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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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Sunday
Jun032018

The Commentariat -- June 4, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Painting by Patrick Shea.... Trump Declares Himself King. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump declared Monday that the appointment of the special counsel in the Russia investigation is 'totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!' and asserted that he has the power to pardon himself, raising the prospect that he might take extraordinary action to immunize himself from the ongoing probe. In a pair of early-morning tweets, Mr. Trump suggested that he would not have to pardon himself because he had 'done nothing wrong.' But he insisted that 'numerous legal scholars' have concluded that he has the absolute right to do so, a claim that vastly overstates the legal thinking on the issue. In fact, many constitutional experts dispute Mr. Trump's position on his pardon power, an issue for which there has been no definitive ruling.... Mr. Trump did not elaborate in the tweets about the legal basis for his claim that the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia case, was unconstitutional. In that tweet, he insisted that 'we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!'... The president also tweeted Monday morning about trade, asserting that Canada has 'all sorts of trade barriers' on American agricultural products. 'Not acceptable,' he said. He also bragged about his accomplishments at the 500-day mark in office. Shortly after, the White House ... [sent] an email to reporters titled: 'President Donald J. Trump's 500 Days of American Greatness.'" ...

... Allan Smith of Business Insider: Rudy interprets Donald. Mrs. McC: Something to bear in mind when pundits rely on opinions from the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel: these are opinions, & courts disagree with the DOJ's opinions all the time. OLC opinions do not set precedent in the way court decisions do. So Smith reports, "Giuliani repeatedly cited a 2000 memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel following President Bill Clinton's scandal, saying that while the Constitution does not give the president immunity from prosecution, the president cannot be indicted." That was the opinion of probably-career DOJ lawyers; it's up to the courts -- in this case, most likely the Supremes, to decide whether the opinion is "correct." ...

... Charles Pierce: "The president* ... has at his easy disposal everything a dictator could possibly want.... He is succeeding in his campaign to delegitimize any criminal investigation of his various schemes.... Hostile press, he can easily ignore. He is consolidating power based on deceit at an alarming rate, and, worst of all, he is becoming more popular for doing so among the only voters that matter to him... [T]he president*'s approval rating among Republicans is the highest of any Republican president since World War II at this point in his administration* with the exception of where George W. Bush was at immediately after the attacks of 9/11. He stands at 87 percent approval among Republicans.... It is entirely possible that the momentum now is unstoppable. The country is hurtling toward the destruction of its most basic ideas about itself.... Not that anyone actually is doing anything about it." -safari ...

... Jack Holmes of Esquire: "The authoritarian movement that this president began during his campaign is approaching its natural conclusion.... The signs are that his supporters will back him no matter what: He enjoys the support of 87 percent of Republicans.... That support is similarly reflected in a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a20961787/trump-rally-animals-crowd-chant/" target="_blank">the ethno-nationalist fervor of his rallies.... If the president believes he can do as he wishes because he has unlimited authority, and a section of the nation backs him simply because he is the authority, you are dealing with an authoritarian movement that could support a tyrant. The alarm bells should be ringing." --safari ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... Trump's tweets reinforce an underrecognized point: The likelihood that the fate of the Trump administration will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court is greater than most people realize. Consider three issues that seem increasingly likely to end up before the court. [1] Trump pardoning himself.... [2] Trump rejecting the authority of the special counsel.... [3] Trump rejecting a subpoena from the special counsel."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court sided with a Colorado baker on Monday in a closely watched case pitting gay rights against claims of religious freedom. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority in the 7-2 decision, relied on narrow grounds, saying a state commission had violated the Constitution's protection of religious freedom in ruling against the baker, Jack Phillips, who had refused to create a custom wedding cake for a gay couple.... The Supreme Court’s decision, which turned on the commission's asserted hostility to religion, strongly reaffirmed protections for gay rights and left open the possibility that other cases raising similar issues could be decided differently.... Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Elena Kagan and Neil M. Gorsuch joined the majority opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas voted with the majority but would have adopted broader reasons. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissented.... Though the case was mostly litigated on free speech grounds, Justice Kennedy's opinion barely discussed the issue. Instead, he focused on what he said were flaws in the proceedings before the Colorado Civi Rights Commission. Members of the commission, he wrote, had acted with 'clear and impermissible hostility' to sincerely held religious beliefs." ...

... Mark Stern of Slate analyzes the decision, which doesn't actually decide much.

Adam Liptak: "The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a request from the Justice Department to discipline lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union for assisting an undocumented teenager to obtain an abortion. In an unsigned opinion with no noted dissents, the court vacated an appeals court ruling that had allowed the teenager to obtain the procedure, saying the dispute was moot. That wiped out the appeals court's ruling as precedent. The case attracted wide attention after the Justice Department, in an unusual Supreme Court filing in November, accused the A.C.L.U. of serious professional misconduct in the case of the teenager, who was known as Jane Doe. She obtained an abortion in October over the government's objection after an appeals court allowed it."

WTF? Nicole Lafond of TPM: "Among a slew of odd and unprofessional personal requests that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt asked his top aide Millan Hupp to undertake for him.... Pruitt asked Hupp to secure a 'used mattress' from the Trump International Hotel for him.... Hupp said she didn't know why Pruitt wanted the mattress other than he mentioned it 'around the same time that he was moving.' She said she never 'actually connected' with someone at the Trump Hotel about the secondhand bedding." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Now that's a firing offense! Hilarious. Here's more on the old mattress from Lisa Friedman & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Federal ethics standards prohibit such personal assistance by a subordinate, even if the employee is working outside of office hours. One provision bans the use of government time to handle personal matters. A second provision prohibits bosses from asking employees to handle personal matters for them outside of the office.... According to a partial transcript released by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, [Millan] Hupp ..., who serves as Mr. Pruitt's scheduling director..., worked with real estate agents and visited at least 10 apartments over more than a month to find Mr. Pruitt new lodging. She also did other personal errands for the administrator including booking his personal travel to the Rose Bowl college football game." Ms. Hupp could not recall if Mr. Pruitt requested a urine-stained mattress.

Jeremy Diamond & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "in his role as deputy chief of staff, [Joe] Hagin is being counted on to pull off a high-stakes presidential trip of a different nature, President Donald Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.... Deployed to Singapore last week to negotiate logistical details with a delegation of North Koreans, Hagin has assumed an outsized role in the preparations for the off-again, on-again meeting...Two officials said Hagin has kept sensitive logistical details from Trump -- including during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Mar-a-Lago last year -- for fear that the President might tweet about them and upend the plans."

Trump Goon Calls Cops on U.S. Senator. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "As the sun set Sunday night, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) went to a shuttered Walmart in Brownsville, Texas, that has been converted into a detention center for immigrant children who have been separated from their parents. He asked for a tour. Instead, the government contractor that runs the converted store called the cops. An officer filled out a police report, and the senator was asked to leave. The half-hour incident at a strip mall near the southern border with Mexico underscores the lack of transparency from President Trumps administration about its intensifying efforts to break up undocumented families caught crossing the border, the centerpiece of a 'zero tolerance' policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month to deter illegal immigration."

** David Taylor of the Guardian: "The emboldened religious right has unleashed a wave of legislation across the United States since Donald Trump became president, as part of an organised bid to impose hardline Christian values across American society. A playbook known as Project Blitz, developed by a collection of Christian groups, has provided state politicians with a set of off-the-shelf pro-Christian 'model bills.'... Some legislation uses verbatim language from the 'model bills' created by a group called the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation (CPCF), set up by a former Republican congressman which has a stated aim to 'protect religious freedom, preserve America's Judeo-Christian heritage and promote prayer'. At least 75 bills have been brought forward in more than 20 states during 2017 and 2018 which appear ... to have similar objectives to the playbook." --safari

Kelsey Mo & Anne Ryman of the Arizona Republic: "Police say a man suspected of murdering a prominent forensic psychiatrist, a psychologist and two paralegals at their offices in Phoenix and Scottsdale is dead... of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.... The series of murders that began Thursday evening have rattled the legal community. Police said evidence connects all four homicides. First killed was Steven Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist who consulted on a number of high-profile cases including the Baseline Killer case and the JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation.... Less than 24 hours later, 48-year-old Veleria Sharp and 49-year-old Laura Anderson were shot in the downtown Scottsdale law offices of Burt, Feldman and Grenier.... Psychologist and counselor Marshall Levine was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound early Saturday inside an office building...."

