;)
The Commentariat -- September 17, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Senate Judiciary will hold a hearing with both Professor Ford and Kavanaugh on Monday. This Thursday's committee vote has been postponed, according to a Republican briefed on the plans. Story TK -- Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times, in a tweet Monday evening ...
... I'll See Your 65 & Raise You 200. Amanda Terkel & Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "A group of women who went to Christine Blasey Ford's high school are circulating a letter to show support for the woman who has alleged that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh tried to sexually assault her while they were in high school. 'We believe Dr. Blasey Ford and are grateful that she came forward to tell her story,' says a draft letter from alumnae of Holton-Arms, a private girls school in Bethesda, Maryland.... The women also say that what Ford is alleging 'is all too consistent with stories we heard and lived while attending Holton. Many of us are survivors ourselves.'... More than 200 women had signed the letter as of late Monday morning, said Sarah Burgess, a member of the class of 2005. Burgess said she and some of her schoolmates wrote the letter because hearing Ford's story felt 'personal.'... Susanna Jones, the Holton-Arms head of school, put out a statement Sunday night in support of Ford. 'In these cases, it is imperative that all voices are heard,' Jones said. 'As a school that empowers women to use their voices, we are proud of this alumna for using hers.'" ...
... Ariane de Vogue & Eli Watkins of CNN: "... Brett Kavanaugh said Monday that he would be willing to speak with lawmakers to refute an allegation of physical and sexual assault by a woman who has come forward publicly with the accusation.... Kavanaugh's statement came shortly after his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, said through her attorney that she would be willing to speak with Congress to tell her side of the story.... According to multiple sources, Kavanaugh has hired Beth Wilkinson, of the law firm Wilkinson Walsh and Eskovitz, to be his attorney.... Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins, one of the chamber's most closely watched votes, said on Twitter that she wanted both Ford and Kavanaugh to testify under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee." ...
... John Wagner & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement early Monday afternoon that Ford 'deserves to be heard' but stopped short of committing to a public airing that would likely force a delay of a planned committee vote on Thursday.... Democrats are insisting that the FBI handle the matter by reopening Kavanaugh’s background investigation rather having committee staff make calls.... Underscoring the uncertainty Kavanaugh faces, four senators considered swing votes on the nomination issued statements Monday calling for a thorough review of the allegations by Ford, a professor in California": Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) & Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). ...
... Were You Wondering What Donnie Jr. Thinks about All This? Tasneem Nashrulla of BuzzFeed News: "Donald Trump Jr. posted an image on his Instagram account that appeared to mock the woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by the president's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.... The image -- titled 'Judge Kavanaughs sexual assault letter found by Dems...' — was that of a note scrawled in childish handwriting which read, 'Hi Cindy will you be my girlfreind [sic]?" The note had two checkboxes marked 'yes' and 'no' and was signed 'Love Bret [sic].' In his Instagram caption, Trump Jr. wrote: 'Oh boy... the Dems and their usual nonsense games really have him on the ropes now. Finestein [sic] had the letter in July and saved it for the eve of his vote... honorable as always. I believe this is a copy for full transparency.'" Mrs. McC: Besides three misspellings in this short but grate wirk of litterchur, Donnie calls the recipient of the letter "Cindy," which is not a common nickname for "Christine." The nut doesn't fall far from the tree. ...
... Here's what "Kavanaugh character witness" Mark Judge wrote in the Washingtonian about his family's reaction to his 1997 memoir, and what his brother Michael Judge wrote in response.
Shane Goldmacher & Lisa W. Foderaro of the New York Times: "Representative Chris Collins, the New York Republican indicted on insider trading charges last month, reversed course on Monday and planned to announce he would seek another term, according to two Republicans familiar with his plans. Mr. Collins opted to stay on the ballot on the advice of lawyers who said his removal -- a Byzantine procedure governed by New York's complex election laws -- would most likely face a Democratic lawsuit, and would muddle the election for his replacement, ultimately leaving the Western New York seat vulnerable to Democrats, according to one of the Republicans."
