The Commentariat -- June 23, 2018

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

HHS Begins to Think about How to Reunite Families. Dan Diamond of Politico: "HHS on Friday created an 'unaccompanied children reunification task force,' a first step toward reunifying thousands of migrant children in the agency's custody with their families, according to an internal document obtained by Politico. The task force was established by the assistant secretary for preparedness and response -- the arm of the agency that responds to public health disasters, and an indication that the challenge of reunifying thousands of families is likely beyond the capabilities of the refugee office. 'The Secretary of Health and Human Services has directed the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response assist the ACF Office of Refugee Resettlement with Unaccompanied Children Reunification,' the order reads." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If you were skeptical about news stories that claimed the Trump administration had no idea how to reunite the families Trump & JeffBo have been renting asunder -- which does sound preposterous -- here's the evidence. They're just now putting together a "task force" to think about thinking about how to do it. Although Sessions announced his "zero tolerance" policy in early April, the administration had been separating families at the border well before that. Yet no one in the administration ever thought to figure out how to get children back to their parents. I don't think one can chalk this up to incompetence; it's cruel & unusual -- and they're getting away with it.

"My People Love It." Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Confusion over President Trump's order to allow migrant families to remain together after they illegally enter the United States led to a tense argument at the White House late Thursday as senior officials across the federal government clashed over how to carry it out, according to several people briefed on the meeting. The dispute continued Friday morning as Kevin K. McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, returned to the White House to hash out his agency's ability to detain families with children and refer all of the adults for prosecution under the president's 'zero tolerance' policy.... As with the case of the travel ban, the reality of a vastly complicated bureaucratic system is colliding head-on with Mr. Trump's shoot-from-the-hip use of executive power.... Just a day [before he signed the order], one person close to the president said, Mr. Trump told advisers that separating families at the border was the best deterrent to illegal immigration and said that 'my people love it.' On Wednesday, Mr. Trump repeatedly changed his mind about precisely what he wanted to do, and how, according to people familiar with the discussions. The president vacillated about whether to do it until a short time before he signed the order, one person said." ...

... "A Pretty Insane Idea." Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post have more on the Trump week that was: "By Wednesday morning, the president had become convinced that he needed a way to calm the criticism, according to people familiar with the discussions, and he felt confident that Republicans in Congress would push through immigration legislation ending the family separation practice -- so he might as well get ahead of it. In private conversations with aides, Trump said he wanted to sign a full immigration bill as part of an executive order, which one administration official described as 'a pretty insane idea.' The president was told by government lawyers that he could not change immigration law by fiat, said a person familiar with the discussions. Trump then demanded that an executive order be written that would end child detentions in cages, and said he wanted it on his desk for signing by that afternoon.... Given hours to produce a complex legal document, government lawyers crafted one that met the moment's political demands but only added to confusion within the agencies tasked with implementing it." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's the takeaway: after 17 months in office, Trump still thinks the president can write laws, & he wants to do so. That's another way of saying, if he could become dictator, he would. This is rather important.

Jonathan Lemire & Darlene Superville of the AP: "... Donald Trump tried to cast doubt Friday on wrenching tales of migrant children separated from their families at the border, dismissing 'phony stories of sadness and grief' while asserting the real victims of the nation's immigration crisis are Americans killed by those who cross the border unlawfully. Bombarded with criticism condemning the family-separation situation as a national moment of shame, Trump came back firing, sometimes twisting facts and changing his story but nonetheless highlighting the genuine grief of families on the other side of the equation." ...

... Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Trump hit back on Friday at criticism over his administration's hard-line stance on immigration, lamenting the 'death and destruction caused by people that shouldn't be here,' and accusing Democrats and the news media of not caring.... Mr. Trump has embraced the stories of Americans killed by undocumented immigrants since the early days of his presidential campaign, giving them a platform to describe their tragedies at the Republican convention. He also honored several of them during his first address to Congress. On Friday, he gave them a platform at the White House, inviting the family members to deliver a personal story about their relatives, and deliver details of the deaths of their children.... According to a 2017 report from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, 1.53 percent of native-born Americans are incarcerated, compared with 0.85 percent of undocumented immigrants and 0.47 percent of legal immigrants. The Marshall Project, in a 2018 analysis of data from 200 metropolitan areas over the last few decades, found that crime has fallen despite the immigrant population increasing. Other studies have found that the immigration has little effect on crime." Dear Katie: This is not a "truth sandwich.") You buried the truth 12 grafs down the page. -- Mrs. McC ...

     ... ** Update: Ha Ha. Somebody made Rogers rewrite her story. Now the lede & second graf go like this: "President Trump hit back on Friday at criticism over his administration's hard-line stance on immigration, lamenting the 'death and destruction caused by people that shouldn't be here,' and accusing Democrats and the news media of not caring. While statistics show that native-born Americans commit crimes at higher rates than immigrants, Mr. Trump has long pushed a narrative that suggests otherwise." And the headline, which previously did not mention the lie, now reads, "Trump Highlights Immigrant Crime to Defend His Border Policy. Statistics Don't Back Him Up. Not a truth sandwich yet (in which the report must begin with the truth, report the lie, then follow up with the truth), but way better than not mentioning the truth till far down the page.

     ... Still, even among these griefstriken families whom he was using to excuse his racist, anti-immigrant policies, Trump managed to demonstrate what a complete jackass he is. ...

     ... Gabriella Paiella of New York: "Many of those family members ... were holding large photos of their late loved ones -- some of them signed by the President. It was while introducing Agnes Gibboney, whose son Ron was murdered, that Trump chose a curious moment to make a joke about the photo in her hand. 'This is Tom Selleck,' he said. 'Except better looking, right?'" ...

... Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump appeared to give up hope on Friday that the Republican-controlled Congress could succeed in passing an immigration bill this year, urging lawmakers in a Twitter post to stop 'wasting their time.' His advice is likely to kill current efforts to pass a measure that had little chance of succeeding. The president said a vote on immigration legislation should be postponed until after the midterm elections in November, when he expects Republicans to pick up more seats and create a stronger majority -- a prediction that is far from guaranteed.... But House Republicans are moving forward as planned and pushing ahead with efforts to pass immigration legislation, said Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority whip." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Jonathan Chait: "When Donald Trump first proposed to ban all Muslim immigrants from the United States two and a half years and a thousand Trump controversies ago, the Republican front-runner was asked if he would have supported the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. 'I would have had to be there at the time to tell you, to give you a proper answer,' he equivocated, before proceeding to express his general sympathy for the concept. 'It's a tough thing. It's tough,' he said. 'But you know, war is tough. And winning is tough. We don't win anymore. We don't win wars anymore. We don't win wars anymore. We're not a strong country anymore.'... This historical digression proved to be a prophetic guide to an as-yet-unimaginable future Trump presidency. It displayed one of Trump's foundational values: his contempt for human and legal rights, especially those of racial minorities, and his atavistic fixation with toughness as both the source of the country's (imagined) historical decline and the key to its restoration." Read on.

... "Temporary & Austere." Philip Elliott & W.J. Hennigan of Time: "The U.S. Navy is preparing plans to construct sprawling detention centers for tens of thousands of immigrants on remote bases in California, Alabama and Arizona, escalating the military's task in implementing ... Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy.... The Navy memo outlines plans to build 'temporary and austere' tent cities to house 25,000 migrants at abandoned airfields just outside the Florida panhandle near Mobile, Alabama, at Navy Outlying Field Wolf in Orange Beach, Alabama, and nearby Navy Outlying Field Silverhill. The memo also proposes a camp for as many as 47,000 people at former Naval Weapons Station Concord, near San Francisco; and another facility that could house as many as 47,000 people at Camp Pendleton, the Marines' largest training facility located along the Southern California coast.... The planning document estimates that the Navy would spend about $233 million to construct and operate a facility for 25,000 people for a six-month time period." ...

... Daniel Bates & Karen Ruiz of the Daily Mail: "The father of the Honduran girl who became the face of the family separation crisis has revealed that he still has not been in touch with his wife or daughter but was happy to learn they are safe. Denis Javier Varela Hernandez, 32, said that he had not heard from his wife Sandra, 32, who was with his two-year-old daughter Yanela Denise, for nearly three weeks until he saw the image of them being apprehended in Texas. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Hernandez, who lives in Puerto Cortes, Honduras, says that he was told on Wednesday by a Honduran official in the US that his wife and child are being detained at a family residential center in Texas but are together and are doing 'fine.' Denis said his wife and daughter were never separated by border control agents and remain together." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CBS News and Reuters have backed up the Daily Mail story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: Numerous outlets, including the NYT & WashPo, have confirmed the Daily Mail story. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Wingers are loving this story because it "proves" the Time mag cover (posted here yesterday) "is a lie" and "fake news," etc. Um, not really. The cover says nothing about the status of the child, only "Welcome to America." AND the administration already has admitted to separating (or seperating) more than 2,300 children from their families. But let's not let the facts get in the way.

"The Child Snatcher". Kelly Weill of The Daily Beast: "Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen can't escape the cries of detained immigrant children. That's because activists say they will play the disturbing audio of a crying immigrant girl outside Nielsen's home, at restaurants, and everywhere she goes.... Activists gathered outside Nielsen's ritzy townhouse Friday morning with posters calling her a 'child snatcher,' and a loudspeaker playing the children's cries." --safari

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. But They're Foreigners. Andrew Kirell of the Daily Beast: "So much for 'All Lives Matter.' On Friday morning, Fox & Friends star Brian Kilmeade attempted to retrospectively justify President Trump's policy of separating immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border. 'These aren't our kids,' the co-host of Trump's favorite cable morning show said. 'Show them compassion, but it's not like he is doing this to the people of Idaho or, uh, or, uh, Texas. These are people from another country.' Echoing his fellow right-wing Fox News host Tucker Carlson's xenophobic rants about foreigners -- which experts say come dangerously close to being outright white-nationalist catnip -- Kilmeade invoked the straw man that critics of the Trump policy view foreign children as more valuable than American ones." Mrs. McC Note: If you're going to abuse children, make sure they're foreign children (and preferably not Norwegians).

Matthew Haag of the New York Times: On Wednesday, "Border Patrol agents closed off all southbound lanes of Interstate 95 north of Bangor, Me., stopping drivers, searching outside their cars with drug-sniffing dogs and refusing to let them pass until they disclosed their citizenship.... Such immigration checkpoints on highways have been used by the Border Patrol for years, often along popular smuggling and drug-trafficking routes in the Southwest. But their frequency has increased under President Trump, federal officials have said. The one in Maine was set up several days after agents conducted a three-day checkpoint on a New Hampshire highway, at least the second checkpoint in that state so far this year. The recent checkpoints in Maine and New Hampshire resulted in the seizure of drugs and the arrest of at least six people on charges of being in the country illegally, according to Customs and Border Protection.... [Border Patrol] officers can work in any area within 100 miles of the perimeter of the United States. It is a wide swath of the country that is home to an estimated 200 million Americans and fully covers at least 11 states." ...