Matt Stevens of the New York Times: "A rookie police officer in Georgia was swiftly fired over the weekend after body camera video showed him striking a man with his patrol car during a pursuit. An internal investigation by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department determined that the officer, Taylor Saulters, used excessive force when he struck the man, Timmy Patmon, with his vehicle on Friday. Chief Scott Freeman fired Officer Saulters on Saturday after initially placing him on administrative leave, said Eppi Rodriguez, a police spokesman. The Georgia State Patrol is investigating the crash and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal investigation, Mr. Rodriguez added. Mr. Patmon suffered scrapes and bruises and was taken to a hospital for evaluation, a police statement said." Saulters is white; Patmon is black.

*****

The Absolute Power of King Donald, Ctd. Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The assertion by President Trump's lawyers that he cannot obstruct justice because he has absolute authority over all federal investigations is legally problematic, analysts say, because it would essentially mean the nation's commander in chief is above the law. But the president';s powers are expansive, and many questions remain about how Trump's office could protect him from the special counsel investigation examining whether his campaign coordinated with Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.... Legal analysts said that as the head of the executive branch, Trump could issue pardons, fire senior officials or order them to shut down investigations. But if his motives were corrupt, such actions could constitute obstruction. The principle laid out in [a] letter [by Trump's attorneys Jay Sekulow & John Dowd (who has since resigned)] is 'a ludicrous legal theory,' said Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general who now works in private practice at Hogan Lovells. 'The idea that a president can't obstruct justice died with King George III, with a brief attempt at revival by Richard Nixon.'" ...

... Ashley Parker & Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "... Rudolph W. Giuliani publicly pressed Trump's expansive view of executive power this weekend, arguing on two Sunday TV shows that the president probably has the sweeping constitutional authority to pardon even himself. 'He probably does,' Giuliani said, when asked on ABC's 'This Week' if Trump has the ability to pardon himself. 'He has no intention of pardoning himself, but he probably -- not to say he can't.'... On NBC's 'Meet the Press...,' Giuliani framed the pardon question as purely hypothetical and politically implausible. 'It's not going to happen. It's a hypothetical point,' he told host Chuck Todd. He went on to describe such a move as 'unthinkable,' and said it would probably lead immediately to impeachment." ...

... S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "Candidate Donald Trump bragged that he could shoot someone on New York's Fifth Avenue and not lose any support, and now President Donald Trump's lawyer says Trump could shoot the FBI director in the Oval Office and still not be prosecuted for it. 'In no case can he be subpoenaed or indicted,' Rudy Giuliani told HuffPost Sunday, claiming a president's constitutional powers are that broad. 'I don't know how you can indict while he's in office. No matter what it is.... If he shot James Comey, he'd be impeached the next day,' Giuliani said. 'Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him.' Norm Eisen, the White House ethics lawyer under President Barack Obama and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the silliness of Giuliani's claim illustrates how mistaken Trump's lawyers are about presidential power." ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "In a 20-page memo written by Trump's legal team and delivered to Robert Mueller..., they make an unusually frank case for a tyrannical interpretation of presidential power.... Consider that if the memo is correct, there would be nothing wrong with Trump setting up a booth somewhere in Washington, DC where wealthy individuals could hand checks to Trump, and in exchange Trump would make whatever federal legal trouble they are in go it away.... Since Washington DC isn't a state all criminal law here is federal criminal law, so the president could have his staff murder opposition party senators or inconvenient judges and then block any investigation into what's happening.... Trump has started using the power abusively and capriciously early in his tenure in office in a disturbing way, but has not yet tried to pardon his way out of the Russia investigation in part because there is one important limit on the pardon power -- you have to do it in public." Mrs. McC: Of course Rudy argued that egregious acts such as murder were within the president's power. ...

... "President Trump Thinks He Is a King." Harry Litman, in a New York Times op-ed: "The president believes he is above the law.... The central claim of the legal memorandum[, which Trump's attorneys sent to Robert Mueller,] is that it is impossible for the president to illegally obstruct any aspect of the investigation into Russia's election meddling. That's because, as president, Mr. Trump has the constitutional power to terminate the inquiry or pardon his way out of it. Therefore -- and this is the key and indefensible point -- he cannot obstruct justice by exercising this authority 'no matter his motivation.'... No tenable account of executive power holds that a president's purposes in exercising powers accorded under Article II, 'to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,' have no import.... The second pillar of the letter ... is that he is too busy running the country to sit for an interview. Relatedly, they argue, forcing him to testify 'demeans the office of the president before the world.' Here Mr. Trump's position run completely afoul of another presidential precedent: that of Bill Clinton." ...

... Martin Longman of the Booman Tribune: "The assertions of executive power made by Trump's former lawyers are outrageous, but not because they're strictly untrue. While some of their brief contains flawed legal analysis, in its broad outlines it is simply a maximalist approach that concedes absolutely nothing in advance. His lawyers reserved the right to make the broadest possible claims of executive power, and I don't see this as all that unusual. I don't think they would win most of these points in court using these arguments, but part of their argument is that they don't need to comply with the courts in any meaningful sense. If they don't like being compelled to provide testimony, they can just shut the whole investigation down.... Impeachment is prescribed for high crimes and misdemeanors, which basically carves out an area for allowable low crimes. And even within that definition, weak as it is, the determination of what is serious enough to merit removal and what is not has no binding or strictly correct definition." ...

... Jamelle Blouie of Slate: "[T]his week's pardon of Dinesh D'Souza ... [is] a show of solidarity with a figure who built his career on the same prejudice and conspiracy theorizing that fueled Trump's rise through the Republican Party. In a healthier political system, D'Souza would be a fringe figure.... Instead, he is a conservative in good standing with strong ties to the Republican Party elite.... [H]is presence in the rarefied spaces of Republican politics is a reminder that Trump merely embodies the dysfunctions and pathologies that already existed within the conservative movement.... Everything D'Souza has stood for over the course of his [30 year] career -- racism, malicious trolling, and conspiracy theorizing -- now exists at the center of conservative politics, emanating from the West Wing. He didn't place it there, but he helped give it shape and form. His story shows the thin wall between the Republican mainstream and the fringe, and how, after decades of pressure from many figures like D'Souza, it has finally collapsed, eliminating any distinctions that matter." --safari ...

... Andy Borowitz (satire): "... Donald J. Trump made Vice-President Mike Pence watch him issue pardons for several hours to see how it is done, a White House source confirmed. According to the source, Trump pardoned a number of disgraced political figures and former reality-show cronies for the sole purpose of training Pence in the art of issuing pardons. After signing pardon after pardon while Pence looked on intently, Trump commanded the Vice-President to sign a 'practice pardon' to prove that he 'wouldn't mess anything up,' the source said." ...

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump will host a dinner in the coming week in honor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, restoring a White House tradition that he had abandoned during his first year in office, a West Wing official said on Saturday. The dinner is expected to be held on Wednesday. The guest list was not made available." Mrs. McC: I'm thinking there will be more Middle East princes than political refugees.

House of Cards, Season 2 Finale, "Melanie Goes Missing." Meredith McGraw of ABC News: "... Melania Trump will not be joining ... Donald Trump on his upcoming trips to the G7 summit in Quebec and the highly anticipated summit between the United States and North Korea in Singapore, her spokeswoman told ABC News. The 48-year-old first lady has not been seen in public since May 10, when she and the president welcomed home three American detainees from North Korea.... Last week, as questions swirled about the state of her health and the hashtag #whereisMelania trended online, she tweeted that she was 'feeling great' and 'working hard on behalf of children and the American people.'... Last year, Melania Trump joined the president for his first G7 trip to Taormina, Italy, where she participated in public appearances...." Mrs. McC: Spoiler alert: in the final cliffhanger scene, a woman suspected to be Melanie Trump arrives at the port city of Koper, Slovenia, seeking asylum under the alias Melania Knauss. Production note: reports that the show's star Donald Drumpf is a corrupt criminal serial sex abuser have put production of Season 3 in jeopardy. ...

