The Commentariat -- March 11, 2018

Late Morning Update:

Oh Why Can't the U.S. Be More Like China. Chris Buckley & Steven Myers of the New York Times: "President Xi Jinping set China on course to follow his hard-line authoritarian rule far into the future on Sunday, when the national legislature lifted the presidential term limit and gave constitutional backing to expanding the reach of the Communist Party.... The party-controlled legislature, voted almost unanimously to approve an amendment to the Constitution to abolish the term limit on the presidency, opening the way for Mr. Xi to rule indefinitely. The amendment was among a set of 21 constitutional changes approved by the congress, which included passages added to the Constitution to salute Mr. Xi and his drive to entrench party supremacy. Mr. Xi is using his formidable power to dismantle parts of the political order set in place in the 1980s and 1990s by Deng Xiaoping, who led China on a path of economic opening and liberalization."

Luis Sanchez of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday blasted Democrats for obstructing his nominations and urged the Senate to move faster to confirm his nominees.... However, Democrats argue that a number of Trump's nominees have withdrawn or faced intense scrutiny for conflicts of interest or a lack of qualifications for their nominated positions."

John Bowden of the Hill: "More than a dozen top election officials across the country are raising concerns about a provision in a Homeland Security Department reauthorization bill that would allow President Trump to dispatch Secret Service agents to polling places. A letter signed by 19 bipartisan secretaries of state to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) demands the Senate leave out a proposal from final legislation that would allow Secret Service agents to accompany lawmakers to polling places when they vote.... A spokeswoman for the agency denied that the Secret Service agents would be used in a law enforcement capacity, stating that the clarifying language' was a response to a 2016 incident in which poll workers stopped agents from accompanying a lawmaker to vote over concerns it violated federal law. 'The only time armed Secret Service personnel would be at a polling place would be to facilitate the visiting of one of our protectees while they voted,' Secret Service spokeswoman Catherine Milhoan told the [Boston] Globe."

*****

All in the Family. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner's family company recently began construction on an oceanfront development in [Long Branch, New Jersey], a project that has the strong backing of local officials, who agreed to support it with $20 million in bonds. But unknown to Long Branch officials, the Kushners have been in talks to team up with another family-run company that has an even bigger presence in the White House: the Trump Organization. The Kushners are in private discussions to have President Trump's company manage atleast one hotel at the center of the development.... The long-running talks blur the line between family, business and politics in ways that lack precedent: Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner ... retain financial interests in their family businesses. The Trump Organization's outside ethics adviser has raised questions about a potential deal -- one reason the two-year-long discussions have not been completed." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Maybe Trump's desire to close the deal is one reason he's been letting Jared roam the West Wing & peek at all the nation's secrets -- despite Jared's lack of qualifications, or a security clearance, or good advice. Wherever in the world you may live, you could hear Congressional Republicans screaming "Impeachment!!" if Hillary were president & Chelsea's husband (who, like Jared, is the also son of a convicted felon) were dangling some multi-million-dollar contract over Hillary's head.

"Is There Anything More Fun than a Trump Rally?" Elena Schneider & Brent Griffiths of Politico: "... Donald Trump got business out of the way quickly Saturday night -- urging voters to elect Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone, who's locked in an unexpectedly tough special election battle in Pennsylvania – before turning to the main subject of the night: himself.... Trump made fun of Washington and congratulated himself for maintaining his iconoclastic style in office, despite critics who have called for him to take his job more seriously.... Trump touted his tax reform plan, his new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and his newly announced plan to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while slamming the news media -- including calling NBC host Chuck Todd a 'son of a bitch.'... He also talked about the size of the crowd, thanking the fire marshal -- a vintage campaign line -- and recounted how Pennsylvania sealed his 2016 victory. He also unveiled his own new slogan for the 2020 campaign: 'Keep America Great!' 'Is there anything more fun than a Trump rally?' he asked at one point." ...

... Seung Min Kim & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Saturday again called for enacting the death penalty for drug dealers during a rally [in Moon Township, Pennsylvania].... During the campaign event in this conservative western Pennsylvania district, the president also veered off into a list of other topics, including North Korea, his distaste for the news media and his own election victory 16 months ago.... Trump was ostensibly here to inject some last-minute political capital behind Republican Rick Saccone, whose race against Democrat Conor Lamb could be a harbinger of the Republican Party's fate in the midterms. But in classic Trump fashion, he quickly steered away from his main reason for being there.... Trump also delivered a profane attack on the news media, calling NBC News anchor Chuck Todd a 'sleeping son of a bitch' and deeming CNN 'fake as hell,' as the enthusiastic crowd booed at the mention of journalists and chanted 'CNN sucks!' And he rattled off several falsehoods, such as a claim that 52 percent of women voted for him in his presidential win (it was 52 percent of white women, according to exit polling)." ...

... Katie Zezima & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post (March 9): "The Trump administration is studying new policy that could allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for drug dealers..., a sign that the White House wants to make a strong statement in addressing the opioid crisis." ...

... Chas Danner of New York: "'Some countries have a very tough penalty, the ultimate penalty, and they have much less of a drug problem than we do,' [Trump] explained during a White House summit on March 1. And Trump 'often jokes about killing drug dealers,' a senior administration told Axios last month. 'He'll say, "You know the Chinese and Filipinos don't have a drug problem. They just kill them."' And the president has long expressed admiration for how Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has encouraged the extrajudicial murder of anyone suspected of dealing drugs.... Trump has privately endorsed Singapore's policy of executing dealers, as well, and according to the Post, 'Singaporean representatives have briefed senior White House officials on their country's drug policies, which include treatment and education, but also the death penalty, and they provided a PowerPoint presentation on that country's laws.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe you noticed that the countries Trump cites -- China, the Philippines & Singapore -- are run by authoritarian figures. Aah, could be a coincidence.

Trump "Believes" Another Dictator. Emily Stewart of Vox: "On Saturday..., Donald Trump continued to congratulate himself over his agreement to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump touted calls with leaders in China and Japan, emphasizing that North Korea has promised not to do any missile tests through the meeting -- a promise he believes.... [Trump wrote in a tweet,] 'North Korea has not conducted a Missile Test since November 28, 2017 and has promised not to do so through our meetings. I believe they will honor that commitment!'... Trump in a separate tweet on Saturday reacted to the surprise at his agreement to meet with North Korea, including from the media. He said the press was 'startled' and 'amazed' at the events but now the news about it is 'fake.' It is unclear what is fake about it, or who he believes is saying, 'So what, who cares!'" ...

... Peter Baker & Choe Sang-Hun have the New York Times' story of Donald Trump's snap decision to meet with Kim Jong-un: "Mr. Trump accepted on the spot, stunning not only [South Korean envoy Chung Eui-yong] and the other high-level South Koreans who were with him, but also the phalanx of American officials who were gathered in the Oval Office. His advisers had assumed the president would take more time to discuss such a decision with them first. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the president's national security adviser, both expressed caution. If you go ahead with this, they told Mr. Trump, there will be risks and downsides. Mr. Trump brushed them off. I get it, I get it, he said.... The story of how this came about is a case study in international relations in the Trump era. A president with no prior foreign policy experience takes on a festering conflict that has vexed the world for years with a blend of impulse and improvisation, and with no certain outcome. One moment, he is hurling playground insults and threatening nuclear war, the next he is offering the validation of a presidential meeting." ...

... William Broad of the New York Times (March 9): "North Korea appears to be making new nuclear bomb fuel, satellite imagery shows, even as its leader, Kim Jong-un, has expressed willingness to negotiate atomic disarmament with President Trump. Two separate teams of American analysts examining satellite images from January and February have concluded that the North's reactor at Yongbyon, which had appeared to be dormant, is now making plutonium -- a principal fuel of nuclear arms." ...

... ** BUT. Mrs. McCrabbie: Gloria adds a teensy-weensy factoid (or you might call it an earthquake) that sheds a whole new light on Kim's generous invitation to the Best Negotiator Ever. It's something I didn't know, & I'll bet the Best didn't know, either: "It is my understanding (personal comms) that the main North Korea nuclear test site is now unusable. Promising not to do something that you physically can't do is not a huge concession. One needs to know stuff." The link is to an October 17, 2017, report by Christine Kim of Reuters: "A series of tremors and landslides near North Korea's nuclear test base likely mean the country's sixth and largest blast has destabilized the region, and the Punggye-ri nuclear site may not be used for much longer to test nuclear weapons, experts say." ...

