The Ledes

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The New York Times:' live updates of Hurricane Helene developments today are here. “Hurricane Helene was barreling through the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday en route to Florida, where residents were bracing for extreme rain, destructive winds and deadly storm surge ahead of the storm’s expected landfall. The storm could intensify to a Category 4, if not higher, before making landfall late Thursday, and forecasters warned Helene’s anticipated large size could make its impacts felt across an extensive area. Areas as distant as Atlanta and the Appalachians are at risk for heavy rains.... Many forecast models show the storm making landfall late Thursday near Florida’s Big Bend Coast, a sparsely populated stretch....” ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post has forecasts for some cites in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina & Tennessee that are in or near the probable path of Helene. ~~~

     ~~~ This morning, an MSNBC weatherperson said Tallahassee (which is inland) would experience wind gusts of up to 120 m.p.h. and that the National Weather Service said expected 20-foot storm surges near the coast would be “unsurvivable.”

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The Ledes

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

The New York Times is live-updating developments in the progress of Hurricane Helene. “Helene continued to power north in the Caribbean Sea, strengthening into a hurricane Wednesday morning, on a path that forecasters expect will bring heavy amounts of rain to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and western Cuba before it begins to move toward Florida’s Gulf Coast.” ~~~

~~~ CNN: “Helene rapidly intensified into a hurricane Wednesday as it plows toward a Florida landfall as the strongest hurricane to hit the United States in over a year. The storm will also grow into a massive, sprawling monster as it continues to intensify, one that won’t just slam Florida, but also much of the Southeast.... Thousands of Florida residents have already been forced to evacuate and nearly the entire state is under alerts as the storm threatens to unleash flooding rainfall, damaging winds and life-threatening storm surge.... The hurricane unleashed its fury on parts of Mexico’s Yucátan Peninsula and Cuba Wednesday.“

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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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Friday
Jul132018

The Commentariat -- July 14, 2018

This Russia Thing Blows up in Trump's Face

Grand Jury Trolls Trump. Eileen Sullivan & Katie Brenner of the New York Times: "Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, on Friday announced new charges against 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The charges came just a few days before President Trump is expected to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Helsinki, Finland. The 11-count indictment includes charges of conspiracy by the Russian intelligence officials against the United States, money laundering and attempts to break into state election boards and other government agencies.... Mr. Rosenstein discussed the charges during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington as Mr. Trump met with Queen Elizabeth II in Britain, creating a bizarre split screen on cable news of presidential pomp and an ongoing investigation that has ensnared some of the president's aides.... The indictment revealed that on July 27, 2016, Russian hackers tried for the first time to break into the servers of Mrs. Clinton's personal offices. It was the same day that Mr. Trump publicly encouraged Russia to hack Mrs. Clinton's emails.... Separately, the indictment states that the hackers were communicating with 'a person who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign.' Two government officials identified the person as Roger J. Stone Jr." Story has been updated. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... A pdf of the indictment is here. ...

... This Is Not a Coincidence. Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "In a news conference in July 2016, Donald J. Trump made a direct appeal to Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails and make them public.... As it turns out, that same day, the Russians ... made their first effort to break into the servers used by Mrs. Clinton’s personal office, according to a sweeping 29-page indictment.... The indictment did not address the question of whether the Russians' actions were actually in response to Mr. Trump. It said nothing at all about Mr. Trump's request for help from Russia -- a remark that had unnerved American intelligence and law enforcement officials who were closely monitoring Russia's efforts to influence the election. But the indictment did offer some clues about what happened, implying that the hacking had occurred later on the day Mr. Trump issued his invitation.... Investigators for Mr. Mueller would like to ask Mr. Trump what he knew about the hackings. The president has refused for several months to sit for an interview." ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "The indictment notes other examples of Russia releasing documents at times engineered to benefit the Trump campaign, though it doesn't offer any evidence that Trump aides directed, or were aware of, those releases before they happened. The indictment notes that WikiLeaks released a tranche of emails allegedly stolen by Russia on July 22, 2016 -- just three days before the DNC, a convenient stroke of timing for Trump. Then, on October 7, 2016, WikiLeaks released another batch of hacked emails within hours of the revelation of the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump is overheard boasting about sexually assaulting women. In a statement responding to the indictment on Friday, the White House did not condemn Russian interference in the election, instead striking a purely defensive note regarding the president's 2016 victory. 'Today]s charges include no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result,' a spokeswoman said. 'This is consistent with what we have been saying all along.'" ...

... Ken Dilanian of NBC News writes a good, brief summary of the indictment's implications. Fer instance, "It's a rare and major development for the Justice Department to indict officials of a foreign government. In almost every case, the president would have input into the decision, given the geopolitical implications. In this instance..., Rod Rosenstein said he briefed Trump last week on the indictment. But he didn't say he sought permission." ...

... Ronn Blitzer of Law & Crime: "Rosenstein had a lot to say during his press conference, but what he didn't say leaves a lot more questions yet to be answered.... Any time Rosenstein noted that Americans were not being accused of wrongdoing, he qualified it by saying there was nothing 'in this indictment' about that. That doesn't mean that future indictments won't include such allegations." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "The danger for Trump is the implication of collusion scattered throughout the indictments.... President Trump has been all but charged with collusion in this indictment." --safari ...

... Rosalind Helderman & Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Washington Post: "A federal indictment filed Friday accusing a dozen Russian military intelligence officers of conspiring to hack Democrats during the 2016 campaign spotlights communications between Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to President Trump, and an online persona allegedly operated by the Russians. Stone has previously acknowledged exchanging direct messages on Twitter in August and September 2016 with Guccifer 2.0, who claimed to be a Romanian hacker. Stone has said there is no proof the account was connected to the Russians. But according to criminal charges filed Friday by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, Guccifer 2.0 was actually operated by a group of Russian military intelligence officers based in Moscow. The Russians used Guccifer 2.0's Twitter account to send multiple messages to 'a person who was in regular contact with senior members' of Trump's campaign, Mueller wrote in the indictment.... In a text message Friday from his southern Florida home, Stone told The Washington Post that his exchanges with 'someone on Twitter claiming to be Guccifer 2.0 is benign based on its content context and timing.'" ...

...Josh Marshall: "[O]ne point I want to zero in on has to do with 'Guccifer 2.0.'... The key is that it was known well before the 2016 election that Guccifer 2.0 was a Russian intelligence operative...Virtually every publication reported on the documents published by Wikileaks. But with Guccifer 2.0 many journalists were going to 'him' with specific requests or getting special deliveries right from him. Specifically, one of his go-to publications was Jared Kushner's New York Observer. And at the time Kushner was very much a hands-on owner." [no link b/c restricted access] --safari...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you're keeping up with fake news, you may believe Trump is in Scotland showing off his golf course, & that Rudy Giuliani is, well, someplace, but it turns out they're together in De State of De Nile:

... IT'S ALL OBAMA'S FAULT. Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday blamed the Obama administration for the actions of 12 Russian military officials indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 campaign. 'The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'Why didn't they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?' In another tweet, Trump asked, 'Where is the DNC Server, and why didn't the FBI take possession of it? Deep State?'... [Rudy Giuliani responded to news of the indictment by saying,] 'The indictments Rod Rosenstein announced are good news for all Americans. The Russians are nailed. No Americans are involved. Time for Mueller to end this pursuit of the President and say President Trump is completely innocent.'" ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Before he embarked on a week of transatlantic diplomacy, President Trump sat down with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who previewed for the boss an explosive development: The Justice Department would soon indict 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking Democratic emails.... For the first time, the United States would be charging Russian government agents with planning and executing a sustained cyberattack to disrupt America's democratic process. Yet Trump gave no sign in his commentary in Europe this week that he appreciated the magnitude of what he had been told was coming Instead, he repeated his frequent attacks on the integrity of the wide-ranging Russia probe led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III -- while offering kind words for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he is slated to meet here in Helsinki on Monday.... On Friday, just hours before Rosenstein announced the indictments from Justice Department headquarters in Washington, Trump stood on foreign soil -- at a news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May ... -- and denounced the investigation that produced them. 'I would call it the rigged witch hunt,' Trump said of the Mueller probe, which so far has yielded charges or guilty pleas against 32 Russians and Americans, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is in jail." ...

These revelations add to a body of evidence confirming an extensive plot by Vladimir Putin's government to attack the 2016 election, sow chaos and dissension among the American electorate, and undermine faith in our democracy. If President Trump is not prepared to hold Putin accountable, the summit in Helsinki should not move forward. -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)

... Shannon Vavra of Axios: "Top Democratic leaders are calling on President Trump to cancel his one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday following a federal grand jury's indictment of 12 Russian military officers for conspiring to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.... The Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark Warner, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Adam Schiff, among several others, argue that the U.S. should pull out of the meeting until Russia agrees to offer evidence that it will stop interfering in American democracy." ...

... James Risen of The Intercept: "With his latest indictments on Friday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller drove a particularly sharp nail into the coffin of the conspiracy theories surrounding the cyber-attack on the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign during the 2016 election. Spoiler alert: The Russians really did do it.... But the indictment strongly suggests that even as the Russians hacked the American political system, the U.S. intelligence community was hacking the Russians in return. It includes accounts that appear to have been drawn from real-time U.S. intelligence surveillance of Russian computers watching, searching, and infecting with malware computers belonging to Democratic operatives and staffers." --safari ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: With these indictments, "yet another President Trump conspiracy theory is thoroughly repudiated by the Russia investigation. Trump has regularly cast doubt upon the idea that the Democratic National Committee was hacked by the Russians -- and that it was hacked at all. At one point he even reportedly dispatched a conspiracy theorist to meet with then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo...." ...

David Corn of Mother Jones: "The latest news from ... Robert Mueller is a stunning indictment of ... President Donald Trump and his Republican minions.... Yet many Republicans and conservatives have continued to avert their eyes from the matter -- arguably the greatest political scandal in American history.... Though the indictment does not address this particular issue, it does indirectly cast light on the sin that Trump and his henchmen have been trying to hide: They helped this Russian operation by repeatedly insisting it wasn't happening.... In between the lines, the indictment presents a grave charge: Trump abetted a serious Russian operation to undermine an American election. It also conveys an important message: This story is not over yet." --safari

... Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: “'It’s a big FU from Mueller,' a White House official said in an interview, speculating that it 'wasn't an accident' that the public rollout landed right before the Putin summit. 'This is just one more case of political malpractice,' added Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser who remains close to the White House. 'These guys all deserve to be indicted and deserve to be convicted. But to do it the Friday before the Monday meeting? Not so smart.'... Rod Rosenstein ... insisted in a news conference that the timing of the indictments was 'a function of the collection of the facts, the evidence, and the law and a determination that it was sufficient to present the indictment at this time.'" Samuelsohn goes on to cite other people's opinions on the time. Mrs. McC: But here's the thing nobody mentions: the Mueller probe has been going on for more than a year. Trump very recently made an impetuous decision to meet with Putin. If there's a timing problem, it's Trump's, not Mueller's or Rosenstein's. ...

... Matt Ford of the New Republic: "It's now clear that the Russian government will face no significant consequences for its unprecedented interference in the American political system in 2016, or at least none that will outweigh the tangible and intangible benefits it has reaped from its brazen attack on this country's democracy.... Trump has said he will discuss Moscow's efforts to meddle in American democracy. Those discussions will likely lack the hostility shown by the president towards the leaders of Canada and Germany.... 'Somebody was saying, is he an enemy?' he told reporters on Thursday, referring to Putin. 'He's not my enemy. Is he your friend? No, I don't know him very much. Hopefully, someday, he'll be a friend. It could happen.' Maybe it already has." ...

