;)
The Commentariat -- March 8, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Trumpy 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." ...
... Mrs. McC: 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.
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."
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."
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."
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.
*****
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. "Women We Overlooked." Amisha Padnani & Jessica Bennett of the New York Times: "Since 1851, The New York Times has published thousands of obituaries: of heads of state, opera singers, the inventor of Stove Top stuffing and the namer of the Slinky. The vast majority chronicled the lives of men, mostly white ones; even in the last two years, just over one in five of our subjects were female. Charlotte Brontë wrote 'Jane Eyre'; Emily Warren Roebling oversaw construction of the Brooklyn Bridge when her husband fell ill; Madhubala transfixed Bollywood; Ida B. Wells campaigned against lynching. Yet all of their deaths went unremarked in our pages, until now. Below you'll find obituaries for these and others who left indelible marks but were nonetheless overlooked. We'll be adding to this collection each week, as Overlooked becomes a regular feature in the obituaries section, and expanding our lens beyond women." ...
... One woman the Times did remember with an obituary: Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. ...
... AND an inspirational reading for the ladies women:
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I guess we should check to see how the White House is celebrating International Women's Day:
... NEW. Ha Ha. Trump Starts Women's Day Angry with Woman Staffer. Jim Acosta & Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "... Donald Trump is upset with White House press secretary Sarah Sanders over her responses Wednesday regarding his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, a source close to the White House tells CNN.... On Wednesday, Sanders told reporters that the arbitration was won 'in the President's favor.' The statement is an admission that the nondisclosure agreement exists, and that it directly involves the President. It is the first time the White House has admitted the President was involved in any way with Daniels. 'POTUS is very unhappy,' the source said. 'Sarah gave the Stormy Daniels storyline steroids yesterday.'" ...
... Peter Baker & Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "President Trump's lawyer secretly obtained a restraining order last week to prevent a pornographic film star from speaking out about her alleged affair with Mr. Trump. The White House's spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Wednesday that President Trump's lawyer won an arbitration proceeding against the actress, Stephanie Clifford. She had been paid $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election in what she calls a 'hush agreement.' But in recent weeks, she had prepared to speak publicly about Mr. Trump, claiming his lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, had broken the agreement. Ms. Sanders's statement put the White House in the middle of a story that Mr. Trump and his lawyer had been trying to keep quiet for well over a year. The turn of events created the spectacle of a sitting president using legal maneuvers to avoid further scrutiny of particularly salacious accusations of an affair and a payoff involving the porn star, who goes by the name of Stormy Daniels." ...
... Sarah Fitzpatrick of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's lawyer is trying to silence adult-film star Stormy Daniels, obtaining a secret restraining order in a private arbitration proceeding and warning that she will face penalties if she publicly discusses a relationship with the president.... The new pressure on Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, comes a day after she filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court alleging that a nondisclosure agreement she made to keep quiet about an 'intimate' relationship with Trump is invalid because he never signed it. Tuesday's lawsuit says that Trump attorney Michael Cohen -- who brokered the agreement with Clifford during the presidential campaign -- attempted to 'intimidate' Clifford and 'shut her up' by initiating what it calls a 'bogus arbitration proceeding' against her in Los Angeles on Feb. 27. On that day, Cohen obtained a temporary restraining order against Clifford from the private arbitrator, a retired judge, which bars her from disclosing 'confidential information' related to the nondisclosure agreement signed in October 2016, according to a copy of the order obtained by NBC News." ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "For the second time this week, the White House was asked whether President Trump knew about that $130,000 hush-money payment his lawyer made to porn star Stormy Daniels. And for the second time this week, it offered a weird non-denial denial. 'Not that I'm aware of,' press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday, repeating what she had said before. But the answer this time was especially bizarre. Why? Because Sanders would later say that she had spoken to Trump about the matter -- and yet she offered the kind of answer you'd expect if she hadn't.... She also alluded to Trump having already won his dispute with Daniels 'in arbitration.' Asked for details of that arbitration, she again referred comment to [Trump attorney Michael] Cohen." ...
