The Commentariat -- July 6, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration will not fully meet a federal judge's deadline to reunite all migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, and instead is seeking more time in instances where officials are struggling to match children to parents, according to court records filed late Thursday. The government's request, hours before a scheduled hearing on the issue Friday, marks an abrupt departure from comments made earlier Thursday from President Trump's secretary for Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, whose agency cares for the children in shelters. He had said the Trump administration 'will comply' with the deadlines, though he criticized the judge's timetable as 'extreme.'"

** Annie Snider of Politico: "The Trump administration is suppressing an Environmental Protection Agency report that warns that most Americans inhale enough formaldehyde vapor in the course of daily life to put them at risk of developing leukemia and other ailments, a current and a former agency official told Politico. The warnings are contained in a draft health assessment EPA scientists completed just before Donald Trump became president, according to the officials. They said top advisers to departing Administrator Scott Pruitt are delaying its release as part of a campaign to undermine the agency's independent research into the health risks of toxic chemicals. Andrew Wheeler, the No. 2 official at EPA who will be the agency's new acting chief ..., was staff director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in 2004, when his boss, then-Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), sought to delay an earlier iteration of the formaldehyde assessment.... As long ago as January, Pruitt told a Senate panel that he believed the draft assessment was complete. Five months later, it has yet to see the light of day."

Chris Cillizza notes some of the men Donald Trump believes over their accusers: Jim Jordan, Roy Moore, Rob Porter, Rogers Ailes & Bill O'Reilly. (Al Franken, not so much.) "It doesn't take a genius to diagnose a severe case of situational ethics in Trump."

Peter Walker of the Guardian: "Donald Trump will almost entirely avoid London during his four-day visit to the UK next week, Downing Street has said, unveiling an itinerary that is likely to prompt accusations he is trying to avoid planned protests against him.... Trump, who is to meet Theresa May and the Queen among others before spending two days in Scotland, will only spend the night in London on Thursday, the day of his arrival, staying at the US ambassador's official residence in Regent's Park, Winfield House. Before that he will attend a gala dinner at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, and the following day he will hold talks with the prime minister at her Chequers country retreat in Buckinghamshire. Both are places where protesters can be kept out of sight and earshot. Later on the Friday he will meet the Queen at Windsor Castle before heading to Scotland for the weekend." Mrs. McC: Hope he gets to see Blimpy Baby Trump (story linked below).

*****

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: "This, to say the least, is not normal." That's what Susan Glasser writes (linked below) about the administration's revolving spinning door. But "not normal" also is true of most news that comes out of the White House every day. Just look at today: we've begun a massive trade war with China initiated by presidential fiat without any consideration of the consequences for the greater economy (but not touching Trump's personal profits); a President making racist, sexist remarks against a sitting U.S. Senator; an administration so incompetent that it crosses the line into criminal negligence in its cruel treatment of children & their families (DNA tests to find out who's who!); a President who finally fires a scandal-plagued Cabinet member (via a surrogate who also is about to get canned), then lies about the circumstances of the firing; a President who hires a new scandal-plagued deputy who enabled a sexual abuser not unlike the President himself; a President who unequivocally supports (for now) a Congressman accused of covering up rampant sexual abuse & who dismisses out-of-hand widespread allegations against the MoC. We cannot become accustomed to this. It is "normal" now; but it is not normal over the course of the nation's history.

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "A trade war between the world's two largest economies officially began on Friday morning as the Trump administration followed through with its threat to impose tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese products, a significant escalation of a fight that could hurt companies and consumers in both the United States and China. The penalties, which went into effect at 12:01 a.m., prompted quick retaliation by Beijing. China said it immediately put its own similarly sized tariffs on an unspecified clutch of American goods. Previously, the Chinese government had said it would tax pork, soybeans and automobiles, among other goods. In a statement, China's Ministry of Commerce said the United States 'has launched the biggest trade war in economic history so far.'" Mrs. McC: The Minister's comment is very Trumpy. ...

     ... As Ye Sow... Paul Krugman: "... big business is reaping what it sowed. No single cause brought us to this terrible moment in American history, but decades of cynical politics on the part of corporate America certainly played an important role.... Partly I mean the tacit alliance between businesses and the wealthy, on one side, and racists on the other, that is the essence of the modern conservative movement.... Trump isn't just a protectionist, he's an authoritarian.... Trump is already in the habit of threatening businesses that have crossed him.... But organizations like the [C]hamber [of Commerce] and Heritage are still trying to ensure a Republican victory." ...

... Jonathan O'Connell & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "... the president's businesses continue to benefit from partnerships involving the Chinese government, via state-backed companies and investors. Chinese government-backed firms are slated to work on parts of two large developments -- in Dubai and Indonesia -- that will include Trump-branded properties. The Trumps are the landlord to one of China's top state-owned banks, which has occupied the 20th floor of Trump Tower in Manhattan since 2008. The bank's lease is worth close to $2 million annually, according to industry estimates and a bank filing. And despite the Trump administration's focus on American manufacturing, assembly-line workers in China still produce blouses, shoes and handbags for the clothing line created by Trump's daughter Ivanka, a White House adviser. The tariffs that were set to kick in at 12:01 a.m. Friday are not expected to affect the Trumps' financial interests...."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Trump lobbed personal and derogatory attacks at two Democratic senators, mocked the #MeToo movement and vouched for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday during a freewheeling, raucous rally ostensibly intended to solidify support for Montana's Republican Senate candidate. Taunting Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, with a refusal to apologize for calling her 'Pocahontas,' Mr. Trump imagined a debate during which he would gently throw an ancestry testing kit at Ms. Warren to make her prove the Native American heritage she has controversially claimed. 'We are going to do it gently because we're the #MeToo generation, so we have to be very careful,' the president said to scattered laughter, adding that he would donate $1 million to charity if Ms. Warren followed through. Mr. Trump, who has faced accusations of sexual assault and harassment, announced earlier in the day that Bill Shine, who was ousted from Fox News over his handling of the network's harassment scandals, would take a position on his administration's communications staff." Trump also criticized Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). Do read on. ...

While you obsess over my genes, your Admin is conducting DNA tests on little kids because you ripped them from their mamas & you are too incompetent to reunite them in time to meet a court order. Maybe you should focus on fixing the lives you're destroying. -- Elizabeth Warren, following Trump's remarks, in a tweet ...

... ** Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "Faced with a court-imposed deadline to reunite families separated at the southwest border, federal authorities are calling in volunteers to sort through records and resorting to DNA tests to match children with parents. And they acknowledged for the first time Thursday that of the nearly 3,000 children who are still in federal custody, about 100 are under the age of 5. The family separations, part of an aggressive effort by the Trump administration to deter illegal immigration, have produced a chaotic scramble as officials now face political and judicial pressure to reunite families. Records linking children to their parents have disappeared, and in some cases have been destroyed, according to two officials of the Department of Homeland Security, leaving the authorities struggling to identify connections between family members." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, DHS head Kirstjen Nielsen & HHS Secretary Alex Azar must answer for this. The administration's purposeful incompetence is nothing short of criminal negligence. Their cavalier ineptitude has deep consequences for their victims; now it must have consequences for the perps. ...

... MEANWHILE. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club has applied for permission to hire 40 foreign workers to serve as waiters during the winter social season in Palm Beach, Fla., according to data posted Thursday by the Labor Department.... The application filed with the Labor Department signals that -- despite Trump's insistence that immigration is holding down wages and crowding out native-born American workers -- his club believes it cannot find any Americans willing and able to hold the waiter jobs." ...

... Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday that officials are racing against a federal judge's 'extreme' deadlines to reunite 'under 3,000' migrant children separated from their parents at the U.S. border. Azar did not provide a precise number, but he said hundreds of government employees are poring over databases, examining case files, and conducting DNA tests to reunite families. The children are being held in shelters overseen by HHS. Their parents are in Homeland Security's immigration jails.... International advocacy groups and Pope Francis had criticized the administration for traumatizing families.... Thursday, two House Oversight Committee leaders pressed key Trump Cabinet officials for a detailed accounting of the thousands of children separated from their parents since the administration began in May to prosecute every illegal border crossing. In a bipartisan letter, sent to Azar, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, lawmakers made 11 specific requests for information about every child -- including their age, gender and location."

Martha Mendoza & Garance Burke of the AP: "Some immigrant U.S. Army reservists and recruits who enlisted in the military with a promised path to citizenship are being abruptly discharged.... The AP was unable to quantify how many men and women who enlisted through the special recruitment program have been booted from the Army, but immigration attorneys say they know of more than 40 who have been discharged or whose status has become questionable, jeopardizing their futures.... Some of the service members say they were not told why they were being discharged. Others who pressed for answers said the Army informed them they'd been labeled as security risks because they have relatives abroad or because the Defense Department had not completed background checks on them."

** Adios, Scotty! Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, President Trump's administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, resigned after facing months of allegations over legal and ethical violations. Mr. Trump announced the resignation in a tweet on Thursday in which he thanked Mr. Pruitt for an 'outstanding job' and said the agency's deputy, Andrew Wheeler, would take over as the acting administrator on Monday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... The story has been updated; Lisa Friedman & Maggie Haberman now are also on the byline. Here's one update: "An individual close to Mr. Pruitt said the president acted after he found one particular story in recent days embarrassing: a report that Mr. Pruitt had asked Mr. Trump to fire Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, so that Mr. Pruitt could run the Justice Department. The idea had been discussed privately for months by the president, who occasionally asked advisers if it was a good idea.... But seeing those deliberations being aired publicly, amid a string of other damaging reports, focused Mr. Trump's attention, a person close to the president said. Fresh allegations that Mr. Pruitt had retroactively altered his public schedule, potentially committing a federal crime, had also escalated concerns about him at the White House, according to a White House aide. On Thursday afternoon, around 1:30, Mr. Trump's chief of staff, John F. Kelly, reached out to Mr. Pruitt to tell him the time had come." ...

