The Commentariat -- April 9, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Uh-Oh. Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. on Monday raided the office of President Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen's lawyer, who called the search 'completely inappropriate and unnecessary.' The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller's investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.... The payments [Cohen says he made] to [Stephanie] Clifford are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search. The F.B.I. also seized emails, tax documents and business records, the person said." ...

... Carol Leonnig & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Among the documents seized were privileged communications between Cohen and his clients -- including those with Trump, according to a person familiar with the investigators' work. Investigators took Cohen;s computer, phone and personal financial records as part of the search of his office at Rockefeller Center, the person said.... Under Department of Justice regulations governing the special counsel's work, Mueller is required to consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein if his team finds information worth investigating that does not fall under his mandate." Mrs. McC: I'm hearing on the teevee that the FBI raided other locations -- like Cohen's homes. ...

... Also, Trump has made a statement; I'll get up a video of that when it becomes available.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: At the start of a Cabinet meeting, "President Trump on Monday denounced the suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people in Syria over the weekend as 'atrocious,' and said he will make a decision in the next 24 to 48 hours about whether to retaliate militarily as he did to a similar assault last year."

Greg Sargent: "Trade is one area in which Trump's crude understanding of the issue (it is all about a zero-sum struggle for dominance in which there are only winners and losers), is particularly destructive, given how nuanced and complicated it is.... Other countries have called for a multilateral response to [China's unfair trade practices], something that is at odds with Trump's worldview, which holds that international cooperation is a sucker's game. On 'Fox News Sunday,' Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow claimed the administration is assembling such an international coalition. But under intense questioning from Fox's Chris Wallace, it quickly became apparent that this is far from a reality."

Zeke Miller & Jill Colvin of the AP: Donald Trump "has never been one to stick to a script, but that ... speech [he tossed in the air at least week's event in West Virginia] illustrates a new phase in Trump's presidency. He is increasingly at odds with his staff -- and growing wise to their tactics. One favored staff strategy: Guide the president to the right decision by making the conventional choice seem like the only realistic option. Except now, 14 months into his administration, Trump is on to them, and he's making clear he won't be boxed in.... The shift has as much to do with changes in personnel as changes in the president's attitude. Former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, for one, was viewed as a person Trump could trust to be an honest broker and make sure that all options were being faithfully presented to him.... Some aides, convinced that Trump puts more stock in what he sees on TV than in his own aides' advice, regularly phone prominent commentators and news hosts to provide talking points on everything from tax policy to Syria in hopes of influencing Trump. Similar strategies have also been embraced by foreign governments and outside groups trying to sway the president's thinking." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, if only Trump still had an "honest broker" like Rob Porter around.

Robert Burgess of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump likes to equate the rally in stocks since the November 2016 elections with confidence in him and his policies. And yes, the S&P 500 Index has surged 22 percent since then -- but a deeper look at equities, bonds and the dollar reveals anything but trust in his stewardship. Here's the executive summary: U.S. companies are valued less now than before Trump was elected, despite the run-up in stocks, big corporate tax cuts, reductions in regulations, and booming earnings. The cost to borrow for the U.S. has soared relative to other governments, a sign investors are worried about America's creditworthiness. The dollar's share of global currency reserves has dropped by the most since 2002. Investors are losing faith because Trump is turning into the type of president many always feared: unpredictable, volatile and tempestuous."

Ksenia Galouchko of Bloomberg: "Russian stocks had their biggest drop in four years and the ruble slumped the most in the world after the U.S. slapped new sanctions on Kremlin-connected billionaires and tensions with the U.S. spiraled following the latest chemical attack in Syria. The benchmark MOEX Russia Index sank 8.7 percent on Monday, the steepest slide since March 2014, when Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula triggered international penalties. The ruble and local bonds had their biggest drop since 2016 and the cost of insuring sovereign notes against default was set for the sharpest increase since December 2014."

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The federal government's top ethics official has taken the unusual step of sending a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency questioning a series of actions by Administrator Scott Pruitt and asking the agency to take 'appropriate actions to address any violations.' The letter, sent to Kevin Minoli, the E.P.A. official designated as the agency's top ethics official, addresses questions about Mr. Pruitt's rental for $50 a night of a condominium linked to an energy lobbyist, as well as his government-funded flights to his home state of Oklahoma. The letter also cites reporting last week in The New York Times that agency staff members who raised concerns about these and other actions found themselves transferred or demoted.... The Office of Government Ethics does not have the power to punish Mr. Pruitt or to demand that he respond to the letter. But as the chief ethics officer for the executive branch of the federal government, [David] Apol's point of view has clout and he can ask that President Trump take action to punish a federal official who has violated federal rules." ...

... Jack Holmes of Esquire: "EPA spokespeople have repeatedly claimed that Pruitt receives a huge number of death threats. This has been shared widely by media outlets friendly to the administration.... It was also trumpeted in a presidential tweet this weekend that sought to defend Pruitt amid an avalanche of scandal.... Except when BuzzFeed reporter Jason Leopold submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to EPA asking for records of the threats, the agency could not produce a single one.... And not a single person has been charged nationwide for making death threats to a cabinet secretary? Or is the more likely explanation, as things stand, that officials simply started saying there were a ton of threats to try to escape the spending scandals?" Thanks to Keith H. for the link. ...

     ... Mrs. McC: The original excuse the EPA produced to justify Pruitt's bump to first class was that he was "'approached in the airport numerous times' and had profanities 'yelled at him'..." Guess that lame excuse wouldn't fly, so to speak, so "You're fucking up the environment!" became "death threats."

Sara Salinas of CNBC: "Congress has released Mark Zuckerberg's prepared testimony ahead of a Wednesday hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee." Salinas reproduces the prepared remarks. ...

... Blah Blah. Craig Timberg & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed contrition for allowing third-party apps to grab the data of its users without their permission and for being 'too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference' during the U.S. election, according to his prepared remarks published by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Zuckerberg plans to open his remarks with a familiar recitation of the social media platform's ability to link far-flung people together but then pivot into an acknowledgement of Facebook's increasingly visible dark side."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Krugman: "The hiring-then-firing of Kevin Williamson followed a familiar script. A mainstream media organization [-- the Atlantic --] hires a conservative in the name of intellectual diversity, then is shocked, shocked to discover that he's dishonest and/or holds truly reprehensible views -- something that the organization could have discovered with a few minutes on Google. But when the bad hire is let go, the right treats him as a martyr, proof of liberal refusal to let alternative viewpoints be heard.... The real problem here is that media organizations are looking for unicorns: serious, honest, conservative intellectuals with real influence.... The left has genuine public intellectuals with actual ideas and at least some real influence; the right does not. News organizations don't seem to have figured out how to deal with this reality, except by pretending that it doesn't exist. And that's why we keep having these Williamson-like debacles."

Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "Gov. Rick Scott made official on Monday what Floridians have suspected for months: He is running for the United States Senate against Bill Nelson, the incumbent Democrat, in a premier race that will return the nation's largest swing state to its familiar role as the political vortex of a tumultuous election year."

There Are Two Michigans. Bill Chappell of NPR: "In a much-watched case, a Michigan agency has approved Nestlé's plan to boost the amount of water it takes from the state. The request attracted a record number of public comments -- with 80,945 against and 75 in favor. Nestlé's request to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to pump 576,000 gallons of water each day from the White Pine Springs well in the Great Lakes Basin was 'highly controversial,' member station Michigan Radio reports.... The company bottles the water for sale under its Ice Mountain label." Emphasis added. BUT as Adrienne Varkiani of ThinkProgress reported (linked below), the state will no longer provide free drinking water to residents of Flint, which still pumps water through lead pipes, tho some pipes have been replaced. Thanks to Nisky Guy for the link. Mrs. McC: Wouldn't you think the poor people of Flint would would some state pride & just buy bottles of Nestle's Ice Mountain?