... Presidunce's Sexts. Josh Marshall: "[A]n attorney for Stormy Daniels posted a legal filing in which she asks a court to declare the 'hush agreement' between her and Donald Trump and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to be null and void. But this rather sterile description doesn't do justice to what is contained in the filing.... [I]t focuses not so much on Stormy Daniels staying mum about a sexual relationship with Donald Trump but on 'certain still images and/or text messages which were authored by or relate to' Donald Trump. Let's put this baldly: Stormy appears to be saying she's got or had sexts and maybe even 'dick pics' from President Trump." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Stormy releases the dick pix, I promise not to post any of them here. But I will provide a link.
Trump Chaos Results in Yet Another Stupid Cliffhanger. David Jackson of USA Today: "As aides race to complete the necessary paperwork, President Trump said he will meet with industry executives Thursday afternoon to discuss formally imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. 'Looking forward to 3:30 P.M. meeting today at the White House,' Trump tweeted in the morning. 'We have to protect & build our Steel and Aluminum Industries while at the same time showing great flexibility and cooperation toward those that are real friends and treat us fairly on both trade and the military.'... Late Wednesday, two administration officials said the event would take place Thursday afternoon, but it was not put on the official White House schedule released Wednesday night. There has been no official announcement other than the president's tweet." ...
... trade wars are good, and easy to win. -- Donald Trump, in a tweet last Friday
Motoko Rich & Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: "A trade pact originally conceived by the United States to counter China’s growing economic might in Asia now has a new target: President Trump's embrace of protectionism. A group of 11 nations -- including major United States allies like Japan, Canada and Australia -- is set to sign a broad trade deal on Thursday that challenges Mr. Trump's view of trade as a zero-sum game filled with winners and losers. Covering 500 million people on either side of the Pacific Ocean, the pact will represent a new vision for global trade as the United States threatens to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on even its closest friends and neighbors." ...
... Martin Farrer of the Guardian: "The prospect of a trade war between China and the United States has increased after Beijing's foreign minister said it would make a 'necessary response' in the event of Donald Trump introducing punitive tariffs on steel and aluminium imports." ...
... Milan Schreuer of the New York Times: "European Union officials unveiled an array of tariffs on Wednesday that they would place on American-made goods if the United States followed through on President Trump's plan to impose penalties on imported steel and aluminum, raising the specter of a trade war. The announcement in Brussels was the latest rebuke to Mr. Trump's proposed tariffs, which have met with consternation domestically and with threats of retaliation abroad." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump is expected to formally sign off on stiff and sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports at noon on Thursday, according to people familiar with the deliberations, capitalizing on the pending departure of his top economic adviser, Gary D. Cohn, who was the plan's primary opponent. But as advisers readied for an announcement, the White House appeared to open the door to making the policy less draconian, saying Wednesday that close allies could be exempted. 'We expect that the president will sign something by the end of the week,' Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... said. 'And there are potential carve-outs for Mexico and Canada based on national security and possibly other countries as well based on that process.' Mr. Trump has said the tariffs would apply to all countries across the board and that any exemptions could open a Pandora's box of requests. But he and other administration officials continue to say that there will be exceptions for countries that meet certain tests." ...
... Update. David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump is planning to offer Canada and Mexico a temporary exemption from new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, reversing his original insistence that the measures apply to U.S. allies as well as nations like China, administration officials said Wednesday. The proposal, which is expected to be unveiled Thursday, would give Canada and Mexico a 30-day exemption from the tariffs, the officials said. The exemptions could be extended based on progress in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.... The White House shift came after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a last-minute appeal for flexibility, saying that overly broad tariffs would damage key security ties with U.S. allies. On Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers accelerated their efforts to pull the president back from a potentially costly trade war that he has insisted would be 'easy to win.'" Mrs. McC Translation: Hey, you Mexicans & Canucks, if you bow low enough & give me everything I demand, I might be nice to you for a few months. ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Capt Russ, in yesterday's Comments thread posed a cynical -- and plausible -- theory of Trump Tariffs. In part: "Trump's threats to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum will be short-lived because they are just that, threats. The last-minute announcement of the tariffs is aimed at one audience - steelworkers - with aluminum thrown in as a distraction. More specifically, the target audience is steelworkers in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District, where a special election is scheduled for March 13th." ...