     ... Margaret Hartmann reports in the post linked below, "Trump described a much different, more flattering, scene, telling reporters that the EPA chief 'came to me and said, "I have such great confidence in the administration. I don't want to be a distraction.'" ...

... The Limits of Sucking Up. Margaret Hartmann: Pruitt "survived months of increasingly outlandish misconduct allegations -- featuring props like a used Trump hotel mattress, fancy lotion, expensive fountain pens, and a $43,000 soundproof phone booth -- because Trump only cared that environmental regulations were being torn up, and Pruitt took an 'adoring tone' in their interactions, according to the Washington Post.... It can seem like [Trump is] bizarrely devoted to his top aides.... But if Trump decides someone is a liability, he'll drop them in an instant." ...

... The Consequences of Pissing Down. Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Though well-liked by Trump until recently, Pruitt routinely alienated many senior staff members and would-be allies. Their subsequent press leaks and congressional whistleblowing made Pruitt too much of a liability even for Trump.... [Pruitt's] routine mistreatment of his subordinates ... led them to speak out -- and may have sealed his fate.... The litany of former staffers with an ax to grind kept the Pruitt controversy in the headlines for months, eventually managing to exhaust President Trump's patience, White House sources say. Even Fox News ... had turned on Pruitt by the end." ...

... Pruitt Says He Quit Because People Were Mean to Him. Politico publishes Scotty's resignation letter: "You're great, Trump, blah blah, the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us blah blah." Mrs. McC: So not his fault. I hope Kristen Mink -- that mom who approached him in the restaurant earlier this week -- was the last straw. She's my hero. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... God Ordained Trump & Pruitt, Sez Pruitt. Ed Kilgore: "Pruitt's resignation letter ... [ended] on a characteristic (to Evangelical ears) note: 'I believe you are serving as President today because of God's providence. I believe that same providence brought me into your service.' Considering that his issues would have probably forced him out much, much earlier under most, if not all, of the first 44 presidents, that sentiment is understandable.... His legendary tenure will likely earn him a spot in history alongside such ethical blackguards as Harding's Interior Secretary Albert Fall, who accepted bribes for no-bid federal oil leases in the Teapot Dome scandal, or Grant's War Secretary William Belknap, whose Pruitt-like taste for luxury was supported by kickbacks from military trading post concession-holders. What's missing so far in Pruitt's case is any acknowledgement from his Cabinet peers or the president that he's done anything wrong. And that may be the biggest Pruitt scandal of them all." ...

... Remembering Scotty. Eli Watkins & Clare Foran of CNN published an organized list of Scotty's Scandals in mid-April & have "updated with more developments." It's a really impressive list! ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: While the Congress might be able to end some or all of its inquiries into Pruitt, I don't see how any investigations -- by the IG or FBI or others -- that reasonably might lead to criminal charges can be shut down just because Scotty has slipped out of his tactical pants & cleaned the family photos out of his hermetically-sealed office. If a bank employee is under investigation for embezzlement, she doesn't get to keep the money just because she quit her job. It would be great if Trump decided to pardon Pruitt right before the November elections. ...

... Coral Davenport, et al., of the New York Times: "Before he resigned on Thursday, Scott Pruitt ... was facing new questions about whether aides deleted sensitive information about his meetings from his public schedule and potentially violated the law in doing so. Last summer one of his senior schedulers, Madeline G. Morris, was fired by Mr. Pruitt's former deputy chief of staff, Kevin Chmielewski, who said he let her go because she was questioning the practice of retroactively deleting meetings from the calendar. Mr. Chmielewski has emerged as a harsh critic of Mr. Pruitt after a bitter falling out that led to his departure from the agency as well." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Emily Atkin of the New Republic: "A considerable amount of reporting went into exposing all of [Pruitt's] scandals, as [Kristen] Mink [-- the mother who confronted Pruitt at a restaurant --] noted on Thursday. 'It's not like I can take all the credit for this,' the schoolteacher told DCist. 'The great majority goes to effective fact-based research of quality journalists who exposed the depth of Scott Pruitt's corruption.' But the celebration of journalists' dogged work in covering Pruitt, while deserved, shouldn't obscure how much daunting work remains in covering Trump's EPA.... [Pruitt] was at his most dangerous when he was systematically dismantling America's public health protections for the benefit of polluters. Andrew Wheeler, the EPA's deputy administrator and soon-to-be acting administrator, may be even more qualified for that mission given his previous work as a coal lobbyist for Murray Energy and an aide to climate-denying Senator James Inhofe. Whereas Pruitt was often hasty and sloppy in his attempts to repeal Obama-era environmental regulations..., Wheeler 'is viewed as a consummate Washington insider who avoids the limelight and has spent years effectively navigating the rules,' The New York Times reported Thursday." ...

... Pruitt without the Baggage. Steve Mufson of the Washington Post: Andrew "Wheeler spent a decade lobbying for just the sort of companies the agency regulates, and before that he worked for Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who rejects climate change. Drawing on more than a quarter-century in Washington, Wheeler is expected to pick up where the departing Pruitt left off -- only without the controversy that constantly plagued him.... At the firm Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting, Wheeler represented energy companies, mining companies and a mixture of others.... Among his professional activities, he once listed his post as vice president of the Washington Coal Club.... Environmental groups vowed to fight him as much as they have the outgoing chief." ...

... Steve M.: "Fear of midterm attack ads was what finally brought this to a head. Morality and ethics certainly weren't getting the job done.... So Pruitt and Trump are on God's side [according to Pruitt in his resignation letter] ... and Pruitt's enemies are pure evil[.].... Has Pruitt done anything wrong? Pruitt's answer is no. Trump's answer is no -- nothing except possibly providing fodder for negative campaign commercials. The Republican commentariat's answer is an unasmbiguous no as well. We're the sole source of evil, as usual." ...

... Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "Republicans in Congress Sure Seem Happy Not to Have to Defend Scott Pruitt Anymore.... When Scott Pruitt's scandal-plagued tenure ... finally came to an end Thursday, his many critics in and out of Congress wasted no time rejoicing at another Trump Cabinet member exiting under a cloud.... For Republicans annoyed at Pruitt's laundry list of scandals but eager to continue his legacy of undoing Obama-era environmental regulations, Andrew Wheeler is more than acceptable." Spinelli publishes some Congressional comments on Pruitt/Wheeler. ...

... Paul Farhi & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Former Fox News Channel executive Bill Shine is joining the White House as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for communications, the White House announced Thursday.... With Thursday's announcement, Shine becomes the fifth communications chief since Trump took office nearly 18 months ago.... The appointment is also likely to open the White House up to attacks regarding Shine's record at Fox, as well as the Trump administration's response to sexual misconduct allegations against officials within its own ranks." Mrs. McC: Can someone who spent years enabling a sexual predator get a security clearance? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Shine resigned last May from his post as co-president of Fox News amid allegations that he enabled the sexual harassment regime of his boss Roger Ailes. So it is shocking, although not at all surprising, that the Trump administration has hired him with the title of assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for communications. 'It's extraordinary that the president of the United States could hire someone like this,' a senior Fox News executive told BuzzFeed. 'This is someone who is highly knowledgeable of women being cycled through for horrible and degrading behavior by someone who was an absolute monster.'... Shine is also accused of hiring private investigators to harass journalists." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suspect hiring Shine was the "real reason" Trump had Kelly fire Pruitt when he did. Trump claimed Pruitt resigned because he "didn't want to be a distraction." But Pruitt provided just the distraction Trump wanted yesterday -- one that would bury stories about Shine's history.

... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "Now that President Trump has accepted the resignation of ... Scott Pruitt, the fate of his embattled chief of staff [John Kelly] is the key drama of this drama-plagued Administration.... Barely a week has gone by without a new report about Trump shopping around for Kelly's replacement.... This Trump Unchained era is merely proof that no aide, not even a brusque Marine general with a chest full of medals, is going to bring order to a President determined to have his own way.... When we look back at the Trump Administration, this will be one of its most distinguishing characteristics: West Wing comings and goings without precedent, leaving policies muddled.... This, to say the least, is not normal. It might seem self-evident, but it bears repeating: Trump, whatever else he accomplishes, will certainly go down in the record books as the worst manager of the White House in modern times."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen ... has hired Lanny J. Davis, the Washington lawyer and public relations consultant best known for serving in the Clinton White House, to represent him."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors are urging a federal appeals court to reject former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's bid to be released on bail as he prepares for two criminal trials, including one set to begin later this month. In a filing Thursday, Mueller's team urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit not to disturb a lower court's order last month jailing Manafort over charges that he tampered with witnesses related to the cases against him."