... Jon Hernandez of CBC News: "A visitor from France says she was jogging along the beach south of White Rock, B.C., when she crossed the U.S. border without realizing it. So began a two-week nightmare that landed her in a prison jumpsuit. Cedella Roman, 19, didn't know it at the time, but as she ran southeast along the beach on the evening of May 21, she crossed a municipal boundary -- and, shortly after, an international border. As the tide started to come in, she veered up and onto a dirt path before stopping to take a photo of the picturesque setting. She turned around to head back -- and that's when she was apprehended by two U.S. Border Patrol officers.... Roman said she didn't see any signs warning that she was crossing into the U.S. during her jog. She was informed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers that she had entered the country illegally, which they said was captured via security cameras.... She said the officers detained her ... and transferred her more than 200 kilometres south to the Tacoma Northwest Detention Centre, run by the Department of Homeland Security.... Roman, a citizen of France who had travelled to Canada to visit her mother in B.C. and work on her English, didn't have any government-issued ID or travel permits with her."

From the Department of Unintended Ironies. Gabriella Paiella of New York: "... the brand R13 sent an email pointing out the similarity between [the $39 Zara jacket Melania Trump wore to visit her husband's child prisoners which was painted with the message 'I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?'] and one in their line, writing, 'seems Zara found "inspiration" from R13's FW18 God Save America parka.' Theirs features a slightly different message on the back -- and retails for $895. They've also previously released a 'Fuck Trump' dress." Mrs. McC: The "God Save America" parka would have been a far better look, Melanie. ...

... In her defense, Bill Maher asks, "When has Melania ever known what was going on behind her back?" ...

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "A handful of new federal prosecutors have joined one of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's cases -- an indication that he is preparing to hand off at least one prosecution to others when his office completes its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In a pair of court filings Friday, the special counsel added four assistant U.S. attorneys to the case against Russian entities and people accused of running an online influence operation targeting American voters. People familiar with the staffing decision said the new prosecutors are not joining Mueller's team, but rather are being added to the case so that they could someday take responsibility for it when the special counsel ceases operation.... The development suggests Mueller is contemplating the end of his work and farming out any potentially outstanding prosecutions to other parts of the Justice Department."

Peter Stone of McClatchy News: "A controversial peace plan for Ukraine and Russia that has drawn headlines and scrutiny from Special Counsel Robert Mueller was initially devised in early 2016 with significant input from an ex-congressman and a Ukrainian-American billionaire, according to a former Ukrainian legislator who promoted the proposal before Donald Trump]s election. Ex-Ukrainian legislator Andrii Artemenko told McClatchy in several recent interviews that the peace proposal, which some analysts believe had a pro-Moscow tilt, was hatched in February 2016 during side discussions at a Ukraine-focused conference at Manor College in suburban Philadelphia. Former Republican Rep. Curt Weldon and New York real estate mogul Alexander Rovt were involved, said Artemenko, who also participated.... Neither the roles of Weldon and Rovt in the early framing of the plan, nor the fact that it was being devised nearly a year before it was given to a Trump associate for delivery to the administration, have been reported previously. The new names add to a roster of individuals with close ties to Trump who have been identified in connection with the proposal: Trump's personal lawyer and 'fixer,' Michael Cohen; a former sometimes-real estate partner, Felix Sater, who was also an old friend of Cohen; and the president's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn...."

Tracy Connor & Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News: "... Michael Cohen, retweeted a photo of himself with comedian Tom Arnold -- who happens to be working on a show with Vice that features him hunting for unflattering video of Trump. Arnold told NBC News early Friday that Cohen ― who is under investigation by federal prosecutors ― talked to him about the show, which is expected to air later this year. 'We've been on the other side of the table and now we're on the same side,' said Arnold, an outspoken Trump critic.... Vice announced in May that it had tapped Arnold to helm a show called 'The Hunt for the Trump Tapes,' and investigate whether rumored tapes from the past showing the president in a negative light actually exist.... Arnold would not say whether Cohen was planning to give him any tapes he might have of conversations with Trump. But he added, 'This dude has all the tapes -- this dude has everything.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Josh Gerstein of Politico: Robert "Mueller's prosecutors and [Paul] Manafortasking to block lawyers at an upcoming trial for the longtime lobbyist and political consultant from mentioning his stint at the helm of the Trump campaign in 2016.... 'Manafort should ... be precluded from arguing that he has been singled out for prosecution because of his position in the campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump, or otherwise asserting that he has been selectively prosecuted by the Special Counsel's Office,' Mueller's team wrote.... The defense lawyers' motion also evinced concern that their client could become the victim of anti-Trump bias among potential jurors."

Josh Gerstein: Special counsel Robert Mueller is asking that George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, be sentenced in September on the false-statement felony charge he pleaded guilty to last fall. In a court filing on Friday evening, Mueller's prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case asked U.S. District Court Judge Randy Moss to set Papadopoulos' sentencing for Sept. 7, or a date in October if the judge is unavailable.... The timing of the planned sentencing suggests either that Papadopoulos will not be a witness in other cases or that he is likely to receive a relatively light sentence regardless of the impact of his testimony, so there is no need to delay the sentencing."

That's too coincidental to be a coincidence. -- Yogi Berra (at least apocryphally) ...

This Russia Thing, UK Edition. Jonathan Chait: "What Vladimir Putin is accused of doing to help Donald Trump win the presidency is essentially identical to what he is either accused of or proven to have done to help many other right-wing candidates in many other countries. As the plot in the United States is slowly exposed, a remarkably similar one in the United Kingdom is quickly surfacing. Months before the United States narrowly elected Trump, the United Kingdom narrowly elected to withdraw from the European Union. Both votes advanced Russian foreign policy goals -- in the latter case, by splitting up the Western alliance. (Trump has energetically pursued this strategy, too.) Russia employed many of the same tools to influence both elections. It deployed social-media bots and trolls to spread its message. It recruited friendly candidates who gave voice to previously marginal Russophile positions. And, as the newly surfaced evidence suggests, it indirectly financed the campaign."

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "For years, President Trump personally signed the tax returns for his charitable foundation, scrawling his signature just below a stern warning from the IRS: Providing false information could lead to 'penalties of perjury.' But a lawsuit filed last week by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood alleges that four of the tax returns Trump signed contained incorrect statements, confirming previous reports by The Washington Post. In 2007, 2012, 2013 and 2014, the Donald J. Trump Foundation stated that none of its money had been used to benefit Trump or his businesses. But the New York attorney general found that, in each of those years, Trump had used his charity's funds to help one of his businesses. In 2013, the attorney general alleged, Trump also failed to disclose an improper gift to a political group. In the suit, Underwood also accuses Trump of turning his charity into a tool of his 2016 presidential campaign, despite prohibitions on political activity by nonprofit entities. She also laid out her findings in a letter to the IRS, suggesting that federal authorities investigate further. It is a felony to knowingly file a false tax return, with potential penalties of up to $100,000 in fines and up to three years in prison.&"

Better Katie Rogers: "The gulf between President Trump's rhetoric and a thorny geopolitical reality widened a bit further on Friday, when the White House said it would extend a decade-old executive order declaring a national emergency over the nuclear threat from North Korea. The announcement came days after Mr. Trump declared to the world that 'everybody can now feel much safer' after his meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un: 'There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea,' Mr. Trump said on Twitter. Apparently, there still is. 'The existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula and the actions and policies of the government of North Korea continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States,' read the notice, delivered through the press secretary on Friday."

John Flesher of the AP (June 21): "... Donald Trump has thrown out a policy devised by his predecessor to protect U.S. oceans and the Great Lakes, replacing it with a new approach that emphasizes use of the waters to promote economic growth. Trump revoked an executive order issued by President Barack Obama in 2010 following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, it killed 11 workers and spewed millions of gallons of crude that harmed marine wildlife, fouled more than 1,300 miles of shoreline and cost the tourism and fishing industries hundreds of millions of dollars.... n his order this week, Trump did not mention the Gulf spill. He said he was 'rolling back excessive bureaucracy created by the previous administration' and depicted the Obama council as bloated, with 27 departments and agencies and over 20 committees, subcommittees and working groups."

Brett Stephens of the New York Times is worth reading today. He discusses how the Trump administration, over Congressional objections, is arming an enemy -- Turkey -- and numerous reasons why this is a terrible idea.

The Most Corrupt Administration Ever, Ctd.

Vicki Needham of The Hill: "A top Senate Democrat and a government watchdog are calling for an investigation into stock moves made by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) wants answers about whether Ross shorted stock knowing that a New York Times story about his financial holdings was imminent and if he made false statements or engaged in insider trading about his stocks. CREW sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and David Apol, the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), to investigate ... Ross.... The watchdog argues that there is substantial evidence that Ross 'may have knowingly and willfully made false or fraudulent statements when he certified to OGE that he had completed divestiture of all required assets.'" --safari

Ben Lefebvre & Nick Juliano of Politico: "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met at department headquarters in August with Halliburton Chairman David Lesar and other developers involved in a Montana real estate deal that relied on help from a foundation Zinke established, according to a participant in the meeting and records cited by House Democrats late Thursday. Zinke, Lesar and the others later discussed the development project over dinner that night.... The new details raise further questions about Zinke's involvement in the project, and whether his conversations with the developers -- especially in Interior's office -- violated federal conflict of interest laws given Halliburton's extensive business before this department. Politico reported Tuesday that a foundation Zinke established a decade ago agreed to let the Lesar-backed development build a parking lot on foundation land."

John Schwartz & Brad Plumer of the New York Times: "The American oil and gas industry is leaking more methane than the government thinks -- much more, a new study says. Since methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, that is bad news for climate change. The new study, published Thursday in the journal Science, puts the rate of methane emissions from domestic oil and gas operations at 2.3 percent of total production per year, which is 60 percent higher than the current estimate from the Environmental Protection Agency.... Methane, the main component of natural gas, can warm the planet more than 80 times as much as the same amount of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period if it escapes into the atmosphere before being burned. A recent study found that natural gas power plants could actually be worse for climate change than coal plants if their leakage rate rose above 4 percent." ...

... And This of Course Brings Us to Scott Pruitt:

Eric Levitz: "... the Environmental Protection Agency spent years preparing a rule that would require natural gas companies to update their equipment (so as to minimize the risk of methane leaks), and also collect more data on how much gas that they leak into the air. But Scott Pruitt nixed that regulation, in one of his first actions as EPA director last year.... The International Energy Agency recently estimated that the gas industry could easily reduce its methane emissions by 75 percent -- and that the bulk of those reductions would pay for themselves in the form of saved gas. Alas, to this point, financial and humanitarian incentives haven't been enough to persuade the natural gas industry to diligently avoid spewing dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere. And Scott Pruitt is preventing the government from giving it a regulatory incentive to do so." ...