... Hiding in Plain Sight. Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "Here are notable conservatives, several of whom now occupy top positions in the White House, who promoted Russian propaganda during the 2016 election. None of the following tweets have been deleted.... In addition to mentioning Wikileaks 164 times in the final month of the campaign alone, then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump promoted the emails that were stolen by Russian intelligence agents in numerous tweets.... Donald Trump Jr.... Eric Trump... Sean Hannity... Bill O'Reilly... Kellyanne Conway... Sarah Huckabee Sanders... White House director of social media [Dan Scavino]... Fox News host [Laura Ingraham]... Michael Cohen." Includes all their still-posted tweets. --safari ...

... Kevin Hall & Tim Johnson of McClatchy D.C.: "The use of so-called cryptocurrencies in global finance are likely to come under increased scrutiny after the Justice Department announced indictments Friday against 12 Russian military intelligence officers whose alleged conspiracy used bitcoin to set up and maintain hacking activities designed to undermine U.S. elections in 2016.... The 29-page indictment detailed how the Russian intelligence agents laundered the equivalent of $95,000 'through a web of transactions structured to capitalize on the perceived anonymity of crypto currencies such as bitcoin.' 'It is a backbone of the criminal universe, and the shift happened in less than five years. Right now, nothing happens without bitcoin. It is the default currency of pretty much every cyber criminal in the world and by definition intelligence operatives as well,' said Andrei Barysevich, who leads a research team at Recorded Future, a Somerville, Mass., cybersecurity firm." --safari

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The nation's top intelligence officer said on Friday that the persistent danger of Russian cyberattacks today was akin to the warnings the United States had of stepped-up terror threats ahead of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. That note of alarm sounded by Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, came on the same day that 12 Russian agents were indicted on charges of hacking the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Mr. Coats said those indictments illustrated Moscow's continuing strategy to undermine the United States' democracy and erode its institutions.... Coming just days ahead of President Trump's meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Mr. Coats's comments demonstrate the persistent divisions within the administration on Russia.... Mr. Coats, a former Republican senator from Indiana, has helped position the intelligence agencies in the more hard-line camp, pushing for more aggressive actions to halt cyberattacks by Russia and other nations."

All the President's Henchmen. Rachel Bade & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "House conservatives are preparing a new push to oust Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to three conservative Capitol Hill sources — putting the finishing touches on an impeachment filing even as Rosenstein announced the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for interfering in the 2016 election. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, in fact, had the impeachment document on the floor of the House at the very moment that Rosenstein spoke to reporters and TV cameras Friday.... Conservative sources say they could file the impeachment document as soon as Monday, as Meadows and Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) look to build Republican support in the House.... It is unclear how much support conservatives will have in their effort." ...

     ... Jeet Heer: "In announcing charges against 12 Russian officials today..., Rod Rosenstein tried to frame the ongoing investigation into 2016 election meddling as a non-partisan issue that all Americans should care about. 'When we confront foreign interference in American elections, it is important for us to avoid thinking politically as Republicans or Democrats and instead to think patriotically as Americans,' Rosenstein said.... If Rosenstein was hoping to get bipartisan buy-in for the Mueller investigation, he isn't having much luck. Even as Rosenstein made his statement, House Republicans were ramping up efforts to impeach him.... The fact that congressional Republicans are willing to go after Rosenstein after the new indictments might be an indication that they fear the outcome of the Mueller investigation. ...

... Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Republican lawmakers contend that former FBI lawyer Lisa Page provided new information during private testimony Friday that further convinces them political bias marred the investigations of Hillary Clinton's emails and the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia. Though they offered no specifics, several GOP congressmen characterized Page as 'cooperative,' 'forthcoming' and' 'transparent' during her interview with the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees. The closed-door session lasted nearly five hours and was expected to resume Monday afternoon.... Page also defended herself as unbiased, GOP lawmakers said -- a characterization with which they did not agree.... GOP lawmakers threatened to hold Page in contempt of Congress before she agreed to participate in the interview on Friday and tried to get her to appear alongside [Peter] Strzok on Thursday. But after speaking with her, some said they doubted it would be necessary to subject her to a public hearing...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: "tried to get her to appear alongside Strzok on Thursday." Oh, Republicans would have loved that, wouldn't they? Shaming two former (I guess) lovers for 10 hours straight, carried live on C-SPAN & cable news. How about making them both wear T-shirts sporting big scarlet "A"s? Why not pose some good sex questions ala Brett Kavanaugh?

Time for a Commercial Break. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump is likely to tee off this weekend, ensconced from the public and the news media, at Trump Turnberry, the luxury resort where he will be staying.... Before arriving in Scotland -- the birthplace of his mother, as well as that of Mr. Trump's preferred pastime -- the president managed repeatedly to plug Turnberry, one of two Scottish resorts that bear his name. The move has alarmed ethics experts, who say he is using his presidential platform to promote a resort that, according to financial filings, has been a burden on the family business.... At a hastily arranged news conference in Brussels..., Mr. Trump wove in a reference to Turnberry, on breathtaking bluffs and cliffs on the western coast of Scotland, calling it 'magical' and 'one of my favorite places.'... On Saturday morning, he again mentioned the resort on Twitter: 'I have arrived in Scotland and will be at Trump Turnberry for two days of meetings, calls and hopefully, some golf -- my primary form of exercise! The weather is beautiful, and this place is incredible!'... 'I view this as kind of a forced subsidy of an infomercial for his properties,' Norman L. Eisen, the chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said ... on Friday." ...

... MEANWHILE, Adam Davidson of the New Yorker is wondering where Trump got $200 million "to buy his money-losing Scottish golf club," especially since "has portrayed himself as uniquely aggressive in his use of debt.... We know very little about how money flowed into and out of these [foreign Trump] projects. All of these projects involved specially designated limited-liability companies that are opaque to outside review. We do know that, in the past decade, wealthy oligarchs in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere have seen real-estate investment as a primary vehicle through which to launder money. The problem is especially egregious in the United Kingdom, where some have called the U.K. luxury real-estate industry 'a money laundering machine.' Golf has been a particular focus of money laundering."

I think they like me a lot in the U.K. -- Donald Trump, Thursday ...

U.K., Friday:

... CBS News: "Hordes of demonstrators converged in central London on Friday, intent on mocking U.S. President Donald Trump on his only full day of business with British leaders on what has been dubbed a 'working visit' to the United Kingdom. The visual cornerstone of the anti-Trump protests on Friday -- which include several organized marches by varying groups -- is a giant balloon depicting the U.S. leader as an angry, screaming orange baby in a diaper, clutching a cell phone with Twitter on the screen." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The First Amendment Is Situational. Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "President Trump was in Britain on diplomatic business. But on Friday, he often appeared focused on ... the news media.... He shouted down a question from CNN, calling the network 'fake news.' He knocked NBC News for 'such dishonest reporting.' He falsely accused the London tabloid The Sun of cherry-picking quotes from an interview and complained about a photograph in The New York Times that, he said, made it look like he had a 'double chin.'... The spectacle of a president bashing his nation's news organizations on foreign soil -- in scenes broadcast live around the world -- was a reminder of how Mr. Trump's conduct with journalists can still shock.... When Jim Acosta, the CNN correspondent who is a preferred punching bag of Trump supporters, tried to ask a question during a news conference with the British prime minister..., Mr. Trump dismissed the query with a wave. 'CNN is fake news,' the president declared. 'I don't take questions from CNN.' He then pointed at the raised hand of John Roberts, the White House correspondent for Fox News, saying, 'Let's go to a real network.' 'We're a real network, too, sir,' Mr. Acosta protested.... Mr. Trump ignored him, and Mr. Roberts moved ahead with his question. Those sympathetic to Mr. Acosta asked why Mr. Roberts or the other correspondents who asked questions afterward had not paused to publicly defend CNN or its correspondent. They invoked an episode from 2009, when the Obama administration tried to ice out Fox News reporters, and other networks, including CNN, protested in solidarity.... Mr. Trump's assertion that he does not take questions from CNN is false: a day earlier, he had answered a question from Jeremy Diamond, a CNN reporter, and he responds to CNN journalists during White House appearances." ...

... Shane Croucher of Newsweek: "... Donald Trump has dismissed his controversial interview with The Sun newspaper in which he criticized British Prime Minister Theresa May's handling of Brexit and praised her Conservative Party rival Boris Johnson, as 'fake news.' Trump and May were speaking to reporters at a press conference following bilateral talks at Chequers, the prime minister's country residence. The president suggested not all of his comments about May were printed by The Sun, and that the newspaper had omitted the positive things he said about the prime minister. In fact, the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid had included positive comments made by Trump about May." ...

... OR, as the WashPo headline has it, "Trump denies he said something that he said on a tape everyone has heard." Aaron Blake: "President Trump's complaints about 'fake news' are often dishonest. But rarely has it been so transparent. At a news conference with ... Theresa May in Britain on Friday, Trump claimed that a newspaper interview that quoted him criticizing May's Brexit and trade strategies was 'fake news.' 'I didn't criticize the prime minister,' he said. He went on to suggest a recording would vindicate him. The recording exists. And it completely and utterly contradicts Trump's claim." ...

... Trump Was Rude to Queen Elizabeth, too. Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "It's generally quite difficult to upstage the queen of England, but President Trump might have managed to do so.... Described as 'cringeworthy' and 'uncomfortable' viewing on social media, footage of their walk together came under intense scrutiny. While touring the castle grounds, Trump maintained a relatively brisk walk, which saw the queen, at times, fall behind him as he led the way." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's outing with Elizabeth was worse than that, IMO. The moment shows up in the video accompanying the WashPo story, beginning at about the 3:52 mark. The Trumps & Elizabeth stood on a small platform while a band played, after which Donald & Elizabeth descended three steps to review the guard. There was no handrail. Elizabeth is 91 years old. Any normal sure-footed adult would take an elderly person's arm -- even if the elderly person is QEII -- to help her down the steps. As Elizabeth carefully & deliberately descended the stairs, Trump didn't bother to help. The only acceptable excuse for this would be if Trump received instructions from the palace not to assist Elizabeth. ...

Wow, lol. Even if she wasn't the Queen, wouldn't you let an elderly lady walk ahead of you?? He acts like he was raised in a barn. -- Tee, in a tweet ... 

 

 

** Racist in Chief. Richard Wolffe of the Guardian: "There's something to be said for using a foghorn to blast your racism across the continents.... 'I think it's a very negative thing for Europe. I think it's very negative,' [Trump] said, as if we didn't hear him the first time with the foghorn. 'And I know it's politically not necessarily correct to say that. But I'll say it and I'll say it loud. And I think they better watch themselves because you are changing the culture.'... The president of the United States just threatened the safety and security of immigrants the world over.... So now we know. The reason Trump ordered the separation of thousands of immigrant children from their parents -- some never to be reunited again -- was because they better watch themselves. They are changing the culture and it better stop or else they'll get hurt.... So in the Trump spirit of saying it loud, it's time to drop the euphemisms: Trump is today's first major government to be led by the racist far right. It's not some kind of new populist politics; it's the old National Front." --safari

Carol Morello & Jan-Albert Hootsen of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a group of high-level White House officials met with Mexico's incoming president Friday as protesters gathered outside with signs slamming President Trump's immigration policy. In an unusual display of administration force, Pompeo came to the Mexican capital accompanied by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and presidential adviser Jared Kushner.... After meeting with President Enrique Peña Nieto, the U.S. officials drove to the campaign headquarters of the leftist-populist victor in this month's election, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who greeted the delegation under a drawing of Benito Juárez, a peasant who became president and is a national hero."