*****

Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Big power tensions in the Syria conflict, already running high after an apparent chemical weapons attack, ratcheted up again on Monday as Syria and Russia blamed Israel for early morning airstrikes on a Syrian military base that a conflict monitoring group said had killed 14 people, including fighters from Iran.... American and French officials denied that their countries had carried out the airstrikes, and a spokesman for the Israeli military declined to comment." ...

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Sunday promised a 'big price' to be paid for what he said was a chemical weapons attack that choked dozens of Syrians to death the day before, and a top White House official said the administration would not rule out a missile strike to retaliate against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. In a tweet, Mr. Trump laid the blame for the attack partly on President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the first time since his election that he has criticized the Russian leader by name on Twitter. Mr. Putin's forces have been fighting for years to keep the Assad government in power amid Syria's brutal civil war.... 'Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price...' '...to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!'... 'If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ben Hubbard & Julie Davis: "Days after President Trump said he wanted to pull the United States out of Syria, Syrian forces hit a suburb of Damascus with bombs that rescue workers said unleashed toxic gas. Within hours, images of dead families sprawled in their homes threatened to change Mr. Trump's calculus on Syria, possibly drawing him deeper into an intractable Middle Eastern war that he hoped to leave. His homeland security adviser, Thomas P. Bossert, said the White House national security team had been discussing possible responses and would not rule out a missile strike." ...

... Robin Wright of the New Yorker: "The truth is that little is likely to markedly change the military balance on the ground -- or the outcome of the war. With the help of Russian airpower, as well as Iranian and Hezbollah manpower, the Assad regime has simply retaken too much territory, including most of Syria's major cities.... Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, called on Trump to reconsider his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria. She also urged him to take the unprecedented step of imposing sanctions on Moscow for its long-standing aid to Damascus." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Sorry, Susan, according to Axios, even Trump's BFF Bibi "Netanyahu could not convince Trump to rethink his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria." However, that was before the chemical strike. ...

... Conor Finnegan & Patrick Reevell of ABC News: "Russia is warning the U.S. against any 'military intervention' in Syria over the government's alleged chemical attack against civilians this weekend, saying any such response would be 'unacceptable' and lead to the 'most serious consequences'. The foreign ministry in Moscow also says in a statement on its website that allegations of the chemical attack are 'fabricated,; suggesting the claims were invented by rebel forces and the Syrian Civil Defense known as the White Helmets." ...

... Eli Watkins of CNN: "Republican Sen. John McCain said Sunday that ... Donald Trump's comments that the US military would leave Syria 'very soon' had emboldened Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, resulting in the reported chemical weapons attack Saturday that killed dozens of the country's civilians." ...

... digby: Trump "even called out his pal Vlad, in the process betraying the fact that he still, after being in office all this time, sees all relationships between world leaders as personal, rather than strategic.... He believes that war should be 'short and brutal' and should not spare civilians so this is frustrating to him because pictures of toddlers suffering and dying make him look bad.... He does not want any pictures of children dying from chemical attacks on the front pages or on cable news. He thought if he withdrew troops from Syria, Assad wouldn't have to gas kids and it won't be on the front page because he'd win and it would all be over."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "North Korea has confirmed directly to the Trump administration that it is willing to negotiate with the United States about potential denuclearization, administration officials said Sunday, a signal that the two sides have opened communications ahead of a potential summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un next month. The message from Pyongyang offers the first reassurance that Kim is committed to meeting Trump. The U.S. president accepted an offer made in March on Kim's behalf by South Korean emissaries during a meeting at the White House, but Pyongyang had not publicly commented."

** From One Banana Republic to Another. Juan Zamorano of TPM: "Lawyers representing U.S. President Donald Trump's family hotel business appealed to Panama's president [Juan Carlos Verela] for help days before an emergency arbitrator declined to reinstate the Trump management team to a luxury waterfront hotel.... The letter asks Varela to intervene, complaining that Panama's courts denied the organization due process in violation of a bilateral treaty.... The letter goes on to say that the eviction violates the Bilateral Investment Treaty ... suggesting that the government, not the new management team, could be blamed for wrongdoing. The letter raises questions about the president's family business matter-of-factly requesting another president's help in a private business matter by invoking a treaty signed by the two countries. [T]he front page of Panama's La Prensa newspaper Monday ... described the letter as a warning that there could be consequences for Panama if the old management team was not reinstated." --safari

Michelle Lee, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump and his allies again assured the country on Sunday morning that they do not expect China to actually implement threatened tariffs that could rock the U.S. economy and hurt American farmers, especially those who grow soybeans or raise hogs. 'China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do,' Trump said in a tweet on Sunday morning. 'Taxes will become Reciprocal & a deal will be made on Intellectual Property. Great future for both countries!' In interviews on Sunday morning talk shows, administration officials defended the president's trade approach and emerging policy with regard to China. China and the United States have threatened to levy new tariffs on each other in an escalating trade dispute."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "When the president threatened China with $100 billion in new tariffs, there had hardly been any White House discussion.... There wasn't one single deliberative meeting in which senior officials sat down to debate the pros and cons of this historic threat. Trump didn't even ask for advice from his new top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, instead presenting the tariffs as a fait accompli. Chief of Staff John Kelly knew Trump wanted more tariffs but was blindsided by the speed of the announcement. And Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short -- the White House's liaison to Capitol Hill -- was totally in the dark.... The topic came up at the senior staff meeting the morning of the announcement. And he personally ordered Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to put together the threat and to get it done by Thursday.... For some White House officials, the moment was jarring: Trump had melted down Capitol Hill and roiled the markets with zero substantive internal debate."...

...Kevin Yao & Christian Shepard of Reuters: "China stepped up its attacks on the Trump administration on Monday over billions of dollars worth of threatened tariffs, saying Washington is to blame for trade frictions and repeating it was impossible to negotiate under 'current circumstances'. The comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday predicted China would take down its trade barriers, and expressed optimism that both sides could resolve the issue through talks. Chinese state researchers and media ... described the Trump administration's posturing on trade as the product of an 'anxiety disorder'." --safari

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "... there were two accounts of the fire Saturday night that tore through a 50th-floor apartment in Trump Tower, President Trump's namesake building on Fifth Avenue in New York. The first narrative unfolded through official alerts and images from the New York Fire Department, which painted a picture of an extraordinarily challenging -- and ultimately fatal -- blaze to contain and extinguish.... For the president, however, the fire seemed first a chance to boast of the construction quality of Trump Tower on Twitter.... Trump also declared that the fire had been extinguished -- before it actually had been.... Though Trump thanked the 'firemen (and women)' who responded to the blaze, his tweet made no mention of those who had suffered injuries.... Trump's Saturday evening tweet has remained the only comment he has made regarding the fire in his building.... On Sunday morning, Trump posted about a half-dozen tweets on a variety of subjects.... But he has not revisited the Trump Tower fire, even after news of [resident Todd] Brassner's death.... Several residents also spoke of the fear and chaos that erupted after they realized their building was on fire." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Wang might has well have written, "The President of the United States is a flaming ass." At any rate, she let readers know it. ...

... Trump Lobbied against Safety Sprinklers. Caroline Linton of CBS News: "The fire on the 50th floor New York City's Trump Tower that left 67-year-old Todd Brassner dead and six firefighters injured was the second fire in the building in 2018. President Trump's centerpiece Manhattan skyscraper opened in 1984, but does not have sprinklers on its residential floors, a measure required in new buildings since 1999. President Trump, then a private citizen and property developer, lobbied to try and prevent the mandate at the time.... Two civilians suffered minor injuries and a firefighter was hurt by debris in a fire on Jan. 8 on the top of the building. That blaze was sparked by an electrical issue, Mr. Trump's son, Eric, said at the time. Eric Trump said the fire had been in a cooling tower. [The FDNY commissioner] said in a press conference that the cause of Saturday's fire is still unclear." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Esha Ray of the New York Daily News: "Todd Brassner, a 67-year-old art dealer who lost his life Saturday in the Trump Tower fire, despised building owner Donald Trump, a friend of the victim told the Daily News. The feeling was evidently mutual, with now-President Trump allegedly calling Brassner a 'crazy Jew' soon after the art dealer moved into the Fifth Ave. high-rise more than two decades ago, Brassner pal Patrick Goldsmith said Sunday. A fellow art dealer, Goldsmith said he heard the vile remark in 1996 as he entered the building and passed by the exiting Trump." Mrs. McC Note: Obviously, a one-source story.

