;)
The Commentariat -- Nov. 20, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
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." ...
... 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.
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."
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."
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.'" ...
... 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?
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."
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. In 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." ...
... 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.'"
*****
The Great Divide. Paul Krugman: "Over the past generation, America’s regions have experienced a profound economic divergence. Rich metropolitan areas have gotten even richer, attracting ever more of the nation's fastest growing industries. Meanwhile, small towns and rural areas have been bypassed, forming a sort of economic rump left behind by the knowledge economy. Amazon's headquarters criteria perfectly illustrate the forces behind that divergence. Businesses in the new economy want access to large pools of highly educated workers, which can be found only in big, rich metropolitan areas. And the location decisions of companies like Amazon draw even more high-skill workers to those areas. In other words, there's a cumulative, self-reinforcing process at work that is, in effect, dividing America into two economies. And this economic division is reflected in political division. In 2016, of course, the parts of America that are being left behind voted heavily for Donald Trump."
Rachel Bade, et al., of Politico: "Sixteen Democrats vowed Monday to oppose Nancy Pelosi for speaker on the House floor, throwing the California Democrat's bid to reclaim the gavel in serious jeopardy. In a highly anticipated letter that went public Monday, the Democrats praised Pelosi as 'a historic figure' but argued that it is time for change at the top.... The show of force underscores the depth of the challenge facing Pelosi, who has led the caucus for 16 years. Pelosi needs 218 votes among lawmakers present and voting to be elected speaker on Jan. 3. House Democrats have won 233 seats, meaning Pelosi can currently afford to lose only 15 votes. The letter includes 11 incumbents, four incoming freshman and one candidate, Ben McAdams f Utah, whose race has not been called. The letter does not include at least three additional Democratic lawmakers or members-elect who have confirmed to Politico that they intend to oppose Pelosi on the floor: Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Jason Crow of Colorado. That would bring Pelosi's opponents to a total of 19 members or members-elect committed to voting against her -- enough to keep her from becoming speaker should those members refuse to budge." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oddly, the reporters refute one true thing that even Donald Trump recognizes: that if Democrats nominate Pelosi, as they are nearly certain to do, Pelosi could win the speakership with help from a few Republican members. Many Republicans think Pelosi is a great foil, so such a scenario is not entirely theoretical.
Michelle Goldberg: "Donald Trump has failed at most things he's tried to do in life, with the crucial exception of selling himself as a success.... Trump's fluke election was such an astonishment that it lent him an almost magical aura, making him seem less an idiot than an idiot savant, a man who could transcend the usual rules of politics. But Democratic victories in the midterms, in addition to providing a crucial check on Trump, have highlighted what a naked emperor he really is.... The spectacle of Trump's political failure unfolded as his policy failures are starting to harm more voters' lives." At first, his victims were people who can't vote: Puerto Ricans, undocumented immigrants and their children. Now it's veterans, farmers, student borrowers.
Wesley Morgan of Politico: "The 5,800 troops who were rushed to the southwest border amid ... Donald Trump's pre-election warnings about a refugee caravan will start coming home as early as this week -- just as some of those migrants are beginning to arrive.... The returning service members include engineering and logistics units whose jobs included placing concertina wire and other barriers to limit access to ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border. All the troops should be home by Christmas, as originally expected, Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan said in an interview Monday." Mrs. McC: Sounds like Donald Trump's version of a losing candidate eventually getting around to going through town & pulling up all his yard signs.
... Gordon Adams, Lawrence B. Wilkerson & Isaiah Wilson in a New York Times op-ed: "The president used America's military forces not against any real threat but as toy soldiers, with the intent of manipulating a domestic midterm election outcome, an unprecedented use of the military by a sitting president.... James Mattis, the secretary of defense, asserted that the Defense Department does not 'do stunts.' But this was a blatant political stunt.... The deployment ... should have led Mr. Mattis to consider resigning, instead of acceding to this blatant politicization of America's military.... The president crossed a line -- the military is supposed to stay out of domestic politics.... Electoral gain, not security, is this president's goal." ...
