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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Tuesday
Nov132018

The Commentariat -- Nov. 14, 2018

Late Morning Update:

Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "The Justice Department's quasi-judicial Office of Legal Counsel told ... Donald Trump before he forced former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign that he could appoint an official who had not been confirmed by the Senate, like acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, to take his place. A 20-page OLC opinion authored by Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel, released by the Justice Department on Wednesday, states that OLC had 'previously advised that the President could designate a senior Department of Justice official, such as Mr. Whitaker, as Acting Attorney General.' The OLC opinion conceded that it was rare for the acting attorney general to be an individual not confirmed by the Senate. The only example they found was from 1866, before the creation of the Justice Department. Nevertheless, the opinion concluded that Trump's appointment of Whitaker would be legitimate." The article includes a copy of the opinion.

Michael Rose of Reuters: "... Donald Trump, who attacked his French counterpart in a series of tweets on Tuesday, should have shown 'common decency' instead since the country was mourning the anniversary of deadly attacks in Paris, a French government spokesman said. In five posts sent on the same day France marked the anniversary of the 2015 attacks that killed 130 people, Trump blasted the key U.S. ally over its near defeat to Germany in two world wars, its wine industry and President Emmanuel Macron's approval ratings.... 'Yesterday was November 13, we were marking the murder of 130 of our people,' [spokesman Benjamin] Griveaux said. 'So I'll reply in English: "common decency" would have been appropriate.'"

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... as the [right-wing Federalist Society] prepares to gather on Thursday for the start of this year's convention, more than a dozen prominent conservative lawyers have joined together to sound a note of caution. They are urging their fellow conservatives to speak up about what they say are the Trump administration's betrayals of bedrock legal norms.... The group, called Checks and Balances, was organized by George T. Conway III, a conservative lawyer and the husband of President Trump's counselor, Kellyanne Conway."

Trump Loses Even Fox "News." Haley Britzky of Axios: "Fox News is supporting CNN's lawsuit against the Trump administration over the White House's revocation of Jim Acosta's press pass and plans to file an amicus brief in the case, according to a statement from the network's president Jay Wallace."

Jonathan Chait: "The point [of Robert Mueller's investigation] is to establish legal accountability for the president. Well-functioning democracies don't have criminal oligarchies running the country with legal impunity. The kind of deep systemic corruption Trump is implementing, in which establishing a political alliance with a ruling family is a key step in amassing and protecting wealth, depends on selective legal enforcement. More to the point, it requires business partners. Maybe Donald Trump can't be hauled off to prison, but his partners can. And that prospect can scare off the collaborators Trump needs. Second, and more to the point, even if Robert Mueller can't kick Trump out of the White House directly and the Senate won't, there's a body of people who can: the 2020 electorate. And the Trump investigations are building a powerful case that will be brought to bear on that election.... The breadth of Trump's legal exposure exceeds that of any president in American history.... He barely managed to win the presidency as a brash, controversial novelty. He will have to win it a second time as a known crook." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: One thing Chait is not figuring into his 2020 calculation is that Americans like to give their presidents a second term even when the president isn't especially popular. Gerald Ford lost because Richard Nixon. Jimmy Carter lost because of double-digit inflation, an energy crisis (gas lines) & other problems like the Iran hostage fiasco. Bush I lost in a three-way race; Ross Perot was the "decider" of 1992 election.

Chris Mooney & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "Scientists behind a major study that claimed the Earth's oceans are warming faster than previously thought now say their work contained inadvertent errors that made their conclusions seem more certain than they actually are. Two weeks after the high-profile study was published in the journal Nature, its authors have submitted corrections to the publication. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography, home to several of the researchers involved, also noted the problems in the scientists' work and corrected a news release on its website, which previously had asserted that the study detailed how the Earth's oceans 'have absorbed 60 percent more heat than previously thought.'... The central conclusion of the study -- that oceans are retaining ever more energy as more heat is being trapped within Earth's climate system each year -- ... hasn't changed much despite the errors." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a normal kind of error that one would expect to occur occasionally -- and is in fact one reason scientists publish their studies in popular journals like Nature. Unfortunately, the person who discovered the central error -- a British mathematician named Nic Lewis -- is a climate change skeptic. So of course wingers are having ... a day at the beach, so to speak.

Meet One of Trump's "Very Fine People." Jessica Schulberg, et al., of the Huffington Post: "Jeffrey Clark, the 30-year-old man federal agents arrested [in Washington, D.C.,] Friday after he called the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting a 'dry run' and his relatives worried he might try to launch a race war, wasn't shy about being a neo-Nazi. In April 2017, when someone asked Clark at a White House rally organized by 'alt-right' coiner Richard Spencer whether he considered himself a fascist, he said no ― he considered himself a Nazi. Antifa activists photographed him at the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. He has posed for pictures in front of Nazi symbols and holding Nazi memorabilia. On Gab, the favored social network of racists and anti-Semites, Clark had the username @PureWhiteEvil and called himself 'DC Bowl Gang,' a reference to Dylann Roof, the bowl-cut racist who murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015."

*****

Eli Stokols of the Los Angeles Times: "With the certainty that the incoming Democratic House majority will go after his tax returns and investigate his actions, and the likelihood of additional indictments by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, Trump has retreated into a cocoon of bitterness and resentment, according to multiple administration sources. Behind the scenes, they say, the president has lashed out at several aides, from junior press assistants to senior officials. 'He's furious,' said one administration official. 'Most staffers are trying to avoid him.' The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, painted a picture of a brooding president 'trying to decide who to blame' for Republicans' election losses, even as he publicly and implausibly continues to claim victory.... Publicly, Trump has been increasingly absent in recent days -- except on Twitter. He has canceled travel plans and dispatched Cabinet officials and aides to events in his place.... Just as Trump was returning to Washington on Sunday evening, [mike] Pence was heading to Asia in the president's place.... Trump's absence, experts said, is notable, and a glaring affront to many Asian leaders." ...

... Tim Marcin of Newsweek: "The White House has reportedly created a new strategy to get ... Donald Trump to zero in on policy matters -- a schedule block called 'policy time.' It's reminiscent of Trump's 'executive time,' which seemed to consist of tweet storms and cable TV viewing. Politico White House reporter Annie Karni tweeted on Tuesday: 'A new thing on Trump's private schedule that I haven't seen before: In addition to some 'executive time' today, he has two blocks of 'policy time.' Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey followed up on Karni's tweet by adding that 'policy time' was instituted by Chief of Staff John Kelly in an effort to get the president to focus on issues." Mrs. McC: Not that I want Trump to do anything because everything he does is wrong, but Trump is the first president* in recent history who has had to be cajoled or tricked into doing even a tiny bit of presidentish work. ...

He's just a bull carrying his own china shop with him when­ever he travels the world. -- Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley ...

... Josh Dawsey & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: Last Friday, when Britain's PM Theresa May called Donald Trump to congratulate him on GOP election wins, "Trump berated May for Britain not doing enough, in his assessment, to contain Iran. He questioned her over Brexit and complained about the trade deals he sees as unfair with European countries.... For Trump, that testy call set the tone for five days of fury -- evident in Trump's splenetic tweets and described in interviews with 14 [officials who observed his behavior].... ... During his 43-hour stay in Paris, Trump brooded over the Florida recounts and sulked over key races being called for Democrats ... that he had claimed as a 'big victory.' He erupted at his staff over media coverage of his decision to skip a ceremony honoring the military sacrifice of World War I. The president also was angry and resentful over French President Emmanuel Macron's public rebuke of rising nationalism...." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Funny how Grumpy Trumpy berates a female head-of-state to her face (assuming they had a video link), but waits till he has the Atlantic Ocean between them to criticize a male head-of-state (Macron). ...

... John Wagner & James McAuley of the Washington Post: "President Trump unleashed verbal attacks Tuesday on French President Emmanuel Macron, taking aim at his approval rating, his country's employment rate, its trade policies on wine and his vision for the military.... n the first of several barbs Tuesday on Twitter, Trump again misrepresented what Macron had said during last week's radio interview and reminded him of the U.S. military's role in aiding France in World War I and II.... In his tweet on Tuesday, Trump again referenced France's spending, writing: 'Pay for NATO or not!'... Trump's burst of tweets came on the anniversary of coordinated terrorist attacks on Nov. 13, 2015, in France -- a very solemn occasion in the country. The French government declined to comment on Trump's tweets.... Following Trump's Tuesday attack, German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to Macron's defense, echoing his initial call for a 'real European army.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

By the way, when the helicopter couldn't fly to the first cemetery in France because of almost zero visibility, I suggested driving. Secret Service said NO, too far from airport & big Paris shutdown. Speech nextday at American Cemetary [sic] in pouring rain! Little reported-Fake News! -- Donald Trump, Tuesday, in a tweet

Rather than 'pouring rain,' photos showed [Trump] standing without a hat or an umbrella under overcast skies when he delivered remarks [Sunday], though he did grasp an umbrella at one point while paying tribute at one soldier's grave. -- Eli Stokols, in story linked above

... Christopher Dickey of The Daily Beast: "In a series of churlish tweets on Tuesday, Donald Trump discovered, again, that he really doesn't like France. His weird-ass bromance with French President Emmanuel Macron would seem to be over, and many people [in France] will be relieved. Trump's reputation for vulgarity, ignorance, and impulsiveness -- although it may be prized by some of his American fan base -- does not sit well with the French.... Trump, who humiliated himself in Paris this weekend, disparaged Macron for denouncing Trumpian (and Kaiserian and Hitlerian) nationalism as a plague on humanity that brought on two world wars.... Although Trump didn't reference it, he probably was most upset when the official Twitter feed of the French army made fun of him by showing a soldier crawling under wires on a wet sidewalk with the caption: '#MondayMotivation There's rain but it's not serious [laugh until you cry emoji] You're still motivated [fist emoji].'" --s

The prospect of Presidential Harassment by the Dems is causing the Stock Market big headaches! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet yesterday ...

... Stephen Collinson of CNN: "Donald Trump just co-opted a new buzz phrase he hopes will define the next two years in politics: 'Presidential harassment.' His jab at the tactics of the incoming Democratic House represents an early effort to spin a new era of investigations and oversight that is about to shake the White House as a power grab by his opposition. Trump's appropriation on Twitter of a concept first coined by ... Mitch McConnell last week, points to the critical nature of the fight the President must wage to safeguard his hold on power, one that will surely start to feel pressure as lawmakers return to Capitol Hill with newly-elected members in tow." (Also linked yesterday.)