*****
John Wagner of the Washinton Post: "A lawyer for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who said Judge Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her when the two were in high school, said Monday that Ford is willing to testify about the allegations before the Senate Judiciary Committee. 'She is. She's willing to do whatever it takes to get her story forth,' lawyer Debra Katz said on NBC's 'Today' show when asked if her client would speak publicly about President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court.... The White House indicated Monday that it is continuing to stand by Kavanaugh but expects Ford will offer testimony to the Judiciary Committee. 'This woman should not be insulted and should not be ignored,' White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said during an interview on Fox News's 'Fox & Friends.'" ...
... ** Emma Brown of the Washington Post interviews Christine Blasey Ford, a research psychologist affiliated with Stanford University, who says Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape her when they were in high school. She told no one the story in any detail until she discussed it with two therapists, beginning in 2012. Mrs. McC: Either Ford, whose professional name is Christine Blasey, is a loon or a drunken Brett Kavanaugh attacked her while laughing "maniacally" and would not release her. He's either lying about it now or he decided to "forget" the incident. You be the judge, because evidently the Judiciary Committee won't bother. New Rule? -- Attempted rape IOKIYAR? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Evidently So. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "However, Republicans on the committee planned on Sunday afternoon to move forward with a scheduled Thursday vote on the nomination, barring additional corroboration of Ms. Ford's account or the emergence of a new allegation." Mrs. McC: Excuse me? There's already plenty of corroboration: two therapists, the victim's husband & a lie-detector test. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... CNN has published "the text of the letter Christine Blasey Ford wrote to Sen. Dianne Feinstein detailing an event in which she accuses Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. CNN was not provided a copy of the letter sent to Feinstein, but a source who had the letter read the contents of a redacted version to CNN." The letter has been redacted. ...
... Some Cracks in the GOP Wall. Julia Lurie of Mother Jones: "On Sunday afternoon, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he would be open to hearing directly from Christine Blasey Ford, the alleged sexual assault victim of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings.... Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) reportedly told The Washington Post's Sean Sullivan that the Senate Judiciary Committee should not move ahead with the vote on Kavanaugh, scheduled for Thursday, until hearing from Ford." ...
.... UPDATE. One Ringy-Dingy. Two Ringy-Dingies. Chuck Grassley thinks he can fix all this by separately phoning Christine Blasey Ford & Brett Kavanaugh & letting some "aides to top members" listen in. His spokesman is characterizing the phone calls as routine "bipartisan staff calls" that often take place for the purpose of "updating a nominee's background file." Mrs. McC: Good luck, Chuck. How come Chuck hasn't suffocated by now what with his head being in the sand all this time? On the other hand, I suppose Congressional Republicans have become so accustomed to accepting sexual predation that they consider violence, false imprisonment & attempted rape to be "routine." ...
... MEANWHILE. Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House on Sunday stood by Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh after a woman publicly accused him of committing sexual misconduct decades ago, while a Republican member of the Judiciary Committee joined Democrats in urging for a delay in the confirmation process.... 'I've made it clear that I'm not comfortable moving ahead with the vote on Thursday if we have not heard her side of the story or explored this further,' said [Sen. Jeff] Flake [R-Az.], who is one of the committee's 21 members. Republicans hold a 11-to-10 majority on the panel.... The spokesman for committee Republicans, Taylor Foy, issued a lengthy statement vouching for Kavanaugh's integrity and saying it was 'disturbing that these uncorroborated allegations from more than 35 years ago, during high school, would surface on the eve of a committee vote after Democrats sat on them since July.'... 'To railroad a vote now would be an insult to the women of America and the integrity of the Supreme Court,' Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement." ...
... Slime the Victim. Asawin Suebsaeng, et al., of the Daily Beast: "... the President's team and his allies on and off the Hill began to mount a vigorous defense against the accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, questioning why she had identified herself only now, and framing Kavanaugh's alleged antics as almost commonplace in nature." Mrs. McC: Wait, wait. He didn't do it, but he did do it because boys will be boys? That answers my question: IOKIYAR. Just to be clear, extreme violence against a young woman is not an "antic," and it is not "commonplace in nature." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Best part of the report: "Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition told The Daily Beast, that the allegations were 'spurious' and 'false' and 'transparently a desperate, last-minute attempt by Senate Democrats to delay the confirmation of one of the most eminently qualified Supreme Court nominees in modern history.' He did not specify how he determined they were false...." Reed is an unctuous character who made millions off his ties to infamous lobbyist Jack Abramoff & tried to hide his ill-gotten gains via pass-throughs.