The Most Corrupt Administration Ever, ctd. Rachana Pradhan & Dan Diamond of Politico: "Former HHS Secretary Tom Price took 20 trips that violated federal requirements, according to a federal auditor that urged the department in a Friday report to recover at least $341,000 in wasted spending. Price, who was forced out last year following a Politico investigation into his extravagant use of private and military aircraft has already voluntarily repaid the government around $60,000. It was not immediately clear how or if he might be forced to repay the rest. A department spokesman said HHS will seek guidance from the Justice Department 'whether there is legal basis for recoupment.'"

** Reserving Rights for Racists. Josh Marshall: "This is wild. You may have heard of the British far-right activist Tommy Robinson (actually a pseudonym for Stephen Yaxley-Lennon). He's the founder of something called the English Defense League, a far-right nationalist group with a record of organized violence against British Muslims.... He's currently serving a year sentence for breaking a UK law that bars certain kinds of publicity of on-going criminal trials.... [W]hen [Sam] Brownback [President Trump's Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom] was meeting with the British Ambassador to the US recently he pressed him for better treatment of Robinson and apparently threatened that the US would go public with the criticism if his government did not.... The British were apparently bewildered by why a roving ambassador for religious freedom would lobby on behalf of a notorious anti-Muslim bigot with a record of violence in the UK." --safari: If this story pans out, I'm frankly speechless. Monsters.

Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "Corporate profits have rarely swept up a bigger share of the nation's wealth, and workers have rarely shared a smaller one. The lopsided split is especially pronounced given how low the official unemployment rate has sunk.... Hourly earnings have moved forward at a crawl, with higher prices giving workers less buying power than they had last summer. Last-minute scheduling, no-poaching and noncompete clauses, and the use of independent contractors are popular tactics that put workers at a disadvantage. Threats to move operations overseas, where labor is cheaper, continue to loom. And in the background, the nation's central bankers stand poised to raise interest rates and deliberately rein in growth if wages climb too rapidly.... The United States may be leading other big industrialized countries in economic growth, but its labor force does not fare well in comparison. American workers' share of their country's total output fell much sharper and faster than the average reported by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The United States also had a larger proportion of low-wage workers than nearly every other member." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is not accidental; it's all part of the Republican plan: the Trump tax break for the rich; the weakening of labor unions by every branch of the federal government as well as by state GOP-controlled legislatures; the hike in medical costs because of the gutting of ObamaCare; attacks on the social safety network; the Trump trade wars, etc. They'd make things much worse if they could; for instance, their continued calls for a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, which would tie their own hands during recessions.

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Thursday
Jul122018

The Commentariat -- July 13, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Grand Jury Trolls Trump. Eileen Sullivan & Katie Brenner of the New York Times: "Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, on Friday announced new charges against 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The charges came just a few days before President Trump is expected to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Helsinki, Finland. The 11-count indictment includes charges of conspiracy by the Russian intelligence officials against the United States, money laundering and attempts to break into state election boards and other government agencies.... Mr. Rosenstein discussed the charges during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington as Mr. Trump met with Queen Elizabeth II in Britain, creating a bizarre split screen on cable news of presidential pomp and an ongoing investigation that has ensnared some of the president&'s aides." ...

I think they like me a lot in the U.K. -- Donald Trump, Thursday ...

U.K., Friday:

... CBS News: "Hordes of demonstrators converged in central London on Friday, intent on mocking U.S. President Donald Trump on his only full day of business with British leaders on what has been dubbed a 'working visit' to the United Kingdom. The visual cornerstone of the anti-Trump protests on Friday -- which include several organized marches by varying groups -- is a giant balloon depicting the U.S. leader as an angry, screaming orange baby in a diaper, clutching a cell phone with Twitter on the screen."

*****

Donald Trump Embarrasses the U.S. Again. And Again.

Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump sought Friday to tamp down tensions with British Prime Minister Theresa May, saying the leaders had a 'very, very strong' relationship -- hours after publication of an interview in which he questioned May's handling of 'Brexit,' praised her deposed foe Boris Johnson and threatened to upend the trade relationship between the two countries. 'We want to trade with the U.K., and the U.K. wants to trade with us,' Trump said at a joint news conference with the prime minister on Friday. 'I think she's doing a terrific job, by the way,' he added.The bombshell interview with the Sun, U.S. media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloid, landed as Trump was receiving a grand welcome from May, including a black-tie gala and an elaborate outdoor ceremony at Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill." ...

Here's today's NYT liveblog of Trump's horrifying adventures abroad. A few lowlights: "The tension and uncertainty surrounding President Trump's trip to Britain reached new heights after the publication Thursday night of a bombshell interview in which he said Prime Minister Theresa May was taking the wrong approach to Brexit, praised her political rival and former foreign secretary, and renewed his feud with the mayor of London.... For the president to criticize and politically undercut Mrs. May, one of his closest international allies, on her home turf is an extraordinary breach of protocol.... Mr. Trump breathed new life into his long-distance, long-running feud with the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.... Mr. Khan said he thought it 'interesting that President Trump is not criticizing the mayors of other cities' that have experienced terrorist attacks. That appeared to be a reference to Mr. Khan's faith -- he is among few Muslims serving as mayor of a major Western city...." ...

... The Guardian's liveblog is here. ...

.. Trump Throws More Insults. Sarah Marsh of the Guardian: "Sadiq Khan has hit back at 'preposterous' claims made by Donald Trump, after the US president criticised London's mayor for doing a 'a bad job' on terrorism and crime in the capital.... The US president used an interview in the Sun to reignite his feud with Khan.... 'You have a mayor who has done a terrible job in London. He has done a terrible job. Take a look at the terrorism that is taking place. Look at what is going on in London. I think he has done a very bad job on terrorism.'... Trump's verbal attack on Khan came after the London mayor refused to block a plan to fly a giant inflatable 'Trump baby' near parliament." --safari ...

The New York Times liveblogged Trump's appalling visit to England on Thursday. "Near the end of a gala dinner that Prime Minister May was hosting for Mr. Trump Thursday night, word emerged that he had given a newspaper interview in which he criticized her handling of the Brexit negotiations and appeared to boost the fortunes of a political rival. If Mrs. May persists in seeking a so-called soft exit from the European Union, Mr. Trump reportedly told The Sun, she can forget about a separate pact with the United States.... 'If they do that,' the paper quoted him as saying, 'then their trade deal with the U.S. will probably not be made.' He had much warmer words for Boris Johnson, the ambitious British politician who just quit as foreign minister in an open break with May. Mr. Johnson, he said, would 'make a great prime minister.'" Nothing like suggesting your host should be deposed, recommending her replacement & threatening her to alter her own government's policies. Or else. Just astounding. ...

     ... Update. Steven Castle of the New York Times has more detail on Trump's interference in the British government's policies. ...

... Pippa Crerar of the Guardian: "In his interview [with the Murdoch-owned tabloid The Sun], which breaks all normal diplomatic conventions by criticising his host, Trump warned: 'If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal.' He claimed the prime minister ignored his advice on Brexit negotiations. 'I would have done it much differently. I actually told Theresa May how to do it, but she didn’t listen to me,' he said.... Downing Street indicated that the prime minister was prepared to challenge Trump's remarks at the Chequers talks on Friday, which will also cover Russia and the Middle East. May said: 'What we are doing is delivering on the vote of the British people.' As May addressed the crowd of business leaders at Blenheim Palace who had gathered to welcome Trump, protests against the president were under way at the US embassy in London, with thousands more people expected to take to the streets on Friday." ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: Trump's attempts to further destabilize Theresa May's government "were the most undiplomatic remarks in Trump's interview (if not, in the modern history of Anglo-American relations). But they still weren't the most offensive quotes that the president gave to the paper. Here's a quick rundown of Trump's other, incendiary reflections: Immigrants have robbed Europe of its great culture. 'I think what has happened to Europe is a shame. Allowing the immigration to take place in Europe is a shame. I think it changed the fabric of Europe and, unless you act very quickly, it's never going to be what it was and I don't mean that in a positive way....' Sadiq Khan, the (Muslim) mayor of London, is responsible for terrorism in that city -- because he allows immigrants to live there.... By disrespecting Trump, mayor Khan is disrespecting his own constituents -- because Europeans live in the United States.... The Washington Post is a lobbying firm whose only client is Jeff Bezos.... Trump is more beloved than Abraham Lincoln. 'You know, a poll just came out that I am the most popular person in the history of the Republican Party -- 92 per cent. Beating Lincoln. I beat our Honest Abe.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Somebody pull up Lincoln's polling numbers, please. Were those, like, Gallup polls or Rasmussen polls? Or what? Blithering idiot. ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "Donald Trump was invited to a state visit to the U.K. just one week into his presidency, but as he cultivated a feud with one of our closest allies, the trip was repeatedly delayed due to the threat of massive protests and downgraded to a 'working visit' -- meaning Trump would be denied his golden carriage ride. Trump couldn't let this humiliation stand, so he found a way to ensure that the headlines during his trip would focus on his scorching attacks, not the insults hurled at him by large swaths of the British public.... White House officials were reportedly scrambling to figure out what to say to May following the [Sun] interview. 'There's no way Trump will apologize,' a senior U.S. official told the [Washington] Post. 'But we also don't want to blow everything up.' Sarah Huckabee Sanders went with denial, as she often does. 'The president likes and respects Prime Minister May very much,' she said in a statement. 'As he said in his interview with The Sun she 'is a very good person' and he "never said anything bad about her."' She added that Trump ;is thankful for the wonderful welcome from the prime minister here in the U.K.'" ...

... Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura of the New York Times: "The protesters began assembling even before Air Force One touched down outside London on Thursday.... They jeered as the helicopter Marine One took off to ferry Mr. Trump to a black-tie gala dinner outside Oxford with Prime Minister Theresa May. Outside the dinner, at Blenheim Palace, where Churchill was born, a heavy police presence kept around 1,000 chanting demonstrators far away as Mr. Trump and Mrs. May, along with their spouses, were serenaded by trumpeters and other members of a military band.... The demonstrations will culminate in a march on Friday -- with the baby balloon flying overhead -- that is expected to be one of the nation's largest rallies since the 2003 protests against the American- and British-led invasion of Iraq.... More than 50 British organizations are involved in the protests, which aim to dog the president at nearly every stop of his visit."