... Where Are the E-Mails, Scotty? Emily Holden of Politico: "An examination of Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt's government email accounts has uncovered only one message he wrote to anyone outside EPA during his first 10 months in office -- a number that has watchdogs questioning whether he is communicating in private. EPA says Pruitt mainly holds discussions in person or over the phone, which would explain the meager electronic trail for his external communications. But Pruitt's critics remain suspicious -- especially in light of all the steps the agency has taken to conceal his activities, from refusing to release his meeting calendars to installing a $43,000 soundproof booth in his office. Oversight groups said it seems implausible that someone as active as Pruitt, who meets frequently with political and industry allies, would have sent only a single email to someone outside EPA.... It's not unprecedented for high-ranking government officials to shun email, but Pruitt has in the past used his private email for official business when he served as Oklahoma's attorney general." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nonetheless, another Friday passes, and Scott Pruitt still has his job.

Daniel Costa-Roberts of Mother Jones: "A study published on Friday by scientists at the University of Texas and the University of Toronto points to a connection between Trump country and the nation's opioid crisis.... 'Support for the Republican candidate in the 2016 election is a marker for physical conditions, economic circumstances, and cultural forces associated with opioid use,' the authors say.... The researchers looked at how many people in each county were given opioid prescriptions lasting 90 days or longer, and checked those numbers against vote counts from the 2016 election.... [V]oters backed Trump at a 21 percent higher rate than in counties with significantly lower rates of opioid use." --safari ...

     ... safari: Dem messengers should massage the messaging away from "Deplorable", which Trumpistas now proudly wear as a twisted badge of tribal honor, to "Gullible", which would erode the power of Clinton's gaffe and remain a poignant critique of their blind fealty given to their weak and impotent leader. ...

... Brianna Ehley of Politico: "The House on Friday overwhelmingly passed sweeping bipartisan opioid legislation, concluding the chamber';s two-week voteathon on dozens of bills to address the drug abuse epidemic. The measure combines more than 50 bills approved individually by the House focusing on expanding access to treatment, encouraging the development of alternative pain treatments and curbing the flow of illicit drugs into the U.S. It was passed 396-14, with 13 Republicans and one Democrat voting against the package.... The bill, which the White House endorsed, now heads to the Senate, where lawmakers are planning to take up their own opioid legislation. A House Republican aide said leadership hopes to conference the bills in July, though it could slide later into the summer depending on the Senate's schedule."

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) in a Washington Post op-ed: "I've been involved in politics for a long time in my state and have run and won in tough races. This one was like no other. The operative question was not about conservative policies that are normally the lifeblood of a Republican primary, but rather who on the ballot would more loyally support the president.... We should all be alarmed when dissenting voices are quashed. President Trump is not the first executive to want compliance from a legislative body, but he has taken it to a new level.... I have overwhelmingly supported the president on the issues he attempted to advance. But because I haven't been 100 percent supportive, and have spoken out on areas where we disagreed, he injected himself into the race to oppose me as he did. This suggests his concern was over personal loyalty, rather than issue loyalty. That's a problem in a system built on compliance to laws and the Constitution -- not a single man."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In a major statement on privacy in the digital age, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the government generally needs a warrant to collect troves of location data about the customers of cellphone companies. The 5-to-4 decision has implications for all kinds of personal information held by third parties, including email and text messages, internet searches, and bank and credit card records. But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said the decision was limited.... The question for the justices was whether prosecutors violated the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches, by collecting vast amounts of data from cellphone companies showing ... movements [of the plaintiff in Carpenter v. United States, No. 16-402]." Mrs. McC: The Court's more liberal justices joined in Roberts' decision. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lynda Kinkade of CNN: "Americans born into poverty are more likely than ever before to stay that way, according to a United Nations report on poverty and inequality in the US. 'The United States, one of the world's richest nations and the "land of opportunity," is fast becoming a champion of inequality,' the report concluded.... US Ambassador to the UN Nicki Haley said, 'It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America.' The report, presented Thursday in Geneva, comes two days after Haley announced the US would withdraw from the UN human rights council. Haley's comment was in response to a letter from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and 18 other politicians calling on the US to 'take action to reduce shameful levels of poverty across the country.'They argued with the report's conclusion that the Trump administration's $1.5 trillion tax cuts 'overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality.' Philip Alston, a New York University law and human rights professor, led a UN study traveling across US. The group went to Puerto Rico and Washington DC -- and Alabama, California, Georgia, West Virginia were among the states they also visited. 'Most Americans don't care about it. They have bought the line peddled by conservative groups that poor people deserve what they are getting,' Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights [said]."

Right-wing climate-denying columnist George Will: "In today's GOP, which is the president's plaything, he is the mainstream. So, to vote against his party's cowering congressional caucuses is to affirm the nation's honor while quarantining him. A Democratic-controlled Congress would be a basket of deplorables, but there would be enough Republicans to gum up the Senate's machinery, keeping the institution as peripheral as it has been under their control and asphyxiating mischief from a Democratic House. And to those who say, 'But the judges, the judges!' the answer is: Article III institutions are not more important than those of Articles I and II combined."

Sam Biddle of The Intercept: "Earlier this year, it was reported that Elliott Broidy, a convicted felon in a 2009 bribery case and a top Donald Trump fundraiser, proffered meetings with the president to foreign regimes who were also potential clients of his defense firm Circinus. Little is known about Circinus, but purported company documents obtained by The Intercept contain plans to peddle social media surveillance software to repressive regimes. The Circinus website paints the contractor as a red-blooded defender of U.S. national security.... But the documents, a series of pitch decks, indicate that the company was prepared to sell what's described as a suite of sophisticated internet-mining tools to the governments of Cyprus, Romania, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates, touting the ability to detect and identify online 'detractors.'" --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Looks as if Friends of Trump are partial to dictators, especially when they see $$$ in their preferences.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hell on Earth. Thaslima Begum & Hannah Ellis-Peterson of the Guardian: "Harrowing accounts of Rohingya women tied to trees and raped for days by Myanmar's military and men being pushed into mass graves, doused with petrol and set alight have been sent to the international criminal court.... The legal argument for an ICC investigation is ... the first time such a case has been considered by the court. While Bangladesh is a member state, which gives the ICC power to investigate crimes committed there, Myanmar is not, and denies any ethic cleansing was carried out against the Rohingya." Caution: Report contains horrific details. --safari

"Rent-A-Womb" Erin Handley of the Guardian: "Thirty-three pregnant Cambodian women who were carrying babies on behalf of Chinese clients have been discovered during a raid on an illegal commercial surrogacy operation, police said on Saturday.... Phnom Penh anti-trafficking police chief Keo Thea said one of the five, a Chinese national, appeared to be the mastermind behind the 'rent a womb' operation run out of a villa in the capital's Russey Keo district.... Surrogacy flourished in Cambodia until a snap edict from the Health Ministry outlawed the practice in October 2016.... While some foreign fertility agencies pulled out of Cambodia, commercial surrogacy continued to thrive in the shadows, often with pregnant surrogates flown to Thailand for the birth of the child to circumvent Cambodian courts." --safari

Zack Beaucamp of Vox: "This week, Hungary passed what the government dubbed the 'Stop Soros' law, named after Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros. The new law, drafted by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, creates a new category of crime, called 'promoting and supporting illegal migration' -- essentially, banning individuals and organizations from providing any kind of assistance to undocumented immigrants. This is so broadly worded that, in theory, the government could arrest someone who provides food to an undocumented migrant on the street or attends a political rally in favor of their rights.... The Stop Soros bill is every fear about right-wing populism made manifest: an attack on basic democratic rights by an elected government, one legitimized and made popular by attacks on vulnerable minorities. Americans might want to pay attention." --safari

The Commentariat -- June 22, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump appeared to give up hope on Friday that the Republican-controlled Congress could succeed in passing an immigration bill this year, urging lawmakers in a Twitter post to stop 'wasting their time.' His advice is likely to kill current efforts to pass a measure that had little chance of succeeding. The president said a vote on immigration legislation should be postponed until after the midterm elections in November, when he expects Republicans to pick up more seats and create a stronger majority -- a prediction that is far from guaranteed.... But House Republicans are moving forward as planned and pushing ahead with efforts to pass immigration legislation, said Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority whip."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In a major statement on privacy in the digital age, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the government generally needs a warrant to collect troves of location data about the customers of cellphone companies. The 5-to-4 decision has implications for all kinds of personal information held by third parties, including email and text messages, internet searches, and bank and credit card records. But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said the decision was limited.... The question for the justices was whether prosecutors violated the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches, by collecting vast amounts of data from cellphone companies showing ... movements [of the plaintiff in Carpenter v. United States, No. 16-402]." Mrs. McC: The Court's more liberal justices joined in Roberts' decision.

Daniel Bates & Karen Ruiz of the Daily Mail: "The father of the Honduran girl who became the face of the family separation crisis has revealed that he still has not been in touch with his wife or daughter but was happy to learn they are safe. Denis Javier Varela Hernandez, 32, said that he had not heard from his wife Sandra, 32, who was with his two-year-old daughter Yanela Denise, for nearly three weeks until he saw the image of them being apprehended in Texas. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Hernandez, who lives in Puerto Cortes, Honduras, says that he was told on Wednesday by a Honduran official in the US that his wife and child are being detained at a family residential center in Texas but are together and are doing 'fine.' Denis said his wife and daughter were never separated by border control agents and remain together." ...

... CBS News and Reuters have backed up the Daily Mail story. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Wingers are loving this story because it "proves" the Time mag cover (posted here yesterday) "is a lie" and "fake news," etc. Um, not really. The cover says nothing about the status of the child, only "Welcome to America." But let's not let the facts get in the way.

Tracy Connor & Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News: "... Michael Cohen retweeted a photo of himself with comedian Tom Arnold -- who happens to be working on a show with Vice that features him hunting for unflattering video of Trump. Arnold told NBC News early Friday that Cohen ― who is under investigation by federal prosecutors ― talked to him about the show, which is expected to air later this year. 'We've been on the other side of the table and now we're on the same side,' said Arnold, an outspoken Trump critic.... Vice announced in May that it had tapped Arnold to helm a show called 'The Hunt for the Trump Tapes,' and investigate whether rumored tapes from the past showing the president in a negative light actually exist.... Arnold would not say whether Cohen was planning to give him any tapes he might have of conversations with Trump. But he added, 'This dude has all the tapes -- this dude has everything.'"