Washington Post Editors: "The American people do not have a right to know all the details of what went on between Mr. Trump and Ms. Clifford in their personal lives many years ago. They do have a right to know, however, whether their president is lying to them now, or if he has received what amounts to a large financial subsidy from a secret personal benefactor. Unless and until Mr. Trump directs his lawyer to identify the source of the $130,000, both of these sorry scenarios will remain within the realm of plausibility." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

I love the poorly educated. -- Donald Trump, February 2016 ...

... King of the News Deserts. Shawn Musgrave & Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "... Donald Trump's attacks on the mainstream media may be rooted in statistical reality: An extensive review of subscription data and election results shows that Trump outperformed the previous Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, in counties with the lowest numbers of news subscribers, but didn't do nearly as well in areas with heavier circulation.... The results show a clear correlation between low subscription rates and Trump's success in the 2016 election, both against Hillary Clinton and when compared to Romney in 2012.... That gives new force to the widely voiced concerns of news-industry professionals and academicians about Trump's ability to make bold assertions about crime rates, unemployment and other verifiable facts without any independent checks.... Politico's analysis suggests that Trump did, indeed, do worse overall in places where independent media could check his claims.... Voters in so-called news deserts -- places with minimal newspaper subscriptions, print or online -- went for him in higher-than-expected numbers. In tight races with Clinton in states like Wisconsin, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, the decline in local media could have made a decisive difference." ...

... For What It's Worth. Sharon Bernstein & Chris Khan of Reuters: "Older, white, educated voters helped Donald Trump win the White House in 2016. Now, they are trending toward Democrats in such numbers that their ballots could tip the scales in tight congressional races from New Jersey to California, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll and a data analysis of competitive districts shows. Nationwide, whites over the age of 60 with college degrees now favor Democrats over Republicans for Congress by a 2-point margin, according to Reuters/Ipsos opinion polling during the first three months of the year. During the same period in 2016, that same group favored Republicans for Congress by 10 percentage points." --safari

Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post (who is no liberal): "... as [H.R.] McMaster suggested [in a speech last week], the democratic model is under more pressure than at any time since the Cold War.... Ordinarily, at such a time, the world would look to America for leadership. But, Freedom House said, the United States has 'retreated from its traditional role as both a champion and an exemplar of democracy. That retreat has been woven from dozens of statements, policy changes and missed opportunities from a president who famously seems to admire and, yes, glamorize dictators more than democrats: cheering when China's ruler declared himself president for life ('I think it's great'); laughing with the Philippines' strongman as he demonized reporters; congratulating Egypt's dictator for his sham reelection; itching to withdraw from Syria to leave that field to Iran and Russia; abandoning human rights improvement as a policy objective anywhere in the world...; and so on." See also Roger Cohen's essay, linked at the bottom of the page.

** Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: Jared Kushner apparently is getting an extraordinary $1.2 billion loan (or something) for his underwater behemoth at 666 Fifth Avenue in what is described in an SEC filing as a "handshake" agreement. In the filing, the company that bought out the Kushner family's retail & some residential space notes that "the situation continues to be fluid -- there can be no assurance that a final agreement will be reached...." Here's the kicker: whoever shook Kushner's hand in a promise to fork over $1.2 billion is secret. Mrs. McC: Over to you, SEC. ...

... Tangled Web, Ctd. Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "A senior private equity executive was approached about taking the job of US budget director a year before his company agreed to loan Jared Kushner's private family business tens of millions of dollars, according to two sources who spoke to the Guardian. Joshua Harris, the billionaire co-founder of Apollo Global Management, was considered to be a candidate for the job of director of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shortly after Donald Trump won the 2016 election, according to the sources.... The sources told the Guardian that Harris ... backed out of the potential job because it would have been too difficult to unravel his personal finances in the short amount of time required to accept the government position. The sources said the alleged approach was initiated and backed by Kushner.... The circumstances surrounding the $184m loan by Apollo to Kushner Companies, Kushner's private family business, is currently the subject of an internal inquiry by the White House counsel's office after the 2017 loan was revealed in a New York Times report in February."

Uh-Oh. Vladdy's Gonna Be Pissed. AFP: "Shares in Russian aluminium giant Rusal collapsed on Monday after Washington targeted it with sanctions, putting the metals major at risk of defaulting on part of its debt. On the Hong Kong stock market, one of the exchanges where Rusal's shares are listed, it closed 50 percent down at HK$2.34. The fall wiped more than 3.5 billion euros ($4.3 billion) off the market capitalisation of the company which is headed by billionaire Oleg Deripaska and accounts for some seven percent of the world's aluminium production.... The latest wave of sanctions also saw Russian stock market indices plummet around 10 percent...Russia's currency also took a hit.... In all, Trump's administration targeted seven oligarchs, 12 companies they own or control, 17 senior Russian officials and a state-owned arms export company." --safari

Brad Reed of RawStory: "On Monday, Ret. Gen. Mark Hertling humiliated first daughter Ivanka Trump after she showed ignorance of federal child nutrition and fitness programs that her own father has short changed. Ivanka Trump on late Sunday sent out a tweet saying that the United States needs to do a better job of promoting physical activity among American children or else risk raising a generation of unhealthy kids.... Hertling ... proceeded to school Ivanka about ways she could easily help promote child fitness just by having her father do his job and appoint people to important positions within his administration. 'Ummm... there's this thing called the President's Council on Fitness, Sport, and Nutrition,' he wrote. 'Been around 60 years. Used to have 25 appointees... I was one of them. Michelle Obama helped and generated momentum in this area. No one is on the Council now.'" --safari

Alice Ollstein of TPM: "A high-ranking official at the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation has repeatedly shared conspiracy theories on his personal Facebook page ... including posts calling the students who survived the Parkland school shooting 'Nazis' and alleging the massacre was a staged false flag. Kevin Sabo, who was originally hired for a career position in budget analysis at the DOI in 2016, was promoted to the political role of acting chief of the Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs t the Bureau of Reclamation when the Trump administration came into power.... [I]n 2000, when he was convicted of 'attempted malicious wounding' for cutting the brakes on his ex-girlfriend's car, causing her to crash." --safari: Sounds like a perfect résumé to get into the White House.

Eliana Johnson of Politico: "National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton said Sunday that he plans to leave the White House -- a move that will leave ... Donald Trump without one of the earliest and sharpest defenders of his 'America First' foreign policy. Though Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, brought Anton into the administration, he spent the majority of his tenure serving as spokesman for Flynn's replacement, H.R. McMaster."

Michelle Costillo of CNBC: "Facebook is suspending a data analytics firm called CubeYou from the platform after CNBC notified the company that CubeYou was collecting information about users through quizzes. CubeYou misleadingly labeled its quizzes 'for non-profit academic research,' then shared user information with marketers. The scenario is eerily similar to how Cambridge Analytica received unauthorized access to data from as many as 87 million Facebook user accounts to target political marketing. The company sold data that had been collected by researchers working with the Psychometrics Lab at Cambridge University, similar to how Cambridge Analytica used information it obtained from other professors at the school for political marketing. The CubeYou discovery suggests that collecting data from quizzes and using it for marketing purposes was far from an isolated incident. Moreover, the fact that CubeYou was able to mislabel the purpose of the quizzes -- and that Facebook did nothing to stop it until CNBC pointed out the problem -- suggests the platform has little control over this activity." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Once again, Facebook is acting only because a media outlet exposed its bad practices.

