ John Roberts Has Has Enough. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. defended the independence and integrity of the federal judiciary on Wednesday, issuing a statement rebuking President Trump's criticism of a judge who had ruled against the administration's asylum policy. The chief justice seemed particularly offended by Mr. Trump's assertion that Judge Jon S. Tigar, of the United States District Court in San Francisco, was 'an Obama judge.' Chief Justice Roberts said that was a profound misunderstanding of the judicial role. 'We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,' he said in a statement. 'What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.' Later in the afternoon, the president responded. 'Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have "Obama judges," and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country,' he said, before again lashing out at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco." ...

     ... Adam Liptak (Nov. 20): "President Trump lashed out on Tuesday against the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, calling it a lawless disgrace and threatening unspecified retaliation. 'That's not law,' he said of the court's rulings. ]Every case that gets filed in the Ninth Circuit we get beaten.' 'It's a disgrace,' Mr. Trump said. Mr. Trump's remarks came after a federal trial judge ordered the administration to resume accepting asylum claims from migrants no matter where or how they entered the United States. The ruling was issued by Judge Jon S. Tigar, of the United States District Court in San Francisco, and not by the Ninth Circuit itself.... 'This was an Obama judge,' Mr. Trump said of Judge Tigar, who was indeed appointed by President Barack Obama.... Mr. Trump vowed to take steps to address his unhappiness with the court. 'I'll tell you what,' he said, 'it's not going to happen like this anymore.' But it was not clear what he proposed to do. 'The Ninth Circuit is really something we have to take a look at because it's not fair,' he said. 'People should not be allowed to immediately run to this very friendly circuit and file their case.'" ...

... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "If anybody actually believed what Roberts pretends to believe Merrick Garland would be on the Court right now. What he wants is for you not to call his political opinions political. Judge him by his actions, not his words."

Tara Copp of Military Times: "The White House late Tuesday signed a memo allowing troops stationed at the border to engage in some law enforcement roles and use lethal force, if necessary --- a move that legal experts have cautioned may run afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act. The new 'cabinet order' was signed by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, not ... Donald Trump. It allows 'Department of Defense military personnel' to 'perform those military protective activities that the Secretary of Defense determines are reasonably necessary' to protect border agents, including 'a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary), crowd control, temporary detention. and cursory search.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Trump, supposedly writing his "American carnage" speech at Mar-a-Lago, January 2017.     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Excuse me. Since when can the White House chief-of-staff direct military operations, including those that may violate existing law? Kelly himself did receive Senate approval for his previous job as Director of Homeland Security, and he is a former Marine general, but he has retired from that position. His present position as chief-of-staff does not require Senate confirmation nor -- as far as I know -- give him authority over the military. Is Jim Mattis, the Secretary of Defense, going to put up with this? Or is the idea to get Mattis to resign in protest? And let's not pretend Trump can't sign anything because he's on vacation. They have pens at Mar-a-Lago. ...

     ... Update. Wesley Morgan of Politico: "The 5,800 active-duty troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexican border will remain mostly unarmed and won't expand their duties to arresting migrants, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday -- despite a new White House order giving him discretion to provide new types of protection to Border Patrol agents. 'I'm reviewing that now,' Mattis said of the order. But he added: 'We are not doing law enforcement. We do not have arrest authority.'... The new order ... does not give new tasks to the military but allows Mattis to expand the troops' duties if Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen requests it.... 'We'll decide if it's appropriate for the military, and at that point, things like Posse Comitatus obviously are in play,' Mattis said. 'We'll stay in strict accordance with the law.'"...

... Spencer Ackerman & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "When the Department of Homeland Security requested the so-called force protection mission [last month] from the Pentagon, Mattis declined because he thought he lacked the authority to do so, [an] official said.... Homeland Security went above Mattis' head in order to get Donald Trump's chief of staff to secure for them the potentially lethal military force for which immigration hardliners in the administration had clamored."

Elana Schor, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this week to press for action on a criminal justice measure that has long divided McConnell's GOP, according to three sources familiar with the conversation. Trump's Tuesday call to McConnell comes as the criminal justice bill creates tension within the Senate Republican caucus, with Arkansas' Tom Cotton repeatedly slamming legislation supported by multiple senior GOP colleagues. The intra-party schism underscores McConnell's long-running reluctance to spend a week or more of floor time on a criminal justice proposal that splits his party -- despite winning the president's vocal endorsement."

Butt Out, Mrs. Huckleberry. Kathy Kiely & Mike McCurry in a Washington Post op-ed: "While backing out of what was shaping up to be a titanic legal fight over the First Amendment, the [Trump] administration never backed off the notion -- expressed in a Justice Department brief -- that the president has 'broad discretion to regulate access to the White House for journalists.' Rather, President Trump seemed to double down on this sweeping assertion, announcing through his press secretary new rules of decorum for reporters on the White House beat.... Limiting press questioning harms the press, the public and, potentially, the president.... Since the late 1800s, Congress has pointedly butted out of decisions about who gets credentials to cover its proceedings, turning over the duties instead to a Standing Committee of Correspondents.... Why should that not be the same model at the White House?... Decisions about White House access should be in the hands of security and media professionals, not political appointees."

