The Ledes

Thursday, September 26, 2024

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

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

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

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The Ledes

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

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

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

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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Wednesday
Jun132018

The Commentariat -- June 13, 2018

Afternoon Update:

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Returning to Washington on Wednesday, President Trump amped up claims of a highly successful summit with the North Korean leader as Democrats and even some Republicans grew increasingly skeptical about what had been accomplished in Singapore. In a series of tweets that began as Air Force One landed, Trump declared that there is 'no longer' a nuclear threat from the rogue regime and lashed out at those who questioned what he had achieved, branding the media as 'Our County's biggest enemy.'... Trump's rosy assessment was ridiculed by Democratic lawmakers and some analysts, who suggested that North Korea remains a serious threat. 'This is truly delusional,' Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) wrote on Twitter. 'It has same arsenal today as 48 hours ago. Does he really think his big photo-op ended the DPRK's nuclear program? Hope does not equal reality.' Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) also mocked Trump, writing: 'One trip and it's "mission accomplished," Mr. President?'... Richard N. Haas, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said 'the summit changed nothing.'" Read on. ...

... Matthew Lee of the AP: "... Donald Trump's triumphant assertions about the success of the unprecedented Singapore summit are being met with skepticism and outright derision from critics seizing on the contradiction between his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and his willingness to accept vague pledges from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.... For Iran deal proponents..., the Singapore summit was evidence of Trump's lack of preparedness and poor negotiating skills. Iran deal opponents, meanwhile, seemed willing to wait and see.... In the case of the Iran deal, even the most generous assessors of the Singapore summit sought to remind the White House that intense diplomacy preceded the agreement with Tehran." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: President Obama's "secret weapon" in negotiating the Iran deal was Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, an MIT physicist. Trump's got Rick Perry, who couldn't even remember the name of the Energy Department years before he accepted the top job there. As Trump tucks us into bed, I'm sure we'll all follow his soothing advice to "Sleep well nonight."

... Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post imposes a reality chek [linked fixed; thanks, MAG] on some of the outlandish claims Trump made regarding his Very Successful Singapore Swing. It's a damning analysis. ...

... Troy Patterson of the New Yorker on "The Sensational Idiocy of Donald Trump's Propaganda Video for Kim Jong Un.... The nature of the film -- its grandiosity, its gaudiness, its chaotic logic, its indiscriminate idiocy -- is such that we must understand Trump as its author.... The narrator insists that the fate of the world hangs in the balance, in sentences that combine pompous syntax, palatial rhetoric, and dodgy grammar." Mrs. McC: Thanks to having read some of Tim O'Brien's biography of Trump, which came to me via a generous Reality Chex reader, I'm aware that Trump fancies himself a great movie critic, & having watched Trump's stupid propaganda video, I find Patterson's IDing of the video's auteur to be highly likely & his criticisms of the whole production to be right on. ...

... The Plot Thickens. Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The National Security Council has said that it made the video Donald Trump showed to Kim Jong-un at their Singapore summit on Tuesday in an unorthodox effort to persuade him of the benefits of denuclearisation.... The video, which Trump showed to the press after playing it on an iPad for Kim, is credited to 'Destiny Pictures Productions'..., [but] the company's founder, said in an email it had ;no involvement in the video'.... When asked about the decision to present the video as made by a non-existent company, an NSC spokesman said there would be no further comment. 'From my understanding, they were just using "Destiny Pictures" as a play on words. It just so happens there's a studio by that name in California,' said Ned Price, a former NSC spokesman. 'Leave it to this White House to fail to conduct basic due diligence. And that, of course, leaves aside the fact they thought it prudent to try to out-North-Korea North Korea in the propaganda department. The whole enterprise reeks of amateurism and comes off as an attempt to check the box on a harebrained idea that presumably originated in the oval office,' Price added.... When asked about the film at a press conference on Tuesday, Trump defended it as a masterstroke which he had sprung on Kim and his entourage."

** Uh-Oh. George Stephanopoulos of ABC News: "As attorneys for Michael Cohen rush to meet Judge Kimba Wood's Friday deadline to complete a privilege review of over 3.7 million documents seized in the April 9 raids of Cohen's New York properties and law office, a source representing this matter has disclosed to ABC News that the law firm handling the case for Cohen is not expected to represent him going forward.... No replacement counsel has been identified as of this time. Cohen, now with no legal representation, is likely to cooperate with federal prosecutors in New York, sources said. This development, which is believed to be imminent, will likely hit the White House, family members, staffers and counsels hard." ...

... Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Shortly after the ABC News report appeared, the Wall Street Journal, too, reported that Cohen's lawyers were set to leave the case. But the Journal added that Cohen hasn’t yet decided whether he'll cooperate." The WSJ report, which is firewalled, is here. ...

... Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "But as the investigation widens, and with Mr. Cohen's legal team in turmoil, the chances increase that Mr. Cohen could cooperate with prosecutors.... The issue [between Cohen & his legal team] is primarily over payment of the legal bills of one of his lawyers, Stephen Ryan, according to a person familiar with the discussions."

A Chip off the Old Blockhead. Jonathan Swan & Alayna Treene of Axios. "Several months ago, Donald Trump ordered the promotion of Rudy Giuliani's son. But instead of getting promoted, he has lost his West Wing pass.... [White House Chief-of-Staff John] Kelly and others, including Office of Public Liaison director Justin Clark, won't promote Andrew [Giuliani] because they think he 'subverts the chain of command' and claim he had other issues in the workplace that they weren't happy about.... According to a source familiar, Kelly took away Andrew's blue staff pass about two weeks ago, revoking his West Wing access. He now only has a green pass, which means he can&'t enter the West Wing without an escort."

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "On Thursday, [DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz] will issue the highly anticipated findings of his examination of the F.B.I.'s handling of its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. He is expected to castigate the decision making by the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey; his deputy, Andrew G. McCabe; and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch." Benner profiles Horowitz.

Charles Pierce: "The Republicans in Virginia, like their co-religionists in Alabama, have picked themselves a real winner to run against incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Tim Kaine in the fall. This time, though, it's not an aging scuzball like the Gadsden Mall Creeper, Roy Moore. This time it's an unreconstructed Confederate meat bag named Corey Stewart. And ... The New York Times, [CNN, & others] already []are in unfortunate soft-pedal on the whole business..... Stewart is not a ... 'hard-right firebrand,' [as the NYT described him.] He is an unapologetic public racist, and damned proud of it, who goes out of his way to associate with other unapologetic public racists, who are damned proud of it, too.... Stewart is not ... a 'bombastic conservative,' [as CNN labeled him]. He is an unapologetic public racist, and damned proud of it, who goes out of his way to associate with other unapologetic public racists, who are damned proud of it, too.... Doug Jones' surprise win in Alabama wasn't enough to keep Republican voters in Virginia from nominating Zombie Jeff Davis, despite the fact that doing so might turn out to be a termination notice for a Republican majority in Congress."

*****

Primary Election Results

Maine. The New York Times' live primary election results are here.

Virginia results are here. ...

     ... Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: "State Sen. Jennifer T. Wexton beat five Democrats in the race to challenge U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) in what will be one of the most closely watched midterm elections in the nation. Wexton won about 42 percent of the vote, besting her nearest rival, anti-human-trafficking activist Alison Friedman, by almost 20 points, in Virginia's 10th Congressional District, unofficial results show. Wexton, the establishment favorite, ran on her legislative record and the strength of endorsements from Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) as well as the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. A former federal prosecutor, she is the only candidate from Loudoun County, the heart of the district.... In the Republican primary, Comstock won around 61 percent of the vote against former Air Force pilot Shak Hill. She risked losing Republican voters by breaking with President Trump on health-care legislation and his desire for a government shutdown." Comstock is among the most vulnerable House Republicans. "Once reliably Republican, [her] district's move to the middle and slightly left over the past decade coincided with an influx of young families...."

     ... Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: "Virginia Republicans turned bright red Tuesday, selecting the more-Trump-than-Trump Corey Stewart as their nominee to challenge Sen. Tim Kaine (D) as primary elections played out in congressional districts across the state. The matchup ensures Virginia will keep re-litigating the 2016 presidential race in this fall's election, with Stewart running in outrageous Trump-like fashion against Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton's running mate in her failed bid for the presidency. Republican voters preferred Stewart, who has promised a 'vicious' campaign, over a more mainstream option in Del. Nick Freitas (R-Culpeper), a former Green Beret who had little name recognition but support from the party establishment. Freitas posted a surprisingly strong challenge, with the lead tipping back and forth until the final precincts reported at nearly 9 p.m. and populous Fairfax County put Stewart over the top. Stewart prevailed with about 45 percent of the vote to about 43 percent for Freitas."

South Carolina results are here. ...

     ... Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Republican voters lashed out against traditional party leaders Tuesday, ousting Representative Mark Sanford of South Carolina and nominating a conservative firebrand for Senate in Virginia, the latest illustration that fealty to President Trump and his hard-line politics is paramount on the right. Mr. Sanford, a former governor once seen as a possible candidate for president, lost to Katie Arrington, a state lawmaker, in a closely contested primary, The Associated Press reported. Ms. Arrington had made the incumbent's frequent criticism of Mr. Trump the centerpiece of her campaign. And the president endorsed her in an unexpected, and deeply personal, broadside against Mr. Sanford just three hours before the polls closed."

Nevada results are here. ...

     ... Michelle Price of the AP: "Pimp Dennis Hof, the owner of half a dozen legal brothels in Nevada and star of the HBO adult reality series 'Cathouse,' won a Republican primary for the state Legislature on Tuesday, ousting a three-term lawmaker. Hof defeated hospital executive James Oscarson. He'll face Democrat Lesia Romanov in November, and will be the favored candidate in the Republican-leaning Assembly district.... Hof, who wrote a book titled 'The Art of the Pimp,' has dubbed himself 'The Trump of Pahrump,' and held a rally with longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone." --safari

AND North Dakota results are here.

"Trumpier & Trumpier." Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Tuesday's primaries reinforce the major political story of the last three years: the Republican party is becoming more and more Trumpized. The two bellwether elections were Corey Stewart's victory in Virginia, where he will be the GOP's nominee for the Senate in the fall, and Congressman Mark Sanford's loss to a primary challenger in South Carolina. Between the two races, it's easy to see which way the wind is blowing. Stewart is emblematic of the increasingly vocal wing of the GOP obsessed with white identity politics.... Sanford, by contrast, has been critical of Donald Trump.... The lesson is clear: it's easy in the current GOP to be Trumpier than Trump (as Stewart is) but there is dwindling space for those critical of Trump (such as Sanford)."

*****

He Alone Thinks He Fixed It. Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump said Wednesday morning that North Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat to the U.S. after his meeting this week in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, adding that Americans should 'sleep well tonight.' 'Just landed - a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea,' the president wrote on Twitter shortly after arriving back in Washington." [In a second tweet, Trump wrote, 'President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem. No longer - sleep well tonight!'" ...