*****

Incompetence, Malevolence, Indifference, Negligence, Chaos

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Border Patrol will no longer refer migrant parents who cross into the United States illegally with children to federal courthouses to face criminal charges, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told The Washington Post on Thursday. The about-face comes just one day after President Trump signed an executive order ending his administration's widely denounced practice of separating parents and children apprehended for illegally crossing the Mexico border. Trump's order said the government would maintain a 'zero tolerance' policy toward those who break the law, but the senior U.S. official, asked to explain how the government would change enforcement practices, said Border Patrol agents were instructed Wednesday evening to stop sending parents with children to federal courthouses for prosecution.... A spokeswoman for the Justice Department, Sarah Isgur Flores, denied that prosecutions would be suspended." Mrs. McC: If this story doesn't make sense, that's because chaos. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... The story has been updated. "President's Trump's executive order to halt family separations unleashed confusion in Washington and at the Mexico border Thursday, as Customs and Border Protection said it would it stop referring such cases for prosecution and migrant parents arrived at courthouses in Texas and Arizona wearing handcuffs only to be led away without facing charges. After a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told The Washington Post that the agency would freeze criminal referrals for migrant parents who cross illegally with children, Justice Department officials insisted their 'zero tolerance' policy remained in force and that U.S. attorneys would continue to prosecute those entering the United States unlawfully. On Capitol Hill, a hard-line immigration bill failed to pass and a key vote on a more moderate version of the legislation was postponed. The Pentagon, meanwhile, agreed to house up to 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children on military bases in coming months. And despite the ongoing outcry over the separation of more than 2,300 migrant children from their parents since May 5, Trump administration officials gave no assurances the families would be swiftly reunited." Mrs. McC: What a mess. ...

... Jeet Heer: "... it is clear that the Trump administration's immigration policy remains chaotic and in flux. If 'zero tolerance' was suspended, it is only as a stop-gap measure. It does nothing to address the problem of family reunification for those already separated by the policy. Further, it is a temporary measure which could be reversed once the administration has more resources in place to enact a renewed 'zero tolerance' push. But the larger story is that the White House has no real policy and different factions are making up rules willy-nilly."

Michael Shear & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The Pentagon is assessing how -- and where -- to house as many as 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children on American military bases, a spokesman said on Thursday. In a Pentagon statement, Lt. Col. Michael Andrews said officials from the Department of Health and Human Services have so far visited three military bases in Texas and one in Arkansas as the Trump administration seeks to provide temporary shelter for unaccompanied children entering the United States. Colonel Andrews indicated that no decisions have been made." ...

     ... The story has been updated: "The United States is preparing to shelter as many as 20,000 migrant children on four American military bases, a Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday, as federal officials struggled to carry out President Trump's order to keep immigrant families together after they are apprehended at the border. The 20,000 beds at bases in Texas and Arkansas would house 'unaccompanied alien children,' said a Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Michael Andrews, although other federal agencies provided conflicting explanations about how the shelters would be used and who would be housed there. There were reports of widespread confusion on the border. It was unclear whether the military housing would also house the parents of children in migrant families that have been detained, and officials at the White House, the Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday that they could not provide details." ...

Seems nice. ...... Justin Glawe & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The Trump administration's plan for immigrant families on the southern border involves holding them together on military bases for a prolonged, uncertain period of time.... With Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facilities already at or near capacity, [Trump's executive] order requires the Secretary of Defense to make 'any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families' and to 'construct such facilities if necessary.'... Trump's order 'provides for the possibility that children will be locked up in a family unit in a jail or prison or former military base (internment camps). It places enforcement of border laws ahead of decency and is no solution to the current situation,' said Maureen Franco, head of the federal public defender's office in El Paso, in an email to The Daily Beast.... On Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions filed a motion in federal court to modify the 'Flores settlement,' a 1997 federal court case that requires facilities where child immigrants are held to meet certain standards of care and prohibits detaining them for more than 20 days."

Sarah Stillman of the New Yorker: "On Wednesday afternoon, President Trump traded one border crisis for another: instead of separating immigrant children from their parents, it appears that the U.S. government will now detain moms and dads indefinitely alongside their sons and daughters." Stillman cites the case of what's happened to Pedro, who was "among the first immigrant children to be taken from a parent under the Trump Administration, in an early round of separations that began many months ago, largely outside of public view."

CBS News: "'There is currently no system in place to reunite children with parents who are in detention,' Open Society Fellow Bob Carey said. He used to run the Office of Refugee Resettlement during the Obama administration, the federal agency responsible for caring for the separated children. Carey says ORR's shelter system was designed for minors who arrived alone at the border, typically adolescent boys, and is not equipped for the influx of infants, toddlers and young children that were separated from their parents under the president's 'zero tolerance' policy. 'This is child abuse being perpetrated by a government,' Carey said. Early Wednesday morning, girls arrived at a facility in New York City, which Mayor Bill de Blasio said housed 239 separated children and that some of them arrived with contagious health issues like chicken pox and lice. 'The youngest to come here, they told us, was nine months old,' de Blasio said on Wednesday." ...

... Ian Duncan of the Baltimore Sun: "Immigration agents have sent dozens of children to Maryland since the Trump administration announced it would separate undocumented families at the southwest border, service providers here say. Some of the children, who are mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, are being placed with foster families coordinated by an organization based in Anne Arundel County. Others are being held in dormitories in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties, according to people involved in the process. Many of the children have come with little information. One is 18 months old. Several are too young to speak to their new caregivers or help social workers track down relatives who could take them in. Lawyers are trying to figure out how to put together asylum claims for 6-year-olds who don't know why they fled their countries." ...

... Alexandra Schwartz of the New Yorker: "It has become clear that the Trump Administration has put no protocols in place for keeping track of children and their parents as they move through separate systems, or for facilitating their eventual reunification.... The Border Patrol's gathering of identities and contact information before family separations has been haphazard at best;... some of the youngest children she has worked with at O.R.R. shelters do not know their parents' names.... On Wednesday, an anonymous O.R.R. counsellor published an open letter decrying the moral bind that the agency workers find themselves in.... In the letter, the counsellor raises a concern shared by the officials I spoke with: that indefinite family detention, Trump's alternative proposal to family separation, will put children in an even worse position than the one that they are currently in. During the Obama Administration, immigrant mothers and children were housed together in bleak, prison-like facilities..., until a judge ruled that such detention violated the child-protection standards set by the Flores case. That model of family detention is widely considered to have been a disaster." (See also the McClatchy report linked below.) ...

... ** "They Really Don't Care." Michelle Goldberg: "Part of the reason for this failure could be Trump's indifference to expertise. He appointed E. Scott Lloyd, an anti-abortion activist, to head the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency charged with caring for children after they're separated from their parents. Lloyd had little discernible experience working with refugees, and he has spent a significant amount of time at ORR trying to prevent pregnant underage migrants from getting abortions. Nothing in his background indicates an ability to handle the sort of complex logistical and humanitarian challenge he's now presented with."

Taige Jensen, et al., of the New York Times: "A U.S. government film from 1943 justifying the detention of Japanese-Americans in internment camps has new relevance in light of the president's immigration policies":

Thomas Kaplan & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The House rejected a hard-line immigration bill on Thursday and Republican leaders delayed a vote on a compromise measure that seemed destined to fail, then delayed it again, in the latest show of their party's disarray over immigration. The compromise, a broad immigration overhaul negotiated by moderate and conservative Republicans, was supposed to be voted on early Thursday evening. It would provide a path to citizenship for young unauthorized immigrants while keeping migrant families together at the border, in addition to funding President Trump's border wall. But with its prospects seeming dim, Republican leaders pushed the vote to Friday and huddled with their members in a last-ditch effort to stave off what would have been an embarrassing defeat. Then they delayed the vote again, to next week, as lawmakers discussed making changes to the legislation." ...

... Tara Golshan of Vox: "Just hours before the House [was] scheduled to vote on two sweeping Republican-led immigration bills..., Donald Trump managed to undermine Republicans' entire legislative process with a simple question:... 'What is the purpose of the House doing good immigration bills when you need 9 votes by Democrats in the Senate, and the Dems are only looking to Obstruct (which they feel is good for them in the Mid-Terms). Republicans must get rid of the stupid Filibuster Rule-it is killing you!'"

Oh, for Pete's Sake. Kate Bennett of CNN: "... Melania Trump touched down in McAllen, Texas, Thursday making a publicly unannounced and hastily planned trip to get a first-hand look at the crisis affecting immigrant families at the US border." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... "I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?" Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times: "When the first lady, Melania Trump, on a surprise humanitarian visit to a children's shelter in Texas, strode onto her airplane in an olive green Zara army jacket with those words scrawled in faux white graffiti on the back, it sent the watching world into what might be called, with some understatement, a meltdown. 'Insensitive,' 'heartless' and 'unthinking' were some of the words hurled through the digisphere about the choice. 'It's a jacket,' her communications director, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement to reporters. 'There was no hidden message.' She's right, of course. It wasn't hidden. It was literally written on the first lady's back. The question is: Who was the intended audience?... To accept the idea she just threw the Zara jacket on in practically the same situation because -- hey, it was close at hand and she was maybe a little bit cool (or something like that) is simply unbelievable.... The jacket, after all, which is reportedly sold out and is not from the current season, retailed for $39. It may be the least expensive garment the first lady has worn while representing the administration." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I don't think Melanie gets a pass on this. She's an immigrant (who possibly worked illegally in the U.S.), she got hers, & now she's saying -- like her husband -- she really doesn't care about the immigrants trying to follow her here. The fact that she wore the offensive anorak coming and going (on a hot summer day), to bookend her "humanitarian mission" to an immigrant child-internment center, tells us this was a statement about her view of those she visited. How the hell did she even get such a jacket? They certainly don't sell them at the shops she usually frequents.

Aris Folley of the Hill: "Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was dropped from his speakers bureau after he refused to apologize for mocking a story about a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was separated from her family at the U.S.-Mexico border. Leading Authorities Inc. cut ties with Lewandowski on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told CNN." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nikki Schwab of the New York Post (June 20): "White House adviser Stephen Miller was accosted at a Mexican restaurant by a patron calling him a 'fascist' -- two nights before Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was hounded out of another south-of-the-border eatery, sources told The Post." Mrs. McC: Miller & Nielsen went to Mexican restaurants for one reason, & it wasn't the chiles rellenos: they wanted to send a "fuck-you" message to the immigrants they are terrorizing. ...