... Burgess Everett of Politico: "And four people close to the White House said they expected Republicans to question the accuser's vague memories and why Feinstein, up for reelection in November with Democratic base hungry for anti-Trump fodder, sat on the accusation for months. Three of those people also said they expect the president to go after Kavanaugh's accuser rather than to turn on the judge. They noted that Trump has done so before, not just denouncing his own accusers but also attacking those of others, notably, failed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. A lawyer close to the White House said the nomination will not be withdrawn. 'No way, not even a hint of it,' the lawyer said. 'If anything, it's the opposite. If somebody can be brought down by accusations like this, then you, me, every man certainly should be worried. We can all be accused of something.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nothing like having the self-described sexual-predatory POTUS* attacking a victim of an (alleged) attempted rape right before an election. GOTV. As Sean Sullivan pointed out in the story linked above, "In 1992, outrage over the Senate confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas despite allegations of sexual misconduct from his former colleague Anita Hill, led to the election of dozens of female candidates." ...
... Everett's story has been updated to reflect Sen. Jeff Flake's opposition to a Thursday vote. AND "Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who is not a member of the committee but whose vote is critical to Kavanaugh's confirmation, similarly said late Sunday that the committee should pause." Mrs. McC: These two senators, both of whom are retiring, would seem to have thwarted Chuck Grassley's plan to ram Kavanaugh through. ...
... Juan Cole: "If the GOP shoehorns Kavanaugh in (even though we are on the cusp of an election and they sidelined Merrick Garland on exactly these grounds) then all Americans will be raped by the elitist political philosophy of Kavanaugh, and half of Americans will lose autonomy over their own bodies to a Federal government in thrall to a religious minority (Evangelicals are now only about 17% of Americans, and anti-abortion Catholics are maybe 12%). Workers will lose the few rights they have left. The US will revert completely to the Robber Baron age of the late nineteenth century, and America will be about as favorable to women's rights as Mauritania, the Philippines and Honduras." --safari ...
... Mark Stern of Slate: "The Senate must pause the confirmation process and hold hearings -- fair hearings that heed the lessons of the Anita Hill disaster, during which senators downplayed Hill's alleged harassment and refused to hear from expert witnesses who could contextualize her experience.... The Senate Judiciary Committee's Republicans issued a statement on Sunday complaining about 'Democrats' tactics and motives,' implicitly questioning Ford's veracity. They appear predictably resistant to delaying the committee vote. It may thus fall on Collins and Murkowski to force their party to treat Ford with respect." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
So, to summarize, a confessed serial sexual predator nominated a man who is credibly accused of attempted rape to be the key vote to strip women of reproductive freedom. -- Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress, in a tweet
... David Atkins of the Washington Monthly: "... a Supreme Court nomination isn't a criminal trial, and an explosive allegation of this nature should instantly derail the confirmation process of a being chosen to preside over the highest court in the country, one that will have enormous power over women's bodies and their fundamental rights. It seems like outrageous hyperbole, but we must confront the dystopian reality. A president credibly accused multiple sexually assaults and who bragged forcibly grabbing women by the genitals without their consent, who was helped into office by a large number of men in powerful media positions who have also been forced out their jobs due to allegations of sexual harassment and assault as well as by the clandestine government services of a nation famous for its misogynistic exploitation of women, is nominating an accused rapist to the Supreme Court with the express intent of eliminating women's right to an abortion and other reproductive health services." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Conservatives continue to treat [Clarence] Thomas as the innocent victim of a smear campaign, despite the voluminous evidence of his guilt that emerged after his confirmation. The most likely outcome is that Republicans would confirm a second probable perpetrator of sexual assault to the high court. On the other hand, it's not hard to imagine other possibilities.... It's perfectly obvious why Donald Trump would be eager to defend the principle that men must not have their careers derailed by accusations of sexual assault. It's less clear that 50 Republican senators will be eager to join him.... Republicans may not want spend the run-up to an election litigating an allegation that further defines their Trump-era identity as the party of unbridled male sexual entitlement. But at the moment, a question that appeared closed is suddenly very much open." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... "A Moral Abomination." digby: "I would just remind people who are thinking that Kavanaugh shouldn't be denied a place on the Supreme Court because of things he did in high school, that his professional life hasn't been exactly staid and upright either[.]... He isn't a learned jurist, he's a slash and burn right-wing activist. Drunken, privileged, rich boys are exactly the types they recruited for their dirty work during [the Clinton] period. And he's exactly the type the wingnut cabal that's propping up Trump to get the courts packed would put forth to ensure that their agenda is protected by any means necessary. He's a partisan hitman, not a judge.... He is a professional character assassin who is deeply morally compromised. His cruel and indecent behavior toward Vince Foster's family alone, despite knowing that it was wrong, disqualified him. This latest revelation just reinforces what we already know. He is a moral abomination who has no place on the court." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday fired his first salvo against special counsel Robert Mueller since former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort entered a plea deal with the Russia probe's federal prosecutors. 'While my (our) poll numbers are good, with the Economy being the best ever, if it weren't for the Rigged Russian Witch Hunt, they would be 25 points higher!' Trump tweeted. 'Highly conflicted Bob Mueller & the 17 Angry Democrats are using this Phony issue to hurt us in the Midterms. No Collusion!' Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani also broke his silence on Manafort's intended guilty plea earlier Saturday, alleging in a tweet that 'sources close to' Manafort's defense team told the former New York mayor that the cooperation agreement 'does not involve the Trump campaign' and that there was 'no collusion with Russia' from within the Trump campaign. Giuliani added: 'Another road travelled by Mueller. Same conclusion: no evidence of collusion President did nothing wrong.'" Mrs. McC: Nothing new here. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's a similar tweet Trump sent yesterday, but with a few twists: "The illegal Mueller Witch Hunt continues in search of a crime. There was never Collusion with Russia, except by the Clinton campaign, so the 17 Angry Democrats are looking at anything they can find. Very unfair and BAD for the country. ALSO, not allowed under the LAW!" Over & above the It's-All-Hillary's-Fault aside, Trump is declaring the Mueller probe "illegal." This sure seems like a prelude to disbanding it. ...
... Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel: The prosecution's exhibits in Paul Manafort's plea deal are "there to show what Paul Manafort does when he's running a campaign. Because they show that for the decade leading up to running Trump's campaign, Manafort was using the very same sleazy strategy to support Viktor Yanukovych that he used to get Trump elected. In other words, these exhibits are a preview of coming attractions.... The criminal information provided far more detail about something we had only seen snippets of in the Alex Van der Zwaan plea: Manafort's use of Skadden Arps to whitewash Yanukovych's prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko. It describes how Manafort used cut-outs to place stories claiming his client's female opponent had murdered someone.... And it shows Manafort seeding lies that his client's female opponent had criminal intent when he knew there was no proof to back the claim.... This propaganda effort against Manafort's client's female opponent included placing stories in Breitbart." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Daily Beast: "The amount of cash that has flowed back to the U.S. after Donald Trump's massive tax law overhaul is just 3.5 percent of what the president predicted.... [A]n analysis by The Wall Street Journal shows just $143 billion has been repatriated -- 3.58 percent of Trump's $4 trillion prediction. " --safari
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Sen. Lindsey Graham confirmed on Sunday 'there was a point in time' when he and ... Donald Trump seriously discussed pulling U.S. military dependents out of South Korea -- a move that would have been widely seen as a precursor to military action on the peninsula. The South Carolina Republican said that at the time, 'it looked like nothing was going to happen, there was no dialogue going' with North Korea about its nuclear program, adding that 'once you start moving dependents out of South Korea, that is a signal to everybody that we're running out of time.' Graham cautioned on CBS' 'Face the Nation' that 'we're not out of the woods yet when it comes to North Korea,' but he said the Trump administration's renewed diplomatic talks have de-escalated the situation and bought time for denuclearization to be achieved peacefully." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What could be more comforting than to know Senator War Hawk has the ear of President* Impulsive-Ignoramus?
Hillary Clinton writes a powerful essay, published in the Atlantic, against Trump & what he has wrought. It "was adapted from the afterword of the paperback edition of What Happened, which will be published on September 18."