But the E-mails! Caitlin Oprysko: "A pair of Republican committee heads have requested information from the White House regarding Ivanka Trump's use of a personal email account to conduct official business throughout her time in the administration. In a letter to White House chief of staff John Kelly, House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) asked that the administration provide his committee with an accounting of Ivanka's email use for government business, including details on whether the White House had complied with security and record-keeping requirements as laid out by the Presidential Records Act, and whether Trump, a senior adviser to her father, had sent any sensitive or classified information over her personal email. Gowdy noted that while his committee opened an investigation in 2017 into White House staffers' use of personal emails and encrypted devices to conduct official business, the White House had yet to update his committee on the findings of an internal review.... The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday also wrote to the White House asking for details about Ivanka’s email use and any training she received regarding compliance with record-keeping statutes. Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and ranking member Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) wrote to White House counsel Emmet Flood to request information that would help the committee determine 'the extent to which Mrs. Trump's use of personal email for official business was intentional and substantial versus inadvertent and de minimis.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: Donald Trump is losing in the courts. "As Fred Barbash noted a few weeks ago in the Washington Post, 'by a very rough count, 40 to 50 federal judges have weighed in against the Trump administration in cases.' This is not, as Barbash observes, because these are all a bunch of demented 'judicial activists,' as former Attorney General Jeff Sessions once attempted to argue. Nor are they the 'judges of the Resistance.'... A good many of these jurists were appointed by Republican presidents and in some cases Trump himself. No, the Trump administration is still managing to lose a tremendous amount of its lawsuits despite the fact that the judicial branch has changed dramatically in the past two years and the Supreme Court itself now tilts to the political right.... Trump loses so much at least partially because his administration must often contort itself into absurd postures to justify policies enacted by random tweet (as was the trans ban) or by vengeful tantrum (as was the sanctuary cities policy) or without proper procedures (the asylum changes).... Trump also loses whenever courts take his tweeting or offhand comments into account, because they often undermine or even contradict stated legal arguments.... To be sure, there is still a great deal to be worried about." (Also linked yesterday.)

Tess Bonn of the Hill: "Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said Tuesday that House Republicans plan to hear testimony on Dec. 5 from the prosecutor appointed by former Attorney General to probe alleged wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation. Meadows, who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations, told Hill.TV's 'Rising' that it's time to 'circle back' to U.S. Attorney John Huber's investigation with the Justice Department into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged any improper activities." (Also linked yesterday.)

CBS/AP: "The Los Angeles district attorney declined to prosecute attorney Michael Avenatti on felony domestic abuse charges on Wednesday and referred allegations that he roughed up his girlfriend to the city attorney for a possible misdemeanor case. Avenatti, 47, was arrested on a felony domestic violence charge last week after his girlfriend told police he abused her at his Los Angeles apartment following an argument. A restraining order against Avenatti was issued after actress Mareli Miniutti said he dragged her across the floor of his Los Angeles apartment after an argument. She wrote in a sworn statement that Avenatti shouted expletives, told her she was 'ungrateful' and 'forcefully' hit her in the face with bed pillows. Avenatti, who had called the allegations 'completely false' and a fabrication, said in a statement he was thankful the district attorney had rejected the charges. 'I have maintained my innocence since the moment of my arrest,' he said.... 'This Thanksgiving,' he said, 'I am especially grateful for justice.'"

The Commentariat -- Nov. 21, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

** "Trump Gives Guidance to Autocrats." Mark Mazzetti & Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: Trump's "633-word statement on Tuesday about the brutal killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi showed the extent to which he believes that raw, mercantilist calculations should guide the United States' decisions about the Middle East and the wider world. Tuesday's message could become something of a blueprint for foreign leaders -- a guide to how they might increase their standing in the eyes of the American president as well as how far they can go in crushing domestic critics without raising American ire.... It was also a revealing meditation on the role that Mr. Trump believes facts should play in political decision-making.... The president dismissed not only [the CIA's] assessment but also the very process of seeking the truth, implying that it did not really matter anyway." ...

... "Maybe He did and Maybe He Didn't!" Won't Fly. Burgess Everett of Politico: "The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is demanding a definitive determination from ... Donald Trump about whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In a letter to Trump, the panel's chairman, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), and ranking member, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), specifically asked on Tuesday whether the administration believed that bin Salman was involved in the murder of Khashoggi.... Under the Magnitsky Act, Trump can be required to make a determination about human rights violations by global leaders. The law requires the president to do so within 120 days of the committee's request, as well as apply any sanctions. Corker and Menendez made their first request on Oct. 10, without specifically asking about bin Salman.... Corker and Menendez's first sanctions inquiry citing the Magnitsky Act ultimately resulted in the administration's sanctioning 17 Saudi Arabian officials following Khashoggi's death." ...

... Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Less than a day after drawing bipartisan ire for appearing to let Saudi Arabia off the hook for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi..., Donald Trump ... tweet[ed] thanks to [Saudi Arabia] for falling oil prices. 'Oil prices getting lower. Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy! $54, was just $82,' he said. 'Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let's go lower!'" ...

     ... Speaking of Going Lower. Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump sparked an immediate backlash on Twitter early Wednesday after he thanked Saudi Arabia for helping lower global oil prices. Hundreds of tweeters expressed incredulity at Trump’s post, which came a day after his bizarre statement that the U.S. would remain a 'steadfast partner' of Saudi Arabia ― even if Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved in the brutal slaying of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi."

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday finally submitted a set of written responses to Robert Mueller, signaling that he was done for good with the special counsel's questions. But Mueller is far from done with him. The special counsel still wants to question the president over his actions while in the White House -- Tuesday's answers only covered Russian hacking during the 2016 election. It's a fight that could result in a historic subpoena and eventual Supreme Court ruling.... Next comes the perilous round of negotiations between Trump's lawyers and Mueller's prosecutors covering topics like Trump's intentions when firing FBI Director James Comey in May 2017. That line of questioning -- which Trump says he shouldn't have to answer -- is tied to Mueller's ongoing obstruction of justice investigation."

Tara Copp of Military Times: "The White House late Tuesday signed a memo allowing troops stationed at the border to engage in some law enforcement roles and use lethal force, if necessary -- a move that legal experts have cautioned may run afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act. The new 'cabinet order' was signed by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, not ... Donald Trump. It allows 'Department of Defense military personnel' to 'perform those military protective activities that the Secretary of Defense determines are reasonably necessary' to protect border agents, including 'a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary), crowd control, temporary detention. and cursory search.'" ...

Trump, supposedly writing his "American carnage" speech at Mar-a-Lago, January 2017.     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Excuse me. Since when can the White House chief-of-staff direct military operations, including those that may violate existing law? Kelly himself did receive Senate approval for his previous job as Director of Homeland Security, and he is a former Marine general, but he has retired from that position. His present position as chief-of-staff does not require Senate confirmation nor -- as far as I know -- give him authority over the military. Is Jim Mattis, the Secretary of Defense, going to put up with this? Or is the idea to get Mattis to resign in protest? And let's not pretend Trump can't sign anything because he's on vacation. They have pens at Mar-a-Lago.

But the E-mails! Caitlin Oprysko: "A pair of Republican committee heads have requested information from the White House regarding Ivanka Trump's use of a personal email account to conduct official business throughout her time in the administration. In a letter to White House chief of staff John Kelly, House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) asked that the administration provide his committee with an accounting of Ivanka's email use for government business, including details on whether the White House had complied with security and record-keeping requirements as laid out by the Presidential Records Act, and whether Trump, a senior adviser to her father, had sent any sensitive or classified information over her personal email. Gowdy noted that while his committee opened an investigation in 2017 into White House staffers' use of personal emails and encrypted devices to conduct official business, the White House had yet to update his committee on the findings of an internal review.... The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday also wrote to the White House asking for details about Ivanka's email use and any training she received regarding compliance with record-keeping statutes. Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and ranking member Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) wrote to White House counsel Emmet Flood to request information that would help the committee determine 'the extent to which Mrs. Trump's use of personal email for official business was intentional and substantial versus inadvertent and de minimis.'"

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: Donald Trump is losing in the courts. "As Fred Barbash noted a few weeks ago in the Washington Post, 'by a very rough count, 40 to 50 federal judges have weighed in against the Trump administration in cases.' This is not, as Barbash observes, because these are all a bunch of demented 'judicial activists,' as former Attorney General Jeff Sessions once attempted to argue. Nor are they the 'judges of the Resistance.'... A good many of these jurists were appointed by Republican presidents and in some cases Trump himself. No, the Trump administration is still managing to lose a tremendous amount of its lawsuits despite the fact that the judicial branch has changed dramatically in the past two years and the Supreme Court itself now tilts to the political right.... Trump loses so much at least partially because his administration must often contort itself into absurd postures to justify policies enacted by random tweet (as was the trans ban) or by vengeful tantrum (as was the sanctuary cities policy) or without proper procedures (the asylum changes).... Trump also loses whenever courts take his tweeting or offhand comments into account, because they often undermine or even contradict stated legal arguments.... To be sure, there is still a great deal to be worried about."

Tess Bonn of the Hill: "Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said Tuesday that House Republicans plan to hear testimony on Dec. 5 from the prosecutor appointed by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to probe alleged wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation. Meadows who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations, told Hill.TV's 'Rising' that it's time to 'circle back' to U.S. Attorney John Huber's investigation with the Justice Department into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged any improper activities."