Phoniest Prez* Ever Forgets Migrants. Maggie Haberman & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "For weeks before the midterm elections, President Trump warned ominously about the threat from a caravan of migrants streaming from Central America toward Mexico's border with the United States.... But since the election last week, Mr. Trump has tweeted about the caravan exactly once -- to issue a proclamation preventing those who cross the border illegally from applying for asylum in the United States. Fox News, which faithfully amplified Mr. Trump's warnings about the migrants, has gone similarly quiet on the subject. There was little dispute, even before Election Day, that Mr. Trump was exploiting the caravan for political purposes. But analysts, historians and veterans of previous administrations said there were few comparable instances of a commander in chief warning about what he called a looming threat, only to drop it as soon as people voted. While the caravan has faded from television screens, the costs of Mr. Trump's response to it have not. Nearly 6,000 active-duty troops remain deployed from the Gulf Coast to Southern California, where they are putting up tents and stringing concertina wire to face a ragtag band that is still not near the border."


Jon Swaine & Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "Robert Mueller is seeking more information about Nigel Farage for his investigation into Russian interference in US politics, according to a target of the inquiry who expects to be criminally charged. Jerome Corsi, a conservative author, said prosecutors working for Mueller questioned him about Farage, the key campaigner behind Britain's vote to leave the European Union, two weeks ago in Washington. Corsi said investigators for the special counsel also pressed him for information on Ted Malloch, a London-based American academic with ties to Farage, who informally advised Donald Trump and was interviewed by FBI agents earlier this year.... The New York Times and Washington Post have reported that Mueller has taken an interest in the biggest funder of the pro-Brexit campaign, Arron Banks. The New York Times has reported that Mueller has obtained records of Banks's communications with Russian diplomats." --s

Eliana Johnson & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "... Trump's move last week to install [Matthew] Whitaker as [Robert] Mueller's boss may already be backfiring. The appointment has drawn bipartisan criticism and led to questions about Whitaker's qualifications and whether he would limit the investigation or bury its findings. The state of Maryland on Tuesday filed the first legal challenge seeking to overturn Whitaker's appointment, while on Capitol Hill newly empowered House Democrats are already making plans to have the acting attorney general appear as one of their first witnesses when the next Congress launches in January. The uproar over the appointment, which effectively removes Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as Mueller's primary supervisor, has put Whitaker in a difficult spot, trapped between setting off a political firestorm by clipping Mueller's wings and angering a president intent on having him do just that.... [And Justice] Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec issued a statement late Tuesday signaling that Whitaker could still recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation, a shift from the department's initial position ... that Whitaker had no plans to step out of the way on the Russia probe." ...

... Lackey Lindsey Takes a Break. David Morgan & Amanda Becker of Reuters: "Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said on Tuesday he supported a bill that would protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller from any politically motivated firings and would urge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow a vote on it.... Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said he also supported the bill but would not lobby McConnell to allow the measure to move forward.... Republican Senator Jeff Flake, who is retiring, and Democratic Senator Chris Coons have pledged to seek a floor vote on a bill to shield Mueller as soon as Congress resumed this week after a recess for the Nov. 6 elections."  

"A Smooth-Running Machine," Ctd.

Christopher Cadelago & Nancy Cook of Politico: "Bottled-up hostility in ... Donald Trump's administration flowed to the surface Tuesday during a remarkable 12-hour period following an awkward midterm détente and tense trip to Paris over which the president is still seething. 'It's like an episode of "Maury,"' one former Trump aide observed to Politico as the spectacle unfolded. 'The only thing that's missing is a paternity test.'"

Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is considering yet another shakeup of his administration, preparing to remove Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and looking at possible replacements for Chief of Staff John Kelly, including Vice President Mike Pence's Chief of Staff Nick Ayers, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter." Mrs. McC: Since Trump goes to his hidey-hole while Kelly tells staff they're fired, who is going to fire Kelly? mike pence? (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgess: "If the administration is measuring [Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen] Nielsen's success by how many undocumented immigrants have been detained or arrested, she excelled. According to numbers first reported by The Daily Beast, a record 44,000 people are currently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The previous record high was just last year, at 38,000.... The 44,000 immigrants in detention exceeds the 40,520 detention beds funded by Congress and the department has requested more funding to fulfill the immigration goals of the White House. But that isn't enough for Trump, which is why Nielsen is reportedly on the chopping block." --s ...

... Kevin Breuninger of NBC News: "... John Kelly may be out of his job soon as a result of a conflict with first lady Melania Trump and other people in the White House, seven sources have told NBC News.... Two White House officials told NBC that Melania Trump had told the president earlier in 2018 that Kelly had repeatedly turned down requests to promote some of her aides, even as Kelly's staff received promotions. Trump reportedly directed Kelly to approve the first lady's requests after learning of the disputes. Melania Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, told CNBC in a text message that 'Chief Kelly and the First Lady have never "clashed."'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Melania Trump raised concerns with her husband earlier this year, amid the height of the controversy over his alleged affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels, that [John] Kelly had repeatedly denied her requests to promote some of her aides, two White House officials told NBC News. The requests languished for months as Kelly insisted there weren't enough available positions for the first lady's aides to have senior titles, these people said. During this same period however, West Wing officials working for Kelly received promotions, the White House officials said. Having learned of the dispute, the president was furious and told Kelly to give the first lady, who has a smaller East Wing staff than her recent predecessors, what she wanted, these people said. 'I don't need this shit,' Trump told Kelly, according to one person...." ...

... Maggie Haberman & Ron Nixon of the New York Times have more on the palace intrigue smooth-running machine." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Weird News. Felicia Sonmez & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The office of first lady Melania Trump is calling for the ouster of deputy national security adviser Mira R. Ricardel, amid reports of tensions between Ricardel and White House officials. 'It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House,' the first lady's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement Tuesday....It is unusual for the first lady's office to weigh in on personnel matters elsewhere in the White House, particularly in the realm of national security.... A senior White House official said Ricardel is expected to be fired, but she was still at her desk Tuesday afternoon. National security adviser John Bolton tapped Ricardel in April to serve as his deputy.... Three current and two former White House officials said Tuesday that Ricardel had berated people in meetings, yelled at professional staff, argued with the first lady and spread rumors about [Defense Secretary Jim] Mattis. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly has sought for months to oust Ricardel, calling her a problematic hire in the West Wing, and Mattis has told advisers that he wants her out as well, the officials said."


Brian Stelter of CNN: "CNN has filed a lawsuit against President Trump and several of his aides, seeking the immediate restoration of chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta's access to the White House. The lawsuit is a response to the White House's suspension of Acosta's press pass, known as a Secret Service 'hard pass,' last week. The suit alleges that Acosta and CNN's First and Fifth Amendment rights are being violated by the ban.The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning. Both CNN and Acosta are plaintiffs in the lawsuit. There are six defendants: Trump, chief of staff John Kelly, press secretary Sarah Sanders, deputy chief of staff ... Bill Shine, Secret Service director Randolph Alles, and the Secret Service officer who took Acosta's hard pass away last Wednesday. The officer is identified as John Doe in the suit, pending his identification. The six defendants are all named because of their roles in enforcing and announcing Acosta's suspension." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Maxwell Tani, et al., of The Daily Beast: CNN's decision to sue the White House and those involved in revoking Jim Acosta's 'hard pass' came after other options failed.... According to the complaint, CNN head Jeff Zucker privately reached out to different members of the White House press office, and even directly appealed to Chief of Staff John Kelly.... Numerous Trump White House officials, current and former, have said that they privately celebrate whenever a Trump vs. Acosta narrative emerges in the national press, because they view CNN -- and Acosta in particular -- as a useful foil in their sparring with mainstream media reporters." --safari: Revoking press freedoms is all a fucking game for these cretins. ...

... MEANWHILE, Sarah Has a New Story. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "In a statement Tuesday morning, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders suggested that the decision was about [Jim] Acosta refusing to yield the microphone while questioning the president: '... After Mr. Acosta asked the President two questions -- each of which the President answered -- he physically refused to surrender a White House microphone to an intern....' Less than a week ago, it was primarily about him supposedly placing his hands on and getting too rough with an intern. Sanders said at the time that the White House would 'never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman.'... The day after the altercation, White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp doubled down on the idea that Acosta was being punished for an alleged physical altercation.... By this time..., it had been established that not only did the video of the incident not show Acosta placing his hands on the intern but that Sanders herself shared a doctored video of it.... By Friday, President Trump himself was still litigating the video. 'Nobody manipulated it. Give me a break,' he said.... The alleged assault simply isn't there, and the fact that the White House needed to use sped-up video -- what can only be called propaganda -- to bolster its point shows how shaky the foundations of the decision and its initial justifications were. That the White House isn't sticking with that version when faced with legal action shows how dodgy it was to begin with."

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The Pentagon's new focus on threats from China and Russia after almost two decades of fighting terrorism 'too often rests on questionable assumptions and weak analysis,' an independent bipartisan commission concluded in a sharply critical report issued on Wednesday that challenges President Trump's commitment to supporting a strong military. Over all, the panel that was appointed last year by Congress praised the general direction of the National Defense Strategy that was issued in January by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. But it warned that projected budget shortfalls, overtaxed military forces around the globe and other risks were imperiling the plan, just as it was taking effect."

Gideon Resnick of The Daily Beast: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the newly elected leftist congresswoman from New York, joined a protest on Tuesday morning inside the offices of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to call for immediate action on climate change.... The group's demands include a push for Pelosi and House leadership to back a 'Green New Deal,' a broad plan supported by Ocasio-Cortez and a number of other newly elected Democrats." --s

Election 2018

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "What looked at first like a modest Democratic majority in the House has grown into a stronger one: The party has gained 32 seats so far and appears on track to gain between 35 and 40 once all the counting is complete. And Democratic losses in the Senate look less serious than they did a week ago, after Kyrsten Sinema was declared the winner in Arizona on Monday. It now looks like Democrats are likely to lose a net of one or two seats, rather than three or four as they feared last Tuesday.... The president's strategy of sowing racial division and stoking alarm about immigration failed to lift his party, and Democratic messaging about health care undercut the benefit Republicans hoped to gain from a strong economy.... There are warning signs for Democrats, too: Mr. Trump's party remains ascendant in rural America, giving Republicans a durable advantage in the Senate, where less-populous states have influence greatly disproportionate to their voting numbers. And Republicans demonstrated a tenacious hold on two of the country's biggest swing states, Ohio and Florida, giving Mr. Trump an important foothold on the presidential map."

Ed Kilgore: "The best unofficial chronicler of turnout rates, University of Florida political scientist (and proprietor of the United States Election Project) Michael McDonald, estimates total midterm turnout at just under 116 million. That's well under the 138 million or so Americans who voted in the 2016 presidential election. But turnout is never, ever, as high in midterms as in presidential elections. And an apples-to-apples comparison of midterm voting as a percentage of the Voting Eligible Population (VEP) shows that 2018's 49 percent is the highest recorded in the last 25 midterms, dating back to 1914."