     ... Update. Kate Bennett of CNN: "First lady Melania Trump is expected to attend a White House event on Monday evening to honor Gold Star families, her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, confirms to CNN." Mrs. McC: Yeah, probably a body double. The White House can get away with that because "Monday's reception is closed to the press." Bet the Gold Star families have to leave their cell phones & cameras at the door. No photos for side-by-side comparisons. Just kidding.

G6 +1. AP: "The United States was singled out by some of its closest allies Saturday over the imposition of tariffs that they warn will undermine open trade and weaken confidence in the global economy. The dispute over U.S. President Donald Trump's new levies on steel and aluminum imports is driving a wedge in the G7 group of industrial nations.... Ministers urged the U.S. to abandon the tariffs ahead of the leaders' summit [next week] before the move causes deeper divisions within the G7.... Bruno Le Maire, France's finance and economy minister, was blunt in his assessment of the ... meeting [in Whistler, B.C., Canada], where ministers confronted [Steve] Mnuchin. 'It has been a tense and tough G7 -- I would say it's been far more a G6 plus one than a G7,'" --safari

Rick Noack of the Washington Post: The U.S., new ambassador to Germany, Richard "Grenell is being criticized over an interview with hard-right news site Breitbart in which he said he wants to 'empower' conservatives in Europe.... The comments were criticized both in the United States and in Europe for politicizing diplomacy with a core U.S. ally and as a further blow to transatlantic relations. The German foreign ministry said on Monday it was seeking 'clarification on whether the statements were actually made in the form they were given.' While Chancellor Angela Merkel is from the conservative Christian Democrats, that does not seem to be what the ambassador has in mind.... Grenell has called himself a 'big Merkel fan' in past interviews and credited her economic performance, but in regards to perhaps the most important criterion he listed to Breitbart -- migration -- Merkel stands for the exact opposite.... '... [Grenell] personally assured me that once he became ambassador he would stay out of politics. This interview is awful -- ambassadors aren't supposed to "empower" any political party overseas,' Democrat U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy wrote on Twitter. A U.S. ambassador who applauds the leader of a neighboring country [-- far-right Sebastian Kurz of Austria --] while indirectly appearing to criticize the leader of his host nation likely also wasn't what German officials had in mind when they urged Washington to name a new top diplomat earlier this year." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In the first place, no U.S. ambassador should be giving interviews to Breitbart. This is particular true of the ambassador to Germany, since Breitbart has a pro-neo-Nazi bias. A decent president would recall Grenell immediately & apologize to Angela Merkel, but we don't have a decent president.

New York Times Editors: The "chief reason" for the inadequate, slow response to Hurricane Maria's devastation of Puerto Rico "has been the perception in Washington, and especially in the White House, of Puerto Rico as a second-class United States territory where poverty, hardship and shoddy government are accepted as the norm. That was memorably underscored by President Trump in the aftermath of the hurricane, first in his callous tweets assailing the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz -- 'they want everything to be done for them' -- and then on his visit to the island, where he said Puerto Ricans should be 'very proud' that only 16 people had died, unlike the toll in a 'real catastrophe' like Katrina, which took 1,833 lives." A recent Harvard study "estimated 4,645 additional deaths through the end of the year -- a third of them people who died for lack of medical care.... When confronted with the Harvard study..., the White House spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, responded with more self-congratulation, claiming that the government had responded to Maria with the largest Federal Emergency Management Agency effort ever."

Pay and Play. Kiley Kroh of ThinkProgress: "[Scott] Pruitt saw coal executive Joe Craft at least seven times in his first 14 months as administrator, plus two additional scheduled appearances -- more meetings than Pruitt has had with any environmental group.... Pruitt and his son even enjoyed one of the biggest University of Kentucky basketball games of the season from Craft's plum seats last December. The EPA says Pruitt paid cash for the tickets, but he was accompanied by his own security detail as well as Kentucky state police.... Craft and his wife, Kelly Craft, donated more than $2 million to Trump's campaign and inauguration. Trump appointed Kelly Craft ambassador to Canada last October." --safari

Ali Watkins of the New York Times: As they inspect the nation's gun stores, federal investigators regularly find violations of the law, ranging from minor record-keeping errors to illegal sales of firearms. In the most serious cases, like a sale of a gun to a prohibited buyer, inspectors often recommend that gun dealers lose their licenses. But that rarely happens. Senior officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regularly overrule their own inspectors, allowing gun dealers who fail inspections to keep their licenses even after they were previously warned to follow the rules, according to interviews with more than half a dozen current and former law enforcement officials and a review of more than 100 inspection reports.... Of about 11,000 inspections of licensed firearm dealers in the year starting in October 2016, more than half were cited for violations. Less than 1 percent of all inspections resulted in the loss of a license.... The bureau has sidestepped the potential legal appeals and political fallout of revoking licenses by trying to work with gun dealers rather than close their stores.... The A.T.F. declined repeated requests for comment."

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Last week, Republicans responded with outrage after a Vice story noted that a Google algorithm listed 'Nazism' under the California state GOP's ideologies in its search results. On Sunday, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee [David 'dingleberry' Nunes] threatened to retaliate against the company with congressional hearings and called for the creation of a conservative Internet search engine to take Google's place." --safari

Congressional Race. Dan Helmer, a candidate for a Virginia Congressional seat, faces off against Fox "News"' Pete Hegseth, whom Trump considered for Secretary of the Veterans Administration until veterans' groups rose up in horror:

Peter Maas of The Intercept: "This is a tale of two defendants and two systems of justice.... Arrested a year ago today, on June 3, 2017, [Reality] Winner was accused of leaking an NSA document that showed how Russians tried to hack American voting systems in 2016. The alleged leak -- Winner has pleaded not guilty -- came at a time when there was far greater doubt than now about Russian attempts to tip the presidential election. Her case is related to [Paul] Manafort's in this sense: While Manafort is suspected of aiding the Russian effort, Winner is accused of warning Americans about it.... Even though she has been indicted on just one count of leaking classified information and faces far less prison time than Manafort, the judge in her case decided she was a flight risk and denied her bail.... Manafort avoided jail by posting $10 million in bond, though he was confined to his luxury condo in Alexandria, Virginia.... [For a party, a judge allowed] Manafort [to go to] his Christmas getaway in the Hamptons." --safari

Julie Steenhuysen of Reuters: "Some 70 percent of women with early-stage breast cancer and an intermediate risk of cancer recurrence can safely skip chemotherapy after their tumors have been removed, U.S. researchers said on Sunday." --safari

Gabriel Dance, et al., of the New York Times: "As Facebook sought to become the world's dominant social media service, it struck agreements allowing phone and other device makers access to vast amounts of its users' personal information. Facebook has reached data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 device makers -- including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung -- over the last decade.... The deals, most of which remain in effect, allowed Facebook to expand its reach and let device makers offer customers popular features of the social network, such as messaging, 'like' buttons and address books. But the partnerships, whose scope has not previously been reported, raise concerns about the company's privacy protections and compliance with a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission. Facebook allowed the device companies access to the data of users' friends without their explicit consent, even after declaring that it would no longer share such information with outsiders." ...

... Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "While [Facebook] has introduced several measures to improve the transparency of political ads on its platform, some groups and individuals appear to be finding ways to flout the new restrictions -- and Facebook has not been able to catch them." Frenkel cites the example of a California Congressional race in which Facebook allowed a targeted fake "news" story to run for a month without labeling it a political ad or disclosing who paid for it. "In total, [the political advertiser] Sierra Nevada Revolution ran 29 Facebook ads in May aimed at swaying people's votes in California's primary, according to Facebook's ad archive," without identifying the ads' sponsors.