... Update: Cable news report this morning suggest the actual rollout of the Policy of the Day is not yet finalized, & the President* is off to cleaned up." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
A Presiduncy of One. Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump once said 'I alone can fix it.' Looks like he may have to. No one else seems to be sticking around. The record-high turnover at the White House has now reached 43 percent with the pending departure of Gary D. Cohn, the national economic adviser, as the team that arrived with Mr. Trump 13 months ago heads for the doors in increasing numbers and the president increasingly relies on his own judgment for key decisions. The head-spinning pace of departures has contributed to the sense of disarray in the West Wing, but it reflects the way Mr. Trump has operated since he announced that he was running for president. He ... burns through staff as he quickly loses faith in the people around him, leaving him with a dearth of advisers on whom he genuinely depends. In effect, it can feel like a presidency of one." ...
... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "As dysfunctional as the White House is today, it likely will get worse because Trump is trapped in a vicious circle. His management style makes it difficult for him to hire and retain qualified people. This leads to an understaffed and relatively inexperienced White House, one prone to burnout and poor decision-making. And as more staffers leave, the fewer people remain to advise Trump responsibly and rein in his excesses. If this pattern continues, a trade war might seem tame compared to the wars an 'isolated and angry' Trump is willing to wage." (Also linked yesterday.)
Kaitlan Collins & Dan Merica of CNN: President Trump "has emboldened Anthony Scaramucci, the boisterous former communications director who was fired after just 10 days, to continue attacking White House chief of staff John Kelly during his cable news appearances, a source familiar with the situation told CNN. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
This Russia Thing, Ctd.
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Robert "Mueller is often described as having been appointed to investigate possible collusion between the campaign of President Trump and Russian actors, but it's clearly broader than that. And, as time has passed, some specifics have emerged about what Mueller and his team are investigating.... Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.... Possible efforts by the Trump campaign to aid the Russian interference.... Obstruction of Mueller's investigation.... Financial crimes uncovered through the investigation.... Other foreign money used to influence the election or administration policy.... Lying to federal officials." Bump goes into detail on each of these points, providing a helpful overview of what we've learned so far about the investigation.
** Mr. Big Mouth. Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The special counsel in the Russia investigation has learned of two conversations in recent months in which President Trump asked key witnesses about matters they discussed with investigators, according to hree people familiar with the encounters. In one episode, the president told an aide that the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, should issue a statement denying a New York Times article in January. The article said Mr. McGahn told investigators that the president once asked him to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. McGahn never released a statement and later had to remind the president that he had indeed asked Mr. McGahn to see that Mr. Mueller was dismissed, the people said. In the other episode, Mr. Trump asked his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, how his interview had gone with the special counsel's investigators and whether they had been 'nice,' according to two people familiar with the discussion. The episodes demonstrate that ... the president has ignored his lawyers' advice to avoid doing anything publicly or privately that could create the appearance of interfering with it." ...
... Aaron Blake: "That's right: Trump's response to a story about him possibly obstructing the investigation by trying to fire Mueller was to ... try to do something else that might be construed as obstruction -- manufacturing a false denial. And not only that, but Trump actually mused about possibly firing McGahn if he didn't comply. The report states that now-former White House staff secretary Rob Porter 'told Mr. McGahn the president had suggested he might "get rid of" Mr. McGahn if he chose not to challenge the article.' So Trump's response to a story about McGahn possibly quitting over Trump's effort to fire Mueller was to threaten to fire McGahn?" ...