Arizona. Meghan Keneally of ABC News: Republican Martha McSally, who narrowly lost her Senate bid to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, soon could end up in the Senate anyway. Sen. Jon Kyl (R), whom Gov. Doug Ducey (R) appointed to fill Sen. John McCain's seat, has committed to serving only till the end of this term. "Ducey could appoint McSally ... to hold [the] seat until the 2020 election."

California. Michael Finnegan & Maya Sweedler of the Los Angeles Times: "California Republicans lost a fourth seat in the House on Tuesday as Democrat Josh Harder gained enough votes to oust GOP Rep. Jeff Denham in the San Joaquin Valley. Denham's loss, projected by the Associated Press, came amid signs that two other Republican seats are also in growing jeopardy. The continuing tallies of hundreds of thousands of ballots cast in the Nov. 6 midterm election are consistently favoring Democrats, underscoring the increasingly bleak fortunes of the California GOP. In Orange County's latest ballot count Tuesday, Republican Rep. Mimi Walters fell 261 votes behind her Democratic challenger, Katie Porter. Walters finished election night more than 6,200 votes ahead, but her lead steadily dwindled until it vanished on Tuesday. Young Kim, the Republican running to succeed GOP Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton saw her lead over Democrat Gil Cisneros shrink to 711 votes in the updated Orange and Los Angeles county tallies." ...

... Grace Panetta of Business Insider: "Rep. Mimi Walters, who is fighting for reelection in California's 45th Congressional District, repeatedly charged Democrats are attempting to 'steal' her seat by tampering with votes, according to recent fundraising emails sent out by her campaign.... In at least three emails sent out between Sunday and Tuesday, Walters' campaign charged that 'Democrats are already preparing for a recount to try and steal this Republican seat after the fact.' The campaign also wrote 'the left has spent tens of millions against me, and they'll stop at nothing to make sure they can still win this seat.'" Mrs. McC: This, of course, is straight out of the chapter of the Trump Party campaign playbook titled "But What if I Lose?"

Florida. Jane Musgrave of the Palm Beach Post: "A Palm Beach County legislative candidate on Tuesday won and then quickly lost the first round of his legal battle to extend the deadline for election recounts to be completed as growing political heat generated lawsuits in federal and state courts in Tallahassee. Ruling on a lawsuit filed by Democratic Florida House District 89 candidate Jim Bonfiglio, who is trailing by 37 votes in his race against Republican Mike Caruso, a Leon County judge ordered that Palm Beach County elections officials be given until Nov. 27 to complete their recounts. However, Judge Karen Gievers' decision to lift Thursday's 3 p.m. deadline in Palm Beach County was trumped when Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner petitioned to move the case to federal court. 'We're now in federal court territory, said Marisol Samayoa, a spokeswoman for the campaign arm of the Florida Democratic Party. A federal judge in Tallahassee, who is hearing other challenges associated with the statewide recount, gave all sides until 5 p.m. Wednesday to explain why the county's deadline should or shouldn't be extended. In addition to Detzner's legal maneuvering, incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, the Democrat who is trailing by 12,100 votes in his battle against Republican Gov. Rick Scott, also entered the legal fray. Nelson filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee asking that all elections supervisors in the state be given more time to recount ballots." ...

... New York Times Editors: "The Real Florida Recount Fraud [is being perpetrated by Republicans like Rick Scott and Donald Trump.] Sowing doubt in the integrity of the recount is part of a Republican strategy that involves lawyers and operatives on the ground, much like what happened in the 2000 election, and a preview of what's likely to happen leading up to the 2020 election."

Maine. Elena Schneider of Politico: "GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin has sued Maine's secretary of state over ranked-choice voting, calling the system unconstitutional as the state elections authority tabulates ballots in Poliquin's too-close-to-call race with Democrat Jared Golden. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, seeks a preliminary injunction against the ongoing ranked-choice count until a judge can weigh in on the system. Poliquin has 46.2 percent of the vote to Golden's 45.5 percent with 96 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press, with the remainder scattered among third-party candidates.... Exit polling found that voters who supported an independent candidate as their first choice leaned Golden's way on the second-choice ranking, according to the Bangor Daily News." (Also linked yesterday.)

Mississippi. Google Takes Pro-Lynching Stance. Popular Information: "U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) was caught on tape 'joking' about her willingness to attend a lynching at a campaign event in November. 'If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row,' Hyde-Smith said on November 2.... One corporation that apparently was unbothered by Hyde-Smith's remarks: Google. On Tuesday, Google donated $5000 to Hyde-Smith's campaign, according to documents filed with the FEC.... Hyde-Smith has refused to apologize, claiming her remarks were a complement. 'I used an exaggerated expression of regard, and any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous,' Hyde-Smith said in a statement.... At a press conference on Monday, Hyde-Smith robotically refused to answer any questions about her lynching comments." Mrs. McC: Hyde-Smith's Democratic challenger in a special Senate election is Mike Espy, who is black. ...

... Amber Heisel, et al., of the Jackson (Mississippi) Free Press: "As state and national controversy swirls around U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith's comment about a 'public hanging' in her race against an African American opponent, Gov. Phil Bryant opened a press conference [Monday] morning implying that black women are participating in 'the genocide of 20 million African American children' through legal abortions. 'See, in my heart, I am confused about where the outrage is at about 20 million African American children that have been aborted. No one wants to say anything about that...,' Bryant said, with Hyde-Smith and National Right to Life President Carol Tobias standing nearby. Bryant's use of the abortion-as-genocide conspiracy theory about a woman's right to choose a legal abortion [is] ... popular with white conservatives."


Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "In a sensible world, Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill would have nothing whatsoever to do with the Affordable Care Act. On its surface, Bethune-Hill is a racial gerrymandering case which, the Supreme Court announced on Tuesday, will be heard by the Court for the second time.... [Yet] Depending on how the Supreme Court rules in Bethune-Hill, this seemingly irrelevant gerrymandering dispute could enable the Trump administration to collude with a highly partisan judge to shut down the Affordable Care Act in a bevy of red states." Read on, it's difficult to summarize. --s

Stereo Williams of The Daily Beast: "Stan Lee has passed away at age 95.... Lee created characters and told stories that reflected the struggle in American society between the idealized way we view ourselves and the harsh ugliness in our culture that is impossible to ignore.... Lee set Marvel apart not only by placing its super-powered protagonists in the middle of real-world troubles but beyond that, by giving voice to those issues. To fully appreciate what that means, one has to understand the cultural landscape when Lee rose through the ranks at Marvel." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: See also Akhilleus's commentary in yesterday's thread.

Beyond the Beltway

David Goodman of the New York Times: "To attract Amazon, New York’s leaders agreed to remake plans for the Queens waterfront, move a distribution center for school lunches and provide a sweeping package of $1.7 billion in incentives from the state and hundreds of millions more from the city. They even agreed to allow a helipad for Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive. Under the plan, within 15 years the company could occupy as much as eight million square feet of office space, the rough equivalent of three Empire State Buildings.... Gone is the city's vision of a mixed-use community filled with apartments, some of them for residents of more modest means. In its place will rise office buildings that will house 25,000 or more workers.... But Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio seemed relieved to be able to finally discuss the long-secret negotiation and appeared jovial on Tuesday as they spoke about the economic benefits." ...

... Josh Barro of New York: "I’m going to present the best argument I was able to gather for New York's multibillion-dollar subsidy deal to bring Amazon to Queens. I don't think it's ultimately a convincing argument, but it's the best one available, and it's worth at least thinking about. The idea is that it's very important that Amazon is going to Queens, and that by doing so, it will serve two key development goals for the city: moving office development out of the congested Manhattan core, and building a tech cluster that can challenge Silicon Valley."

Julia Jacobo of ABC News: "Ohio authorities have made four arrests in connection with the murder of eight family members who were fatally shot 'execution style' in 2016. All four arrested belong to the same family from South Webster, Ohio, and were charged 'with planning and carrying out the murders,' Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced in a press release.... Each is charged with eight counts of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications, DeWine told reporters.... While DeWine did not discuss the motive of the murders, he said the custody of a young child 'plays a role in this case.'"

Way Beyond

Oliver Holmes & Hazem Balouhsa of the Guardian: "Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in Gaza have locked themselves into an escalating firefight, launching scores of bombings and reprisal attacks in violence sparked by a botched Israeli special forces raid miles inside Gaza on Sunday evening.... Israel’s military said about 400 rockets and mortars had been fired from Gaza since Monday afternoon, possibly the highest concentration launched in such a period from the enclave, and its warplanes had carried out more than 100 bombings." --s

Comments Off
Monday
Nov122018

The Commentariat -- Nov. 13, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

John Wagner & James McAuley of the Washington Post: "President Trump unleashed verbal attacks Tuesday on French President Emmanuel Macron, taking aim at his approval rating, his country's employment rate, its trade policies on wine and his vision for the military.... In the first of several barbs Tuesday on Twitter, Trump again misrepresented what Macron had said during last week's radio interview and reminded him of the U.S. military's role in aiding France in World War I and II.... In his tweet on Tuesday, Trump again referenced France's spending, writing: 'Pay for NATO or not!'... Trump's burst of tweets came on the anniversary of coordinated terrorist attacks on Nov. 13, 2015, in France -- a very solemn occasion in the country. The French government declined to comment on Trump's tweets.... Following Trump's Tuesday attack, German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to Macron's defense, echoing his initial call for a 'real European army.'"

Elena Schneider of Politico: "GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin has sued Maine's secretary of state over ranked-choice voting, calling the system unconstitutional as the state elections authority tabulates ballots in Poliquin's too-close-to-call race with Democrat Jared Golden. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, seeks a preliminary injunction against the ongoing ranked-choice count until a judge can weigh in on the system. Poliquin has 46.2 percent of the vote to Golden's 45.5 percent with 96 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press, with the remainder scattered among third-party candidates.... Exit polling found that voters who supported an independent candidate as their first choice leaned Golden's way on the second-choice ranking, according to the Bangor Daily News."

Kevin Breuninger of NBC News: "... John Kelly may be out of his job soon as a result of a conflict with first lady Melania Trump and other people in the White House, seven sources have told NBC News.... Two White House officials told NBC that Melania Trump had told the president earlier in 2018 that Kelly had repeatedly turned down requests to promote some of her aides, even as Kelly's staff received promotions. Trump reportedly directed Kelly to approve the first lady's requests after learning of the disputes. Melania Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, told CNBC in a text message that 'Chief Kelly and the First Lady have never "clashed.'"" ...

... Maggie Haberman & Ron Nixon of the New York Times have more on the palace intrigue smooth-running machine."