... George Stephanopoulos interviews Trump, post-Singapore meetings. Mrs. McC: I would just assume everything coming out of Trump's mouth is somewhere between a lie & pie-in-the-sky:

     ... The transcript of the interview is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Steve M.: "Barack Obama pursued deals with Cuba and Iran, but he never gushed over the leadership of either country, even though the right's caricature of him was that he was pro-terrorist and a big ol' commie. Imagine Obama talking about the Iranian or Cuban leadership the way President Trump talked about Kim Jong-un in his post-summit interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos[.]... Trump is rolling over on his back and asking Kim to give him a belly rub. And the deplorables don't care. Trump doesn't have to be tough on North Korea's dictator because the deplorables see this summit as an attack on the real enemy -- us.... Yes, summit skeptics are communist. The EU is communist. Kim Jong-un? Not communist, apparently. Liberals, Democrats, "RINOs," the mainstream media -- we are the right's real enemy. We always have been." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Here's the full text of the Trump-Kim statement, via CNN. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)' ...

... Who Could Have Known This Would Happen? Margaret Hartmann of New York: "As foreign policy analysts try to predict the next steps after President Trump's historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday, they're running into a problem: the two leaders can't seem to provide a consistent account of what they agreed to in Singapore.... The North Koreans are trying to seize on this confusion to put forth a favorable summit narrative -- or rather, one even more favorable than 'U.S. president legitimizes North Korean dictator.' On Wednesday North Korean state media said that in addition to suspending joint military drills, Trump agreed to lift sanctions against North Korea." Trump himself didn't seem to know if there was any transcript or other memorialization of his private talk with Kim -- while at his presser, he asked Mike Pompeo if anyone recorded the private meeting. "Trump assured reporters that it's no big deal. 'Well, I don't have to verify because I have one of the great memories of all time. So I don't have to. Okay? Okay?' he said." ...

... Liar in Chief. Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "During a news conference in Singapore following the signing of his agreement with Kim Jong Un, President ... Trump had a moment of radical honesty. Asked by a reporter what he'll do if Kim 'doesn't follow through' on his promises, Trump openly admitted that he'll never admit he was wrong, but will instead obfuscate. 'Honestly, I think he's going to do these things. I may be wrong,' Trump said. 'I may stand before you in six months and say, "hey, I was wrong." I don't know that I'll admit that but I'll find some kind of an excuse.'" --safari ...

... Nicholas Kristof: "It sure looks as if President Trump was hoodwinked in Singapore. Trump made a huge concession -- the suspension of military exercises with South Korea. That's on top of the broader concession of the summit meeting itself, security guarantees he gave North Korea and the legitimacy that the summit provides his counterpart, Kim Jong-un. Within North Korea, the 'very special bond' that Trump claimed to have formed with Kim will be portrayed this way: Kim forced the American president, through his nuclear and missile tests, to accept North Korea as a nuclear equal, to provide security guarantees to North Korea, and to cancel war games with South Korea that the North has protested for decades. In exchange for these concessions, Trump seems to have won astonishingly little.... The most remarkable aspect of the joint statement was what it didn't contain.... Kim seems to have completely out-negotiated Trump, and it's scary that Trump doesn't seem to realize this. For now Trump has much less to show than past negotiators who hammered out deals with North Korea like the 1994 Agreed Framework, which completely froze the country's plutonium program with a rigorous monitoring system.... Trump didn't achieve anything remotely as good as the Iran nuclear deal...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Never-Trumper Rick Wilson in The Daily Beast summarizes Donald's international diplomacy. A fun read except for the whole depressing reality part. --safari

... "Great Negotiator" Gives Away Store. Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "President Trump's pledge on Tuesday to cancel military exercises on the Korean Peninsula surprised not only allies in South Korea but also the Pentagon. Hours after Mr. Trump's announcement in Singapore, American troops in Seoul said they are still moving ahead with a military exercise this fall -- Ulchi Freedom Guardian -- until they receive guidance otherwise from the chain of command. Lt. Col. Jennifer Lovett, a United States military spokeswoman in South Korea, said in an email that the American command there 'has received no updated guidance on execution or cessation of training exercises -- to include this fall's schedule Ulchi Freedom Guardian.' 'We will continue with our current military posture until we receive updated guidance from the Department of Defense,' she added.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... There Was This. Lisa Rein & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "... nestled in the [joint statement] was a short bullet point that addresses a long-running concern of U.S. veterans groups: the recovery of the remains of thousands of American troops who were killed or captured in North Korea during the Korean War. On Tuesday, the two countries agreed to 'commit' to recovering the remains of fallen troops, 'including the immediate repatriation of those already identified,' according to the document. The statement represents a significant victory for veterans groups that lobbied forcefully behind the scenes for a renewed effort to recover remains in an environment where many non-nuclear issues, including human rights and the return of Japanese abductees, were left unaddressed in the joint statement.... The remains of 5,300 American forces who were killed or captured in North Korea during the war remain unaccounted for north of the demilitarized zone, resting in cemeteries, former labor camps and battle sites." Mrs. McC: I guess it depends upon what the meaning of "commit" is. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Your Tax Dollars at Work. Here's the top-rated, must-see film that the White House put together to coax Li'l Kim to give up all his nukes & build condos on the beach and all. Based on Kim's making zero concessions to the Trumpster, it wuld appear Trump's propaganda production didn't go over too well:

Philip Rucker & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post can barely mask their disgust: "President Trump shook his hand for 13 long seconds, patted him on the back and led him down a rich red carpet. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be considered the world's greatest human rights abuser and a totalitarian collector of nuclear weapons, but as they met for the first time here Tuesday, Trump declared himself honored.... The extraordinary tableau was a stark contrast to what had transpired three days earlier and half a world away in Canada, where an embittered Trump sat sternly, his arms crossed and his face impassive, as the leaders of America's oldest Western allies pleaded with him not to rupture the established world order with his retaliatory trade policies.... By simply jetting here for the summit, Trump effectively threw a coming-out party for Kim and afforded his rogue state the international prestige it has long sought.... Trump began the historic day on a sour note, tweeting in grievance before dawn here about 'haters & losers' who question his accomplishment in getting this far." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McC: This may be a "historic day" for North Korea, but it's another normal day for the U.S. in the Age of Trump: somewhere between disastrous & inconsequential, full of sound and bluster, signifying nothing. ...

... Dana Milbank: "Let us ponder what the reaction among Republicans and conservatives would have been if President Barack Obama had done what President Trump did on Tuesday: Sat down with a dictator whose regime had killed hundreds of thousands of people and who tortures and enslaves as many as 130,000 political prisoners in gulags. Set no specific preconditions for the meeting and secured no commitment on human rights nor any firm promise to denuclearize. Blindsided allies by agreeing to the dictator's request to cease 'provocative' military exercises with those allies. Praised the dictator in lavish terms: 'very talented man ... wants to do the right thing ... very worthy, very smart negotiator ... excellent relationship ... funny guy ... loves his people ... great personality ... a great honor ... very special bond ... I do trust him.' But we don't have to wonder what the reaction would have been to Obama doing such things, because we know what happened when he even floated the idea." Milbank runs down the litany of GOP criticism, some of which came from the very same critics who now are writing Nobel nominations for the Trumpster. "What Trump has gotten, at least so far, is far flimsier than the Iran nuclear deal he tore up." Trump, in his news conference after the talks..., hemmed and hawed when asked what North Korea gave in return for his concession calling off 'war games' with South Korea: 'Well, we've got, you know, I've heard that, I mean, some of the people that -- I don't know ...'... This points to the asymmetrical partisanship in our current politics: Republicans are blithely hypocritical in praising Trump for doing the same thing they blasted Obama for suggesting, but at least some Democrats retain enough integrity not to dismiss diplomacy just because it is being attempted by their opponent." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Rachel Maddow made an provocative observation on her show last night. Russia, which shares about 11 miles of its border with North Korea, has become increasingly vociferous about getting the U.S. to end its annual joint military exercises with South Korea. So then, to the surprise of everyone, Trump announces that he's going to end the exercises. The concessions was not in the joint statement, nobody told South Korea about it, nobody told our other allies about it, nobody told the Pentagon about it, and apparently nobody even told mike pence about it: ...

... Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "Nobody greeted the news from Singapore with more delight than China. For years, Chinese officials have urged Trump to freeze military exercises in South Korea, which Beijing regards as a threatening gesture in its neighborhood.... Trump may have also precipitated an outcome that he does not fully grasp: by suspending military exercises, and alluding to removing troops from South Korea, he will stir doubts about the strength of America's commitment to its allies in Asia, including Japan, Taiwan, and Australia. They will have no choice but to begin to reimagine America's role in the region, and their relationships to Beijing. From Trump's perspective, the encounter with Kim was an end in itself. For those who bear the consequences of his words and actions, this is just the beginning." ...

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "Confusion is reigning among Republicans over how far ... Donald Trump went in agreeing to pull back military exercises on the Korean peninsula in his talks with Kim Jong Un. Vice President Mike Pence told Senate Republicans Tuesday that some training exchanges and readiness training with South Korea will continue, according to Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.). Gardner told reporters that Pence and the administration will continue 'to clarify what the president had talked about' but said that 'exercises will continue with South Korea.'... Spokespeople for Pence denied that he had said anything that would contradict the president." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Just because we don't hear mikey lying six times a day the way we do Donald doesn't mean mikey doesn't lie six times a day.

... Digby, in Salon: "I have written before that any day we are not in a nuclear crisis with North Korea is better than the alternative. In that regard, the Singapore summit was a success. But after Trump's aggression against U.S. allies at the G7 in Quebec and then, in his own words, the 'bond' he formed with the North Korean dictator just days later, nobody should be reassured. It looks as though the more consequential of the two big meetings was the first one, not the second." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star: "Escalating his attack on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau..., Donald Trump is now pledging to punish 'the people of Canada' economically because of the post-G7 news conference in which Trudeau criticized Trump's tariffs. 'That's going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada. He learned. You can't do that. You can't do that,' Trump said Tuesday in Singapore after meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Trump repeated the vague threat in an interview with ABC.... It is not clear why Trump has reacted to Trudeau's post-G7 news conference with such anger. There, Trudeau expressed the same polite criticism of the steel and aluminum tariffs, and same promise to stand up for Canadians, he had been expressing for a full week.... Trump claimed, without any basis, that Trudeau made his comments becaus he thought Trump could not watch them while flying to Singapore." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Emoluments! Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Monday sharply criticized the Justice Department's argument that President Trump's financial interest in his company's hotel in downtown Washington is constitutional, a fresh sign that the judge may soon rule against the president in a historic case that could head to the Supreme Court. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland, charge that Mr. Trump's profits from the hotel violate anti-corruption clauses of the Constitution.... The judge, Peter J. Messitte of the United States District Court in Maryland, promised to decide by the end of July whether to allow the plaintiffs to proceed to the next stage, in which they could demand financial records from the hotel or other evidence from the president. The case takes aim at whether Mr. Trump violated the Constitution's emoluments clauses, which prevent a president from accepting government-bestowed benefits either at home or abroad. Until now, the issue of what constitutes an illegal emolument has never been litigated." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Because until now, we've never lived under a pure kleptocracy.

Josh Gerstein & Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "... Robert Mueller made public new evidence Tuesday that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort directed an organized but unregistered lobbying campaign in the U.S. on behalf of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. In a public court filing, Mueller's team released two memos from 2013 detailing Manafort's involvement in efforts to influence debate in Congress and in the U.S. press about the imprisonment of Yanukovych's main political rival, Yulia Tymoshenko.... Manafort's defense lawyers have argued that the lobbying campaign on behalf of Yanukovych and his allies was focused on Europe and that any outreach he made to potential witnesses was consistent with that. But the memos Mueller submitted Tuesday show an evident attempt by the former European politicians -- known as the 'Hapsburg group' -- to shape the Ukrainian leader's image in the U.S.... U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson is scheduled to hold a hearing Friday on prosecutors' request to revoke Manafort's house arrest or tighten the restrictions on him as a result of the alleged witness tampering."...