*****

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

** Banana Republic, U.S. Edition. Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump told the White House counsel in the spring that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute two of his political adversaries: his 2016 challenger, Hillary Clinton, and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, according to two people familiar with the conversation. The lawyer, Donald F. McGahn II, rebuffed the president, saying that he had no authority to order a prosecution. Mr. McGahn said that while he could request an investigation, that too could prompt accusations of abuse of power. To underscore his point, Mr. McGahn had White House lawyers write a memo for Mr. Trump warning that if he asked law enforcement to investigate his rivals, he could face a range of consequences, including possible impeachment. The encounter was one of the most blatant examples yet of how Mr. Trump views the typically independent Justice Department as a tool to be wielded against his political enemies. It took on additional significance in recent weeks when Mr. McGahn left the White House and Mr. Trump appointed a relatively inexperienced political loyalist, Matthew G. Whitaker, as the acting attorney general." ...

... Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump on multiple occasions raised with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Matt Whitaker, who was then-chief of staff to Jeff Sessions, whether the Justice Department was progressing in investigating Hillary Clinton, according to a source familiar with the matter. The President also wanted his previous White House counsel, Don McGahn, to ask the Justice Department to prosecute Clinton on numerous occasions, but McGahn rebuffed doing that, the source said. Anticipating the question about Clinton would be raised, Whitaker came prepared to answer with what Justice was doing on Clinton-related matters, including the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One investigations, the source said. The source added that Whitaker was trying to appease the President, but did not seem to cross any line." ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones: "... there is someone in Trump's circle who has long been an advocate of prosecuting Clinton: Matt Whitaker.... In July 2016, after Comey announced that he would recommend no criminal charges be filed against Clinton..., Whitaker ... noted during a radio interview that Clinton ought to have been prosecuted. And he raised the prospect of Clinton being charged by a next administration, assuming it was not hers.... Two months later, appearing on Fox Business Channel as a pundit, Whitaker indicated he believed that if Trump won, his administration should reboot the Clinton email case.... In a May 2017 radio appearance, Whitaker essentially called for a special counsel to investigate Clinton...." ...

Carol Leonnig & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "President Trump's attorneys on Tuesday submitted his written answers to a series of questions from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about Trump's knowledge of Russia's interference in the 2016 campaign and its efforts to assist his 2016 White House bid. The inquiries only include a portion of the questions that Mueller has sought to pose to Trump for nearly a year, when he first requested an interview with president. The topics cover activities during the campaign and do not delve into questions about whether Trump has sought to obstruct the probe into Russian interference." ...

... Andrew Prokop of Vox outlines the drama that went into Trump's finally answering a limited set of questions.

Matt's Mystery Money. Robert O'Harrow, et al., of the Washington Post: "In the three years after he arrived in Washington in 2014, Matthew G. Whitaker received more than $1.2 million as the leader of a charity that reported having no other employees, some of the best pay of his career. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust described itself as a new watchdog nonprofit dedicated to exposing unethical conduct by public officials. For Whitaker, it became a lucrative steppingstone in a swift rise from a modest law practice in Iowa to the nation's top law enforcement job. As FACT's president, he regularly appeared on radio and television, often to skewer liberals. But FACT's origins and the source of funding used to pay Whitaker -- now the acting attorney general -- remain obscured. An examination of state and federal records, and interviews with those involved, show that the group is part of a national network of nonprofits that often work in concert to amplify conservative messages. Contrary to its claims in news releases and a tax filing, the group was created under a different name two years before Whitaker's arrival, according to incorporation and IRS records. At least two of the organizers were involved in another conservative charity using the same address." ...

... Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The Senate's top Democrat has asked the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker's communications with the White House, over concerns that he might have shared secret information from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation with President Trump. In a letter to DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked him to open a formal probe into whether there have been any 'unlawful or improper communications' between Whitaker and the White House during his service as former attorney general Jeff Sessions's chief of staff, when he was in regular touch with Trump and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly. In particular, Schumer said he was concerned that as acting attorney general, Whitaker could share 'confidential grand jury or investigative information from the Special Counsel investigation or any criminal investigation.' Schumer also wants Horowitz to investigate whether Whitaker 'provided any assurance to the President, White House officials, or others regarding steps he or others may take with regard to the Special Counsel investigation, including any intention to interfere, obstruct, or refuse authorization of subpoenas or other investigative steps.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As you may recall, last week Trump tweeted that "The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts." How would Trump know about "the inner workings of the Mueller investigation" unless somebody with knowledge of those "inner workings" told him? ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: One possible upside to the Trumpster Dumpster presidency -- ethical practices that have served as norms may be codified into laws that constrict presidential and administrative stunts. Natasha Bertrand of the Atlantic: "John Dean, who served as Nixon's White House counsel..., told me that 'following Nixon, it became a post-Watergate norm that the White House stayed out of DOJ business. Trump ignores all norms.' So, following his presidency, Dean said, those norms 'will probably become law.'" Of course the Kavanaugh Court could easily decimate any ethics laws that apply to the president.

Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much. -- Donald Trump, 2015 ...