Brian Stelter of CNN: "CNN has filed a lawsuit against President Trump and several of his aides, seeking the immediate restoration of chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta's access to the White House. The lawsuit is a response to the White House's suspension of Acosta's press pass, known as a Secret Service 'hard pass,' last week. The suit alleges that Acosta and CNN's First and Fifth Amendment rights are being violated by the ban.The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning. Both CNN and Acosta are plaintiffs in the lawsuit. There are six defendants: Trump, chief of staff John Kelly, press secretary Sarah Sanders, deputy chief of staff for communications Bill Shine, Secret Service director Randolph Alles, and the Secret Service officer who took Acosta's hard pass away last Wednesday. The officer is identified as John Doe in the suit, pending his identification. The six defendants are all named because of their roles in enforcing and announcing Acosta's suspension."

Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is considering yet another shakeup of his administration, preparing to remove Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and looking at possible replacements for Chief of Staff John Kelly, including Vice President Mike Pence's Chief of Staff Nick Ayers, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter." Mrs. McC: Since Trump goes to his hidey-hole while Kelly tells staff they're fired, who is going to fire Kelly? mike pence?

The prospect of Presidential Harassment by the Dems is causing the Stock Market big headaches! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet yesterday ...

... Stephen Collinson of CNN: "Donald Trump just co-opted a new buzz phrase he hopes will define the next two years in politics: 'Presidential harassment.' His jab at the tactics of the incoming Democratic House represents an early effort to spin a new era of investigations and oversight that is about to shake the White House as a power grab by his opposition. Trump's appropriation on Twitter of a concept first coined by ... Mitch McConnell last week, points to the critical nature of the fight the President must wage to safeguard his hold on power, one that will surely start to feel pressure as lawmakers return to Capitol Hill with newly-elected members in tow."

*****

The actual news stories today, no matter how disturbing or destabilizing, are secondary to some of the analyses I've linked, particularly Kaplan, Roth & Hasen. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Nick Miroff, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has told advisers he has decided to remove Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and her departure from the administration is likely to occur in the coming weeks, if not sooner, according to five current and former White House officials. Trump canceled a planned trip with Nielsen this week to visit U.S. troops at the border in South Texas and told aides over the weekend he wants her out as soon as possible, these officials said. The president has grumbled for months about what he views as Nielsen's lackluster performance on immigration enforcement and is believed to be looking for a replacement who will implement his policy ideas with more alacrity.... Chief of Staff John F. Kelly is fighting Nielsen's pending dismissal and attempting to postpone it, aides say. But Kelly's future in the administration also is shaky, according to three White House officials."

Eileen Sullivan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump, fresh off an international display of unity among global leaders to mark the end of World War I, renewed his attacks on America's longtime allies on Monday, and demanded fair treatment for the United States. In a trio of Twitter posts, Mr. Trump said that the United States pays 'for LARGE portions' of other countries' military protection and loses money on trade with the same countries.... As for the trade deficits, most economists do not see any gap as money 'lost' to other countries and do not agree with the president's view that the trade imbalance shows America's weakness on trade policy." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... ** Fred Kaplan of Slate: "The most disturbing thing about President Trump's disgraceful performance in France this past weekend is the clear signal it sent that, under his thumb, the United States has left the West. He came to the continent to join with other world leaders to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. But the significance of the armistice is not so much to commemorate the fallen in an absurd and ghastly war as it is to celebrate the special peace -- grounded in a democratic European Union and a trans-Atlantic alliance -- that grew in its wake and the greater war that followed.... Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it, George Santayana once wrote. The problem with Trump is he never knew history -- and doesn't think he needs to learn it. His election marked Year Zero, as far as he is concerned.... At [the] occasion [of the armistice commemoration] so rife with moment and symbolism, any other American president would have felt compelled to repair and strengthen this union. If there were any doubts that President Trump understands little about his mission, and cares even less, this trip dispelled them once and for all." ...

... Ex-Republican Max Boot of the Washington Post: "It seems that soldiers who were captured aren't the only ones that President Trump doesn't like. He also apparently doesn't care much for the ones who died for their country.... The White House explained that bad weather grounded the helicopters that Trump and his entourage were planning to take [to honor fallen soldiers at the Aisne-Marne American cemetery].... [T]he low-energy president remained behind at the U.S. ambassador's residence.... Odds are that his room didn't have Fox News. So he was probably reduced to watching CNN all afternoon. If the New York dating scene was Trump's personal Vietnam, this was his personal Verdun.... Trump shows what he really thinks of the troops by using them as political props.... [A]s the New York Times reports, the troops [he sent to the border pre-election] are still in the field, without electricity or hot meals -- or a mission. They will likely spend Thanksgiving away from their families. Naturally, Trump will not bother to visit them.... He still has not visited U.S. troops deployed to a war zone.... To add insult to injury, consider Trump's reaction after Ian David Long, a Marine veteran of Afghanistan, killed 12 people in a Thousand Oaks, Calif., bar this past week. Trump called him a 'very sick puppy' and blamed his rampage on post-traumatic stress disorder without any actual evidence.... This is precisely the kind of pernicious stereotype -- that veterans are ticking time bombs -- that veterans groups have worked so hard to refute.... Through his words and deeds, the commander in chief shows his contempt for the men and women in uniform." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jim Fallows of the Atlantic: "Helicopters can fly just fine in the rain, and in conditions way worse than prevailed in Paris on November 10.... Why didn't an American president go to a once-in-a-lifetime ceremony? Might it have been a still-undisclosed security threat? Something else that Donald Trump had to do? I don't know. I do know that whatever the obstacle was, it wasn't that 'helicopters can't fly in the clouds and rain.'"

** Understanding Trump. David Roth of Deadspin: Trump's "politics, to the extent that they've ever been legible, have always been off-the-rack big city tabloid bullshit -- crudely racist exterminate the brutes/back the blue authoritarianism in the background and ruthless petty rich person squabbling in the front. His actions since becoming president have been those of a dim, cruel child playacting at being a powerful -- giving orders without quite knowing what they mean or how they might be carried out, taunting enemies, beating up the people he can afford to beat up without having to be called to account for it, lying as needed or just for yuks.... It's been clear for decades that Trump was both an asshole and a dummy; this is now a problem not just for the odd unlucky cocktail waitress and his staff of cheesy apparatchiks but literally every person on earth." Read on. Roth isn't writing much you don't already know, but he writes it well.

David Sanger & William Broad of the New York Times: "North Korea is moving ahead with its ballistic missile program at 16 hidden bases that have been identified in new commercial satellite images, a network long known to American intelligence agencies but left undiscussed as President Trump claims to have neutralized the North's nuclear threat. The satellite images suggest that the North has been engaged in a great deception: It has offered to dismantle a major launching site -- a step it began, then halted -- while continuing to make improvements at more than a dozen others that would bolster launches of conventional and nuclear warheads. The existence of the ballistic missile bases, which North Korea has never acknowledged, contradicts Mr. Trump's assertion that his landmark diplomacy is leading to the elimination of a nuclear and missile program that the North had warned could devastate the United States." Includes a couple of satellite images. (Also linked yesterday.)

Election 2018

Florida, Florida, Florida. Frances Robles of the New York Times: "The chief state judge in Broward County, Fla., urged the lawyers involved in the battle over the state vote recount on Monday to 'ramp down the rhetoric' and take any accusations of electoral fraud where they belong: to the police. Chief Circuit Judge Jack Tuter refused a request by Gov. Rick Scott to order the county police to impound voting machines and ballots when they are not in use, but both parties accepted his recommendation to add security in one of Florida's most hotly contested vote counts in years.... The judge was critical of comments made by Mr. Scott's lawyers on television and social media, in which they suggested, with no substantiation, that they had seen evidence of fraud in the continuing vote count. The judge said that anyone with proof of any irregularities should report it to local law enforcement, or to get the person who had witnessed irregularities to swear out an affidavit." ...

... AND that goes for this despicable yahoo, too:

The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night! -- Donald Trump, November 12

On Veterans Day, Trump is saying he doesn't want ballots from overseas military voters to count. They have until Nov 16 to be counted according to state law. -- Ari Berman of the Nation, in a tweet ...

This also is the POTUS* saying election officials should break the law & violate their oaths of office to give him the results he wants. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

... Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday called for stopping the recounts in Florida's votes for Senate and governor, alleging without evidence that many ballots are missing and forged and that a valid tally is not possible. In a morning tweet, Trump suggested that the results from the night of the Nov. 6 election should stand, handing victories to fellow Republicans Rick Scott, the governor, in the Senate race and Ron DeSantis, a former congressman, in the gubernatorial contest.... The recounts are happening in accordance with Florida law because of the tight margins in the votes. On Sunday, Scott went on national television to accuse Sen. Bill Nelson (D), whom he is hoping to unseat, of trying to 'commit fraud to try to win this election.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jeremy Peters & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The concerted effort by Republicans in Washington and Florida to discredit the state's recount as illegitimate and potentially rife with fraud reflects a cold political calculation: Treat the recount as the next phase of a campaign to secure the party's majority and agenda in the Senate. That imperative -- described by Republican lawyers, strategists and advisers involved in the effort -- reflects the G.O.P.'s determination to tighten its hold on power in the narrowly divided Senate.... With the Democrats capturing a Republican-held Senate seat in Arizona on Monday night, the recount fight in Florida becomes even more consequential.... The effort that [Rick] Scott and Republican allies are waging today is strikingly similar to that multifront war in 2000 led by the George W. Bush campaign and an army of party consultants.... Republican officials said more than 100 staff members from the Republican National Committee are in Florida, and thousands of trained volunteers. The party, along with Mr. Scott's campaign, has also undertaken a new fund-raising effort to cover the mounting costs...." ...

... Jane Lytvynenko & Kevin Collier of BuzzFeed News: "After circulating online both ahead of the midterm elections and after them, bogus claims of voter fraud spread to the president's Twitter feed, despite having no basis in reality. Hashtags like #StopTheSteal and #VoterFraud2018 were part of what seems to be a coordinated push by conspiracy-oriented Twitter accounts to spread bad information and amplify certain conversations. They were also themes on Instagram and Facebook as officials rushed to recount votes in races in Florida and are still counting ballots in Arizona and Georgia. The president repeated baseless claims pushed by those accounts." ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Trump's call to stop counting and, somehow, t revert to election night totals is bizarre and impractical for a slew of reasons. But it also means disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters deliberately.... Trump wants to go back to the vote counts at the end of election night for the simple and obvious reason that he wants Scott to win. The president is raising unfounded accusations of fraud to shift a result to his favor. We've seen this before: Two years ago, he leveled a nonsensical allegation of rampant fraud in California that he used to explain how badly he lost the popular vote.... Scott will likely win anyway, just as Trump did. To bolster that result, Trump is undercutting confidence in the electoral system. Just as he did in 2016." ...