Ben Kamisar of NBC News: "FEMA Administrator Brock Long Sunday questioned the relevance of independent studies tying thousands of deaths to the aftermath of last September's hurricane in Puerto Rico, echoing ... Donald Trump's criticism of those findings as Florence continues to batter the Carolinas. Appearing on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' Long defended the president for his response to Hurricane Maria last year and argued that findings from multiple academic studies were 'all over the place.' 'I think the president is being taken out of context there,' Long said. 'I mean, I talked to the president every day this week, and the secretary of homeland security, and we discuss what we're trying to do as a result of last year.' 'I don't know why the studies were done,' Long said when asked about Trump's claims that the study was 'done by Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: You might want to view Long's interview as part of his attempt to keep his job. ...
... "A Smooth Running Machine." William Wan & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "As the Federal Emergency Management Agency heads into peak hurricane season, an internal investigation has imperiled its top official, sparking a growing backlash within the agency where career officials and even some political appointees are worried there is no proven disaster manager on hand to replace him. FEMA Administrator William 'Brock' Long is said to be resisting an effort by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to replace him over his alleged misuse of government vehicles. The feud among senior Trump administration officials surfaced publicly in recent days as FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security raced to prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Florence. The prospect of Long's dismissal has alarmed current and former staff at FEMA and DHS, and it has captured the attention of officials on Capitol Hill, who note that the agency's No. 2 position has been vacant for nearly two years and that Trump's current nominee, Peter Gaynor, still awaits Senate confirmation. Trump's original nominee for the post, Daniel Craig, withdrew from consideration a year ago after reports surfaced that the DHS inspector general found he had falsified work and travel records while working for the George W. Bush administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
AND in other news about how to persuade Trump:
... Erin Banco of The Daily Beast: "In a series of conversations in July, officials from the U.S., Britain, Italy, and other countries devised plans to overhaul the way they sold the public on staying in the 17-year-long war in Afghanistan.... Several of the meetings focused on what those involved in the discussions viewed as a major hurdle: convincing President Trump to change course in Afghanistan and allow U.S. troops to stay in the country for the foreseeable future. And there was only one real way to do that, sources said. They would need to bring in Fox News.... Officials at the Pentagon and Fox News said the media outlet's correspondents did not embed with U.S. forces in Afghanistan and it's unclear if the military made a formal request with its executives." --safari
Kate Williams of the Oregonian: "A deportation officer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was arrested this week on multiple counts of sodomy, Oregon State Police said Saturday. Blake V. Northway, a 55-year-old Medford[, Oregon,] resident, was taken into custody Thursday, officials said, as the result of a joint investigation between the immigration agency and state police. He has been 'relieved of all authority,' state police said in a statement and will be put on leave until the investigation is complete. According to court documents, Northway is accused of sexually abusing an underage female relative between 2009 and 2013." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Alex Horton of the Washington Post on how a Texas sex worker escaped from serial killer Juan David Ortiz, a supervisory Border Patrol agent, and led police to him. Ortiz has confessed to murdering four women & said he probably would have killed more if the woman had not turned him in to law enforcement. ...
... "All the Best People," Ctd. Opheli Lawler of New York: "Alongside the suspected serial killer who worked for Border Patrol, agents at both government organizations [ICE & the Border Patrol] have been accused of beating and sexually assaulting detained migrants." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Carol Rosenberg of McClatchy D.C.: "The military judge who got headlines for convicting a Marine general of contempt and confining him to his Guantánamo quarters has apparently found a new bench -- as an immigration judge, prompting defense lawyers to demand that all his rulings since 2014 be thrown out. Air Force Col. Vance Spath, the former judge in Guantánamo's USS Cole case, had filed to retire on Nov. 1 from 26 years military service.... It's a two-fold issue: Department of Justice lawyers are part of the Cole case prosecution team. Moreover, defense lawyers argue that given the long lead time to get a so-called administrative judge's job, Spath no doubt applied for the position while still on the USS Cole trial. So they argued that all of Spath's rulings should be overturned as compromised by his after-Air Force job pursuit." --safari
Election 2018