... Trump's Gift to Kim. Barbara Demick of the Los Angeles Times: "No matter what else comes of it, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has scored a huge win with President Trump's agreement to sit down for a face-to-face meeting. For decades, North Korean officials have angled to meet with a high-level U.S. representative using all measures of persuasion, whining, wheedling, threatening and even hostage-taking. To secure a chance at that meeting with a sitting U.S. president, no less, amounts to success beyond their wildest dreams. From a propaganda standpoint, getting into the same room with Donald Trump would elevate the 34-year-old Kim, a pariah and terrorist in the eyes of much of the world, to the status of a world leader." ...

... Trump's Gifts to Xi. Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "... in a single day, President Trump managed to unsettle [Asia] on not just one front but two. Hours after he signed orders to impose stiff and sweeping tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, including from key allies like Japan and South Korea, he accepted an invitation to personally meet North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, for negotiations over the North's nuclear program. For allies who have long looked to the United States to provide security and stability, it was a dizzying jolt of drama that injected fresh uncertainty into strategic calculations in the region, where China is seeking to supplant the United States as the major power. 'This is without question a big opportunity for China,' said Ian Bremmer, the president of the Eurasia Group, a New York-based research firm that forecasts global risks. 'The United States has become a less certain partner for a while now.' By all accounts, Mr. Trump made improvisational decisions about both the tariffs and the talks, either against the advice or without the knowledge of key administration officials and advisers."

This Russia Thing, Ctd.

Trump Hopes to Hire Impeachment Lawyer. Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Trump is in discussions with a veteran Washington lawyer who represented Bill Clinton during the impeachment process about joining the White House to help deal with the special counsel inquiry, accordin to four people familiar with the matter. The lawyer, Emmet T. Flood, met with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office this past week to discuss the possibility, according to the people. No final decision has been made, according to two of the people.... Mr. Flood would not replace Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer who since the summer has taken the lead role in dealing with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. But Mr. Cobb has told friends for weeks that he views his position as temporary and does not expect to remain in the job for much longer." ...

... Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Here's a step-by-step guide of how the [Stormy] Daniels affair could potentially creep into the Mueller probe:... 1.... [Trump's attorney Michael] Cohen [-- who paid Daniels $130K in hush money --] is under FBI scrutiny in the Russia investigation.... 2.... It is possible [investigators] could broaden their inquiry to include his financial arrangement with Daniels.... 3.... The next step would be for Mueller to investigate the arrangement between Cohen and Daniels.... 4.... If Mueller has the evidence, he could threaten to bring criminal charges against Cohen, stemming from the payments. At that point, Cohen would need to decide between protecting Trump and protecting himself...." ...

... Daniel Politi of Slate: "In an interview with NBC, [Vladimir] Putin said the 13 Russian nationals who were indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller may not even be ethnically Russians, which would apparently mean they're not real Russians at all. 'Maybe they're not even Russians,' Putin told NBC&'s Megyn Kelly. 'Maybe they're Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, just with Russian citizenship. Even that needs to be checked. Maybe they have dual citizenship. Or maybe a green card. Maybe it was the Americans who paid them for this work. How do you know? I don't know.' During the interview, Putin said that he 'couldn't care less' about the accusations because none of them have ties to the Kremlin. 'Why have you decided the Russian authorities, myself included, gave anybody permission to do this?' Putin asked, noting at one point that 'there are 146 million Russians.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So there's something else Putin & Trump have in common: racism & xenophobia.

This Should Go Well. Maggie Haberman: "President Trump will make the first visit of his presidency to Latin America next month, the White House said on Saturday, traveling to Peru for a summit meeting of Western Hemisphere nations where he will convene with a group of leaders who have criticized his statements and policies on immigration. The president will also visit Colombia and meet with President Juan Manuel Santos, the White House said in a statement." ...

... MEANWHILE, Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post has a story on Colombia's plans to become the world's provider of legal cannabis. Mrs. McC: Maybe President Santos will want to discuss with Trump the U.S President's hope to execute drug dealers.

Trump's "Great" Dinner Guest. Stephen Brown of the New York Daily News: Fox "News" "prominent host Jesse Watters -- who dined on Monday with President Trump -- is in the midst of divorce due to an affair with a 25-year-old associate producer. Watters' wife, Noelle Watters, filed for divorce in October.... Sources said the 39-year-old host informed the network of his adulterous relationship with Emma DiGiovine shortly after Noelle filed divorce papers.... Watters has pursued his on-the-job romance as Fox News struggles to move on from a barrage of shocking allegations about its workplace culture.... Watters ... tweeted a photo Thursday of a dinner menu from The White House signed by Trump. 'To Jesse you are great!' Trump wrote on the menu."

Kelly Takes Cabinet Members to the Woodshed. Cristina Alesci of CNN: "The White House held private meetings with four Cabinet-level officials last month to scold them for embarrassing stories about questionable ethical behavior at their respective agencies, sources familiar with the sessions tell CNN.... Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt all met with officials from the White House counsel's office and the Cabinet liaison. The meetings, held at chief of staff John Kelly's request, were intended to provide 'a clear message that optics matter,' the sources said. The White House gave the agencies a set of guidelines in a document titled 'creating a culture of compliance,' according to portions of the document obtained by CNN." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Lisa Friedman & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has killed an effort by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency [Scott Pruitt] to stage public debates challenging climate change science, according to three people familiar with the deliberations, thwarting a plan that had intrigued President Trump even as it set off alarm bells among his top advisers.... At a mid-December meeting set up by Mr. Kelly's deputy, Rick Dearborn, to discuss the plan, Mr. Dearborn made it clear that his boss considered the idea 'dead,' and not to be discussed further.... 'The chief doesn't want it,' Mr. Dearborn said, referring to the White House chief of staff, according to one person who attended. E.P.A. officials were taken aback, the person said. While the words 'climate change' have been removed from many federal websites, and Mr. Trump has mocked global warming in tweets, the administration has stopped short of using the power of the federal government to attack the science." (Also linked yesterday.)

What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "While attention has been focused on President Trump's disputed decision in January to reverse drilling restrictions in nearly all United States coastal waters, the administration has also pursued a rollback of Obama-era regulations in the Gulf. Those rules include safety measures put in place after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig in 2010, a disaster that killed 11 people and resulted in the largest marine oil spill in drilling history. Smaller oil and gas companies, many backed by Wall Street and private equity firms, say they need the relief to survive financially, and the top safety official at the Interior Department appointed by Mr. Trump has appeared an enthusiastic ally.... But an analysis of federal inspection data by The New York Times found that several of the independent companies seeking the rollback ... had been cited for workplace safety violations in recent years at a rate much higher than the industry average. Their offshore platforms suffer in some cases from years of poor maintenance, as well as equipment failures or metal fatigue on aging devices, records show. In addition, there was a string of serious environmental and safety episodes in the last six months involving independent operators, \ including the death in February of a worker who was removing firefighting equipment from a platform about 30 miles offshore, and an oil spill in October that is considered the largest since the Deepwater Horizon event, according to Interior Department records."

Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Wednesday that it was 'immoral' to help poor nations shift off of fossil fuels. 'Look those people in the eyes that are starving and tell them you can't have electricity,' said Perry ... at the annual CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. 'Because as a society we decided fossil fuels were bad. I think that is immoral.'.... [A] 2017 Lancet study concluded that globally, air, water, and soil pollution kill more than 9 million people a year.... What's immoral are the efforts by Rick Perry and his boss President Trump to undermine clean energy, reverse U.S. climate action, and thwart the Paris climate accord." --safari ...

... Kirsta Langlois in Mother Jones: "Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski ... [is] a lifelong Alaskan who believes that her constituents' well-being is inextricable from access to the state's natural resources.... Now, with help from an exceedingly development-friendly administration, Murkowski is ... ushering in huge changes to some of America's wildest landscapes. Nicole Whittington-Evans, Alaska regional director of The Wilderness Society, says she's never seen 'anything comparable to the full-on assault of Alaska's land and waters that we've seen in the last year'.... And Murkowski's reach isn't limited to the 49th state. What happens here sets the tone for what's permissible on public lands elsewhere." --safari ...