... Blood and Money. Trump Ignores Intelligence Assessment. Nicole Gaouette & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump signaled Tuesday that he will not take strong action against Saudi Arabia or its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the death and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.... In an exclamation-mark laden statement subtitled 'America First!' Trump said that 'our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event -- maybe he did and maybe he didn't!' 'That being said,' Trump continued, 'we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They have been a great ally in our very important fight against Iran.' Trump is expected to receive a CIA assessment on Khashoggi's murder later on Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Note that Trump made his announcement before he reviewed his own agencies' assessment. I guess he also has a natural instinct for spy stuff. BTW, other than the likelihood somebody ran a spellcheck on Trump's statement, it sounds very Trumpy. I can believe he wrote it himself. ...

     ... ** Update. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump defied his intelligence agencies and ample circumstantial evidence to declare his unswerving loyalty to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, asserting that the crown prince's culpability for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi might never be known.... In its 631 words in eight paragraphs, punctuated by seven exclamation points and a casual style that sounded like Mr. Trump's off-the-cuff musings, the statement was a cogent summary of the Trump worldview: remorselessly transactional, heedless of allies, determined to put America's interests first and founded on a theory of moral equivalence. His statement, which aides said Mr. Trump dictated himself and reflected his deeply held views, came only days after the C.I.A. concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, an ally of the White House, had authorized the killing of Mr. Khashoggi.... Mr. Trump's words seemed certain to alienate Turkey, which has raised the pressure on Saudi Arabia to offer a full accounting of what happened to Mr. Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. They also drew outrage from lawmakers and human rights activists, for whom the grisly killing has become a test of America's willingness to overlook the crimes of a strategically valuable ally." Read on. Landler is brutal, as well he should be. ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Perhaps anticipating a damning report, Trump released a long, exclamation-point-laden statement preemptively making the case for not punishing Mohammed or his father, King Salman, even if they were involved. It's a remarkable statement that even includes a smear against the slain journalist, while insisting that Trump didn't believe the smear. Below is the statement in full, with our annotations." ...

... Jonathan Chait also parses Trump's statement -- or Statement! Chait's analysis runs to commentary like this: "From there, the statement becomes increasingly deranged." ...

... David Hearst & Daniel Hilton of the Middle East Eye: "Saudi Arabia's king and crown prince are shielding themselves from the Jamal Khashoggi murder scandal by using a roadmap drawn up by the US secretary of state, a senior Saudi source has told Middle East Eye. Mike Pompeo delivered the plan in person during a meeting ... last month in Riyadh, said the source, who is familiar with Pompeo's talks with the Saudi leaders. The plan includes an option to pin the Saudi journalist's murder on an innocent member of the ruling al-Saud family in order to insulate those at the very top, the source told MEE.... The US State Department denied the Saudi source's allegations, and called them 'a complete misrepresentation of the secretary's diplomatic mission to Saudi Arabia'." --safari: The report cites only one source, so skepticism is warranted. But WTF was Pompeo during there besides chumming it up and abruptly leaving without discussing any "facts"? ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Also too Middle East Eye is aligned with the Turkish government. But still, as safari writes. ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Aside from the comment indicating uncertainty, Trump also repeated smears against the late journalist ('Representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an "enemy of the state" and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood'), while appending provisos. ('My decision is in no way based on that -- this is an unacceptable and horrible crime.') Trump also repeated the falsehood that Saudi Arabia has 'agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the United States,' creating 'hundreds of thousands of jobs.' As former CIA director John Brennan noted, Trump's remarks mean that any accountability in the Khashoggi case will have to come from Congress." ...

... Alexia Campbell of Vox: "... Donald Trump is once again trying to persuade Americans that the United States needs to keep selling war weapons to Saudi Arabia. That hundreds of thousands of US jobs are on the line if he cancels arms sales to the kingdom. Once again, that's not true.... This is Trump's latest attempt to protect the Saudi crown prince (who is also known as MBS) from mounting international backlash over the murder.... There aren't that many American workers making weapons for the Pentagon, much less Saudi Arabia, and MBS isn't buying enough weapons to put a dent in the US economy anyway." Read on for the details. ...

... Washington Post Editors: "In a crude statement punctuated with exclamation points, Mr. Trump sidestepped a CIA finding that the crown prince was behind the killing; casually slandered Mr. Khashoggi, who was one of the Arab world's most distinguished journalists; and repeated gross falsehoods and exaggerations about the benefits of the U.S. alliance with the kingdom. Mr. Trump has betrayed American values in service to what already was a bad bet on the 33-year-old prince. As with Russian President Vladimir Putin's interference in the 2016 election, Mr. Trump is justifying his affinity for a brutal and reckless leader by disregarding the findings of the U.S. intelligence community.... While discounting these facts, Mr. Trump bases his continued backing for the regime on false claims, including his thoroughly debunked boast that Saudi Arabia will 'spend and invest $450 billion' in the United States." ...