... James Downie of the Washington Post: "Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott's apparent victory over incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) was one of Democrats' bigger disappointments on Election Day. But the margin was close enough to trigger an automatic recount, and since Tuesday, Scott's lead has narrowed from 56,000 votes to just more than 12,000 votes. So, in a preview of the toxicity Scott (if he wins) will bring to Washington, he deployed a standard GOP response when Democrats gain votes: accuse them of voter fraud.... One irony here is that Scott has been governor for eight years, which means he's had the ability to fix Florida's election system that he now implies is broken.... Rather than reject conspiracy theories that undermine faith in the electoral system, Scott has opted for slime." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

It is now the official White House position that constitutionally-mandated recounts are illegitimate.... This development is ... almost incalculably bad for American democracy. I now assume that a substantial minority of Americans believe that the results of the elections in Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and California are democratically illegitimate unless the Republican candidate wins.... When electoral procedures lose popular legitimacy, it is nearly impossible to get that legitimacy back. -- Tom Pepinsky of Cornell U. ...

... Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy in a New York Times op-ed: "On Sunday, the Republican secretary of state of Arizona, Michele Reagan..., explained ... why it was taking so long to count the ballots in Arizona's unresolved Senate race.... Arizona's Republican governor, Doug Ducey, tweeted over the weekend: 'Let's get this right. All legally cast votes must be counted.' These actions shouldn't be surprising, but they're in stark contrast to what we're seeing from those overseeing the close statewide races in Georgia and Florida. In Georgia, Brian Kemp, as secretary of state, used his office to accuse his opponents, without evidence, of hacking into the state election database; he posted this unfounded allegation on the same secretary of state website where voters go to check their polling location. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott made similarly evidence-free allegations of electoral fraud and then ordered state law enforcement to investigate the county officials who oversee the vote count in two counties where his opponent performed well.... Mr. Kemp and Mr. Scott are also the candidates in those close races; Ms. Reagan and Mr. Ducey are not.... Today, Protect Democracy filed a lawsuit ... against Mr. Scott to bar him from having any further official role in overseeing the Florida election in which he is a candidate. Our organization filed a similar lawsuit last week against Mr. Kemp.... Over the weekend [President Trump] tweeted about the Arizona race: 'Electoral corruption -- call for a new election?' We should all find this chilling. How might ... he use the levers of the federal government... as votes are tallied in 2020?" ...

... Steve M.: "I'm not terribly concerned that President Trump is delegitimizing American elections now because he and other Republicans and right-wing media propagandists have been hard at work delegitimizing our elections for years.... I think that explains why right-wingers will tolerate just about anything Donald Trump does: They don't believe any Democrats, or at least any Democrats outside coastal California, New York, Chicago, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia, are legitimately elected. They believe all the others reached office via fraud. Under those circumstances, of course they don't worry about the norm-shattering [Mrs. McC: Ugh!] things are done by Trump or Mitch McConnell. It's all necessary, you see, because any government with more than a handful of Democrats is by definition illegitimate." ...

... ** Rick Hasen in Slate: "... the way [the Florida] election fight has played out so far has been an absolute nightmare. Perhaps most terrifyingly of all, the 2018 Florida elections have demonstrated the real possibility that ... Donald Trump might attempt to ignore an unfavorable 2020 election outcome if the result is a slim loss by the president, a possibility that should give us all chills.... We are entering into a dangerous new phase in the voting wars. Last week, various election calamities were fueled by incendiary and unsupported claims by Trump and others of fraud, by pockets of incompetence of election administration, by partisanship in election administration, and by continued fundamental defects in how our elections are conducted.... I'm not holding my breath, because I and others have been sounding this alarm since 2000, and not nearly enough has changed." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you thought Trump couldn't really become dictator-for-life because our federal government has all these great checks & balances, the American people would never permit it, & blah blah blah, these two posts by Steve M. & Rick Hasen, read in tandem, should rattle your cage, as they have mine. Until now, I have thought Trump would do it if he could, but I couldn't figure out how Trump could do it. Now I know how. This is not a crazy chicken-little hypothesis. It's a real possibility. And Trump thought of it before I did. P.S. David Roth's assessment, also linked today, helps explain why Trump would do such a thing.

** Arizona. Simon Romero of the New York Times: "Representative Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat and former social worker, scored a groundbreaking victory in the race for a Senate seat in Arizona, defeating her Republican opponent after waging a campaign in which she embraced solidly centrist positions, according to The Associated Press.Ms. Sinema's victory over Martha McSally, a Republican congresswoman and former Air Force pilot, marks the first Democratic triumph since 1976 in a battle for an open Senate seat in Arizona. Ms. Sinema takes the seat being vacated by Jeff Flake, a Republican is leaving the Senate after repeated clashes with President Trump.... Some prominent Republicans, including Mr. Trump, claimed without offering proof that voting officials were engaged in fraudulent strategies to bolster Ms. Sinema as the authorities struggled to count ballots in the days since the Nov. 6 election following a surge in turnout. Michele Reagan, a Republican and Arizona's Secretary of state, refuted those claims." Mrs. McC: Sinema can thank That Lying SOS for her win. Trump's trashing Flake so lowered Flake's status among Republicans that he decided he didn't have a chance to win re-election.

Georgia. Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Monday ordered a delay in the certification of Georgia’s election results, citing concerns about the state's voter registration system and the handling of provisional ballots.... Although the ruling by Judge Amy Totenberg of Federal District Court in Atlanta formally affected every election in Georgia for state and federal office, it reverberated most immediately and powerfully through the governor's race, in which the Democratic candidate, Stacey Abrams, was within 21,000 votes of forcing a runoff election against Brian Kemp, the Republican nominee."

Adam Peck of ThinkProgress: "Naturally, Republicans are once again distraught at the idea of having every legitimate ballot counted.... But although Republicans are demonizing efforts to count every vote in Florida, a handful of GOP congressional candidates around the country are themselves insisting every vote be counted in their own races, hoping to make up deficits against their Democratic opponents." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Paul Krugman: "What with the midterm elections -- and the baseless Republican cries of voting fraud -- I don't know how many people heard about Trump's decision to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Miriam Adelson, wife of casino owner and Trump megadonor Sheldon Adelson. The medal is normally an acknowledgment of extraordinary achievement or public service.... Now, this may seem like a trivial story. But it's a reminder that the Trumpian attitude toward truth -- which is that it's defined by what benefits Trump and his friends, not by verifiable facts -- also applies to virtue. There is no heroism, there are no good works, except those that serve Trump.... In Trumpworld, which is now indistinguishable from G.O.P.world, good and bad are defined solely by whether the interests of The Leader are served. Thus, Trump attacks and insults our closest allies while praising brutal dictators who flatter him (and declares neo-Nazis 'very fine people').... You have to be truly delusional to see the Republicans' response to their party's midterm setback as anything but an attempted power grab by a would-be authoritarian movement, which rejects any opposition or even criticism as illegitimate. Our democracy is still very much in danger."


Master Class: How to Turn an Indictment into a Conspiracy Theory. Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "Conservative author Jerome Corsi said Monday that he expects to be indicted by prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on a charge of lying to investigators probing Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Corsi, a writer who has promoted political conspiracy theories, provided research during the White House race to longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, who Mueller has been scrutinizing for possible ties to WikiLeaks. On Monday, Corsi told listeners of his daily live-stream web program that he turned over two computers, emails and other communications to Mueller and sat for six interviews totaling more than 40 hours since receiving a subpoena two months ago. But he said that his cooperation had 'exploded' in recent weeks and that Mueller's team has said he will be criminally charged.... 'The Department of Justice is run by criminals,' Corsi said, adding: 'I think my crime really was that I supported Donald Trump. Now I guess I'll go to prison for the rest of my life, because I dared to oppose the "deep state."'"

Michael Cohen Sings -- Enough to Cut an Album. Dan Mangan of CNBC: "Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, took a train Monday to Washington from New York to talk to investigators from the office of special counsel Robert Mueller.... Cohen's meeting with Mueller's team was only the latest in a series of sit-downs the attorney has had with the special counsel's office since pleading guilty in August to federal criminal charges. Those included campaign contribution violations related to payments to two women, purportedly at the behest of Trump. That case was brought by federal investigators in the Southern District of New York, not Mueller's team."


** Thank You for Your Service. Phil McCausland of CNN: "The Department of Veterans Affairs is suffering from a series of information technology glitches that has caused GI Bill benefit payments covering education and housing to be delayed or ... never be delivered.... Hundreds of thousands are believed to have been affected.... Donald Trump signed the Forever GI Bill in 2017 ... [which] greatly expanded benefits for veterans and their families, but it did not upgrade the VA's technical capabilities to account for those changes.... The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs is holding a hearing on Wednesday to investigate the matter.... More than 45,000 jobs sit vacant at VA, according to the agency's own numbers, and the department has not had a permanent chief information officer since LaVerne Council departed the office after Trump';s election." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

    ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Pardon my wackadoo conspiracy theory, but I have a feeling the problem has something to do with those three rich Mar-a-Lago friends of Trump who were "advising" the VA on IT matters.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The State of Maryland is expected to ask a federal judge on Tuesday for an injunction declaring that [Matthew] Whitaker is not the legitimate acting attorney general as a matter of law, and that the position -- and all its powers -- instead rightfully belongs to the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein. Mr. Trump may not 'bypass the constitutional and statutory requirements for appointing someone to that office,' the plaintiffs said in a draft filing obtained by The New York Times. The legal action escalates the uproar surrounding Mr. Trump's installation of Mr. Whitaker as the nation's top law-enforcement officer, from criticism of his basic credentials and his views on the Russia investigation to challenges to the legality of his appointment."

The Great Public Sellout. Jimmy Tobias of the Guardian: "[Ryan] Zinke rapidly installed a slew of conservative operatives and industry sympathizers in key positions throughout the [Interior Department]. Because these senior advisers, counselors, and other appointees are rarely subject to Senate approval, few people know their names. They nevertheless wield immense power and are responsible for much of the day-to-day work at the interior department. Hundreds of pages of correspondence and calendars reviewed by the Guardian and Pacific Standard show how Zinke and his top aides have favored corporate and conservative calls to prioritize resource extraction at the expense of conservation, while consistently delivering on industry desires -- despite sometimes running afoul of conflict of interest rules.... Zinke is now facing a swirl of misconduct allegations.... But whatever Zinke's fate, he has stocked the department with a slate of committed conservative appointees who will continue to remake the agency in the image of the Trump administration.... 'I have been here a pretty long time and seen different administrations from both sides of the aisle,' [one anonymous] civil servant added, 'but this is the worst I have ever seen.'" --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "Shortly after the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed last month at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, a member of the kill team instructed a superior over the phone to 'tell your boss,' believed to be Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that the operatives had carried out their mission, according to three people familiar with a recording of Mr. Khashoggi's killing collected by Turkish intelligence. The recording, shared last month with the C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel, is seen by intelligence officials as some of the strongest evidence linking Prince Mohammed to the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, a Virginia resident and Washington Post columnist whose death prompted an international outcry. While the prince was not mentioned by name, American intelligence officials believe 'your boss' was a reference to Prince Mohammed." ...