... Juan Cole: "The 'Letter Warning Humanity' from scientists has now been signed by over 20,000 scientists, as The Independent notes.... Only a redesign of our energy grid and the way we do industrialized society, including giving up most use of plastics and many pesticides and burning fossil fuels, can avert the catastrophes they describe. So far, no sign they are being taken seriously." --safari: Includes the key charts and evidence in an easy-to-understand form.

Maggie Haberman & Jim Tankersley: "President Trump is strongly considering Christopher P. Liddell, a White House official who was an executive at Microsoft and General Motors, to succeed his departing top economic adviser, Gary D. Cohn, according to two people briefed on the discussions."

Congratulations, Ladies Women. Amanda Arnold of New York: "In an Instagram post dedicated to Women's History Month, the GOP attempted to bolster its dubious claim that Donald Trump has excelled at appointing women to senior-level positions by featuring photos of women who are not political appointees. While Trump did in fact name some of the women in the 10-photo post -- men's-rights activists ally and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, RNC Chairwoman Ronna [Romney] McDaniel, and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, for example -- he did not appoint First Lady Melania Trump or Second Lady Karen Pence. Oh, and Ivanka, who is technically an unpaid government employee, is also in there. Congrats to Trump on "empowering" the women in his family! (Sorry, Tiffany.)"

Kim Willsher of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon has told France's far-right Front National that, 'history is on our side and will bring us victory' in an address to the party's conference.... Bannon ... has been doing a tour of European cities including Zurich, Milan and Rome." --safari...

...The Daily Beast: "Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Saturday said that being labeled a racist should be a point of pride.... Bannon told the crowd those who are called 'racists,' 'misogynists,' 'homophobes,' and 'xenophobes' by their critics are only given such labels because they've left their opponents stumped with provocative questions. 'Let them call you racist.... Wear it as a badge of honor. Because every day we get stronger, they get weaker,' he told the audience.... Bannon has embarked on an international mission to launch a 'global populist movement.'" --safari

Tierney Sneed of TPM: "In order to impeach the testimony of Hans von Spakovsky, a witness called to defend Kansas' proof-of-citizenship requirement, ACLU lawyer Dale Ho introduced as evidence an email von Spakovsky wrote about the now-defunct Trump voter fraud commission. In the email, von Spakovsky said that putting Democrats or even 'mainstream Republicans' on the commission would result in 'abject failure.'... Ho also presented a transcript of an audio recording in which von Spakovsky denied to a reporter that he had sent the email. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is defending the law, objected, unsuccessfully, to the admission of the transcript." --safari

Everything Is Going So Smoothly. Jim Tankersley & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The legislative blitz that rocketed the $1.5 trillion tax cut through Congress in less than two months created a host of errors and ambiguities in the law that businesses big and small are just now discovering and scrambling to address. Companies and trade groups are pushing the Treasury Department and Congress to fix the law's consequences, some intended and some not, including provisions that disadvantage certain farmers, hurt restaurateurs and retailers and could balloon the tax bills of large multinational corporations. While Treasury can clear up uncertainty about some of the murky provisions, actual errors and unintended language can be solved only legislatively -- at a time when Democrats seem disinclined to lend votes to shoring up a law they had no hand in passing and are actively trying to dismantle. On Thursday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent the Treasury Department 15 pages of detailed requests for clarification on how the law affects multinational corporations, mutual fund investors and mom-and-pop pass-through entities."

Coming to a School Near You. Alvin Chang of Vox: "There's the old truism that public school teachers aren't paid enough, but th[e] strike in West Virginia highlights a trend that we're seeing nationwide: Public school teachers aren't getting raises that keep up with inflation -- and over time, this essentially amounts to massive pay cuts.... But like in West Virginia, teachers in Oklahoma and Arizona have taken notice and may be planning strikes of their own, my colleague Alexia Fernández Campbell reports.... Chances are it's happening in your state too." --safari: Includes database to check out the data for each state.

Danielle McLean of ThinkProgress: "The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the Trump administration for forcibly separating parents awaiting asylum proceedings from their young children. The ACLU, which filed the class action lawsuit at the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of California on Friday, claims the practice by government agencies of separating young children from their families violates the Process Clause and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The lawsuit represents a proposed class of 'hundreds of individuals whose minor children have already been taken from them.' The class-action suit broadens an existing ACLU lawsuit that attempted to reunite a woman with her 7-year-old daughter after they were detained separately by U.S. officials.";

Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "The US mining industry has asked the supreme court to overturn an Obama-era rule prohibiting the mining of uranium on public lands adjacent to th Grand Canyon.... In December, the ninth circuit court of appeals upheld the ban after a legal challenge by the industry, to the relief of environmental groups and Native American tribes in northern Arizona. Ken Salazar, then secretary of the interior, instituted the ban for 20 years on public land that the Havasupai tribe relies on for water.... The global uranium market is currently flooded, meaning that mining in the US is not profitable. That could change as the Trump administration considers protections that could increase domestic demand." --safari

Character is about what you do when no one is watching. According to Rebecca Savransky of the Hill, the photo of Joe Biden & a homeless man has gone viral.

Beyond the Beltway

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Corey Stewart, chairman of the of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and current U.S. Senate candidate, has a long history of extremist statements. His latest may take the cake. The man who raffled off an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle last January ... tweeted on Thursday night that the gun ... was actually less deadly than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton..... He later clarified that while Clinton has 'not personally killed anyone,' neither has the AR-15." --safari

Way Beyond

Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, has succeeded in abolishing presidential term limits, a momentous political coup that paves the way for him to stay in power for years to come. Nearly 3,000 members of China's National People's Congress voted the highly controversial constitutional amendment through during a Sunday afternoon ... three delegates abstained and two voted against, a small hint of the outrage the move has caused in some liberal circles.... Opponents, however, call the decision to scrap the two-term limit -- introduced in 1982 to prevent a repeat of the horrors of the Mao era -- a calamity that risks plunging China into a new age of political turbulence and one-man dictatorship." --safari

The Commentariat -- March 10, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Kelly Takes Cabinet Members to the Woodshed. Cristina Alesci of CNN: "The White House held private meetings with four Cabinet-level officials last month to scold them for embarrassing stories about questionable ethical behavior at their respective agencies, sources familiar with the sessions tell CNN.... Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt all met with officials from the White House counsel's office and the Cabinet liaison. The meetings, held at chief of staff John Kelly's request, were intended to provide 'a clear message that optics matter,' the sources said. The White House gave the agencies a set of guidelines in a document titled 'creating a culture of compliance,' according to portions of the document obtained by CNN." ...

... Lisa Friedman & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has killed an effort by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency [Scott Pruitt] to stage public debates challenging climate change science, according to three people familiar with the deliberations, thwarting a plan that had intrigued President Trump even as it set off alarm bells among his top advisers.... At a mid-December meeting set up by Mr. Kelly's deputy, Rick Dearborn, to discuss the plan, Mr. Dearborn made it clear that his boss considered the idea 'dead,' and not to be discussed further.... 'The chief doesn't want it,' Mr. Dearborn said, referring to the White House chief of staff, according to one person who attended. E.P.A. officials were taken aback, the person said. While the words 'climate change' have been removed from many federal websites, and Mr. Trump has mocked global warming in tweets, the administration has stopped short of using the power of the federal government to attack the science."

*****

He can't even make a deal with a porn star. -- Mika Brzezinski, on Trump's negotiating skills, yesterday ...

... Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "The White House on Friday sent confusing messages about the prospects for a historic meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, raising questions about a summit announced less than 24 hours earlier. White House officials insisted that nothing had changed since Trump said he had accepted an invitation from Kim. But White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared to lay out new conditions, demanding 'concrete, verifiable'' actions from Pyongyang.... The remarks left it unclear whether the White House was restating the terms of the meeting, with even the timing of talks appearing to be up in the air. The White House insistence on concrete actions appeared to be a response to criticism that Trump accepted Kim's invitation too quickly, without extracting enough concessions beforehand." Mrs. McC: This report was posted at about 7:30 pm Friday. ...

... "Muddled Message." Mark Landler of the New York Times: "A day after President Trump accepted an invitation to meet Kim Jong-un of North Korea, the White House began planning on Friday a high-level diplomatic encounter so risky and seemingly far-fetched that some of Mr. Trump's aides believe it will never happen. The administration is already deliberating over the logistics and location of the meeting.... Administration officials later clarified that Ms. Sanders was not adding new preconditions to the meeting.... The White House's muddled message underscored the confusion sowed by Mr. Trump's on-the-spot decision on Thursday to meet Mr. Kim." Mrs. McC: This report was posted in the early evening. ...