... Josh Gerstein: "A federal judge has ordered special counsel Robert Mueller to identify by Friday all the individuals and organizations involved in ... Paul Manafort's alleged scheme to lobby on behalf of Ukraine without registering as a foreign agent under U.S. law. Among the people Mueller will be required to identify to the defense are top European former politicians who took part in the influence campaign, as well as others whose testimony Manafort has been accused of trying to influence in recent months. Manafort's alleged effort to shape the accounts of those people led to two new felony obstruction of justice charges last week. The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson Tuesday represents a rare courtroom win for Manafort's defense, which is battling Mueller's prosecutors in two different federal courts and faces two looming jury trials. Prosecutors resisted the defense motion, but the judge's decision is not likely to be significant since many of the names are well known to the defense and have been reported in the media."

Follow the $$$$$. David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: Trump's billionaire friend Tom Barrack was the driving force behind "Mr. Trump's improbable transformation from a candidate who campaigned against Muslims to a president celebrated in the royal courts of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi as perhaps the best friend in the White House that their rulers have ever had. It is a shift that testifies not only to Mr. Trump's special flexibility, but also to Mr. Barrack's unique place in the Trump world, at once a fellow tycoon and a flattering courtier, a confidant and a power broker. During the Trump campaign, Mr. Barrack was a top fund-raiser and trusted gatekeeper who opened communications with the Emiratis and Saudis, recommended that the candidate bring on Paul Manafort as campaign manager -- and then tried to arrange a secret meeting between Mr. Manafort and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Mr. Barrack was later named chairman of Mr. Trump's inaugural committee. But Mr. Manafort has since been indicted by the special prosecutor.... The same inquiry is examining whether the Emiratis and Saudis helped sway the election in Mr. Trump's favor -- potentially in coordination with the Russians.... Investigators have also asked witnesses about specific contributions and expenses related to the inauguration.... Mr. Barrack's company ... has raised more than $7 billion in investments since Mr. Trump won the nomination, and 24 percent of that money has come from the Persian Gulf -- all from either the U.A.E. or Saudi Arabia, according to an executive familiar with the figures."

WTF? Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "Michael Avenatti, the outspoken attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, says the Russian government is trying to smear him in the press. Avenatti told The Daily Beast that people in the Kremlin have been trying to plant damaging stories about him in media outlets. Avenatti did not offer concrete proof to support the claim, but said two media figures and a high-ranking American intelligence official have all told him about the alleged Russian effort.... Avenatti said people in the Russian government have claimed that he traveled to Moscow and had questionable encounters with women there.... 'They suggested that I had had a liaison with multiple women in Russia,' he added. 'I found that to be rather ironic.'" --safari


"The Lady Vanishes." Rhonda Garelick of New York on how & why Melania Trump's disappearance is right out of an old Hitchcock film. -- a series of plays & films of the 1930s & early 1940s were an artistic reaction to fascism. And we're back.

Your Tax Dollars at Work. Amy Taxin of the AP: "The U.S. government agency that oversees immigration applications is launching an office that will focus on identifying Americans who are suspected of cheating to get their citizenship and seek to strip them of it. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna told The Associated Press in an interview that his agency is hiring several dozen lawyers and immigration officers to review cases of immigrants who were ordered deported and are suspected of using fake identities to later get green cards and citizenship through naturalization." Mrs. McC: Francis there should start with Trump's mother & grandfather, & deport Trump. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mr. Pruitt Has EPA Aide Get Mrs. Pruitt a Temp Job. Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt last year had a top aide help contact Republican donors who might offer his wife a job, eventually securing her a position at a conservative political group that has backed him for years, according to multiple individuals.... The job hunt included Pruitt's approaching wealthy party supporters and conservative figures with ties to the Trump administration. He enlisted Samantha Dravis, then serving as associate administrator for the EPA's Office of Policy, to line up work for his wife. And when one donor, Doug Deason, said he could not hire Marlyn Pruitt because of a conflict of interest, Pruitt continued to solicit his help in trying to find other possibilities.... Dravis, who has left the EPA and declined to comment, complained to friends at the time that she felt uncomfortable tapping Pruitt's extensive political network and her own to find a new source of income for his family. 'He pressured her,' one friend recalled...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If the wife of a Republican Cabinet official can't get a high-paying position on her own, she either (a) doesn't want a job, or (b) is completely unemployable.

** Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "A member of President Trump's own political party is leading the charge at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) against the president's plan to prop up financially struggling coal and nuclear plants. FERC Commissioner Robert Powelson, a Republican appointee, did not shy away from expressing his opposition to Trump's proposal on Tuesday at a Senate oversight hearing.... Powelson, a former state regulator in Pennsylvania, was not alone among his colleagues.... Each of them -- three Republicans and two Democrats -- do not believe the nation is anywhere close to facing an emergency shortage of electricity supplies to keep the nation's lights on.... Trump's bailout plan, as outlined in a memo leaked to Bloomberg News, could raise electric utility rates by as much as $65 billion, or about $500 more per year for the average consumer, for no added benefit" --safari

Sheryl Stolberg & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "After frenzied late-night negotiations, Speaker Paul D. Ryan defused a moderate Republican rebellion on Tuesday with a promise to hold high-stakes votes on immigration next week, thrusting the divisive issue onto center stage during a difficult election season for Republicans. The move by Mr. Ryan, announced late Tuesday by his office, was something of a defeat for the rebellious immigration moderates, who fell two signatures short of the 218 needed to force the House to act this month on bipartisan measures aimed more directly at helping young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. Instead, the House is most likely to vote on one hard-line immigration measure backed by President Trump and conservatives -- and another more moderate compromise bill that was still being drafted.... Had the rebels secured just two more signatures for their 'discharge petition,' they would have also gotten votes on the Dream Act, a stand-alone bill backed by Democrats that includes a path to citizenship for the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers, and another bipartisan measure that couples a path to citizenship for Dreamers with beefed-up border security." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's a long way of saying, "Paul Ryan doesn't care about Dreamers."

Cecilia Kang, et al., of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Tuesday approved the blockbuster merger between AT&T and Time Warner, rebuffing the government's effort to stop the $85.4 billion deal, in a decision that is expected to unleash a wave of corporate takeovers. The judge, Richard J. Leon of United States District Court in Washington, said the Justice Department had not proved that the telecom company's acquisition of Time Warner would lead to fewer choices for consumers and higher prices for television and internet services. The merger would create a media and telecommunications powerhouse, reshaping the landscape of those industries. The combined company would have a library that includes HBO's hit 'Game of Thrones' and channels like CNN, along with vast distribution reach through wireless and satellite television services across the country." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: No need to worry about Trumpie's team ending net neutrality, folks. Just a lot of needless regulation. Besides, I'm sure we'll all enjoy watching Netflix in slo-mo.

Josh Gerstein: "A lawyer for Andrew McCabe, the fired deputy director of the FBI, is suing the Justice Department and the FBI, claiming that his client is being denied access to records critical to defending him in connection with the misconduct allegation that led to his dismissal in March.... The lawsuit claims that McCabe's firing 'violated federal law and departed from applicable administrative rules, standards, policies, and procedures.' The suit does not directly challenge McCabe's dismissal, but rather claims that the Justice Department is violating the law by refusing to identify and share the internal policies that led to his termination one day short of the 20 years' service he would need to be eligible for an immediate pension."

Sarah Jones of the New Republic: "America is in a new Gilded Age.... [The] key difference ... is that there was no welfare state back then: It took the grotesque inequalities of the era to inspire the necessary social reforms.... Reformers and revolutionaries both forced these issues into the public square.... The welfare state eventually emerged from this struggle.... The Trump administration does pose a specific threat to the welfare state.... [History professor Premilla] Nadasen ... [says], 'Those reforms really happened because of massive organizing and protest in the streets. And it started with labor organizing....' There are solutions [to today's Gilded Age].... Policy experts and analysts already have begun to fill in the gap: A federal jobs guarantee no longer sounds quite like a fantasy. A sovereign wealth fund, as outlined recently by Ryan Cooper at The Week, could allow the state to collect and redistribute its collective wealth to public health, public works, or other social goods. These redistributive efforts could accompany a renewed trust-busting focus in Congress. The struggle to prevent another Gilded Age doesn't suffer from a lack of political imagination. It suffers from a lack of political will."

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "The New York Times is reviewing the work history of Ali Watkins, a Washington-based reporter at the newspaper whose email and phone records were seized by [DOJ] prosecutors in a leak investigation case that has prompted an outcry among press advocates. The private communications of Ms. Watkins, 26, who joined The Times in December, were obtained by the Justice Department as part of an investigation into a former Senate Intelligence Committee aide, James A. Wolfe, who was charged last week with making false statements to the F.B.I. Ms. Watkins and Mr. Wolfe, 57, had an extended personal relationship that ended last year.... Mr. Wolfe was one of the highest-ranking aides on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which Ms. Watkins covered extensively at Politico, BuzzFeed News, The Huffington Post and the McClatchy Company.... Her reporting for McClatchy on the Senate Intelligence Committee led to an investigative series that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.... She has said that Mr. Wolfe did not provide her with information during the course of their relationship."

Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has never been higher, scientists at a prominent Hawaii observatory announced last week.... 'There's a whole lot of bad news here,' said Pieter Tans, the lead scientist of NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. 'Our society, globally, is making a commitment to warming that will be there for several thousand years.'" --safari

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Monday
Jun112018

The Commentariat -- June 12, 2018

Dylan Scott, et al., of Vox: "Voters in Virginia, Nevada, Maine, North Dakota, and South Carolina head to the polls Tuesday for important 2018 primary elections. Nevada Democrats will formally pick their candidate in their bid to unseat Sen. Dean Heller. In Virginia, at least four House Republican incumbents should be vulnerable in November. Maine presents one of Democrats' best chances to retake a governor's mansion as they seek to rebuild the state-level control they lost under President Obama -- and the state will be piloting a fancy new ranked-voting system, the first of its kind in the United States. Here is every June 12 primary election you need to know about, briefly explained."

*****

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

George Stephanopoulos interviews Trump, post-Singapore meetings. Mrs. McC: I would just assume everything coming out of Trump's mouth is somewhere between a lie & pie-in-the-sky:

     ... The transcript of the interview is here. ...

... Steve M.: "Barack Obama pursued deals with Cuba and Iran, but he never gushed over the leadership of either country, even though the right's caricature of him was that he was pro-terrorist and a big ol' commie. Imagine Obam talking about the Iranian or Cuban leadership the way President Trump talked about Kim Jong-un in his post-summit interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos[.]... Trump is rolling over on his back and asking Kim to give him a belly rub. And the deplorables don't care. Trump doesn't have to be tough on North Korea's dictator because the deplorables see this summit as an attack on the real enemy -- us.... Yes, summit skeptics are communist. The EU is communist. Kim Jong-un? Not communist, apparently. Liberals, Democrats, "RINOs," the mainstream media -- we are the right's real enemy. We always have been." ...