... Lisa Belkin of Yahoo! News: "A photo of Nison (aka Max) Miller stares out from the screen, sullen and stern, in faded black and white. 'Order of Court Denying Petition' is the title of the government form dated '14th November 1932,' to which it is attached, the one in which Miller is applying for naturalization as an American citizen. And beneath the photo, the reason given for his denial: Ignorance. Nison Miller is the great-grandfather of White House adviser Stephen Miller, who has taken credit for being one of the chief architects of the administration's family separation policy.... Renee Stern Steinig, a former president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island..., [said] Miller's great-grandfather being labeled 'Ignorant' on that application was probably because he slipped up on a few questions on his citizenship test... -- an example of the same harsh, presumptive judgment that she believes is being used against today's immigrants. Eventually he retook the test and became a citizen." Read on.

Paul Krugman: "The speed of America's moral descent under Donald Trump is breathtaking. In a matter of months we've gone from a nation that stood for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to a nation that tears children from their parents and puts them in cages. What's almost equally remarkable about this plunge into barbarism is that it's not a response to any actual problem. The mass influx of murderers and rapists that Trump talks about, the wave of crime committed by immigrants here (and, in his mind, refugees in Germany), are things that simply aren't happening. They're just sick fantasies being used to justify real atrocities. And you know what this reminds me of? The history of anti-Semitism, a tale of prejudice fueled by myths and hoaxes that ended in genocide."

Frank Rich: "... this crisis is far from resolved.... It can never be forgotten that Trump is no outlier in his own party: While roughly two-thirds of Americans oppose his Draconian immigration measures, nearly 60 per cent of Republicans approve of them and expect their representatives in the Capitol to obey their Dear Leader.... If anything remotely good came out of this debacle, it's that for the first time Trump was forced to recognize that he cannot always refute or suppress visual evidence of his duplicity as easily as Fox News can.... Another small but useful side effect of this crisis has been to expose just how deeply the psychosis of compulsive lying has spread through the administration's ranks. The Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen destroyed her reputation this week as her mentor John Kelly had before her with her ludicrous purported ignorance of both the origins of the separation policy and its horrendous human fallout on the border. As Aaron Blake of the Washington Post pointed out, Nielsen was already a serial liar, having previously publicly claimed that she didn't know Norway was a white-majority country when Trump said he preferred Norwegian immigrants to those from 'shithole countries' and having testified before Congress she was unaware of the American intelligence finding that Russia had tried to boost Trump in the 2016 election." ...

... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "The hoax is the premise that President Trump's administration has invented to rationalize ... crimes against humanity: his narrative that America has been 'infest[ed]' with hordes of crime-committing, culture-diluting, job-stealing, tax-shirking, benefits-draining 'aliens.' No part of that description is remotely true.... Unauthorized border crossings have been falling over time.... immigrants in general, and undocumented immigrants in particular, commit crimes at far lower rates than native-born Americans. That includes violent crime.... Recent waves of immigrants have actually proved themselves reasonably adept at assimilating into American culture. Particularly those given the opportunity to escape the shadows.... Recent studies suggest that immigration (both authorized and unauthorized) actually boosts labor force participation rates, productivity and wages and reduces unemployment rates for native-born American workers.... An internal government report commissioned by Trump found that refugees brought in $63 billion more in tax revenue over the past decade than they cost the government.... With virtually no facts on his side, [Trump] has managed to fabricate a multipart border emergency, and convince a majority of his own party that this imagined emergency necessitates state-sanctioned child abuse."

Franco Ordoñez & Anita Kumar of McClatchy News: "President Barack Obama separated parents from their children at the border. Obama prosecuted mothers for coming to the United States illegally. He fast tracked deportations. And yes, he housed unaccompanied children in tent cities.... One of the most controversial measures that Obama took was to resurrect the almost-abandoned practice of detaining mothers and children to deter future illegal immigration.... Obama took other controversial steps as well, including fighting to block efforts to require unaccompanied children to have legal representation and barring detained mothers with their children from being released on bond.... For much of the country -- and ... Donald Trump -- the prevailing belief is that Obama was the president who went easier on immigrants. Neither Obama nor Democrats created Trump's zero-tolerance policy, which calls for every illegal border crosser to be prosecuted and leads to their children being detained in separate facilities before being shipped to a shelter and eventually a sponsor family. But Obama's policy helped create the road map of enforcement that Trump has been following -- and building on.... While Obama downplayed his enforcement, Trump has embraced and made it a signature issue of his presidency."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Rachel Dicker of Mediaite: "In the latest chapter of 'Sinclair Spews Conservative Propaganda on Hundreds of Television Channels,' the media conglomerate forced its networks to air a segment claiming that the outcry over the Trump administration's practice of separating children from their families and placing them in detention centers was largely just liberal histrionics. The 'must-run' segment, anchored by Sinclair Chief Political Analyst and former Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn, is slated to air on more than 100 Sinclair-owned or operated news stations across the U.S., Media Matters reports. Many of these are local news stations."

In case you were thinking the Trumpenskeeves were so filled with hatred for Central Americans that they didn't have time to dream up ways to ruin the lives of U.S. citizens, have another think:

... Glenn Thrush & Erica Green of the New York Times: "President Trump, spurred on by conservatives who want him to slash safety net programs, unveiled on Thursday a plan to overhaul the federal government that could have a profound effect on millions of poor and working-class Americans. Produced over the last year by Mr. Trump's budget director, Mick Mulvaney, it would reshuffle social welfare programs in a way that would make them easier to cut, scale back or restructure, according to several administration officials involved in the planning. Among the most consequential ideas is a proposal to shift the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a subsistence benefit that provides aid to 42 million poor and working Americans, from the Agriculture Department to a new mega-agency that would have 'welfare' in its title -- a term Mr. Trump uses as a pejorative catchall for most government benefit programs."

"Trade Wars Are Easy to Win." Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "The European Union fought back on Friday against the Trump administration's tariffs, slapping penalties on an array of American products that target the president's political base, like bourbon, motorcycles and orange juice. The European counterattack on $3.2 billion of goods, a response to the administration's measures on steel and aluminum imports, adds another front to a trade war that has engulfed allies and adversaries around the world. China and Mexico have already retaliated with their own tariffs, and Canada, Japan and Turkey are readying similar offensives. The risk of escalation is high since Mr. Trump has promised even more tariffs. Taking aim at German car manufacturers, the president has started an investigation into automobile imports to determine whether they pose a national security concern, the same justification used for his metal tariffs." ...

... Jim Tankersley & Cade Metz of the New York Times: "On Thursday, the Trump administration [released] ... a 35-page report entitled 'How China's Economic Aggression Threatens the Technologies and Intellectual Property of the United States and the World.' It exhaustively details the steps Chinese officials take to protect and promote their domestic industries and disadvantage foreign competitors.... [The administration] has yet to detail how it plans to build America's dominance in industries that will power economic and job growth in the future, or cultivate what the administration officials call the 'crown jewels of American technology and intellectual property.'... Many economists say [the] steps [the administration is taking] are insufficient -- and possibly counterproductive -- to position American companies to compete in emerging, high-tech, globalized industries.... Instead of targeting innovation, the administration's policy efforts to date have focused largely on supporting legacy industries like coal mining and steel production.... China, meanwhile, targets support to companies that demonstrate a winning strategy for growth."

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "In a column for the British magazine Spectator, BBC correspondent Paul Wood revealed that Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct company which was in charge of microtargeting voters for the Trump campaign, was in possession of Clinton's emails at least a month before WikiLeaks was known to have them.... Wood said that he had information from an 'American lawyer' who knew that Cambridge Analytica was in possession of the emails, which U.S. intelligence agencies later determined were stolen by Russian hackers." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Paul Wood's story in the Spectator has a lot more, including speculation that the British government has been attempting to appease Trump by slow-walking intelligence which Robert Mueller has requested. Wood has done some fine investigative reporting on the Trump-Russia scandal, so I wouldn't discount the allegations in this piece.

Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post: "During the presidential campaign, National Enquirer executives sent digital copies of the tabloid's articles and cover images related to Donald Trump and his political opponents to Trump's attorney Michael Cohen in advance of publication, according to three people with knowledge of the matter -- an unusual practice that speaks to the close relationship between Trump and David Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., the Enquirer's parent company. Although the company strongly denies ever sharing such material before publication, these three individuals say the sharing of material continued after Trump took office.... The Enquirer's alleged sharing of material pre-publication ... intersects with a subject that federal prosecutors have been investigating since earlier this year: Cohen's efforts to quash negative stories about Trump during the campaign." ...

... Jeet Heer: "Donald Trump deserves to be listed as Editorial Consultant on [the] National Enquirer.... Trump and his cronies would, it appears, often tweak The Enquirer's coverage, in ways small (suggesting alternative photos) and big (advocating story ideas). In particular, Trump encouraged the tabloid in 2016 to cover the health of his opponent Hillary Clinton. In September 2015, the Enquirer ran a story saying Hillary Clinton had six months to live."

Doug Baldwin, et al., in a New York Times op-ed: "President Trump recently made an offer to National Football League players like us who are committed to protesting injustice. Instead of protesting, he suggested, we should give him names of people we believe were 'unfairly treated by the justice system.' If he agrees they were treated unfairly, he said, he will pardon them.... If President Trump thinks he can end these injustices if we deliver him a few names, he hasn't been listening to us. As Americans, it is our constitutional right to question injustices when they occur, and we see them daily: police brutality, unnecessary incarceration, excessive criminal sentencing, residential segregation and educational inequality.... We must challenge these norms, investigate the reasons for their pervasiveness and fight with all we have to change them. That is what \ we, as football players, are trying to do with our activism." The writers have some suggestions.

Caitlin Dewey & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "A deeply polarizing farm bill narrowly passed the House Thursday, a month after the legislation went down to stunning defeat after getting ensnared in the toxic politics of immigration. The legislation, which passed 213-211 with 20 Republicans joining Democrats in their unanimous opposition, includes new work rules for most adult food-stamp recipients -- provisions that are dead on arrival in the Senate. The massive legislative package overseeing more than $430 billion of food and agriculture programs over five years contains a host of measures aimed at strengthening farm subsidies, expanding foreign trade and bolstering rural development.... The most divisive element of the legislation passed Thursday are new, stricter work rules for most able-bodied adults in the food stamp program...."

Adam Liptak, et al., of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday ... [ruled] that internet retailers can be required to collect sales taxes even in states where they have no physical presence. The decision, in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc., was a victory for brick-and-mortar businesses that have long complained they are put at a disadvantage by having to charge sales taxes while many online competitors do not. And it was also a victory for states that have said that they are missing out on tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue.... In Thursday's ruling, the court effectively overturned a system that it created. In 1992, the court ruled in Quill Corporation v. North Dakota that the Constitution bars states from requiring businesses to collect sales tax unless they have a substantial connection to the state. The Quill decision helped pave the way for the growth of online retail by letting companies sell nationwide without navigating the complex patchwork of state and local tax codes.... Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch joined the majority opinion by Anthony Kennedy."