... Annie Karni of Politico: "A day before ... Donald Trump's arrival [in England]..., Steve Bannon ... had set up a bare war room, of sorts, in a conference room at [a London hotel] to confer and conspire with leaders of Europe's surging populist movement. Bannon's goal, he said in a brief interview between meetings, is to help 'contextualize Trump' for a European audience that hates him and a fiery tabloid media culture that he believes doesn't give the American president a fair shake." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The NATO summit was concluding on course ... Thursday, with European leaders pleased that their unruly American counterpart had been surprisingly well behaved, if not truly conciliatory.... Then President Trump showed up, a half-hour late and with another agenda. He effectively took a meeting over Georgia and Ukraine hostage by seizing the floor and, one by one, scolding and shaming countries for their defense spending.... Some diplomats said they feared he could well try to withdraw the United States from NATO, rupturing the existing world order. For more than an hour, the transatlantic alliance was caught in the chaos of Trump's making -- until the president called an impromptu news conference to announce that everything, in fact, was just fine.... Thursday's events in Brussels were a signature Trump spectacle, with other presidents and prime ministers cast as bit players in his drama. Trump was unpredictable and unreliable. He was direct and at moments crass with the United States' historical partners, vague on substance and misleading with facts and figures. He grabbed the spotlight for himself, sending the entire Western alliance scrambling to satisfy his whims and desires.... And he declared unprecedented victory, though his partners said little new had actually been agreed upon." ...

... ** David Taylor of the Guardian: "Donald Trump shrouded Brussels in his personal fog of war as he brought confusion and half-truths to the Nato summit, before claiming an imaginary victory over America's allies in a conflict of his own making. As he flew off to the UK on Thursday for the next leg of his European tour, it was left to President Emmanuel Macron of France to correct the record following Trump's freewheeling press conference in which he claimed to have pushed allies into new defence spending commitments. 'There is a communique that was published yesterday. It's very detailed,' Macron said. 'It confirms the goal of 2% by 2024. That's all.' Here is a list of fact checks on some of the US president's claims on Thursday[.]" ...

David Herszenhorn & Jacopo Barrigazi of Politico: "As a NATO summit he threw into chaos wrapped up Thursday..., Donald Trump cheekily declared himself a 'very stable genius.' The other world leaders present mostly begged to differ. Trump's wildly unpredictable performance over two days in Brussels left many European leaders convinced that there is little method to the American president's rhetorical madness, and simply no way to anticipate what he might do next.... Leaders who spent the first 18 months of Trump’s presidency thinking there might be a method to his chaos creation ... now seem to have concluded that it’s just chaos, and that Trump himself may not understand what he's doing.... Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he confronted Trump, noting that the Danish military had suffered casualties participating in the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan roughly in the same proportion as the U.S. military. In an emotional presentation, Rasmussen told the president that he had attended the funerals and could not accept Trump telling him that Denmark was not doing enough for NATO. 'In direct and clear speech, I have made it clear to him that Denmark's contribution cannot be measured in money,' Rasmussen said." ...

... New York Times Editors: "Now that the smoke has cleared from the NATO summit meeting, the most tangible result is apparent: President Trump advanced President Barack Obama's initiative to keep the allies on track to shoulder a more equitable share of NATO's costs.... It's imperative that Congress, which has abdicated to Mr. Trump on many crucial issues, pass immediately legislation prohibiting him from leaving NATO unilaterally. The Senate had to ratify the treaty when America created NATO, and it should block any move to destroy the alliance that has been an anchor of trans-Atlantic stability over seven decades." ...

... Pastries & Cheese Update: As President Trump ranted against Germany during a NATO breakfast Wednesday, "John Kelly ... began to fidget.... White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders later said that Kelly 'was displeased because he was expecting a full breakfast and there were only pastries and cheese.... Asked about how the breakfast went later, [NATO Secretary General Jens] Stoltenberg quipped that he had 'eggs and toast and orange juice and some good fruit salad -- and it was paid for by the United States.'" Mrs. McC: Gee, I guess those reports about Kelly's being left out of everything are true.

** Paul Krugman: "Whatever claims Trump makes about other countries' misbehavior, whatever demands he makes on a particular day, they're all in evident bad faith. Mr. Art of the Deal doesn't want any deals. He just wants to tear things down. The institutions Trump is trying to destroy were all created under U.S. leadership in the aftermath of World War II.... What's his motivation? Part of the answer is that anything that weakens the Western alliance helps Vladimir Putin; if Trump isn't literally a Russian agent, he certainly behaves like one on every possible occasion. Beyond that, Trump obviously dislikes anything that smacks of rule of law applying equally to the weak and the strong.... He doesn't want negotiations with our allies and trading partners to succeed; he wants them to fail. And by the time everyone realizes this, the damage may be irreversible." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's worth noting that more & more often, pundits are referring to Trump as a Russian agent or Russian asset. They usually describe that description as a possibility, as Krugman does here, but it's out there. We should take heed.

Zeina Karam of the AP: "As fighting wanes after seven years of war [in Syria], the U.S. has made curtailing Iran's influence in post-war Syria a strategic objective -- one strongly backed by Israel. Ahead of the much-anticipated meeting, officials from the U.S. and Russia have signaled that a broad framework for such a deal is likely to be the main outcome.... In an interview with CBS news earlier this month, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said Iran, not Assad, was the 'strategic issue.'... Diplomacy has gone into high gear ahead of Monday's Trump-Putin summit, suggesting a political deal is in the making." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Experts, not to mention casual observers, are guessing any "political deal" Trump makes with Putin on Syria would better be described as a "major capitulation."...

...This report should remind us of Adam Entous' New Yorker article detailing the Israeli, Saudi & Emerati attempt to "swap Ukraine for Syria". --safari

House Republicans Embarrass the U.S. Again and Again.

There is a criminal investigation into the Trump campaign and possible crimes related to the 2016 presidential election involving collusion with Russian spies to sell out our democracy and hijack the presidency. My colleagues in the cover-up caucus don't like that criminal investigation, and therefore, they need to identify a villain. Mr. Strzok, tag, you're it. -- Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) ...

... ** Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The embattled F.B.I. agent [Peter Strzok] who oversaw the opening of the Russia investigation mounted an aggressive personal defense on Thursday, rejecting accusations that he let his private political views bias his official actions and labeling Republican attacks on him 'another victory notch in Putin's belt.'... The fiery hearing, convened by House Judiciary and Oversight committees, devolved into a spectacle almost as soon as it began, as pent-up rage between House Republicans and the F.B.I. broke into the open in spectacular fashion." Mrs. McC: The hearing, which is ongoing at 12:45 pm, is ridiculous. The Republicans seem to be stark, staring mad. I mean that; they're nuts. (Also linked yesterday, but much expanded since initial publication -- the Louis Gohmert part is classic.) ...

... Here's one of many examples of Strzok giving better than he got from the mad dogs:

... Washington Post Editors: "With all its yelling and interruptions, the hearing was a fitting coda to the hyperpartisan farce of an investigation that House Republicans have conducted into the FBI and Mr. Mueller's Russia probe.... The [text] messages are not proof of anything other than Mr. Strzok's personal feelings -- and, in committing them to writing on company equipment, his poor judgment.... In the end, the hearing did more to harm Congress and the FBI than it did to expose wrongdoing.... Mr. Strzok is not the perfect messenger, but he was right about this message: 'Russian interference in our elections constitutes a grave attack on our democracy,' he said. 'Most disturbingly, it has been wildly successful -- sowing discord in our nation and shaking faith in our institutions. I have the utmost respect for Congress's oversight role, but I truly believe that today's hearing is just another victory notch in [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's belt and another milestone in our enemies' campaign to tear America apart.'" ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "In a written statement offered before he testified before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, [Peter] Strzok pointedly noted that there was no effort on his part to keep Trump from winning the White House -- and, further, that he was one of only a few people who could have potentially leaked details from the investigation in an effort to block Trump's victory. 'In the summer of 2016,' Strzok wrote, 'I was one of a handful of people who knew the details of Russian election interference and its possible connections with members of the Trump campaign. This information had the potential to derail, and quite possibly, defeat Mr. Trump. But the thought of exposing that information never crossed my mind.' This is a nearly impossible point to rebut." ...

... Rick Wilson of the Daily Beast: "Strzok was supposed to be a key in the imaginary conspiracy that Trump's congressional lackeys and media fantasists have desperately tried to write as history. The idea that his text messages poison the entire Mueller investigation was a pillar of their defense of the president. This morning they were going for a quick kill....The Gowdy, Goodlatte, and Gaetz types needed their grandstanding, dick-waving mock outrage to leave Strozk shaking and begging for mercy. Strozk had none of it. In this morning's round he left the Trumpists of the House staggered in their corner, cut and shaky, wondering where Stozok learned to hit back that hard." ...

... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: Republicans "want us to believe there was an FBI conspiracy to prevent Trump from being elected president, and what did that conspiracy do? First, it mounted a cautious investigation of what nearly everyone now acknowledges was a comprehensive effort by Russia to help Trump get elected, an effort that people on the Trump campaign and even in Trump's own family tried to cooperate with. But then it kept that investigation completely secret from the public.... You will notice that Republicans have not been able to produce any evidence that Strzok or anyone else took any official action that was biased, unfair or inappropriate in their investigation of Russian interference and the Trump campaign.... The idea that the bureau attempted to hinder Trump's election ... is contradicted by everything they did.... We do know, on the other hand, that as one report said just before the election, 'Deep antipathy to Hillary Clinton exists within the FBI, multiple bureau sources have told the Guardian, spurring a rapid series of leaks damaging to her campaign just days before the election.' As one agent put it at the time, 'The FBI is Trumpland.'" ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... on Thursday, the Republican members of ... two [House] committees sought to put him on the griddle before the cameras in a joint hearing, only to discover that messing with G-men can be dangerous. It was they and their President who got burned.... Not content with undermining the logic of his inquisitors, Strzok also dared to question their motivation, and even their patriotism.... House Republicans invested what was left of their credibility in a conspiracy theory that was now blowing up in their faces, live on television." ...

... Steve M.: "[T]he dichotomy in the minds of most liberals and leftists [is]: politeness vs. insolence. Keep it civil or get down in the gutter.... But sometimes there's a third choice: righteous indignation. That's what Strzok delivered today. When you respond to Republicans this way, you're in their faces, but you're not challenging order and propriety, you're making a serious claim to represent those things. You're saying that you stand for civility and your adversaries don't.... Opponents of Trump and the Republicans should keep this approach in mind. To be forceful, you don't always have to be uncivil. You can also, in civil but forceful language, accuse the other side of being a threat to civilization." --safari

Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "The White House has rebuffed concerns among American intelligence and law enforcement officials and ordered that more lawmakers be given access to classified information about an informant the F.B.I. used in 2016 to investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.... Both the director of national intelligence and the director of the F.B.I. tried to keep the classified documents tightly restricted.... Some American officials believe, in fact, the reason the White House made the decision was to provide political ammunition to President Trump's Republican allies who have argued -- without any evidence -- that the F.B.I. investigation was opened in July 2016 as an effort to keep Mr. Trump from becoming president."

Rachel Weiner & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Officials confirmed [Paul Manafort] was booked Thursday morning into the Alexandria Detention Center, a complex of brick buildings just off the Capital Beltway and a few blocks from the federal courthouse where he is to be tried later this month on bank and tax fraud charges.... Manafort ... had asked for that trial to be continued in large part because he was being held 100 miles away in the Northern Neck Regional Jail. But he resisted being brought to Alexandria. In the Northern Neck, he had a private phone and computer and did not have to wear a uniform, according to prosecutors. In Alexandria, there are no private electronics for inmates, and Manafort was wearing a green jumpsuit when his mug shot was taken Thursday."

Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "President Trump's former fixer and personal lawyer Michael Cohen bought a $6.7 million apartment in a brand new Manhattan skyscraper less than a week before FBI agents raided his home, office and hotel room in April, according to records and reports." He has a mortgage. Mrs. McC: Could be a problem.


** Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Jared Kushner ... lacks the security clearance level required to review some of the government's most sensitive secrets, according to two people familiar with his access. For the first year of the Trump administration, Kushner had nearly blanket access to highly classified intelligence, even as he held an interim security clearance and awaited the completion of his background investigation. But when White House security officials granted him a permanent clearance in late May, he was granted only 'top secret' status -- a level that does allow him to see some of the country's most closely guarded intelligence, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... Kushner has not been approved to review 'sensitive compartmented information,' better known as SCI. The Central Intelligence Agency determines who can access this information, which primarily involves U.S. intelligence sources and surveillance methods, they said. That has blocked Kushner at times from seeing some parts of the President's Daily Brief, a highly classified summary of world events that sometimes describes intelligence programs and operatives, the people said. Kushner's lack of SCI access suggests that the CIA has not signed off on him receiving that level of intelligence, security experts said."

Bill Allison of Bloomberg: "U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday that he would divest all his remaining equity holdings after the government's top ethics watchdog said his failure to sell off assets that could pose a conflict of interest 'created the potential for a serious criminal violation.'... In reports filed in the last month by the Office of Government Ethics, Ross disclosed sales of assets which, the filings said, he had inadvertently failed to sell on time, including at least $20 million worth of Invesco shares. That led the ethics office's acting director, David Apol, to tell Ross in a letter released Thursday that his failure to sell the assets may have 'negatively affected' public trust in the Trump administration." [Open in private window] --safari


AP: "The Trump administration has said all eligible small children separated from their families as a result of its 'zero-tolerance' immigration policy have now been reunited with their parents. But nearly half of the 103 children under the age of five remain separated from their families because of safety concerns, the deportation of their parents and other issues, the administration said.... The officials said 46 of the children were not eligible to be reunited with their parents; a dozen parents had already been deported and were being contacted by the administration. Nine were in custody of the US marshals service for other offenses. One of the children deemed ineligible was identified Tuesday as perhaps being a US citizen, along with their parent who officials have been unable to locate for over a year. Officials declined to provide more information on that case Thursday." ...

... ** Gene Robinson: "The Trump administration's kidnapping -- that's the proper word -- of the children of would-be migrants should be seen as an ongoing criminal conspiracy. Somebody ought to go to jail.... The reasons [the administration gave] for failing to comply fully with [Judge Dana] Sabraw's order sound reasonable, unless you take into account the bad faith with which the administration has conducted this whole sordid exercise.... Given that the intention from the beginning was clearly to frighten and intimidate would-be migrants from Central America, why should anyone believe that the administration is acting or speaking in good faith now?" ...

... Gabriel Stargardter of Reuters: "Mexico is opposed to a U.S. request to make people seeking asylum in the United States apply in Mexico instead, according to a source and a briefing note, in a setback to U.S. efforts to deepen cooperation on immigration before a leftist president takes office.... [D]espite growing U.S. pressure for it to accept the treaty, Mexico views the proposal as a red line it will not cross." --safari ...

... E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acknowledged that as of the end of June, up to 1,495 detainees were being kept at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington.... The detention facility, which essentially serves as a prison, is located within a Superfund site -- the designation given to areas contaminate by hazardous waste and selected by the EPA for cleanup due to the danger they pose to both human health and the environment.... [T]he facility is one of the largest immigrant detention centers in the country" --safari: Maybe they could chain-gang the 'aliens' and send 'em out for clean-up duties? ...

... Billion $ Babies. Martha Mendoza & Larry Fenn of the AP: "Detaining immigrant children has morphed into a surging industry in the U.S. that now reaps $1 billion annually -- a tenfold increase over the past decade.... Health and Human Services grants for shelters, foster care and other child welfare services for detained unaccompanied and separated children soared from $74.5 million in 2007 to $958 million in 2017. The agency is also reviewing a new round of proposals amid a growing effort by the White House to keep immigrant children in government custody. Currently, more than 11,800 children, from a few months old to 17, are housed in nearly 90 facilities in 15 states." --safari ...

... ** Michiko Kakutani in a New York Times op-ed: "My mother's family was among the 120,000 people of Japanese descent on the West Coast who were dispatched to internment camps during World War II.... History is repeating itself. This time without even the pretext of war, and with added heartbreaking cruelty. Under Mr. Trump's 'zero tolerance' border enforcement policy, nearly 3,000 children were separated from their parents.... Once again, national safety is invoked as a rationale for the roundup of whole groups of people. Once again, racist stereotypes are being used by politicians to ramp up fear and hatred. And once again, lies are being used to justify actions that violate the most fundamental American ideals of freedom, equality and tolerance."


Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has released a letter he received from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un while touting 'great progress' in negotiations between the United States and Pyongyang -- despite reports of a breakdown in talks.... Trump's comments came just hours after North Korean officials failed to show up at a planned meeting on Thursday with their US counterparts to discuss the repatriation of the remains of American soldiers killed in the Korean war." --safari ...

... Brett Samuels of the Hill: "North Korean officials reportedly did not show up Thursday at a scheduled meeting with U.S. officials to discuss returning the remains of American soldiers, and instead suggested talking with United Nations military leaders about the issue. Yonhap News in South Korea reported that North Korea asked the United Nations Command to hold 'general-level military talks' about returning the remains of American troops killed in the Korean War. A source told Yonhap that North Korea 'wants a U.S. general to appear at the table to quickly finalize the repatriation issue.'" Mrs. McC: Good. There's a job for John Kelly, who is reportedly useless at the White House. More fun if there's nothing for breakfast but North Korean Potatoes ala Pompeo. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Gangster Regime. Alex Lockie of Business Insider: "A North Korean diplomat reportedly told an Israeli diplomat in 1999 that Pyongyang would provide ballistic missile technology to Iran, a state sworn to destroy Israel, unless it paid up to the tune of $1 billion. North Korea has a long and well documented history of providing weapons technology, including chemical and nuclear weapon infrastructure, to countries like Iran and Syria. While Pyongyang commands a few dozen operational nuclear warheads, according to intelligence reports, its real threat to the world lies not in starting an outright nuclear war, but in selling nuclear weapons to states, or terrorists, that may use them. It's unclear if Israel ever paid North Korea's blackmail, though Israel would later destroy an Iranian nuclear reactor that North Korea was suspected of helping build. [In a report in the Wall Street Journal published Sunday (firewalled), Israel rejected the offer]. --safari

Trade Wars Are Easy to Win, Ctd. Alan Rappeport & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The trade war between the United States and China showed no signs of yielding on Thursday, as Steven Mnuchin the Treasury secretary, told lawmakers there was no clear path to resolution and Beijing blasted the administration over its approach. Mr. Mnuchin, who has tried to avoid calling the trade tensions with China a 'war,' said talks with Beijing had 'broken down' and suggested it was now up to China to come to the table with concessions. President Trump, speaking in Brussels on Thursday, described the trade talks with China as a 'nasty' battle. The Chinese, meanwhile, accused the United States of 'acting erratically' and said the administration had 'blatantly abandoned the consensuses that two sides have reached and insisted on fighting a trade war with China.'"

Frances Robles of the New York Times: "The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s plans for a crisis in Puerto Rico were based on a focused disaster like a tsunami, not a major hurricane devastating the whole island. The agency vastly underestimated how much food and fresh water it would need, and how hard it would be to get additional supplies to the island. And when the killer storm did come, FEMA's warehouse in Puerto Rico was nearly empty, its contents rushed to aid the United States Virgin Islands, which were hammered by another storm two weeks before. There was not a single tarpaulin or cot left in stock. Those and other shortcomings are detailed in a FEMA report assessing the agency's response to the 2017 storm season, when three major hurricanes slammed the United States in quick succession, leaving FEMA struggling to deliver food and water quickly to storm victims in Puerto Rico. The after-action report describes an initially chaotic and disorganized relief effort.... The report confirms many of the criticisms that have been leveled at the agency...."

Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "Among the hundreds of people arrested in North Dakota for protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Native Americans faced the most serious charges.... Activists viewed the federal charges brought against [the] Native Americans as an attempt by the government to exert a chilling effect on indigenous-led resistance to resource extraction and fossil fuel infrastructure." --safari

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "The federal government has quietly revived its investigation into the murder of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African-American boy whose abduction and killing remains, almost 63 years later, among the starkest and most searing examples of racial violence in the South. The Justice Department said that its renewed inquiry, which it described in a report submitted to Congress in late March, was 'based upon the discovery of new information.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Today's Best Headline: "A Family Of Woodchucks Ate Paul Ryan's Car" ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Speaking to reporters Thursday morning at the Economic Club of Washington, House Speaker Paul Ryan had three clear messages on trade: He thinks the Trump administration's trade wars are misguided, he doesn't intend to do anything about it, and he is a deeply dishonest person who is committed to pretending that there&'s nothing he can do about it.... If Paul Ryan and other congressional Republicans who've long supported free trade wanted to write legislation curtailing Trump's ability to invoke spurious national security claims to raise taxes on imported goods, it seems overwhelmingly likely that they would be able to get the votes to do so."

Chris D'Angelo & Alexander Kaufman of Mother Jones: "House Republicans on Wednesday voted to weaken a much-praised 1976 law that helped revive the commercial fishing industry in the United States and bring its fisheries back from the brink of collapse. The bill, introduced by Rep. Don Young(R-Alaska), would remove annual catch limits on numerous fish species and roll back requirements for recovering overfished stocks. Many scientists, fishers and ocean advocacy groups say that will likely result in overfishing.... The measure must still be approved by the Senate, although it's unclear if or when that chamber will take up the bill." --safari

Jay Michaelson of the Daily Beast: "... in a speech given just last year to the American Enterprise Institute, [Brett] Kavanaugh made it perfectly clear that he believes Roe to have been wrongly decided.... 'Justice Rehnquist was not successful in convincing a majority of the justices in the context of abortion either in Roe itself or in the later cases such as Casey, in the latter case perhaps because of stare decisis. But he was successful in stemming the general tide of freewheeling judicial creation of unenumerated rights that were not rooted in the nation's history and tradition,' [Kavanaugh said.]... There is no doubt, reading this 2017 speech, that Judge Kavanaugh believes not just Roe but the entire series of cases of which it is a part to be 'freewheeling' judicial legislation of 'social policy.'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

"Fair & Balanced." Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: " On Wednesday, Facebook announced the lineup of its series of news shows produced exclusively for the platform. Nearly half of the scheduled content consists of Fox News programming.... Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the platform would prioritize 'high quality' news. Zuckerberg has seemed sensitive to claims of left-wing bias over the past year, partnering with a right-wing outlet to fact-check stories ... and hiring two major conservative groups to determine whether the platform displays a liberal bias.... In response to questions about why Infowars is still allowed on its platform, Facebook cited free speech." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This really is appalling. Did Facebook consult with professors at reputable journalism schools to make its programming decisions? Did it have any sort panel of experts to review its choices? Or -- more likely -- did some high-ranking FB techies meet with the "two major conservative groups" & let the "groups" decide what "high-quality news" looks like? The legitimization of Fox "News" is one of the country's biggest problems, frankly, and the Facebook Seal of Approval -- along with the new content that will appear on FB's channel -- goes a long way toward normalizing the abnormal. See also safari's comment below.