... Here's the full text of the Trump-Kim statement, via CNN. ...

... Nicholas Kristof: "It sure looks as if President Trump was hoodwinked in Singapore. Trump made a huge concession -- the suspension of military exercises with South Korea. That's on top of the broader concession of the summit meeting itself, security guarantees he gave North Korea and the legitimacy that the summit provides his counterpart, Kim Jong-un. Within North Korea, the 'very special bond' that Trump claimed to have formed with Kim will be portrayed this way: Kim forced the American president, through his nuclear and missile tests, to accept North Korea as a nuclear equal, to provide security guarantees to North Korea, and to cancel war games with South Korea that the North has protested for decades. In exchange for these concessions, Trump seems to have won astonishingly little.... The most remarkable aspect of the joint statement was what it didn't contain.... Kim seems to have completely out-negotiated Trump, and it's scary that Trump doesn't seem to realize this. For now Trump has much less to show than past negotiators who hammered out deals with North Korea like the 1994 Agreed Framework, which completely froze the country's plutonium program with a rigorous monitoring system.... Trump didn't achieve anything remotely as good as the Iran nuclear deal...." ...

... "Great Negotiator" Gives Away Store. Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "President Trump's pledge on Tuesday to cancel military exercises on the Korean Peninsula surprised not only allies in South Korea but also the Pentagon. Hours after Mr. Trump's announcement in Singapore, American troops in Seoul said they are still moving ahead with a military exercise this fall -- Ulchi Freedom Guardian -- until they receive guidance otherwise from the chain of command. Lt. Col. Jennifer Lovett, a United States military spokeswoman in South Korea, said in an email that the American command there 'has received no updated guidance on execution or cessation of training exercises -- to include this fall's schedule Ulchi Freedom Guardian.' 'We will continue with our current military posture until we receive updated guidance from the Department of Defense,' she added.'" ...

... There Was This. Lisa Rein & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "... nestled in the [joint statement] was a short bullet point that addresses a long-running concern of U.S. veterans groups: the recovery of the remains of thousands of American troops who were killed or captured in North Korea during the Korean War. On Tuesday, the two countries agreed to 'commit' to recovering the remains of fallen troops, 'including the immediate repatriation of those already identified,' according to the document. The statement represents a significant victory for veterans groups that lobbied forcefully behind the scenes for a renewed effort to recover remains in an environment where many non-nuclear issues, including human rights and the return of Japanese abductees, were left unaddressed in the joint statement.... The remains of 5,300 American forces who were killed or captured in North Korea during the war remain unaccounted for north of the demilitarized zone, resting in cemeteries, former labor camps and battle sites." Mrs. McC: I guess it depends upon what the meaning of "commit" is.

Philip Rucker & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post can barely mask their disgust: "President Trump shook his hand for 13 long seconds, patted him on the back and led him down a rich red carpet. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be considered the world's greatest human rights abuser and a totalitarian collector of nuclear weapons, but as they met for the first time here Tuesday, Trump declared himself honored.... The extraordinary tableau was a stark contrast to what had transpired three days earlier and half a world away in Canada, where an embittered Trump sat sternly, his arms crossed and his face impassive, as the leaders of America's oldest Western allies pleaded with him not to rupture the established world order with his retaliatory trade policies.... By simply jetting here for the summit, Trump effectively threw a coming-out party for Kim and afforded his rogue state the international prestige it has long sought.... Trump began the historic day on a sour note, tweeting in grievance before dawn here about 'haters & losers' who question his accomplishment in getting this far." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: This may be a "historic day" for North Korea, but it's another normal day for the U.S. in the Age of Trump: somewhere between disastrous & inconsequential, full of sound and bluster, signifying nothing. ...

... Digby, in Salon: "I have written before that any day we are not in a nuclear crisis with North Korea is better than the alternative. In that regard, the Singapore summit was a success. But after Trump's aggression against U.S. allies at the G7 in Quebec and then, in his own words, the 'bond' he formed with the North Korean dictator just days later, nobody should be reassured. It looks as though the more consequential of the two big meetings was the first one...."

Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star: "Escalating his attack on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau..., Donald Trump is now pledging to punish 'the people of Canada' economically because of the post-G7 news conference in which Trudeau criticized Trump's tariffs. 'That's going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada. He learned. You can't do that. You can't do that,' Trump said Tuesday.... Trump repeated the vague threat in an interview with ABC.... It is not clear why Trump has reacted to Trudeau's post-G7 news conference with such anger. There, Trudeau expressed the same polite criticism of the steel and aluminum tariffs, and same promise to stand up for Canadians, he had been expressing for a full week.... Trump claimed, without any basis, that Trudeau made his comments because he thought Trump could not watch them while flying to Singapore."

Emoluments! Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Monday sharply criticized the Justice Department's argument that President Trump's financial interest in his company's hotel in downtown Washington is constitutional, a fresh sign that the judge may soon rule against the president in a historic case that could head to the Supreme Court. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland, charge that Mr. Trump's profits from the hotel violate anti-corruption clauses of the Constitution.... The judge, Peter J. Messitte of the United States District Court in Maryland, promised to decide by the end of July whether to allow the plaintiffs to proceed to the next stage, in which they could demand financial records from the hotel or other evidence from the president. The case takes aim at whether Mr. Trump violated the Constitution's emoluments clauses, which prevent a president from accepting government-bestowed benefits.... Until now, the issue of what constitutes an illegal emolument has never been litigated." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Because until now, we've never lived under a pure kleptocracy.

Your Tax Dollars at Work. Amy Taxin of the AP: "The U.S. government agency that oversees immigration applications is launching an office that will focus on identifying Americans who are suspected of cheating to get their citizenship and seek to strip them of it. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna told The Associated Press in an interview that his agency is hiring several dozen lawyers and immigration officers to review cases of immigrants who were ordered deported and are suspected of using fake identities to later get green cards and citizenship through naturalization." Mrs. McC: Francis there should start with Trump's mother & grandfather, & deport Trump.

*****

"Mr. Kim: Build Those Beach Condos." Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "In off-hand remarks delivered to a press conference in Singapore on Tuesday, Mr Trump said North Korea had great potential for condos and hotels. He also said that from watching coverage of North Korean military drills, it appeared the country boasted 'great' beaches. 'Instead of [testing missiles] you could have the best hotels in the world right there,' Trump said he told Kim. 'Think of it from a real estate perspective. You have South Korea, you have China and they own the land in the middle.'"

Trump Thinks He Did Something. David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump said he 'developed a very special bond' with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their historic summit here Tuesday and proclaimed the start of a new era that could break a cycle of nuclear brinkmanship and stave off a military confrontation. 'Yesterday's conflict does not have to be tomorrow's war,' Trump said at a news conference in Singapore following more than four hours of talks with Kim. Trump said Kim 'reaffirmed' his commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and also agreed to destroy a missile site in the country. 'We're ready to write a new chapter between our nations,' the president said. Trump sounded triumphant following his meeting with Kim, expressing confidence that the North Korean leader was serious about abandoning his nuclear program and transforming his country from an isolated rogue regime into a respected member of the world community.... At his news conference, Trump called Kim, an absolute ruler accused of massive human rights violations, a transformational leader for his country."

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump held his first real press conference in more than a year. He said the U.S. agreed to stop its joint military exercises with South Korea (which he called "war games"). Could be Trump is actually stabbing allies S.K. President Moon Jae-in & Japanese P.M. Shinzo Abe in the the backs. Update: I was right. According to the WashPo report linked above, "South Korea's presidential office seemed blindsided by the announcement on the joint exercises." ...

     ... Richard Haas called this "a very Trumpian summit": all personal & aspirational except that Trump got to reduce the U.S.'s military footprint abroad. I'll get a report up when one becomes available. Victor Cha: The word "verify" doesn't appear in the "statement"; neither is there anything about a timetable. "Kim got a lot more out of this meeting than Trump." Update: Here's a start re: the presser:

... Zeke Miller, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un concluded an extraordinary nuclear summit Tuesday with the U.S. president pledging unspecified 'security guarantees' to the North and Kim recommitting to the 'complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.'... Trump and Kim came together for a summit that seemed unthinkable months ago, clasping hands in front of a row of alternating U.S. and North Korean flags, holding a one-on-one meeting, additional talks with advisers and a working lunch. Both leaders expressed optimism throughout roughly five hours of talks, with Trump thanking Kim afterward 'for taking the first bold step toward a bright new future for his people.' Trump added during a free-flowing news conference that Kim has before him 'an opportunity like no other' to bring his country back into the community of nations if he agrees to give up his nuclear program. Trump announced that he will be freezing U.S. military 'war games' with its ally South Korea while negotiations between the two countries continue. Trump cast the decision as a cost-saving measure, but North Korea has long objected to the drills as a security threat." ...

... "Floppier than Expected." Joshua Keating of Slate: "The agreement signed in Singapore on Tuesday by President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un does not include any specific commitments on denuclearization or mention of sanctions relief. The two leaders did not, as Trump had suggested they might, negotiate a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War. However, both probably more or less got what they wanted out of the meeting: a dramatic and historic photo-op. The joint statement notably did not feature the phrase 'complete, verifiable, irreversible, denuclearization' (or 'dismantlement'), which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had previously suggested was non-negotiable. Instead, Kim vaguely committed to 'work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula' -- which he had already committed to at his meeting with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea in April. The agreement does not include any specific steps or benchmarks for that process, though according to Trump, Kim did agree to destroy a missile engine-testing site 'after the agreement was signed.'... Summing up the reactions of most North Korea watchers this morning, Andrei Lankov, director of the Korea Risk Group, wrote, 'We expected it would be a flop, but it's floppier than anything w expected. The declaration is pretty much meaningless. The Americans could have extracted serious concessions, but it was not done. The North Koreans will be emboldened and the U.S. got nothing.'" Keating also notes the surprise U.S. concession re: military exercises with South Korea.

New York Times reporters are live-updating the Singapore summit. Lede at 1 am ET: "President Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea held the first-ever meeting between leaders of their two countries on Tuesday morning in Singapore, getting together initially without any aides as they tried to end seven decades of hostility and the threat of a nuclear confrontation." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump said their meeting was "fantastic" & it was "a great honor to be with" Kim & that they were going to a "signing" of ... something. ...

     ... Update: The "something" Trump & Kim signed was a joint statement, the text of which Trump did not release, which is odd. (The purpose of a "statement" is to, um, say something.) According to the NYT, "In the joint statement, Mr. Trump 'committed to provide security guarantees' to North Korea. Mr. Kim 'reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.' But the statement was short on details and did not lay out potential next steps or a timetable. The joint statement was not immediately released to reporters, but it was legible in a photo of Mr. Trump holding it up at the ceremony. The statement said the two nations would hold 'follow-on negotiations' led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a high-level North Korean official 'at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes' of the summit meeting. The statement also said the two nations would 'join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime' on the divided Korean Peninsula, meaning talks to reduce military tensions that could eventually lead to a formal peace treaty to end the Korean War." ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump concluded a historic meeting with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, on Tuesday, saying that denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula would begin 'very quickly.' In a televised ceremony held in Singapore, the two leaders signed a joint statement that Mr. Trump called 'comprehensive.' In the statement, Mr. Trump 'committed to provide security guarantees' to North Korea, and Mr. Kim 'reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Um, I thought Trump was supposed to produce something better than the Iran nuclear deal. By that standard, the Singapore statement is a big zero or less: a concession to N.K. with nothing in return. "The Art of the Deal" is apparently nothing but an unreality show.