... Moving the Goal Posts. Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Trump will insist on 'concrete, verifiable actions' from North Korea before holding a promised summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the White House said Friday, adding conditions and a note of skepticism to the buoyant mood that surrounded the surprise announcement the night before. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeated the insistence on 'concrete, verifiable' steps several times, and asserted that the United States had given up no leverage in agreeing to hold the unprecedented meeting." Mrs. McC: This report was posted in the late afternoon Friday. ...

... Winging It. Paul Sonne & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "President Trump's high-wire gambit to accept a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sets off a scramble among U.S. officials to assemble a team capable of supporting a historic summit of longtime adversaries and determine a viable engagement strategy. State Department officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, were playing down the immediacy of talks in the hours before the White House rolled out the South Korean national security adviser, who made the surprise announcement that Trump would meet with Kim. The apparent lack of coordination marked a pattern of mixed messaging that has characterized the Trump administration's North Korea diplomacy since Pyongyang launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile last year, sparking the Trump White House's biggest national security crisis to date. Now the White House has committed to an unprecedented meeting at a time when the administration lacks a fully staffed cadre of diplomats and advisers." ...

... Michael Gordon, et al., of the Wall Street Journal: "Inside the Oval Office late Thursday..., Donald Trump interrupted a trio of South Korean officials as they analyzed an offer to meet from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and outlined possible diplomatic options. 'OK, OK,' Mr. Trump said, cutting short the discussion. 'Tell them I'll do it.' The South Korean officials looked at each other as if in disbelief, according to a White House official with knowledge of the meeting...." Mrs. McC: The link above is useless unless you have a WSJ subscription, but I was able to read the entire article by Googling a portion of the lede between quotation marks. This works sometimes. ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So the bottom line is that, for all the research the South Koreans might have done on Trump, they didn't read the news reports that Donald Trump can't sit through a briefing. And that is why he changed decades of U.S. policy. Feeling safer? ...

... Trumpity-Doo-Dah. "I Alone Can Fix It." Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Shocking and yet somehow not surprising, Mr. Trump's decision to do what no other sitting president has done and meet in person with a North Korean leader reflects an audacious and supremely self-confident approach to international affairs. Whether it is Middle East peace or trade agreements, Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he can achieve what has eluded every other occupant of his office through the force of his own personality. So far, he has little to show for that." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Yesterday, some of us posted predictions in the Comments section on how a Trump-Kim meeting might go. (Periscrope posted one that's actually plausible.) Here's digby's prediction: "Trump will normalize Kim as another one of his favorite strongmen because he 'wants to meet him' and he'll go around talking about how he's a good guy at heart with whom we can deal. Just like Xi. Just like Putin. Just like Duterte. He is telling people everywhere that the strongmen are the good guys --- because they play him like a fiddle. The right wing Daily Caller is now running apologias by Russian oligarchs with strong ties to Vladimir Putin. [Mrs. McC: Yeah, the Daily Crapper published an opinion piece yesterday by Paul Manafort creditor & oligarch Oleg Deripaska.] They are being portrayed as good guys who are being persecuted by the left.... Saddam and Khaddafi both gave up their [nuclear programs] and look what happened. He can hear that Trump and the Republicans want to tear up the Iran deal. So, why would he trust any US president, much less Donald Trump not to overthrow him if he gives up his leverage?"

"I Alone." Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "Even before he decided to launch a trade war and roll the nuclear dice by agreeing in the course of a West Wing afternoon to a risky sit-down with Kim Jong Un, Donald Trump was telling friends he was tired of being reined in. 'I'm doing great, but I'm getting all these bad headlines,' Trump told a friend recently. A Republican in frequent contact with the White House told me Trump is 'frustrated by all these people telling him what to do.'... Trump has diagnosed the problem as having the wrong team around him and is looking to replace his senior staff in the coming weeks.... Sources said that the first officials to go will be Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, both of whom Trump has clashed with for months. On Tuesday, Trump met with John Bolton in the Oval Office. When he plans to visit Mar-a-Lago next weekend, Trump is expected to interview more candidates for both positions, according to two sources.... Next on the departure list are Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Both have been sidelined without top-secret security clearances by Kelly, and sources expect them to be leaving at some point in the near future." ...

     ... Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "I am still undecided about how much weight to give Gabriel Sherman's reporting. He relies so much on unnamed sources that I find myself doubting that all his quotes are real. On the other hand, he does seem to have a gift for cultivating sources in right-wing circles.... The basic gist of [Sherman's report linked above] is that Trump has become convinced that he needs to stop listening to moderating and controlling voices and get back to the rhetoric and policies he was advocating on the campaign.... Say what you want about [Trump's] record so far, it would be far worse if people had simply followed his instincts and directives." ...

... David Smith of the Guardian: "There has never been such a rapid turnover of personnel in a US administration in modern times. If anything, the stampede to the exits appears to be accelerating, raising fears of a 'brain drain' that will leave key jobs unfilled and make it ever harder to recruit new talent. 'One of the problems here is the White House is getting hollowed out and the number of people capable of doing things, of doing real things whether you agree or disagree ideologically, is getting smaller and smaller,' Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, told reporters. 'So the mess-ups we've seen this past week, I think we're going to see over and over and over again.' Trump, who spent a decade as host of The Apprentice, has enjoyed pulling back the curtain to allow White House meetings to be televised. But he also appears to be copying the reality TV format of eliminating a member of his administration or cabinet on a weekly basis, leaving the audience in suspense: who's next?"

... Yes, But Trump Is Consulting with All the Right People. Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "On Monday night..., Donald Trump ... was joined for dinner in the White House residence by Fox News personalities, including host Jesse Watters and [Sebastian] Gorka.... According to a White House official and two other sources familiar with the meeting, President Trump invited Gorka and Watters because 'he couldn't get enough of them on TV,' as one source put it, and wanted to confab with them about what he'd seen on Fox News, politics, gossip, and his administration." ...

MEANWHILE, Everything Is Going So Smoothly. Annie Karni & Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "... the search to take over [Hope Hicks'] job has become something an internal free-for-all, with aides campaigning for the job, Trump soliciting advice directly from Hicks about who should take over when she's gone, and chief of staff John Kelly trying to broaden the search to include some outside candidates. The top candidates emerging from inside the White House, multiple officials said, are director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp, a veteran of the George W. Bush administration who has become a Kelly ally in his battle against ... Jared Kushner; and Tony Sayegh, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury Department."

The President & the Porn Star

Matthew Mosk & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "... Donald Trump has added yet another lawyer in his outside legal team -- New York attorney Lawrence S. Rosen, multiple sources tell ABC News. Rosen has been brought in by Trump's longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to handle the legal issues surrounding the so-called 'hush' agreement that Cohen negotiated with the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels.... Rosen, a partner in the firm LaRocca, Hornick, Rosen, Greenberg & Blaha, is a 'pit bull' who will 'aggressively fight and use his rhetorical and writing skills to get you a win,' according to the firm's website." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Tom Llamas, et al., of ABC News: "When asked where the $130,000 sent to Daniels' attorney came from, Cohen told ABC News 'the funds were taken from my home equity line and transferred internally to my LLC account in the same bank.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say what? Would you jeopardize ownership of your own home to make a secret hush-money payment for a guy who notoriously defaults on his known debts? I didn't think so.

... The E-Mails! Sarah Fitzgerald & Tracy Connor of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's personal attorney used his Trump Organization email while arranging to transfer money into an account at a Manhattan bank before he wired $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence. The lawyer, Michael Cohen, also regularly used the same email account during 2016 negotiations with the actress -- whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford -- before she signed a nondisclosure agreement, a source familiar with the discussions told NBC News. And Clifford's attorney at the time addressed correspondence to Cohen in his capacity at the Trump Organization and as 'Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump,' the source said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "That means that federal election law was almost certainly violated.... [According to an assertion in Daniel's lawsuit against Trump,] hearing that she might tell her story, too, Trump 'sought to silence' her, 'thus helping to ensure he won the Presidential Election.' Those two things together -- that a Trump Organization email address was used to facilitate the payment and that the payment was linked to the campaign -- would constitute a legal violation.... Paying someone to be quiet so they do not damage a political effort is an in-kind contribution to that campaign, covering a cost meant to aid efforts to win the election."

