The Commentariat -- June 26, 2018

Liam Stack of the New York Times: "There will be important primaries or runoff elections on Tuesday in seven states, including New York, where establishment candidates in both parties face tests in colorful, close primary battles.... Voters will also go to the polls in Utah, Maryland, Colorado, Oklahoma, Mississippi and South Carolina." Vote!

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

It's Another Mitch McConnell Day at the Supreme Court ...
Or, to borrow from Ian Millhiser, Another Great Day for White Nationalism

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "President Trump acted lawfully in imposing limits on travel from several predominantly Muslim nations, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. The vote was 5 to 4, with the courts conservatives in the majority." At 10:45 am ET, this is kind of a rump story, with little detail. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is that "presumption of good faith" Ian Millhiser & Cristian Farias discuss. Farias specifically tied said presumption to the possible decision in the Muslim ban case. Sadly, he was right. I'll be way interested to see if the winger justices presume good faith on the part of Democratic lawmakers & administrators. Scalia thought one purpose of ObamaCare was to make every American eat broccoli, & they all seem to think workers & unions are up to no good. ...

... Oh, P.S. California Legislators Presumably Act in Bad Faith. Because Abortion. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court said Tuesday that pregnancy centers established to persuade women to continue their pregnancies do not have to tell their clients about the availability of state-offered services, including abortion. The court's conservatives said a California law likely violates the First Amendment. It required what are called crisis pregnancy centers -- they promise prenatal care and help when the child is born -- to post notices or tell clients about the state's service. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the 5 to 4 decision." Justice Stephen Breyer, who wrote the dissent "said the court has repeatedly upheld state laws that provide a script for doctors when they are counseling women who seek abortion. 'If a state can lawfully require a doctor to tell a woman seeking an abortion about adoption services, why should it not be able, as here, to require a medical counselor to tell a woman seeking prenatal care or other reproductive healthcare about childbirth and abortion services?' Breyer wrote." Mrs. McC: Must be a false equivalency. Or something.

** Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "The Supreme Court held on Monday that white lawmakers enjoy a presumption of racial innocence, even when they draw legislative districts that empower white voters at the expense of racial minorities. The thrust of Justice Samuel Alito's opinion in Abbott v. Perez is that the 'good faith' of a 'state legislature must be presumed,' even when there are very serious allegations of racial gerrymandering.... [T]he Perez opinion is very bad news for anyone hoping to challenge a racial gerrymander in the future. Lawmakers now enjoy an exceedingly strong presumption of racial innocence when they draw legislative maps. It's a great day for white nationalism." --safari

Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in an effort to stop plans to allow mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota.... The legal challenges come after President Donald Trump announced during a rally in Duluth, Minnesota last week that he wanted to keep large portions of land within the state's Superior National Forest -- where the Boundary Waters recreation area is located -- open to mining. These ares of land were set to be banned to industry activities under the Obama administration." --safari

Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "One of the country's major federal science agencies [The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization] seems to have been forced to abandon climate change research as a key organizational focus, the New York Times revealed this week. The ... Organization is responsible for managing the National Weather Service and using its network of satellites to forecast the effects of climate change.... NOAA ... had remained relatively immune so far from the influence of climate change skeptics within the Trump administration." -safari

Diego Cupolo of The Atlantic: "Recep Tayyip Erdoğan extended his 16-year dominance over Turkey with a victory in the first round of the country's snap elections, winning 52.5 percent of the vote.... In the eyes of his roughly 26 million supporters, it was a resounding victory for the powerless.... The problem is that such victories for Turkey-s supposedly oppressed classes can feel like oppression for the other half of the country-s voters, who just missed their best chance to date to unseat a leader with very real staying power.... Erdoğan is poised to rule Turkey for up to three more terms with consolidated governing powers -- what his opponents call 'one man rule.' Turks have, in essence, voted away their democracy." --safari

*****

Incompetence, Malevolence, Indifference, Negligence, Chaos, Ctd.

Ron Nixon, et al., of the New York Times: "The nation's top border security official said on Monday that his agency has temporarily stopped handing over migrant adults who cross the Mexican border with children to prosecutors, undercutting claims by other administration officials that 'zero tolerance' for illegal immigration is still in place. Kevin K. McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said he had told border agents not to refer families to the Justice Department for prosecution until the two agencies can agree on a policy that would allow parents to be prosecuted without separating them from their children. Because Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not have enough detention space for families, the immediate impact of the decision will be that many families will be quickly released, with a promise to return for a court date at some point in the future. The decision by Mr. McAleenan, conveyed to reporters at a detention center here, will effectively revive a 'catch and release' approach used during the Obama administration for most families crossing the Mexican border illegally. President Trump has repeatedly railed against 'catch and release' and blamed it for helping to invite waves of crime and violence into the United States.... 'We're not changing the policy. We're simply out of resources, [Sarah] Sanders said. She blamed Democrats in Congress for not changing immigration laws in ways that would keep migrant families out of the country in the first place.... [Meanwhile,] Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed to continue enforcing Mr. Trump's zero tolerance immigration policy." ...

... Lolita Baldor & Robert Burns of Stars & Stripes: "The Trump administration has chosen an Army base and an Air Force base, both in Texas, to house detained migrants swept up in the federal government's crackdown on illegal immigration, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Monday. Mattis said he could not confirm specifics, such as the number of migrants to be sheltered at Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base.... The U.S. military has a long history of providing logistical support to people 'escaping tyranny' or affected by natural disasters, Mattis said... 'We provide logistics support and we're not going to get into the political aspect,' he said. 'Providing housing, shelter for those who need it is a legitimate governmental function.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's probably useful to read Mattis's decision in the light of reporting from Courtney Kube & Carol Lee of NBC News which documents how Trump has kept Mattis out of the loop on major decisions affecting the military. ...

... James Laporta & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "Active-duty and retired U.S. military officers and enlisted personnel are expressing a sense of moral emergency over the Defense Department setting up detention camps for undocumented immigrants on military bases<. 'It smacks of totalitarianism,' said Steve Kleinman, a retired Air Force colonel and military intelligence officer. Raf Noboa, an Iraq War veteran and former Army sergeant, said he was astounded by the 'enormous moral offense' the camps represent and which the military will be ordered to support." ...

... Kevin Tripp of the Guardian: "A senior manager at a child detention camp in Texas, close to the Mexican border, spoke out on Monday to decry Donald Trump&'s zero-tolerance immigration policy that had been tearing migrant families apart as 'dumb'. Speaking to journalists in what he said was an individual capacity, at the end of a special, supervised media tour of the facility in Tornillo, near El Paso, Texas, the manager, who asked not to be named, called family separations 'a dumb, stupid decision'. 'All it did was harm children,' he said. The manager works for the private contractor BCFS, which is running the camp on behalf of the federal government. 'This operation would not be necessary had it not been for the separation.'" ...

... Dana Milbank: Speaking at a Trump fear-mongering event last Friday, "Mary Ann Mendoza, one of the angel moms on stage with Trump, [said,] 'if the public would go to illegalaliencrimereport.com and see the magnitude of crimes being committed against your fellow Americans by illegal aliens allowed to stay in this country, you will be sickened.' I did as she said and looked into the Illegal Alien Crime Report. I was indeed sickened by what I found: white-nationalist claims of 'genocide' and a 'Holocaust' being perpetrated against white Americans. And now, those promoting such filth are getting mentioned behind a lectern bearing the presidential seal, at an official event hosted by the president himself.... [A video on the site showed] war footage of Nazis' victims, corpses in concentration-camp uniforms lined up and in piles.... [One of the video's producers, Frank Jorge,] called for violence against politicians. 'When is somebody gonna get a senator, hang him by his f------ balls and do something about this s---?; he demanded. 'When is somebody going to get to some representative and f--- him up for letting our people get murdered? When is it gonna happen because it's goddamned overdue.' Jorge added that politicians 'need to bleed.'... It is yet another peek at the ugliness that lurks just beneath the surface of support for Trump and his nativist policies.... There have always been such characters in American life. The difference is they now can hope for a White House shout-out." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: Now read Charles Pierce's post & Michelle Goldberg's column, linked below, not to mention the WashPostory linked below, in which Democrats call for "civility." ...

... Melanie Schmitz of ThinkProgress: "First lady Melania Trump called for 'compassion,' 'kindness,' and understanding during an event with young students Sunday night, even as her husband's administration continued its brutal crackdown on immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border.... Mrs. Trump's comments come days after she visited a detention center for immigrant children in McAllen, Texas and wore a jacket bearing the phrase 'I really don't care. Do u?'... The first lady's speech also contrasts with her husband's racist, degrading comments about immigrants, as his administration continues to crack down on those entering the country at the U.S. southern border." ...

... David Boroff of the New York Daily News: "A 27-year-old California man and his mother were called 'rapists' and 'animals' [and 'drug dealers'] by a Trump supporter while trying to do landscaping work -- and video of the exchange has been viewed millions of times online. Video shows the unidentified woman confronting Esteban Guzman and his mom and saying she hated them because they are 'Mexican.'... The woman mentioned President Trump during her racist tantrum, which was recorded by Guzman's mother and went viral on Twitter. Trump used similar wording when he announced he was running for president in 2015. He said Mexico is 'not sending' their best people, and alluded to them as 'rapists.'" Guzman says he was born in California. Includes video.