Sylvan Lane of the Hill: "A federal district judge ruled Thursday that the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) violates the Constitution, countering a January ruling from a federal appeals court. Judge Loretta Preska of the Southern District of New York ruled that the CFPB's creation as an independent agency with a director that could only be dismissed for wrongdoing was unconstitutional.... Thursday's ruling raises the likelihood that the Supreme Court will take up the issue of the CFPB's constitutionality in an upcoming term. The appeals courts for the 5th and 9th Circuits will also hear challenges to the CFPB's constitutionality, and a ruling against the bureau could force the high court to reconcile the conflicting opinions." Preska also ruled that a case initiated by the CFPB could go forward under the leadership of New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood (D).

Adam Bernstein of the Washington Post: "Charles Krauthammer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist and intellectual provocateur who championed the muscular foreign policy of neoconservatism that helped lay the ideological groundwork for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, died June 21 at 68. The cause was cancer of the small intestine, said his son, Daniel Krauthammer."

News Lede

New York Times: "A ferry that sank Monday in a lake in Indonesia, leaving as many as 192 people missing and presumed dead, was badly overloaded beyond its capacity of about 40, officials said. Emergency responders continued to search Lake Toba on the island of Sumatra, but as the possibility of rescuing survivors has faded, they have shifted their focus to finding the boat and the bodies believed to be inside."

The Commentariat -- June 21, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Border Patrol will no longer refer migrant parents who cross into the United States illegally with children to federal courthouses to face criminal charges, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told The Washington Post on Thursday. The about-face comes just one day after President Trump signed an executive order ending his administration's widely denounced practice of separating parents and children apprehended for illegally crossing the Mexico border. Trump's order said the government would maintain a 'zero tolerance' policy toward those who break the law, but the senior U.S. official, asked to explain how the government would change enforcement practices, said Border Patrol agents were instructed Wednesday evening to stop sending parents with children to federal courthouses for prosecution.... A spokeswoman for the Justice Department, Sarah Isgur Flores, denied that prosecutions would be suspended." Mrs. McC: If this story doesn't make sense, that's because chaos. ...

... Oh, for Pete's Sake. Kate Bennett of CNN: "... Melania Trump touched down in McAllen, Texas, Thursday making a publicly unannounced and hastily planned trip to get a first-hand look at the crisis affecting immigran families at the US border."

Aris Folley of the Hill: "Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was dropped from his speakers bureau after he refused to apologize for mocking a story about a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was separated from her family at the U.S.-Mexico border. Leading Authorities Inc. cut ties with Lewandowski on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told CNN."

Trump Blinks:

Katie Rogers & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Shortly after caving to political pressure and signing an executive order that ends the separation of families by detaining parents and children together at the border, President Trump flew [to Duluth, Minnesota,] on Wednesday and explained the decision to an arena full of supporters, many of whom back his hard-line stance on immigration. The trip, the president]s first to the state as president, was in part to support Rick Stauber, a Republican candidate for a House seat. But the president focused more on his own agenda. Turning to immigration, Mr. Trump said he would keep families together, but he promised that the border would be 'just as tough' as before. 'The Democrats want open borders: "Let everybody pour in, we don't care,"' Mr. Trump said, as the crowd erupted into a chant of 'Build the Wall' and mocked a handful of people who tried to protest his policy. He said of other countries, while talking about immigration: 'They're not sending their finest. We're sending them the hell back. That's what we're doing.'" ...

... Exercising the Politics of Personal Resentment. Philip Rucker & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: Trump spent much of the Duluth speech complaining about all the people -- especially those in the media -- who are unfair to him. "'You ever notice they always call the other side "the elite"?' Trump asked. 'The elite! Why are they elite? I have a much better apartment than they do. I'm smarter than they are. I'm richer than they are. I became president and they didn't.'... For those who have closely followed Trump for years, the night was filled with many moments of deja vu, when it felt as though it suddenly was 2016 all over again." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: In an unsigned post, the New Republic reports a fuller citation: "They always call the other side, and they do this sometime, 'the elite.' The elite! Why are they elite? I have a much better apartment than they do. I'm smarter than they are. I'm richer than they are. I became president and they didn't. And I am representing the greatest, smartest, most loyal people on earth, the deplorables." NR: "Unpacking Trump's statement, it turns out he's not, as populist heroes traditionally have been, the avatar or even the tribune of the common man. Rather, Trump is the true elite, a caste of one, the übermensch who is smart, rich and able to become president. His followers, meanwhile, are 'the deplorables' who are, pointedly, not elite in Trump's manner but have their own form of greatness and smartness which is displayed in their willingness to subsume themselves ('the most loyal people on earth') to Trump. This is not the creed of populism but rather of the strong man with an army of loyal followers."

Maggie Haberman & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump caved to enormous political pressure on Wednesday and signed an executive order that ends the separation of families by indefinitely detaining parents and children together at the border.... The order said that officials will continue to criminally prosecute everyone who crosses the border illegally, but will seek to find or build facilities that can hold families -- parents and children together -- instead of separating them while their legal cases are considered by the courts. Mr. Trump's executive order directed the government's lawyers to ask for a modification of an existing 1997 consent decree, known as the Flores settlement, that currently prohibits the federal government from keeping children in immigration detention -- even if they are with their parents -- for more than 20 days. But it is unclear whether the court will agree to that request. If not, the president is likely to face an immediate legal challenge from immigration activists on behalf of families that are detained in makeshift facilities. Stories of children being taken from their parents and images of teenagers in cage-like detention facilities have exploded into a full-blown political crisis for Mr. Trump and Republican lawmakers, who are desperate for a response to critics who have called the practice 'inhumane' and 'evil.'" ... (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

     ... The story has been updated to include this: "And the president's order does nothing to address the plight of the more than 2,300 children who have already been separated from their parents under the president's 'zero tolerance' policy. Federal officials said those children will not be immediately reunited with their families while the adults remain in federal custody during their immigration proceedings. 'There will not be a grandfathering of existing cases,' said Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Wolfe said the decision about the children was made by the White House, but he added, 'I can tell you definitively that is going to be policy.'" ...

... There's Nothing This White House Can't Screw up. Justin Wise of the Hill: "The White House initially misspelled the word 'separation' in the executive order President Trump signed on Wednesday to stop his 'zero tolerance' policy from dividing families crossing the border illegally. The order was titled 'Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Separation,' but originally spelled the last word 'seperation' -- a mistake people quickly seized on." Matt Yglesias wondered, "Is misspelling 'separation' like issuing an executive order with your fingers crossed behind your back?" Thanks to Ken W. for the reminder.

... HHS Blinks. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) walked back comments from a spokesperson late Wednesday, revising an earlier statement that said there would be no special effort from the Trump administration to reunite migrant families separated at the border. 'An ACF spokesperson misspoke earlier regarding the Executive Order signed today by the President. It is still very early and we are awaiting further guidance on the matter,' the department's communications director, Brian Marriott, said in a statement. ACF is a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).... The New York Times on Wednesday

... Here's Trump blaming Democrats at a meeting with GOP members of Congress yesterday afternoon. Also, ever so sadly, he's cancelling the White House's picnic for members of Congress, which was scheduled for tomorrow:

     ... Also, see especially P.D. Pepe's comment in yesterday's thread on the Trumpaholics' praise-in for the Dear Leader. Mrs. McC: I heard part of that, too, & I was just as disgusted as was Pepe. (The part of the remarks she refers to is not included in the clip above but occurred later during the same meeting.) ...

... Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "President Trump ... invited the news media to the Cabinet Room on Wednesday to talk at length about his own strength, an issue he has always placed at the center of the immigration debate. 'We are very strong,' he said twice to start, going on to say the word 'strong' seven more times, as if worried that allowing undocumented immigrant families to remain together might call his resolve into question.... The projection of strength ... has always been the central pillar of Trump's politics, the reason behind his constant attraction to conflict.... The tough-guy posture of a citizen politician who had encouraged fisticuffs at campaign rallies, praised murderous foreign regimes and described immigrants as snakes who might 'infest' the nation was, ultimately, more important than any single policy.... It did not even matter that his team had spent days arguing that the president did not have the power to stop separating parents from their kids, a trauma the American Academy of Pediatrics says can permanently disrupt the 'brain architecture' of children. 'The Democrats have to change their law,' Trump said Friday, just a few days before proving his own words untrue. 'It's their law.'"

... Dara Lind of Vox explains the executive order: "For weeks..., Donald Trump and his administration claimed that they would prefer to keep families together in immigration detention -- but had no choice but to separate them at the US-Mexico border so parents could be prosecuted for illegal entry. Now, Trump-s executive order -- which some in the press are reporting as a 'reversal' or 'relenting' on family separation -- simply directs the administration to do the thing they said they couldn't do: keep children along with their parents in immigration detention while the parents are prosecuted, and while the family's immigration case is resolved. The Trump administration is hoping this will result in their speedy deportation, but if not, it's now willing to detain the family indefinitely.... If Congress fails to act, it's unlikely that the federal judiciary is going to allow this order to stand in its current form -- because it appears to violate the 1997 Flores settlement that the administration cited as the reason it couldn't detain families indefinitely to begin with. The order doesn't require Trump to stop separating families at the border -- but it probably will end wide-scale family separation." ...

... But maybe Stephen Colbert is the best explainer:

Feckless. Catherine Lucey & Jonathan Lemire of TPM: "Ivanka Trump, the presidential adviser who has billed herself as a 'force for good' in the administration, remained silent for days as the firestorm over forced separations of migrant families consumed the White House.... [S]he stayed publicly quiet until Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order designed to keep families together.... Then the first daughter tweeted, 'Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border.'" --safari

... J.M. Rieger of the Washington Post: "As outrage grew over Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy on migrant family separations, White House officials could not even agree on what was happening at the southern border.First it was a deterrent. Then it wasn't. It was a new Justice Department policy. Then it wasn't. The Trump administration was simply following the law. Then it said separations weren't required by law. It could not be reversed by executive order. Then it was.... When reporters asked Trump on Friday why he would not reverse his two-month-old policy via executive order, Trump shot back, 'You can't do it through an executive order.' Five days later, Trump contradicted himself again." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration insisted it didn't have a policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. It said that it was merely following the law. And it said 'Congress alone can fix' the mess. It just admitted that all that was nonsense -- and that it badly overplayed its hand.... [The executive order Trump signed Wednesday is] at once an admission that the politics of the issue had gotten out of hand and that the administration's arguments were completely dishonest. Virtually everything it said about the policy is tossed aside with this executive action.... And it makes clear that, from Day One, this was a political gambit to force an immigration bill through. It didn't work.... This is such a course reversal that, just two days ago, the White House was saying it wasn't even onboard with Congress passing a stand-alone bill to fix the problem -- dismissing such efforts as a 'Band-Aid' that didn't deal with core immigration problems. [Wednesday], it is gladly applying the 'Band-Aid' itself -- and in a way it insisted it couldn't."