... It's the Cover-up. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... the Daniels story is germane to the overriding scandal of the Trump administration, the one involving Trump's relationship with Russia. Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy who compiled an infamous dossier of opposition research on Trump, wrote that Russia could blackmail Trump with evidence of his 'sexual perversion.' Nothing we know of Daniels confirms the dossier's outré claims about what such perversion entailed. The [nondiscloser agreement] does, however, show that Trump was susceptible to blackmail.... The scandal will lie less in the details of Trump's degeneracy than in the steps he and his lawyers took to cover it up." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This Russia Thing, Ctd.

Noor Al-Sibai of the Raw Story: "Lawyers representing ... Donald Trump are seeking a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller to end his investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and obstruction of justice for the firing of ex-FBI director James Comey. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Trump's lawyers may negotiate a meeting between the president and the special counsel 'as leverage to spur a conclusion to the Russia investigation.' According to a source close to the investigation who spoke with the Journal, the president's legal team is considering potentially using a sit-down meeting with Mueller in exchange for a number of factors, 'including that the special counsel commit to a date for concluding at least the Trump-related portion of the investigation.' One deadline they floated was 60 days after said meeting, the source told the Journal." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As you might suspect, several teevee pundits have explained that this is not the kind of deal a special counsel is likely to make with the principal target of his investigation.

Josh Gerstein & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, who threatened earlier this week to defy a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller, showed up Friday morning at the federal courthouse in Washington, where he appeared set to answer prosecutors' questions in the ongoing probe of alleged collusion between Trump aides and Russia." (Also linked yesterday.)

Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump was so eager to have Vladimir Putin attend the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow that he wrote a personal letter to the Russian president inviting him to the event, according to multiple people familiar with the document. At the bottom of the typed letter, Trump scrawled a postscript adding that he looked forward to seeing 'beautiful' women during his trip.... The letter, the first known attempt at direct outreach by Trump to Putin, has been turned over to investigators probing Russia's interference in the 2016 campaign."

Mother Jones publishes "the second of two excerpts adapted from Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump..., by Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, and David Corn, Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones. The book will be released on March 13." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ben Protess & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Travelers trying to book a stay at the Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama on Thursday found no rooms available on TrumpHotels.com. But the website for the Bahia Grand Panama had several luxurious options, at the very same oceanfront hotel. The dueling websites ... are the latest twist in the oft-bizarre battle between President Trump's family business and the majority owner of the Panama City property, who has spent months trying to oust the Trumps as both the managers and the branders of the hotel.... By Thursday, a statement was released that said the hotel had a new name, Bahia Grand Panama; a new website; and even new social media accounts. The statement ... declared, 'As of today, the former Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama is no longer managed by or affiliated with Trump brand.' Don't tell that to the Trumps, who continue to make their case in various legal venues. In a statement, the Trump Organization's chief legal officer, Alan Garten, noted that the management contract 'mandates that all disputes be resolved through binding arbitration' and that 'Trump Hotels has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Mr. Fintiklis,' [the majority owner.]" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, maybe the U.S. ambassador to Panama could step in & clear all this up. You know, try some diplomacy. Oh, wait ...

... Joshua Partlow & Carol Morello of the Washington Post: John Feeley, the (now former) U.S. Ambassador to Panama, "flew home from Panama on Friday, capping almost three decades as a diplomat under Republican and Democratic administrations. In the past year, he said, he realized he was working for a president whose policies and tone he could no longer promote or even explain.... With Feeley's departure, however, the department loses one of its leading Latin Americanists. And because of the leaked resignation letter, he has come to symbolize a string of diplomats who have left their posts saying they feel marginalized and unwilling to represent an administration whose values they reject." ...

... John Feeley in a Washington Post op-ed: "Shortly after the Charlottesville riots last August, I made the private decision to step down as President Trump's personal representative and ambassador to the government of Panama. I resigned because the traditional core values of the United States, as manifested in the president's National Security Strategy and his foreign policies, have been warped and betrayed. I could no longer represent him personally and remain faithful to my beliefs about what makes America truly great. The amateurish promulgation of a country-specific travel ban, the push to build a 'big, beautiful wall' and to expel the 'dreamers' beyond it, the withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the belligerent renegotiating of the North American Free Trade Agreement and counterproductive steel and aluminum tariffs are all making the United States weaker and less prosperous. America is undoubtedly less welcome in the world today, as the president pursues a unilateral and isolationist path."

Dana Milbank: "The steel industry, shedding workers, shutting plants and bleeding red ink, pleaded with the federal government for tariffs on imports. As the government obliged, a young reporter on the steel beat for the Wall Street Journal cautioned that tariffs could 'ultimately do the industry more harm than good' because the real threat to big steel wasn't foreign competition but changing technology. That was 1992. The administration that imposed the trade barriers was George H.W. Bush's. And the young steel reporter was me. Twenty-six years later, what's old is new again. The industry's fortunes have waxed and waned with the economy and the price of steel. Trade protections came and went. But steel jobs continue to vanish. That's because the job loss has almost nothing to do with imports."

How to Get a Presidential Pardon. Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "A former Navy sailor who pleaded guilty to a felony count of unauthorized possession and retention of national defense information for snapping photos on a nuclear attack submarine has received a pardon from ... Donald Trump -- and his attorney says Fox News deserves the credit. The legal team for Kristian Saucier compared his case to the handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. That grabbed Trump's interest, and it's now paid off in the form of a presidential pardon, announced Friday. Last week, Saucier appeared on 'Fox & Friends,' a program that the president records and watches during his morning 'executive time.'... In 2016, shortly after then-FBI Director James Comey announced the results of the Clinton email investigation, Saucier's legal team began comparing the submariner's case to Clinton's. The Justice Department responded that Saucier was 'grasping at highly imaginative and speculative straws.'..." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: So, (1) commit a potentially treasonous act. (2) Get convicted. (3) Appear on "Fox & Friends." (4) Contrast your "unfair" conviction with Hillary Clinton's exoneration. (5) Check mailbox for letter stamped with presidential seal. Piece o' cake.

Trump Loves a Parade. Ryan Browne of CNN: "... Donald Trump will get his military parade, but it is unlikely to mirror the Paris Bastille Day event which inspired him as it will not involve any heavy military vehicles like tanks to avoid doing damage to the streets of Washington, according to a Pentagon planning memo shown to CNN.... The memo says the parade will integrate with the annual DC Veterans Day parade and focus on the contributions of US veterans from the Revolutionary War to today 'with an emphasis on the price of freedom.'... It will, however, involve 'a heavy air component' with military aircraft flying overhead at the end of parade, including older aircraft 'as available,' the memo said.... The parade route will run from the White House to the Capitol, with the memo saying that veterans and Medal of Honor recipients will surround Trump in the reviewing area of the Capitol during the event."

John Bowden of the Hill: "Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) joined several other Democrats on Friday demanding information from two companies on their business dealings with President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In two letters obtained by Politico, the Massachusetts Democrat, alongside Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), called for Citigroup and Apollo Global Management to release details of loans they provided Kushner Companies after meeting with Kushner in the White House." ...

... Bess Levin of Vanity Fair: "Luckily for Kushner, the requests will probably go as far as those sent last summer by Representative Maxine Waters to Deutsche Bank asking for information about the president's finances -- which is to say, nowhere. While a subpoena would likely get people talking, Warren would need to have the cooperation of her Republican colleagues, who apparently believe it's Kushner (and the Trump family)'s God-given right to profit off the presidency." Mrs. McC: Here's Levin's intro graf, which is mighty fine:

Earlier this month, we learned that Jared Kushner's family just happened to receive a pair of nine-figure loans shortly after the First Son-in-Law met with the lenders' executives at the White House. It wasn't a great look, particularly as it came on the heels of news that Ivanka's husband had supported a blockade of Qatar just weeks after his father unsuccessfully attempted to get the country's finance minister to invest in Kushner Cos' doomed Midtown tower, and that at least four countries had discussed ways to take advantage of Kushner's massive financial debts and political inexperience. In fact, one might get the sense that young Jared, who has held few jobs that were not given to him by his father or his father-in-law, has no business working in the White House, where he's accomplished approximately none of the goals he set out to tick off last year. And while we would never suggest the only thing Kushner appears qualified to do in the West Wing is use his position to improve his family's financial situation, Senator Elizabeth Warren isn't so sure!