... Felicia Sonmez & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday escalated a feud with a veteran Democratic lawmaker who called for aggressive protests of administration officials, warning Rep. Maxine Waters of California to 'Be careful what you wish for Max!'... In a tweet, Trump called Waters 'an extraordinarily low IQ person' who, together with [Nancy] Pelosi, had become 'the Face of the Democrat Party.'... Waters, a vocal Trump critic, told supporters at a Los Angeles rally Saturday that 'if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them!' She repeated that call in an MSNBC interview later the same day. In a rare rebuke of a fellow Democrat, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized Waters's comments Monday.... 'Trump's daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but unacceptable. As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity....'... Democratic strategist Paul Begala warned that overly aggressive tactics could backfire by alienating the voters that his party needs most.... Several congressional Democrats issued clear rebukes of Waters's remarks, although they did not mention her by name." ...

... Juliegrace Brufke of the Hill: "A House Republican on Monday introduced a measure to censure Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and called on her to resign following her comments calling on Democrats to publicly confront officials in the Trump administration.... Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said the California Democrat's comments do 'not become somebody who's in Congress,' arguing disciplinary action is appropriate." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Biggs, a first-term Congressman, also has called repeatedly for Robert Mueller to resign, he said President Obama probably knew the FBI had "embedd[ed] ... undercover operatives into the Trump campaign." He also "call[ed] for the criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton and a variety of other Obama administration appointees, career FBI officials, and even Trump appointee Dana Boente. And so forth. In other words, a goose-stepping nut job. All due respect, etc.

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump lashed out Monday at a Virginia restaurant that refused to serve his press secretary.... 'The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders,' Trump said in his Monday tweet. 'I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It is unconscionable for the POTUS* to make derogatory remarks about a small business, especially since there's no reason to think he's even seen the restaurant. Worse president* ever. ...

... ** Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "Compared to the Red Hen, some of Trump's own restaurants seem like the bathroom of a dive bar the morning after a live show. The Lexington, Virginia-based restaurant, which caused a Trumpworld uproar when it refused to serve White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Friday, passed its most recent health inspection with flying colors. State authorities found no violations when they visited the restaurant in February, and gave the Red Hen their best possible health-risk rating. By contrast, the conditions of restaurants at Trump's hotels and resorts have ranged from moderately unsanitary to outright revolting." Read on. Many thanks to Ed for the link. This is yet another instance of Trump's falsely accusing someone for shortcomings of which he himself is actually guilty. ...

... Charles Pierce: By all accounts, the most civil action taken in L'affaire Poule Rouge was the way Stephanie Wilkinson handled her refusal to serve Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. She first consulted with her staff..., she politely informed Sanders and her party that they would not be eating at the Red Hen that night. She even comped them the cheese plates they'd already ordered. She did not use an official government Twitter account to discuss the episode, as Sanders did later. She did not use the power of the Oval Office to try and destroy someone's business, as the president* found time to do later.... Suddenly, just as the issue of the hijacked children was beginning to bite the administration* severely in the ass, here was an event over which the elite political media could do one of its favorite traditional fan dances: the Question of Civility.... This debate is stupid. It's also dangerously beside the point. SarahHuck is the lying mouthpiece of a lying regime that is one step away from simply hauling people off in trucks. That she was politely told to take her business elsewhere is a small step towards assigning public responsibility to public officials that enable a perilous brand of politics.... So, Sarah, since I know it is hard for you to understand even short sentences, I'll put it as briefly as I can: Take a hike." ...

... ** Michelle Goldberg: "Naturally, all this [shaming of Trump officials & supporters] has led to lots of pained disapproval from self-appointed guardians of civility.... 'How hard is it to imagine, for example, people who strongly believe that abortion is murder deciding that judges or other officials who protect abortion rights should not be able to live peaceably with their families?' [the Washington Post] asked. Of course, this is not hard to imagine at all, since abortion opponents have assassinated abortion providers in their homes and churches, firebombed their clinics and protested at their children&'s schools. The Roman Catholic Church has shamed politicians who support abortion rights by denying them communion. The failure to acknowledge this history is a sign of the reflexive false balance that makes it hard for the mainstream media to grapple with the asymmetric extremism of the Republican Party.... There's a moral and psychic cost to participating in the fiction that people who work for Trump are in any sense public servants.... Public shaming ... [is] less a result of a breakdown in civility than a breakdown of democracy.... There's an abusive sort of victim-blaming in demanding that progressives single-handedly uphold civility...." ...

... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "As a desperate Republican Party does everything they can to prop up a minority coalition with undemocratic means, the concern trolling is particularly misplaced." ...

... Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: Hospitality traditions notwithstanding, "Sarah Huckabee Sanders's chosen role in life [is] to further [President Trump's] lies, treat lies as truth, and make lies acceptable. This is not just a question of protesting a particular policy; in the end there are no policies, only the infantile impulses of a man veering from one urge to another. The great threat to American democracy isn't 'policy' but the pretense of normalcy. That's the danger, for with the lies come the appeasement of tyranny, the admiration of tyranny, and, as now seems increasingly likely, the secret alliance with tyranny. That's what makes the Trump Administration intolerable, and, inasmuch as it is intolerable, public shaming and shunning of those who take part in it seems just. Never before in American politics has there been so plausible a reason for exclusion from the common meal as the act of working for Donald Trump."

Mike Murphy of Marketwatch: "Speaking at a campaign rally in South Carolina for Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday night, Trump bashed a trio of late-night talk-show hosts who often joke about him as talentless and unfunny. Trump has repeatedly called 'SNL' unfunny, especially Alec Baldwin's portrayal of him in sketches. Trump insulted Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC's ... 'Tonight Show,' in a tweet Sunday, calling him 'whimpering' and saying 'Be a man Jimmy!' The taunts continued Monday.... 'Jimmy Fallon apologized. He apologized for humanizing me,' Trump said Monday at the rally. 'The poor guy.... Now he's going to lose all of us.... He ... was so disappointed to find out it was real, he couldn't believe it,' Trump said. 'That's one of the great things I've got. Everyone used to say my hair is phony, you're wearing a hairpiece. But they never say that anymore.' Trump then shifted to Stephen Colbert.... 'The guy at CBS, what a lowlife, what a lowlife,' Trump said of the South Carolina native. 'This guy on CBS has no talent.' Finally, Trump mocked Jimmy Kimmel.... '... the guy's terrible,' Trump said." ...

... Oh, Why Can't the U.S. Be More Like North Korea. Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump is taken not only with his skeletal diplomacy with North Korea, but also with the communist kingdom's entire social model, which he has been praising to anybody who will listen. Trump loves the North Korean state media, the 'fervor' demonstrated by its people for their leader upon pain of death, and the way Kim Jong-un's advisers sit up in attention for him (also upon pain of death.) At his rally in South Carolina Monday night, Trump seemed to recognize similarities between his communication style and the North Korean regime. 'They took down anti-United States signs all over North Korea,' he said. '... Anti-U.S. signs, like I put up anti-media signs all over the place.' Well, yes, Trump's method for discrediting the news media is quite similar to North Korea's method of discrediting the United States. How unusually insightful of Trump to recognize the parallels, which would normally discomfit a democratically-elected official. Also at the rally, Trump once again declared the media 'the enemy of the people,' borrowing a classic communist regime term of abuse for any class which the state was murdering in large numbers...." ...

... Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Henry Gomez of BuzzFeed: "Hundreds of President Trump's supporters marched into a high school gymnasium Monday and began blistering their new perceived enemy: CNN's chief White House correspondent. 'Fake News Jim!' they chanted loudly at Jim Acosta as one woman confronted him near his seat in the press pen and then as he positioned himself in front of a camera for a live hit. 'Go home, Jim!' they added later -- a taunt that sounded especially menacing when aimed at a reporter with a Hispanic surname and a father who fled Fidel Castro's Cuba.... But before long..., Acosta posed for selfies, first with a kind woman who genuinely seemed to want one, and then with others who appeared more eager to share the moments ironically on social media. Then ... Acosta began signing autographs.'.. Eventually one of his most persistent hecklers -- a young man with a long, scruffy beard, wearing a MAGA cap backwards and a MAGA flag as a cape -- engaged Acosta in a friendly conversation. By the end of the exchange, the Trump fan was begging Acosta for an on-air shoutout. 'I think it helps calm them down,' Acosta replied when asked why he indulged the same people who had been jeering him. 'If I were to say no, it could make it more venomous.'"