     ... Update. Shibani Mahtani & Louisa Loveluck of the Washington Post: "U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said Tuesday that an audio recording of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death inside an Istanbul consulate did not appear to provide any link between the killers and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Bolton, speaking on the sidelines of a regional summit in Singapore, said that he had not listened to the tape himself, but that it was the assessment of 'those who have listened to it' that Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler is not implicated."


Yo, Trump. Those Asses Watching You Will Soon Have Subpoena Power. ...

... Zachary Basu of Axios: "Now that they're set to assume control of the House, there are at least 85 topics that Democrats have said they'd target -- or are expected to target -- in the forthcoming torrent of investigations and subpoenas to be directed at the Trump White House, according to Axios' reporting and analysis of members' public comments." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Rep. Adam Schiff, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The president and [acting AG Matthew] Whitaker should heed this warning: The new Democratic majority will protect the special counsel and the integrity of the Justice Department. Should Whitaker fail to recuse himself -- all indications are that he plans not to -- and seek to obstruct the investigation, serve as a back channel to the president or his legal team or interfere in the investigations in any way, he will be called to answer. His actions will be exposed. It is no mystery why the president chose Whitaker, an obscure and ill-qualified official never confirmed by the Senate,* which many legal experts believe makes the appointment itself unconstitutional. Trump chose him to protect himself, his family and his close associates from the special counsel's investigation and other investigations within the Justice Department.... After his firing by President Richard M. Nixon, former Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox said the question of 'whether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people.' With this latest, unprecedented action, Trump has put Cox's question once more squarely before the people's representatives." ...

     ... * Mrs. McCrabbie: Whitaker "was confirmed by the Senate to be a federal prosecutor in Iowa, but that was 14 years ago."


Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Facing a reignited crisis of credibility over child sexual abuse, the Roman Catholic bishops of the United States came to a meeting in Baltimore on Monday prepared to show that they could hold themselves accountable. But in a last-minute surprise, the Vatican instructed the bishops to delay voting on a package of corrective measures until next year, when Pope Francis plans to hold a summit in Rome on the sexual abuse crisis for bishops from around the world.... The order from Rome is the latest twist in a long power struggle between the American bishops and the Vatican over how to respond to the abuse crisis."

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I wonder what percentage of American boys have not been sexually abused or at least approached by some supposedly "wholesome" authority figure: priest, coach, teacher, Scout leader, etc. Quite a few men have told me they had to fend off unwelcome overtures when they were kids.

Beyond the Beltway

Erik Runge & Gaynor Hall of WGN TV Chicago: "Witnesses said a Midlothian police officer responding to a shooting inside a south suburban bar shot at the wrong person early Sunday morning. [Mrs. McC: Midlothian is a suburb southwest of Chicago.] After security asked a group of drunken men to leave Manny's Blue Room Bar around 4 a.m. Sunday, witnesses said someone came back with a gun and opened fire. Security returned fire, and according to witnesses, 26-year-old armed security guard Jemel Roberson apprehended one of the men involved outside. 'He had somebody on the ground with his knee in back, with his gun in his back like, "Don't move,'" witness Adam Harris said. Soon after, witnesses said, an officer responding to the scene fired at Roberson -- killing him. 'Everybody was screaming out, "Security!"...,' Harris said. 'And they still did their job, and saw a black man with a gun, and basically killed him.'... In a statement, Midlothian police confirmed two officers from the department responded to the scene of the shooting and that one of them opened fire." Roberson was black. ...

... Lindsay Gibbs of ThinkProgress: "Many anti-gun control politicians and advocates, including ... Donald Trump, frequently say that armed security guards are the only way to stop mass shootings. Last month, after eight people were killed at a Pittsburgh synagogue, Trump suggested that there should be armed guards at churches and synagogues. This is an offshoot of a frequent National Rifle Association talking point, that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Roberson was both an armed security guard and a good guy with a gun. He risked his life to apprehend a shooter. And police killed him anyway. Like many NRA-based talking points, this one doesn’t seem to apply to black people."

At Baraboo (Wisconsin) High School, the boys think Nazism is hilarious & the administrators think thought yelling "White Power!" in the halls was a First Amendment right. Now that this behavior has received national & even international attention, the administration -- and the local police -- are "looking into it" or something. Opheli Lawler of New York reports.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Search teams were scouring the devastated town of Paradise on Tuesday with the grim expectation of finding more bodies in the charred remnants of the Sierra Nevada retirement community. With a toll of 42 dead, the blaze is already the deadliest wildfire in California history, and more than 200 people remain missing. Adding to the 13 coroner teams from across the state who were already working to locate the dead in and around Paradise, the Butte County sheriff announced a sharp increase in experts who specialize in finding human remains: 150 additional search-and-rescue personnel, cadaver dogs, and two portable temporary morgue units from the military. The sheriff is also seeking a machine to 'expedite the analysis of DNA' to speed up the identification of remains."

Los Angeles Times: "The death toll from the Camp fire climbed to 42 on Monday, making it the deadliest wildfire in California history, as search teams sifted through rubble and ash in and around Paradise for additional victims."

New York Times: "... Stan Lee... [who ran Marvel Comics], died in Los Angeles on Monday at 95. From a cluttered office on Madison Avenue in Manhattan in the 1960s, he helped conjure a lineup of pulp-fiction heroes that has come to define much of popular culture in the early 21st century."

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Sunday
Nov112018

The Commentariat -- Nov. 12, 2018

Late Morning Update:

The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night! -- Donald Trump, November 12

On Veterans Day, Trump is saying he doesn't want ballots from overseas military voters to count. They have until Nov 16 to be counted according to state law. -- Ari Berman of the Nation, in a tweet ...

... Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday called for stopping the recounts in Florida's votes for Senate and governor, alleging without evidence that many ballots are missing and forged and that a valid tally is not possible. In a morning tweet, Trump suggested that the results from the night of the Nov. 6 election should stand, handing victories to fellow Republicans Rick Scott, the governor, in the Senate race and Ron DeSantis ... in the gubernatorial contest.... The recounts are happening in accordance with Florida law because of the tight margins in the votes. On Sunday, Scott went on national television to accuse Sen. Bill Nelson (D), whom he is hoping to unseat, of trying to 'commit fraud to try to win this election.'" ...

... James Downie of the Washington Post: "Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott's apparent victory over incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) was one of Democrats' bigger disappointments on Election Day. But the margin was close enough to trigger an automatic recount, and since Tuesday, Scott's lead has narrowed from 56,000 votes to just more than 12,000 votes. So, in a preview of the toxicity Scott (if he wins) will bring to Washington, he deployed a standard GOP response when Democrats gain votes: accuse them of voter fraud.... One irony here is that Scott has been governor for eight years, which means he's had the ability to fix Florida's election system that he now implies is broken.... Rather than reject conspiracy theories that undermine faith in the electoral system, Scott has opted for slime."

... Adam Peck of ThinkProgress: "Naturally, Republicans are once again distraught at the idea of having every legitimate ballot counted.... But although Republicans are demonizing efforts to count every vote in Florida, a handful of GOP congressional candidates around the country are themselves insisting every vote be counted in their own races, hoping to make up deficits against their Democratic opponents." --s

Eileen Sullivan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump, fresh off an international display of unity among global leaders to mark the end of World War I, renewed his attacks on America's longtime allies on Monday, and demanded fair treatment for the United States. In a trio of Twitter posts, Mr. Trump said that the United States pays 'for LARGE portions' of other countries' military protection and loses money on trade with the same countries.... As for the trade deficits, most economists do not see any gap as money 'lost' to other countries and do not agree with the president's view that the trade imbalance shows America's weakness on trade policy."

Zachary Basu of Axios: "Now that they're set to assume control of the House, there are at least 85 topics that Democrats have said they'd target -- or are expected to target -- in the forthcoming torrent of investigations and subpoenas to be directed at the Trump White House, according to Axios' reporting and analysis of members' public comments."

David Sanger & William Broad of the New York Times: "North Korea is moving ahead with its ballistic missile program at 16 hidden bases that have been identified in new commercial satellite images, a network long known to American intelligence agencies but left undiscussed as President Trump claims to have neutralized the North's nuclear threat. The satellite images suggest that the North has been engaged in a great deception: It has offered to dismantle a major launching site -- a step it began, then halted -- while continuing to make improvements at more than a dozen others that would bolster launches of conventional and nuclear warheads. The existence of the ballistic missile bases, which North Korea has never acknowledged, contradicts Mr. Trump's assertion that his landmark diplomacy is leading to the elimination of a nuclear and missile program that the North had warned could devastate the United States." Includes a couple of satellite images.

Ex-Republican Max Boot of the Washington Post: "It seems that soldiers who were captured aren't the only ones that President Trump doesn't like. He also apparently doesn't care much for the ones who died for their country.... The White House explained that bad weather grounded the helicopters that Trump and his entourage were planning to take [to honor fallen soldiers at the Aisne-Marne American cemetery].... [T]he low-energy president remained behind at the U.S. ambassador's residence.... Odds are that his room didn't have Fox News. So he was probably reduced to watching CNN all afternoon. If the New York dating scene was Trump's personal Vietnam, this was his personal Verdun.... Trump shows what he really thinks of the troops by using them as political props.... [A]s the New York Times reports, the troops [he sent to the border pre-election] are still in the field, without electricity or hot meals -- or a mission. They will likely spend Thanksgiving away from their families. Naturally, Trump will not bother to visit them.... He still has not visited U.S. troops deployed to a war zone.... To add insult to injury, consider Trump's reaction after Ian David Long, a Marine veteran of Afghanistan, killed 12 people in a Thousand Oaks, Calif., bar this past week. Trump called him a 'very sick puppy' and blamed his rampage on post-traumatic stress disorder without any actual evidence.... This is precisely the kind of pernicious stereotype -- that veterans are ticking time bombs -- that veterans groups have worked so hard to refute.... Through his words and deeds, the commander in chief shows his contempt for the men and women in uniform." --s

** Thank You for Your Service. Phil McCausland of CNN: "The Department of Veterans Affairs is suffering from a series of information technology glitches that has caused GI Bill benefit payments covering education and housing to be delayed or ... never be delivered.... Hundreds of thousands are believed to have been affected.... Donald Trump signed the Forever GI Bill in 2017 ... [which] greatly expanded benefits for veterans and their families, but it did not upgrade the VA's technical capabilities to account for those changes.... The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs is holding a hearing on Wednesday to investigate the matter.... More than 45,000 jobs sit vacant at VA, according to the agency's own numbers, and the department has not had a permanent chief information officer since LaVerne Council departed ... after Trump's election." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Pardon my wackadoo conspiracy theory, but I have a feeling the problem has something to do with those three rich Mar-a-Lago friends of Trump who were "advising" the VA on IT matters.