Jonathan Chait: "The willingness of Trump and his administration to plunge ahead ... with a barbaric tactic is primarily a reflection of their moral emptiness.... The reversal also demonstrates the comprehensive failure of Trump's immigration agenda. Trump is facing the inevitable dilemma of a populist leader: He was elected promising easy solutions, and is discovering none exist.... Trump settled on family separation after every other method at his disposal collapsed. On the central policy promise he made, Trump is a flop, and he knows it.... The damage of Trump's horrific policy cannot be fully undone. But, in the face of his every instinct, Trump was forced to retreat. He didn't want to look weak, but he does, because he is."

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Trump's immigration retreat is a victory for popular resistance.... The keeping of families indefinitely creates a new problem, since it will almost certainly be challenged in courts. Still, whatever problems there are with indefinite detention, Trump is surrendering on the hostage taking situation he created. Prior to this executive order, the White House was using separated children as leverage to force Democrats to sign a Trump-friendly immigration deal. Jailed children will no longer be leverage in the negotiations."

Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "... the president's hardline rhetoric on family separation has sowed chaos in the West Wing, two sources close to the White House told me. For the second day in a row, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders -- already eyeing an exit, though not for months -- did not hold an on-camera briefing with reporters. 'She's tired of taking on water for something she doesn't believe in,' a friend of Sanders told me.... The absence of a coordinated policy process has allowed the most extreme administration voices to fill the vacuum. White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller has all but become the face of the issue....'Stephen actually enjoys seeing those pictures at the border,' an outside White House adviser said. 'He's a twisted guy, the way he was raised and picked on. There's always been a way he's gone about this. He's Waffen-SS.' Making matters worse, Trump doesn't seem to have an end game for the inhumane policy that is opposed by two-thirds of Americans."

Steve M.: Trumpbots are very, very upset that Democrat leftist cultists & globalists made Trump capitulate. ...

... Peter Baker & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Trump has railed against undocumented immigrants in recent days, branding many of them 'murderers and thieves' who want to 'infest our country.' Not long ago, he referred to them as 'animals,' although he insisted he meant only those who join a violent gang. The president's unpresidential language has become the standard for some on his team. This week his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, made a mocking noise, 'womp womp,' when a liberal strategist raised the case of a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome separated from her parents at the border. Mr. Trump's coarse discourse increasingly seems to inspire opponents to respond with vituperative words of their own. Whether it be Robert De Niro's four-letter condemnation at the Tony Awards or a congressional intern who shouted the same word at Mr. Trump when he visited the Capitol this week, the president has generated so much anger among his foes that some are crossing boundaries that he himself shattered long ago.... Mr. Trump's descriptions of those trying to enter the country illegally have been so sharp that critics say they dehumanize people and lump together millions of migrants with the small minority that are violent.... He has made insults the core of his presidential messaging."

Michael Biesecker, et al., of the AP: "Immigrant children as young as 14 housed at a juvenile detention center in Virginia say they were beaten while handcuffed and locked up for long periods in solitary confinement, left nude and shivering in concrete cells. The abuse claims against the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center near Staunton, Virginia, are detailed in federal court filings that include a half-dozen sworn statements from Latino teens jailed there for months or years. Multiple detainees say the guards stripped them of their clothes and strapped them to chairs with bags placed over their heads.... In addition to the children's first-hand, translated accounts in court filings, a former child-development specialist who worked inside the facility independently told The Associated Press this week that she saw kids there with bruises and broken bones they blamed on guards.... In court filings, lawyers for the detention facility have denied all allegations of physical abuse. Many of the children were sent there after U.S. immigration authorities accused them of belonging to violent gangs, including MS-13.... But a top manager at the Shenandoah center said during a recent congressional hearing that the children did not appear to be gang members and were suffering from mental health issues resulting from trauma that happened in their home countries -- problems the detention facility is ill-equipped to treat."

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "As federal prosecutors face skyrocketing immigration caseloads along the southwestern border, the Defense Department agreed Wednesday to help the Justice Department prosecute the cases. Twenty-one lawyers for the Defense Department 'will work full time, assisting in prosecuting reactive border immigration cases, with a focus on misdemeanor improper entry and felony illegal re-entry cases,' the department said in a statement. The assignment is to last for about six months. The Justice Department had asked for the help in anticipation of a surge in cases after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a 'zero tolerance' policy in April." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This strikes me as a direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which "limit[s] the powers of the federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States." But what do I know? I'm just a confused country girl, not the Attorney General of the United States, entrusted with enforcing the law of the land.

Bart Jansen of USA Today: "American, Frontier, Southwest and United airlines each refused Wednesday to fly immigrant children separated from their parents for the federal government, as President Trump ordered a halt to separations as part of his 'zero tolerance' policy for undocumented border crossings. All four airlines said they had no evidence that they have transported children under the policy yet. But they each said the policy runs counter to their corporate goals of connecting people." ...

... Tanya Snyder of Politico: "DHS spokesman Tyler Houlton fired backed with a statement an tweet-storm accusing the airlines of 'buckling to a false media narrative.' 'It's unfortunate that @AmericanAir , @united, and @FlyFrontier no longer want to partner with the brave men and women of DHS to protect the traveling public, combat human trafficking, and to swiftly reunite unaccompanied illegal immigrant children with their families,' Houlton wrote. 'Despite being provided facts on this issue, these airlines clearly do not understand our immigration laws and the long-standing devastating loopholes that have caused the crisis at our southern border.'... The Association of Flight Attendants also distanced itself from Trump's handling of immigrant children, saying Wednesday that it 'condemns any action to purposefully separate children from their parents.'" ...

... AND This. Adam Rawnsley & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The Trump administration has been paying an intelligence contractor millions of dollars to to fly immigrant children to shelters across the United States. MVM, Inc. has a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide 'unaccompanied alien children (UAC) transportation services' worth $162 million, according to records reviewed by The Daily Beast. MVM's recent job postings show it sought to hire people to escort immigrant children from the border on commercial airlines. MVM is one of a number of defense contractors cashing in on the Trump administration's 'zero-tolerance' policy of locking up immigrant families.... Civil-rights advocates say that the Department of Homeland Security has shown a troubling lack of transparency in how it's transporting immigrant children and that defense contractors are an inappropriate choice for handling the sensitive work." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As one advocate -- Wells Dixon, an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights -- put it, "It's further evidence that President Trump thinks he's at war with immigrant families fleeing persecution, including babies. Someone has to pitch in to do his dirty work when ICE and DHS are overwhelmed with crying children."

Garance Burke & Martha Mendoza of the AP: "Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border to at least three 'tender age' shelters in South Texas.... Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the Rio Grande Valley shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis. The government also plans to open a fourth shelter to house hundreds of young migrant children in Houston, where city leaders denounced the move Tuesday.... Decades after the nation's child welfare system ended the use of orphanages over concerns about the lasting trauma to children, the administration is starting up new institutions to hold Central American toddlers that the government separated from their parents." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Troy Patterson of the New Yorker: When the POTUS* is so cruel that even seasoned TV personalities break down in tears. ...

... ** Aura Bogado, et al., of the Texas Tribune: "Taxpayers have paid more than $1.5 billion in the past four years to private companies operating immigrant youth shelters accused of serious lapses in care, including neglect and sexual and physical abuse, an investigation by Reveal and The Texas Tribune has found. In nearly all cases, the federal government has continued to place migrant children with the companies even after serious allegations were raised and after state inspectors cited shelters with deficiencies, government and other records show.... Now this web of private facilities, cobbled together to support children with nowhere else to go, is beginning to hold a new population: the more than 2,000 children who arrived with their parents but were separated from them because of a Trump administration policy." Read on. This is an alarming report. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Gus Bova of the Texas Observer: "In recent months, Texas officials have granted permission to at least 15 immigrant youth shelters to cram in more kids than their child-care licenses allow, according to records obtained by the Observer. Two shelters have been approved to hold almost 50 percent more children. The decisions come as the Trump administration separates more and more families at the border, funnelling children reportedly as young as 8 months into government shelters. A spokesperson for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, John Reynolds, said the agency allows shelters to exceed capacity only after reviewing bedspace, the number of children to a bathroom, recreational space and fire inspection compliance. But child advocates argue that the decisions are likely straining staff, endangering children and amount to the state kowtowing to the federal government." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Fuchs in the Guardian: "Trump's family separation policy is as damaging to America as Abu Ghraib.... America's power comes from its values: freedom, the rule of law, respect for human rights.... The sounds of children crying in US jails while guards crack jokes are eerily evocative of US guards at Abu Ghraib posing smiling for pictures with naked Iraqi prisoners in humiliating positions.... Ripping children away from their family decimates America's ability to hold accountable human rights abusers.... [The Trump policy] could also become a rallying cry for America's adversaries. Like Abu Ghraib, the images of children in cages and the sounds of crying children make for powerful propaganda for anyone opposed to America -- terrorist groups, authoritarian countries, and others who seek to paint a picture of an evil America." (Also linked yesterday.)

Not All the Action Is at the Border. Colin Dwyer of NPR: "Dozens of federal agents descended on a major meat supplier in northeast Ohio on Tuesday, arresting 146 Fresh Mark employees in what the agency calls its largest workplace raid in recent history -- and its second massive raid in the state this month.... Although ICE notes that agents released several suspects for 'humanitarian concerns, such as health or family considerations,' the agency says most of the undocumented workers 'will be detained in facilities in Michigan and Ohio while awaiting removal proceedings.'... 'Unlawful employment is one of the key magnets drawing illegal aliens across our borders,' Steve Francis, HSI special agent in charge for Michigan and Ohio, said in a statement. 'Businesses who knowingly harbor and hire illegal aliens as a business model must be held accountable for their actions.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's mighty interesting, Steve. Funny thing: there's no mention in Dwyer's story of the company's red-blooded U.S. citizen-management being goose-stepped out of the building. As Ken W. asked (rhetorically) in linking the story yesterday afternoon, "Think the man in the accompanying picture being led away in handcuffs was the employer?"

Alan Rappeport & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "President Trump urged Republican lawmakers on Wednesday not to scuttle his administration's efforts to help the Chinese telecom firm ZTE, warning them that his reprieve for the company was part of a broader geopolitical negotiating strategy. Mr. Trump and Republican lawmakers met at the White House to discuss the fate of the company, which had been banned by the Commerce Department from buying American products this year as punishment for violating American sanctions. The administration has since lifted that ban at Mr. Trump's request and over the objections of lawmakers, who voted Monday to reinstate the penalties on ZTE. Mr. Trump ordered his Commerce Department to water down the penalties, which would have put ZTE out of business, after President Xi Jinping of China personally lobbied him to reconsider."