... MEANWHILE. Trump Too Skeert to Visit Troops. Josh Dawsey & Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "President Trump has begun telling advisers that he may visit troops in a combat zone for the first time in his presidency, as he has come under increasing scrutiny for his treatment of military affairs and failure to visit service members deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. Trump has so far declined to visit those combat regions, saying he does not want to associate himself with wars he views as failures, according to current and former advisers.... In meetings about a potential visit, he has described the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan as 'a total shame,' according to the advisers. He also cited the long flights and potential security risks as reasons he has avoided combat-zone visits, they said.... Trump has spoken privately about his fears over risks to his own life, according to a former senior White House official.... 'He's never been interested in going,' the official said of Trump visiting troops in a combat zone, citing conversations with the president. 'He's afraid of those situations. He's afraid people want to kill him.'" ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So no leading the charge up San Juan Hill.
Julian Borger of the Guardian: "US arms sales to Saudi Arabia give Washington extensive leverage on Riyadh, while accounting for fewer than 20,000 US jobs a year -- less than a twentieth of the employment boost Donald Trump has claimed -- according to a new report.... The president has frequently estimated the total extent of defence sales to the Saudi regime at $110 bn, and variously said they would generate 450,000, 500,000 or 600,000 jobs... The report ... argues that Saudi Arabia needs the US far more than the other way round, and the administration is underplaying its hand, if it wants to rein in Riyadh in Yemen -- or punish the monarchy for Khashoggi's murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.... The actual value of US arms sales to Riyadh since Trump took office is $14.5bn.... Even that figure refers to 'letters of offer and acceptance' ... which ... does not represent actual signed contracts. All of the major sales in the pipeline were initiated by the Obama administration[.]" --safari: One of MSNBC's analysts (can't recall who) mentioned recently that Trump is playing the Michael Cohen water-carrier role for MBS. Quite apt.
Brian Stelter of CNN: "The White House has issued a new warning to CNN's Jim Acosta, saying his press pass could be revoked again at the end of the month. In response, CNN is asking the U.S. District Court for another emergency hearing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Trump Blinks. Brian Stelter & David Shortell of CNN: "The White House on Monday backed down from its threats to revoke Jim Acosta's press pass. 'Having received a formal reply from your counsel to our letter of November 16, we have made a final determination in this process: your hard pass is restored,' the White House said in a new letter to Acosta. 'Should you refuse to follow these rules in the future, we will take action in accordance with the rules set forth above. The President is aware of this decision and concurs.' The letter detailed several new rules for reporter conduct at presidential press conferences, including 'a single question' from each journalist. Follow-ups will only be permitted 'at the discretion of the President or other White House officials.' The decision reverses a Friday letter by the White House that said Acosta's press pass could be revoked again right after a temporary restraining order granted by a federal judge expires. That letter -- signed by two of the defendants in the suit, press secretary Sarah Sanders and deputy chief of staff for communications Bill Shine -- cited Acosta's conduct at President Trump's November 7 press conference, where he asked multiple follow-up questions and didn't give up the microphone right away." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
A Big Hint about Obstruction. Jonathan Chait: "For all the obstruction that [Trump has laid out] in plain sight, there may be more to be revealed by Robert Mueller.... The latest reminder comes in the form of an analysis in the legal blog Lawfare co-authored by James Baker, who until late 2017 served as general counsel of the FBI. The putative subject of the piece is the Watergate 'road map,' which detailed Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski's grounds for impeaching Nixon. But the real subject of the analysis is Trump, whose offenses appear strikingly similar. Baker plumbs the road map for details of how Nixon interfered with the Department of Justice's investigation into the Watergate burglary (which, of course, led to the Oval Office). Nixon had repeated contact with Assistant Attorney General Henry Petersen in order 'to gather intelligence about an ongoing criminal investigation in which he was personally implicated.' Nixon also appeared to dangle possible jo promotions before Petersen while he was wheedling information out of him. Baker (along with his co-author, Harvard Law student Sarah Grant) notes that this pattern of behavior amounted to an impeachable offense." Chait notes that this all will sound very familiar to Trump observers. ...
... You can read the compelling piece by James Baker & Sarah Grant of Lawfare here. --s
Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Former top members of the intelligence community rebuked ... Donald Trump on Monday for deriding the retired Navy SEAL who oversaw the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden as a 'Hillary Clinton backer' and suggesting that he should have caught the al Qaeda leader sooner. Responses to Trump's comments about retired Adm. Bill McRaven, who has criticized the president's attacks on the press, poured in Monday from former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta who said Trump should apologize.... In a public statement..., Panetta said Trump's ... 'demonstrates a profound lack of understanding of how our military and intelligence agencies operate.'"
Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's something I missed. ...