Reuters: "Some 80 pieces of plastic rubbish weighing eight kg (17 lb) were found in the stomach of a whale that died in Thailand after a five-day effort to save it, a marine official said on Sunday.... Globally, eight million tonnes of plastic - bottles, packaging and other waste - are dumped into the ocean every year." --safari

"Capitalism is Awesome" Ctd. Julia Lurie of Mother Jones: "The medication was called Subsys, and its key ingredient, fentanyl, is a synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than morphine.... To boost [sales], the manager allegedly advised [the sales representatives] to 'behave more sexually toward pain-management physicians, to stroke their hands while literally begging for prescriptions,' and to ask for the prescriptions as a 'favor.'.... [The] pharmaceutical company Insys, is one of a handful of potent, highly regulated prescription fentanyl brands ... approv[ed] from the Food and Drug Administration in early 2012, Insys' growth has been meteoric. In the spring of 2013, the company went public; by the end of the year, it was the nation's best-performing IPO. By 2015, revenue from Subsys was approaching $500 million.... All the while, a handful of Insys employees were quietly filing whistleblower lawsuits ... alleging that the addictive drug was marketed to patients who suffered from all kinds of pain -- not just cancer patients with breakthrough pain -- and detailing dubious sales tactics.... [T]he DOJ's criminal investigation of Insys and its top executives is ... underway." --safari

Beyond the Beltway

Tom Boggioni of Raw Story: "Four years after protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri ... the attorney germinal [sic.] for the state has issued a report that shows that African-Americans are 85 percent likely to be pulled over than whites by a cop, reports Atlanta Black Star.... According to the report, white motorists were less likely to be searched ... but more likely to be busted with contraband such as weapons and drugs." --safari

Thomas Novelly of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "Bell County high school student and valedictorian Ben Bowling wanted to share some words of wisdom with his graduating class.... 'This is the part of my speech where I share some inspirational quotes I found on Google,' Bowling said in his speech. "'Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table." - Donald J. Trump.' The crowd burst into applause. 'Just kidding,' Bowling said. 'That was Barack Obama.' The 18-year-old valedictorian said the crowd quickly went silent. Bell County, which is located in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth near the Tennessee border, overwhelmingly supported Trump in ... 2016...."

Way Beyond

Reuters: "North Korea's top three military officials have been removed from their posts, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday, as ... Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un prepare to meet on June 12 in Singapore. The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was commenting on a report by South Korea's Yonhap news agency that all three of the North's top military officials were believed to have been replaced.... U.S. officials believe there was some dissension in the military about Kim's approaches to South Korea and the United States.... South Korea's unification and defense ministries declined to confirm the report...."

News Lede

New York Times: "A volcano erupted near Guatemala's capital on Sunday, killing at least 25 people and leaving many more missing, officials and the local news media reported. Volcán de Fuego exploded on Sunday morning, and volcanic ash was later seen billowing in the area[.]"

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Saturday
Jun022018

The Commentariat -- June 3, 2018

The Absolute Power of King Donald

... Richard Nixon, speaking for the Trump defense ...

** Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump's lawyers have for months quietly waged a campaign to keep the special counsel from trying to force him to answer questions in the investigation into whether he obstructed justice, asserting that he cannot be compelled to testify and arguing in a confidential letter that he could not possibly have committed obstruction because he has unfettered authority over all federal investigations. In a brash assertion of presidential power, the 20-page letter -- sent to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III [in January 2018], and obtained by The New York Times -- contends that the president cannot illegally obstruct any aspect of the investigation into Russia's election meddling because the Constitution empowers him to, 'if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.'... Mr. Trump's broad interpretation of executive authority is novel and is likely to be tested if a court battle ensues over whether he could be ordered to answer questions. The letter also lays out a series of claims that foreshadow a potential subpoena fight that could unfold in the months leading into November's midterm elections.... Mr. Trump's defense is a wide-ranging interpretation of presidential power.... But the lawyers based those arguments on an outdated statute, without mentioning that Congress passed a broader law in 2002 that makes it a crime to obstruct proceedings that have not yet started.... In making their arguments, Mr. Trump's lawyers also revealed new details about the investigation." ...

     ... Here are the letters from Trump's lawyers, dated Jan. 29, 2018 & June 23, 2017, with annotations by NYT reporters. ...

... Larry Tribe, appearing on MSNBC, called the January letter "all really nonsense." ...

... David Nather of Axios: "The lawyers added a significant admission -- that Trump dictated the statement to the New York Times that said the 2016 Trump Tower meeting, in which Donald Trump Jr. and other advisers met with a Russian who was said to have dirt on Hillary Clinton, was 'primarily' about adoption issues. Trump's lawyers said the statement was 'short but accurate.'" ...

... Junior Lied to Congress. David Corn of Mother Jones: "This is the first time Trump and his lawyers have conceded that he is responsible for the statement [about Junior's infamous meeting to get dirt on Clinton].... The sentence is also striking in that it undercuts the veracity of Trump Jr.'s testimony to Congress.... Trump Jr. certainly did not inform the [Senate] committee that his father had dictated the statement. In fact, he made it seem as if Trump was marginally involved, if at all.... Trump Jr.'s remarks to the committee conveyed an inaccurate impression and can be seen as an attempt to provide cover for his pop. They might even be considered false statements.... On Saturday afternoon, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), a member of the House intelligence committee, tweeted, 'Donald Trump is lying or Donald Trump, Jr. lied during the House Intel investigation.'... Castro was referring to Trump Jr.'s testimony before his committee, not the Senate Judiciary Committee. This testimony has not been made public, but the tweet suggests that Trump Jr. took a similar line when he spoke to the House committee...." ...

... Sekulow & Sanders Lied to the Public. Marshall Cohen of CNN: "In their public responses to the news reports ... [of the Trump Tower meeting, Donald Trump's attorney Jay] Sekulow and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders denied Trump [Sr.]'s role. The letter revealed on Saturday puts to bed the question of Trump's involvement, but it doesn't erase the previous denials from the record. Here are those examples.... Sekulow, CNN interview, 7/12/17: 'That was written, no that was written by Donald Trump Jr. and I'm sure with consultation with his lawyer. That wasn't written by the president.'... [Plus 3 more lies.] White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, daily press briefing, 8/1/17: He certainly didn't dictate, but he -- like I said, he weighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Mueller's team of course has been aware of these lies to the Congressional committees & to public since at least January 29, 2018, when it received the letter from Sekulow & former Trump attorney John Dowd. Trump Sr. certainly directed Sekulow's & Sanders' misstatements, thus again betraying a "consciousness of guilt." Had there been nothing to hide, Trump Sr. would not have written a false cover story -- the meeting was about adoptions! -- in response to questions by NYT reporters. ...

... Noah Lanard of Mother Jones: "Just before the New York Times published the letter [yesterday], Trump attacked the ongoing Russia investigation by accusing Justice Department officials of leaking:... 'There was No Collusion with Russia (except by the Democrats). When will this very expensive Witch Hunt Hoax ever end? So bad for our Country. Is the Special Counsel/Justice Department leaking my lawyers letters to the Fake News Media? Should be looking at Dems corruption instead?'" Mrs. McC: Since the Mueller team doesn't leak, and since the letters are naturally written in service of Trump, it's most likely that Trump's own team leaked them. ...

... Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "... Rudy Giuliani threatened a legal battle with special counsel Robert Mueller if he attempts to subpoena Donald Trump. 'If Mueller tries to subpoena us, we're going to court,' Giuliani told ABC News. His latest comments come on the heels of the publication of a 20-page confidential letter sent by Trump's lawyers to Mueller arguing that the president cannot legally obstruct justice in the Russia investigation due to his position as 'chief law enforcement officer.'" ...

... Jonathan Chait: "For most of Donald Trump's presidency, the specter of a coming constitutional crisis has loomed over the Russia investigation. The newly leaked memo by Trump's lawyers ... suggests that such a crisis is not merely a likelihood, but that it has already begun. The memo proposes several tendentious interpretations of the publicly available facts of Trump's behavior, along with some legally questionable and amateurish citations of precedent. But the most important passage is its sweeping assertion of presidential authority.... 'Put simply, the Constitution leaves no question that the President has exclusive authority over the ultimate conduct and disposition of all criminal investigations and over those executive branch officials responsible for conducting those investigations.'... This is l'état, c'est moi rendered as a formal legal case.... Before this is over, either Trump's sweeping claim will survive, or the rule of law will, but not both."

Tom McCarthy of the Guardian consults experts on whether or not Trump's attacks on the DOJ & FBI "represent a threat to democracy.... Shortly after Trump's election, Amy Siskind, a former Wall Street executive, started a website called The Weekly List, seeking to catalogue news stories documenting 'eroding norms under the current regime'. The site, which Siskind said gets up to a million visitors a week and which this year produced a book blurbed by current Trump target Samantha Bee, bears this tagline: 'Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you'll remember.'"