** Franklin Foer of The Atlantic: " In a dank corner of the internet, it is possible to find actresses from Game of Thrones or Harry Potter engaged in all manner of sex acts.... An artificial intelligence has almost seamlessly stitched the familiar visages into pornographic scenes.... The genre [called 'deepfakes'] is one of the cruelest, most invasive forms of identity theft invented in the internet era. At the core of the cruelty is the acuity of the technology: A casual observer can't easily detect the hoax.... The internet has always contained the seeds of postmodern hell. Mass manipulation ... is the currency of the medium.... In this respect, the rise of deepfakes is the culmination of the internet's history to date -- and probably only a low-grade version of what's to come...But soon this may seem an age of innocence. We'll shortly live in a world where our eyes routinely deceive us. Put differently, we're not so far from the collapse of reality." --safari

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Terri Gerstein in the Guardian: Why did anchors & reporters across the country recite an Orwellian Sinclair Broadcast Group script rather than quit in disgust? "Among other things, Sinclair contracts contain a requirement that employees must pay their employers if they leave their jobs before their contract terms end. For example, an employee making $50,000 annually might have to pay in the ballpark of $10,000 if she wanted to leave after one year of a two-year term. While it's plainly illegal to impose a penalty on employees for leaving a job, the contract describes this requirement as 'liquidated damages'.... The Sinclair contracts also contain a non-compete clause, barring employees from working for competitors for a set time period after separation."

Beyond the Beltway

Let Them Drink Lead. Adrienne Masha Varkiani of ThinkProgress: "Michigan won't be giving the city of Flint free bottled water anymore, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) announced, claiming that water quality is now 'well within the standards.'... But many other city officials and public health experts think it's too soon to end the program ... Steve Branch, the acting city administrator, told the Times that about 6,200 lead or galvanized steel waterlines have been replaced so far, but an estimated 12,000 could still be in the city. Water going through those pipes might still pick up lead and could be dangerous for consumption." --safari

Way Beyond

Marc Santora of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, who has set about transforming this former Soviet bloc member from a vibrant democracy into a semi-autocratic state under one political party's control, appeared to have won a sweeping victory in national elections on Sunday, with 93 percent of the vote counted. By securing two-thirds of the seats in Parliament, Mr. Orban's Fidesz party -- along with its ally, the Christian Democrats -- now has the power to change the Constitution and further bend the nation to his will.... Mr. Orban's victory is likely to embolden other leaders who have used a similar playbook, including those in neighboring Poland, where the governing party has openly emulated his tactics." ...

... Roger Cohen of the New York Times (April 6): "Hungary and Poland are turning the clock back to Europe's darkest hours. Today they are all about erecting borders -- real and imagined -- against Islam, migrants and refugees, Jews, the European Union, the United Nations, [George] Soros and what they portray as a pluralistic international conspiracy. Hungary erected an actual barrier on its southern border following the refugee crisis of 2015.... It was precisely the measures taken to construct and preserve a homogeneous society that lay at the core of the most heinous crimes of the last century. The illiberal trend represents a rejection of the core postwar insight that borders should be dismantled to save Europe from its repetitive suicides.... Taken to its end point, the new Hungarian and Polish authoritarianism means danger. It is more dangerous because Trump's despot-coddling America has disappeared as a countervailing force. The president has ceased upholding the values that advance liberty."

The Commentariat -- April 8, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Sunday promised a 'big price' to be paid for what he said was a chemical weapons attack that choked dozens of Syrians to death the day before, and a top White House official said the administration would not rule out a missile strike to retaliate against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. In a tweet, Mr. Trump laid the blame for the attack partly on President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the first time since his election that he has criticized the Russian leader by name on Twitter. Mr. Putin's forces have been fighting for years to keep the Assad government in power amid Syria's brutal civil war.... 'Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price...' '...to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!'... 'If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!'"

Michelle Lee, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump and his allies again assured the country on Sunday morning that they do not expect China to actually implement threatened tariffs that could rock the U.S. economy and hurt American farmers, especially those who grow soybeans or raise hogs. 'China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do,' Trump said in a tweet on Sunday morning. 'Taxes will become Reciprocal & a deal will be made on Intellectual Property. Great future for both countries!' In interviews on Sunday morning talk shows, administration officials defended the president's trade approach and emerging policy with regard to China. China and the United States have threatened to levy new tariffs on each other in an escalating trade dispute."

Trump Lobbied against Safety Sprinklers. Caroline Linton of CBS News: "The fire on the 50th floor New York City's Trump Tower that left 67-year-old Todd Brassner dead and six firefighters injured was the second fire in the building in 2018. President Trump's centerpiece Manhattan skyscraper opened in 1984, but does not have sprinklers on its residential floors, a measure required in new buildings since 1999. President Trump, then a private citizen and property developer, lobbied to try and prevent the mandate at the time.... Two civilians suffered minor injuries and a firefighter was hurt by debris in a fire on Jan. 8 on the top of the building. That blaze was sparked by an electrical issue, Mr. Trump's son, Eric, said at the time. Eric Trump said the fire had been in a cooling tower. [The FDNY commissioner] said in a press conference that the cause of Saturday's fire is still unclear."

Washington Post Editors: "The American people do not have a right to know all the details of what went on between Mr. Trump and Ms. Clifford in their personal lives many years ago. They do have a right to know, however, whether their president is lying to them now, or if he has received what amounts to a large financial subsidy from a secret personal benefactor. Unless and until Mr. Trump directs his lawyer to identify the source of the $130,000, both of these sorry scenarios will remain within the realm of plausibility."

*****

Louisa Loveluck & Erin Cunningham of the Washington Post: "Syrian doctors and rescue workers said Sunday that scores of people had died in an apparent chemical attack on a besieged enclave near Damascus, as government forces escalated their offensive to recapture one of the last rebel strongholds near the capital. At least 40 people were killed in the attack in Douma in eastern Ghouta, about 12 miles from Damascus, according to the Syrian-American Medical Society..., a Washington-based nonprofit that supports health facilities in the area. The State Departmen said it was monitoring mass casualty reports, describing them as 'horrifying' and urging an immediate response from the international community.'" ...

... Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "The U.S. is calling on Russia to end its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad after dozens of people were killed in an alleged chemical attack on Saturday. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement..., 'The United States calls on Russia to end this unmitigated support immediately and work with the international community to prevent further, barbaric chemical weapons attacks.'..." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Who is running the State Department? Apparently Pompeo, since he's already been confirmed to another Cabinet-level position, can run it for quite a while, but is he?

... Kareem Shaheem of the Guardian: "Dozens of people have been killed in what local medics say was a toxic gas attack on the besieged town of Douma near Damascus. Videos and images showed bodies of dead children and other family members, some foaming at the mouth. Rescue workers said the attack led directly to the deaths of at least 42 people, with hundreds of injured showing symptoms they said were consistent with exposure to an organophosphorus compound." --safari

Louis Lucero & Jaclyn Peiser of the New York Times: "A 67-year-old man died after being injured in a fire at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan on Saturday, the police said. The man was in an apartment on the 50th floor at the time of the fire, which was reported around 5:30 p.m., the police said. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His identity was not immediately released. Four firefighters sustained injuries that were not life-threatening, Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said at a news conference. He said the apartment, a large unit that was heavily furnished, was 'virtually entirely on fire.' Video footage showed flames bursting through broken windows.... More than 200 firefighters responded to the fire, the cause of which was unknown, the commissioner said." ...

... Noah Goldberg of the New York Daily News: "One person was critically injured in a fast-moving fire at Trump Tower in Midtown, authorities said. The FDNY arrived at the Fifth Ave. highrise just before 6 p.m. Twitter users posted pictures of flames shooting out of windows on the 50th floor. President Trump also took to Twitter with an update, 'Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!' Several firefighters suffered minor injures." (Also linked last evening.)

Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Roger Stone, a longtime associate of ... Donald Trump, said he knew the date of upcoming WikiLeaks disclosures in October 2016, despite claiming on Friday in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper that he didn't.'I had no advanced notice of the content source or exact timing of the WikiLeaks disclosures including the allegedly hacked emails,' Stone said on CNN....On CNN, Stone, while discussing comments he had made claiming to have had dinner with Julian Assange in August 2016, also 'categorically' denied having advance knowledge of the contents of the hacked emails.Those comments stand in sharp contrast with ones he made on the October 2, 2016, episode of InfoWars' radio show, to discuss a tweet he had sent a day earlier that read, 'Wednesday @HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks.' 'Now, an intermediary met with him (Assange) in London recently -- who is a friend of mine and a friend of his...," Stone said. 'I am assured that the motherlode is coming Wednesday.'... The emails were not released that Wednesday, October 5, but ... two days later, WikiLeaks began releasing the first installment of John Podesta's hacked emails."

Juan Cole: "Greg Jaffe at the Washington Post reports that Trump has reversed an Obama-era push to get the Central Intelligence Agency out of the business of assassinating people with drone strikes.... In the course of reviewing video of a drone strike, Trump noticed that the drone pilot held off hitting the suspected militant in his own home (which would have killed his family as well) and waited until he was some distance outside it until they assassinated him.... Trump asked, 'Why did you wait?'... [W]hen Trump came into office, I warned of psychopathocracy, the rule of persons without conscience, without empathy, without the milk of human kindness, without any appreciation for the rule of law. What Trump was asking for was the murder of children. He was actually, if the report is true, scolding the CIA for leaving the children alive rather than burned and dismembered by a rocket." --safari

** Everything Is Going So Smoothly. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: Trump & John Kelly get into shouting matches. "The recurring and escalating clashes between the president and his chief of staff trace the downward arc of Kelly's eight months in the White House. Both his credibility and his influence have been severely diminished, administration officials said, a clear decline for the retired four-star Marine Corps general who arrived with a reputation for integrity and a mandate to bring order to a chaotic West Wing." Mrs. McC: This story is rather long & amusing, in a Michael-Wolffish way. There are so many things to despise about both of these guys that one hardly cares who "wins." At least some of the gladiators who fought to the death probably had character. ...

... Presidential* Review. The Washington Post is far more fiction than fact. Story after story is made up garbage - more like a poorly written novel than good reporting. Always quoting sources (not names), many of which don't exist. Story on John Kelly isn't true, just another hit job! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning

... Benjamin Hart of New York: Kelly "badly damaged his own reputation with a series of comments and actions that seem to have revealed his true character. He made an extremely ignorant comment about the Civil War; blatantly lied about a congresswoman's past comments and refused to apologize; and badly bungled the departure of White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who was accused of domestic abuse, among other missteps.... The conception of Kelly as a serious moral counterbalance to his boss is long gone. But that doesn't mean his (probably) impending departure is good news."

Coral Davenport & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "As ethical questions threaten the Environmental Protection Administrator, Scott Pruitt, President Trump has defended him with a persuasive conservative argument: Mr. Pruitt is doing a great job at what he was hired to do, roll back regulations. But legal experts and White House officials say that in Mr. Pruitt's haste to undo government rules and in his eagerness to hold high-profile political events promoting his agenda, he has often been less than rigorous in following important procedures, leading to poorly crafted legal efforts that risk being struck down in court. The result, they say, is that the rollbacks, intended to fulfill one of the president's central campaign pledges, may ultimately be undercut or reversed." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's because neither one of these science-denying jamokes has any idea what he's doing, & Pruitt, in a mini-version of Trump, "governs by press release," as one environmental activist said recently. ...

Rene Marsh, et al., of CNN: "EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is facing renewed questions about the size and cost of his 24-hour security detail, adding to a string of ethically questionable arrangements or actions on his part that have surfaced over the past year. Pruitt's security team currently consists of 19 agents and includes a fleet of at least 19 vehicles, a source with direct knowledge of Pruitt's security detail said. With the cost of maintenance, gas, and training for agents, that leaves the dollar amount for his round-the-clock security in the millions. The size of Pruitt's security is unprecedented." ...

... We're Going to Disneyland! Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "Scott Pruitt may have been spared in Friday evening's news dump, but the ethical questions threatening his role as Environmental Protection Agency administrator continue apace. Financial documents obtained by the Associated Press reveal that over the year that Pruitt has been on the job, the embattled EPA head has spent upwards of $3 million on his 20-member security detail -- a staggering figure that is reportedly more than three times the amount his predecessor shelled out for a part-time security team. The records also appear to confirm previous allegations that Pruitt had used multiple security agents for non-EPA trips, including a family vacation to Disneyland and the Rose Bowl football game." ...

... Presidential* Response. While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet last night

Elizabeth Shogren in Mother Jones: "National Park Service officials have deleted every mention of humans' role in causing climate change in drafts of a long-awaited report on sea level rise and storm surge, contradicting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's vow to Congress that his department is not censoring science. The research for the first time projects the risks from rising seas and flooding at 118 coastal national park sites.... [T]he ... report is intended to inform officials and the public about how to protect park resources and visitors from climate change.... [According to] Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist and dean of the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, 'To remove a very critical part of the scientific understanding is nothing short of political censorship and has no place in science,' he said. 'Censorship of this kind is something you'd see in Russia or some totalitarian regime. It has no place in America.'" --safari ...

Reuters: "The Keystone crude oil pipeline leak in November in rural South Dakota was nearly double the original estimate, making it one of the largest U.S. inland spills since 2010, a newspaper report on Saturday said. Robynn Tysver, a spokeswoman for Calgary-based TransCanada Corp, which owns the pipeline, told the Aberdeen American News some 9,700 barrels of oil leaked in the Nov. 16 spill, the South Dakota paper reported. The original estimate was 5,000 barrels." Mrs. McC: No doubt Scotty will get right on this. ...

... Fossil Fuel Fears. Juan Cole: "The aspiration for a 100% green electricity grid is no longer a dream. It is regularly being achieved in the real world for weeks or months on end.... In this past March, Portugal not only generated enough electricity from renewables to power the whole country for the whole month, it actually produced extra electricity this way.... Scotland, with over 5 million people, got 68.1 percent of its electricity from renewables last year. In 2016, the percentage of electricity from renewables was only 54%.... Scotland is now perhaps the world leader in renewables, and has innovated recently in offshore, in-the-sea wind turbines.... Costa Rica, a country of nearly 5 million, ran on renewables for 300 days of the past year. It has hydro and geothermal as well as having put in a lot of wind turbines. Costa Rica has a great deal of untapped solar potential, as well." --safari

More about Friends of Donald. Inae Oh: "... Donald Trump's favorite conspiracy theorist Alex Jones recently sat down with Ted Nugent -- the rock guitarist and NRA board member who was invited to the White House for a bizarre photo-op last year -- for a conversation on the 'true, America-hating' evil found in gun control advocates. The two are seen rabidly discussing the renewed, unprecedented calls for restricting the sales of firearms, when Nugent starts comparing Democrats to 'rabid coyotes' that deserve to be shot. 'There are rabid coyotes running around. You don't wait till you see one to go get your gun. Keep your gun handy, and every time you see one, you shoot one.'" Includes video. Mrs. McC: I don't know why remarks like this are legal. Nugent seems to be inciting mass murder.

Rebecca Morin of Politico (April 6): "The Department of Justice on Friday dismissed Rep. Devin Nunes' demand for an unredacted copy of the document that initiated the FBI's investigation of links between Russia and ... Donald Trump's campaign.... The Justice Department ... said it accommodated the committee in a 'manner consistent with relevant legal precedents' by providing members of the department and the FBI to review the FISA applications and renewals in camera."