Lachlan Markay & Dean Jones of The Daily Beast: "A mystery client has been paying bloggers in India and Indonesia to write articles distancing President Donald Trump from the legal travails of a mob-linked former business associate. Spokespeople for online reputation management companies in the two countries confirmed that they had been paid to write articles attempting to whitewash Trump's ties to Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman who, with former Russian trade minister Tevfik Arif, collaborated with the Trump Organization on numerous real estate deals from New York to the former Soviet Union. The campaign appears designed to influence Google search results pertaining to Trump's relationship with Sater, Arif, and the Bayrock Group, a New York real estate firm that collaborated with Trump on a series of real estate deals, and recruited Russian investors for potential Trump deals in Moscow." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Republican lawmakers who went to Russia seeking a thaw in relations received an icy reception from Democrats and Kremlin watchers for spending the Fourth of July in a country that interfered in the U.S. presidential election and continues to deny it.... Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) led the eight-member delegation on a multiday tour of St. Petersburg and Moscow.... The point of their visit, Shelby stressed to the Duma leader, was to 'strive for a better relationship' with Moscow, not 'accuse Russia of this or that or so forth.' It played well in Moscow, but not on the home front.... On Russian state television, presenters and guests mocked the U.S. congressional delegation for appearing to put a weak foot forward, noting how the message of tough talk they promised in Washington 'changed a bit' by the time they got to Moscow."

Jillian Jorgensen of the New York Daily News: "New York City has nixed a $48,000 tax break President Trump was set to receive on his Trump Tower condo following inquiries from the Daily News about whether he is still eligible for the savings.... a homeowner is only eligible for the tax break if the condo is his primary residence -- which the city's tax rules define as 'the dwelling unit in which the owner of the dwelling unit actually resides and maintains a permanent and continuous physical presence.'... After The News asked the city Department of Finance about the abatement, it was removed from Trump's tax records for the new tax year." Mrs. McC: Sounds like a homestead exemption; if Trump still votes in NYC, he probably should have been allowed to keep the exemption.

How Diplomatic. Justin McCurry of the Guardian: "When Mike Pompeo meets Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, he will reportedly attempt to smooth a path towards denuclearisation with a gift that playfully references a low point in relations between the North Korean leader and Donald Trump: a CD of Elton John's Rocket Man. The US secretary of state will present Kim with the CD along with a letter from Trump, who memorably turned the song's title into an epithet after the North stepped up its ballistic missile tests last year."

BBC News: "Plans to fly a giant inflatable figure depicting Donald Trump as a baby over London during the US president's visit have been approved. Mr Trump is due to meet Theresa May at 10 Downing Street on 13 July. Campaigners raised almost £18,000 for the helium-filled six-metre high figure, which they said reflects Mr Trump's character as an 'angry baby with a fragile ego and tiny hands'. London Mayor Sadiq Khan gave permission for the balloon to fly.... Mr Khan and Mr Trump have repeatedly clashed on Twitter, including in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack. Before the figure can take off, campaigners will also need permission from the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) as the project constitutes a 'non-standard flight in controlled airspace'.... Because Parliament Square sits within restricted airspace, additional approvals are also needed from the Metropolitan Police.... On Twitter former UKIP leader Nigel Farage said the plan was 'the biggest insult to a sitting US President ever'." Mrs. McC: That's the idea, Nigel.

** Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "At some point in the not-distant future, a majority of Americans will be of black, Hispanic, and Asian origin. But there's a difference between a nation's population and its electorate -- its share of people who can exercise the full rights and privileges of citizenship. Republicans realize this, and are trying -- at every level of government -- to reverse-engineer a white electorate large enough to secure their own power, and along with it, the existing hierarchy of class and race. Donald Trump is a major part of this story. But as with all things Trump, it would be wrong to treat this project as unique to him and his administration." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "A fourth former Ohio State University wrestler came forward Thursday to contradict Rep. Jim Jordan's claim that he had no idea the wrestling team doctor was molesting athletes. The wrestler, Shawn Dailey, said he was groped half a dozen times by Dr. Richard Strauss in the mid-1990s, when Jordan was the assistant wrestling coach. Dailey said he was too embarrassed to report the abuse directly to Jordan at the time, but he said Jordan took part in conversations where Strauss' abuse of many other team members came up.... Calling Jordan 'a close friend,' Dailey said he is a Republican and that he contributed to the powerful Ohio congressman's first political campaign for state representative in 1994.... Also Thursday, Mark Coleman, another former wrestler and a former UFC world champion, told The Wall Street Journal that Jordan was aware of the abuse and had not taken action.... 'I don't believe them at all,' Trump [told reporters on AF1 Thursday] of the allegations against Jordan. 'I believe him. Jim Jordan is one of the most outstanding people I've met since I've been in Washington. I believe him 100 percent." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: "I believe the men" is President Pussy-Grabber's default position on all allegations of sexual abuse or predation. ...

... Jim Jordan Calls Cops on Sex Abuse Victims. Sunlen Serfaty & Clare Foran of CNN: "Rep. Jim Jordan's office will contact Capitol Hill police after receiving emails from an alleged victim of sexual abuse at Ohio State University when the Ohio Republican was an assistant wrestling coach, a source within the office told CNN Wednesday. The source added that the messages were vaguely threatening in nature in part because of the amount of emails sent, and that Jordan did not respond to the emails because he felt the man was 'bullying him.'" Mrs. McC: What does "law and order" mean to a Republican? Siccing the cops on victims of crimes in which he is implicated. Count this as one more indicator that the U.S. is sinking into a dangerous, authoritarian police state. Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. ...

Trump, Sessions Foiled Again. Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Thursday mostly rejected a bid by the Justice Department to block California's 'sanctuary state' laws, which enact policies friendly to undocumented immigrants. In a 60-page ruling, U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez said most of the laws, which limit how state businesses and law enforcement agencies can work with federal immigration authorities, are 'permissible exercises of California's sovereign power.'... California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) hailed the decision as 'a strong ruling against federal government overreach.' 'The Constitution gives the people of California, not the Trump administration, the power to decide how we will provide for our public safety and general welfare,' he said." Mrs. McC: Mendez is a Bush II appointee.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Labor Department released its monthly hiring and unemployment figures on Friday morning.... 213,000 jobs were added last month. Economists had expected a gain of about 200,000.... The unemployment rate rose to 4 percent, from 3.8 percent.... Average hourly earnings rose by 0.2 percent after growing by 0.3 percent in May. The year-over-year gain is now 2.7 percent.... The latest jobs numbers cap a string of encouraging economic reports." ...

... Politico: "The White House, in a statement, described the numbers as the 'latest in a string of positive headlines showing that confidence in surging, growth is accelerating and jobs are plentiful in the Trump economy.'... But the tight labor market continued to produce bafflingly weak wage growth, with average hourly earnings up 2.7 percent over the previous year, unchanged from May."

The New York Times is updating developments in the effort to rescue 12 boys & their soccer coach in Thailand. "A former Thai Navy diver helping with the rescue operation has died, running out of air after bringing extra tanks in to the trapped team, Thai officials say."

The Commentariat -- July 5, 2018

Afternoon Update:

** Adios, Scotty! Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, President Trump's administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, resigned after facing months of allegations over legal and ethical violations. Mr. Trump announced the resignation in a tweet on Thursday in which he thanked Mr. Pruitt for an 'outstanding job' and said the agency's deputy, Andrew Wheeler, would take over as the acting administrator on Monday." ...

... Pruitt Quit Because People Were Mean to Him. Politico publishes Scotty's resignation letter: "You're great, Trump, blah blah, the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us blah blah." Mrs. McC: So not his fault. I hope that mom who approached him in the restaurant earlier this week was the last straw. She's my hero. ...

... Coral Davenport, et al., of the New York Times: "Before he resigned on Thursday, Scott Pruitt ... was facing new questions about whether aides deleted sensitive information about his meetings from his public schedule and potentially violated the law in doing so. Last summer one of his senior schedulers, Madeline G. Morris, was fired by Mr. Pruitt;s former deputy chief of staff, Kevin Chmielewski, who said he let her go because she was questioning the practice of retroactively deleting meetings from the calendar. Mr. Chmielewski has emerged as a harsh critic of Mr. Pruitt after a bitter falling out that led to his departure from the agency as well." ...

... Paul Farhi & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Former Fox News Channel executive Bill Shine is joining the White House as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for communications, the White House announced Thursday.... With Thursday's announcement, Shine becomes the fifth communications chief since Trump took office nearly 18 months ago.... The appointment is also likely to open the White House up to attacks regarding Shine's record at Fox, as well as the Trump administration's response to sexual misconduct allegations against officials within its own ranks." Mrs. McC: Will Shine be able to get a security clearance?