Russia Urges You to Wish Trump a Happy Birthday & Hate People of Other Races. Tim Johnson of McClatchy News: "A new Russian influence operation has surfaced that mirrors some of the activity of an internet firm that the FBI says was deeply involved in efforts to sway the 2016 U.S. elections, a cybersecurity firm says. A website called usareally.com appeared on the internet May 17 and called on Americans to rally in front of the White House June 14 to celebrate ... Donald Trump's birthday, which is also Flag Day. FireEye, a Milpitas, Calif., cybersecurity company, said Thursday that USA Really is a Russian-operated website that carries content designed to foment racial division, harden feelings over immigration, gun control and police brutality, and undermine social cohesion. The website's operators once worked out of the same office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency had its headquarters, said Lee Foster, manager of information operations analysis for FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence." (Also linked yesterday.)

Trey-Trey Finds out the GOP Can't Handle the Truth. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Rep. Trey Gowdy has been a pitbull investigator for Republicans for years. Now, he's is in ... Donald Trump's doghouse for daring to challenge the president's unsupported claim that Democrats and their sympathizers in the FBI embedded a spy in his 2016 campaign. Trump allies have been pummeling Gowdy in recent days, branding him a gullible or clueless backer of the intelligence community. Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, labeled him 'uninformed.' Another Trump-tied attorney, Victoria Toensing, said Gowdy 'doesn't know diddly-squat' about the particulars of federal investigations. And Fox News host Lou Dobbs tagged him a 'RINO' -- a term for a fake Republican.... Now, after years shouldering the House GOP's weightiest and most politically explosive investigations, he's again drawn the ire of Trump-world. And this time, he's virtually alone, getting little support from his House colleagues." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Mark Landler & David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump never tires of pointing out that his predecessors left him the 'mess' of a nuclear-armed North Korea -- a legacy of errors he vows not to repeat. But as Mr. Trump announced Friday that his summit meeting with Kim Jong-un was back on, there were moments when he echoed Bill Clinton in his failed effort to settle another North Korea crisis nearly a quarter century ago. Rather than sticking with the demand that North Korea disarm immediately, Mr. Trump opened the door to a prolonged freeze on the North's existing nuclear capability, with vague declarations that disarmament will follow. That is essentially the deal Mr. Clinton embarked on with Mr. Kim's grandfather, Kim Il-sung, in 1994. Rather than warning that he would keep the younger Mr. Kim's feet to the fire with sanctions until he complies, Mr. Trump said after meeting in the Oval Office with North Korea's spy chief that he no longer wanted to use the term 'maximum pressure,' a phrase drilled into the vocabulary of his aides for the past year. And rather than keeping a single-minded focus on nuclear weapons, Mr. Trump suggested that the most tangible outcome of his meeting in Singapore might be some kind of peace agreement to formally end the Korean War -- a lofty idea that featured in a 2005 joint statement that inaugurated George W. Bush's failed effort with Kim Jong-il, the current leader's father, to halt the North's nuclear progress."

Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis harshly criticized the Chinese government on Saturday for its continuing militarization of a string of islands in the South China Sea, calling the new presence of advanced military equipment and missiles there a flagrant show of military power. 'Despite China's claims to the contrary, the placement of these weapons systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion,' Mr. Mattis said during a speech on Saturday at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security conference. Mr. Mattis recently disinvited the Chinese military from a large, multinational naval exercise this summer due in part to China's positioning of those weapons, including antiship and surface-to-air missiles, on the Spratly Islands."

Crooked Trumpery. Paul Krugman: "Even if you believe in the sanctity of free markets -- which you shouldn't -- you should recognize that markets are now driving a great transition to clean energy. So is the Trump administration accepting this market verdict? Of course not: as with trade, it's abusing powers granted to defend national security on behalf of destructive policies that have nothing to do with security. In this case, it's planning to force clean energy to subsidize dirty energy. Why? Probably the main reason is sheer corruption: coal moguls are key Trump backers, and he's trying to reward them. But there's also, I suspect, the sheer meanspiritedness that characterizes modern conservatism: 'Liberals want clean energy? Hah! We'll show them!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Eric Levitz: "As with so many other myths about American conservatism, the Trump era has turned the GOP's supposed reverence for 'small government' into dark comedy.... Now, the Trump administration is preparing to unilaterally bestow massive subsidies on unprofitable coal companies by invoking extraordinary executive powers that can only be legally exercised in the context of a national-security emergency.... More fundamentally, propping up the coal industry on 'national security' grounds is patently absurd, given that the Pentagon has named climate change as a leading threat to national security.... The Trump administration is ... trying to bail out failing coal plants for ... its corporate donors' financial benefit.... The Trump administration is proposing measures that would hurt voters economically and damage the environment simultaneously."

Medlar's Sports Report. Lindsay Gibbs of ThinkProgress: "... a Wall Street Journal report confirmed what most have long suspected: That ... Donald Trump's public outrage about NFL players protesting police brutality and systemic racism during the national anthem at football games heavily influenced NFL owners to change the rule, and discouraged them from signing players who would protest.... Mark Geragos, the lawyer representing [Colin] Kaepernick in his collusion lawsuit against the NFL..., believes that both the anthem rule change and the information about Trump's influence on NFL owners will go a long way towards helping him prove that the NFL and NFL owners colluded to keep Kaepernick out of the NFL, despite the fact that he had the talent to be a starting quarterback in the league. Geragos also believes that Trump's direct influence over NFL owners on this issue violates federal law. U.S. Code 227 says that members of Congress or the executive branch cannot 'wrongfully influence a private entity's employment decision ... solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation.'"

Stephanie Nebehay of Reuters: "Poverty in the United States is extensive and deepening under the Trump administration whose policies seem aimed at removing the safety net from millions of poor people, while rewarding the rich, a U.N. human rights investigator has found. Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty, called on U.S. authorities to provide solid social protection and address underlying problems, rather than 'punishing and imprisoning the poor'. While welfare benefits and access to health insurance are being slashed..., Donald Trump's tax reform has awarded 'financial windfalls' to the mega-rich and large companies, further increasing inequality, he said in a report. U.S. policies since President Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty in the 1960s have been 'neglectful at best,' he said. 'But the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship.'..."

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The lobbyist whose wife rented a $50-a-night condo to Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has revised his disclosure reports after his firm concluded he had not properly disclosed additional efforts to influence Mr. Pruitt and the agency -- including appeals when Mr. Pruitt was living in the condo. The lobbying firm, Williams & Jensen, has refiled lobbying disclosure reports from 2017 to acknowledge that Steve Hart, the firm's former chairman, lobbied the E.P.A. on behalf of Coca-Cola and a government board from Puerto Rico helping the island address its fiscal debts. Lobbyists are legally required to disclose which agencies they target and the topic of their lobbying work. The revisions come after an outside review of the activities of Mr. Hart, whose wife, Vicki Hart, rented the condo to Mr. Pruitt. The E.P.A. chief lived in the unit from shortly after his confirmation in February 2017 until August 2017. Previously, both Mr. Hart and Mr. Pruitt -- in defending the condo lease as not representing a conflict of interest -- had said that Mr. Hart never lobbied Mr. Pruitt." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Congressional Race. Fever Swamp Edition. Steve M. As the HuffPost reported, 'Nathan Larson, a 37-year-old accountant from Charlottesville, Virginia, is running for Congress as an independent candidate in his native state. He is also a pedophile, as he admitted to HuffPost on Thursday, who has bragged in website posts about raping his late ex-wife. In a phone call, Larson confirmed that he created the now-defunct websites suiped.org and incelocalypse.today ― chat rooms that served as gathering places for pedophiles and violence-minded misogynists like himself....' Larson is eligible to run for office because he lives in Virginia, where former governor Terry McAuliffe restored voting privileges to released felons, and also restored their eligibility to run for office. (Headline at the Daily Caller: 'PEDOPHILE WHO THREATENED TO KILL PRESIDENT NOW RUNNING FOR CONGRESS THANKS TO TERRY MCAULIFFE.' The photo accompanying the article is one of McAuliffe, not Larson. The president Larson threatened to kill was, by the way, Barack Obama. Larson's felony conviction was in that case.)"