     ... Thanks to Patrick for the link. It would never, of course, occur to DiJiT that bigbizguy might be upset and lacrimose about seeing a moron sitting in the big chair, and wondering WTF is happening to our country. Never. -- Patrick

Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "The [bond market's] so-called yield curve is perilously close to predicting a recession -- something it has done before with surprising accuracy -- and it's become a big topic on Wall Street." Phillips explains the yield curve, which is the difference between long- and short-term T-bills. "On Thursday, the gap between two-year and 10-year United States Treasury notes was roughly 0.34 percentage points. It was last at these levels in 2007 when the United States economy was heading into what was arguably the worst recession in almost 80 years.... if it keeps moving in this direction, eventually long-term interest rates will fall below short-term rates. When that happens, the yield curve has 'inverted.' An inversion is seen as 'a powerful signal of recessions.'... Every recession of the past 60 years has been preceded by an inverted yield curve, according to research from the San Francisco Fed." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Bye-Bye: The Sound of a Harley Backfiring. Arnie Tsang of the New York Times: "Harley-Davidson, the American motorcycle manufacturer, said on Monday that it was shifting some of the production of its bikes outside the United States to avoid European Union tariffs imposed as part of a widening trade dispute. The announcement, made in a public filing, is an early sign of the financial cost to companies on both sides of the Atlantic as the United States and Europe impose tariffs and counter-tariffs on each other. The moves have raised the specter of a full-blown trade war as the Trump administration pursues a protectionist tack.... Last week, the European Union imposed penalties on $3.2 billion worth of American products, many of which are produced in areas that form the heart of President Trump's political base, in response to steel and aluminum tariffs added by the White House. Harley-Davidson said on Monday that European Union tariffs on its motorcycles had increased to 31 percent, from 6 percent. It estimated that the higher tariffs would add about $2,200 on average to every motorcycle exported from the United States to the bloc, so it said it would move the production of bikes bound for Europe outside the United States." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It wasn't so long ago that Trump was telling Harley-Davidson executives their already-successful company would grow even bigger because of "a new American spirit that had emerged since his election." Earlier this year, Trump whined repeatedly about India's "unfair" tariffs on Harleys, so it's kinda funny that Harley is likely to move more of its production to -- you guessed it -- India. Who knew trade wars were so complicated? (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Politico: "... Donald Trump warned Harley-Davidson on Tuesday that its iconic American motorcycles 'should never be built in another country.'... 'A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never! Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end - they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!' the president tweeted. Earlier in the morning, the president also claimed that the American motorcycle manufacturer is using the EU's retaliatory tariffs as an 'excuse' to move some production overseas. 'Early this year Harley-Davidson said they would move much of their plant operations in Kansas City to Thailand. That was long before Tariffs were announced. Hence, they were just using Tariffs/Trade War as an excuse. Shows how unbalanced & unfair trade is, but we will fix it,' the president wrote online in a series of tweets. 'We are getting other countries to reduce and eliminate tariffs and trade barriers that have been unfairly used for years against our farmers, workers and companies. We are opening up closed markets and expanding our footprint. They must play fair or they will pay tariffs!'" ...

Surprised that Harley-Davidson, of all companies, would be the first to wave the White Flag. I fought hard for them and ultimately they will not pay tariffs selling into the E.U., which has hurt us badly on trade, down $151 Billion. Taxes just a Harley excuse - be patient!-- Donald Trump, in a tweet, Monday ...

... Heather Long of the Washington Post: "The first casualties of President Trump's trade war are 60 workers at Mid-Continent Nail, America's largest nail manufacturer. They lost their jobs on June 15 at a factory in a part of Missouri that voted overwhelmingly for Trump.... Mid-Continent Nail blames the layoffs on Trump's tariffs and the company says all 500 employees could lose their jobs by Labor Day.... This is a potential game changer in Trump's trade strategy, especially if it marks the start of more companies announcing layoffs. On Monday, Harley-Davidson said it will be moving some 'production' offshore because of the trade war (Europe hit Harley with a 31 percent tariff in response to Trump's steel tariffs on Europe). Harley won't confirm if jobs are leaving the United States, but the union representing many Harley workers, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, is worried. The Trump administration has argued that these tariffs will save jobs and that the cost to America will be minor. But now there are real job losses. The political pressure on Trump to stop the tariffs (especially on America's allies) is likely to escalate. In Missouri, a state with a close U.S. Senate race, the layoffs are already becoming a hot election issue. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is planning a rally by the nail plant on Friday." ...

... Paul Krugman: "I predict that as the downsides of hard-line trade policy become apparent, we'll see a nasty search by President Trump and company for people to scapegoat. In fact, that search has already started.... First, the administration has no idea what it's doing.... Second, this administration is infested -- I use that word advisedly -- with conspiracy theorists.... A a lot of American jobs -- more than 10 million, according to the Commerce Department -- are supported by exports.... And the damage wouldn't be limited to export industries: More than half of U.S. imports, and 95 percent of the Chinese goods about to face Trump tariffs, are ... things that U.S. producers use to make themselves more efficient.... I predict ... [the administration] will start seeing villains under every bed. It will attribute the downsides of trade conflict ... to George Soros and the deep state." ...

     ... Krugman points out that Wilbur Ross has already scapegoated "'antisocial' speculators engaged in 'profiteering.'" He doesn't mention that Trump himself has scapegoated Harley-Davidson execs for using E.U. tariffs as an "excuse" to move jobs overseas & are "waving the white flag." It's not his fault; it's theirs. Ingrates!

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

** Trump Team Won't Help Tech Companies Combat Russian Election Meddling. Sheera Frenkel & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Eight of the tech industry's most influential companies, in anticipation of a repeat of the Russian meddling that occurred during the 2016 presidential campaign, met with United States intelligence officials last month to discuss preparations for this year's midterm elections. The meeting, which took place May 23 at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., was also attended by representatives from Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Oath, Snap and Twitter.... The company officials met with Christopher Krebs, an under secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, as well as a representative of the [FBI]'s newly formed 'foreign influence' task force.... The meeting ... was initiated by Facebook.... But the people who attended described a tense atmosphere in which the tech companies repeatedly pressed federal officials for information, only to be told -- repeatedly -- that no specific intelligence would be shared.... One attendee of the meeting said the encounter led the tech companies to believe they would be on their own to counter election interference.... Part of the problem, [U.S.] officials say, is that the White House has expressed little interest in the problem of Russian interference, and that the apathy has had a trickle-down effect." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The only reasonable conclusion one can draw is that Trump is inviting further foreign election interference as he believes -- probably correctly -- that malicious foreigners are likely to help Republicans. This isn't incompetence; it's strategy. And it's treasonous.

Chris Strohm & Shannon Pettypiece of Bloomberg: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller is preparing to accelerate his probe into possible collusion between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russians who sought to interfere in the 2016 election, according to a person familiar with the probe. Mueller and his team of prosecutors and investigators have an eye toward producing conclusions -- and possible indictments -- related to collusion by fall, said the person.... He'll be able to turn his full attention to the issue as he resolves other questions, including deciding soon whether to find that Trump sought to obstruct justice." The reporters list "the players and their known interactions, with links to previous news stories."

James Meek of ABC News: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller is digging deeper into Trump ally and Blackwater founder Erik Prince, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter. Prince, America's most famous private military contractor, acknowledged last week that he 'cooperated' with Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election after falling under scrutiny amid questions about an alleged effort to establish a backchannel between the Trump administration and the Kremlin, something Prince has vehemently denied. ABC News has since learned that Mueller is also reviewing Prince's communications, a sign that Mueller could try to squeeze Prince, as he has others, probing potential inconsistencies in his sworn testimony in an attempt to pressure him to turn into a witness against other targets of the investigation.... In April 2017, the Washington Post reported that Prince, whose sister Betsy DeVos is .... Donald Trump's education secretary, had traveled to the Seychelles in January following Trump's election for a secret meeting with a Russian official with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prince testified before the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in November that he hadn't made the trip ;to meet any Russian guy' and described his meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, the Putin-appointed head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, as a chance encounter 'over a beer.' ABC News reported earlier this year that Mueller has obtained evidence that calls that testimony into question."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is appealing a judge's decision to jail him over charges that he attempted to tamper with the testimony of two potential witnesses against him. Ten days after U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson revoked Manafort's house arrest and ordered him jailed, his defense attorneys filed an official notice Monday appealing her ruling to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Manafort's defense team also filed another appeal Monday over a decision Jackson issued nearly two months ago tossing out a civil suit Manafort hoped to use to block any further prosecutions of him by special counsel Robert Mueller."

Another Big Deal Comey Screwed up. John Solomon in the Hill: "One of the more devastating intelligence leaks in American history -- the unmasking of the CIA's arsenal of cyber warfare weapons last year — has an untold prelude worthy of a spy novel. Some of the characters are household names...: James Comey, fired FBI director. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Department of Justice (DOJ) official Bruce Ohr. Julian Assange, grand master of WikiLeaks. And American attorney Adam Waldman, who has a Forrest Gump-like penchant for showing up in major cases of intrigue. Each played a role in the early days of the Trump administration to try to get Assange to agree to 'risk mitigation' -- essentially, limiting some classified CIA information he might release in the future. The effort resulted in the drafting of a limited immunity deal that might have temporarily freed the WikiLeaks founder from a London embassy where he has been exiled for years, according to interviews and a trove of internal DOJ documents turned over to Senate investigators. But an unexpected intervention by Comey -- relayed through Warner -- soured the negotiations, multiple sources tell me. Assange eventually unleashed a series of leaks that U.S. officials say damaged their cyber warfare capabilities for a long time to come." Solomon goes into the particulars.

<Andrew Kirell, et al., of the Daily Beast: "David Bossie, the former deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump and current outside adviser to the president, has been suspended from his contributor gig at Fox News, three sources familiar with the situation tell The Daily Beast. The suspension is set to last two weeks. Appearing Sunday on Fox & Friends Weekend," Bossie said to Joel Payne, who is black, "You're out of your cotton-picking mind." Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll have to admit that, having grown up white in the South, I never thought of "you're out of your cotton-picking mind" as a racist remark, & I may have said it myself. If I have, I certainly didn't intend to be making a slur.