Lachlan Markay & Dean Sterling Jones of The Daily Beast: "A mystery client has been paying bloggers in India and Indonesia to write articles distancing President Donald Trump from the legal travails of a mob-linked former business associate. Spokespeople for online reputation management companies in the two countries confirmed that they had been paid to write articles attempting to whitewash Trump's ties to Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman who, with former Russian trade minister Tevfik Arif, collaborated with the Trump Organization on numerous real estate deals from New York to the former Soviet Union. The campaign appears designed to influence Google search results pertaining to Trump's relationship with Sater, Arif, and the Bayrock Group, a New York real estate firm that collaborated with Trump on a series of real estate deals, and recruited Russian investors for potential Trump deals in Moscow." --safari

** Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "At some point in the not-distant future, a majority of Americans will be of black, Hispanic, and Asian origin. But there's a difference between a nation'spopulation and its electorate -- its share of people who can exercise the full rights and privileges of citizenship. Republicans realize this, and are trying -- at every level of government -- to reverse-engineer a white electorate large enough to secure their own power, and along with it, the existing hierarchy of class and race. Donald Trump is a major part of this story. But as with all things Trump, it would be wrong to treat this project as unique to him and his administration." --safari

*****

The U.S. as "Annoying Problem." Juan Cole: "The five foreign ministers, minus US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, of the countries signatory to the 2015 Iran deal on curbing its civilian nuclear enrichment program, will meet in Vienna on Friday to explore ways of preserving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action after the treaty was violated by the Trump administration.... I'm of a generation where the idea of the UN Security Council meeting without the US is hard to imagine. The conference is eloquent about how isolated and increasingly irrelevant Trump has made America. The rest of the world now sees Washington as an annoying problem to get around." --safari

Coral Davenport & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "Even as the president’s pro-business stance is broadly embraced by the corporate community, in some significant cases the very industries that Mr. Trump has vowed to help say that his proposals will actually hurt them. They also warn that policies designed to aid one group will eat into someone else's business in ways that policymakers should have anticipated.... Richard Newell, president of Resources for the Future, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, described the administration's overall approach as 'whack-a-mole policy' that suggests a lack of appreciation of the complexity of global commerce. 'The law of unintended consequences abounds,' Mr. Newell added.... Experts say the unpredictability of many of Mr. Trump's proposals -- the lack of clarity on when or how Nafta might be renegotiated; the risk of potential litigation over his rollback of auto-pollution rules; the ways in which other countries might retaliate against Mr. Trump's tariffs -- seeds confusion across the American economy, making it tough for businesses to plan effectively for the future."

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Many of the nonprofits, corporations and religious groups watching over migrant children detained at the southwest border have been in this business for years -- and they have a history of political connections, donating millions of dollars to Democrats and Republicans alike. Now..., it is also becoming clear that some of the players in this billion-dollar industry have particularly strong ties to the Trump administration. The president's education secretary provided funding to one of the groups. His defense secretary sat on the board of another. Mr. Trump's own inauguration fund collected $500,000 from two private prison companies housing detained migrant families. And some of the contractors employ prominent Republican lobbyists with ties to Mr. Trump and his administration, including someone who once lobbied for his family business.... There is no indication that political favors or influence motivated any of the contracts...."

... Perfect Independence Day Eve Message. Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday rescinded a 2011 Justice Department guidance mandating that asylum seekers and refugees have a 'right' to work in the U.S. The Obama-era document was included on a list of 24 Justice Department guidances that Sessions scrapped because he said they were 'unnecessary, outdated, inconsistent with existing law' or imposed without congressional approval.'" ...

... Canadian Press: "A little-known cross-border dispute that has simmered between Canada and the United States since the late 1700s is now approaching the boiling point. In the past two weeks, at least 10 Canadian fishing boats from New Brunswick have been intercepted by U.S. Border Patrol agents while fishing in the disputed waters around Machias Seal Island, a spokesperson for the fishermen says. Laurence Cook, chairman of the advisory board for Lobster Fishing Area 38, said Wednesday that some Canadian vessels were boarded by American agents who asked about possible illegal immigrants.... 'They're in international waters, so border patrol shouldn't be boarding Canadian vessels.'... Both Canada and the United States claim sovereign jurisdiction over the island and the surrounding waters at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy." ...

... Washington Post Editors: "WHEN THE Obama administration argued, in 2015, that an influx of migrant families illegally entering the country was justification for detaining the families indefinitely, federal courts rejected that stance out of hand. Now the Trump administration is making a similar argument with a fresh twist: that a new court ruling ordering that separated children be promptly reunited with their parents amounts to a green light for federal officials to detain them -- together.... The Flores settlement [of 2015] was impelled by abundant evidence that migrant children were suffering owing to long detentions in facilities ill-suited to minors. Unfazed by that history..., the Trump administration proposes to revive long-discredited practices. Its position is antithetical to American values, offensive to the law and an affront to decency." ...

... Daily Beast: "The Immigration Counseling Service produced a short film called Unaccompanied, meant to depict the experiences of unaccompanied children defending themselves in court -- armed without parents or lawyers. The clips depicting court proceedings, which are reenactments based on court transcripts, show small children answering questions from former Oregon Judge William Snouffer -- who plays the trial judge." ...

David Cay Johnston, in a New York Times op-ed, wants New York State to examine Donald Trump's income tax returns: "Mr. Trump asserts that he is no crook despite abundant indications to the contrary. Let's find out the truth.... Mr. Trump has a well-documented history of cheating governments." If you've devoted hundreds of hours over your lifetime to boring records-keeping, this could make you feel silly: "Mr. Trump lost two civil tax fraud trials over his 1984 income tax returns, on which he reported zero income as a consultant but took more than $600,000 in deductions. He had no receipts to substantiate the deductions."

Helena Andrews-Dyer & Emily Heil of the Washington Post: "The Fourth of July White House concert used to be a sea of stars. For Trump, it's a drought." Last year, the White House had no concert at all. ...

... MEANWHILE, down the Avenue.... The finale begins at about 1:05 hours in, & it's super:

... David Jackson of USA Today: "The Democratic National Committee's annual Fourth of July statement reflects its long-standing tensions with ... Donald Trump. While hailing the nation's founding ideal of equality for all, DNC chairman Tom Perez said in the statement, 'we recognize that America's founding promise remains out of reach for too many families.' Adding that everywhere we look, our most fundamental values are under attack,' Perez referred to problems surrounding low-paying jobs, health care, immigration, injustice to people of color and members or the LGBTQ community, a recent Supreme Court decision on public unions, and the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Cohen Declares Independence on the Fourth of July. Adam Raymond of New York: Michael Cohen "declared his independence from the President by deleting Trump's name from his Twitter bio. The bio previously said, 'Personal attorney to President Donald J. Trump.' Now it's blank.... He also changed his banner image from one of him standing at a podium bearing the Trump campaign logo to a generic picture of an American flag."

The GOP of Trump. Jonathan Chait: "Among the right-wing intelligentsia, the debate over whether Trump authentically represents or has deviated from movement conservatism has been a full-scale rout. Trump's loyalists continue to pour through the decimated ranks of their anti-Trump foes, bayoneting the survivors.... Anti-Trump conservatives have not lost an argument. They have merely lost a party.... For all the ugly anti-intellectualism of Trump's supporters, they have grasped one underlying reality: Trumpism and conservatism are tethered, and the practical choice in American politics is to have either both or neither." --safari

War on the Poor, Ctd. Daniel Mclean of ThinkProgress: "Despite previously claiming they wouldn't, the Trump administration is moving forward with plans to boost rents by an average of 26 percent on vulnerable Americans who rely on federal housing subsidies to avoid becoming homeless. Meanwhile, a separate bill has been introduced by a Republican congressman that would raise rents on poor people at an even higher rate than what the administration has proposed.... Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL) ... introduced a bill that would let state and local housing authorities raise the minimum monthly rent on the poorest Americans -- families with an annual adjusted income of $2,000 or less -- by more than $500 a month on average, far exceeding [HUD Secretary Ben] Carson's proposal.... That increase would cause millions of Americans to become homeless." --safari

Dave Philipps of the New York Times: "Civil rights groups immediately sued [after President Trump abruptly & capriciously cancelled an Obama-administration plan to accept transgender people into the military], claiming that a blanket ban was unconstitutional, and the courts blocked the new rules. Three federal judges hearing separate cases issued injunctions against the ban last fall that cleared the way -- in theory at least -- for transgender recruits to start enlisting on Jan. 1. Since then, scores have applied -- but it appears almost none are being accepted. The Defense Department refused requests for statistics on transgender enlistments. But Sparta, an organization for transgender recruits, troops and veterans, says that out of its 140 members who are trying to enlist, only two have made it into the service since Jan. 1.... The applicants are being stalled or turned away at a time when some branches of the military face a shortage of recruits...."

Anthony Adragna & Emily Holden of Politico: "EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt placed a former political fundraising ally [-- Elizabeth White --] in charge of an office that has been slow to release his most sensitive documents -- including details about his meetings with industry lobbyists and taxpayer-funded travels across the U.S. and Europe.... Pruitt's office has had the slowest response rate of any section of the agency, far exceeding legal deadlines and prompting a massive surge in court challenges.... Public records advocates called White's EPA role a glaring conflict of interest."

Jennifer Smola & Jessica Wehrman of the Columbus Dispatch: "U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan never witnessed abuse by the Ohio State University wrestling team's doctor and he hasn't been contacted by anyone investigating possible incidents that occurred while he was an assistant coach two decades ago, the Urbana Republican's spokesman said Tuesday. However, lawyers hired by OSU to probe the allegations said Jordan was contacted -- both by phone and email -- to request an interview, but he never responded. And three members of the wrestling team under Jordan insist that he knew about the abuse but looked the other way.... Doug Andres, a spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, called the allegations 'serious.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Black female leaders and allies expressed their 'deep disappointment' with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for their 'recent failure to protect' Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) 'from unwarranted attacks from the Trump administration and others in the GOP.'"

Congressional Race. Natasha Korecki of Politico: "Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner [R] refused to follow Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz's lead and call on voters of a Chicago-area congressional district to back a Democrat over a declared Nazi candidate in November. Instead, Rauner on Tuesday called for Holocaust denier Arthur Jones to drop out of the race."