Katie Rogers & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "At the [Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., Trump] spoke for an hour to 150 supporters -- about half of whom were donors who paid $100,000 to $250,000 to attend a two-day summit meeting organized by America First Action, the 'super PAC' formed to support Mr. Trump and allied candidates.... Beyond the hotel's walls, protesters blasted audio of children crying in detainment centers.... In the days before, an anti-Trump group had projected the words 'Over 3,000 children taken from their parents' onto the hotel facade." (Also linked yesterday.)

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Eliana Larramendia & Zunaira Zaki of ABC News: "Michael Cohen ... has resigned from his post as deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee's Finance Committee, sources close to the RNC told ABC News. In his resignation letter to Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chair, Cohen cited the ongoing special counsel investigation as one reason for his departure.... Cohen also criticized the administration's policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the southern border, the first time he's distanced himself from the president. 'As the son of a Polish holocaust survivor, the images and sounds of this family separation policy is heart wrenching,' Cohen wrote. 'While I strongly support measures that will secure our porous borders, children should never be used as bargaining chips.'" ...

... Jen Kirby of Vox: "It's a stunning criticism fromCohen, who has billed himself as the ultimate Trump loyalist. It will likely intensify the will he/won't he guessing game about whether Cohen is about to cooperate with federal prosecutors -- and potentially flip on the president."

... Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "American Media, the publisher of the National Enquirer, was subpoenaed by federal prosecutors for records related to a $150,000 payment made to ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal. The subpoena is part of a criminal investigation of ... Michael Cohen, the Journal reported Wednesday. Cohen, who has not been charged, is currently involved in court proceedings over the raft of materials seized from his properties in raids by federal agents in April. American Media made the payment to McDougal in exchange for the rights to her story alleging she had an affair with Trump more than a decade earlier. The publisher never ran the story, in a practice reportedly known within the industry as 'catch and kill.'"

Stephanie Kirchgaessner & Luke Harding of the Guardian: "A longtime US lobbyist for the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska visited Julian Assange nine times at the Ecuadorian embassy in London last year, according to visitor logs seen by the Guardian. Adam Waldman, who has worked as a Washington lobbyist for the metals tycoon since 2009, had more meetings with Assange in 2017 than almost anyone else, the records show.... It is not clear why Waldman went to the WikiLeaks founder or whether the meetings had any connection to the Russian billionaire, who is now subject to US sanctions. But the disclosure is likely to raise further questions about the extent and nature of Assange's alleged ties to Russia." --safari

Alex Isenstadt of Politico (not the Onion): "In a move that blindsided the West Wing and sent Hill Republicans into a tizzy, [Rudy Giuliani] is throwing his support behind an obscure House candidate in Louisiana trying to take out incumbent GOP Rep. Clay Higgins. But the bizarre tale of Giuliani's interest in an off-the-radar congressional race only begins there. It turns out the ex-New York mayor's new girlfriend, GOP fundraiser Jennifer LeBlanc, is working for the Republican challenger in the race, Josh Guillory. LeBlanc had been on Higgins' payroll until late last year when she abruptly parted ways with the congressman. 'We have a National Enquirer-type situation going on down in Louisiana's 3rd Congressional District,' said state Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Higgins backer who hails from the area.... The former mayor's foray into the race has infuriated senior party officials, who are convinced Giuliani is acting at his girlfriend's behest."

Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "A series of interviews and never-before-seen documents, including testimonials and diaries obtained by ThinkProgress, sheds new light on how the relationship between the Religious Right and Russia first began, and how it led to several collaborative efforts in the years to come." --safari

Jenny Rowland of ThinkProgress: "Canadian mining company, Glacier Lake Resources Inc., has announced that they have acquired rights to the 'Colt Mesa' copper and cobalt mine located on lands eliminated from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.... Despite the evidence, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and other supporters of Trump's cuts -- like House Natural Resources Chairman Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) -- have denied that the goal of the monument reductions was for mineral or oil development.... The proposed mine would focus on cobalt, copper, and other hard rock minerals. Those minerals are governed by the outdated 1872 mining law, which allows companies to operate royalty-free. That would mean that the Canadian company would pay exactly $0 to US taxpayers for mining on national monument-quality land and potentially interfering with wildlife and outdoor recreation." --safari

Scott Pruitt Has "Tactical Pants." Lee Fang & Nick Surgey of the Intercept (not the Onion): "... Scott Pruitt has now spent more than $4.6 million from public coffers on security, according to documents obtained by The Intercept and Documented under the Freedom of Information Act. The amount represents a $1.1 million increase from Pruitt's total security costs as released in another disclosure just a month ago.... The EPA, according to three expense line items for April, spent a total of $2,749.62 on 'tactical pants' and 'tactical polos.' Since last year, shortly after his Senate confirmation, Pruitt's office began purchasing security-related items, including multiple vehicle leases, over $80,000 worth of radios, $700 in shoulder holsters for the radios, and a kit to break down doors, among other purchases."

Khorri Atkinson of Axios: "The Trump administration is set to propose a plan to Congress on Thursday to consolidate the Education and Labor departments into one federal agency -- a move that is connected to a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch, the Wall Street Journal's Michelle Hackman reports.... The New York Times also reports that the administration will propose merging all welfare programs into a single agency, and rename the Department of Health and Human Services. This massive shake-up would likely need congressional approval and, as the WSJ notes, similar efforts in the past have failed due to pushback."

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The Senate on Wednesday rejected billions in spending cuts proposed by the Trump administration as two Republicans joined all Democrats in voting no. The 48-50 vote rebuffed a White House plan to claw back some $15 billion in spending previously approved by Congress -- a show of fiscal responsibility that was encouraged by conservative lawmakers outraged over a $1.3 trillion spending bill in March. The House had approved the so-called rescissions package earlier this month. But passage had never been assured in the Senate, where a number of Republicans had been cool to the idea from the start. Nevertheless, Wednesday's outcome was startling because one of the opposing votes came from Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who does not normally buck the White House or GOP leadership. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate and one of the Republicans who most frequently side with Democrats, cast the other GOP vote against the cuts."

Mike Bloomberg Has Had Enough. Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, has decided to throw his political clout and personal fortune behind the Democratic campaign to take control of the House of Representatives this year, directing aides to spend tens of millions of dollars in an effort to expel Republicans from power. Mr. Bloomberg -- a political independent who has championed left-of-center policies on gun control, immigration and the environment -- has approved a plan to pour at least $80 million into the 2018 election, with the bulk of that money going to support Democratic congressional candidates, advisers to Mr. Bloomberg said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), announced early Wednesday that he is leaving the Republican Party, which he decried as 'fully the party of Trump' and 'a danger to our democracy and values.' In early-morning tweets, Schmidt, a vocal Trump critic, urged voters to elect Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections and harshly criticized the administration's policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the U.S. border, describing the government-run detention centers as 'internment camps for babies.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Dylan Scott of Vox: "According to Pew, 61 percent of Democratic voters said their vote would be a vote against Trump. That is notably higher than the percentage of Republican voters who said their vote was a vote against Obama in 2010 (54 percent) and 2014 (51 percent) when the GOP made major gains in Congress, retaking the House and then the Senate.... [But] a majority of Republicans say they will be voting for Trump in 2018, a much higher share than said they were voting for Bush in 2006 and even outpacing the share of Democrats who said they would be voting for Obama in 2010 and 2014." --safari

Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "Deaths now outnumber births among white people in more than half the states in the country, demographers have found, signaling what could be a faster-than-expected transition to a future in which whites are no longer a majority of the American population. The Census Bureau has projected that whites could drop below 50 percent of the population around 2045, a relatively slow-moving change that has been years in the making. But a new report this week found that whites are dying faster than they are being born now in 26 \ states, up from 17 just two years earlier, and demographers say that shift might come even sooner.... Some experts say that rapid demographic change became a potent issue in the 2016 presidential race -- and helped drive white voters to support Donald J. Trump." Includes a map that IDs the states with dropping white populations."

Joe Heim of the Washington Post: "An organizer of last year's deadly white-supremacist gathering in Charlottesville has received initial approval from the National Park Service to hold a rally across from the White House on Aug. 12, the anniversary of last year's event. Jason Kessler, who organized the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville with Richard Spencer and other white-supremacist leaders, submitted a National Mall Special Event permit request on May 8 to hold a 'white civil rights' rally in Lafayette Square 'protesting civil rights abuse in Charlottesville.'"

Julie Zauzmer, et al., of the Washington Post: "The former archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, has been removed from ministry in response to allegations that he sexually abused a teen 50 years ago while he was a priest in New York. McCarrick, 87, was a well-known church leader in global affairs. He had said in a statement months ago that he had been made aware of teenager's allegation of sexual abuse while he was a priest in New York almost 50 years ago. He was archbishop of Washington from 2001 to 2006. McCarrick said that while he maintains his innocence, 'In obedience I accept the decision of The Holy See, that I no longer exercise any public ministry.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Kira Lerner of ThinkProgress: "Two days after a federal judge overturned his documentary proof-of-citizenship law and ordered him to register eligible voters, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is openly defying the court's order.... Kobach's elections director instructed county clerks to continue demanding proof-of-citizenship from anyone registering to vote until they receive written instruction otherwise.... Danedri Herbert, the spokesperson for Kobach, said the judge was not clear when she instructed the secretary of state to accept voter registration applications without a document like a passport or birth certificate. 'I think 'immediately' is kind of open to interpretation,' Herbert said." --safari

AP: "FBI agents have arrested West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry and taken him to the federal courthouse in Charleston to face a 22-count federal indictment. U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart said Wednesday that Loughry is charged with 16 counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud, one count of witness tampering and three counts of making false statements to a federal agent. Loughry was suspended over allegations he repeatedly lied about using his office for personal gain." --safari

Way Beyond

Revital Hovel of Haaretz: "Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted on Thursday for alleged 'systematic fraud' involving hundreds of thousands of shekels in connection with meal expenses incurred at the Prime Minister's Residence. Sara Netanyahu was charged along with Ezra Saidoff, a former deputy director general of the Prime Minister's Office. The two are charged in an indictment filed at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court with aggravated fraudulent receiving of an item or items, fraud and breach of trust. Saidoff was also charged with falsification by a public servant. According to the indictment, Sara Netanyahu instructed staff at the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem to order meals consumed at the residence worth a total of 350,000 shekels ($96,000) from gourmet restaurants between 2010 and 2013 in violation of rules barring the residence from ordering meals from the outside during periods when the residence had a cook on its staff."