... Antonia Farzan of the Washington Post: "Asked how he would grade his presidency during a Sunday morning interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, President Trump ... said, 'Look, I hate to do it, but I will do it, I would give myself an A-plus.... Is that enough? Can I go higher than that?'... This weekend, Trump managed to insult a venerated military veteran, mangled the name of a wildfire-scarred town that he had just left, confused the president of Finland by making strange comments about leaf raking and, like a grade-schooler, attempted to taunt a critic in Congress with a naughty play on his name. All in just 48 hours.... Trump twice referred to Paradise, Calif., which has seen some of the worst devastation from the fires, as 'Pleasure' during a Saturday news conference. '... And what we saw at Pleasure, what a name right now. But we just saw, we just left Pleasure --' 'Paradise,' interjected a slew of officials. 'Paradise,' Trump confirmed, then moved on." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The attacks on McRaven & Schiff are manifestations of Trump's petty nastiness, but the raking in Pleasure are primarily signs of his disengagement. He can't understand anything as complex as forest management so he reduces it in his little mind to "raking the forest floor." Even though the name of the devastated town Paradise was in the news hundreds of times since the fire began, he doesn't read much, so he couldn't nail it down to anything closer than "word beginning with 'P' that has a positive connotation." Trump is an old guy who can't/won't learn new things. He does not have the mental capacity to be president. Maybe he could master a job where all he had to do was rake America great again. ...
... MEANWHILE. Alejandra Reyes-Velarde & Joseph Serna of the Los Angeles Times: "U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke blamed [California's] fires on 'radical environmentalists' who he said have prevented forest management. His comments come days after he and President Trump toured the devastation from Paradise to Malibu, with both vowing to help California recover from the disaster. In an interview with Breitbart News, Zinke said he agrees with Trump's comments about the fires being a result of poor forest management, and repeatedly said radical environmentalists were responsible for the destruction caused by the fires. 'It's not time for finger-pointing,' Zinke said. 'We know the problem. It's been years of neglect, and in many cases it's been these radical environmentalists that want nature to take its course.... You know what? This is on them.'... Trump had threatened to withdraw federal funding from California, erroneously blaming poor forest management for the fires."...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Neither the LA Times reporters nor Zinke mentioned that "nearly 60 percent of California forests are under federal management, and two-thirds of the balance under private control." That is to say, Zinke himself, as Secretary of the Interior, "manages" 60 percent of California's forests.
Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "Attorneys for immigrant advocacy groups on Monday are asking a federal judge in San Francisco to block the Trump administration from automatically denying asylum protections to migrants who illegally cross the border into the United States. The hearing underway before U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar in the Northern District of California comes as thousands of Central Americans are waiting in Tijuana to apply for permission to enter lawfully. But they are facing longer wait times and an increasingly inhospitable environment in Mexico that could compel them to sneak over the border instead." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Crooked Ivanka. Lock Her Up! Lock Her Up! Carol Leonnig & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails last year to White House aides, Cabinet officials and her assistants using a personal account, many of them in violation of federal records rules, according to people familiar with a White House examination of her correspondence. White House ethics officials learned of Trump's repeated use of personal email when reviewing emails gathered last fall by five Cabinet agencies to respond to a public records lawsuit. That review revealed that throughout much of 2017, she often discussed or relayed official White House business using a private email account with a domain that she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner.... Some aides were startled by the volume of Ivanka Trump's personal emails -- and taken aback by her response when questioned about the practice. She said she was not familiar with some details of the rules.... Trump used her personal account to discuss government policies and official business fewer than 100 times..., according to people familiar with the review. Another category of less-substantive emails may have also violated the records law: hundreds of messages related to her official work schedule and travel details that she sent herself and personal assistants who cared for her children and house.... Austin Evers..., of the liberal watchdog group American Oversight, whose record requests sparked the White House discovery, said it strained credulity that Trump's daughter did not know that government officials should not use private emails for official business." ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... the personal email use of Ms. Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner..., has been expected to be among the topics the new [Congressional Democratic] leaders will address.... Current and former White House officials have said it was characteristic of a repeated blurring of the lines between her government work and other aspects of her life, which used to include her namesake licensing and apparel businesses." ...