Federal Judge Good with "Separate AND Unequal." Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "Do students at poorly performing schools have a constitutional right to a better education? On Friday, a Federal District Court judge [-- Stephen J. Murphy III --] in Michigan decided that they did not when he dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed by students at troubled schools in Detroit. The suit, filed in September 2016, argued that students at some of the city's most underperforming schools -- serving mostly racial minorities -- had been denied 'access to literacy' because of underfunding, mismanagement and discrimination. The complaint described schools that were overcrowded with students but lacking in teachers; courses without basic resources like books and pencils; and classrooms that were bitingly cold in the winter, stiflingly hot in the summer and infested with rats and insects." Mrs. McC: Murphy is a white guy, appointed by George W. Bush. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Every person, from Betsy Charter-School DeVos to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to the state-appointed financial managers to members of the Detroit Public School board should be reeling with shame at the deplorable state of public education in the city.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. "Fair & Balanced." Aris Folley of the Hill: "Fox News analyst Brit Hume drew sharp backlash on social media Wednesday after saying members of the Democratic party 'don't love' America. Hume had shared a tweet on July 4 linking to a post on the conservative political blog, Power Line, titled: 'Why do Democrats hate America?' 'Hate may be too strong a word but they sure don't love it,' Hume wrote in response to the link on Twitter."

Campaigning While Black. Everton Bailey of the Oregonian: "A black Oregon state representative says one of her constituents called police on her Tuesday while she was canvassing alone in a neighborhood she represents. Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat who is running for a second term this fall in the state House of Representatives, said she was knocking on doors and talking to residents for two hours along Southeast 125th Avenue in Clackamas. She was taking notes on her cellphone from [a] conversation she'd had ... when a Clackamas County deputy pulled up to her.... He asked if she was selling something. She introduced herself as a state legislator and said that she was out canvassing and that she guessed someone called him. The deputy said someone called and reported Bynum appearing to spend a long time at houses in the area and appearing to be casing the neighborhood while on her phone." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Driving While Black. Jamiles Lartey in the Guardian: "A study published this month by the state attorney general's office confirmed what many fear about 'driving while black' in Missouri. It concluded black motorists were 85% more likely to be pulled over in traffic stops last year. It is the highest disparity since stops data began being collected 18 years ago.... [A] 2014 Department of Justice study dubbed the 'Ferguson report', detail[ed] the ways that St Louis area police departments were operating as de facto revenue collection agencies for the more than 85 municipalities that dot the county.... The report concluded that this practice was a major factor in priming Ferguson and other nearby jurisdictions for the unrest that followed the police killing of Michael Brown in August 2014. Reforms and lawsuits have since pushed that revenue collection down by more than 50% in the county, but advocates, who decry the court revenues as a regressive tax on the most vulnerable residents, say that's a sign of just how bad things were, not how far the county has come." --safari

... Jason Samenow of the Washington Post: "From the normally mild summer climes of Ireland, Scotland and Canada to the scorching Middle East, numerous locations in the Northern Hemisphere have witnessed their hottest weather ever recorded over the past week. Large areas of heat pressure or heat domes scattered around the hemisphere led to the sweltering temperatures. No single record, in isolation, can be attributed to global warming. But collectively, these heat records are consistent with the kind of extremes we expect to see increase in a warming world." ...

... MEANWHILE, Carolyn Kormann of the New Yorker writes & posts videos about Miami's underwater future. Here's a new phenomenon many of us will probably become familiar with: "climate gentrification." If only Mar-a-Lago, situated on an island a short distance north of Miami, goes underwater first. I might learn to scuba-dive to view "The Lost Mansion of Mar-a-Lago." Might have to be renamed: "En-Mar-y-Lago."

Beyond the Beltway

Justice Delayed. Tim Prudente of the Washington Post: "For 30 years, Jerome Johnson maintained that he was innocent of the 1988 killing of a Baltimore man inside the Nite Owl bar. On Monday, a judge agreed. Johnson, convicted of murder in the death of Aaron Taylor, was exonerated Monday and set free. He had been convicted on inconsistent and faulty witness testimony, his defense attorneys and prosecutors say.... Johnson has spent his entire adult life in prison. He tried several times to get his conviction overturned.... The shooter admitted to the crime in 2000, prosecutors say, and said Johnson wasn't there." A then-15-year-old girl, who was the only witness against Johnson, changed her story, but prosecutors didn't tell defense attorneys about her prior, conflicting, account.

Brynn Gingras & Alanne Orjoux of CNN: "A woman who climbed up to the robes of the Statue of Liberty to protest the separation of migrant families was taken into custody after a standoff with police on the Fourth of July. Authorities had tried to talk the woman down but she refused to leave. For nearly two hours, she crossed the base of the statue, at times sitting in the folds of the statue's dress and under Lady Liberty's sandal. Finally, officers with ropes and climbing gear reached her. They put a harness and ropes on her to bring her down, and she crossed to the other side of the statue with the officers where a ladder was propped up on the base of the statue." Mrs. McC: This is probably the scariest moment I've ever seen on live TV, even more harrowing than the rescue of the passenger & crew of a US Airways flight that in January 2009 landed in the Hudson not far from Lady Liberty:

Random Act of Kindness. Caitlin O'Kane of CBS News: "Houston Police Officer Sandy Fernandez says he was working security at a quinceañera last weekend, when he noticed a ... little girl in a wheelchair, who was watching other party guests dance" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.):

Way Beyond the Beltway

Marc Santora of the New York Times: "Surrounded by cheering supporters, Poland's top Supreme Court justice took a defiant stand on the courthouse steps [in Warsaw] Wednesday morning, hours after the government purged the tribunal. She vowed to keep fighting to protect the Constitution and the independence of the nation's courts.... The courthouse confrontation was followed by dueling news conferences, fiery speeches and more street protests. The only thing that seemed certain was that the Supreme Court itself was in disarray, with the purged judges refusing to recognize their dismissal, and government officials saying that they would no longer be allowed to hear cases.... Lech Walesa, who led the Solidarity labor movement in the 1980s that helped topple the Communist government and who later served as Poland's president, joined the demonstrators. In an radio interview earlier in the day, Mr. Walesa said he would pursue peaceful means to protect the Constitution, but warned of dire consequences if the governing party did not back down."

US-supported Torture. AP: "The United Arab Emirates (UAE) engaged in ill-treatment, torture and sexual abuse across Yemen's prisons according to the UN human rights office, the Anadolu Agency reported.... The Associated Press revealed in an investigation late last month that some 15 UAE officers ordered Yemeni prisoners to undress and lie down for anal cavity checks, claiming they were looking for contraband mobile phones. Worse-off, some Yemeni prisoners were electrocuted and rocks hung from their testicles, and others were abused with steel and wooden poles." --safari

Dario Thuburn of AFP: "A rare parchment copy of the US Declaration of Independence found at a British archive among the papers of an aristocrat [-- Charles Lennox, the Third Duke of Richmond --] who supported the rebels has been authenticated, officials said. The manuscript was discovered last year at the West Sussex Record Office in the southern English city of Chichester by a team of researchers led by two Harvard University academics. Tests supported the hypothesis that it was produced in the 1780s, West Sussex County Council said earlier this week -- just a few years after the declaration itself was issued in 1776. The document 'is the only other contemporary manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence on parchment apart from the signed copy at the National Archives in Washington DC,' known as the Matlack Declaration, a council statement said earlier this week. There are other printed parchment copies and handwritten copies on paper but the Sussex Declaration, as it has been dubbed, and the Matlack Declaration in Washington are the only two known ceremonial parchment copies of the declaration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Ed Schultz, a former conservative radio show host whose politics moved left before he joined MSNBC's nightly lineup in 2009 and then shifted again when he was hired by RT America, Russia's state-financed international cable network, died on Thursday at his home in Washington. He was 64."

The Commentariat -- July 4, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Dario Thuburn of AFP: "A rare parchment copy of the US Declaration of Independence found at a British archive among the papers of an aristocrat [-- Charles Lennox, the Third Duke of Richmond --] who supported the rebels has been authenticated, officials said. The manuscript was discovered last year at the West Sussex Record Office in the southern English city of Chichester by a team of researchers led by two Harvard University academics. Tests supported the hypothesis that it was produced in the 1780s, West Sussex County Council said earlier this week -- just a few years after the declaration itself was issued in 1776. The document 'is the only other contemporary manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence on parchment apart from the signed copy at the National Archives in Washington DC,' known as the Matlack Declaration, a council statement said earlier this week. There are other printed parchment copies and handwritten copies on paper but the Sussex Declaration, as it has been dubbed, and the Matlack Declaration in Washington are the only two known ceremonial parchment copies of the declaration."

David Jackson of USA Today: "The Democratic National Committee's annual Fourth of July statement reflects its long-standing tensions with ... Donald Trump. While hailing the nation's founding ideal of equality for all, DNC chairman Tom Perez said in the statement, 'we recognize that America's founding promise remains out of reach for too many families.' Adding that everywhere we look, our most fundamental values are under attack,' Perez referred to problems surrounding low-paying jobs, health care, immigration, injustice to people of color and members or the LGBTQ community, a recent Supreme Court decision on public unions, and the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy."

Perfect Independence Day Eve Message. Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday rescinded a 2011 Justice Department guidance mandating that asylum seekers and refugees have a 'right' to work in the U.S. The Obama-era document was included on a list of 24 Justice Department guidances that Sessions scrapped because he said they were 'unnecessary, outdated, inconsistent with existing law' or imposed without congressional approval.'"