... Juan Cole: "Trump’s statement on his policy toward Saudi Arabia in the wake of the murder in Istanbul of dissident Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi brought a profound shame on the United States that will, as FDR put it, live in infamy. Trump began by saying he was putting America first, but that was the last thing he was doing. He was putting his own personal predilections and policies, and perhaps profit, above the interests of the United States. Here are the ways he put America last: 1. Trump did not wait for the final Central Intelligence Agency report on the Khashoggi killing, elements of which were leaked last Thursday.... 2. Trump admitted that the crown prince may be implicated in the murder.... 3. Trump is unbearably transparent about the financial incentives for him to overlook Khashoggi's murder.... 4. Trump is also clear that he is running interference for the crown prince for the sake of Israel and in order to keep together his coalition against Iran.... 5. Trump gave as another reason to wink at Khashoggi's murder ... is a key partner in fighting terrorism." Especially on the last point, Cole's assessment of Trump's "reasoning" is brutal. ...

... When Tom Friedman Is Right: "What is the worst thing about President Trump's approach to foreign policy? Is it that he is utterly amoral or that he is such a chump? Because the combination is terrible -- a president who is an amoral chump is the worst thing of all. He sells out American values -- awful enough -- but then gets nothing of value in return.... Trump gave M.B.S. a pass on Khashoggi's murder for the promise of future arms purchases -- 'the Kingdom agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the United States,' said Trump. That may be the most crass giveaway of U.S. principles by any president in American history, especially when you consider that the Saudis are unlikely to spend even a small fraction of that, and it would not be in our interest or theirs if they did. But even if they did buy so many arms, what is the intangible damage to our moral standing all over the world from such a grotesque blood-for-money transaction?" ...

... MEANWHILE. Kareem Fahim of the Washington Post: "Several women's rights activists who have been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for more than six months have been subjected to psychological or physical abuse while in custody, including sleep deprivation and beatings, according to four people familiar with the conditions of the activists' detention. Some of the abuse occurred during interrogations in which several of the women were administered electric shocks or flogged, two of the people said, citing a witness account. Other women displayed what witnesses said were apparent signs of abuse, including uncontrollable shaking or difficulty standing, the people said. The allegations of abuse and torture were impossible to independently confirm.... Amnesty International released a report Tuesday also saying that several of the Saudi activists detained since May have reportedly faced sexual harassment, torture and other forms of mistreatment while being interrogated."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump said Tuesday that he 'can't imagine' anyone other than himself being named Time's Person of the Year.... The publication earlier Tuesday released the results of a reader poll to pick the Person of the Year. Trump finished tied for 13th with 2 percent of the vote, along with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and special counsel Robert Mueller, among others. The top choice was South Korean boy band BTS.... The president claimed in 2017, when he was named runner-up, that he turned down the honor, though the magazine refuted his claim." Mrs. McC: My choice: Nancy Pelosi, who -- remarkably -- never made the cover until September of this year.

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday defended his daughter's use of a private email account to conduct official business, telling reporters that the controversy was a 'whole different' issue than what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was accused of during her presidential campaign.... 'Ivanka Trump can handle herself.... They are in the historical records, no deletion whatsoever,' the president argued. 'Hillary Clinton deleted 33,000 emails, she had a server in the basement. Ivanka Trump didn't. The calls were not classified, unlike Hillary Clinton, which were classified. It is all fake news.'" ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "Last fall, it emerged that six White House aides had used personal email -- including Ivanka Trump's husband, Jared Kushner.... The couple even set up their own email server.... This was the behavior of staffers who, like the president, know quite well that rules exist but are convinced that they are not bound by them.... That's the same charge made against Hillary Clinton. The spokesman for Ivanka Trump's lawyer ... [said,] 'Ms. Trump did not create a private server in her house or office, no classified information was ever included, the account was never transferred at Trump Organization, and no emails were ever deleted.'... But how can the public know whether those claims are true? Clinton also insisted that she had never sent or received classified information, which turned out to be false.... Clinton also relied on her attorneys to sort her emails and hand over the relevant ones. If one thought that was insufficient and raised the specter that she could have hidden (and then deleted) relevant messages -- an entirely defensible view, and one that Donald Trump offered during rallies in 2016 -- it's hard to see why Ivanka Trump's situation is more acceptable."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "An unidentified turkey about to be pardoned by President Trump appeared in the White House press briefing room on Tuesday, surprising the assembled media. The bird quickly put the members of the press at ease, though, by treating them as they'd come to expect in that room: eyeing them skeptically, answering no questions and leaving after only a few minutes. ABC News's Alex Mallin made an interesting observation about the bird's appearance. By stopping by briefly, the turkey had spent more time on the room's podium in front of the media this month than has White House press secretary Sarah Sanders." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bump's story is inaccurate. The real headline here should have been, "In Historic Reversal, Turkey to Pardon Trump."