"Inadequate." Cameron Joseph of TPM: The White House blew off Rep. Trey Gowdy's (R-S.C.) request for info from the White House on the reason Rob Porter was allowed to stay on the job without any chance he would receive a permanent security clearance. Gowdy's staff on the House Intelligence Committee replied, "The Chairman finds the White House's response inadequate, and we have communicated to the White House that we expect full compliance." Gowdy's follow-up "falls far short of Democrats’ demands that he subpoena the information the White House is refusing to provide, as well as call in White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House Counsel Don McGahn to explain what they knew and when."

In this segment, Rachel Maddow demonstrates just how corrupt the Republican party is, from Trump on down:

Congressional Race. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "If Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone wins an unexpectedly close special election [in Pittsburgh] next Tuesday, it will be onDonald Trump's coattails.... This race should be a gimme for the GOP. Democrats didn't even bother to field a candidate in 2016 or 2014. But public and private polls show the contest in the 18th district is now a toss-up, even after Republicans have poured in more than $10 million -- about five times what Democrats have spent.... The White House is sending the cavalry.... White House officials have said over the past week that they think the new tariffs could help tip the race their way." Mrs. McC: Thanks, Capt Russ! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Gail Collins: "Last week, as the [Pennsylvania] race got tighter and tighter, Trump suddenly announced he was imposing a ginormous tariff on imported steel and aluminum, triggering the resignation of his chief economic adviser and something as close to a rebellion as you could imagine among the little weenies who make up the Republican members of Congress. Do you think it could possibly have all been for western Pennsylvania? Duh." Mrs. McC: If you'd like to know something about the candidates, Collins does a better job than do "real reporters." ...

... BUT Collins doesn't mention this. Benjamin Haas & Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "A television advertisement features moody shots of a missile launch and goose-stepping North Korean soldiers -- and [GOP candidate Rick] Saccone's claim that his career as 'a diplomat in North Korea' makes him uniquely placed to deal with the looming crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear programme. Saccone's campaign website says that he 'spent one year on a diplomatic mission in North Korea' and describes him as 'the only United States citizen living in North Korea that negotiated with the North Korean regime on a daily basis'. But the four-term state legislator may be overstating his role. According to former colleagues, although Saccone is one of the few Americans to have dealt with North Korean officials, he was not a diplomat, and was not engaged in traditional diplomacy."

Paul LaMonica of CNN: "Bankrupt retailer Toys 'R' Us may shut all its US stores as soon as next week, according to several reports. That's terrible news for the two biggest publicly traded toy companies. Investors are clearly preparing for the worst. Shares of Hasbro ... fell 3.5% Friday morning while Mattel ... plunged 7%.... Toys 'R' Us is the last megastore dedicated to toys. Without it, toymakers will struggle to promote anything but their most popular items." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McC: LaMonica lists several reasons for the Toys 'R' Us failure, but he didn't think of this one: the U.S. has an aging population & low birth rate: the market for toys is shrinking. (Also, too, as inequality increases under GOP tax policies, people can't afford to buy so many toys for the kiddies.) However could we get some more kids into the population? Say, how about young immigrants??? So thanks, GOP!

Stephanie Clifford (no, not likely that Stephanie Clifford) of the New York Times: "Martin Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical executive notorious for sharply increasing drug prices, mounting sneering defenses of his actions and even issuing a bounty for one of Hillary Clinton's hairs, was sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison after being convicted of fraud last year.... Mr. Shkreli, 34, is best known for raising the price of a drug, Daraprim, by 5,000 percent in a move that was widely condemned by the public and politicians. His fraud convictions were unrelated to that episode, stemming instead from his involvement with Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company he founded in 2011, and two hedge funds he ran. In August, a jury convicted Mr. Shkreli, nicknamed Pharma Bro, on three of eight counts, concluding that he had lied to investors about, among other things, how the hedge funds were managed, what they invested in and how much money they had. The jury found that he had also secretly controlled a huge number of Retrophin shares."

Beyond the Beltway

Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "On Friday, in a dramatic turnaround in one of the most gun-friendly states in America, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law an array of gun limits that included raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21 and extending the waiting period to three days. It was the most aggressive action on gun control taken in the state in decades and the first time Mr. Scott, who had an A-plus rating from the National Rifle Association, had broken so significantly from the group." ...

... Jeffrey Schweers of the Tallahassee Democrat: "The National Rifle Association sued in federal court Friday to block a new Florida law, just signed by Gov. Rick Scott, that prohibits gun sales to anyone under 21. 'We filed a lawsuit against the state for violating the constitutional rights of 18- to 21-year-olds,' said Marion Hammer, lobbyist for the NRA in Florida."

I think weapons are too easy to get. Is the price worth it? -- Michael Berg of Yountville ...

... Napa Valley Register: "The all-day standoff between a lone gunman with three hostages at the Veterans Home of California [in Yountville, California,] wrapped up Friday evening, with Bay Area news media reporting shortly before 7:30 p.m. that all are dead. Shortly after 6 p.m., police, fire and medical units began withdrawing from the scene and a robot sent into the building holding the gunman was also pulled out.... A task force of law enforcement agencies descended on the Yountville facility after an armed man with a rifle burst into a farewell party at The Pathway Home, a nonprofit on the Vets Home grounds, and took three staff members hostage while releasing others, law enforcement said. The suspect, who exchanged gunfire with the first Napa County Sheriff's deputies to arrive, is believed to have been a former member of The Pathway Home, a privately run program for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with emotional traumas.... Early reports said the man, 36 years old, had been discharged from the treatment program two weeks ago."

Way Beyond

Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "British authorities investigating the poisoning of a former Russian spy, Sergei V. Skripal, and his daughter visited the graves of Mr. Skripal's wife and son in the cathedral town of Salisbury, England, on Friday. Mr. Skripal's wife, Lyudmila, 59, died in 2012 of uterine cancer, according to records from the National Health Service. His son Alexander, 43, died last year. The authorities did not provide details, saying only that they had not exhumed any bodies, but the forensic activities at the London Road Cemetery intensified speculation about the poisonings."

The Commentariat -- March 9, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Trumpity-Doo-Dah. "I Alone Can Fix It." Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Shocking and yet somehow not surprising, Mr. Trump's decision to do what no other sitting president has done and meet in person with a North Korean leader reflects an audacious and supremely self-confident approach to international affairs. Whether it is Middle East peace or trade agreements, Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he can achieve what has eluded every other occupant of his office through the force of his own personality. So far, he has little to show for that."

Matthew Mosk & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "... Donald Trump has added yet another lawyer in his outside legal team -- New York attorney Lawrence S. Rosen, multiple sources tell ABC News. Rosen has been brought in by Trump's longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to handle the legal issues surrounding the so-called 'hush' agreement that Cohen negotiated with the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels.... Rosen, a partner in the firm LaRocca, Hornick, Rosen, Greenberg & Blaha, is a 'pit bull' who will 'aggressively fight and use his rhetorical and writing skills to get you a win,' according to the firm's website." ...

... The E-Mails! Sarah Fitzgerald & Tracy Connor of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's personal attorney used his Trump Organization email while arranging to transfer money into an account at a Manhattan bank before he wired $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence. The lawyer, Michael Cohen, also regularly used the same email account during 2016 negotiations with the actress -- whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford -- before she signed a nondisclosure agreement, a source familiar with the discussions told NBC News. And Clifford's attorney at the time addressed correspondence to Cohen in his capacity at the Trump Organization and as 'Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump,' the source said." ...

... It's the Cover-up. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... the Daniels story is germane to the overriding scandal of the Trump administration, the one involving Trump's relationship with Russia. Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy who compiled an infamous dossier of opposition research on Trump, wrote that Russia could blackmail Trump with evidence of his 'sexual perversion.' Nothing we know of Daniels confirms the dossier's outré claims about what such perversion entailed. The [NDA] does, however, show that Trump was susceptible to blackmail.... The scandal will lie less in the details of Trump's degeneracy than in the steps he and his lawyers took to cover it up."