Justin Story of the Bowling Green Daily News: "U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Bowling Green has filed a lawsuit against the neighbor who admitted to assaulting him in front of his house. In the civil complaint, filed Friday in Warren Circuit Court, the Republican senator seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages from Rene Boucher for 'physical pain and mental suffering' resulting from Boucher's tackle of Paul as the senator was mowing his yard Nov. 3 in the Rivergreen subdivision in Bowling Green. Paul sustained multiple rib fractures and dealt with recurrent pneumonia in the aftermath of the incident."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday told a lower court to reconsider the case of a florist in Washington State who had refused to create a floral arrangement for a same-sex wedding. The justices vacated a decision against the florist from the Washington Supreme Court and instructed it to take a fresh look at the dispute in light of this month's ruling in a similar dispute involving a Colorado baker. The case, Arlene's Flowers v. State of Washington, No. 17-108, started in 2013, when the florist, Barronelle Stutzman, turned down a request from a longtime customer, Robert Ingersoll, to provide flowers for his wedding to another man, Curt Freed. Ms. Stutzman said her religious principles did not allow her to do so.... The Washington Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Stutzman had violated a state anti-discrimination law by refusing to provide the floral arrangement. The Supreme Court ... decid[ed] the Colorado case on narrow grounds specific to the dispute, saying the baker there had faced religious hostility from members of a state civil rights commission that had ruled against him." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds as if the Supremes are punting again. The narrow grounds in which the Court decided the Colorado case do not apply to the Washington matter, so I don't see how "a fresh look" at the Colorado case will help the Washington State Supremes. It seems as if the Washington Supremes ruled consistent with this part of Kennedy's opinion in the Colorado case: “Our society has come to the recognition that gay persons and gay couples cannot be treated as social outcasts or as inferior in dignity and worth. For that reason the laws and the Constitution can, and in some instances must, protect them in the exercise of their civil rights." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Deciders Decide Not to Decide Another Gerrymandering Case. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Supreme Court on Monday said it is declining, for now, to wade into a dispute over a North Carolina redistricting plan that a lower court had found violated the Constitution by overly favoring Republicans. The justices had already passed up chances to issue sweeping decisions in cases from Wisconsin and Maryland involving claims of partisan gerrymandering. Instead, the high court ruled on narrow, technical grounds that steered clear of the central issue of when legislative districts are so skewed to favor one party that they violate voters' constitutional rights. In January, the justices blocked a lower court's order forcing a redraw of the North Carolina congressional map. Monday’s order returned the case to the lower court for further consideration of a legal standing issue the court addressed in the Wisconsin case." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... ** Update. But This Is Really Bad. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday largely upheld Texas congressional and legislative maps that a lower court said discriminated against black and Hispanic voters. The lower court was wrong in how it considered the challenges, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote in the 5 to 4 decision. The majority sided with the challengers over one legislative district. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent that was longer than Alito’s majority decision. She said the decision 'does great damage to the right of equal opportunity. Not because it denies the existence of that right, but because it refuses its enforcement.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Never Forget. Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "As African American political organizers often say to African American audiences, if voting wasn't important, Republicans wouldn’t work so hard to prevent them from doing it. And while Democrats are asking themselves whether they should avoid being rude to people who work for President Trump, the Republican majority on the Supreme Court just delivered another victory to the broad and deep GOP effort to make sure that American elections are rigged in conservatives' favor.... This is only the latest in a string of cases that have either upheld Republican efforts to rig the electoral system through things like partisan gerrymandering and voter purges, or at the very least delayed deciding on the question while those tactics remain in force. In other words, the Supreme Court is a key component of the GOP election-rigging project.... We must never forget that the court that keeps delivering these 5-to-4 decisions in favor of Republican efforts to rig the electoral system was itself rigged in favor of Republicans." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Waldman mentions several ways Democrats can "correct" the Supremes, but he doesn't say anything about the most obvious, short-term one: install Democratic governors & state legislators. If there be gerrymandering, let that gerrymandering favor Democrats. So in November, vote for your Democratic candidates, even if they're jerks (and you can be assured that some of the Democrats running for state houses are jerks -- it's kinda the nature of the job). ...

... Cristian Farias of New York: "... a 5-to-4 conservative majority on the Supreme Court has chosen to hand down a decision in a contentious racial gerrymandering case from Texas. Even though it didn't have to. Even though a lower court had found that a number of congressional and state legislative maps had been drawn with discriminatory intent, had a racially discriminatory effect, or were unlawful under the Voting Rights Act. Even though last summer the same conservative majority aggressively intervened to prevent any remedial maps from even being considered.... To Justice Samuel Alito and his conservative cohorts on the Supreme Court, the lower court that decided Abbott v. Perez in the first place made 'a fundamental legal error' that needed to be corrected.... Alito [assumed] 'the presumption of legislative good faith,' under which the government is given the benefit of the doubt.... (In a short concurrence written by Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Neil Gorsuch made a bit of news: He endorsed Thomas's extreme, if lonely, view that the Voting Rights Act can't be used to police racially discriminatory redistricting plans. Not even Jeff Sessions's Justice Department, which isn't exactly friendly to civil rights, endorses that view.)"

Adam Liptak: "American Express did not violate the antitrust laws by insisting in its contracts with merchants that they do nothing to encourage patrons to use other cards, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday. The decision has implications not only for what one brief called 'an astronomical number of retail transactions' but also for other kinds of markets, notably ones on the internet, in which services link consumers and businesses. Such 'two-sided platforms,' the court said, require special and seemingly more forgiving antitrust scrutiny. The vote was 5 to 4, with the court's more conservative members in the majority. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, said the specialized nature of credit-card transactions justified what in other circumstances might have been anti-competitive conduct."

The Commentariat -- June 25, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump lashed out Monday at a Virginia restaurant that refused to serve his press secretary.... 'The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders,' Trump said in his Monday tweet. 'I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It is unconscionable for the POTUS* to make derogatory remarks about a small business, especially since there's no reason to think he's even seen the restaurant. Worse president* ever.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday told a lower court to reconsider the case of a florist in Washington State who had refused to create a floral arrangement for a same-sex wedding. The justices vacated a decision against the florist from the Washington Supreme Court and instructed it to take a fresh look at the dispute in light of this month's ruling in a similar dispute involving a Colorado baker. The case, Arlene's Flowers v. State of Washington, No. 17-108, started in 2013, when the florist, Barronelle Stutzman, turned down a request from a longtime customer, Robert Ingersoll, to provide flowers for his wedding to another man, Curt Freed. Ms. Stutzman said her religious principles did not allow her to do so.... The Washington Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Stutzman had violated a state anti-discrimination law by refusing to provide the floral arrangement. The Supreme Court ... decid[ed] the Colorado case on narrow grounds specific to the dispute, saying the baker there had faced religious hostility from members of a state civil rights commission that had ruled against him." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds as if the Supremes are punting again. The narrow grounds in which the Court decided the Colorado case do not apply to the Washington matter, so I don't see how "a fresh look" at the Colorado case will help the Washington State Supremes. It seems as if the Washington Supremes ruled consistent with this part of Kennedy's opinion in the Colorado case: "Our society has come to the recognition that gay persons and gay couples cannot be treated as social outcasts or as inferior in dignity and worth. For that reason the laws and the Constitution can, and in some instances must, protect them in the exercise of their civil rights." ...

... ** Update. But This Is Really Bad. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday largely upheld Texas congressional and legislative maps that a lower court said discriminated against black and Hispanic voters. The lower court was wrong in how it considered the challenges, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote in the 5 to 4 decision. The majority sided with the challengers over one legislative district. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent that was longer than Alito's majority decision. She said the decision 'does great damage to the right of equal opportunity. Not because it denies the existence of that right, but because it refuses its enforcement.'"

The Deciders Decide Not to Decide Another Gerrymandering Case. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Supreme Court on Monday said it is declining, for now, to wade into a dispute over a North Carolina redistricting plan that a lower court had found violated the Constitution by overly favoring Republicans. The justices had already passed up chances to issue sweeping decisions in cases from Wisconsin and Maryland involving claims of partisan gerrymandering. Instead, the high court ruled on narrow, technical grounds that steered clear of the central issue of when legislative districts are so skewed to favor one party that they violate voters' constitutional rights. In January, the justices blocked a lower court's order forcing a redraw of the North Carolina congressional map. Monday's order returned the case to the lower court for further consideration of a legal standing issue the court addressed in the Wisconsin case."

Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "The [bond market's] so-called yield curve is perilously close to predicting a recession -- something it has done before with surprising accuracy -- and it's become a big topic on Wall Street." Phillips explains the yield curve, which is the difference between long- and short-term T-bills. "On Thursday, the gap between two-year and 10-year United States Treasury notes was roughly 0.34 percentage points. It was last at these levels in 2007 when the United States economy was heading into what was arguably the worst recession in almost 80 years.... if it keeps moving in this direction, eventually long-term interest rates will fall below short-term rates.When that happens, the yield curve has 'inverted.' An inversion is seen as 'a powerful signal of recessions.'... Every recession of the past 60 years has been preceded by an inverted yield curve, according to research from the San Francisco Fed." ...

... Bye-Bye: The Sound of a Harley Backfiring. Arnie Tsang of the New York Times: "Harley-Davidson, the American motorcycle manufacturer, said on Monday that it was shifting some of the production of its bikes outside the United States to avoid European Union tariffs imposed as part of a widening trade dispute. The announcement, made in a public filing, is an early sign of the financial cost to companies on both sides of the Atlantic as the United States and Europe impose tariffs and counter-tariffs on each other. The moves have raised the specter of a full-blown trade war as the Trump administration pursues a protectionist tack.... Last week, the European Union imposed penalties on $3.2 billion worth of American products, many of which are produced in areas that form the heart of President Trump's political base, in response to steel and aluminum tariffs added by the White House. Harley-Davidson said on Monday that European Union tariffs on its motorcycles had increased to 31 percent, from 6 percent. It estimated that the higher tariffs would add about $2,200 on average to every motorcycle exported from the United States to the bloc, so it said it would move the production of bikes bound for Europe outside the United States." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It wasn't so long ago that Trump was telling Harley-Davidson executives their already-successful company would grow even bigger because of "a new American spirit that had emerged since his election." Earlier this year, Trump whined repeatedly about India's "unfair" tariffs on Harleys, so it's kinda funny that Harley is likely to move more of its production to -- you guessed it -- India. Who knew trade wars were so complicated?