Beyond the Beltway

Kris Kobach Is Still an Idiot. Hunter Woodall & Mike Hendricks of the Kansas City Star: "Kris Kobach [-- Kansas AG & candidate for governor] made his way through a parade in Johnson County Saturday morning, waving from an American flag colored jeep with a large gun mounted in back. The city of Shawnee later issued an apology for Kobach's display.... [Parade-goers & social media commenters] found the display inappropriate in a crowd filled with kids at a time when many of them ... are scared that they might be victims of a school shooting.... Kobach's campaign was quick to defend the candidate's decision to wave at the crowd standing next to what appeared to be a .50 caliber machine gun. 'The gun is a replica,' Kobach spokeswoman Danedri Herbert said in a text message. 'The Secretary says those who use the excuse of school violence to restrict the right to bear arms are deeply misguided. We need to stand up for ou Second Amendment rights and recognize the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.'"

Way Beyond

David Herszenhorn of Politico: "Spanish socialist leader Pedro Sánchez was sworn in as prime minister Saturday morning by King Felipe VI. The new premier took the oath of office at a ceremony at the Zarzuela Palace on the outskirts of Madrid. According to El Pais, it is the first time the ceremony was conducted without Bible or crucifix. Sánchez used the word 'promise' rather than 'swear' in taking the oath of office, in accordance with legal language adopted to allow separation between church and state.... Sánchez won enough backing in parliament Friday for a motion of no confidence in his predecessor Mariano Rajoy, shortly after a court ruling in a graft scandal involving former officials from the prime minister’s Popular Party. Rajoy is the first Spanish leader ever to be ousted in a no-confidence vote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

AND It Turns out Sherlock Holmes Is a Man of Action. Shannon van Sant of NPR: "Actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays detective Sherlock Holmes in the television series Sherlock, foiled an attempted robbery by fighting off a gang of muggers in London. The attack occurred near his fictional character's home on Baker Street. Cumberbatch and his wife, Sophie Hunter, were riding in an Uber when the 41-year-old actor spotted the attempted mugging on Marylebone High Street and jumped out of the vehicle. Four muggers were attacking a Deliveroo cyclist and attempting to steal his bicycle. According to witnesses, Cumberbatch screamed at the attackers and then dragged them off of the victim."

News Lede

New York Times: "Rescuers said on Sunday that dozens of migrants had drowned off the coasts of Tunisia and Turkey, while hundreds had been rescued off Spain, as the flow of people seeking to get to Europe continued despite tightened controls. At least 46 migrants died when their boat sank off Tunisia's coast, the country's Defense Ministry said on Sunday. The Coast Guard rescued 67 others, and the operation was continuing, the ministry said in a statement."

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Friday
Jun012018

The Commentariat -- June 2, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Trey-Trey Finds out the GOP Can't Handle the Truth. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Rep. Trey Gowdy has been a pitbull investigator for Republicans for years. Now, he's is in ... Donald Trump's doghouse for daring to challenge the president's unsupported claim that Democrats and their sympathizers in the FBI embedded a spy in his 2016 campaign. Trump allies have been pummeling Gowdy in recent days, branding him a gullible or clueless backer of the intelligence community. Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, labeled him 'uninformed.' Another Trump-tied attorney, Victoria Toensing, said Gowdy 'doesn't know diddly-squat' about the particulars of federal investigations. And Fox News host Lou Dobbs tagged him a 'RINO' -- a term for a fake Republican.... Now, after years shouldering the House GOP's weightiest and most politically explosive investigations, he's again drawn the ire of Trump-world. And this time, he's virtually alone, getting little support from his House colleagues."

Crooked Trumpery. Paul Krugman: "Even if you believe in the sanctity of free markets -- which you shouldn't -- you should recognize that markets are now driving a great transition to clean energy. So is the Trump administration accepting this market verdict? Of course not: as with trade, it's abusing powers granted to defend national security on behalf of destructive policies that have nothing to do with security. In this case, it's planning to force clean energy to subsidize dirty energy. Why? Probably the main reason is sheer corruption: coal moguls are key Trump backers, and he's trying to reward them. But there's also, I suspect, the sheer meanspiritedness that characterizes modern conservatism: 'Liberals want clean energy? Hah! We'll show them!'"

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The lobbyist whose wife rented a $50-a-night condo to Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has revised his disclosure reports after his firm concluded he had not properly disclosed additional efforts to influence Mr. Pruitt and the agency -- including appeals when Mr. Pruitt was living in the condo. The lobbying firm, Williams & Jensen, has refiled lobbying disclosure reports from 2017 to acknowledge that Steve Hart, the firm's former chairman, lobbied the E.P.A. on behalf of Coca-Cola and a government board from Puerto Rico helping the island address its fiscal debts. Lobbyists are legally required to disclose which agencies they target and the topic of their lobbying work. The revisions come after an outside review of the activities of Mr. Hart, whose wife, Vicki Hart, rented the condo to Mr. Pruitt. The E.P.A. chief lived in the unit from shortly after his confirmation in February 2017 until August 2017. Previously, both Mr. Hart and Mr. Pruitt -- in defending the condo lease as not representing a conflict of interest -- had said that Mr. Hart never lobbied Mr. Pruitt."

Russia Urges You to Wish Trump a Happy Birthday & Hate People of Other Races. Tim Johnson of McClatchy News: "A new Russian influence operation has surfaced that mirrors some of the activity of an internet firm that the FBI says was deeply involved in efforts to sway the 2016 U.S. elections, a cybersecurity firm says. A website called usareally.com appeared on the internet May 17 and called on Americans to rally in front of the White House June 14 to celebrate ... Donald Trump's birthday, which is also Flag Day. FireEye, a Milpitas, Calif., cybersecurity company, said Thursday that USA Really is a Russian-operated website that carries content designed to foment racial division, harden feelings over immigration, gun control and police brutality, and undermine social cohesion. The website's operators once worked out of the same office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency had its headquarters, said Lee Foster, manager of information operations analysis for FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence."

David Herszenhorn of Politico: "Spanish socialist leader Pedro Sánchez was sworn in as prime minister Saturday morning by King Felipe VI. The new premier took the oath of office at a ceremony at the Zarzuela Palace on the outskirts of Madrid. According to El Pais, it is the first time the ceremony was conducted without a Bible or crucifix. Sánchez used the word 'promise' rather than 'swear' in taking the oath of office, in accordance with legal language adopted to allow separation between church and state.... Sánchez won enough backing in parliament Friday for a motion of no confidence in his predecessor Mariano Rajoy, shortly after a court ruling in a graft scandal involving former officials from the prime minister's Popular Party. Rajoy is the first Spanish leader ever to be ousted in a no-confidence vote."

*****

Max Greenwood of the Hill: "The White House is preparing for a potential summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Jon Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, is helping to set up the meeting, though the planning is still in its early stages, the Journal reported." Mrs. McC: Great. Bob Mueller can burst in with a gang of G-men & arrest them both. Perfect season finale.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Friday that the summit meeting he had canceled with North Korea's leader would be held after all, the latest twist in a nuclear-edged diplomatic drama that has captivated and confused much of the world.... The reversal followed an Oval Office meeting on Friday afternoon with a high-ranking North Korean envoy who delivered a personal letter from Mr. Kim to Mr. Trump. The envoy, Kim Yong-chol, the former North Korean intelligence chief and top nuclear arms negotiator, became the first North Korean official to set foot in the White House since 2000 and only the second ever to meet with a sitting American president." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "In a lavish show of hospitality, Trump escorted his visitor, a former spy chief and general who is under US sanctions, outside the White House for more informal talks and to pose for photographs with the North Korean delegation. Trump also appeared to accept the North Korean position that its denuclearisation would be a drawn-out process, and not an all-in-one surrender of the regime's nuclear arsenal, Trump officials had previously demanded.... In a dramatic downgrading of expectations from the summit, Trump said Singapore meeting would be a 'getting-to-know-you meeting, plus'.... The president said that North Korea's human rights record was not discussed in the meeting.... Kim was welcomed at the south lawn entrance in front of massed ranks of cameras and escorted to the Oval Office, where the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, was waiting with Trump. The ceremonial arrival represented a propaganda coup for a regime that has endured decades of isolation."; ...