Ben Protess & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Travelers trying to book a stay at the Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama on Thursday found no rooms available on TrumpHotels.com. But the website for the Bahia Grand Panama had several luxurious options, at the very same oceanfront hotel. The dueling websites ... are the latest twist in the oft-bizarre battle between President Trump's family business and the majority owner of the Panama City property, who has spent months trying to oust the Trumps as both the managers and the branders of the hotel.... By Thursday, a statement was released that said the hotel had a new name, Bahia Grand Panama; a new website; and even new social media accounts. The statement ... declared, 'As of today, the former Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama is no longer managed by or affiliated with Trump brand.' Don't tell that to the Trumps, who continue to make their case in various legal venues. In a statement, the Trump Organization's chief legal officer, Alan Garten, noted that the management contract 'mandates that all disputes be resolved through binding arbitration' and that 'Trump Hotels has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Mr. Fintiklis,' [the majority owner.]"

Josh Gerstein & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, who threatened earlier this week to defy a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller, showed up Friday morning at the federal courthouse in Washington, where he appeared set to answer prosecutors' questions in the ongoing probe of alleged collusion between Trump aides and Russia."

Mother Jones publishes "the second of two excerpts adapted from Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump..., by Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, and David Corn, Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones. The book will be released on March 13."

Congressional Race. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "If Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone wins an unexpectedly close special election [in Pittsburgh] next Tuesday, it will be on Donald Trump's coattails.... This race should be a gimme for the GOP. Democrats didn't even bother to field a candidate in 2016 or 2014. But public and private polls show the contest in the 18th district is now a toss-up, even after Republicans have poured in more than $10 million -- about five times what Democrats have spent.... The White House is sending the cavalry.... White House officials have said over the past week that they think the new tariffs could help tip the race their way." Mrs. McC: Thanks, Capt Russ!

Paul LaMonica of CNN: "Bankrupt retailer Toys 'R' Us may shut all its US stores as soon as next week, according to several reports. That's terrible news for the two biggest publicly traded toy companies. Investors are clearly preparing for the worst. Shares of Hasbro ... fell 3.5% Friday morning while Mattel ... plunged 7%.... Toys 'R' Us is the last megastore dedicated to toys. Without it, toymakers will struggle to promote anything but their most popular items." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: LaMonica lists several reasons for the Toys 'R' Us failure, but he didn't think of this one: the U.S. has an aging population & low birth rate: the market for toys is shrinking. (Also, too, as inequality increases under GOP tax policies, people can't afford to buy so many toys for the kiddies.) However could we get some more kids into the population? Say, how about young immigrants??? So thanks, GOP!

*****

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, has invited President Trump to meet for negotiations over its nuclear program, an audacious diplomatic overture that would bring together two strong-willed, idiosyncratic leaders who have traded threats of war. The South Korean official, Chung Eui-yong, who conveyed the invitation told reporters that Mr. Trump had accepted it and would meet with Mr. Kim by May." ...

... "Beep Beep." David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Trump Is Wile E. Coyote.... When it comes to global diplomacy, America under President Trump has become something of a hapless cartoon villain, detonating bombs on itself and running into walls -- while our nimbler adversaries dart away in a blur of dust.... His strategy, if you can call it that, has been to disrupt America's traditional economic and security relationships and commitments. He must imagine that this gives him new leverage, but mostly the result has been a series of self-inflicted wounds." Mrs. McC: Kinda unfair to Wile E. ...

... Ankit Panda of the Daily Beast: "For more than two decades, successive North Korean leaders -- first Kim Il Sung, then Kim Jong Il, and now Kim Jong Un -- have sought to meet a sitting U.S. president as equals and enter comprehensive talks on the future of the Korean Peninsula. No sitting president has accepted.... There was a good reason for this U.S. refusal to meet with any North Korean leader.... A one-on-one meeting with a U.S. president would serve as a major propaganda coup for the North.... It’s not clear that the Trump administration has internalized this.... The United States is woefully lacking in subject matter expertise on the Korean Peninsula at the highest levels of government, with the State Department's special representative for North Korea policy, Joseph Yun, having just stepped down last week and the post of ambassador to Seoul still vacant. Trump has the intelligence community behind him, but it's doubtful that he's capable of being successfully briefed." ...

... Oh, AND This, Shortly Before South Korea's Announcement. Nick Wadhams of Bloomberg: "Secretary of State Rex Tillerson played down hopes for a breakthrough on North Korea's nuclear program, saying the U.S. is a 'long way' from negotiations after the country's leader offered to give up his weapons in exchange for security guarantees." Ole Rex was in Ethiopia & clearly had no idea what Trump was cooking up in his absence.

Trumpy Trade Terrorism. Peter Baker & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump defied opposition from his own party and protests from overseas on Thursday as he signed an order imposing stiff and sweeping new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. But he sought to soften the impact on America's closest allies with a more flexible plan than originally envisioned. After a week of furious lobbying and a burst of last-minute internal debates and confusion, Mr. Trump agreed to exempt, for now, Canada and Mexico and held out the possibility of later excluding allies such as Australia. But the order, which would go into effect in 15 days, could hit South Korea, China, Japan, Germany, Turkey and Brazil and foreign leaders warned of a trade war that could escalate to other industries and be aimed at American goods.... Mr. Trump said that his tariff order would be tailored to exclude some countries and would give him the authority to raise or lower levies on a country-by-country basis and add or take countries off the list as he deems fit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McC: So it's a game in which President* Bullyboy will throw his weight around, constantly threatening and/or raising tariffs on other nations, & in the process alienate every country & many domestic industries. What a colossal jerk. ...

... Anna Fifield & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "... bewilderment, along with anger and frustration, has rippled across the capitals of U.S. allies -- countries that figured, no matter the bumps in relations with Washington, they would wind up on the same side against China in any dispute over steel or unfair trade practices. And yet suddenly there is talk of a trade war between the United States and its supposed friends.... The frustration is compounded by Trump's national security rationale. In fact, say U.S. allies, there is no national security risk to importing steel and aluminum from one's closest military partners.... The tariffs could soon put citizens in ally nations out of work, and if a trade war escalates, all sides could feel the pain, officials from Brasília to Brussels to Seoul say.... Trump's order came hours after Japan and 10 other countries formalized a new Pacific free-trade agreement, notably without the participation of the United States, which dropped out of those talks early in the Trump administration." ...

... ** Paul Krugman: "... the tariffs are arguably the Trumpiest thing Trump has done so far. After all, trade (like racism) is an issue on which Trump has been utterly consistent over the years. He has spent decades railing at other countries that, he claims, hurt America by taking advantage of our relatively open markets. And if his views are based on zero understanding of the issues or even of basic facts, well, Trumpism is all about belligerent ignorance, across the board.... The world trading system is, in large part, specifically designed to prevent people like Trump from having too much influence. Of course he wants to wreck it." Read on. this is our Econ 101 lesson for the day.

... Trump's Protection Racket. Eric Levitz: "During a signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room, the president explained that: The United States will impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports, and a 10 percent one on aluminum imports, in 15 days -- or in no sooner than 15 days, anyway. Canada and Mexico will be indefinitely exempted from these tariffs -- unless they refuse to concede to his administration's (radical) demands in NAFTA negotiations. America's other core allies can 'negotiate' for an exemption from the tariffs.... The United States will ... enact 'reciprocal tariffs' on Chinese imports in the near future, even if that means slapping a '50 percent' tariff on some Chinese products. This cacophony of contradictions reflected divisions within Trump's administration and, by all appearances, his own mind. Throughout Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, White House aides whispered to reporters that unresolved 'debates and complications' might force the signing ceremony to be postponed. But, just as he had one week earlier, the president forced his administration to take a 'fake it 'till you make it' approach to global economic policy, by unilaterally tweeting a confirmation of the event.... Nonetheless, even in the most pessimistic reading, Trump appears to be scaling back his ambitions from 'win a global trade war' to 'extort some policy concessions and/or Mar-a-Lago memberships' from core allies in exchange for tariff relief.' Which is to say: He appears to be less interested in pursuing protectionism than a protection racket." ...

... Oops! Again. Jonathan Chait: "Earlier this week, President Trump raised eyebrows when he told reporters of a phone call he had held with North Korea, in which he warned the dangerous rogue state it must de-nuclearize. (His administration later admitted quietly Trump had actually spoken with South Korea, not North Korea.) This week, Trump ventured another strange foreign policy pronouncement. He had asked China to produce a plan to reduce its trade deficit by One Billion Dollars.... This demand was incredibly puzzling to trade economists, and regular economists, and anybody who had ever read a couple paragraphs in a random business story. China runs a trade surplus of $375 billion with the United States. Trump was demanding a reduction of 0.3 percent, or less than a single day's worth of imports. The Wall Street Journal's Lingling Wei reports that the demand was actually supposed to be $100 billion.... This is not the kind of deft maneuvering Americans expected when they elected a famed negotiator to the presidency to make the Best Deals." ...