Charles Rabin, et al., of the Miami Herald: "Records obtained by the Miami Herald suggest that during the tenure of former chief Raimundo Atesiano [of Biscayne Park, a town near Miami], the command staff pressured some officers into targeting random black people to clear cases.... In a report from that probe, four officers -- a third of the small force -- told an outside investigator they were under marching orders to file the bogus charges to improve the department's crime stats. Only [one officer] specifically mentioned targeting blacks, but former Biscayne Park village manager Heidi Shafran, who ordered the investigation after receiving a string of letters from disgruntled officers, said the message seemed clear for cops on the street." Via New York.

Michelle Van Dyke of BuzzFeed: "A man who was filmed yelling and getting in the face of a woman for wearing a shirt with Puerto Rico's flag has been charged with a felony hate crime. Timothy Trybus, 62, berated 24-year-old Mia Irizarry in June while she was setting up for a birthday party in a Chicago park and wearing the shirt.... The Cook County State's Attorney's Office told the Chicago Tribune the new charges for Trybus come after reviewing the case.... Trybus was arrested and charged Thursday with two counts of felony hate crime, after already having been charged with misdemeanor assault and misdemeanor disorderly conduct.... County Commissioner Luis Arroyo Jr., told reporters Thursday that [police officer Patrick] Connor [who did noting to help Irizarry despite her repeated pleas] had 'embarrassed many of our law enforcement officers' and 'tarnished the whole department' by not intervening." Connor resigned from the force. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Irizarry posted her video on Facebook, & it eventually went viral, prompting outrage & forcing Cook County to do something. This outcome also forces me to admit that Facebook can be useful. Trybus & Connor would have got away if not for Irizarry's Facebook posting.

Beyond the Beltway

AP: "Maine's fiscally conservative governor says he'd rather go to jail before expanding Medicaid and putting the state in 'red ink.' Gov. Paul LePage made the remark Tuesday during a call-in on WVOM-FM. Nearly three out of five voters last fall voted to expand Medicaid to 80,000 Mainers by July 2. Advocates are encouraging Mainers to sign up. The Republican governor is fighting a court order requiring him to follow the voter-approved law and submit paperwork needed for Maine to receive federal funding. He successfully vetoed a bill to fund Maine's share of expansion with surplus and tobacco settlement funds." Mrs. McC: The best thing would be for the state to expand Medicaid AND send LePage to jail.

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Wednesday
Jul112018

The Commentariat -- July 12, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Annie Karni of Politico: "A day before ... Donald Trump's arrival [in England]..., Steve Bannon ... set up a bare war room, of sorts, in a conference room at [a London hotel] to confer and conspire with leaders of Europe's surging populist movement. Bannon's goal, he said..., is to help 'contextualize Trump' for a European audience that hates him and a fiery tabloid media culture that he believes doesn't give the American president a fair shake."

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "The federal government has quietly revived its investigation into the murder of >Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African-American boy whose abduction and killing remains, almost 63 years later, among the starkest and most searing examples of racial violence in the South. The Justice Department said that its renewed inquiry, which it described in a report submitted to Congress in late March, was 'based upon the discovery of new information.'"

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The embattled F.B.I. agent [Peter Strzok] who oversaw the opening of the Russia investigation mounted an aggressive personal defense on Thursday, rejecting accusations that he let his private political views bias his official actions and labeling Republican attacks on him 'another victory notch in Putin's belt.'... The fiery hearing, convened by House Judiciary and Oversight committees, devolved into a spectacle almost as soon as it began, as pent-up rage between House Republicans and the F.B.I. broke into the open in spectacular fashion." Mrs. McC: The hearing, which is ongoing at 12:45 pm, is ridiculous. The Republicans seem to be stark, staring mad. I mean that; they're nuts.

Jay Michaelson of the Daily Beast: "... in a speech given just last year to the American Enterprise Institute, [Brett] Kavanaugh made it perfectly clear that he believes Roe to have been wrongly decided.... 'Justice Rehnquist was not successful in convincing a majority of the justices in the context of abortion either in Roe itself or in the later cases such as Casey, in the latter case perhaps because of stare decisis. But he was successful in stemming the general tide of freewheeling judicial creation of unenumerated rights that were not rooted in the nation's history and tradition,' [Kavanaugh said.]... There is no doubt, reading this 2017 speech, that Judge Kavanaugh believes not just Roe but the entire series of cases of which it is a part to be 'freewheeling' judicial legislation of 'social policy.'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "North Korean officials reportedly did not show up Thursday at a scheduled meeting with U.S. officials to discuss returning the remains of American soldiers, and instead suggested talking with United Nations military leaders about the issue. Yonhap News in South Korea reported that North Korea asked the United Nations Command to hold 'general-level military talks' about returning the remains of American troops killed in the Korean War. A source told Yonhap that North Korea 'wants a U.S. general to appear at the table to quickly finalize the repatriation issue.'" Mrs. McC: Good. There's a job for John Kelly. who is reportedly useless at the White House. More fun if there's nothing for breakfast but North Korean Potatoes ala Pompeo.

*****

William James & Jeff Mason of Reuters: "... Donald Trump flies into 'hot spot' Britain on Thursday hours after casting doubt on Prime Minister Theresa May's plans for leaving the European Union and with protests planned across the country where he says the people like him a lot.... A YouGov poll on Wednesday showed 77 percent had an unfavorable opinion of the president and just 50 percent thought his visit should go ahead."

Emma Anderson of Politico: "Donald Trump threatened to pull out of NATO at a summit of country leaders Thursday over defense spending, according to an unconfirmed report by German news agency DPA." ...

     ... ** Update. David Herszenhorn & Lili Bayer of Politico: "... Donald Trump threatened to break with NATO and conduct American security unilaterally -- if allies do not immediately meet higher military spending targets, NATO officials and diplomats said. Trump warned of 'grave consequences' if allies do not immediately meet higher spending targets, derailing a morning meeting of NATO leaders with the leaders of Georgia and Ukraine on the second day of a NATO leaders' summit on Thursday. One NATO official said Trump wants a plan from alliance members by January on how to reach the spending target. Some officials urged caution in interpreting Trump's remarks, but say allies clearly heard a threat. Word of Trump's threat set off a wild game of telephone at NATO headquarters as officials and reporters tried to sort out what exactly Trump told fellow leaders. Two common versions ... were if allies don't pay up, the U.S. 'will do our own thing' or 'go it alone.' NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg immediately shifted the meeting of the North Atlantic Council, the alliance's top political body, into an allies-only emergency session.... NATO officials said Trump was furious over media coverage suggesting that the first day of the summit had proceeded calmly, and that he had demanded to hold a press conference immediately after the morning meeting." ...

     ... Update 2. Michael Birnbaum & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump upended the NATO summit [in Brussels] Thursday by calling an emergency meeting of leaders and threatening that if all member countries do not immediately increase their defense spending commitments, the United States would go it alone, according to diplomats with knowledge of the private discussions. It was not clear whether Trump was threatening a U.S. withdrawal from NATO, but some diplomats perceived his comments that way.... A morning of meetings to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, Georgia and Ukraine was scrambled to address Trump's spending concerns." ...

     ... Update 3. Jordyn Phelps & Meredith McGraw of ABC News: "... Donald Trump declared NATO a 'fine-tuned machine' in an impromptu news conference at the conclusion of his participation in a contentious NATO summit.... The alliance is much stronger than it was at the outset of the conference, Trump said Thursday, taking credit for what he said are increased commitments from allies to up spending, citing an increased commitment of $33 billion to the alliance. 'Yesterday, I let them know that I was extremely unhappy with what was happening and they have substantially upped their commitment and now we're very happy, and have a very very powerful, very strong NATO, much stronger than it was two days ago,' Trump said. The president told reporters he 'probably' had the unilateral power to pull the United States out of NATO ... but said he thinks it's unnecessary." ...

     ... Update 4. Ewen MacAskill of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has claimed victory at the Nato summit, saying progress had been made on defence spending only hours after throwing the Brussels meeting into disarray with fresh attacks on European allies. Asked whether he had threatened to pull out of Nato, the US president did not directly deny it.... He said the alliance members had agreed to reach spending 2% of GDP on defence faster than previously planned and claimed financial commitments would increase beyond that in future. But other delegations and Nato officials contradicted Trump, saying he had secured no significant concessions and their defence spending plans remained basically the same as they had been before the summit. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, denied Trump's claim that Nato powers agreed to increase defence spending beyond previous targets." ...

     ... Update Whatever. Axios: "President Trump reiterated one of his most famous self-assessments during a press conference at the NATO summit Thursday, calling himself a 'very stable genius' after a Croatian reporter asked if he'd change his tone on Twitter regarding the alliance once he'd left. 'No, that's other people that do that. I don't. I'm very consistent. I'm a very stable genius.'" ...

... The New York Times is liveblogging Trump's European Adventure. Here's the latest @ 5:40 am ET: "Mr. Trump spent the morning of Day Two on Thursday tweeting his grievances from afar, arriving late to alliance headquarters for a multilateral session with the leaders of Georgia and Ukraine. 'Presidents have been trying unsuccessfully for years to get Germany and other rich NATO Nations to pay more toward their protection from Russia,' Mr. Trump said on Twitter before arriving for meetings, repeating gripes he aired on Wednesday.... He went on to assail Germany anew for a $10 billion pipeline it approved to bring natural gas directly from Russia." 7:00 am ET update: "Mr. Trump strongly recommitted American support for NATO on Thursday, saying that he had won great concessions from allies on military spending. 'The United States was not being treated fairly, but now we are,' the president said at a news conference, after the NATO leaders held an emergency meeting to address Mr. Trump's complaints. 'I believe in NATO.'"

Michael Birnbaum & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "NATO leaders, including President Trump, approved a sweeping set of plans Wednesday to bolster defenses against Russia and terrorism, despite a blistering attack by the U.S. leader earlier in the day against Germany and other allies. Leaders also reiterated their pledge to increase defense spending, Trump's main focus going into the meeting. The decision suggested that Trump is holding back from slashing support for the alliance, despite his anger over what he says is Europe's taking advantage of the U.S. security umbrella. But NATO leaders are still concerned that he will make concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin when the two meet on Monday." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "For a president who loves declaring victory, the NATO summit here Wednesday could have provided a perfect opportunity. After a year of haranguing by President Trump, Western leaders had agreed to his administration's long-sought priorities on defense spending and counterterrorism and were prepared to let him take all the credit.... 'He could declare victory ... and ride off in a blaze of glory as leader of the West,' said Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO and to Russia.... 'But he's rubbing salt in the wounds.'... 'The rapid erosion of trust in Donald Trump, I've never seen anything like it for any of our post-World War II presidents,' said Nicholas Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO. 'They're infuriated at these persistent attacks on NATO.... They all listened to the Great Falls, Montana, speech and follow him on Twitter. There's tremendous disappointment that an American leader would be so ungrateful and so mean-spirited.'... Behind closed doors, Trump was cordial and even magnanimous at times with his European counterparts, according to officials who interacted with him." ...