Congressional Races

The No-Show Corral. Mother Jones: "The organizers of last month's March for Our Lives have taken their movement to town halls across the country and invited congressional lawmakers -- who have returned to their districts for a two-week recess -- to discuss action on gun control. According to the Town Hall Project, more than 130 of these meetings are taking place, with most of the events happening on Saturday. Though invited, no Republicans appeared at any town halls, and many of the forums featured empty chairs to symbolize their absences." [Emphasis mine] --safari

Ticking Time Bomb. Michael Savage of the Guardian: "An alarming projection produced by the House of Commons library suggests that if trends seen since the 2008 financial crash were to continue, then the top 1% will hold 64% of the world's wealth by 2030.... Since 2008, the wealth of the richest 1% has been growing at an average of 6% a year -- much faster than the 3% growth in wealth of the remaining 99% of the world's population. Should that continue, the top 1% would hold wealth equating to $305tn (£216.5tn) – up from $140tn today." --safari

Michael Kimmel of the Guardian: "[T]he fact that virtually every single violent extremist is male creates hardly a ripple.... I have interviewed over 100 current or former extremists, including Americanneo-Nazis and white supremacists, jihadists and Islamists in Canada and Great Britain, and anti-immigration skinheads in Europe, to understand how they experience masculinity on the extreme right. I heard many stories of what I came to call aggrieved entitlement: a gendered sense of entitlement thwarted by larger economic and political shifts, their ambitions choked, their masculinity lost.... It is this sense of victimhood -- that they are the new victims of the politically correct, multicultural society -- that lends a degree of righteousness to their political activities.... Just for a moment, then, let's pay attention to gender and see where it takes us." --safari

Way Beyond the Beltway

Shaun Walker of the Guardian: "Voting is under way in Hungary, where the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is seeking to win a third consecutive term. After running a campaign almost exclusively focused on the threat posed by migration, Orbán's Fidesz party is expected to win a majority in parliament. However, a late push for coordination among the opposition, as well a string of corruption scandals around the government has given Orbán's foes a glimmer of hope. Voter turnout in the first hours of voting was the highest since 1998." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Orbán win, expect him to get a congratulatory call from the POTUS*.

Sam Cowie of the Guardian: "Brazil's former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has handed himself in to police after spending two nights at the metalworkers' union headquarters in São Paulo in defiance of an arrest warrant.... Although the 72-year-old will appeal the conviction and is unlikely to serve the whole [12-year] sentence, his imprisonment has for now ended his hopes of regaining the presidency in October's elections. A final decision on his eligibility will be made by the electoral court." --safari

The Commentariat -- April 7, 2018

Evening Update:

Noah Goldberg of the New York Daily News: "One person was critically injured in a fast-moving fire at Trump Tower in Midtown, authorities said. The FDNY arrived at the Fifth Ave. highrise just before 6 p.m. Twitter users posted pictures of flames shooting out of windows on the 50th floor. President Trump also took to Twitter with an update, 'Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!' Several firefighters suffered minor injures."

*****

Fred Imbert & Alexandra Gibbs of CNBC: "Stocks fell sharply on Friday as worries of a trade war brewing between the U.S. and China grew. Wall Street also digested disappointing employment data. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 572.46 points to 23,932.76, closing back in correction. Boeing and Caterpillar were the biggest decliners in the 30-stock index. The S&P 500 declined 2.2 percent to 2,604.47, with industrials as the worst-performing sector. The Nasdaq composite dropped 2.3 percent to close at 6,915.11." ...

... Ana Swanson & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump defended his pugnacious approach to trade policy on Friday, just hours after he doubled down on a White House plan to punish China by threatening to levy tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese imports. Mr. Trump, in a tweet, criticized both China and the World Trade Organization, saying that the Chinese 'get tremendous perks and advantages, especially over the U.S. Does anybody think this is fair. We were badly represented. The WTO is unfair to U.S.'... That followed another early morning tweet, in which Mr. Trump boasted that the new metals tariffs he has put into effect on China and other nations had not hurt American consumers as his critics predicted.... The price of aluminum per pound has been falling since February, a decline that started before the tariffs were imposed. Mr. Trump's decision to exempt Canada, which supplied more than half of America's aluminum imports in 2016, has also helped to soften the blow from tariffs, companies say." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Steve Benen: "At a White House event this week, Donald Trump reflected briefly on the burgeoning trade war he's initiating with China. 'We've helped rebuild China over the last 25 years, if you take a look at what's happened. We have helped rebuild China. So we intend to get along with China, but we have to do something very substantial about the trade deficit. And with that, nothing is easy.'... The idea that the United States 'helped rebuild' the country is dubious.... We don't actually have to do anything at all. But it's that last line that stood out for me: 'Nothing is easy.'... In the recent past, Trump was under the impression that these issues were quite easy, indeed.... Just last month..., after his initial moves on tariffs, the president declared, '[T]rade wars are good, and easy to win.' It apparently took a month for Trump to switch gears and discover that 'nothing is easy.' One of the amazing things about Trump's presidency has been watching the process of presidential discovery, in which he's surprised by complexities the rest of us already recognized." ...

...Trump Family First. Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "Exempt from the proposed tariffs against China ... is the clothing manufacturing industry.... Exempting clothing from the tariffs provides a big break to American clothing companies that hold trademarks in China. One of those clothing companies belongs to the First Daughter of the United States,Ivanka Trump." --safari

When Is a Timeline Not a Timeline? Matthew Lee & Josh Lederman of the AP: "... Donald Trump has spoken: He wants U.S. troops and civilians out of Syria by the fall. But don't call it a 'timeline.' Wary of charges of hypocrisy for publicly telegraphing military strategy after criticizing former President Barack Obama for the same thing, the White House has ordered Trump's national security team not to speak of a 'timeline' for withdrawal. That's even after Trump made it clear to his top aides this week that he wants the pullout completed within five or six months.... Trump's desire for a rapid withdrawal faced unanimous opposition from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon, the State Department and the intelligence community, all of which argued that keeping the 2,000 U.S. soldiers currently in Syria is key to ensuring the Islamic State does not reconstitute itself.... Documents presented to the president included several pages of possibilities for staying in, but only a brief description of an option for full withdrawal that emphasized significant risks and downsides, including the likelihood that Iran and Russia would take advantage of a U.S. vacuum. Ultimately, Trump chose that option anyway. The president had opened the meeting with a tirade about U.S. intervention in Syria and the Middle East more broadly, repeating lines from public speeches...." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suspect Vlad told Trump to get the hell out of Syria, or else. Otherwise, what would account for the sustained Trumpertantrum? Unless maybe he thinks he can convert Syria money to border-wall money. This is one dangerous imbecile. ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "The explanation for how we got to the point where the president is setting foreign policy deadlines on a whim may be even more troubling. The AP reports that the national security team has been giving Trump the illusion of power by presenting him with very limited choices (a tactic parents use with toddlers). But this time the game didn't work[.]" (Also linked yesterday.)...

... Spencer Ackerman of The Daily Beast: "Donald Trump's outbursts this week about getting U.S. troops out of Syria have done substantial damage to Washington's influence over its crucial Syrian ally.... That influence ... is America's most important asset as it navigates one of the world's most chaotic and transactional battlefields.... Current and former administration officials familiar with the internal Syria policy debates believe that the key to determining whether the damage is lasting or manageable will be whether the mostly Kurdish ground proxy force on which the U.S. overwhelmingly relies to fight the Islamic State, the SDF, starts hedging its bets." --safari

Dave Montgomery & Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Texas became the first state on Friday to deploy National Guard troops to the southern border of the United States after President Trump announced this week that he would send the military there. State officials said 250 Texas National Guard personnel would be dispatched to the border within 72 hours. The mobilization began shortly after 7 p.m. Friday at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Austin.... The Republican governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, said that about 150 members of the National Guard in his state would deploy next week to the border. The Republican governor of New Mexico, Susana Martinez, vowed to send troops soon, while the Democratic governor of Montana, Steve Bullock, refused.... Mr. Trump's mobilization, which could deploy thousands of troops, has reignited concerns in Texas and elsewhere about the militarization of border communities and has angered local officials and lawmakers who say that the troops are not needed and that they give the false impression that their cities are under siege."

Jonathan Chait reviews some news reports to establish that (a) Trump has lost it, & (b) his staffers are freaking out. Here's one: According to the Washington Post, "Aides sometimes plot to have guests make points on Fox that they have been unable to get the president to agree to in person. 'He will listen more when it is on TV,' a senior administration official said. [Fox host Jeanine] Pirro duty is considered important enough that 'officials rotate going on Pirro's show because they know Trump will be watching -- and partially to prevent him from calling in himself.'"