... Elana Schor & Burgess Everett of Politico: "A bloc of Senate Republicans is readying legislation to halt Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, in the most provocative step yet taken to thwart the president on trade. GOP leaders have spent this week urging Trump to reconsider his tariff plan, warning of a snowballing trade war that could choke off the economic benefits of the tax cuts they are touting on the campaign trail.... Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) [told] reporters that he will introduce legislation to block the tariffs.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan both issued statements expressing concern with Trump's decision, but neither mentioned the prospect of a legislative response."

Jim Rutenberg & Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "... the lawsuit [Stephanie Clifford a/k/a Stormy Daniels] filed this week, seeking to break a 2016 agreement to keep silent in return for a $130,000 payout, opens what could be a precarious new legal front for a White House already beset by the investigation by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.... If her court case proceeds, Mr. Trump and his longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, may have to testify in depositions.... Ms. Clifford's suit could possibly also provide evidence of campaign spending violations...." ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "President Trump might be facing a period of stormy news coverage over allegations he paid to cover up an affair with a porn star, but it's mostly clear skies in the conservative media universe.... There was not one article about the latest Stormy Daniels developments featured prominently on the Fox News homepage. A search in TV Eyes, a media monitoring search engine, returned only two segments in which the unfolding drama was discussed on the network Thursday morning. On the web, there was a similar blackout."

This Russia Thing, Ctd.

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "President Trump's former campaign manager pleaded not guilty to tax and fraud charges in federal court in Virginia Thursday, as he appeared before a judge in the second criminal case brought against him by the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Paul J. Manafort last week also pleaded not guilty in a related case in Washington, D.C., where he is set to go to trial Sept. 17. Manafort lives in Virginia and was indicted there in February. During the Thursday hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Judge T.S. Ellis III put Manafort on home confinement, requiring him to wear a GPS bracelet, and set a trial date for July 10. It is expected to last eight to 10 days."

Jeremy Herb & Manu Raju of CNN: "The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee says another former senior aide to ... Donald Trump should be subpoenaed for refusing to answer questions -- this time former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Lewandowski returned to the intelligence panel Thursday to answer more questions in a second interview as part of the committee's Russia probe, but Rep. Adam Schiff said Lewandowski still would not discuss questions about numerous topics, including conversations he may have had about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and the possible firing of special counsel Robert Mueller. The California Democrat said he had requested a subpoena to compel Lewandowski's testimony, and the Republicans were 'taking it under consideration.' 'Witnesses don't get to pick and choose when it comes to very relevant testimony to our investigation,' Schiff said. Lewandowski disagreed with Schiff's assessment of the interview, telling reporters as he left the closed-door meeting that he had answered all 'relevant' questions."

Olivia Beavers of the Hill: "The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is questioning whether Blackwater founder Erik Prince potentially misled lawmakers during his testimony last fall about the purpose of his 2016 meeting with a Russian official with ties to the Kremlin. Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into efforts by Prince to establish a 'back channel' between the Trump administration and the Kremlin during a meeting in Seychelles that took place before President Trump took office, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. 'That allegation if true would be very disturbing, considering that using Russian diplomatic facilities for a back channel would only be designed to hide those communications -- not from the Russian government but from our own government,' Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "If there was 'no collusion' why did the Trump transition team work so hard to set up a back channel with Russia?... Robert Mueller ... is apparently particularly interested in a meeting that [Erik] Prince had with a Kremlin-connected Russian official in the Seychelles during the Trump transition, in which they reportedly discussed setting up a back channel between Trump and Moscow.... If true, this would be at least the third known attempt to set up a back channel between Trump and Russia. In December of 2016, Jared Kushner, Michael Flynn, and then -- Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak secretly met in Trump Tower, and Kushner later testified before Congress that Kislyak had suggested they set up a back channel. Two weeks later, Kushner and Flynn secretly met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, and discussed setting up a back channel between Russia and the United States. Zayed's office then reportedly set up the meeting between Erik Prince and the Russian official in the Seychelles.... These discussions were happening only a few days before Trump was inaugurated. If the topic of conversation really only centered on foreign policy, that surely could have waited a week and a half."

Yahoo! News publishes an excerpt of a book by Michael Isikoff & David Corn titled Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. (Also linked yesterday.)

Stocking the Swamp. Michael Biesecker, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump and his appointees have stocked federal agencies with ex-lobbyists and corporate lawyers who now help regulate the very industries from which they previously collected paychecks, despite promising as a candidate to drain the swamp in Washington. A week after his January 2017 inauguration, Trump signed an executive order that bars former lobbyists, lawyers and others from participating in any matter they lobbied or otherwise worked on for private clients within two years before going to work for the government. But records reviewed by The Associated Press show Trump's top lawyer, White House counsel Don McGahn, has issued at least 24 ethics waivers to key administration officials at the White House and executive branch agencies.... An analysis by the AP shows that nearly half of the political appointees hired at the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump have strong industry ties." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Watch What Trump Does, Not What He Says. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "It's always suspicious when a federal agency quietly makes a major policy change and does not put out a news release about it. That's what the Interior Department did last week. Handing another win to the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew a ban related to importing elephant trophies from Africa. A March 1 memorandum, written in dense legalese, said the government will now allow hunters to receive permits on 'a case-by-case basis' to bring tusks and other body parts back to this country. This is notable because Trump chastised and then overruled his own political appointees at the department, led by Secretary Ryan Zinke, when they unveiled plans last November to lift restrictions put in place by Barack Obama. The president called the hunting of elephants for sport a 'horror show.'... The NRA has been aggressively challenging the 2014 ban on elephant trophy imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia in court, and the D.C. Circuit ruled in December that the Obama administration didn't follow proper procedures related to soliciting public comments when implementing it. The Trump administration cites this finding as the justification for its policy change. But The Hill notes that Fish and Wildlife is simultaneously withdrawing other findings related to trophy hunting that stretch back to 1995. So that spin doesn't necessarily pass the smell test." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Imperial Presiduncy. Cameron Joseph of TPM: "The White House is refusing to comply with a request from House Oversight Committee's Republican chairman for information on how top staffer Rob Porter was allowed to work with an interim security clearance in spite of accusations of domestic abuse." Committee Chair Trey Gowdy could subpoena the info.

Zinke Gets Some Very Nice Doors. Michael Biesecker & Matthew Daly of the AP: "The Interior Department is spending nearly $139,000 to upgrade three sets of double doors in the office of Secretary Ryan Zinke. Zinke was not aware of the contract for the work prior to a request about it from The Associated Press, spokeswoman Heather Swift said. The project was planned by career facilities and security officials as part of the decade-long modernization of the historic building erected in 1936 a few blocks from the White House, she said.... Records show the Maryland contractor hired to do the work, Conquest Solutions LLC, has done several renovation projects at federal buildings. A man who answered the phone at the company Thursday hung up when a reporter asked about Zinke's office."

2018 Elections

Do-Nothing FEC Reluctant to Do Anything. Michelle Lee & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Proposed Federal Election Commission rules aimed at preventing foreign influence on U.S. elections through better disclosure of online political ad sponsors may not take effect before the 2018 midterms, the panel's Republican chairwoman said Thursday. 'The commission has been reluctant to change the rules of the game in the middle of the election season, so that would be something we would want to seriously consider,' Chairwoman Caroline Hunter told reporters. A delay by the FEC would probably leave the task of providing more transparency about who is seeking to shape public opinion online in the hands of tech companies."

Senate Races. Alexi McCammond of Axios: "Five Senate Democrats would lose to Republican candidates if the elections were held today and three have approval ratings under 50%, according to new Axios/SurveyMonkey polls.... The most vulnerable senators are Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester in Montana and Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Each of their approval ratings is either under 50% or just above it, while Trump's is well above that in all three states. The least vulnerable senators are Bill Nelson of Florida, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Trump's approval is at just 46% in Florida and Pennsylvania and 54% in Ohio. But, but, but... With the election many months away and final Republican opponents not set, these numbers are likely to change as real GOP challengers get involved in the race. The approval ratings of each senator may give a better idea of where they stand with voters in their states."