... Steven Erlanger & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "NATO's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, could barely finish the greetings at Wednesday's breakfast when Mr. Trump launched into a clearly planned attack.... It was aimed at Germany, one of the alliance's most important members. 'Germany, as far as I'm concerned, is captive to Russia because it's getting so much of its energy from Russia,' Mr. Trump [said]... 'We have to talk about the billions and billions of dollars that's being paid to the country we're supposed to be protecting you against. I think it's something that NATO has to look at,' Mr. Trump said. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany ... reacted mildly but pointedly to Mr. Trump's remarks.... 'I myself experienced a part of Germany that was controlled by the Soviet Union, and I am very happy today that we are united in freedom as the Federal Republic of Germany,' she said as she entered the NATO building. 'We decide our own policies and make our own decisions, and that's very good.'... Her foreign minister, Heiko Maas, gave a much sharper response to Mr. Trump's disparaging remarks on Wednesday, writing on Twitter, 'We are no captives -- neither of Russia nor of the United States.'" ...

... Pastries & Cheese. Rebecca Tan of the Washington Post: Body language experts note how uncomfortable John Kelly, Mike Pompeo & NATO ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison looked during Trump's diatribe against Germany."Hutchinson appears to avert her gaze from her NATO colleagues sitting across from her, while Kelly looks down, then shifts his body and glances away, lips pursed tightly." Includes video, also embedded here yesterday. Mrs. McC: But, wait. Count on the White House to have an absurd explanation for everything. "In a statement to The Post, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, '[Kelly] was displeased because he was expecting a full breakfast and there were only pastries and cheese.'" ...

     ... Adam Raymond of New York: "As you can see in the video above, though, breakfast hadn't yet been served." Mrs. McC: Yeah, those clean, untouched plates & uniformly-filled juice glasses (except for Trump's) confused me. So the facial contortions, lip-pursing, gaze-averting & "[digging] something out of his ear" were signs Kelly anticipated of a paltry breakfast.

... Calvin Woodward of the AP: "Unleashing in-your-face rhetoric at the NATO summit..., Donald Trump pressed the falsehood Wednesday that members of the alliance owe money to the U.S. and took sole credit for higher military spending by NATO partners -- a decision that preceded his presidency. Trump also misrepresented Germany's energy picture, asserting coal and nuclear power are gone from the mix. Coal remains a bedrock energy source for Germany despite its hope to wean itself from that mineral and nuclear plants have several years of life before they are to be phased out." ...

... Rick Noack of the Washington Post explains the controversies over the 800-mile, planned gas pipeline which is to carry Russia's natural gas to Germany. Also, it's comforting to know that Germany's former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is just as corrupt as our current president*. Germany survived; perhaps we will, too. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Heather Hurlburt of New York: "Trump seeks to destabilize not just the NATO we have right now -- already deeply challenged by Russia and by illiberalism across Europe -- but the very idea that anything bigger or more lasting than his own interests defines American interests.... Much more than about NATO, it's a message that the leader's personal pique means a great deal -- and years or even decades of commitments and partnership may mean very little. That monumental shift in how the U.S. is expected to conduct itself cannot be 'cleaned up' -- not by Cabinet 'adults' or staff, not by a good meeting in London or Helsinki, and definitely not by tweets." ...

... News from the Trump Retraining Camp. Jonathan Chait: Trump's "efforts to train the Republican base to reverse its long-standing views on the relative merits of NATO and Russia have borne fruit. According to a recent poll, just 40 percent of Republicans think the U.S. should should stay in NATO, while 56 percent of Republicans consider Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin good for the United States.... It may seem bizarre that one man could do this, especially given that almost nobody in Trump's administration or the ranks of the party's political professionals share his goal of jettisoning NATO or closely courting Russia. Yet Trump has shown the ability to lead his base wherever he wants to take it. And where the base has gone, the party has eventually followed." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... ** "Where's the Outrage?" David Corn of Mother Jones: "In 1938, Winston Churchill published a collection of his speeches warning that his homeland was not adequately contending with the threat posed by Nazi Germany. The title: 'While England Slept.' Eighty years later, a similar observation can be rendered concerning the United States. Much of the political and media elite and the citizenry seem to be sleepwalking past a horrific and fundamental fact: The current president of the United States has helped to cover up a serious attack on the nation. This profound act of betrayal has gone unpunished and, in many quarters, unnoticed, even as it continues. With Donald Trump about to meet Vladimir Putin on Monday -- rewarding the thuggish authoritarian Russian leader with a grand summit in Helsinki -- this is an appropriate moment to remember that their dark bromance involves a mutual stonewalling of wrongdoing." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.)


Be Careful What You Ask for. Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "The legal saga of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort took another turn Wednesday as Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) Judge T.S. Ellis has denied his bid to stay put at the jail he is currently residing at. Instead, he will be moved from a jail in Warsaw, Va. to the Alexandria Detention Center. Manafort's attorneys expressed concerns later Tuesday that moving him from Northern Neck Regional Jail to Alexandria would put their client's safety in jeopardy. Ellis' response? Don't worry, they know how to handle terrorists (foreign and domestic), traitors and spies -- and, also, you haven't specified any threats to Manafort's safety." Manafort's attorneys had first argued that the Warsaw, Va., facility (Mrs. McC: where Manafort was treated as a VIP) was too inconveniently-located for Manafort to prepare for his trials, but changed their minds when Ellis agreed to move Manafort to Alexandria, near Washington, D.C. ...

... Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "... former press secretary Sean Spicer has filled a new book with breathless memories of his role in recent American history -- while admitting that Paul Manafort, suspected of being a tool of Moscow, played a central role in the Trump campaign.... Spicer's description in the book of Manafort's campaign role belies Trump's characterization of former campaign chairman Manafort as a minor campaign figure. Last year, Trump said Manafort had only been with the campaign for a 'very short period of time'. The book also contradicts Spicer's own March 2017 statement at the White House that Manafort had 'played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time'.... 'Paul brought a much-needed maturity to the Trump campaign when it needed an experienced political professional operative more than anything else,' Spicer writes of Manafort's hiring in the spring of 2016.... The Manafort message was clear: Trump will be our nominee and our next president, and anyone who didn't want to work to that end could spend the next four years in political Siberia. (No Russia pun intended.)."

Sarah Fitzpatrick, et al., of NBC News: "Adult film star Stormy Daniels ... was arrested during a performance at an Ohio strip club, her lawyer said early Thursday. Michael Avenatti told NBC News that Daniels ... was touched in a non-sexual manner while on stage. An Ohio law known as the Community Defense Act prohibits anyone who isn't a family member to touch a nude or semi-nude dancer. The Franklin County Sheriff's Office later confirmed that Daniels had been charged with three misdemeanor sex offenses. The porn star is due to appear in court on Friday." Mrs. McC: Gosh, I sure hope Trump pardons her. (Okay, maybe he can't since she allegedly violated a state, rather than a federal, law.)


Keith Collins & Jasmine Lee of the New York Times: Trump's trade wars have grown from 8 products to 10,000. "The dispute ... could grow to target almost 90 percent of what China sent to the United States last year. If the dispute continues, it could have a lasting impact on the global economy." Lots of graphics. ...

... Eric Werner & Heather Long of the Washington Post: "President Trump is remaking the global trade order without significant political resistance or penalty, unchecked by a largely compliant Congress and bolstered by the loyalty of his supporters -- even those likely to be hurt by his burgeoning global trade war. The Senate on Wednesday passed a nonbinding measure calling for a greater role in overseeing Trump's trade decisions, an implicit criticism of new tariffs the president has levied on some of the country's closest allies and largest trading partners. But the vote has no power to prompt a course change from the White House. And it follows failed attempts to advance measures that could have given Congress new power to restrain Trump.... Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) acknowledged after the vote that if the measure had had teeth, it wouldn't have passed.... The trade changes mirror Trump's rapid and similarly unchecked efforts to reposition the United States in the global political order."

Dara Lind of Vox: "President Donald Trump and other top administration officials ... claim that once a family is released from immigration, they'll simply ... skip ... their appointed court dates, to live as unauthorized immigrants.... But a new study, compiled by a pair of legal advocacy groups, shows that isn't the case.... The study confirms that families who cross into the US without papers often miss their court dates, but offers suggestive qualitative evidence ... that many families aren't deliberately absconding at all.... They're trying to stay in the system. It's just that the system makes it too hard for them.... The conclusion drawn by the advocacy groups is that people with attorneys were more likely to figure out how to make their court dates, and those without lawyers were at risk of getting swallowed up by the system." --safari

Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress: "[T]he details of Trump’s move [to pardon the Oregon ranchers] indicate he is less interested in reversing an unjust sentence than he is in giving a thinly-veiled 'attaboy' to a small group of heavily armed chaos agents who seek to undermine the federal government's proper role in managing public lands all across the western U.S.... Trump is positioned to give his base another pep rally-sized dose of own-the-libs pugnacity -- one big enough to distract from the president's own efforts to sell off protected wilderness to destructive mining and gas profiteers." --safari

Mike Allen of Axios: "President Trump wants to update the paint job on the next version of Air Force One, ditching the iconic robin's-egg blue (which he calls a 'Jackie Kennedy color') for a bolder, 'more American' look.... Trump rarely gets into the weeds of government negotiations. But he sat down in the Oval Office with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg in February to personally hammer out the $4 billion deal for a pair of replacement 747s for use as Air Force One (the call sign for whatever aircraft the president is on).... We're told he wants the presidential bed aboard Air Force One to be larger and more comfortable -- more like the executive livery package on his personal plane than the current, couch-like sleeping configuration aboard Air Force One."

Grifters. Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "Presidential administrations are large, and it's impossible to build one that's entirely scandal-free.... But inside the Donald Trump White House, grifters, abusers, racists, and harassers still get hired; they lurk around the Oval Office after they've been found out; and even in the rare instance where they're forced out, it's only grudgingly.... And this is the really striking thing about the current state of Republican Party politics -- not the handful of crooks and spouse abusers who've been forced out of their jobs, but the petulant and foot-dragging manner in which they've been cashiered, the continued tolerance for so many apparent malefactors, and the evident lack of desire to even attempt anything resembling a proper house-cleaning.... [I]n a house-cleaning ... nobody can articulate a plausible red line -- on corruption, on sexual misconduct, on racism, on conspiracy theories, on honesty, or virtually anything else -- that wouldn't implicate the president and his family." --safari

The Most Corrupt Administration Ever. Jesse Drucker & Kate Kelly of the New York Times: "Eighteen months into Jared Kushner's White House tenure, his family's real estate firm is deepening its financial relationships with institutions and individuals that have a lot riding on decisions made by the federal government. In the latest example, an arm of Brookfield Asset Management is close to completing an investment of up to $700 million in the Kushner family's tower at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The deal will be a boon to the Kushners, who are struggling to recoup their investments in their flagship building. At the same time, another Brookfield unit is awaiting the Trump administration's approval of its acquisition of the nuclear-power company Westinghouse Electric.... Kushner Companies has also recently negotiated a number of previously undisclosed transactions with investors who have business in Washington. Those investors include a businessman who arranges United States visas in exchange for real estate investments from overseas. His company is leading the lobbying fight against proposals to change the federal program on which his business relies."

... Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of CNN: "Darla Shine, the wife of new White House deputy chief of staff for communications Bill Shine, hosted a radio show in the late 2000s where she once mocked victims of sexual harassment in the military and repeatedly pushed fringe conspiracy theories about vaccines.... Shine, who long maintained a blog called 'Happy Housewives Club' where she featured recipes and tips for cleaning and budgeting and promoted her radio show and book, has faced scrutiny in recent days after Mediaite and Huffington Post reported she had made racially charged comments and spread baseless anti-vaccination conspiracy theories on her now-deleted Twitter account.... Shine said armed resistance might be needed to fight against [vaccines.]...Shine also passed on a false 'rumor' that Barack Obama could not get a security clearance when running for president.She claimed to believe in UFOs and interviewed self-identified alien abductees." And so forth. Mrs. McC: As I wrote the other day, Darla will get along fine in the Trump milieu.