Michelle Goldberg: Diehard Trumpbots are so aware of Trump's multiple shortcomings that they have come up with an elaborate fantasy narrative in which, among other things, "Trump only pretended to collude with Russia in order to create a pretext for the hiring of Robert Mueller..., who is actually working with Trump to take down an inconceivably evil and powerful network of coup-plotters and child sex traffickers that includes Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and George Soros." Goldberg notes that Roseanne Barr is among the loons who have bought into and promoted aspects of these theories. Mrs. McC: We could sure use some of those Obama re-education camps.

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump will again skip the White House Correspondents' Dinner this year, and will send his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, instead." Great! Mrs. Huckleberry is a barrel of laughs with an unparalleled sense of humor. Maybe she can get Stephen Miller to write her "jokes." The list of winners of awards at this year's dinner -- which celebrates the First Amendment -- include CNN ("fake news"), Lester Holt ("this Russia thing"), & Maggie Haberman ("Hillary flunkie"). "Among the other reporting that earned journalists awards this year were stories on former White House press secretary Sean Spicer's resignation, former HHS Secretary Tom Price's use of taxpayer-funded private aircraft, and Trump's firing of all members of his AIDS advisory committee." (Also linked yesterday.)

Tom Boggioni of RawStory: "Writing on Twitter early Saturday morning, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels promised he will expose the 'Trump thug' who reportedly threatened his client in 2011 to keep quiet about her alleged affair with President Donald Trump. 'Expect a major announcement in the coming days regarding our efforts to identify the thug who threatened Ms. Clifford in Las Vegas in 2011 to 'leave Trump alone' while making reference to her little girl,' Michael Avenatti wrote on Twitter." --safari

Trump Campaign Skulduggery Was Widespread. Jenna McLaughlin, et al., of CNN: "A Donald Trump foreign policy adviser pushed government agencies to review materials from the dark web in the summer of 2016 that he thought were Hillary Clinton's deleted emails, multiple sources with direct knowledge tell CNN. Joseph Schmitz approached the FBI and other government agencies about material a client of his had discovered that Schmitz believed might have been Clinton's missing 30,000 emails from her private e-mail server, sources say. The material was never verified, and sources say they ultimately believed it was fake. His push is the latest example of Trump advisers who were mixed up in efforts to find dirt on Clinton during the presidential campaign.... His status as a former Pentagon inspector general afforded him access to the agencies and a sophisticated understanding of the government bureaucracy. He was relentless, sources say, and truly believed his client had found important, sensitive material. He did not hesitate in his pursuit even though the material on the dark web -- a part of the Internet not easily accessible or traceable -- was questionable and many experts already believed the Russians had stolen Clinton's emails."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are arguing that what could be key evidence against him should be kept out of court because the FBI violated his Constitutional rights by illegally entering a storage locker belonging to Manafort's firm. The FBI first got into the Alexandria, Va. storage unit last May with the assistance of an employee who worked at two or more of Manafort's companies, an agent told the federal magistrate judge who issued the warrant. Then, the agent used what he saw written on so-called Banker's Boxes and the fact there was a five-drawer filing cabinet to get permission to return and seize many of the records." --safari

Andrew Kramer of the New York Times profiles Konstantin V. Kilimnik, who "has turned up in multiple court filings by the special prosecutor, Robert S. Mueller III, who identifies him as Person A." Kilimnik, who worked for Paul Manafort in Ukraine & is now skulking around Washington, D.C., says he's not a Russian spy; Mueller says he is. (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump's DHS Makes a Significant "Big Brother" Move. Michelle Fabio of Forbes: "The United States government, traditionally one of the bastions of press freedom, is about to compile a list of professional journalists and 'top media influencers,' which would seem to include bloggers and podcasters, and monitor what they're putting out to the public.... As part of its 'media monitoring,' the DHS seeks to track more than 290,000 global news sources as well as social media in over 100 languages ... for instant translation into English.... One aspect of the media coverage to be gathered is its 'sentiment.'... Unfortunately, increasing government encroachment on the freedom of the press is the sinister backdrop to all of this. Freedom House, which has monitored the status of the press for nearly 40 years, recently concluded, '... it is the far-reaching attacks on the news media and their place in a democratic society by Donald Trump, first as a candidate and now as president of the United States, that fuel predictions of further setbacks in the years to come.'..."

Where's Kelly? Jonathan Lemire & Catherine Lucey of the AP: John "Kelly, once empowered to bring order to a turbulent West Wing, has receded from view, his clout diminished, his word less trusted by staff and his guidance less tolerated by an increasingly go-it-alone president.... Trump has rebelled against Kelly's restrictions and mused about doing away with the chief of staff post entirely. It's all leading White House staffers and Trump allies to believe that Kelly is working on borrowed time.... Those close to the president say that Trump has increasingly expressed fatigue at Kelly's attempts to shackle him and that while Trump is not ready to fire Kelly, he has begun gradually freezing out his top aide. Trump recently told one confidant that he was 'tired of being told no' by Kelly and has instead chosen to simply not tell Kelly things at all.... Kelly was once a fixture at the president's side, but Trump has now cut him out of a number of important decisions." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Travels & Travails of Scotty. Michael Biesecker of the AP: "Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt's concern with his safety came at a steep cost to taxpayers as his swollen security detail blew through overtime budgets and at times diverted officers away from investigating environmental crimes. Altogether, the agency spent millions of dollars for a 20-member full-time detail that is more than three times the size of his predecessor's part-time security contingent.... Shortly after arriving in Washington, Pruitt demoted the career staff member heading his security detail and replaced him with EPA Senior Special Agent Pasquale 'Nino' Perrotta, a former Secret Service agent who operates a private security company.... Perrotta oversaw a rapid expansion of the EPA chief's security detail to accommodate guarding him day and night, even on family vacations and when Pruitt was home in Oklahoma.... Perrotta also signed off on new procedures that let Pruitt fly first-class on commercial airliners, with the security chief typically sitting next to him with other security staff farther back in the plane. Pruitt's premium status gave him and his security chief access to VIP airport lounges." ...

     ... AND here's some detail: "On weekend trips home for Sooners football games, when taxpayers weren't paying for his ticket, the EPA official said Pruitt flew coach.... Taxpayers still covered the airfare for the administrator's security detail.... Pruitt has said his use of first-class airfare was initiated following unpleasant interactions with other travelers.... But a nationwide search of state and federal court records by AP finds no case where anyone has been arrested or charged with threatening Pruitt." ...

... The Tenant from Hell. Eliana Johnson of Politico: "Scott Pruitt was only supposed to be living in the Capitol Hill condominium that has become a focal point of his latest ethics controversy for six weeks last year while he got settled in Washington -- but the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator didn't leave when his lease ended. Instead, he asked the lobbyist couple who became his disgruntled landlords to revise his lease several times, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. The couple, Vicki and Steve Hart, became so frustrated by their lingering tenant that they eventually pushed him out and changed their locks. [Emphasis added.] After trying to nudge Pruitt out of their home over th course of several months, the Harts finally told Pruitt in July that they had plans to rent his room to another tenant. 'The original arrangement was that he would be there living out of a suitcase ... and it just kept going and going,' said one of the people with knowledge of the arrangement.... The president denied in a tweet Friday that he had plans to get rid of him: 'Do you believe that the Fake News Media is pushing hard on a story that I am going to replace A.G. Jeff Sessions with EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, who is doing a great job but is TOTALLY under siege? Do people really believe this stuff? So much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!'" ...