... S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "The first-ever North Korea-United States summit will start with a one-on-one meeting between a brutal dictator known for breaking his word and a president famous for his daily dishonesties. With two unreliable narrators in Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump, how will Americans know what they actually said and agreed to with each other? 'We won't,' said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. 'The whole Trump team has been an unreliable narrator throughout this process. It's like "Rashomon," but really stupid.'" ...

... Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "When Trump meets Kim Jong Un in Singapore on Tuesday, he will be sitting down with the leader of one of the most brutal and repressive regimes in modern history -- a country that has committed 'unspeakable atrocities' on a vast scale in a manner reminiscent of Nazi Germany, according to a 2014 United Nations investigation. But two administration officials tell NBC News the U.S. has decided not to bring up human rights at the summit. And Trump has made clear he would be willing to offer security guarantees and financial aid to Kim if he gives up his nuclear arsenal."

... Another Summit Where Trump Expects to Be the Big Loser. Eric Levitz of New York: "Donald Trump has decided to leave his historic summit with Kim Jong-un 15 hours earlier than expected, flying back to Washington on Tuesday night instead of Wednesday morning. The White House says that this change of plans is a product of talks moving more quickly than expected. But there's reason to suspect that it is because they are barely moving at all. On Monday evening in Singapore, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that complete denuclearization 'is the only outcome that the United States will accept' from Pyongyang, and that the latter will enjoy no economic relief until it has met that demand. By contrast, Pompeo did suggest that the U.S. was prepared to make unspecified concessions to North Korean security concerns before the total dismantling of its nuclear program was achieved.... The summit will open at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Singapore (which is 9 p.m. tonight in Washington) with Kim and Trump shaking hands and taking a walk in the view of the media, according to an official who spoke with Bloomberg News. The two leaders will then meet one on one (with only translators listening in), before being joined by their top aides. Among those flanking Trump will be Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, whose belligerent rhetoric toward North Korea briefly derailed the summit last month." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Greg Sargent: Trump's behavior at & after the G-6+1 summit "was about salvaging a bit of face for Trump, and about laying the groundwork for a further escalation of Trump's trade war. And if that trade war does escalate, it is likely to cost many more U.S. jobs than it saves. Trump's conduct this weekend was rooted in fabrications, and nothing whatsoever about it was pro-worker." See also Akhilleus's commentary on this in today's thread. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Donald Trump unifies the nation (Canada, that is).... As reporter Paul Wells of Maclean's magazine notes, every major political party in Canada from the social democratic New Democratic Party to the pro-business Conservatives agrees with Trudeau's stance on trade with the United States[.]" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Chuck Todd, et al., of NBC News: "Remember when Republican leaders and prominent GOP politicians criticized an American president for alienating global allies? We sure do -- during the Obama years.... But after a weekend when President Trump called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'very dishonest and weak,' after he refused to sign the joint communique from the G-7 summit, and after a top Trump aide said 'there's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door' -- those same Republican leaders have been silent. (What did Trudeau do, by the way, to earn that condemnation from Team Trump? He said that Canada would respond with reciprocal tariffs on the U.S. tariffs the Trump administration imposed on Canada -- nothing he and his government haven't said before, including on 'Meet the Press' a week ago.)... And there's only one explanation for that Republican silence: Trump has bullied the entire party into submission.... Foreign-policy expert Richard Haass says that Kim Jong Un has all of the leverage heading into the Singapore summit with Trump, because the U.S. president can't afford to be seen as blowing up two back-to-back summits." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jim Tankersley & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Larry Kudlow, President Trump's top economic adviser, suffered a heart attack on Monday evening and was at Walter Reed Medical Center, Mr. Trump said in a tweet.... The White House issued a statement late Monday evening saying that Mr. Kudlow had a 'very mild heart attack.'"


Peter Stone & Greg Gordon of McClatchy News: "Several prominent Russians, some in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle or high in the Russian Orthodox Church, now have been identified as having contact with National Rifle Association officials during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, according to photographs and an NRA source. The contacts have emerged amid a deepening Justice Department investigation into whether Russian banker and lifetime NRA member Alexander Torshin illegally channeled money through the gun rights group to add financial firepower to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential bid. Other influential Russians who met with NRA representatives during the campaign include Dmitry Rogozin, who until last month served as a deputy prime minister overseeing Russia's defense industry, and Sergei Rudov, head of one of Russia's largest philanthropies, the St. Basil the Great Charitable Foundation. The foundation was launched by an ultra-nationalist ally of Russian President Putin. The Russians talked and dined with NRA representatives, mainly in Moscow, as U.S. presidential candidates vied for the White House. Now U.S. investigators want to know if relationships between the Russian leaders and the nation's largest gun rights group went beyond vodka toasts and gun factory tours, evolving into another facet of the Kremlin's broad election-interference operation."

George Conway in Lawfare, writes a long rebuttal to the argument that the special counsel is unconstitutional. He concludes, "It isn't very surprising to see the president tweet a meritless legal position, because, as a non-lawyer, he wouldn't know the difference between a good one and a bad one.... But the 'constitutional' arguments made against the special counsel do not meet [a standard of being well-grounded in law & fact] and had little more rigor than the [Trump] tweet that promoted them. Such a lack of rigor, sadly, has been a disturbing trend in much of the politically charged public discourse about the law lately, and one that lawyers -- regardless of their politics -- owe a duty to abjure." Mrs. McC: If you think Conway's name sounds familiar, that's because he is the spouse of Mrs. Alternative Facts. Apparently, there's Alternative Law, too.

Trump v. the Law, Ctd. Jonathan Chait: "Anybody who had predicted when Trump took office that the president's lawyers would officially proclaim his right to start or stop any federal investigation would have been dismissed as a paranoid worrywart. Yet here we are. Trump's authoritarian doctrine has not been tested by the courts, and seems unlikely to prevail. Still, the fact that it has gotten as far as it has, without producing any serious blowback from his own party, is a measure of how far the peril has advanced. The rule of law in the United States is like a suspension bridge -- still upright, but with cables snapping, one by one."

Wherein Dana Milbank looks forward to a Very Trumpy G-8. Thanks to MAG for the link. Mrs. McC: Maybe it helps to laugh while Trump turns the country into an imitation North Korea.

Lisa France of CNN: Robert De Niro "ended up getting bleeped Sunday night at the Tony Awards when he dropped some f-bombs about ... Donald Trump while introducing a performance by Bruce Springsteen. 'First, I wanna say, "f**k Trump,'" De Niro said. 'It's no longer "Down with Trump," it's 'f**k Trump.'" The comments, which were not censored in the Australian telecast, earned De Niro a standing ovation from the crowd at New York's Radio City Music Hall...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Watch the standing O:

... Steve M.: "My initial reaction to [De Niro's declaration] was that it was adolescent and counterproductive[.]... But [then I read] Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic with some insight into this administration, which we're being asked to treat with respect[.]... If this is how the Trumpers talk and think, then fuck them. ...

... Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic: "Many of Donald Trump's critics find it difficult to ascribe to a president they consider to be both subliterate and historically insensate a foreign-policy doctrine that approaches coherence. A Trump Doctrine would require evidence of Trump Thought, and proof of such thinking, the argument goes, is scant.... Over the past couple of months, I've asked a number of people close to the president to provide me with short descriptions of what might constitute the Trump Doctrine.... The second-best self-description of the Trump Doctrine I heard was this, from a senior national-security official: 'Permanent destabilization creates American advantage.'... The best distillation of the Trump Doctrine I heard, though, came from a senior White House official with direct access to the president and his thinking.... 'The Trump Doctrine is "We're America, Bitch."'... What is mainly interesting about 'We're America, Bitch' is its delusional quality. Donald Trump is pursuing policies that undermine the Western alliance, empower Russia and China, and demoralize freedom-seeking people around the world. The United States could be made weaker -- perhaps permanently -- by the implementation of the Trump Doctrine."

The Quisling's Enablers. Paul Krugman: "This ... is ... about the people who are enabling [Trump's] betrayal of America: the inner circle of officials and media personalities who are willing to back him up whatever he says or does, and the wider set of politicians -- basically the entire Republican delegation in Congress -- who have the power and constitutional obligation to stop what he's doing, but won't lift a finger in America's defense.... Why are Republican politicians unwilling to discharge their constitutional responsibilities?... On one side, tax cuts for the rich have become the overriding priority for the modern G.O.P., and Trump is giving them that, so they're willing to let everything else slide. On the other side, the party's base really does love Trump, not for his policies, but for the performative cruelty he exhibits toward racial minorities and the way he sticks his thumb in the eyes of 'elites.'... The problem facing America runs much deeper than Trump's personal awfulness. One of our two major parties appears to be hopelessly, irredeemably corrupt. And unless that party not only loses this year's election but begins losing on a regular basis, America as we know it is finished."

Jesse Drucker & Agustin Armendariz of the New York Times: "Even after they ascended to top White House positions, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner continued to benefit from an extraordinary number of investment deals carried out by the companies they once ran, ethics filings released Monday evening showed. During their first year in government service, Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner remained investors through various vehicles and trusts, which bought and sold as much as $147 million of real estate and other assets." ...

... Washington Post: "Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner ... brought in at least $82 million in outside income while they served as senior White House advisers last year, according to new financial disclosure forms released Monday afternoon.... The filings show how the couple is collecting immense sums from other enterprises while serving in the White House, an extraordinary income flow that ethics experts have warned could create potential conflicts of interests. This is a developing story. It will be updated." ..

     ... The story has been updated, with Amy Brittain at the top of the byline: "... while Kushner divested some holdings, he and his wife have maintained large stakes in businesses with domestic and foreign ties. Kushner's family real estate company has properties around the country, including thousands of apartment units in states including New Jersey and Maryland. Trump's eponymous clothing and accessories line is produced exclusively in foreign factories in countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and China."

Olivia Exstrum of Mother Jones: "In April, President Donald Trump nominated Patrick Wyrick, currently a justice on the Oklahoma Supreme Court [and Scott Pruitt protégé], to an Oklahoma district court judgeship.... He is expected to be confirmed. At 37 and with little more than a year of experience on the bench, if confirmed, Wyrick would be the youngest federal judge of the 42 so far confirmed under Trump. Wyrick is also on the president'sshortlist for the Supreme Court.... Wyrick's record is in line with the administration’s goals of rolling back reproductive rights and ending environmental protections." --safari

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Monday that fear of domestic violence is not legal grounds for asylum in a closely watched immigration case that could have a broad effect on the asylum process, women who have endured extreme violence and the independence of immigration judges. Mr. Sessions reversed a decision by a Justice Department immigration appeals court that had given asylum to a woman from El Salvador who had been raped and abused by her husband. The appeals court decision had overruled earlier orders in similar cases. 'The prototypical refugee flees her home country because the government has persecuted her,' Mr. Sessions wrote in his decision. 'An alien may suffer threats and violence in a foreign country for any number of reasons relating to her social, economic, family, or other personal circumstances. Yet the asylum statute does not provide redress for all misfortune,' Mr. Sessions wrote.... His decision echoes remarks he made earlier Monday morning at a gathering of immigration judges in Virginia.... In his speech on Monday, he also said that the Obama administration had created 'powerful incentives' for people to 'come here illegally and claim a fear of return.'... Immigration courts are housed under the Justice Department..., meaning Mr. Sessions has the authority to refer cases to himself and overturn earlier decisions." ...