Georgia. Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Georgia, the first state in the country to adopt the 'direct-recording electronic,' or DRE, touch-screen machine in 2002, is now one of only five states in which electronic voting is entirely paperless. But a federal judge ... is poised to rule by Monday whether the state must scrap its current system that utilizes 28,000 DREs and adopt paper ballots and paper audits instead. Her ruling could affect the other four states and send a rare signal from the bench about the urgency of reducing the risk of election interference from foreign adversaries.... Secretary of State Brian Kemp ... has declared the electronic system secure.... Kemp, a Republican endorsed by President Trump -- and an outspoken critic of federal election security assistance in 2016 -- is running for governor in a competitive, nationally watched race...." The system is so "secure" that in 2016 Logan Lamb, a "cybersecurity sleuth," pulled up "a file with a list of voters and the alarmed when a subsequent simple data pull retrieved the birth dates, drivers' license numbers and partial Social Security numbers of more than 6 million voters, as well as county election supervisors' passwords for use on Election Day." Although Lamb warned the company that maintains the server, six months later he could still access the files -- not by using his expert "sleuthing" skills but through a Google search. "He also discovered the server had a software flaw that an attacker could exploit to take control of the machine." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you are suspicious that Kemp, as secretary of state, might be planning to alter vote totals if it suited him, you have not gone off the deep end. As Carol Anderson wrote in a New York Times op-ed in August, Kemp "has a skill set that Mr. Trump desperately needed but was curiously silent about in his endorsement: He is a master of voter suppression. Hackable polling machines, voter roll purges, refusing to register voters until after an election, the use of investigations to intimidate groups registering minorities to vote -- Mr. Kemp knows it all.... A Kemp victory in November is, therefore, transactional but essential for Mr. Trump. It means that there will be a governor, in a state that demographically should be blue, who is practiced and steeped in the nuances of disfranchisement. Mr. Kemp can rubber-stamp the Legislature's voter-suppression bills that privilege the Republican Party, artificially increase the Republican representation in Congress and in the end protect a president facing mounting evidence of graft, corruption, conspiracy and the threat of impeachment."
Texas Senate Race. Nicole Goodkind of Newsweek: "Ted Cruz's Texas Senatorial campaign has sent hundreds of thousands of mailers seeking donations that are meant to look like official county summons, a high-ranking campaign official confirmed to Newsweek. The brown envelopes read 'SUMMONS ENCLOSED- OPEN IMMEDIATELY' in large black letters, and have a return address of 'official county summons.' While the letter inside the envelope is a donation form for the Cruz campaign, there is some fear that certain voters may be confused by the mailer and think that they are required by law to pay a fee. 'Received this for my 88-year-old grandma,' wrote Sean Owen of Austin on Twitter 'Says it's a summons from Travis County, but is actually asking for money for Ted Cruz. Did your campaign authorize this? Is this even legal? Shame on you.'"
Aron Heller of TPM: "An Israeli opposition lawmaker on Sunday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dismiss his ambassador to the United States for failing to report sexual assault allegations against a top Netanyahu aide, ballooning an already embarrassing scandal for the Israeli leader. Karin Elharrar of the centrist Yesh Atid party said Ron Dermer should be recalled from Washington for not reporting the warnings he received about David Keyes, Netanyahu's spokesman to foreign media.... Dermer, who was perhaps Netanyahu's closest associate before taking office in Washington, confirmed he was warned in late 2016 by New York Times columnist Bret Stephens ... about Keyes' aggressive behavior toward women.... Stephens ... warned Dermer that 'Keyes posed a risk to women in Israeli government offices.'" --safari
Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "The World Congress of Families (WCF) conference represents the most prominent collaboration between sanctioned Russian officials and the U.S. Religious Right.... [S]anctioned Russian oligarch Vladimir Yakunin is allegedly one of WCF's primary financiers. Opening rhetoric was peppered with allegations of the 'aggressive invasion of radical liberalism' and claims that modern society is akin to 'totalitarianism.'... The harsh rhetoric was only tempered by moments as ludicrous as they were entertaining.... One speaker rambled about Nietzsche and metaphors about trees.... One speaker, Australian lobbyist Lyle Shelton, compared modern liberalism to Soviet-era totalitarianism, saying, 'Thank God [liberals] are not shipping us off to Kazakhstan.'" --safari
Stephen Cunningham of Bloomberg: "North Dakota's oil production surged to a new record in July, putting the mid-western state on par with OPEC member Venezuela. Home to the Bakken shale play, North Dakota pumped 1.27 million barrels a day in July, according to state figures released Friday. That's roughly the same output as Venezuela during the month.... Soaring output from shale formations, including the Bakken, helped the U.S. overtake Russia and Saudi Arabia to likely become the world's biggest oil producer earlier this year, according to preliminary estimates from the Energy Information Administration." [Open in private window] --safari
Brian Stelter & Laurie Segall of CNN: Billionaire "... Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne Benioff ... are buying Time Magazine for $190 million from Meredith Corp."