... Trump Touts a "Nice," "Interesting" Letter He Hasn't Read. Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "President Trump figuratively dangled a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in front of reporters on Friday, as he confirmed that a June 12 summit is back on. 'That letter was a very nice letter,' Trump said at a White House news conference. 'Oh, would you like to see what was in that letter. Wouldn't you like? How much? How much? How much?' When a journalist asked whether the president could 'just give us the flavor of what the letter said,' Trump said, 'It was a very interesting letter. At some point, it may be appropriate and maybe I'll be able to give it to you, maybe.' A few minutes later, however, Trump said he hadn't even opened the letter, which was delivered by Kim Yong Chol, a high-ranking North Korean official who previously directed that country's spy agency." ...

... Some people thought Little Kim's Big Letter was ever so funny.

Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday broke with decades of protocol and commented publicly about the highly anticipated jobs report data 69 minutes before they were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Treasury yields moved sharply higher within seconds of a tweet from Trump that said he was 'looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning.' He had never issued such a tweet before. Bloomberg News data also showed that the value of the U.S. dollar moved sharply higher after the Twitter post compared with previous trades the mornings jobs data are released. That means traders were probably making investment decisions based on signals they took from Trump's post." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Now, as Donald signals he'll pardon Martha for a crime associated with insider trading, would be a good time for the feds to see whether or not any of Donald's phone friends made surprisingly excellent market moves in the hours between the time Trump got federal BLS reports & when those reports were made public. If they can't get him on "collusion" with Russia, maybe they can get Trump on insider trading. ...

... In her usual long-winded manner, Rachel Maddow introduces us to Trump's new BFF, Kim Yong Chol. He is, unlike Trump, a very talented guy. But not, for most of the world, in a good way:

... Russell Berman of the Atlantic: "To say the jobs report is closely held is an understatement. It is treated as a state secret until the moment the data is released to the public, so that no stock trader -- whether in the U.S. or abroad -- can get even the slightest advantage over anyone else.... There's even a federal rule barring employees of the executive branch from commenting on leading economic indicators, including the monthly jobs report, until an hour after they are released. Trump has broken this rule before, tweeting about a positive jobs report at 8:45 a.m. ET last August.... 'There is a big question about who he privately leaks data to and that should be investigated, tweeted Betsey Stevenson, formerly the chief economist at the Labor Department during the Obama administration."

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday lashed out at Samantha Bee.... 'Why aren't they firing no talent Samantha Bee for the horrible language used on her low ratings show? A total double standard but that's O.K., we are Winning, and will be doing so for a long time to come!'... Bee apologized Thursday for describing Ivanka Trump with a vulgarity on her show 'Full Frontal,' saying it was 'inappropriate and inexcusable' and that she had 'crossed a line.'... TBS later apologized in a separate statement.... Ivanka Trump ... sparked online outrage Sunday when she tweeted a photo of herself with her younger son around the same time as reports circulated that the U.S. government had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children last year." Mrs. McC: Obviously, the "double standard" begins at 1600 Pa. Ave., with a president who condoned Roseanne Barr's racist remark but is infuriated by Bee's sexist language. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Bill Maher explains jokes to idiots:

John Harwood of CNBC: "... Donald Trump has embarked on an unorthodox follow-up to cutting the taxes American families pay: raising the prices of goods they buy. Higher prices will result directly from tariffs the White House plans to impose on steel and aluminum imports from allies such as Canada, Mexico and the European Union as well as other countries. The White House acknowledges that effect, while arguing the price increases will be tiny. But combined with additional tariffs against other imports from China and retaliatory steps by our trading partners, the measures Trump announced promise to make an impact. And mainstream economists across the political spectrum agree it will be negative.... Mark Zandi, an independent economist at Moody's Analytics..., estimated the net effects of trade conflicts Trump has initiated at 0.2 percent in reduced economic growth, 250,000 in lost jobs, and $210 in higher costs for an average family. Such a reduction in growth would wipe out half the projected boost in growth from the tax cuts Trump and the GOP Congress enacted last December.... The arithmetic could get worse. Also in the name of national security, the Trump administration is investigating whether to slap 25 percent tariffs on imported cars." ...

... AP: "French President Emmanuel Macron has told ... Donald Trump that the new U.S. tariffs on European, Mexican and Canadian goods are illegal and a 'mistake.'... The European Union is planning retaliatory tariffs on U.S. steel and food goods in the coming weeks, once it calculates the exact cost to EU companies of the U.S. tariffs. Macron pledged the riposte would be 'firm' and 'proportionate' and in line with World Trade Organization rules.... As its first step to challenge the U.S. tariffs, the EU on Friday formally filed a request for consultations at the WTO. The two sides will discuss the matter and try to reach a deal. If that fails to solve the matter, after 60 days the EU can ask a WTO panel to rule on the case. The EU's trade chief, Cecilia Malmstrom, said that the U.S. decision to impose tariffs 'is further weakening the Trans-Atlantic relations.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "ZTE Corporation struck a contract with D.C. lobbying and public relations powerhouse Mercury Public Affairs on May 14, a day after Trump tweeted that he would consider lifting the penalties that had been imposed on the company as punishment for its violation of sanctions against Iran and North Korea. The Mercury consultant working on the account is Bryan Lanza, a veteran of the Trump 2016 presidential campaign. Less than two weeks after Lanza's work began, the Trump administration announced that it had reached a tentative deal to ease those penalties, a move criticized by lawmakers of both parties.... The swiftness of the Trump administration's efforts to reach an agreement with the company -- and the equally swift decision of that company to bring on a prominent Trumpworld figure -- underscores the new world of influence peddling in Washington D.C."

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "... by choosing to pardon political supporters whose cases largely failed to meet the basic guidelines for pardons, Mr. Trump could turn a slow and imperfect system into an unequal and unjust one, both liberal and conservative advocates warn, in which those with fame, money or access to the president's ear are first in line to receive clemency." ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Dinesh D'Souza, the conservative author and filmmaker pardoned by President Trump, claimed victory on Friday over what he characterized as a political prosecution by the administration of President Barack Obama.... Carrie H. Cohen, then an assistant United States attorney who prosecuted Mr. D'Souza, noted on Friday that a judge considered the claim and rejected it. 'The court found no evidence to support D'Souza's claim that he was selectively prosecuted,' she said in an interview."

Jennifer Dlouhy of Bloomberg: "Trump administration officials are making plans to order grid operators to buy electricity from struggling coal and nuclear plants in an effort to extend their life, a move that could represent an unprecedented intervention into U.S. energy markets. Although the memo describes a planned Energy Department directive, there was no indication ... Donald Trump had signed off on the action nor when any order might be issued." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Update. Oh, Here's the "Indication." Steve Mufson of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday ordered Energy Secretary Rick Perry to halt the shutdown of ailing coal and nuclear power plants that he said were needed to maintain the nation's energy mix, grid resilience and national security.... The Trump administration has been preparing to invoke emergency powers granted under Cold War-era legislation to order regional grid operators to buy electricity from ailing coal and nuclear power plants.... The idea of declaring an emergency under the Defense Production Act of 1950 ... and Section 202 of the Federal Power Act has been promoted by the chief executives of the coal-mining firm Murray Energy and the Ohio utility FirstEnergy, both of whom have contributed heavily to Trump's political activities.... The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an independent agency, unanimously rejected an earlier proposal by the Energy Department that would have favored coal and nuclear plants.... Environmental groups, natural-gas producers, and Republicans and Democrats who have pushed for greater competition in electricity markets all condemned the latest signal that the administration might be moving closer to imposing the Energy Department's plan." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you're thinking of using the Trump/Perry "energy" model to teach the kids how corruption works, be sure to throw in the Scott Pruitt/Joseph Craft example, which Steve Eder, et al., of the NYT outline in the story linked below. ...