AP: "The Senate on Wednesday approved ... Donald Trump's pick to lead the Justice Department's criminal division following a yearlong confirmation process. Brian Benczkowski was narrowly confirmed as an assistant attorney general with a 51-48 vote. Democrats strongly opposed the nomination, partly because of his work while in private practice for a leading Russian bank [Mrs. McC: a relationship which he initially failed to disclose]. Democrats said his Russian ties could complicate special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign. Democrats also contended that Benczkowski did not have enough experience in federal courtrooms to run the criminal division. [Mrs. McC: Um, Benczkowski had no experience in federal courtrooms.] The position is one of the most significant in the Justice Department, with the assistant attorney general having oversight of criminal cases involving public corruption, financial fraud, computer hacking, drug trafficking and other major crimes." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The confirmation is really good news for Trump, who can now fire Rod Rosenstein & replace him with Benczkowski.

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, has asked federal prosecutors to help review the government documents of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump's Supreme Court nominee.... Mr. Rosenstein's request was an unusual insertion of politics into federal law enforcement. While the Justice Department has helped work on previous Supreme Court nominations, department lawyers in Washington typically carry out that task, not prosecutors who pursue criminal investigations nationwide. But in an email sent this week to the nation's 93 United States attorneys, Mr. Rosenstein asked each office to provide up to three federal prosecutors 'who can make this important project a priority for the next several weeks.'... Former law enforcement officials described Mr. Rosenstein's directive as a troubling precedent. 'It's flat-out wrong to have career federal prosecutors engaged in a political process like the vetting of a Supreme Court nominee,' said Christopher Hunter, a former F.B.I. agent and federal prosecutor who is running for Congress." ...

... Robert Barnes & Ann E. Marimow of the Washington Post: "Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has only one major abortion ruling in his 12 years on the federal bench, but that forceful opinion will define the coming debate on what his elevation to the Supreme Court would mean for a woman's constitutional right to the procedure.... Abortion rights advocates ... point to the strongly worded dissent Kavanaugh issued last fall in a case involving a pregnant immigrant teenager in federal custody.... In his dissent, Kavanaugh accused his colleagues of creating 'a new right for unlawful immigrant minors in U.S. government detention to obtain immediate abortion on demand.' The phrase -- 'abortion on demand' -- is part of the antiabortion lexicon. He said the majority was shifting the law toward 'a radical extension of the Supreme Court's abortion jurisprudence.'... During his 2006 confirmation hearing to the appellate bench, Kavanaugh said he accepted the precedential value of Roe.... But Supreme Court justices are not bound as judges on lower courts are." ...

... Brett Kavanaugh, Spendthrift. Amy Brittain of the Washington Post: "Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh incurred tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt buying baseball tickets over the past decade and at times reported liabilities that could have exceeded the value of his cash accounts and investment assets, according to a review of Kavanaugh's financial disclosures and information provided by the White House. White House spokesman Raj Shah [said] ... that Kavanaugh built up the debt by buying Washington Nationals season tickets and tickets for playoff games for himself and a 'handful' of friends.... Shah told The Post that Kavanaugh's friends reimbursed him for their share of the baseball tickets and that the judge has since stopped purchasing the season tickets.... Unlike some of the other justices, Kavanaugh has worked more than two decades in the public sector and has not built wealth as a private lawyer." ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jeet Heer: "On Tuesday, The Washington Post published a curious op-ed about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, under the headline 'I don't know Kavanaugh the judge. But Kavanaugh the carpool dad is one great guy.' Written by Julie O'Brien, a neighbor of Kavanaugh, the column eschewed any discussion of his judicial philosophy and instead gave a portrait of him as wonderful friend.... The article was widely mocked for being completely beside the point. Melissa McEwan [in a tweet:] 'An extraordinary example of the dynamic I call the perfidy of civility. Why am I supposed to care about the interpersonal politeness of a man who seeks to be empowered to take away the rights of hundreds of millions of marginalized people? (I DON'T.)'... As partisan passions become more heated in the Trump era..., elite institutions like the Post ... increasingly push civility as a panacea.... It's understandable that Republicans would want to move the conversation away from substance to personality. What's more notable is that the Post is intent on facilitating this agenda in the name of civility." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Kinda reminds me of that time those mean Democrats (well, okay, Lindsey Graham) made Sam Alito's wife cry. The White House was incensed. Oh, the incivility.


Fear of Science. Adam Cancryn of Politico: "House Republican appropriators Wednesday rejected a proposal to designate millions of dollars for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for gun violence research, voting 32-20 to keep the language out of a fiscal 2019 spending bill. The party-line vote marked Democrats' latest failed bid to spur studies into preventing firearm-related injuries and deaths -- and comes despite a bipartisan agreement earlier this year that the CDC is permitted to conduct such research. The agency's ability to study gun violence had been limited by a 1996 provision that prevented the CDC from collecting data to advocate for gun control."

Patrick Smith of ThinkProgress: "House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) rejected calls for a congressional ethics probe into allegations against his Republican colleague, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).... Ryan argued that a probe was not needed because the alleged events would have occurred before Jordan was elected to office." --safari: That explains why Lyin' Ryan was so ho-hum about his fellow conservative Roy Moore. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I heard Ryan say on the teevee that Jordan was a friend of his. This is Pauly's version of the GOP Shuffle. It goes like this: First you step back on your left foot & wave you hands in horror. Then you slide to the left & hold a finger of your left hand to the wind. Then you slide to the right & hold a finger of your right hand to the wind. Then you step forward on your right foot & hold out your arms in an embrace. Repeat. When it comes to performing the GOP Shuffle, Pauly is a veritable Fred Astaire. ...

... Jeet Heer: "Jim Jordan is of course a strong supporter of ... Donald Trump in the Russia investigation.... The cause of Trump and Jordan are now tightly linked. Both men being presented by Republicans as alleged victims of the Deep State. This is further evidence of the the ongoing Trumpification of the Republican Party. Trump has provided a model for how to fend off a scandal: cry 'fake news' and blame the Deep State."

Politics Pays. Drew Wilson of Florida Politics: "A recently filed financial disclosure shows U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan celebrated passing the House version of the Republican tax bill in quite the lavish way. According to the disclosure, Buchanan spent between $1 million and $5 million purchasing an Ocean Alexander yacht on Nov. 16, 2017, the same day he joined 226 other Republicans and no Democrats in voting for the first draft of the 'Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.'... Given his net worth and income, progressive group Tax March estimated that the bill would save him up to $2.1 million on his taxes." --safari

Congressional & Other Races. The Party of Racists. Dana Milbank: "Behold, a new breed of Republican for the Trump era. Seth Grossman won the Republican primary last month for a competitive House seat in New Jersey, running on the message 'Support Trump/Make America Great Again.' The National Republican Congressional Committee endorsed him. Then, a video surfaced, courtesy of American Bridge, a Democratic PAC, of Grossman saying 'the whole idea of diversity is a bunch of crap.' Grossman then proclaimed diversity 'evil.' CNN uncovered previous instances of Grossman calling Kwanzaa a 'phony holiday' created by 'black racists,' labeling Islam a cancer and saying faithful Muslims cannot be good Americans. [Et-cetera.]... After weeks of delay, the NRCC finally withdrew its nomination. Many such characters have crawled out from under rocks and onto Republican ballots in 2018: A candidate with ties to white nationalists is the GOP Senate nominee in Virginia (and has President Trump's endorsement); an anti-Semite and Holocaust denier is the Republican candidate in a California House race; a prominent neo-Nazi won the GOP nomination in an Illinois House race; and overt racists are in Republican primaries across the country."

Pew Research Center: "When asked which president has done the best job in their lifetimes, more Americans name Barack Obama than any other president. More than four-in-ten (44%) say Obama is the best or second best president of their lifetimes, compared with about a third who mention Bill Clinton (33%) or Ronald Reagan (32%). ...

... Jonathan Chait: "As Americans see it, the last two Democratic presidencies have been rousing successes, while the previous two Republican ones have been miserable failures.... What I'm proposing here is a mystery without much of an answer. Why haven't Democrats made more use of this?"

Adam Peck of ThinkProgress: "For the second time this year, racist remarks by John Schnatter have forced him to resign from the company [Papa John's] he founded." --safari ...

... Guardian: Schnatter resigned as chairman this time. He resigned as CEO last December "after blaming slowing sales growth on the outcry surrounding football players kneeling during the national anthem. Yum Brands Inc's Pizza Hut replaced Papa John's as NFL's sponsor in February, ending Papa John's eight-year relationship with the top US football league. Papa John's shares closed nearly 5% down at $48.33 on Wednesday." Mrs. McC: Overtly racist remarks have paid off handsomely for Donald Trump & Co. But clearly bigotry doesn't work well for everyone.

Annie Kelly of the Guardian: "In a report launched on Thursday, supply-chain analyst firm Verisk Maplecroft predicts that the rise in robot manufacturing will have a knock-on effect that results not only in lost livelihoods but in a spike in slavery and labour abuses in brand supply chains [across Southeast Asia].... 'There has been a lot of discussion about the impact of robot automation on jobs but less on the resulting human rights abuses that are likely to follow,' said Dr Alex Channer, analyst at Verisk Maplecroft ... [which] ... say[s] that both businesses and governments need to work urgently to mitigate the potentially catastrophic consequences of automation on the 156 million people whose jobs are likely to be under threat in the coming decades." --safari

Deanna Paul & Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post: "A suspect, identified as 30-year-old Laquisha Jones, was arrested late Tuesday on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon [after attacking a 91-year old Hispanic man], according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Jones is being held on $200,000 bail.... [Jones, who is black, allegedly] pushed the elderly man to the ground and repeatedly bashed him in the face with a concrete brick while yelling, 'Go back to your country,' [an] eyewitness said."

Mrs. McCrabbie: This is an update of an incident Ken W. brought to our attention in yesterday's Comments. Phil Helsel of NBC News: "An Illinois police officer being investigated for his inaction as an intoxicated man berated a woman wearing a shirt with the Puerto Rican flag has resigned, the Forest Preserves of Cook County said Wednesday. The agency said that Officer Patrick Conner resigned late Tuesday. '... We are further addressing aspects of this incident,' a spokesperson for the Forest Preserves of Cook County said in a statement, adding the superintendent would address the matter to the media on Thursday.... Even Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló weighed in, saying on Twitter that he was 'appalled,' and that 'a Puerto Rican woman was brutally harassed by a bigot while an officer did not interfere.' The man who was tormenting [Mia] Irizarry, identified by police as Timothy Trybus, 62, has been charged with assault and disorderly conduct. He was intoxicated at the time, the Forest Preserves of Cook County has said."

News Lede

Hill: "Consumer prices rose 2.9 percent in the year since June 2017, a five-year high, while hourly wages fell 0.2 percent in the same period, according to federal data released Thursday. The consumer price index (CPI) rose almost three percent over the past year, the highest annual increase since February 2012, according to federal data. But hourly wage earnings adjusted for inflation decreased despite record-low unemployment and U.S. businesses struggling to fill thousands of jobs."

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