*****

... first they came for the Muslim immigrants. Then they came for the Hispanic immigrants. Then they came for the children of the immigrants. Then they came for the naturalized citizens. Now the President wants to cleanse the country of non-white immigrants using extrajudicial means. -- David Atkins

First immigrants don't get due process. Then it will be criminals. Then the poor. Then anyone that disagrees with Trump. -- Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Az.)

Donald Trump is the meanest man I've ever met. -- Former top Trump administration official

.. L'État, C'est Moi. Philip Rucker & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Sunday explicitly advocated depriving undocumented immigrants of their due-process rights, arguing that people who cross the border into the United States illegally must immediately be deported without trial -- and sowing more confusion among Republicans ahead of a planned immigration vote this week. In a pair of tweets sent during his drive to his Virginia golf course, Trump described immigrants as invaders and wrote that U.S. immigration laws ... must be changed to take away trial rights from undocumented migrants. 'We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country,' Trump wrote. 'When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order. Most children come without parents.' The president continued in a second tweet, 'Our Immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years! Immigration must be based on merit -- we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: On way to golf course, President* demands implementation of unconstitutional human rights abuses. Now there's a headline you never expected to see BT (Before Trump).

     ... Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "While in Las Vegas on Saturday, Mr. Trump told supporters that he thought the immigration system needed fewer judges -- putting him in conflict with a proposal by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, to expand the number of judges in an effort to process cases more quickly. Mr. Trump also suggested last week that he opposed adding judges because many of them could be corrupt. He has criticized immigration judges for weeks, saying they were not effective in stopping the flow of people coming into the country, sometimes using incorrect numbers to make his point. 'We have thousands of judges. Do you think other countries have judges?' Mr. Trump said during a round-table discussion in May. 'We give them, like, trials. That's the good news. The bad news is, they never show up for the trial. O.K.?' There are actually fewer than 400 judges dedicated to such work, according to the website PolitiFact." ...

... ** Benjamin Hart of New York: "Many people who cross the border already have no rights, but because the Trump administration has decided to prosecute border-crossing as a crime, many people who previously would have been sent back to Mexico are now tied up in the American judicial system. Trump's tweet appears to both contradict his own policy and endorse an end to any legal asylum, which is the direction in which the government has been heading. Beyond his enthusiasm for lawlessness -- which he perversely but not surprisingly framed as 'law and order' -- Trump's first tweet, with its conspicuous use of the word 'invade,' is another example of the president's increasingly disturbing rhetoric toward immigrants. It's not easy for a man who labeled Mexicans rapists during his first campaign speech to go even lower, but Trump has appeared, of late, intent on dehumanizing his favored scapegoats more viciously than ever.... The president is being more forthright than ever about the authoritarian playbook he's working from. He has conjured an immigration crisis where none exists, continues to terrify his supporters about a group that is more peaceful than native-born Americans, and has become increasingly bold about his desire to revoke that group's basic human rights. The world has seen this movie before, and it usually doesn't end happily." ...

... Matt Shuham of TPM: "'The right to Due Process of law is enshrined in the Constitution and extends to every person in the United States, irrespective of immigration status,' Jeremy McKinney, an immigration attorney and secretary of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told TPM in an email responding to Trump's tweet.... Some undocumented people are in fact eligible to be deported without having their case heard by an immigration judge, due to what's known as 'expedited removal,' a part of the Immigration and Nationality Act the use of which has dramatically expanded in recent decades. However -- even aside from many immigrant advocates' claims that the process has been vastly overused, and that many immigrants are not made fully aware of their full legal rights during expedited removal proceedings -- the law still requires immigration judges hear out the claims of asylum-seekers and those who fear persecution if they are ejected from the country."

Maria Sacchetti, et al., of the Washington Post: "The children who were forcibly separated from their parents at the border by the United States government are all over the country now..., in cold, institutional settings with adults who are not permitted to touch them or with foster parents who do not speak Spanish but who hug them when they cry.... The children have been through hell. They are babies who were carried across rivers and toddlers who rode for hours in trucks and buses and older kids who were told that a better place was just beyond the horizon. And now they live and wait in unfamiliar places: big American suburban houses where no one speaks their language; a locked shelter on a dusty road where they spend little time outside; a converted Walmart where each morning they are required to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, in English, to the country that holds them apart from their parents." Read on. It's a sickening story. ...

... Maria Sacchetti, et al., of the Washington Post: "A visibly upset U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren visited the detention center where the Trump administration said separated migrant families would be reunited and deported and said she'd seen no evidence that the process was underway. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement late Saturday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has 'dedicated the Port Isabel Service Processing Center as the primary family reunification and removal center for adults in their custody.' But Warren (D-Mass.) spent two hours inside the facility speaking with immigration officials and detained immigrant mothers Sunday night and said there were no reunifications to report. She said she spoke with nine women: 'In every case, they were lied to. In every case, save one they have not spoken with their children. And in every case, they do not know where their children are.... It's clear,' Warren said. 'They're not running a reunification process here.'" Read on. It's another sickening story. ...

... Who's in Charge? Mihir Zaveri & Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "A 15-year-old migrant boy who was housed in a large shelter near the southern tip of Texas walked off its premises on Saturday and disappeared into the borderland, officials said. The shelter, a former Walmart in Brownsville, Tex., that was repurposed as the largest migrant child care center in the country, has come under intense scrutiny as children who were separated from their parents under President Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy began being housed there.... A spokesman for Southwest Key, Jeff Eller, said on Sunday it could not legally require children to stay on the premises if they sought to leave, and that 'from time to time' children had left several of its 27 shelters for immigrant children.... Federal officials echoed that position, saying they could not stop a child who attempted to leave. The officials did not respond to a question about how many children had walked away from migrant centers nationwide.... The revelation that children can leave such centers on their own raised a host of questions about the shelter system...." ...

... Jay Root & Shannon Najmabadi of the Texas Tribune: "Central American men separated from their children and held in a detention facility outside Houston are being told they can reunite with their kids at the airport if they agree to sign a voluntary deportation order now, according to one migrant at the facility and two immigration attorneys who have spoken to detainees there. A Honduran man who spoke to The Texas Tribune Saturday estimated that 20 to 25 men who have been separated from their children are being housed at the IAH Polk County Secure Adult Detention Center, a privately-operated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility for men located 75 miles outside Houston. He said the majority of those detainees had received the same offer of reunification in exchange for voluntary deportation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Last Year Trump Cancelled Effective Asylum Program. (Of Course He Did.) Jane Timm of NBC News (June 24): "In the wake of the 2014 migrant crisis that saw the Obama administration suffer its own backlash for the way it detained parents and children, Immigration and Customs Enforcement came up with a new way to handle families seeking asylum in the United States. The Family Case Management Program, launched as a pilot in early 2016, aimed to keep asylum seeking kin together, out of detention, and complying with immigration laws. It was praised by immigration advocates for both its high rate of compliance and its ability to help migrants thrive in a new country -- right up until the Trump administration shuttered it almost exactly a year ago.... Under the program, families who passed a credible fear interview and were determined to be good candidates for a less-secure form of release -- typically vulnerable populations like pregnant women, mothers who are nursing or moms with young children -- were given a caseworker who helped educate them on their rights and responsibilities. The caseworker also helped families settle in, assisting with things like accessing medical care and attorneys, while also making sure their charges made it to court."

Bob Bryan & Allan Smith of Business Insider: Trump's initiation of trade wars "prompted a swift response from US allies, including retaliatory tariffs and a radical departure in treatment from other formerly friendly foreign leaders.... But so far these responses have done little to deter Trump.... Op-eds in The Houston Chronicle and the Canadian news magazine Maclean's suggested the only way to quell the rising trade tensions is to strike at Trump's businesses. While some countries, such as China, have appeared to try and sway the president through treating his family's businesses more favorably, countries have not made moves to curtail the businesses' activity within their borders.... Scott Gilmore, a social entrepreneur and former Canadian diplomat, suggested in Maclean's that Canada should use anti-corruption laws to pressure Trump on trade.... 'In the spirit of the Magnitsky Act, Canada and the western allies come together to collectively pressure the only pain point that matters to this President: his family and their assets.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

E.J. Dionne is here to remind us that "Trump's cruelty is routine"; he & his administrative & Congressional ilk apply it to American citizens as easily as they do those trying to enter the country. "The latest attacks on programs that have long commanded bipartisan support came last week when the House voted 213 to 211 for a farm bill that would impose new work requirements on recipients of food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). But SNAP already includes work requirements.... The House vote came on the same day the administration released a massive government reorganization plan.... It's hard to escape the sense that this [plan] is about decimating help for the least fortunate."