Jennifer Smola & Jessica Wehrman of the Columbus Dispatch: "U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan never witnessed abuse by the Ohio State University wrestling team's doctor and he hasn't been contacted by anyone investigating possible incidents that occurred while he was an assistant coach two decades ago, the Urbana Republican's spokesman said Tuesday. However, lawyers hired by OSU to probe the allegations said Jordan was contacted -- both by phone and email -- to request an interview, but he never responded. And three members of the wrestling team under Jordan insist that he knew about the abuse but looked the other way.... Doug Andres, a spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, called the allegations 'serious.'"

Federal Judge Good with "Separate AND Unequal." Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "Do students at poorly performing schools have a constitutional right to a better education? On Friday, a Federal District Court judge [-- Stephen J. Murphy III --] in Michigan decided that they did not when he dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed by students at troubled schools in Detroit. The suit, filed in September 2016, argued that students at some of the city's most underperforming schools -- serving mostly racial minorities -- had been denied 'access to literacy' because of underfunding, mismanagement and discrimination. The complaint described schools that were overcrowded with students but lacking in teachers; courses without basic resources like books and pencils; and classrooms that were bitingly cold in the winter, stiflingly hot in the summer and infested with rats and insects." Mrs. McC: Murphy is a white guy, appointed by George W. Bush.

Campaigning While Black. Everton Bailey of the Oregonian: "A black Oregon state representative says one of her constituents called police on her Tuesday while she was canvassing alone in a neighborhood she represents. Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat who is running for a second term this fall in the state House of Representatives, said she was knocking on doors and talking to residents for two hours along Southeast 125th Avenue in Clackamas. She was taking notes on her cellphone from [a] conversation she'd had ... when a Clackamas County deputy pulled up to her.... She introduced herself as a state legislator and said that she was out canvassing and that she guessed someone called him. The deputy said someone called and reported Bynum appearing to spend a long time at houses in the area and appearing to be casing the neighborhood while on her phone."

Random Act of Kindness. Caitlin O'Kane of CBS News: "Houston Police Officer Sandy Fernandez says he was working security at a quinceañera last weekend, when he noticed a ... little girl in a wheelchair, who was watching other party guests dance":

*****

Dana Milbank: "On this 242nd birthday of the United States, let's rededicate ourselves to freedom: Freedom from Trump's constant attacks on women, immigrants, people of color, gay people and Muslims. Freedom to work and live without discrimination, harassment and violence because of your gender, race or religion. Freedom to get medical care when you or your children are sick." He goes on to list eight more freedoms. "In a very real sense, the fight against Trump is a battle for freedom."

This Russia Thing, Etc. Ctd.

Martin Matishak of Politico: "The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday backed the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to aid ... Donald Trump and is continuing its efforts to undermine U.S. democracy. The finding that reveals Russia meddled in far more extensive ways than previously known is yet another strong rebuke to Trump and many of his allies...." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This is a two-graf story. The NYT, as of 9 pm ET Tuesday, has reported nothing on the Intel Committee report (a search leads to an AP story, which is not linked on the main online page). ...

     ... The Washington Post report, by Karoun Demirjian , is here. ...

... Profiles in Courage. Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "... the release of the report -- at around 3pm, just before the July 4 holiday -- suggests that the Senate Republicans are eager to keep their differences with Trump out of the sunlight." --safari ...

... Tana Ganeva of the Raw Story: "A new assessment issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday concurred with previous reports that President Vladimir Putin personally approved Russian meddling in the 2016 election." ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "One of the key findings of the [House] GOP report, led by critical White House ally Devin Nunes of California, was that the three intelligence agencies erred in their assessment of 'Putin's strategic intentions' behind his election interference.... The Senate Intelligence Committee, however, reached a much firmer conclusion: The January 2017 intelligence community was right to find the Russians meddled in the election to defeat Clinton and aid Trump.... Though the [Steele] Dossier's financial connections to the Democratic Party have made it a sort of Rosetta Stone on the right for determining the fundamental fraudulence underpinning all aspects of Trump-Russia collusion allegations, 'the dossier did not in any way inform the analysis in the [Senate Intelligence Committee assessment] ... because it was unverified information and had not been disseminated as serialized intelligence reporting."

Business Day: "US Republican senators met Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on a rare visit to Moscow on Tuesday ahead of a summit between the countries' Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. The US delegation is in Russia until Thursday, ahead of the summit planned in Helsinki on July 16...." ...

... AP: "... the head of a U.S. congressional delegation visiting Russia said Tuesday he hopes for 'a new day' in repairing relations between Russia and the U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, was meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow two weeks before the countries' presidents are to meet in Helsinki. 'We come here realizing that we have a strained relationship, but we could have a better relationship between the U.S. and Russia, because we have some common interests around the world that we could hopefully work together on,' Shelby told Lavrov at the start of their meeting. 'We could be competitors, we are competitors, but we don't necessarily need to be adversaries.'" Mrs. McC: Ain't that sweet. ...

... Jonathan Chait: Trump, CNN reports [linked here yesterday], plans to meet with Putin one on one, with no advisers or staff.... Huh, that's weird. It's almost as if Trump has some kind of secret relationship involving money or blackmail with Russia he wants to discuss without fear of being revealed to his own country!" ...

... Christian Caryl of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's talking points on Crimea are the same as Vladimir Putin's.... Over dinner at the recent Group of Seven summit, according to BuzzFeed, Trump told other summit participants that Crimea is Russian because the population of the peninsula speaks Russian.... Putin's (and Trump's) logic is simple enough: If the people in a place speak mostly Russian, and if it once belonged to Russia at some point, then Moscow has every right to come in and take it over again. But this is a false simplicity, one that comes at the price of many sins of omission.... [Trump] would be happy to revert to the 19th-century notion that great powers dictate the terms to smaller ones. The very idea that he and Putin should presume to discuss the fate of Ukrainian territory over the head of 44 million Ukrainians is scandalous.... Crimea belongs to Ukraine, and it is not Trump's to give away."

Marcy Wheeler reveals that she informed the FBI about a person she "believed had already done real damage to the United States as part of the Russian attack.... It infuriates me to observe (and cover) a months-long charade by the House GOP to demand more and more details about those who have shared information with the government, at least some of whom were only trying to prevent real damage to innocent people, all in an attempt to discredit the Mueller investigation.... This investigation is not, primarily, an investigation into Donald Trump. It's an investigation into people who attacked the United States. It's time Republicans started acting like that matters." (Also linked yesterday.)

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The string of insults, misstatements, exaggerations and outright falsehoods emanating from the White House began just after sunrise. In the space of a few hours, President Trump on Tuesday took credit for averting a war with North Korea, charged without proof that President Barack Obama had secretly granted citizenship to thousands of Iranians as part of nuclear disarmament negotiations and appeared to suggest that customers of the motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson were psychic. He called a sitting congresswoman 'crazy' and 'corrupt.' He branded the National Security Agency's handling of millions of telephone call records 'a disgrace' -- and suggested it was connected to the special counsel investigation into whether his campaign worked with Russia to interfere in the 2016 elections. 'Witch Hunt!' he wrote at the end of that tweet."

     ... Davis debunks some of the nonsense. For instance, on all those new Iranian-American citizens, "There is no evidence that such a side deal to the nuclear accord existed. Current and former Department of Homeland Security officials on Tuesday said they could not verify the claim, but spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified in contradicting the president. A Homeland Security spokesperson declined to comment and referred questions to the State Department. A State Department spokesperson referred questions back to the Department of Homeland Security. Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Mr. Obama at the time the Iran nuclear deal was reached, called the visa report as 'just a big lie. It's not true.' Additionally, American government data show no spike in naturalizations of Iranians or huge increase in green cards given to Iranians in 2015 when compared to the two previous years." ...

Just out that the Obama Administration granted citizenship, during the terrible Iran Deal negotiation, to 2,500 Iranians -- including to government officials. How big (and bad) is that? -- President Trump, in a tweet, July 3

This claim ... appears to have originated with a hard-line Iranian cleric who opposes the Iran deal. Zonnour gave an interview to an Iranian newspaper, which was then repackaged by Iran's semiofficial news agency, which was then picked up by U.S. media [Mrs. McC: i.e., Fox 'News'] and then by the president on his Twitter feed (with some of the details garbled). Three senior Obama administration officials pushed back on Trump's claim.... The Trump administration provided no evidence to back up the president's tweet. -- Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post

... Trump Sez His Photo-Op Stopped War. "All of Asia Is Thrilled." John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Tuesday that the United States would be at war with North Korea without his efforts and that conversations with the nation's leaders are 'going well' -- an assessment at odds with recent reports that North Korea is working to conceal key aspects of its nuclear weapons program. The president's comments in a morning tweet followed a report Saturday in The Washington Post that U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that North Korea does not intend to fully surrender its nuclear arms stockpile and instead is considering ways to conceal the number of weapons it has and its secret production facilities. In his rosy assessment, Trump claimed that 'only the Opposition Party' and the news media are presenting a different picture of his efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in the wake of his June 12 summit with North Korea leader Jim Jong Un." (Also linked yesterday.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: Nonetheless, before the 2020 election (or impeachment or Senate trial proceedings), Trump will take the U.S. to war against some country. ...