     ... The story has been updated, also adding Caitlin Dickerson to the byline. New Lede: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday made it all but impossible for asylum seekers to gain entry into the United States by citing fears of domestic abuse or gang violence, in a ruling that could have a broad effect on the flow of migrants from Central America." The original story made no mention of Sessions' disallowing gang violence as justification for asylum. ...

... Maria Sachetti of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions signaled Monday that victims of domestic abuse and gang violence generally will not qualify for asylum under federal law, a decision that advocates say will endanger tens of thousands of foreign nationals seeking safety in the United States.... 'Generally, claims by aliens pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by non-governmental actors will not qualify for asylum,' he wrote." ...

... Dara Lind of Vox: "Tens of thousands of people who are currently waiting for their asylum cases in the US to be resolved -- or waiting for their chance to apply -- just got the door all but slammed on them.... Sessions is using his traditional, but rarely used, powers of self-referral to reshape the way that immigration courts work.... Because immigration courts aren't fully independent courts, the decision Sessions just issued is now law for all immigration judges in the US -- and everyone else considering asylum cases.... [Sessions' decision] could even trap some of the families separated in the last few weeks by the Trump administration's new 'zero-tolerance' border policy -- depriving the parents of any way to stay in the country, and drastically reducing their chances of relocating their children before they're deported.... Sessions isn't just raising the standard for who can ultimately get asylum. He's raising the standard for who can pass the initial screening at the border to apply for asylum.... It's generally accepted that the governments of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala don't have sufficient control to keep their residents safe from gang violence -- in fact, they're often compromised by gang ties. But Sessions argues that the burden of proof still lies on the asylum seeker[.]" ...

... Matt Ford of the New Republic: "Even for an administration whose immigration policy is defined by cruelty, Sessions's unilateral move stands out for its heartlessness.... Advocates for domestic-abuse survivors had long feared that Sessions, an avowed foe of legal and undocumented immigration alike, would use his powers to deny safety to women fleeing abusive households. In Monday's ruling, those fears became a reality." ...

... "First They Came for the Migrants." Michelle Goldberg: "We still talk about American fascism as a looming threat, something that could happen if we’re not vigilant. But for undocumented immigrants, it's already here. There are countless horror stories about what's happening to immigrants under Trump.... But what really makes Trump's America feel like a rogue state is the administration’s policy of taking children from migrants caught crossing the border unlawfully, even if the parents immediately present themselves to the authorities to make asylum claims.... The human consequences have been horrific.... What is happening is the sort of moral enormity that once seemed unthinkable in contemporary America.... Senator [Jeff] Merkley [D-Ore.] told me he asked people working in the detention center if they were concerned about the impact that family separation would have on the children who had been put under their authority. The answer, he said, was, 'We simply follow the orders from above.'"

... Madison Pauly & Noah Lenard of Mother Jones outline how "the decision is in line with other steps Sessions and the Trump administration have taken to undercut the American asylum system."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday upheld Ohio’s aggressive efforts to purge its voting rolls. The court ruled that a state may kick people off the rolls if they skip a few elections and fail to respond to a notice from state election officials. The vote was 5 to 4, with the more conservative justices in the majority.... Federal laws prohibit states from removing people from voter rolls 'by reason of the person’s failure to vote.' But they allow election officials who suspect that a voter has moved to send a confirmation notice. The central question in the case was whether a failure to vote could be the reason to send out the notice. Ohio is more aggressive than any other state in purging its voter rolls. After skipping a single federal election cycle, voters are sent a notice. If they fail to respond and do not vote in the next four years, their names are purged from the rolls.... A Reuters study in 2016 found that at least 144,000 people were removed from the voting rolls in recent years in Ohio’s three largest counties, which are home to Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus." Thanks to Ken W. for the lead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Richard Hasen, in Slate: In her dissent to Justice Alito's majority opinion, "Justice Sotomayor pointed out that another provision of the Motor Voter law requires that any removal program 'be uniform, nondiscriminatory, and in compliance with the Voting Rights Act,' and this part of the law provides a potential path forward. As more states enact laws like Ohio's, it will become further apparent that these laws have discriminatory effects.... Justice Alito's response to Justice Sotomayor is quite telling. He rightly noted that the challenge in this case was not about whether Ohio's law was discriminatory. But he added that Justice Sotomayor did not point 'to any evidence in the record that Ohio instituted or has carried out its program with discriminatory intent.' Contrary to Justice Alito's intimation, plaintiffs alleging a violation of the Voting Rights Act need not prove discriminatory intent; discriminatory impact is enough. Justice Alito may be subtly signaling where the Court's conservative majority is likely to go in future years. At some point the Court may well consider striking down as unconstitutional that part of the Voting Rights Act that holds it is illegal for states to pass voting laws that have a discriminatory impact."

Way Beyond the Beltway

David Agren of the Guardian: "Fernando Purón had just finished an election debate with his rival congressional candidates in the Mexican border city of Piedras Negras, when ... [he was] shot ... in the head.... Purón was the 112th political candidate murdered in Mexico since September 2017, according to Etellekt, a risk analysis consultancy. And the country is bracing for more bloodshed before 1 July elections, when voters will pick a new president, renew congress and fill hundreds of state and local positions.... Mexico registered a record number of homicides in 2017 --; the 11th year of a militarized crackdown on organized crime.... Analysts offer varying theories to explain the growing number of attacks on politicians, including efforts by organized crime to infiltrate local institutions and the growing amount of cash in local government." --safari

Comments Off
Monday
Jun112018

The Commentariat -- June 11, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Another Summit Where Trump Expects to Be the Big Loser. Eric Levitz of New York: "Donald Trump has decided to leave his historic summit with Kim Jong-un 15 hours earlier than expected, flying back to Washington on Tuesday night instead of Wednesday morning. The White House says that this change of plans is a product of talks moving more quickly than expected. But there's reason to suspect that it is because they are barely moving at all. On Monday evening in Singapore, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that complete denuclearization 'is the only outcome that the United States will accept' from Pyongyang, and that the latter will enjoy no economic relief until it has met that demand. By contrast, Pompeo did suggest that the U.S. was prepared to make unspecified concessions to North Korean security concerns before the total dismantling of its nuclear program was achieved.... The summit will open at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Singapore (which is 9 p.m. tonight in Washington) with Kim and Trump shaking hands and taking a walk in the view of the media, according to an official who spoke with Bloomberg News. The two leaders will then meet one on one (with only translators listening in), before being joined by their top aides. Among those flanking Trump will be Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, whose belligerent rhetoric toward North Korea briefly derailed the summit last month."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday upheld Ohio's aggressive efforts to purge its voting rolls. The court ruled that a state may kick people off the rolls if they skip a few elections and fail to respond to a notice from state election officials. The vote was 5 to 4, with the more conservative justices in the majority.... Federal laws prohibit states from removing people from voter rolls 'by reason of the person's failure to vote.' But they allow election officials who suspect that a voter has moved to send a confirmation notice. The central question in the case was whether a failure to vote could be the reason to send out the notice. Ohio is more aggressive than any other state in purging its voter rolls. After skipping a single federal election cycle, voters are sent a notice. If they fail to respond and do not vote in the next four years, their names are purged from the rolls.... A Reuters study in 2016 found that at least 144,000 people were removed from the voting rolls in recent years in Ohio's three largest counties, which are home to Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus." Thanks to Ken W. for the lead.

Lisa France of CNN: Robert De Niro "ended up getting bleeped Sunday night at the Tony Awards when he dropped some f-bombs about ... Donald Trump while introducing a performance by Bruce Springsteen. 'First, I wanna say, "f**k Trump,'" De Niro said. 'It's no longer "Down with Trump," it's 'f**k Trump.'" The comments, which were not censored in the Australian telecast, earned De Niro a standing ovation from the crowd at New York's Radio City Music Hall...." Watch the standing O:

Greg Sargent: Trump's behavior at & after the G-6+1 summit "was about salvaging a bit of face for Trump, and about laying the groundwork for a further escalation of Trump's trade war. And if that trade war does escalate, it is likely to cost many more U.S. jobs than it saves. Trump's conduct this weekend was rooted in fabrications, and nothing whatsoever about it was pro-worker." See also Akhilleus's commentary on this in today's thread.

Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Donald Trump unifies the nation (Canada, that is).... As reporter Paul Wells of Maclean's magazine notes, every major political party in Canada from the social democratic New Democratic Party to the pro-business Conservatives agrees with Trudeau's stance on trade with the United States[.]"

Chuck Todd, et al., of NBC News: "Remember when Republican leaders and prominent GOP politicians criticized an American president for alienating global allies? We sure do -- during the Obama years.... But after a weekend when President Trump called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'very dishonest and weak,' after he refused to sign the joint communique from the G-7 summit, and after a top Trump aide said 'there's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door' -- those same Republican leaders have been silent. (What did Trudeau do, by the way, to earn that condemnation from Team Trump? He said that Canada would respond with reciprocal tariffs on the U.S. tariffs the Trump administration imposed on Canada -- nothing he and his government haven't said before, including on 'Meet the Press' a week ago.)... And there's only one explanation for that Republican silence: Trump has bullied the entire party into submission.... Foreign-policy expert Richard Haass says that Kim Jong Un has all of the leverage heading into the Singapore summit with Trump, because the U.S. president can't afford to be seen as blowing up two back-to-back summits."

Trump v. the Law, Ctd. Jonathan Chait: "Anybody who had predicted when Trump took office that the president's lawyers would officially proclaim his right to start or stop any federal investigation would have been dismissed as a paranoid worrywart. Yet here we are. Trump's authoritarian doctrine has not been tested by the courts, and seems unlikely to prevail. Still, the fact that it has gotten as far as it has, without producing any serious blowback from his own party, is a measure of how far the peril has advanced. The rule of law in the United States is like a suspension bridge -- still upright, but with cables snapping, one by one."

*****

Pot to Kettle. Trump Warns Staff Against Making "Fucking Crazy Talk." Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump doesn't want to hear anything inappropriate coming out of his White House and administration, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. 'Mike, you got it?' Trump reported told his vice president, according to one official. 'No f*cking crazy talk from anybody in the administration.' Trump has spent recent months starting online wars with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. In a bizarre twist, he canceled the planned summit, only to then renege on pulling out of the summit when Kim reached out. But in recent weeks, Trump has toned down his typical tough talk and asked members of the administration to do the same. Ironically, Trump then started a trade war with Canada and the European Union during recent G-7 meetings.... Trump tried to reassure the world that he has 'been preparing all my life' for the sit-down with Kim. He did not explain how hotel and condo development prepared him for such peace talks, however." ...

... Juan Cole: "[I]f the US proved so feckless with regard to Iran and the G7, why should N. Korea now trust any deal Trump makes? The answer is that N. Korea doesn't trust Trump at all and is not planning to make any deal with him to give up its nuclear weapons entirely. Kim Jong Un wants the prestige that would come from a two-way summit with the world's sole superpower. Even if the talks go nowhere, Pyongyang will have seen a permanent rise in its world standing." --safari ...