"Trump's Fascination with the Trappings of Power." Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's presidency has yielded more -- and more elaborate -- [commemorative] coins that are shinier, flashier and even bigger [than those of previous presidents], setting off a boom for coin \ manufacturers, counterfeiters\ and collectors.... One such design, which was approved by Mr. Trump and paid for by the Republican National Committee ... bears his campaign slogan 'Make America Great Again,' as well as his name -- emblazoned three times.... Concerned about running afoul of rules barring government resources from being used for partisan political purposes, the White House Counsel's Office warned staff members not to display the Republican National Committee's challenge coin, or any paraphernalia with Mr. Trump's campaign slogan, in government buildings. Outside ethics watchdogs say the 'Make America Great Again' coins shouldn't be distributed to military personnel ... since the military is supposed to be walled off from politics. And those watchdogs warn that coins featuring Mr. Trump's properties, such as Mar-a-Lago, should not be produced using government resources ... since federal ethics laws prohibit the use of public resources to promote private businesses." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jimmy Fallon is now whimpering to all that he did the famous 'hair show' with me (where he seriously messed up my hair), & that he would have now done it differently because it is said to have 'humanized' me-he is taking heat. He called & said 'monster ratings.' Be a man Jimmy! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet yesterday

In honor of the President's tweet I'll be making a donation to RAICES in his name. -- Jimmy Fallon, in response, naming a charity aimed at reuniting migrant families

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

David Edwards of the Raw Story: At a Democratic dinner party on Martha's Vineyard, "Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, reportedly offered to spill secrets that were known only to himself and special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.... 'If you get me one more glass of wine, I'll tell you stuff only Bob Mueller and I know,' he joked. 'If you think you've seen wild stuff so far, buckle up. It's going to be a wild couple of months.'"

Marcy Wheeler predicts: "There are a number of reasons I think Mueller's investigation is coming to a head. But consider one detail. I've long explained that Mueller seems to be building a series of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States indictments that will ultimately incorporate the entire Russian operation (and may integrate the Trumpsters' international self-dealing as well). As Mueller's team has itself pointed out, for heavily regulated areas like elections, ConFraudUs indictments don't need to prove intent for the underlying crimes.... Let's see how evidence Mueller has recently shown might apply in the case of Roger Stone.... We've got Stone meeting with other people, repeatedly agreeing to bypass US election law to obtain a benefit for Trump, evidence (notwithstanding Stone's post-hoc attempts to deny a Russian connection with Guccifer 2.0 and Wikileaks) that Stone had the intent of obtaining that benefit, and tons of overt acts committed in furtherance of the scheme.... We could lay out similar arguments for Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and Brad Parscale, at a minimum.... So if Roger Stone is any indication, the Mueller investigation may soon be moving into a new phase."

Beth Reinhard of the Washington Post: "Stormy Daniels is scheduled Monday to be interviewed by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, preparing for a potential grand jury appearance about a $130,000 payment from President Trump&'s attorney Michael Cohen in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Daniels and her attorney, Michael Avenatti, have been cooperating with prosecutors and provided documents about the payment, made shortly before the 2016 election, in response to a subpoena, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide the information about Monday's interview."

Ilan Ben Zion of the AP: "... Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser said in an interview published Sunday that the administration will soon present its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, with or without input from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In an interview published in the Arabic language Al-Quds newspaper, Jared Kushner appealed directly to Palestinians and criticized Abbas, who has shunned the Trump team over its alleged pro-Israel bias, particularly on the fate of contested Jerusalem.... The Palestinians refused to meet with Kushner, and leaders have criticized the Trump negotiating team in recent days.... It remains unclear how the Trump administration would proceed with a peace plan without Palestinian cooperation." Mrs. McC: No kidding. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The New York Times publishes "the transcript of an interview with Jared Kushner ... by the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds. The interview was conducted in Arabic by Walid Abu-Zalaf, the newspaper's editor, and published on its website Sunday morning. This transcript was released by the White House."

Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "The former director of the Office of Government Ethics said on Saturday that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders's decision to tweet about being kicked out of a Virginia restaurant violated ethics laws.... Walter Shaub, the federal government's former top ethics watchdog, tweeted that Sanders's response, which was made from her official White House account, was a clear violation of federal law." Shaub cited two laws, one that disallows using one's government position for private gain & another that violates a ban on endorsements. Thanks to unwashed for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND Scott Lemieux, in LG&$, adds something I didn't know, but it certainly helps frame the story: "From the WaPo's editiorial board's inevitable argument that a largely LBGT staff were obligated to serve someone whose job is lying to protect someone dedicated to using the coercive authority of the state to deny them equal citizenship.... Anyway, I'm glad that the Red Hen just politely requested that Sanders leave after a discussion with staff instead. (Although I agree that 'just make her wait hours, lie to her about what's on the menu, refer her to outside counsel if she tries to order anything, then walk away while she yells questions' is also a sound approach.) As for the broader substance of the editorial..., David Roberts [of Vox tweets]: 'What the Red Hen owner (& others) are trying to do is jerk us awake, push of OFF the slippery slope. They're trying desperately to draw a line, to cease the slide. And every time they try -- even now, even to this day, even with toddlers in cages -- the MSM scolds them.'" ...

     ... The stubborn blindness we see in Axelrod, Fred Hiatt, et al., derives from the fact that they not only follow the "norms" or "rules," they wrote them. Their milieux are the rooms where men & women come and go, talking with Chris Cuomo. The tut-tutters are sure that if they just hold steady, as they have during rough seas of yore (LBJ), the norms will hold & the ship of state will right itself. But mind what Mike Godwin writes, in the essay linked below: "In his 1957 book 'Language of the Third Reich,' Victor Klemperer recounted how, at the beginning of the Nazi regime, he 'was still so used to living in a state governed by the rule of law' that he couldn't imagine the horrors yet to come."

David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "The civility police have been hyperactive this weekend, monitoring and tut-tutting the response to Trump's deplorable policy of family separation and other outrages. We are told that comparing actual fascist politics to Nazis is bad form (even though Mike Godwin of 'Godwin's Law' approves). Both David Axelrod and the Washington Post are clutching their pearls over Sarah Sanders' being asked to leave a restaurant.... Meanwhile..., the President of the United States, upset that his policy of ripping babies out of the arms of mothers seeking asylum was rejected, argued for extrajudicial deportations today. This is the same administration that has been dehumanizing immigrants, comparing children to gang members and insisting they will become future criminals, and seeking to denaturalize citizens by finding fault with their paperwork.... Just how far will this go until well-heeled tone police start to realize that resistance means, well, actually resisting rather that sighing loudly over brunch, typing a few words of disappointment onto social media, and then lecturing the young that they should vote in greater numbers?" ...

... ** Mike Godwin, in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "Does Godwin's Law need to be updated? Suspended? Repealed? I get asked this question from time to time because I'm the guy who came up with it more than a quarter century ago. In its original simple form, Godwin's Law goes like this: 'As an online discussion continues, the probability of a comparison to Hitler or to Nazis approaches one.'... Godwin's Law ... has been frequently reduced to a blurrier notion: that whenever someone compares anything current to Nazis or Hitler it means the discussion is over, or that that person lost the argument.... The seeds of future horrors are sometimes visible in the first steps a government takes toward institutionalizing cruelty.... So I don't think [Godwin's Law] needs to be updated or amended. It still serves us as a tool to recognize specious comparisons to Nazism -- but also, by contrast, to recognize comparisons that aren't."

It's a day ending in "Y," so there must be a new Scott Pruitt scandal:

... Lisa Friedman & Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt ... discussed hiring a friend of a lobbyist family that owned a condominium he was renting for $50 a night, newly released emails suggest. The files also show communications involving the lobbyist's client interests that have not previously been disclosed, suggesting a closer relationship between the< lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, and the agency than previously known. The emails, released as part of a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club, an environmental group, contradict early assertions by Mr. Pruitt and Mr. Hart that Mr. Hart hadn't lobbied the E.P.A. last year after concerns arose that Mr. Hart's wife had rented the condo to Mr. Pruitt. The potential hiring of Mr. Hart's family friend was discussed in emails between Mr. Pruitt's chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, and Mr. Hart, who was chairman of the Washington lobbying firm Williams & Jensen and whose wife, Vicki Hart, rented the condo to Mr. Pruitt." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Emily Holden of Politico: "The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is reviewing claims that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt retaliated against a handful of employees who pushed back against his spending and management, according to three people familiar with the process. At least six current and former agency officials were reportedly fired or reassigned to new jobs, allegedly for questioning Pruitt's need for a 24-hour security protection -- which has now cost at least $4.6 million -- as well as his other spending and practices. OSC is in the process of interviewing some of those employees, according to the sources, although an OSC spokesman said the agency cannot comment on or confirm any open investigations."

The Most Corrupt Administration Ever, Ctd. Josh Meyer & Andrew Restuccia of Politico: Joe "Hagin, who announced last week that he is leaving the White House in July to return to the private sector, has championed [former business partner Steve] Atkiss' career for at least 15 years, even after a pair of on-the-job incidents -- including an alleged unwelcome advance toward another staffer that was investigated by Bush's White House counsel -- raised questions about his young protégé's fitness for sensitive government security positions." Hagin hired Atkiss for two important advance jobs preparing for presidential trips, which one former Bush official likened to "a jobs fair for their company, and a potential gold mine that no amount of money could buy." Mrs. McC: This is a somewhat complicated story with a simple punchline: the Trump administration is the most corrupt ever. Corruption is what they do. For some, it's the only thing they do.