... digby: "... the fact is that when [Ivanka Trump] was alerted to this she had her lawyers forward only what the determined were government emails to the White House server for record retention. Just like Clinton. With her, however, there is every reason to wonder if she did that to hide the fact that she was doing Trump organization business while in the White House. After all, she didn't resign from the company right away. She's cute so it probably won't matter. Still, you couldn't make this up. After all that bullshit in the campaign she didn't know that she shouldn't use her personal email? Please." ...
... Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump called Clinton's use of a private email server 'bigger than Watergate.' In a normal world, this massive hypocrisy would be a problem for the President. But we don't live in a normal world. It's hard to imagine this story sticking around the news more than 24 hours. In all likelihood, the Trumps, yet again, will get away with it." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Ivanka's Hillary-esque private e-mail usage is of a piece with Daddy's continued use of insecure phones to hold conversations the Chinese are monitoring. The rap on Hillary's e-mail practices was that she was (1) breaking the law (a la Ivanka) & (2) endangering national security (a la Donald). But It's Okay If You're A Trump.
Derek Thompson in the Atlantic on how the media could handle Trump's lies: "Is it hopeless to smother the president's lies? In the biggest picture, yes. The news media cannot kill the virus. But by refusing to host it, they can at least limit the spread. That is, even as they acknowledge their inability to reform the tens of millions of people predisposed to believe and share the president's nonsense, they can protect their audiences with a combination of selective abstinence (being cautious about giving over headlines, tweets, and news segments to the president's rhetoric, particularly when he's spreading fictitious hate speech) and aggressive contextualization (consistently bracketing his direct quotes with the relevant truth). Call it an epistemic quarantine." Thompson points out that half the American public believes Trump's lies, & this: "... the top-performing stories on Facebook in the run-up to the midterms were shared by highly partisan websites such as Fox News and rushlimbaugh.com, not traditional, reporting-based outlets." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Betsy Woodruff & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "A group of Senate Democrats is suing to block Matt Whitaker from serving as acting attorney general on grounds that his placement in the post was unconstitutional. The suit, which is being filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is the latest and most aggressive salvo against the Whitaker appointment. Last week, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel defended Whitaker's promotion in a memo that drew immediate criticism for its expansive understanding of the president's power. That view is in hot dispute, including from the state of Maryland, which petitioned a federal judge to stop him from serving on constitutional grounds." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Election 2018
Texas. Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune: "Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones conceded Monday in her challenge to U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, ensuring a third term for Hurd in his perennial battleground district."
Utah. Lisa Roche of the Deseret News: "Democratic Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams claimed victory over Republican Rep. Mia Love Monday night after new Salt Lake County results showed her trailing by 739 votes in the 4th Congressional District race.... He said he has not yet tried to contact the two-term congresswoman. Love issued a statement more than an hour after McAdams' news conference that did not mention conceding.... Scott Hogensen, Utah County chief deputy clerk auditor, said Monday's release was the last before counties certify election results on Tuesday. He said 'not much' remains to be counted other than any ballots that show up in the mail."
Washington. Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The National Rifle Association sued earlier this year to stop Washington state voters from considering a package of gun control measures known as Initiative 1639, but the state Supreme Court rejected their legal arguments. On Election Day, nearly 60 percent of the state's voters rejected the gun group's political arguments that the initiative would 'criminalize self-defense.' Now one of the organization's local activist leaders in Washington state [Jim Lydigsen] wants to take his bullets and go home -- by having the more-conservative eastern part of the state secede and form a pro-gun state of its own." --s ...
Lawless Enforcement. Matt Shuham of TPM: "Loren Culp, the police chief in the small town of Republic, Washington, has pledged not to enforce a ballot measure approved by voters statewide earlier this month.... 'I cannot and will not enforce this law,' Culp said on 'Fox & Friends Sunday.' Initiative 1639, which passed with 59 percent support, raises the age to buy semiautomatic rifles to 21 and enacts a list of other restrictions and penalties." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is similar to what worries me about Florida voters' decision to enfranchise most ex-felons. With a Republican administration & legislature, will the voters' wishes be implemented in time for the 2020 election? Or will Tallahassee drag its collective feet?