... A Fox "News" Gaffe Perfect for the Occasion. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Abby Huntsman, host of the Fox News morning show Fox & Friends, on Sunday said that summit between North Korea leader Kim Jong-un and... Donald Trump is a meeting between 'two dictators.'" Anthony Scaramucci, who was a guest on the show, "agreed that Trump is a 'disruptive' force in the world." Huntsman later apologized for her "dictator" characterization -- um, of both Trump & Kim.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's strategy for pressuring Mr. Kim to give up his nuclear weapons has depended on isolating North Korea, but he arrived in Singapore looking isolated himself.... Mr. Trump ... weighed in again on Sunday night with a cascade of fresh tweets targeting Canada, Germany and the European Union, accusing them of unfair trade practices and of not spending enough on their security. He cited a series of selective statistics about Canadian-American trade, adding derisively, 'Then Justin acts hurt when called out!' Left unclear was what exactly Mr. Trudeau had said that so offended Mr. Trump. During his Saturday news conference, the prime minister was relatively measured but repeated his position that Canada 'will not be pushed around' and would respond to American tariffs with tariffs of its own.... Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain issued a statement through an aide saying she was 'fully supportive of Justin Trudeau.' The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, on Sunday called on European nations to stick together following Mr. Trump's announcement. 'It's actually not a real surprise,' Mr. Maas told reporters in Berlin. 'We have seen this with the climate agreement or the Iran deal. In a matter of seconds, you can destroy trust with 280 Twitter characters. To build that up again will take much longer.'... Mr. Trump never really wanted to attend the Group of 7 meeting, but aides pressed him to go even as they feared it would be a disaster because he was being forced to do something he did not want to do. He rebelled by showing up late and leaving early. During closed-door meetings, Mr. Trump largely listened through most issues, firmly crossing his arms and swiveling a bit in his seat, according to people who were in the room.... But he came alive whenever trade was mentioned, mocking and insulting other leaders, particularly Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Macron and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, according to the witnesses." ...

... Axios: "In a series of Sunday night tweets, President Trump repeated his claims of unfair international trade practices against the United States' closest allies in the G7, saying that 'Fair Trade is now to be called Fool Trade if it is not Reciprocal' -- and singling out Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau." ...

... Reality Chek. Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "Behind Mr. Trump's outrage is his belief that the United States is at a disadvantage when it comes to global trade and is on the losing end of tariffs imposed by other nations. But to many of the country's trading partners, the president's criticisms ring hollow given that the United States places its own tariffs on everything from trucks and peanuts to sugar and stilettos.... Instead of viewing trade as a mutually beneficial relationship, the president has described trading relationships as a zero-sum game, in which the United States loses out when other countries have more favorable terms. Mr. Trump has seized on trade policy to prop up industries that he has promised to revitalize, such as manufacturing, by limiting foreign competition.... On average, American tariffs are on par with those of other rich, developed countries, which tend to be low, according to the World Bank and the United Nations. Among the developed nations that make up the Group of 7 that met in a resort town near Quebec City this weekend, the United States has tariffs that are slightly higher, on average, across all its imported products than Canada or Japan and exactly equivalent to the four European nations in the G-7.... The approach risks upending the United States' longstanding embrace of free trade and its use of trading relationships to help power economic growth in the United States and the world economy writ large. Since the Second World War, the United States has cut its tariff rates in step with other developed countries. It also gave some less-developed countries access to its markets, with the idea of increasing wages and improving quality of life." ...

... Michael Nienaber of Reuters: "Europe will implement counter-measures against U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum just like Canada, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday, voicing regret about President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw support for a G7 communique.... 'So we won't let ourselves be ripped off again and again. Instead, we act then too,' Merkel said in an unusually combative tone.... Merkel ... repeated that Europe could no longer rely on its ally and should take its fate into its own hands." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So sayeth the Leader of the Free World, because the President* of the United States of America relinquished that title in a tweet on Saturday. And it ain't something he can get back by playing nice once in a while.

**Guardian Editors: "The failure of the G7 meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, marks a watershed for the 21st-century democracies. It is the moment when Donald Trump's disruption of the international order moved from annoying threat to damaging reality.... The US is the cornerstone of the post-1945 international order. If Mr Trump wishes to remove that cornerstone everything else is threatened. That has not yet happened.... But a fissure is growing.... Without the US the other G7 nations lack as much clout to make the system work.... But the rest of the G7 must try. If not, Europe, Canada and Japan risk becoming standing invitations to humiliation by Russian disruption, Chinese strategic authoritarianism and Trumpian nativism. This puts the liberal value system of democracy, peace, trade, liberty and the rule of law at risk.... Shockingly, today's threat comes from our wartime ally, the US, in the shape of President Trump." --safari

To our allies: bipartisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization & supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values. Americans stand with you, even if our president doesn't. -- Sen. John McCain, in a tweet ...

... Griff Witte & James McAuley of the Washington Post: "On the day after the Group of Seven summit blew up in spectacular fashion, with Trump using idle time on an airport runway to insult his host and repudiate an agreement he had made with allied leaders only hours earlier, emotions were far easier to divine. Allies were indignant. They were defiant. Yet they were hardly shocked by the outcome of a critical global gathering that had gone worse than any that longtime foreign policy players had seen. 'It was not a surprise,' said Norbert Röttgen, chair of the foreign affairs committee in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag. 'The president acted and reacted in the childish way he could be expected to.' To the U.S.'s closest partners, the pattern has become disturbingly familiar. Trump's abandonment of the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear agreement and his decision to impose protectionist tariffs on European steel and aluminum products have established a level of animosity between the United States and Europe that, by many measures, surpasses even the rift over the Iraq War. The depth of exasperation showed in a Sunday afternoon statement from French President Emmanuel Macron's office. 'International cooperation cannot be dictated by fits of anger and throwaway remarks,' the statement said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Damian Paletta & Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "President Trump left America's closest allies in a state of shock and outrage Sunday after a verbal barrage against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had just hosted Trump and other leaders from the Group of Seven industrial nations. Trump's rhetorical assault on Trudeau, characteristically delivered on Twitter, was echoed by two top White House advisers who took to the Sunday talk shows to go after the leader of the United States' neighbor to the north. The bizarre aftermath of the G-7 summit in Quebec was a political calculation, meant to show muscularity in advance of the historic summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, one of those advisers acknowledged Sunday. There has rarely been such a coordinated and acerbic series of attacks by White House advisers aimed at a U.S. ally, revealing the extent to which Trump possibly felt slighted by Trudeau as he left for his North Korea talks. '"POTUS is not gonna let a Canadian prime minister push him around,' Trump's chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said on CNN's 'state of the Union.' 'He is not going to permit any show of weakness on the trip to negotiate with North Korea.'... Another of Trump's top advisers, Peter Navarro, intensified the attack on Trudeau in an interview on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door,' Navarro said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't think the Twittertantrum was as much about North Korea as it was that Trudeau hurt Trump's feelings by telling the truth -- in a rather measured way, IMO. (As Trudeau himself said at his presser, "Canadians, we're polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.") Trump, as we all know, can't handle the truth. ...

... Here's what that nasty Trudeau said to drive Trump & Co. off the deep end:

... Here's the deep end:

... Maia de la Baume of Politico: "France pledged on Sunday to stand by the G7 summit statement disowned by Donald Trump and took a swipe at the U.S. president by declaring that international cooperation could not depend on 'fits of anger' or 'little words.' Apparently incensed by remarks about U.S. tariffs at the closing press conference on Saturday by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump -- who had already left the gathering in Quebec -- tweeted that he had instructed U.S. officials not to endorse the final communiqué, which had already been agreed and published. In a statement on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron's office said all of Europe would continue to stand behind the communiqué...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

...Jonathan Swan of Axios: "In their bilateral meeting in the White House's Cabinet Room, on April 24, [Emmanuel ] Macron said to Trump, 'Let's work together, we both have a China problem,' according to a source in the room. The source said Trump responded that the European Union is 'worse than China.'" [Emphasis added] --safari...

... David Frum of the Atlantic: "Whether or not the president's demands made any sense even from the most parochial American point of view, his demands were to a considerable extent accommodated. Trump had issued orders, sent his people out to war, and won victories for his idiosyncratic approach to foreign affairs. As late as 3:30 on Saturday afternoon, all the conferees thought that the facade of Western unity had survived another day, another summit.... Vexed by the criticism [of his ZTE pay-for-play deal], Trump struck back at the readiest targets: America's closest friends and allies. Rule-of-law democracies cannot deliver the emoluments Trump collects from more authoritarian regimes. They cannot expedite Ivanka Trump's trademarks to gain favor. They don't book their national-day celebrations in Washington's Trump International Hotel.... Trump's attacks on Trudeau will only boost the prime minister's popularity. But this is more than a personal story. Trump is day by day abdicating U.S. leadership.... He bullies traditional friends and allies; he cringes to adversaries, dictators, and potential funding sources for Trump enterprises. Bullying the G7 was the weekend's story; cringing to North Korea -- and behind it, China -- will be the story of the week ahead." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... "Debacle in Quebec." Paul Krugman buttresses the fear & dismay I realized yesterday -- and that was before Trump went on his anti-Trudeau TwitterWhine: "... there has never been a disaster like the G7 meeting that just took place. It could herald the beginning of a trade war, maybe even the collapse of the Western alliance. At the very least it will damage America's reputation as a reliable ally for decades to come; even if Trump eventually departs the scene in disgrace, the fact that someone like him could come to power in the first place will always be in the back of everyone's mind.... Maybe he was just acting out because he couldn't stand having to spend hours with powerful people who will neither flatter him nor bribe him by throwing money at his family businesses -- people who, in fact, didn't try very hard to hide the contempt they feel for the man leading what is still, for the moment, a great power." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon. ...

... ** David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "The alliance between the United States and Western Europe has accomplished great things. It won two world wars in the first half of the 20th century. Then it expanded to include its former enemies and went on to win the Cold War, help spread democracy and build the highest living standards the world has ever known. President Trump is trying to destroy that alliance.... If a president of the United States were to sketch out a secret, detailed plan to break up the Atlantic alliance, that plan would bear a striking resemblance to Trump's behavior.... For American voters, [Trump's actions mean] understanding the real stakes of this year's midterm elections. They are not merely a referendum on a tax cut, a health care plan or a president's unorthodox style. They are a referendum on American ideals that are older than any of us." ...

... Yeah But. Here's how Trudeau really upset Trump -- by posing with him & other leaders for the Girther photo seen 'round the world:

     ... Nathan Francis of the Inquisitr: "Donald Trump's official White House physical claims that he is 6-foot-3, one full inch taller than Canadian leader Justin Trudeau. But a photo of the two men together this weekend says otherwise. In the picture, taking from the G7 summit, Trump is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Canadian prime minister, with Trudeau appearing to be at least an inch taller than Trump. Trudeau is listed as 6-foot-2. The picture has also helped to reignite the controversy over Donald Trump's official physical, which many critics said purposely overestimated the president's height and underestimated his weight to save Trump the embarrassment of admitting that he was obese. Had Trump been one inch shorter, he would have been classified as obese rather than overweight." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Safari has found the original picture of Merkel, Abe, Macron, et al., v. Trump & Bolton before Merkel politely doctored it. Special thanks to Mark Kermode & his contributors. Trouble is, I'm not sure which is the original. So you decide. It could be this one:

... Maggie Haberman & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "... back home, [President Trump] left behind a West Wing where burned-out aides are eyeing the exits, as the mood in the White House is one of numbness and resignation that the president is growing only more emboldened to act on instinct alone. Mr. Trump ... may soon be working with a thinned-out cast in the middle of Season 2, well before the midterm elections. Several high-profile aides, including John F. Kelly, the president's chief of staff, and Joe Hagin, a deputy of Mr. Kelly's, are said to be thinking about how much longer they can stay. Last week, Mr. Kelly told visiting senators that the White House was 'a miserable place to work,' according to a person with direct knowledge of the comment. The turnover, which is expected to become an exodus after the November elections, does not worry the president, several people close to him said. He has grown comfortable with removing any barriers that might challenge him -- including, in some cases, people who have the wrong chemistry or too frequently say no to him." ...