The Great Public Sellout. Jimmy Tobias of the Guardian: "[Ryan] Zinke rapidly installed a slew of conservative operatives and industry sympathizers in key positions throughout the [Interior Department]. Because these senior advisers, counselors, and other appointees are rarely subject to Senate approval, few people know their names. They nevertheless wield immense power and are responsible for much of the day-to-day work at the interior department. Hundreds of pages of correspondence and calendars ... show how Zinke and his top aides have favored corporate and conservative calls to prioritize resource extraction at the expense of conservation, while consistently delivering on industry desires -- despite sometimes running afoul of conflict of interest rules.... Zinke is now facing a swirl of misconduct allegations.... [Zinke] has stocked the department with a slate of committed conservative appointees who will continue to remake the agency in the image of the Trump administration.... 'I have been here a pretty long time and seen different administrations from both sides of the aisle,' [one anonymous] civil servant added, 'but this is the worst I have ever seen.'" --s

*****

David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "The United States finally has the pro-democracy movement that it needs. Last week, ballot initiatives to improve the functioning of democracy fared very well. In Florida -- a state divided nearly equally between right and left -- more than 64 percent of voters approved restoring the franchise to 1.4 million people with felony convictions. In Colorado, Michigan and Missouri, measures to reduce gerrymandering passed. In Maryland, Michigan and Nevada, measures to simplify voter registration passed.... Of course, there is still an enormous amount of work to do. Voting remains more difficult here than in almost any other affluent country.... And this country also suffers, unfortunately, from an anti-democracy movement: Leaders of the Republican Party -- out of a fear of the popular will -- keep trying to make voting harder. They have closed polling places, reduced voting hours and introduced bureaucratic hurdles."

Peter Baker & Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "President Trump’s brand of 'America First' nationalism was repudiated on Sunday as leaders from around the globe gathered to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I and reaffirm the international bonds that have once again come under strain. Stone-faced and unmoved, the American leader listened as President Emmanuel Macron of France used the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe to denounce self-interested nationalism and extol the sort of globalism and international institutions that Mr. Trump has spent the last two years pulling the United States away from. 'Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism,' Mr. Macron said in a speech on a dreary, rain-soaked day. 'Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism by saying, "our interest first, who cares about the others?"'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's the photo that accompanies the Baker-Rubin story:

"Led by President Emmanuel Macron of France, world leaders marched down the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Sunday as part of events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I." Where's Waldo? You can supersize the picture by clicking on it, if you think it will help you find Waldo Donald, but it won't.... "Mr. Trump arrived in his own motorcade, traveling separately, aides said, because of security, and joined the world leaders under a transparent enclosure at the arch." ...

... Okay, here he is under the transparent enclosure. Also transparent: Grumpy Trumpy:

... "Well," you say, "Trump is just beaming in this shot:"

... Mrs. McCrabbie: And so he is. That's because that guy at the bottom of the frame -- that guy Trump is beaming at -- is Vladimir Putin (who arrived even later than Trump). Thanks to forrest m. for reminding me I didn't present the full picture, as it were. ...

... Rachel Donadio of the Atlantic: "French television commentators called it 'symbolic' that the U.S. president shunned the group, and also noted, as Trump stiffly took his place next to Merkel, that 'he didn't look very smiley.' He was more smiley when Putin arrived. The Russian president gave Trump a thumbs up and a brief friendly pat on the arm. In a somber speech beneath the Arc de Triomphe, Macron recalled how with World War I, Europe almost committed suicide. He said 'old demons' were resurfacing and history was threatening to repeat itself, and threatening Europe's history of peace. He decried 'the selfishness of countries that regard only their own interests,' which sounded like a remark clearly aimed at the United States.... It was impossible not to hear Macron's words, before so many other world leaders, as aimed at Trump, a sign of how the rest of the world is contending with the repercussions of 'America First.'... On Saturday, while Trump stayed in Paris doing whatever he was doing, Macron and Merkel went to Compèigne, a site outside Paris freighted with 20th-century history. It is the site where Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the supreme commander of the western front, signed the ceasefire agreement with Germany, ending World War I, and where Adolph Hitler forced France to sign a capitulation agreement in 1940.... The vanishing act [Saturday] was classic Trump -- dominating the news cycle, insulting and upstaging his hosts, to say nothing of U.S. soldiers and veterans." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Odd Man Out. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "... on a trip to Europe, the president hardly said a word -- and he still managed to outrage at almost every turn. Aside from a critical tweet aimed at French President Emmanuel Macron when Trump landed in Paris late Friday -- one based on an inaccurate newspaper summary of an interview Macron gave suggesting that he had called the United States a threat -- Trump didn't throw any sharp elbows at his peers here. It was still all about him. In this case, it was because of the images. He looked uncomfortable and listless in a bilateral meeting with Macron, whose sinewy energy stood in stark contrast to Trump's downbeat expression.... He was a no-show at a scheduled tour of a military cemetery for Americans, while other world leaders publicly paid homage to those who died on the battlefield.... And on Sunday, Trump arrived separately from the 60 other leaders at a World War I remembrance at the Arc de Triomphe. He had no speaking role, sitting stone-faced as Macron railed against the rise of nationalism -- a rebuke of Trump's professed worldview. The overall takeaway to many was a president turning away from the world, a man occupying the office of the leader of the free world who appeared withdrawn and unenthusiastic on the global stage."

... Christopher Dickey of The Daily Beast: "[I]t should not be at all surprising that the history of World War I, commemorated this weekend in France 100 years after its end, would hold little attraction for the American president.... Trump, of course, has declared himself a proud nationalist, and has a long list of those he wants Americans to hate and fear. As for love of country, and indeed of those who loved it enough to die for it, he's not so interested. On Saturday, using a little rain (very little) as an excuse, Trump blew off a long-planned visit to the graves of more than 1,000 U.S. Marines.... No other heads of state failed to make their appointed rounds at battlefield cemeteries. But ironically it seems that Marine One, the presidential helicopter, was deterred by drizzle.... The truth is, Trump never wanted to be here in the first place, and his performance on Saturday reflected his trademark truculent petulance.... Sunday's event was, as long planned, an assembly of more than 60 heads of state and government.... But Trump tweeted that attendance was up because he decided to come. Maybe Trump's die-hard American supporters believe this stuff. But the rest of the world sees it as ludicrous and contemptible." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Climate Change Denier & Racist-in-Chief Wants to Cut off Puerto Rico Aid. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump doesn't want to give Puerto Rico any more federal money for its recovery from Hurricane Maria, White House officials have told congressional appropriators and leadership. This is because he claims, without evidence, that the island's government is using federal disaster relief money to pay off debt.... Trump has told aides he believes too much federal money has already gone to Puerto Rico -- more than $6 billion for Hurricane Maria so far, according to FEMA. (The government projects more than $55 billion from FEMA's disaster relief fund will ultimately be spent on Maria's recovery.) In comparison, per the NYT, 'when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, Congress approved $10 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency four days later, and another $50 billion six days later. The federal government is still spending money on Katrina assistance, more than 12 years after the storm's landfall.'"

** William Saletan of Slate: "... a year and a half [after the Mueller investigation began], Mueller is still investigating Trump's crimes. It's because Trump is still committing them." Saletan lays out a devastating timetable of Trump's continuing obstruction, coverups, etc. ...

... Bob Bauer in the Atlantic: "It is a strange turn of events when a president famous for denouncing 'fake news' is discovered to have entered into an agreement with a media organization to finance the concealment of very real, but politically unfavorable, newsworthy information.... The deal that Trump reached and executed with AMI [-- the tabloid publisher --] violates federal campaign-finance laws. AMI made an illegal corporate in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign, and the campaign and Trump share in the liability by accepting this illegal support. As open-and-shut cases go, this one is high on the list. But this is only a part of what makes this a remarkable episode in the history of presidential campaign lawbreaking." Bauer goes on to illuminate the cases against both Trump & AMI, & he further asserts, "A similar issue arises for the Trump campaign in asserting a First Amendment defense in relation to its relationship to WikiLeaks in the strategic publication and dissemination of stolen emails.... The Journal reporting on Trump's active, detailed engagement in the [Karen] McDougal and [Stormy] Daniels pay-offs confirms that this is not how he operates. It gives powerful additional reason to disbelieve his outright denial of participation in the Russian contacts. (Also linked yesterday.)

... Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump knows Matthew G. Whitaker, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Sunday, two days after the president sought to distance himself from his handpicked acting attorney general. 'The president does know Matt Whitaker, has gotten to know him over the course of the last year, since he has been the chief of staff to the attorney general,' Conway said on 'Fox News Sunday.'... In the days since [Trump chose Whitaker as acting attorney general], Whitaker's background and previous critical statements about the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III have come under intense scrutiny, with Democrats and some Republicans calling for him to recuse himself from oversight of the probe. Trump on Friday repeatedly claimed that he did not personally know Whitaker, telling reporters, 'I don't know Whitaker.' That contradicted Trump's statement last month in a Fox News interview, during which the president said, 'I know Matt Whitaker.' Conway said Sunday that Trump was trying to make the point Friday that in selecting Whitaker for the acting attorney general job, he wasn't appointing 'a friend there who he's known his entire life.' She added that it wasn't clear whether Whitaker had been briefed on the Mueller probe." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Right. Because when you say you don't know someone, you mean the person was not present at your birth.

Lock 'em Up. Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The number of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has hit an all-time high, according to recent statistics.... That massive increase in detentions by the highly controversial agency has prompted questions from rights groups about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) obtained the money to place into its custody 4,000 more people than Congress has funded.... ICE recently reported to Congress that, as of October 20, its average daily population in detention had reached 44,631 people. The figure is not classified, but it has not been made available to the public."

Two Photo Ops with Black Children Is One Too Many. Maggie Haberman & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: Melania & Ivanka Trump compete for attention, and John Kelly, "who has privately described the Trump children as 'playing government' and who was supposed to help manage the relationship between the two women's offices," apparently had words with Ivanka when she posted an Instagram video of herself with an American black child two days after Melanie was picked in Africa cradling a black child. Mrs. McC: As we know, Kelly is a racist AND a misogynist, so naturally he had to butt in on this.

Felicia Sonmez & Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Fresh off a resounding midterm elections victory, House Democrats on Sunday began detailing plans to wield their newfound oversight power in the next Congress, setting their sights on acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker while rebuffing calls from some liberals to pursue impeachment proceedings against President Trump.... And Democrats on the House Oversight Committee plan to expand their efforts to investigate Trump's involvement in payments to women who alleged affairs with him before the 2016 election, a committee aide said Sunday night, potentially opening up the president's finances to further scrutiny." ...

... Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Top congressional Democrats demanded on Sunday that President Trump's acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, recuse himself from overseeing the special counsel investigation, and vowed to use their newfound powers as the incoming House majority to block him from interfering with it. The incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, vowed to make Mr. Whitaker the panel's first witness when the new Congress convenes in January -- and subpoena him if necessary. The incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, said Democrats would investigate Mr. Whitaker, a Trump loyalist who has repeatedly and explicitly criticized the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race." ...

... Mike Allen & Jim VandeHei of Axios: "House Democrats plan to investigate whether President Trump abused White House power by targeting -- and trying to punish with "instruments of state power" -- The Washington Post and CNN, incoming House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff said in an interview for 'Axios on HBO.'... Schiff brought up two avenues of inquiry with a press-freedom theme, aimed at investigating possible administration actions to target two of the nation's highest profile corporations. 1) Schiff said Trump 'was secretly meeting with the postmaster [general] in an effort to browbeat the postmaster [general] into raising postal rates on Amazon. This appears to be an effort by the president to use the instruments of state power to punish Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post,' Schiff said. Jeff Bezos is founder, chairman and CEO of Amazon, and owns the Washington Post. 2) Schiff said Congress also need to examine whether Trump attempted to block AT&T's merger with Time Warner as payback to CNN." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jackie Wattles of CNN: "A veteran First Amendment lawyer says that CNN should sue the White House for revoking press access from reporter Jim Acosta. Floyd Abrams, a constitutional law expert who has appeared frequently before the Supreme Court, told CNN's Brian Stelter on 'Reliable Sources' Sunday that CNN has a case. 'I think it's a really strong lawsuit,' Abrams said. 'I can understand CNN being reluctant to sue because the president keeps saying CNN is the enemy of me, and CNN might have reluctance to have a lawsuit titled "CNN vs. Donald Trump." That said, yes, I think they should sue.' Abrams said."

Election 2018

Amy Sorkin of the New Yorker: "One of the more dangerous outcomes of the midterms is the belief, in some quarters of the G.O.P., that putting the Party in Trump's hands was worth it.... The midterms were a party-building exercise, if all one was trying to build is the Party of Trump. The G.O.P. is acclimating itself to accepting divisiveness and unconstitutional travesties -- including, perhaps, efforts to end birthright citizenship -- in return for a few Senate seats.... The same appears true of [Matthew] Whitaker.... Whitaker is, in many ways, a walking distillation of Trumpism.... The firing of Sessions is an illustration of how the President's demand for loyalty brings the country ever closer to a constitutional crisis. Whitaker has said that the list of Supreme Court decisions that he thinks are wrong begins with Marbury v. Madison &-- the landmark 1803 case that delineated the Court's power to interpret the Constitution, and which is woven into almost every aspect of American jurisprudence. If the Court doesn't decide what's constitutional, who does? Trump?" --s (Also linked yesterday.)

James Kitfield in The Daily Beast: "Little mentioned in the 'horse race' coverage of the mid-terms, [a] parallel election resulted in a 'reform wave' that may very well have the more lasting impact on our democracy. There were campaign and election reform initiatives on the ballot Tuesday in more than two dozen states and localities, and with a few notable exceptions, they won, sweeping aside defenders of a status quo system that consistently produces incivility, political extremism and government gridlock.... Michigan, Colorado, and Missouri all passed major anti-gerrymandering initiatives, for instance.... Anti-corruption reforms that limit or ban lobbyist gifts to politicians, tighten campaign finance rules and increase government transparency passed in Missouri, New Mexico and North Dakota. A host of voting and anti-corruption reforms passed last week at the city level in Denver, Baltimore, Memphis, Phoenix, and New York." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Sarah Jones of New York: "Democrats made real gains in state government on Tuesday. The party nearly doubled its number of trifecta governments, where one party controls the executive branch in addition to each chamber of the state legislature. They now have total control in 13 states versus 21 Republican trifectas.... The Democratic Party's weaknesses in state government are legendary and have probably contributed to its weaknesses at the federal level. State government is an important pipeline to higher office, and as Stateline reported this week, Democrats lost 900 legislative seats during the Obama administration.... But now in states with Democratic trifectas -- or at least a significant number of lawmakers willing to work across the aisle -- Democrats will have opportunities to implement their policies, and demonstrate their effectiveness to voters. Here are some issues they're likely to focus on." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Arizona. Yvonne Sanchez & Ronald Hansen of the Arizona Republic: "Democrat Kyrsten Sinema widened her lead again over Republican Martha McSally on Sunday, a pivotal day in the U.S. Senate race as the number of uncounted ballots dwindled. Sinema expanded her lead to 32,292 votes -- a 1.5 percentage-point lead -- as of 6:20 p.m. Sunday, according to updated counts posted by the Arizona Secretary of State. Her campaign manager predicted her victory was inevitable. The lengthy vote-count process, which has continued long after the polls closed Nov. 6, is mostly due to the need to verify signatures for voters who vote by mail. The Arizona Republic estimates about 215,000 ballots remain to be counted statewide."

Florida, Florida, Florida. Let Every Vote We Can Get to Be Counted. Gergory Krieg of CNN: "The election overseer for a critical county in Florida confirmed to CNN on Sunday ... [that] there is no way Palm Beach County's machine recount will be finished by the Thursday deadline. 'It's impossible,' said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher in response to CNN asking if officials would be able to finish the full recount on time.... Sarah Revell, the communications director for the Florida Department of State, told CNN's Ana Cabrera that if a county does not submit its results by deadline, 'then the results on file at that time take their place.'..." ...

... Ryan Nobles & Eli Watkins of CNN: "Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott is filing three lawsuits against county election officials as a recount has gotten underway in the Senate contest between himself and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson."

... Lindsey Joins the Loons. Adrienne Varkiani of ThinkProgress: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) seems to believe that Democrats' insistence that all votes be counted is a sign of them trying to 'steal' the election in Florida. 'They are trying to steal this election,' Graham said on Fox News' Hannity Friday evening. 'It's not going to work.'" --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Mississippi. Can You Hear My Dogwhistle Now? Chas Danner of New York: "Republican senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is facing a November 27 runoff election in Mississippi against Democrat Mike Espy, joked with supporters earlier this month about attending a 'public hanging.' A video of the remark, which she made at a campaign stop in Tupelo on November 2, was shared on social media Sunday morning by Bayou Brief journalist Lamar White Jr. In the video, after hearing praise from a supporter, Hyde-Smith jokes that 'if he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be in the first row.'... Hyde-Smith and Espy -- who in 1987 became the first black Mississippian to be elected to Congress since Reconstruction, and later became the first black secretary of agriculture under President Clinton -- were the two candidates who received the most votes in a four-person special election on Tuesday.... The result triggered a runoff election between the top two. Hyde-Smith was appointed by Mississippi governor Phil Bryant to replace ailing senator Thad Cochrane back in April, but still had to win the special election to serve out the remaining two years of Cochrane's term. Mississippi, as the Jackson Free-Press explains in its report on Hyde-Smith's comments, has a singularly terrible history when it comes to lynchings, racism, and the oppression of black Americans[.]" ...

     ... Update. Adam Ganucheau >& Larrison Campbell of Mississippi Today: "A video featuring Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is spreading rapidly across social media as critics say her comments invoke Mississippi's violent history of lynching.... Often, whites lynched African Americans for attempting to vote or register.... 'Cindy Hyde-Smith's comments are reprehensible,' said Danny Blanton, a spokesperson for the Espy campaign.... 'They have no place in our political discourse, in Mississippi, or our country....'... The president of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, who is a native Mississippian, drew a parallel between Hyde-Smith's remarks and the state's violent history."


John Bowden of the Hill: "Conservative policy magazine The Weekly Standard on Saturday posted audio of Iowa Rep. Steve King (R) using derogatory language to apparently refer to Mexican immigrants at a campaign event after King and his campaign denied the comments were made. In the audio, the Iowa congressman can be heard joking with a constituent about importing 'dirt' from Mexico, which appears to be a derogatory reference to immigrants coming from Mexico and other Central American countries through the U.S.'s southern border.... After making the remarks, the Standard notes that King reportedly became nervous upon realizing that a reporter may have heard the remarks, and changed the subject.... King and his campaign ... dar[ed] the magazine to post it in a series of Twitter posts.... 'Just release the full tape. Leftists lies exist without original sources because they are false and manufactured accusations. Weekly Standard is transitioning into "Antifa News,"' King [wrote]...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Patch 'em Up and Shut Up, Doc. Frances Sellers of the Washington Post: "... a National Rifle Association tweet last week [told] doctors who dared enter the gun debate 'to stay in their lane.'... Countless medical professionals who have taken to Twitter in the past few days to fire back at the NRA -- creating a viral response that has ricocheted around the Internet under the hashtags #thisisourlane and #thisismylane. They have taken a debate that has churned for decades among powerful political gun lobbies and in academic journals and relaunched it in the unfiltered Twittersphere. And they have accompanied their indignant messages with photographs of feet sliding on red-splattered floors, of swabs and scrubs drenched in blood, and occasionally of unidentifiable and misshapen torsos heaped on gurneys.... The NRA tweet was spurred by a position paper from the American College of Physicians posted on Oct. 30 ... and titled 'Reducing Firearm Injuries and Deaths in the United States.' The ACP recommended 'a public health approach to firearms-related violence and the prevention of firearm injuries and deaths,' saying the medical profession has a 'special responsibility' to speak out on the prevention of such injuries and supporting 'appropriate regulation of the purchase of legal firearms,' among other measures."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Top Saudi intelligence officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked a small group of businessmen last year about using private companies to assassinate Iranian enemies of the kingdom, according to three people familiar with the discussions. The Saudis inquired at a time when Prince Mohammed, then the deputy crown prince and defense minister, was consolidating power and directing his advisers to escalate military and intelligence operations outside the kingdom. Their discussions, more than a year before the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, indicate that top Saudi officials have considered assassinations since the beginning of Prince Mohammed's ascent."

News Ledes

Los Angeles Times: "The death toll from the Camp fire raging in Butte County rose to 29 on Sunday as authorities continued their search for victims amid the ruins of the Sierra foothills town of Paradise. Five additional victims were found in their homes, said Butte County Sheriff-Coroner Kory Honea. Another was found in a vehicle. The number could continue to grow. On Sunday, authorities said, there were 228 people whose whereabouts were unknown." ...

Los Angeles Times: "Firefighters battling the Woolsey fire made significant headway over the weekend boosting the fire's containment to 20%, but strong Santa Ana winds that are expected to kick up Monday could stall progress. The inferno has charred 91,572 acres and destroyed several hundred homes in Los Angeles and Ventura counties since Thursday afternoon, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials."

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