Wisconsin. Gerrymandered Wisc. Dylan Brogan of Isthmus (Madison, Wi.): "Wisconsin is a purple state. Yet, the state Assembly is a sea of red. That's what voters want, according to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. 'There's no doubt about it that the voters across Wisconsin affirmed our record, the record of our party, and the agenda that we have put forward over the past eight years,' Vos (R-Rochester) told the Assembly Republican Caucus on Nov. 12.... Despite Democrats winning every statewide office on the ballot and receiving 200,000 more total votes, Republicans lost just one seat in Wisconsin's lower house this cycle. And that victory was by a razor-thin 153 votes. Democrats netted 1.3 million votes for Assembly, 54 percent statewide. Even so, Vos will return to the Capitol in 2019 with Republicans holding 63 of 99 seats in the Assembly, a nearly two-thirds majority.... Democratic minority leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) ... says his party is 'competing on the most uneven playing field in the United States' because Republicans have 'disenfranchised thousands of Democrats.'" --s ...
... Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Wisconsin, in other words, did not have a democratic election for the state assembly. Something resembling an election took place and voters cast their ballots in earnest, but the entire state assembly race was rigged. This is not a new state of affairs for Wisconsin.... [A] federal court decision [struck] down Wisconsin's gerrymandered state assembly maps ... in 2016.... But ... last June, in one of retired Justice Anthony Kennedy's final acts on the Supreme Court, the Court punted this case back down to the lower court and left Wisconsin's rigged maps in place.... Just nine days after the Court's non-decision in Gill, Justice Kennedy retired -- and that retirement likely destroyed any meaningful hope that the Supreme Court would stop partisans from rigging legislative maps." --s
Matt Shuham of TPM: "Departing with years of tradition, this year's White House Correspondents Association dinner will feature a historian, Ron Chernow, in place of a comedian." (Also linked yesterday.)
Sophie Weiner: "The woman who filed a domestic violence restraining order against lawyer candidate Michael Avenatti was actress Mareli Miniutti, The Blast reports. The revelation apparently came from court documents obtained by the website. Avenatti was arrested in Los Angeles last week on domestic violence charges. The woman who called the police, at first named by TMZ as Avenatti's ex-wife, was later listed by the website as simply 'a woman.' Miniutti is an Estonian actress who has appeared in movies including Oceans Eight."
Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Chickenpox has taken hold of a school in [Asheville,] North Carolina where many families claim religious exemption from vaccines.... The outbreak ranks as the state's worst since the chickenpox vaccine became available more than 20 years ago. Since then, the two-dose course has succeeded in limiting the highly contagious disease that once affected 90 percent of Americans -- a public health breakthrough. The school is a symbol of the small but strong movement against the most effective means of preventing the spread of infectious diseases. The percentage of children under 2 years old who haven't received any vaccinations has quadrupled since 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Like the Disneyland measles outbreak in 2015, the flare-up demonstrates the real-life consequences of a shadowy debate fueled by junk science and fomented by the same sort of Twitter bots and trolls that spread misinformation during the 2016 presidential election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
AP: "A dead whale that washed ashore in eastern Indonesia had a large lump of plastic waste in its stomach.... [R]esearchers from wildlife conservation group WWF and the park's conservation academy found about 5.9kg (13lbs) of plastic waste in the animal's stomach containing 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, two flip-flops, a nylon sack and more than 1,000 other assorted pieces of plastic.... Indonesia, an archipelago of 260 million people, is the world's second-largest plastic polluter after China, accordin to a study published in the journal Science in January. It produces 3.2 million tons of mismanaged plastic waste a year, of which 1.29m tons ends up in the ocean, the study said." --s
Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "The Nissan chairman, Carlos Ghosn, was arrested on Monday after an internal company investigation found that he had underreported his compensation to the Japanese financial authorities for several years. Nissan said it was cooperating with Japanese prosecutors. It also said that it had opened its inquiry after a whistle-blower alleged that Mr. Ghosn had been misrepresenting his salary as well as using company assets for personal use. Both he and a director, Greg Kelly, who was also accused of misconduct, were taken in by authorities, the company said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Benjamin Haas of the Guardian: "The Chinese-language version of the Oscars, the Golden Horse Awards, have become the latest flashpoint in tense relations between China and Taiwan after a film director questioned the island's political status. Documentary filmmaker Fu Yue called for Taiwan to be recognised as an 'independent entity' during her acceptance speech, fighting back tears as she said, 'this is my biggest wish as a Taiwanese'. Her speech was quickly censored on Chinese television and streams, with the coverage going black." --s
News Lede
Chicago Tribune: "Chicago police officer and two other people were killed in an attack at a South Side hospital Monday afternoon that sent medical personnel and police scrambling through halls, stairwells and even the nursery in search of victims and the shooter before he was found dead."
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