... Besides Blowing His Fox "News" Interview, Pruitt Lied. Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "Pruitt spoke at length during a Fox News interview about his role in [giving two young staffers steep pay raises] under an unusual maneuver involving their reappointment through a provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act. In the interview Wednesday, Pruitt implied he was not involved in those decisions. 'I found out this yesterday and I corrected the action, and we are in the process of finding out how it took place and correcting that going forward,' he told correspondent Ed Henry.... But two EPA officials and a White House official told The Post that the administrator instructed staff to award substantial pay boosts to both women, who had worked in different roles for him in Oklahoma." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So (1) the White House told him he couldn't give these women big raises, (2) he did it anyway by misusing a provision of the Clean Water Act, (3) which he is otherwise trying to eviscerate, then (4) falsely claimed he knew nothing about it when he went on national teevee. Here's some career advice: if you try stunts like this on the job, no matter how secure you think your job is, you'll be fired...

... Liam Stack of the New York Times: "Here are some of the big-ticket items Mr. Pruitt ... wanted -- some of which he got. Private Jets and First-Class Airfare.... Expensive Furniture, Some of It Bulletproof.... Expanded 24-Hour Security Detail.... A Flashy Motorcade.... An Office Security Booth." Read the story for the details. ...

... AP Scotty Watch: 4:30 pm ET: "Embattled Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt has met with ... Donald Trump to lay out his case for why he should remain in his post. Pruitt visited the White House on Friday to discuss his agency's recent steps to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards for cars. But according to two administration officials, he also fought for his job in his meeting with the president.... 3:05 pm: The White House is conducting a review of ethical questions surrounding Scott Pruitt...." ...

... ** Lorraine Woellert of Politico: "Conservative leaders are urging President Donald Trump to stand behind embattled EPA chiefScott Pruitt, organizing for the first time to present a unified front in defense of a Trump Cabinet official. In a letter delivered to the White House on Friday, the group of prominent conservatives thanked Trump for sticking with Pruitt, one of their ideological brethren, and said, in essence, that Pruitt's policy accomplishments made him worth the trouble. 'The days of a rogue, agenda driven EPA are over,' the group wrote.... 'This is the conservative movement coming forward and saying this guy is rock star,' said another strategist involved in crafting the letter. 'I have not seen a more united conservative front on behalf of a Cabinet member since the Reagan administration.'" --safari: More evidence the whole Conservative movement is corrupt to the core.

Julie Davis & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, told President Trump last week that Scott Pruitt, his embattled administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, needed to go, according to two officials briefed about the conversation, following damaging allegations of ethical infractions and spending irregularities by the E.P.A. chief. But Mr. Trump, who is personally fond of Mr. Pruitt and sees him as a crucial ally in his effort to roll back environmental protections, has resisted firing him, disregarding warnings that the drumbeat of negative headlines has grown unsustainable, and that more embarrassing revelations could surface. White House officials said on Friday that Mr. Trump continues to believe that Mr. Pruitt has been effective in his role, and stressed that it was up to the president alone to decide his fate." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Emily Atkin of the New Republic: Scott Pruitt owes the support he's getting from President Dumbo because of his perceived effectiveness. "'I think he's done a fantastic job,' Trump told reporters Thursday. "But how 'effective' has Scott Pruitt been?... At the moment, most of Pruitt's actions are in the proposal stage, and many are years away from being finalized. Several have been halted or overturned by the courts.... At least ten of Pruitt's intended regulatory rollbacks, in fact, are on hold due to lawsuits.... Several of Pruitt's actions have been overturned by federal judges.... 'Governing by press release' -- that's how David Hayes, Environmental Impact Center's executive director, described Pruitt's strategy in an email.... In Trump's world, the press release -- or the television appearance, or the tweet -- is everything.... He should not be underestimated. To date, though, most of his alleged accomplishments are hollow or incomplete. He has started many battles, but few have been decisive." ...

... Here's the Real Explanation for Trump's Support. Dina Radtke of Media Matters: "Fox News' morning show Fox & Friends continues to cover up the growing number of scandals plaguing Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, giving the story less than two minutes of coverage throughout the week." Mrs. McC: Dirty Scotty has a job till White House personnel directory Steve Doocy sends a pink slip. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: And, like the Harts, I was so hoping we'd have a Friday afternoon news dump/farewell party for Scotty. Ah, well -- here's your consolation prize:

Mrs. McC: Guess I'll have to "retire" this photo.... Good Night, Pajama Boy, Wherever You Are. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Rep. Blake Farenthold, a Texas Republican who was facing an ethics investigation after using taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment claim from a former staffer, abruptly resigned his seat Friday. Farenthold had announced in December that he would not seek reelection, but until Friday he appeared determined to serve out his fourth term in the House. He said in a statement Friday that he had sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) resigning his seat effective at 5 p.m." ...

... Here's the Dallas Morning News story, by Todd Gillman.

Jamie Lovegrove of the Charleston, S.C., Post & Courier: "A South Carolina Republican congressman is not backing down from critics after he pulled out his own personal -- and loaded -- .38-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun during a meeting with constituents Friday. U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, told The Post and Courier he pulled out the weapon and placed it on a table for several minutes in attempt to make a point that guns are only dangerous in the hands of criminals. 'I'm not going to be a Gabby Giffords,' Norman said afterward, referring to the former Arizona Democratic congresswoman who was shot outside a Tucson-area grocery store during a constituent gathering in 2011.... Far from regretting the decision, Norman said he plans to do it more often at constituent meetings moving forward. He contested the notion that anyone was frightened at the sight of the gun, saying nobody reacted strongly or tried to leave the meeting. 'I'm tired of these liberals jumping on the guns themselves as if they are the cause of the problem,' Norman said. 'Guns are not the problem.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: No, Ralph, you -- and idiots like you -- are. And your remark about Gabby Giffords was unconscionable.

Ella Nilsen of Vox: "It's official: The number of women running for the US House of Representatives this year has broken a record, a new analysis from the Associated Press has found. 309 women, Republicans and Democrats alike, have filed candidacy papers to run for the House, eclipsing the previous record of 298 set in 2012, according to data from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University that AP analyzed. And that number is likely to grow in the coming months.... The current representation of women and men in Congress is severely lopsided. Women make up less than 20 percent of Congress. Out of 535 total members, there are just 22 women senators and 83 women representatives." --safari

Maria Cramer of the Boston Globe: "A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on Friday that challenged Massachusetts' ban on assault weapons, delivering a significant victory for Attorney General Maura Healey, who had tightened enforcement of the state's laws against such weapons after the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida. In his ruling, U S District Judge William Young wrote the state's two-decade-old ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines do not violate the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment."

Extreme Snowflakes. Kelly Neill of The Daily Beast: "Before the group imploded amid a domestic violence case last month, the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker Party was bickering with former allies, and besieged by anti-fascist protesters, leaked chat logs reveal.... Their grievances weren't just with anti-fascists, however. The leaked chats reveal a fragile relationship with Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group implicated in four recent murders.... A TWP member later shared a screenshot of a piece of fanfiction an Atomwaffen member allegedly wrote about him, which described him having sex with [TWP leader Matthew] Heimbach and a chicken leg.... [T]he TWP logs reveal a group increasingly worried about attacks from protesters, either real or imagined." --safari

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "Puerto Rico will close 283 schools across the island following a sharp enrollment drop as the U.S. territory continues to languish in recovery efforts almost seven months after a devastating hurricane...Many of the island's schools are still experiencing power outages and interruptions in their schedules. In January, the Washington Post reported that many teachers were resorting to printing assignments at spots like Burger King, where power is functioning more consistently.... Puerto Rico isn't alone. The U.S. Virgin Islands, also badly hit during last year's hurricane season, are struggling as well." --safari

Way Beyond the Beltway

Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: "Two Palestinians succumbed early Saturday to injuries sustained in a protest on the border fence with Israel a day earlier, including a journalist shot by Israeli forces despite apparently wearing a vest that clearly marked him as press. Video and photos of Yasser Murtaja, 31, being treated after sustaining a bullet wound to the lower abdomen, including one shot by Agence France-Presse news agency, show him wearing a blue and white protective jacket with 'PRESS' emblazoned on the front." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe Trump can get away with caging reporters & shooting somebody in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue, but let's see if Bibi can get away with murdering a working journalist.