Julia Kollewe of the Guardian: "Amazon is investigating claims that employees have taken bribes for leaking confidential sales information, particularly in China, as it battles to stamp out fake reviews and other seller scams. Employees are offering internal data, via intermediaries, to independent merchants selling their products on the site to help them increase their sales in return for payments, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sellers, brokers and people familiar with internal investigations. The practice violates company policy and is common in China, where the number of sellers is soaring and Amazon employees are paid relatively small salaries." --safari
Beyond the Beltway
Sarah Burris of RawStory: "Former Oklahoma state Sen. Ralph Shortey will be sentence Monday for a case in which he pleaded guilty to child sex trafficking and the records in the case have now been unsealed. According to News9, the documents reveal Shortey placed Craiglist sex ads, took obscene motel photos and used fake names to traffick underage boys.... Shortey was an avid Trump supporter during the 2016 campaign and served as the campaign's state chairman in the Oklahoma GOP primaries, which Trump won."
Kelly Weill of The Daily Beast: "Bart Alsbrook resigned as interim police chief of an Oklahoma town late last August, after he was revealed as the former leader of a neo-Nazi group. One year later, he has a job at a different police department 15 miles away [in Colbert, OK].... Alsbrook was named Colbert's interim police chief on August 22, 2017.... Just 10 days earlier, white supremacists had held a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, prompting the hate-tracking group the Southern Poverty Law Center to release a map of known hate groups in America. Colbert's local TV KXII found one local hate group: a neo-Nazi record label registered to the area. Calling itself the voice of the skinhead hate group Blood & Honor USA, the site sells openly neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan music, as well as Nazi and Confederate paraphernalia. The company was registered to Alsbrook, KXII found." --safari
Way Beyond
AP: "A Palestinian assailant on Sunday fatally stabbed an Israeli settler outside a busy mall in the West Bank. The victim was identified as Ari Fuld, a U.S.-born activist who was well-known in the local settler community and an outspoken Israel advocate on social media platforms." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Kate Lyons of the Guardian: "Shocking footage showing a South Korean pastor beating her followers and ordering them to beat one another has emerged as Korean police investigate claims that she ran a cult in Fiji, forcing people to work without pay and endure violent rituals. The footage appears to show violent assaults on members of the South Korean Grace Road Church. Pastor Shin Ok-ju was arrested last month along with three other church leaders when they landed at Incheon airport just outside of Seoul." --safari
News Ledes
Weather Channel: "Hurricane Florence, now downgraded to a tropical depression, began its second week of impacts Monday with much of the same -- flooding that cut off entire towns and water rescues in parts of the Carolinas that have been inundated. The storm's death toll climbed to 18 when authorities said a 3-month-old child was killed when a tree fell on a mobile home in North Carolina."
The New York Times is providing free access to its Hurricane Florence coverage. The Times front page is here. "The [Washington] Post has removed article limits on coverage of Hurricane Florence to make these stories available without a subscription." The Post has links to several Florence-related stories on its front page. the (South Carolina) State home page is here. The State is granting free access to its site during the storm. The Raleigh News & Observer home page is here.
New York Times: "Emergency workers in the Philippines recovered more than 40 bodies from the muddied wreckage of a gold miners' bunkhouse after Typhoon Mangkhut set off a landslide, burying the remote northern town of Itogon in a river of debris, officials said on Monday. Mangkhut, a super typhoon that slammed into the northern Philippine province of Luzon on Saturday, continued a path of destruction across southern China on Sunday and into Monday."
Washington Post: "Freddie Oversteegen, the last remaining member of the Netherlands' most famous female resistance cell, died Sept. 5, one day before her 93rd birthday.... Oversteegen and her sister Truus, two years her senior, were ... a pair of teenage women who took up arms against Nazi occupiers and Dutch 'traitors' on the outskirts of Amsterdam. With Hannie Schaft, a onetime law student with fiery red hair, they sabotaged bridges and rail lines with dynamite, shot Nazis while riding their bikes, and donned disguises to smuggle Jewish children across the country and sometimes out of concentration camps."
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