... Steve Mufson & David Lynch of the Washington Post: "President Trump is increasingly intervening in the economy, making decisions about corporate winners and losers in ways that Republicans for decades have insisted should be left to free markets -- not the government. The shift amounts to a major change in the GOP's approach to the management of the economy, and it promises to shape the success of everything from American agriculture and manufacturing to the companies that produce the nation's electricity. On Friday, citing national security, Trump ordered the Energy Department to compel power-grid operators to buy from ailing coal and nuclear plants that otherwise would be forced to shut down because of competition from cheaper sources. The order came one day after the president imposed historic metals tariffs on some of the country's strongest allies and trading partners. Now the Commerce Department is further picking winners and losers as it weighs thousands of requests from companies for waivers from the import taxes. 'It replaces the invisible hand with the government hand,' said Mary Lovely, a Syracuse University economist. 'You're replacing the market with government fiat.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The reporters, exercising their best both-sides-do-it journalistic skills, write, "Of course, Trump isn't the only one to tinker with market forces. President Barack Obama backed subsidies for wind and solar power. And about 30 states have adopted laws mandating minimum purchases of renewable energy. Obama also won passage of a health-care reform package that created winners and losers." But improving the world's climate & Americans' health is in no shape or form the same as rewarding big donors for worsening the world's climate & Americans' health. There was never any suggestion that the Obama administration chose "winners & losers" based upon who was contributing the most to Obama and his Cabinet members. One of these things is not like the other. Trump & crew are intervening in the economy for corrupt purposes, & they comprise a fine example of how authoritarian governments disregard the best interests of the nation for their own gain.

John Brennan, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The esteem with which I held the presidency was dealt a serious blow when Donald Trump took office. Almost immediately, I began to see a startling aberration from the remarkable, though human, presidents I had served[: Bush I, Bill Clinton, Bush II & Barack Obama].... Mr. Trump ... has shown highly abnormal behavior by lying routinely to the American people without compunction, intentionally fueling divisions in our country and actively working to degrade the imperfect but critical institutions that serve us.... On the international front, Mr. Trump pursues policies that are rooted in uninformed campaign promises, a determination to upend actions of his predecessors and an aversion to multilateral engagements. His ad hoc and frequently impulsive approach to national security is short-sighted and dangerous.... As someone who had the rare privilege of directly serving four presidents, I will continue to speak out loudly and critically until integrity, decency, wisdom — and maybe even some humility -- return to the White House."

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Dominique Jackson of the Raw Story: "Berkeley, California attorney Alexander Stern, released a bombshell report on Friday that suggests ... Donald Trump may be under a sealed indictment without even knowing. The report gathered eight leading criminal law professors across the country. The Department of Justice has argued that indicting President Trump could distract him from his presidential duties, but Stern said a sealed indictment could take away that concern.... A sealed indictment would remove the statute of limitation concern." Stern's analysis is here. Mrs. McC: I've been suggesting this for a long time. However, it's only a theory. There's no evidence Mueller has actually requested an indictment Trump, & I doubt he would do so until his team was wrapping up its investigation.

Carol Lee & Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "A close friend of Jared Kushner has come under scrutiny by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for his proximity to some key meetings between Trump associates and foreign officials, according to five people familiar with the matter. Richard Gerson, a hedge-fund manager in New York, was in the Seychelles in January 2017, less than two weeks before ... Donald Trump's inauguration and around the time Trump associate Erik Prince secretly met with Russian and United Arab Emirates officials, including Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, four of the people said. While in the remote Indian Ocean island nation, Gerson met with Prince Mohammed -- also known by his initials as MBZ -- and communicated with a Lebanese-American businessman with close ties to the UAE, George Nader, who had organized the Erik Prince meeting, according to text messages Gerson sent at the time and a person familiar with the meeting.... Gerson had met Nader just weeks earlier when Trump officials, including Kushner, gathered for a secret meeting with MBZ at a Four Seasons hotel in New York.... Counterintelligence investigators have been scrutinizing UAE influence in the Trump campaign since before Mueller was appointed as special counsel, and the probe has continued in coordination with Mueller's team, according to two people briefed on the investigation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford..., has sought help for his legal battle against Mr. Trump from leading Democratic operatives. Mr. Avenatti contacted an official in the network of liberal groups led by David Brock, while someone associated with Mr. Avenatti's law firm was in touch with two people connected to major Democratic donors, according to people familiar with the conversations. But the discussions do not appear to have led to any financial help for the high-profile legal and public relations fight being waged by Mr. Avenatti and Ms. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "A bitter divide over who is to blame for scores of Palestinian deaths from Israeli fire at protests near Gaza’s border shifted Friday to the United Nations, where the United States vetoed a measure backed by Arab countries to protect Palestinians and condemn Israel. Nikki R. Haley, the American ambassador to the United Nations, described the measure, a United Nations Security Council resolution drafted by Kuwait, as one-sided. She accused the measure's authors of inexplicably absolving Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and organized the protests. The United States, a permanent Security Council member with veto power, was the sole no vote on the measure, which was enough to defeat it. Ten members voted in favor and four abstained. A separate American resolution proposed by Ms. Haley, which would have condemned Hamas for the Gaza violence, failed to gain any support from fellow Council members."

Steve Eder & others at the New York Times detail Scott Pruitt's deep, corrupt ties to "Joseph W. Craft III, a billionaire coal executive who has engaged in an aggressive campaign to reverse the Obama administration's environmental crackdown on the coal industry. Mr. Craft and his wife donated more than $2 million to support President Trump's candidacy and inauguration."

Brady Dennis & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: EPA Administrator Scott "Pruitt spent $1,560 on 12 customized fountain pens from [a] Washington jewelry store..., each emblazoned with the seal of the Environmental Protection Agency and the signature of its leader, Scott Pruitt." The staffer who authorized the rush order was Millan Hupp, Pruitt's head of scheduling and advance and a trusted confidante dating to his Oklahoma days. "In recent weeks, Pruitt has blamed some of those questionable expenditures on the agency's rank and file, arguing that he often played no role in the decision to spend large sums of money.... But ... the order of fountain pens -- each of which cost taxpayers $130 -- shows that ... top aides rather than career staffers often were the ones signing off on them."

Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "A federal study found signs that surveillance devices for intercepting cellphone calls and texts were operating near the White House and other sensitive locations in the Washington area last year. A Department of Homeland Security program discovered evidence of the surveillance devices, called IMSI catchers, as part of federal testing last year, according to a letter from DHS to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on May 22.... 'This is a huge concern from a national security perspective,' said Laura Moy, deputy director of Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology. 'People have been warning for years ... that these devices were used by foreign agents operating on American soil.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Timberg doesn't mention it, but I bet you'll recall this Politico story, published May 21: "... Donald Trump uses a White House cellphone that isn't equipped with sophisticated security features designed to shield his communications, according to two senior administration officials -- a departure from the practice of his predecessors that potentially exposes him to hacking or surveillance." Trump said secure phones were "too inconvenient." In other words, assuming the DHS findings are correct. it's a safe bet that somebody who should not be privy to Trump's calls is listening in on the POTUS*.

Senate Race. Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp will be going into the congressional midterm elections knowing she's received support for at least one piece of legislation by the unlikeliest of groups: the Koch political network. Americans for Prosperity, an arm of the influential network supported by conservative billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, is unleashing a digital advertising campaign on Friday thanking Heitkamp for co-sponsoring the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protect Act, a bill that rolls back Dodd-Frank regulations mainly on community banks, or those with less than $100 billion in assets. It recently passed in Congress with bipartisan support.... The move to support Heitkamp comes only two months after the Koch network launched a six-figure ad buy attacking her for voting against the Republican tax reform bill in December." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Andrew Kirell, et al., of the Daily Beast: "MSNBC and Joy Reid on Friday both finally commented on the latest round of hateful old blog posts unearthed by various outlets. They did not, however, address Reid's initial and unsubstantiated claim that the posts were fake. And more than a month after the controversy began, many of Reid's MSNBC colleagues are embarrassed by the network's handling of it.... Jonathan Capehart will fill in for Reid on this week's AM Joy at least one day this weekend...."

Beyond the Beltway

Jason Hancock of the Kansas City Star: "With moving trucks parked outside his official residence, Gov. Eric Greitens on Friday signed more than half of the bills approved by lawmakers during the 2018 legislative session (for a total of 77). Among the most high-profile bills Greitens signed: legislation making it a felony to threaten to disseminate or distribute a sexually explicit image taken without consent. Greitens faces possible criminal charges stemming from allegations that he took a nude photo without consent of a woman with whom he had an affair in 2015 and threatened to release it if she ever discussed the relationship. A judge assigned Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker to review the allegations to consider filling charges. The new law can't be applied retroactively to Greitens." Mrs McC BTW: If you're over your KC Star limit for the month, as I am, you can open the story in a private windows.

Gov. Greitens also signed a number of pardons & sentence commutations on his last day in office. Looking down the list provided by KMOT-TV, St. Louis, they all appear to be cases with merit, unlike your typical Trump pardon.

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