Jonathan Chait: "Interactions between the media and the White House are a form of democracy theater. The give-and-take is a tangible and living sign of the fact that in a republic, the president is not a monarch but is simply a citizen like everybody else. In authoritarian regimes, the palpably cowed news media treats leaders with a deference that communicates their inviolable status. Trump's authoritarian instincts and his bullying persona bear directly on his administration's attempts to rein in the media.... Trump is imposing on the media the social terms in which he has always demanded to operate: a culture in which he can berate and bully others, but must be treated in turn with obeisance. The most tangible sign sign of any hierarchical relationship is one in which one of the parties must be polite but the other is free to engage in abuse. A world in which Trump can brush aside cogent questions by calling reporters stupid, and in which they can't even request an answer, would be the opposite of democracy theater. It would conscript the White House press corps into a regular televised performance of Trump's monarchial fantasies." (Also linked yesterday.)

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to resume accepting asylum claims from migrants no matter where or how they entered the United States, dealing at least a temporary setback to the president's attempt to clamp down on a huge wave of Central Americans crossing the border. Judge Jon S. Tigar of the United States District Court in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order that blocks the government from carrying out a new rule that denies protections to people who enter the country illegally. The order, which suspends the rule until the case is decided by the court, applies nationally." (Also linked yesterday.)

Eric Bradner of CNN: "Former President Barack Obama offered effusive praise of Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday as the Democratic leader faces opposition to her bid for House Speaker. 'I think Nancy Pelosi, when the history is written, will go down as one of the most effective legislative leaders that this country's ever seen,' Obama said at a live taping of 'The Axe Files' podcast.... 'The Axe Files' is hosted by David Axelrod, Obama's former top strategist...." ...

... Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "BREAKING NEWS: Rep. Marcia L. Fudge endorses Rep. Nancy Pelosis bid for House speaker, abandons any plans to challenge longtime Democratic leader." See more on Fudge linked earlier under Beyond the Beltway. DeBonis covers Obama's remarks about Pelosi.

Election 2018

Sen. Cindy & friend don rebel caps during Cindy's visit to the Jefferson Davis home in Biloxi. No doubt Cindy has "evolved" a lot since way back in 2014 when she posed for the photo. Look away, look away....Mississippi. James Arkin & Matthew Choi of Politico: "Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Dixie) posed for a photo wearing a Confederate soldier's hat and holding a rifle in a Facebook post that surfaced Tuesday. Hyde-Smith took the photo during a 2014 visit to the Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library. 'Mississippi history at its best!' Hyde-Smith exclaimed." Mrs. McC: Mike Espy, a black Democrat, is challenging Hyde-Smith in a special run-off election to be held November 27. Sure would be good for Mississippi if Cindy were gone with the wind after that. ...

... Dan Mangan of CNBC: "AT&T, Leidos and Walmart asked Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi on Tuesday to return their campaign donations after getting criticized for their support of the lawmaker, who had make a joke about attending a hypothetical 'public hanging.'... Two other companies, Union Pacific and Boston Scientific, had already asked for their money back Monday."

Utah. Brady McCombs of the AP: "Democrat Ben McAdams has flipped a U.S. House seat in deep-red Utah, defeating Republican U.S. Rep. Mia Love by fewer than 700 votes in a race that took two weeks to settle. McAdams defeated Love, the first black Republican woman elected to Congress, by a margin just over what would have been needed to require a recount, according to final results posted Tuesday. McAdams' victory adds to the Democratic majority in a year when they have flipped more than three dozen Republican-held seats across the country to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives."

Alexandra Stevenson, et al., of the New York Times: "The stock market's gains for 2018 were erased in early trading on Tuesday, as a sell-off led by giant technology stocks continued. The renewed declines in the United States came after drops in Asia and Europe. The tumble of more than 1 percent in the S&P 500 followed a sell-off in high-flying technology stocks like Google, Apple and Amazon in the United States on Monday, as investors weighed the prospects for increased regulation, trade tension and threats to the profit outlook for the large technology firms that exert a large influence on major market indexes. The pain continued for such companies on Tuesday with Apple and Amazon falling by more than 4 percent in early trading. But a new area of concern also flared up after the retailer Target reported third-quarter sales and profit that missed Wall Street expectations. Target's shares dove by more than 10 percent." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Update. Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "... the S&P 500-stock index turned negative for the year.... The S&P 500 closed on Tuesday at 2,642, down 1.8 percent. Other markets also flashed warnings, with oil dropping by 6.8 percent, falling deeper into bear territory.... The recent market drop is consistent with a potential downshift in the American economy. In 2018, a hefty dose of fiscal stimulus allowed the United States to shake off the growth worries in China, Europe and the rest of the world. It won't have the same potency next year, leaving the American economy vulnerable to a global slowdown."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Lisa Ryan of New York: "Megyn Kelly notoriously found herself in big trouble with NBC -- and had her low ratings-plagued Today hour subsequently canceled -- after she decided to defend blackface during a segment on the morning program. On Tuesday afternoon, 'Page Six' reported the former Fox News anchor is close to finalizing an exit deal with NBC. By Tuesday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kelly could be walking away with more than $30 million.... 'Page Six' reports she is already planning her return to television. 'But this is far from the end of her TV career -- in the Trump era, there are few broadcasters like her,' a source told the gossip column. 'Megyn would likely take a short break from TV and return to cable news ahead of the 2020 election.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Congrats all around to the NBC suits. The Kelly hiring & firing were genius.