... MEANWHILE, on the Other Side of the Globe. Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said on Sunday during a visit to China that he would meet President Trump 'as soon as the American side is ready' but insisted Russia was in no hurry to win readmission to the Group of 7 nations because it already belongs to a Chinese-led grouping that he described as more important. Putting a brave face on a failed effort by Mr. Trump to have Russia readmitted to the world's most exclusive diplomatic club, Mr. Putin said the G-7 ... represented fewer people and had less economic heft than the Shanghai Cooperation Organization." ...

... Steve Levine of Axios: "Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin are strategizing how to reposition themselves for a new, more powerful future amid a rapid deterioration of the U.S.-led global order.... Such spectacles [as Trump's Twittertantrum Saturday] feed Xi's and Putin's conviction that 'the West is in free fall,' says Mathew Burrows, former counselor at the National Intelligence Council, and now at the Atlantic Council. He tells Axios, 'Both Xi and Putin have been surprised and shocked by the rapidity of the U.S. decline.'" ...

... Trump Really Hates the E.U. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "In their bilateral meeting in the White House's Cabinet Room, on April 24, Macron said to Trump, 'Let's work together, we both have a China problem,' according to a source in the room. The source said Trump responded that the European Union is 'worse than China.' 'He then went on a rant about Germany and cars,' the source added."

Trump v. the Law. Annie Karni of Politico: "Under the Presidential Records Act, the White House must preserve all memos, letters, emails and papers that the president touches, sending them to the National Archives for safekeeping as historical records. But White House aides realized early on that they were unable to stop Trump from ripping up paper after he was done with it and throwing it in the trash or on the floor, according to people familiar with the practice. Instead, they chose to clean it up for him, in order to make sure that the president wasn't violating the law. Staffers had the fragments of paper collected from the Oval Office as well as the private residence and send it over to records management across the street from the White House for Larkey and his colleagues to reassemble.... [Records management analysts Solomon Lartey and Reginald Young, Jr.] described a system that stands in stark contrast to how records management was conducted under the Obama administration, which ran a structured paperwork process.... Lartey, 54, and Young, 48, were career government officials who worked together in records management until this spring, when both were abruptly terminated from their jobs. Both are now unemployed and still full of questions about why they were stripped of their badges with no explanation and marched off of the White House grounds by Secret Service." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The fact that these guys were fired for obeying the law makes me wonder if the same happened to the White House employees who were feeding them the torn-up documents. There's no reason to assume that presidential documents have been preserved since the White House fired Lartey & Young. Congress must investigate, & Bob Mueller should add "destruction of evidence" to his list of questions for Trump. And I'll just add that this is another instance in which "The Emails!" look ridiculous. P.S. What do you suppose happened to all those Russia docs Trump got his hands on? ...

... Scott Lemieux agrees: "Sounds like the habits of a scrupulously ethical individual who has never had any shady practices to hide! What's funny about this is that the media decided the most important issue facing the country in 2016 was Hillary Clinton's compliance with information security best practices. Well, not ha-ha funny." ...

... So does David Atkins: "It is not clear if anyone is now preserving the President's paper as the law requires. It's worth noting that destroying documents in violation of the Records Act and firing the only people who were trying to preserve them is also an impeachable offense -- certainly a more problematic offense than sending work emails on a private server. But in Trumpworld where every day is a struggle to contain the burgeoning messes and historic scandals of an overgrown petulant child, something like this barely merits a wry also-ran piece on a lazy Sunday. Still, it's a perfect metaphor for this presidency."

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Nico Hines of The Daily Beast: "The extent of Russia's interference in the 2016 votes for Trump and Brexit has been investigated by intelligence agencies, congressional and parliamentary inquiries, the FBI and ... Robert Mueller's office for more than a year. For much of that time, a reporter in England [Isabel Oakeshott] has been in possession of extraordinary details about Russia's cultivation and handling of Brexit's biggest bankroller [Arron Banks].... Banks, who ran the Leave.EU campaign group, was one of the first foreign political figures to visit Donald Trump -- accompanying Nigel Farage to Trump Tower -- soon after the shock presidential election of 2016.... Oakeshott says she did not discover the stunning extent of Banks' true dealings with Russia until last year. Even then, she decided not to publish saying she wanted to wait until the publication of her next book White Flag? in August." --safari

** Brazen. Lachlan Markay of The Daily Beast: "A Russian government adviser who aims to wage an 'information war' in the U.S. and Europe is running a new media venture a block from the White House that cybersecurity experts say has ties to the country's infamous disinformation apparatus.... In April, Russia's Federal News Agency (FAN) announced the creation of an American outlet called 'USA Really.'... At the helm of the project is Alexander Malkevich, a Russian media executive and a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, a body created by President Vladimir Putin in 2005 to advise government policymaking.... According to security researchers, the FAN has ties to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), the Russian social media office that the Justice Department indicted in February for its role in Kremlin efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election [and] once operated out of the same St. Petersburg office building as the IRA." Read on. --safari

Lesley Stahl interviewed Trump campaign chair Brad Parscale for "60 Minutes." Big takeaway: during the 2016 campaign, Parscale's digital operation had employees of Facebook, Twitter & Google "embedded inside our offices." These tech employees self-identified as Trump supporters. Facebook made a similar offer to the Clinton campaign, but Clinton turned down the offer.


Weaponizing Children. Franco Ordoñez of McClatchy DC: "The Trump administration will now fingerprint and run immigration checks on the mothers and fathers who come forward to claim custody of unaccompanied migrant children stopped at the border under a new policy that is stoking new fears in immigrant communities nationwide.... Under the new policy, the government would no longer provide exceptions to the parents or any other relatives. But some migrant advocates worry it could deter families from claiming children, and migrant parents already appear less willing to do so. The percentage of unaccompanied youths claimed by parents has dropped from 60 percent four years ago to 41 percent in 2017 after increasing crackdowns, including raids.... Last year, Health and Human Services assumed custody of more than 40,000 immigrant children and released more than 93 percent to sponsors. Of those, 49 percent were parents and 41 percent were close relatives." --safari ...

... Trump's "Animals". Steph Solis of USA Today: "[Cloyd] Edralin, 47, [father of four] who has lived legally in the United States for three decades, was leaving his house to go to work on Monday morning when he was stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. They told Edralin, a green card holder, that he was being detained over an 11-year-old firearms conviction.... He was convicted of unlawful possession of an airsoft pistol, which fires plastic pellets.... Edralin isn't the first green card holder to be detained years after a criminal conviction. In January, a Polish doctor who has lived in the United States for 40 years was detained over two 26-year-old misdemeanors." --safari

Arnold Isaacs of Tom's Dispatch, via Juan Cole, documents the takeover of xenophobic and anti-Islam bigots crowding into the Trump administration. --safari ...

... Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "A group of lawmakers and public officials in Washington state denounced the Trump administration Saturday for its policy of separating immigrant families at the Mexican border, accusing the administration of causing undue trauma to children and parents who might be legally seeking asylum in the United States. Although Seattle is some 1,500 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, the debate over family separations hit closer to home for the Evergreen State after dozens of immigrants were transferred last week to the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac, near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Nearly all of those immigrants -- 174 out of 206 -- were women, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who spent about three hours Saturday morning meeting with the recently moved detainees at the SeaTac facility. Most of them were from Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, she said, but there were also immigrants from as far away as Eritrea. Many spoke of fleeing threats of rape, gang violence and political persecution, Jayapal said.... Jayapal said detainees relayed disturbing accounts of being held at Border Patrol facilities in fenced cages (referred to as the 'dog pound') or in the 'ice box,' so nicknamed for the facilities' cold temperatures and lack of blankets or sleeping mats. She also said many women spoke of being deprived of clean water and experiencing verbal abuse while in Border Patrol custody.... On Saturday afternoon, Jayapal issued a withering statement describing her visit -- 'The mothers could not stop crying when they spoke about their children,' she wrote -- and called for the Trump administration to reunite the detained and separated families."

Slo Movies. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Two pivotal developments this week could dramatically expand the power and footprint of major telecom companies, altering how Americans access everything from political news to 'Game of Thrones' on the Internet. Monday marks the official end of the U.S. government's net neutrality rules, which had required broadband providers such as AT&T, Charter, Comcast and Verizon to treat all Web traffic equally. The repeal is part of a campaign by Ajit Pai, the Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, to deregulate the telecom industry in a bid to boost its investments -- particularly in rural areas.... One day after the net neutrality changes, a federal judge is set to rule on Tuesday on whether AT&T can buy Time Warner. AT&T, already the country's second-largest wireless network, stands to gain a content trove from Time Warner that includes HBO and CNN -- leading the Justice Department, which filed the lawsuit, to argue that the company could harm its rivals.... The expiring net neutrality protections, adopted at the FCC under President Barack Obama in 2015, for years prevented the likes of AT&T and Comcast from slowing Web connections, blocking access to sites and services, or charging content companies for faster delivery of streaming movies or videos." ...

... David McCabe of Axios: "Net neutrality backers describe a multi-pronged strategy to restore the strong rules they prefer.... On Capitol Hill, Democrats in the House are trying to get enough Republican signatures to force a vote on a resolution that would restore the FCC's rules. The measure already passed in the Senate, but the House is more difficult.... Public interest groups and Silicon Valley companies are among those who are suing over the repeal of the rules. Oral arguments in the case could come later this year in federal court, they say.... Democrats hope to make net neutrality a campaign-trail issue in the months before the midterm election, and state officials have tried to institute their own rules.... The end of the rules is far from the end of this story. Additional consolidation in the telecom space ... and developments over the court case will keep advocates and opponents of net neutrality regulations busy."

"Grab Bag o' Excuses". Jeremy Miller in the Guardian: "A January Gallup poll found that Trump's approval among Mormons had risen to 61%, higher than any other religious group surveyed, and 13 points higher than among the next group, comprised of Protestants and others.... Utah has become the epicenter of Trump's public lands policies.... [A conservative political operative named Don] Peay, who is Mormon] thinks that support for the president is on the rise among Utah's Mormon Republicans, despite the administration's growing list of scandals, because of Trump's policies on public lands and monuments.... As for Stormy Daniels, Peay said that Mormons were not puritans." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: And you were wondering why formerly Never-Trump Romney has suddenly embraced the Worse President* Ever.

Masha Gessen of the New Yorker seeks ways to counter George Orwell's prediction that totalitarianism would kill literature of all kinds, save perhaps poetry. (Also linked yesterday.)

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