Chas Danner of New York: "David Bossie, President Trump's former deputy campaign manager, used a racist slur to attack Democratic strategist Joel Payne, who is black, during an appearance on Fox & Friends on Sunday. In the midst of a contentious exchange, Bossie told Payne that, 'You're out of your cotton-picking mind.' [Mrs. McC: Ironically, ] The purpose of the segment was to debate 'the left's racists rants' -- referring to people calling members of the Trump administration Nazis -- and Bossie's remark came not long after Payne criticized Trump and his allies for using racist 'dog whistles.' Payne immediately called out Bossie's 'cotton-picking' slur, adding that, 'Brother, let me tell you something, I got some relatives who picked cotton and I'm not going to sit back and let you attack me on TV like that.'"

Senate Race. Mrs. McCrabbie: I know you are all wondering what Mitt Romney (R-Utah [When Convenient]) thinks about Trump's immigration policy. Luckily, Mitt obliges with an op-ed in Sunday's Salt Lake Tribune: "I have and will continue to speak out when the president says or does something which is divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions." He goes on to say nothing about Trump's devisive, anti-immigrant, dishonest & destructive policy. So there you have it (although he did say in March that he was "more of a hawk on immigration than even the president').

Joe Manchin Cracks Claire McCaskill's Rib. No, Really. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) told constituents over the weekend that she'd suffered a cracked rib after a colleague saved her from choking at a Democratic caucus luncheon -- an injury that took that colleague, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), by surprise.... A spokesman for Manchin said the accident occurred Thursday, when Senate Democrats met for lunch.... McCaskill began choking, and Manchin ran over to give her the Heimlich maneuver. That dislodged the blockage in McCaskill's throat, but unbeknownst to Manchin, it left his colleague injured."

Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates. Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Michael Grynbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "... a three-year affair that unfolded between a young reporter and a government official with access to top-secret information -- is now part of a federal investigation that has rattled the world of Washington journalists and the sources they rely on. [James] Wolfe, 57, was arrested on June 7 and charged with lying to investigators about his contacts with Ms. Watkins and three other journalists. [Ali] Watkins, a Washington-based reporter for The New York Times, had her email and phone records seized by federal prosecutors.... Since meeting Mr. Wolfe in 2013, Ms. Watkins reported on the Senate Intelligence Committee for Politico, BuzzFeed News, The Huffington Post and McClatchy, where her reporting was part of a submission that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.... Her reporting led to a series in 2014 that revealed the C.I.A. was spying on the Intelligence Committee, which was compiling a critical report on the agency's use of torture." This is a long story that elaborates on news of Wolfe's arrest & his relationship with Watkins, which the Times reported June 7.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Carlotta Gall of the New York Times: "President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey claimed victory on Sunday in the country's presidential election, sending tremors that will be felt not just in Turkey but in Western and regional capitals -- if it holds up. The official results showed him with just under 53 percent of the vote, enough to spare him from going to a second round against his nearest challenger, uharrem Ince. In parliamentary races, Mr. Erdogan's Justice and Development Party came in first, with 43 percent of the vote, the state news agency Anadolu reported, enough to retain a majority in alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party.... An alliance of opposition parties that was doing its own count immediately cried foul, warning its supporters that the numbers were being manipulated and that they should disregard the figures released by Anadolu."

The Commentariat -- June 24, 2018

Afternoon Update:

L'État, C'est Moi. Philip Rucker & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Sunday explicitly advocated depriving undocumented immigrants of their due-process rights, arguing that people who cross the border into the United States illegally must immediately be deported without trial -- and sowing more confusion among Republicans ahead of a planned immigration vote this week. In a pair of tweets sent during his drive to his Virginia golf course, Trump described immigrants as invaders and wrote that U.S. immigration laws ... must be changed to take away trial rights from undocumented migrants. 'We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country,' Trump wrote. 'When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration polic and Law and Order. Most children come without parents.' The president continued in a second tweet, 'Our Immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years! Immigration must be based on merit -- we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!'" ...

... Jay Root & Shannon Najmabadi of the Texas Tribune: "Central American men separated from their children and held in a detention facility outside Houston are being told they can reunite with their kids at the airport if they agree to sign a voluntary deportation order now, according to one migrant at the facility and two immigration attorneys who have spoken to detainees there. A Honduran man who spoke to The Texas Tribune Saturday estimated that 20 to 25 men who have been separated from their children are being housed at the IAH Polk County Secure Adult Detention Center, a privately-operated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility for men located 75 miles outside Houston. He said the majority of those detainees had received the same offer of reunification in exchange for voluntary deportation."

Bob Bryan & Allan Smith of Business Insider: Trump's initiation of trade wars "prompted a swift response from US allies, including retaliatory tariffs and a radical departure in treatment from other formerly friendly foreign leaders.... But so far these responses have done little to deter Trump.... Op-eds in The Houston Chronicle and the Canadian news magazine Maclean's suggested the only way to quell the rising trade tensions is to strike at Trump's businesses. While some countries, such as China, have appeared to try and sway the president through treating his family's businesses more favorably, countries have not made moves to curtail the businesses' activity within their borders.... Scott Gilmore, a social entrepreneur and former Canadian diplomat, suggested in Maclean's that Canada should use anti-corruption laws to pressure Trump on trade.... 'In the spirit of the Magnitsky Act, Canada and the western allies come together to collectively pressure the only pain point that matters to this President: his family and their assets.'"

"Trump's Fascination with the Trappings of Power." Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's presidency has yielded more -- and more elaborate — [commemorative] coins that are shinier, flashier and even bigger [than those of previous presidents], setting off a boom for coin manufacturers, counterfeiters and collectors.... One such design, which was approved by Mr. Trump and paid for by the Republican National Committee ... bears his campaign slogan 'Make America Great Again,' as well as his name -- emblazoned three times.... Concerned about running afoul of rules barring government resources from being used for partisan political purposes, the White House Counsel's Office warned staff members not to display the Republican National Committee's challenge coin, or any paraphernalia with Mr. Trump's campaign slogan, in government buildings. Outside ethics watchdogs say the 'Make America Great Again' coins shouldn't be distributed to military personnel ... since the military is supposed to be walled off from politics. And those watchdogs warn that coins featuring Mr. Trump's properties, such as Mar-a-Lago, should not be produced using government resources ... since federal ethics laws prohibit the use of public resources to promote private businesses."

Ilan Ben Zion of the AP: "... Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser said in an interview published Sunday that the administration will soon present its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, with or without input from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In an interview published in the Arabic language Al-Quds newspaper, Jared Kushner appealed directly to Palestinians and criticized Abbas, who has shunned the Trump team over its alleged pro-Israel bias, particularly on the fate of contested Jerusalem.... The Palestinians refused to meet with Kushner, and leaders have criticized the Trump negotiating team in recent days.... It remains unclear how the Trump administration would proceed with a peace plan without Palestinian cooperation." Mrs. McC: No kidding.

Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "The former director of the Office of Government Ethics said on Saturday that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders's decision to tweet about being kicked out of a Virginia restaurant violated ethics laws.... Walter Shaub, the federal government's former top ethics watchdog, tweeted that Sanders's response, which was made from her official White House account, was a clear violation of federal law." Shaub cited two laws, one that disallows using one's government position for private gain, & another that violates a ban on endorsements. Thanks to unwashed for the link.

Lisa Friedman & Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, discussed hiring a friend of a lobbyist family that owned a condominium he was renting for $50 a night, newly released emails suggest. The files also show communications involving the lobbyist's client interests that have not previously been disclosed, suggesting a closer relationship between the lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, and the agency than previously known. The emails, released as part of a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club, an environmental group, contradict early assertions by Mr. Pruitt and Mr. Hart that Mr. Hart hadn't lobbied the E.P.A. last year after concerns arose that Mr. Hart's wife had rented the condo to Mr. Pruitt. The potential hiring of Mr. Hart's family friend was discussed in emails between Mr. Pruitt's chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, and Mr. Hart, who was chairman of the Washington lobbying firm Williams & Jensen and whose wife, Vicki Hart, rented the condo to Mr. Pruitt."

*****

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "In a statement issued late Saturday night, the Trump administration said it has 2,053 'separated minors' in its custody, and a formal process has been established to reunite them with their parents prior to deportation. The joint declaration by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services came three days after Trump signed a hastily-written executive order to quell public outcry and halt his administration's practice of taking away the children of migrant parents who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The Saturday night communique said 522 migrant children have already been returned to their parents, and the government would allow mothers and fathers facing deportation to request that their children are sent home with them.... Under the government's new plan, according to the statement, parents will receive more information about the whereabouts of their children and telephone operators will facilitate more frequent communication.... ICE will also implement a system for tracking separated family members and rejoining them before their deportation as a unit."

Trump's Big Lie. Manny Fernandez & Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "... there is evidence, in federal data and on the ground in places like Brownsville[, Texas,] that the immigration crisis Mr. Trump has cited over the past week to justify the separation of families is actually no crisis at all. There has been no drastic overall increase in the number of immigrants crossing the border, and while the rugged frontier along the Rio Grande Valley has long been a transit point for drugs and the trouble that goes along with them, the violence of Mexico's drug wars seldom spills into the United States.... Unauthorized crossings along the border with Mexico have sharply declined over the past two decades, according to government data.... Research shows that incarceration rates of both legal and undocumented immigrants across the country are lower than those of native-born Americans, and that the net economic impact of immigration is positive.... As the numbers show, there is a stark disconnect between Mr. Trump's border rhetoric and the reality of life in border cities...." ...

... Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "Most Americans oppose the separation of immigrant families at the border, and a larger share of people than at any point since 2001 say immigration is good for the nation. Those were just some of the findings of polls published in the past week that shed new light on attitudes toward immigration, a subject that many Americans view as a top concern ahead of this fall's midterm elections.... Despite the president's anti-immigration message, three in four Americans say immigration is generally good for the nation, according to Gallup, the polling organization.... Among Democrats and those who lean toward the party, 85 percent viewed immigration positively, compared with 65 percent of Republicans and those who lean Republican. When asked their thoughts about 'legal immigration' specifically, even more Americans, about 84 percent, said it was good for the country.... Support for reining in immigration is at its lowest level in more than half a century: Just 29 percent of Americans believe it should be decreased, the smallest share recorded by Gallup since at least 1965." Mrs. McC: Looks like the Trump Effect to me. ...

... Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker: "The theatre of cruelty unfolding at the southern border last week was the purest distillation yet of what it means to be governed by a President with no moral center.... [Even in signing the order to reverse part of his cruel policy,] Trump was transparently angry at being compelled to do so. He said, 'If you're really, really pathetically weak, the country is going to be overrun with millions of people, and if you're strong then you don't have any heart. That's a tough dilemma. Perhaps I'd rather be strong.'... It will be important to be on guard for what this Administration may try next." ...

... Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post: The dictators of the last century, like Trump, all used inflammatory language "to define an ethnic minority and to give it fictional characteristics and properties.... After the unwanted group had been defined, propaganda was used to demonize and dehumanize it.... For the past half-century, memory of where it once led has made this kind of language taboo in Western democracies.... It is worth noting how often the president repeatedly conflates refugees with illegal immigrants and MS-13 gang members. This is not an accident: He has targeted a group and given them characteristics -- they are violent, they are rapists, they are gang members -- that don't belong to most of them.... Eventually it will be impossible to discuss real immigration issues, or to talk about real immigrants, if a large part of the public has come to believe in quasi-authoritarian fictions."

Brad Heath of USA Today: "Days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed prosecutors to bring charges against anyone who enters the United States illegally, a Justice Department supervisor in San Diego sent an email to border authorities warning that immigration cases 'will occupy substantially more of our resources.' He wrote that the U.S. Attorney's Office there was 'diverting staff, both support and attorneys, accordingly.'... The District Attorney's office in San Diego said Friday that the number of cases submitted to them by border authorities had more than doubled since the administration started its border crackdown.... [But] there are signs that border authorities are seeking to prosecute drug smugglers in state courts instead, even though the possible sentences typically are harsher in the federal system.... The number of people charged in federal court has dropped since the start of the administration's zero-tolerance push, said Reuben Cahn, the chief federal public defender in San Diego."

Chas Danner of New York: "White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant on Friday night on account of the owner [Stephanie Wilkinson] objecting to her work with President Trump. Sanders was dining at the Red Hen, a 26-seat, farm-to-table restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, which serves 'inspired Shenandoah cuisine.' Not long after she and her party sat down, however, the owner of the restaurant arrived and asked Sanders to leave, citing Sanders efforts to represent and defend the Trump administration.... Not surprisingly, an insufferable comment war has broken out on the restaurants' Yelp and Facebook pages, with trolls supporting Trump and Sanders gaining the upper hand thus far.... Sanders's father, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee..., [called] out the restaurant owner's 'bigotry' hours after he had used an image of Salvadoran gang members to make a racist comment attacking House minority leader Nancy Pelosi." ...

... Dave Weigel & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Hours before Mike Huckabee lamented the treatment of his daughter at a Virginia restaurant, the former Arkansas governor tweeted a photo Saturday morning of a group of tattooed gang members and suggested they made up Democrat Nancy Pelosi's campaign committee to 'take back' the House of Representatives.... Huckabee was another of many Republicans once again trying to stick the House minority leader with the image of an MS-13 gang sympathizer."

Reuters: "A US clothing company is taking a sartorial swipe at Melania Trump, selling jackets bearing the slogan 'I really care, don't you?' in response to the 'I really don't care' jacket the first lady wore to visit migrant children separated from their parents. All proceeds from the jackets, selling for $98, will be donated to a Texas-based refugee and immigrant advocacy group, said Emma McIlroy, chief executive of the Wildfang clothing company in Portland, Oregon." ...

... In a column about Ivanka Trump, Maureen Dowd puts her finger on the purpose of the jacket: "... the first lady is like her husband in one unfortunate respect: In times of national turmoil, she makes it about herself."

Tara Palmeri of ABC News: "Republican lawmakers are preparing to vote on a more narrow immigration bill that would allow immigrant children to stay in detention facilities with their parents for more than 20 days, senior White House and Hill officials tell ABC News. The bill would eliminate the so-called Flores settlement that requires that children be released from detention after 20 days, fixing a flaw in President Trump's executive order that mandates that children and parents not be separated during detention."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The effects of President Trump's trade war are beginning to ripple through the United States economy as steel tariffs disrupt domestic supply chains and global trading partners retaliate against a wide variety of American products, such as peanut butter, whiskey and lobster. The cascade of tit-for-tat tariffs has spooked corporate executives, potentially slowing investment, and the Federal Reserve suggested this week that it might have to rethink its economic forecasts if the trade wars continue. On Friday, Mr. Trump only added fuel to the fire when he threatened in a tweet to impose a 20 percent tariff on all European cars coming into the United States if the European Union did not remove its auto tariffs.... Here are the ways several American products are being affected."

Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "The government's top ethics official said some of President Trump's business dealings 'raise serious concerns' but that the office lacks the authority to launch an investigation requested last month by congressional Democrats. More than 60 Democrats, led by Rep. David N. Cicilline of Rhode Island, had written to the Office of Government Ethics in May asking that the agency investigate reported Chinese government support of an Indonesian real estate development that will include several Trump-brand properties. David J. Apol, acting director and general counsel at the ethics office, responded this week that he thought concern was warranted. But because the president is not bound by the same conflict-of-interest laws as most federal employees, he said Congress -- and ultimately voters -- are responsible for holding the president in check. 'Under the Constitution, the primary authority to oversee the President' ethics rests with Congress and ultimately, with the American people,' Apol wrote in his Monday response."

John Harwood of CNBC: "This week repeated a striking, if familiar, pattern: President Trump described a world detached from reality. On Twitter, at the White House, and on the campaign trail, Trump did more than get facts wrong. Over and over, he painted fundamentally false portraits of people and events to flatter himself, discredit predecessors and rivals, and promote his political objectives." Harwood runs down Trump's major lies of the past week. "Tony Schwartz, who ... co-author[ed the] Art of the Deal..., says narcissism warps Trump's perception of reality about himself and others. 'Every move he makes is a response to this distorted inner world he lives in,' Schwartz told me. That condition, he warns, is 'getting progressively worse.'"

Mary Jalonick of the AP: "The Justice Department says it has given House Republicans new classified information related to the Russia investigation after lawmakers had threatened to hold officials in contempt of Congress or even impeach them. A spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan said Saturday that the department has partially complied with subpoenas from the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees after officials turned over more than a thousand new documents this week. House Republicans had given the Justice Department and FBI a Friday deadline for all documents, most of which are related to the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation and the handling of its probe into Democrat Hillary Clinton's emails. Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said the department asked for more time and they will get it -- for now."

Congressonal Races

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: In Nevada, where they ostensibly were campaigning for competing Senate candidates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) & Donald Trump exchanged words. Naturally, one of Trump's words was "Pocahontas."

David Bland of the (South Carolina) State: "Katie Arrington, a representative in the State House for the Lowcountry and a U.S. congressional candidate, was seriously injured in a fatal car wreck Friday night. Arrington, who upset U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford in the SC district 1 Republican primary, was traveling with a friend on U.S. Highway 17 when a driver traveling in the wrong lane collided with the vehicle Arrington was in. The wreck happened around 9 p.m. Friday, according to the Charleston County Sheriff's Office. Arrington 'sustained a fracture in her back and several broken ribs, as well as injuries that required Katie to undergo major surgery including the removal of a portion of her small intestine and a portion of her colon,' according to a statement was released Saturday morning via her Twitter account."

Reset the 'Number of days since reporters went on safari to a diner in Butterstick, NE to discover if Trump supporters still support Trump' counter back to zero. -- Gary Legum, in a tweet ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jeet Heer: "In an in-depth piece published Saturday, Times reporter Jeremy W. Peters argued that criticisms of President Trump only make Republicans who have doubts about the president like him more. His opening example was Gina Anders, a Virginia resident. 'Gina Anders knows the feeling well by now,' Peters began. 'President Trump says or does something that triggers a spasm of outrage. She doesn't necessarily agree with how h handled the situation. She gets why people are upset.' Using Anders as an example only makes sense if she's a persuadable voter who could, potentially, leave the Republican Party. But as several critics pointed out on Twitter, Anders is in fact a right-wing activist with a history of supporting confederate monuments, the Tea Party and Ron Paul. In other words, it's hardly surprising that she's sticking with Donald Trump.... The voters who are sticking with Trump are hard-core partisans like Anders and Maurer. But there might be another class of marginal Republicans who are wavering in their commitment or who have abandoned the party altogether." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I did go out of my way not to link Peters' trip to a diner in Butterstick, even though it's been the top article on the NYT's online page for at least 12 hours.

Leo Shane & Victoria Leoni of Military Times: "The National Desert Storm War Memorial will be located on the National Mall just steps away from the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, after a federal commission approved the site on Thursday. The move ends a debate of more than three years over where the newest combat memorial should be located."