** Joshua Goodman of the AP: "As a meeting last August in the Oval Office to discuss sanctions on Venezuela was concluding..., Donald Trump turned to his top aides and asked..., why can't the U.S. just simply invade the troubled country? The suggestion stunned those present at the meeting, including U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, both of whom have since left the administration.... The idea, despite his aides' best attempts to shoot it down, would nonetheless persist in the president's head. The next day, Aug. 11, Trump alarmed friends and foes alike with talk of a 'military option' to remove [Venezuela's President Nicolas] Maduro from power.... Shortly afterward, he raised the issue with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.... Then in September, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Trump discussed it again, this time at greater length, in a private dinner with leaders from four Latin American allies.... [A] U.S. official said Trump was specifically briefed not to raise the issue...."

Mark Rutte Is Tired of Trump's Bull. Rebecca Tan of the Washington Post: "About a minute into his remarks [during a photo spray with Dutch PM Mark Rutte], Trump suggested that leaving the trade dispute unresolved could still be 'positive.' Rutte responded by raising his eyebrows, laughing and cutting in to say, 'No.' When Trump kept going, Rutte said while smiling to reporters: 'It will not be positive. We will work something out.'... While Rutte's concise interjection tickled many in the Netherlands, his remarks belie a deeper tension growing between the United States and its European allies.... The Netherlands is ... the fifth-largest exporter of goods in the world.... The country has a lot at stake in the face of U.S. protectionism, and this is not the first time Rutte has made that clear."

** Julia Ainsley & Jacob Soboroff of NBC News: "After a court order to reunite more than 2,000 migrant children who were separated from their parents in May and June, the Trump administration has instructed immigration agents to give those parents two options: leave the country with your kids -- or leave the country without them, according to a copy of a government form obtained by NBC News. The new instructions to agents do not allow parents who were separated from their children under ... Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy to reunite with their children while they await a decision on asylum.... Advocates say that even migrants who have already passed their initial asylum screenings are being presented with the form.... Parents and children who entered the U.S. after June 20 are being kept together in detention." ...

... Ryan Devereaux & Debbie Nathan of the Intercept: "Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen made a series of secretive visits to South Texas immigrant detention centers on Friday. One of the facilities the secretary visited, in Los Fresnos, houses parents whose children were taken from them under ... Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' family separation policy. Many of the detainees there are women, and many desperately wanted to speak with Nielsen. Instead, they were moved to a distant soccer field, where they shouted to Nielsen for help but were too far away for her to hear them. Reporters could not talk to Nielsen either.... Additionally, ICE confirmed to The Intercept on Tuesday that more than 60 women were moved during the secretary's visit, though the agency claimed the move was for the purpose of 'recreation.'" Mrs. McC: So "desperate shouting" is a form of "recreation"? ...

... Jonathan Blitzer of the New Yorker reports on brave women, inside & outside detention facilities, who are working to establish records of the mothers the U.S. is detaining. Officials lied to the mothers when they separated them from their children, saying they would be reunited. Some have been in detention for close to a year at least. "... judges have been rejecting asylum claims at the highest rate in more than a decade, and earlier this month the Attorney General issued a ruling that reversed decades of asylum jurisprudence and will make it much harder for Central Americans to qualify for protection under U.S. law."

Feds Debunk Trump Lies. Again. Shawn Boburg & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors concluded an 18-month investigation into a former congressional technology staffer on Tuesday by publicly debunking allegations -- promoted by conservative media and President Trump -- suggesting he was a Pakistani operative who stole government secrets with cover from House Democrats. As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Imran Awan pleaded guilty to a relatively minor offense unrelated to his work on Capitol Hill: making a false statement on a bank loan application. U.S. prosecutors said they would not recommend jail time.... The agreement included an unusual passage that ... cleared Awan of a litany of conspiracy theories.... The case has highlighted Trump's willingness to lobby for specific outcomes of federal criminal investigations and to suggest a coverup by his own Department of Justice. Trump also attempted to tie Awan to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee server -- a breach that intelligence agencies have concluded was directed by Russia." (Also linked yesterday.)

Hema Parmar & Matthew Townsend of Bloomberg: "Walmart Inc. is under fire after its website offered t-shirts from third-party sellers with 'IMPEACH 45' emblazoned across the front in big capital letters -- a call to bring down ... Donald Trump. The shirts that come in several shades -- plus similar baby onesies and even frisbees -- have the Twitter-sphere in a frenzy and spurred a grassroots call to boycott the world's biggest retailer. The hashtag #BoycottWalmart even began trending on Twitter.... Amazon.com Inc. has oodles of impeachment merchandise, too, including 'Impeach 45' football jerseys, tank tops and sweatshirts." Mrs. McC: Guess the Trumpbots will have to stick to dollar stores & mini-marts.

Erica Green, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration will encourage the nation's school superintendents and college presidents to adopt race-blind admissions standards, abandoning an Obama administration policy that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying their campuses, Trump administration officials said. The reversal would restore the policy set during President George W. Bush's administration, when officials told schools that it 'strongly encourages the use of race-neutral methods' for admitting students to college or assigning them to elementary and secondary schools. Last November, Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked the Justice Department to re-evaluate past policies that he believed pushed the department to act beyond what the law, the Constitution and the Supreme Court had required.... As part of that process, the Justice Department rescinded seven policy guidances from the Education Department's civil rights division on Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday.)

It's a Day Ending in "Y"

** Jonathan Chait has an excellent theory as to why Trump doesn't fire Scott Pruitt, who, as Chait writes, "has suffered a career-ending scandal at a rate of nearly one a day, for weeks on end, many of them utterly humiliating, and with no end in sight. The embarrassment brings no particular substantive benefit, since if Pruitt stepped down, he would be replaced by a deputy who is equally willing and able to let fossil-fuel companies run the agency." Do read on.

Kaitlan Collins of CNN: EPA "Administrator Scott Pruitt directly appealed to ... Donald Trump this spring to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and let him run the Department of Justice instead, according to three people familiar with the proposal. In an Oval Office conversation with Trump, Pruitt offered to temporarily replace Sessions for 210 days under the Vacancies Reform Act, telling the President he would return to Oklahoma afterward to run for office.... Advisers quickly shot down the proposal, but it came at a time when Trump's frustration with Sessions over his decision to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation had resurfaced. Trump has complained loudly and publicly about the recusal for the last 14 months, and floated replacing Sessions with Pruitt as recently as April." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Pruitt is the subject of some 14 ongoing investigations, many of them to determine whether or not Pruitt violated the law. He'd make a great attorney general. ...

     ... Update. Politico: "... Scott Pruitt is denying a CNN report that he appealed directly to ... Donald Trump this spring to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and put him in charge of the Justice Department.... But Pruitt has repeatedly expressed interest in Sessions' job, people familiar with the discussions first told Politico in January, and continued rumblings about his intra-Cabinet ambitions have become one factor in the White House staff's growing irritation with the EPA chief. At the same time, Trump himself 'enjoys discussing his negative view' of Sessions with Pruitt, The New York Times reported last month." ...

... Scott Bronstein, et al., of CNN: "EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and his aides have kept 'secret' calendars and schedules to overtly hide controversial meetings or calls with industry representatives and others, according to a former EPA official who is expected to soon testify before Congress. A review of EPA documents by CNN found discrepancies between Pruitt's official calendar and other records. EPA staffers met routinely in Pruitt's office to 'scrub,' alter or remove from Pruitt's official calendar numerous records because they might 'look bad,' according to Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt's former deputy chief of staff for operations, who attended the meetings.... The practice of keeping secret calendars and altering or deleting records of meetings could violate federal law as either 'falsifying records' or hiding public records...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Li Zhou of Vox: "Among the latest scandals plaguing EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt: He reportedly called on staffers to make his hotel bookings on their own personal credit cards -- and in at least one case, he didn't reimburse the payment in time." --safari ...

... Here's Mean Mom Kristin Mink & her young son politely confronting Public Servant Scott Pruitt. Mink has a list, & it's accurate. (Now, doesn't it seems so-o-o-o-o unfair that the White House kicked Scotty out of its staff dining room?) Story linked below:

... That's Okay, Scotty. Wilbur Ross Is a Big Crook, Too. Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "Last month, Forbes reported that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's claims that he had divested from a significant number of his holdings were a bunch of hooey -- and that Ross, in a brazen move, attempted to profit off Forbes's disclosure of his corruption by shorting the stock of a Russian shipping company he had a large stake in.... On Monday evening, NBC News reported that Ross shorted two additional stocks while serving as commerce secretary, bringing the grand total to five. Ross has maintained that this is all a misunderstanding, and that his short positions were taken as a means of disposing of the stock.... But this is a very odd way to divest of stock --and it's especially odd given that Ross's means of 'divestment' thus far has largely been to move his holdings into a trust, which is not really divestment at all."

Carrie Johnson of NPR: "Scott Schools, a top aide to the deputy attorney general, is planning to leave the Justice Department at the end of the week, according to two people familiar with his decision. The job title for Schools -- associate deputy attorney general -- belied his importance as a strategic counselor and repository of institutional memory and ethics at the DOJ. Schools has played a critical, if behind-the-scenes, role in some of the most important and sensitive issues in the building.... Slate magazine called him 'the most important unknown person in D.C.' And that status has only grown as his boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, has found himself on defense among Republicans in Congress over the Mueller investigation."

Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "Rep. Jim Jordan, the powerful Republican congressman from Ohio, is being accused by former wrestlers he coached more than two decades ago at Ohio State University of failing to stop the team doctor from molesting them and other students. The university announced in April that it was investigating accusations that Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005, abused team members when he was the team doctor from the mid-1970s to late 1990s. Jordan, who was assistant wrestling coach at the university from 1986 to 1994, has repeatedly said he knew nothing of the abuse until former students began speaking out this spring. His denials, however, have been met with skepticism and anger from some former members of the wrestling team. Three former wrestlers ... said it would have been impossible for Jordan to be unaware; one wrestler said he told Jordan directly about the abuse." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Rachel Bade & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Rep. Jim Jordan emphatically denied allegations that he intentionally overlooked widespread sexual abuse of wrestlers whom he coached decades ago, telling Politico in a Tuesday night interview that he would have taken action had he known of the alleged behavior." Mrs. McC: This is the same guy who said he'd never heard Trump tell a lie, either to him or to the public. That's a pretty good indication of Jordan's relationship with the truth.

GOP Leader Admits He's Useless. Daniel Desrochers of the Lexington Herald Leader: "On Tuesday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he doesn't think Congress can do much to address the issue [of school shootings]. 'I don't think at the federal level there's much that we can do other than appropriate funds,' McConnell told a group of community leaders in Danville Tuesday.... McConnell is not in favor of gun control laws. He pointed out that Congress appropriated money for school counseling and school safety in its appropriations bill.... 'It's a darn shame that's where we are but this epidemic is something that's got all of our attention,' McConnell said of the school shootings." [Emphasis added] --safari: It's a darn fucking shame American youth are increasingly traumatized about getting murdered in school, but shucks, all out of ideas here! More guns?

American "Health Care". Aris Folley of The Hill: "Video of [a] woman from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police (MBTA) Police Department went viral over the weekend. It shows her in apparent agony after her leg was caught in a gap between a train and the platform on Friday.... The 45-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, asked fellow passengers who came to her aid to not call the ambulance. 'Do you know how much an ambulance costs?' the injured woman asked one passenger.... 'It's $3000,' she wailed. 'I can't afford that.'... [T]he woman was eventually taken to the hospital shortly after the incident where it was determined she did not suffer any broken bones but did suffer a 'serious laceration, exposing the bone,' and would need surgery. The chief of Boston EMS, Jim Hooley, told the publication the cost of an ambulance transporting people within the city is between $1,200 to $1,900." --safari ...

... "Capitalism is Awesome", Ctd. Avery Anapol of The Hill: "Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer raised prices on about 100 drugs this week, the second round of increases for the company this year. Overall, many of the drugs' prices have increased by double-digit percentages this year, according to Ars Technica.... President Trump has vowed to address high drug costs, and said in May that drug companies would 'voluntarily' begin to reduce prices in the coming weeks." --safari ...

... Monopolies Are Awesome. Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "AT&T told a federal judge this year that its landmark merger with Time Warner would probably result in lower prices for its DirecTV customers. But the telecom giant is saying that it will raise the price of DirecTV's online streaming service, DirecTV Now, by $5 a month for new and existing customers, according to an AT&T spokesman. The decision affects all service tiers of the product...."

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Ali Watkins, the New York Times reporter whose email and phone records were secretly seized by the Trump administration, will be transferred out of the newspaper's Washington bureau and reassigned to a new beat in New York, The Times said on Tuesday. Ms. Watkins, 26, had been the subject of an internal review by The Times after revelations that she had a three-year affair with a high-ranking aide on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which she covered for several news organizations before joining The Times in December. The aide, James Wolfe, 57, who handled classified material for the committee, was arrested last month as part of a leak investigation in which the Justice Department also seized Ms. Watkins's communications...." Mrs. McC: Seems like a no-brainer. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "Alan Dershowitz says he has been shunned -- first by old political allies who have stopped inviting him to dinners, and now by liberal elites who are trying to exclude him from their social circles on Martha's Vineyard. The reason, he says, is his unrelenting defense of President Trump's civil liberties.... Dershowitz likened his alleged shunning -- on Martha's Vineyard and elsewhere -- to McCarthyism in the 1950s, when lawyers who represented suspected Communists were ostracized." ...

... Jon Levine of the Wrap: "'The idea that some of these people aren't talking to me is not a punishment, it's a great reward. I am so pleased,' [Alan Dershowitz] told WABC radio hosts Rita Cosby and Curtis Sliwa on Tuesday. 'It's a red badge of courage for me that there are some people who prefer to shut down debate and not talk to me.' 'These are people who have asked me for help over the years, who have asked me for support when their kid gets busted on a marijuana charge, or on possession of alcohol, I'm the first one they call,' he added dismissively. 'But as soon as I defend the rights of Donald Trump or anybody else they disagree with, I'm am a pariah.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Dershowitz might want to actually read The Red Badge of Courage. It's about a coward who deserts his regiment. The title is ironic. See also Akhilleus's comment below.

Beyond the Beltway

Alex Seitz-Wald of NBC News: "As it tries to fend off a progressive insurgency, the Democratic Party in one of the bluest states in the country is facing open revolt after endorsing candidates -- including a Trump-voting former Republican -- in primaries against three progressive women up for re-election this year. Progressives across the country say they're fighting an out-of-touch party establishment, but nowhere are the battle lines more clearly drawn than Rhode Island, where the state is run largely by Democrats who oppose abortion rights and get 'A' ratings from the National Rifle Association. The long-simmering fight burst into the open this week after the Rhode Island Democratic Party released its slate of endorsements, which critics say is aimed at punishing three women who ousted old-guard incumbents two years ago."

Chris Harris of People: "The 3-year-old whose birthday was being celebrated when a man allegedly went on a stabbing spree in Idaho Saturday, attacking six children and three adults, has died. A statement from the Boise Police Department confirms the birthday girl, Ruya Kadir, was among the wounded -- all of whom were refugees -- and succumbed Monday to the severe injuries she sustained i the mass stabbing incident."

Way Beyond

Marc Santora of the New York Times: Poland's Law & Justice party has taken "control of the courts, undermining judicial independence step by step. The culmination of that effort came on Tuesday, when 27 of the 72 judges on the Supreme Court were expected to be forced out by a mandatory retirement age of 65 and a new disciplinary chamber was established to keep judges and prosecutors from stepping out of line. Major protests against the changes in the judiciary are scheduled for Tuesday. And ... dozens of ... judges have vowed to show up for work Wednesday morning, setting the stage for a possible confrontation with the authorities if they are barred from the building.... Critics, both in Poland and abroad, contend they are creating a system where the courts will be subservient to politicians, who then will be able to change the constitution through judicial rulings." ...

     ... Update. Marc Santora: "Poland's government carried out a sweeping purge of the Supreme Court on Tuesday night, eroding the judiciary’s independence, escalating a confrontation with the European Union over the rule of law and further dividing this nation. Tens of thousands took to the streets in protest. Poland was once a beacon for countries struggling to escape the yoke of the Soviet Union and embrace Western democracy. But it is now in league with neighboring nations, like Hungary, whose leaders have turned to authoritarian means to tighten their grip on power, presenting a grave challenge to a European Union already grappling with nationalist, populist and anti-immigrant movements."

Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "In China's remote western province of Xinjiang, the Chinese government has begun constructing a series of internment camps larger than anything the world currently knows. Meant to house upwards of a million — and potentially more -- of the region's indigenous Muslim minority, known as Uyghurs, the camps, according to one U.S. commission studying the region, present the 'largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.'... [They're] called 'Concentrated Education Transformation Centers' -- with one even named, in a manner that would make George Orwell blush, as 'the Loving Kindness School.'... One professor at Australian National University described Xinjiang, an area approximately half the size of India, as the testing ground for China's looming 'neo-totalitarian' model." --safari

Hannah Beech & Austin Ramzy of the New York Times: "Najib Razak, the former prime minister of Malaysia who was ousted in an election two months ago, was arrested by anticorruption officials on Tuesday, amid an investigation involving billions of dollars diverted from a state investment fund. Atop a political machine that had governed Malaysia since its independence in 1957, Mr. Najib and his allies used political influence, cash handouts and news media repression to try to keep corruption accusations at bay for years. But in May, voter anger over the scandal at the investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, led to a sweeping victory for a sprawling opposition movement that came together to oust Mr. Najib. His successor as prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, campaigned on bringing Mr. Najib to justice, and after his inauguration, officials moved to block Mr. Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, from leaving the country.

News Ledes

Guardian: "The 12 boys trapped in a cave in northern Thailand are being trained in how to breathe through scuba masks as they prepare for a possible attempt at leaving the cave. Thai authorities are racing to drain water from a northern Thailand cave where the boys and their football coach are stranded before storms arrive, after which an extraction will become 'almost impossible' for months, according to a coordinator of the international rescue effort."

Guardian: "Counter-terrorism police have joined the investigation into two people in a critical condition in Wiltshire, amid fears that they may have been exposed to a nerve agent.... The man and woman, both in their 40s, were in a critical condition at Salisbury district hospital, Wiltshire police said on Wednesday.... Government security officials held a meeting of the Cobra committee in the Cabinet Office on Wednesday morning to discuss events in Amesbury and another meeting will take place later.... The incident comes four months after the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned by a suspected military nerve agent in Salisbury, around eight miles from Amesbury." ...

... New York Times: "A British man and woman have been critically sickened by the same nerve agent, Novichok, that was used to poison a former Russian spy and his daughter four months ago, the authorities announced on Wednesday."