Beyond the Beltway

Kansas. Karen Zraick of the New York Times: "A white county commissioner in Kansas resigned on Tuesday after an outcry over his use of the term 'master race' in a discussion with a black consultant at a public meeting last week. The commissioner, Louis Klemp of Leavenworth County, made the comments to Triveece Penelton, who works for an architecture and design company, during a land-use meeting on Nov. 13. According to a video recording, Mr. Klemp said to Ms. Penelton: 'I don't want you to think I'm picking on you because we're part of the master race. You know you've got a gap in your teeth. You're the master race. Don't ever forget that.'... 'My attempts at identifying a similarity (space between our teeth) with a presenter were well-meaning but misinterpreted by some and definitely not racially motivated,' [Mr. Klemp claimed later].... The Leavenworth mayor pro tem, Jermaine Wilson, said he did not believe Mr. Klemp's assertion that his comments were not racially motivated. He pointed to another episode last November, when Mr. Klemp made a series of incendiary comments during a meeting about public holidays. He called Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, 'a wonderful part of history' and questioned the holiday for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."

Michigan. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Lou Anna K. Simon, the former president of Michigan State University, was charged on Tuesday with two felonies, accused of lying to the police about her knowledge of sexual abuse committed by Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar. Dr. Simon, a longtime professor and administrator, resigned from her role in January amid pressure and claims that the university allowed Dr. Nassar to prey on young women, including many gymnasts, despite warning signs and complaints over many years. Dr. Simon, who also faces two misdemeanor counts, could face up to four years in prison on each of the felony charges."

Mississippi.

... legislation like H.B. 1510 is closer to the old Mississippi -- the Mississippi bent on controlling women and minorities. The Mississippi that, just a few decades ago, barred women from serving on juries 'so they may continue their service as mothers, wives, and homemakers.' -- District Judge Carlton Reeves, in his decision on Jackson Women's Health Organization v. Currier ...

... AP: "A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a Mississippi abortion law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, one of the most restrictive in the United States. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ruled that the law 'unequivocally' violates women's constitutional rights. 'The record is clear: States may not ban abortions prior to viability,' Reeves said, citing Supreme Court rulings. The only abortion clinic in Mississippi sued when Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed the law March 19, and Reeves issued a temporary restraining order the next day to keep the state from enforcing the law."

     ... Mrs. McC: The ruling, coming a week before the Mississippi Senate runoff, will probably be a boost to Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith. BTW, Reeves is an Obama appointee -- and he's black. Here's my favorite sentence in Wikipedia's page on Reeves, and it might be my all-time favorite Wikipedia sentence: "As a teenager, Reeves cleaned the office of Judge William Henry Barbour, Jr., whom he would later replace on the federal bench." One Mississippi, Two Mississippi.

Ohio. Michael Brice-Saddler of the Washington Post: "A disgraced former judge who went to prison for beating his then-wife so severely in 2014 that she required facial reconstructive surgery was taken into custody after she was found slain Saturday morning, Ohio police said. The Shaker Heights Police Department said officers responded to a 911 call at a residence in the morning, prompting them to launch an investigation into Aisha Fraser's killing. Ex-Cuyahoga County judge Lance Mason, Fraser's former husband, was taken into custody, police said. Shaker Heights Police Cmdr. John Cole said Monday morning that the department is 'anticipating charges later today' against Mason, though he was unable to offer additional information. Details about Fraser's killing were also not immediately available; however, Cleveland.com reported that she was fatally stabbed. Un a 911 call obtained by NBC affiliate WKYC, a woman who identifies herself as Mason's sister tells a dispatcher that Mason admitted to stabbing his ex-wife." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Marcia Fudge Will Not Be Speaker of the House. Gary Shaffer of Cleveland.com: "Dozens of people, including four sitting judges, prominent Cleveland attorneys and a congresswoman now considering a bid to become speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote gushing letters of support for former Cuyahoga County Judge Lance Mason after he brutalized his wife in front of their children so badly that her face required reconstructive surgery.... U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge ... said in her letter, which was addressed to visiting Judge Patricia Cosgrove in August 2015 ... that ... 'Lance accepts full responsibility for his actions and has assured me that something like this will never happen again.... Lance Mason is a good man who made a very bad mistake. I can only hope that you see in Lance what I and others see.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

BBC: "Interpol has elected South Korean Kim Jong-yang as its president, rejecting the controversial Russian frontrunner. Mr Kim was chosen by Interpol's 194 member states at a meeting of its annual congress in Dubai. He beat Russia's Alexander Prokopchuk, who has been accused of using Interpol's arrest warrant system to target critics of the Kremlin. Russia's critics welcomed his defeat. Moscow blamed it on 'unprecedented pressure and interference'. The election follows the disappearance of Interpol's former president Meng Hongwei, who vanished on a trip to China in September. Beijing has since confirmed he has been detained and is being investigated for allegedly taking bribes."