... Margaret Hartmann points out that eithe Trump is a liar who was trying to force the White House counsel to lie, too, OR he's demented: "Trump might have threatened to fire McGahn if he didn't publicly lie about his failed attempt at a Saturday Night Massacre. But there's another possibility: Trump thought he was demanding that McGahn release a truthful statement, because he didn't recall ordering Mueller's firing."
** Sari Horwitz & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin -- apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter. In January 2017, Erik Prince, the founder of the private security company Blackwater, met with a Russian official close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and later described the meeting to congressional investigators as a chance encounter that was not a planned discussion of U.S.-Russia relations. A witness cooperating with Mueller has told investigators the meeting was set up in advance so that a representative of the Trump transition could meet with an emissary from Moscow to discuss future relations between the countries, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... George Nader, a Lebanese American businessman who helped organize and attended the Seychelles meeting, has testified on the matter before a grand jury...." ...
... Josh Marshall: "Here we have a familiar story. [Erik] Prince appears caught conducting clandestine business, which may not be criminal in itself (you can meet people in the Seychelles) but may or may not be part of a broader criminal conspiracy. But here he may be caught not only in a lie but a highly material lie and perhaps one that is so clear-cut and designed to impede a lawful investigation that he can be prosecuted for it. That gives investigators a key hook with which to pry open more of the story.... The Post article and other reports suggest this Seychelles meeting was part of the effort over the course of the transition to open a backchannel between Trump and the Kremlin. The meeting was 'around January 11' 2017. That is to say, 9 or 10 days prior to Trump's inauguration. Presidents don't need back-channels to conduct discussions with foreign governments...." ...
... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "We don’t know at this point what the Trump team wanted to talk about over those back channels. But investments in the family businesses in exchange for sanctions relief and/or a foreign policy favorable to the investor seems to be an emerging theme."
Putin Puppet Makes "Very Good Impression." Vladimir Isachenkov of the AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin lavished praise on ... Donald Trump, but added that he was sorely disappointed with the U.S. political system, saying that it has been 'eating itself up.' Speaking in a series of interviews with Russian state television which were included in a documentary released Wednesday, Putin described Trump as a great communicator. 'I have no disappointment at all,' Putin said when asked about the U.S. president. 'Moreover, on a personal level he made a very good impression on me.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
The Plot Thickens. Suzanne Kianpour of BBC News: "The BBC has obtained leaked emails that show a lobbying effort to get US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sacked for failing to support the United Arab Emirates against regional rival Qatar. Major Trump fundraiser and UAE-linked businessman Elliott Broidy met US President Donald Trump in October 2017 and urged him to sack Mr Tillerson, the emails reveal.... Mr Broidy's defence company Circinus has hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts with the UAE.... He emailed a detailed account of his meeting with the president to George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman.... [Robert Mueller's] Investigators questioned Mr Nader and other witnesses on whether there were any efforts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing money to Mr Trump's presidential campaign.... Mr Broidy also detailed a separate sit-down with Mr Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, according to the emails." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "[W]hile [Rex] Tillerson's qualifications to be secretary of state were minimal at best, he is just the kind of guy the Kremlin would want to see in the job. So how did he get picked?.... [A]s Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between Trump officials and Russia moves forward, Tillerson's nomination is begging for a closer look." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jonathan Allen, et al., of NBC News: "A day before she resigned as White House communications director, Hope Hicks told the House Intelligence Committee last week that one of her email accounts was hacked, according to people who were present for her testimony in the panel's Russia probe."
Vikram Dodd, et al., of the Guardian: "The former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was deliberately poisoned with a nerve agent in a case that police are now treating as attempted murder, Scotland Yard's assistant chief commissioner has confirmed this afternoon. Mark Rowley said the police officer who was first to the spot where [Skripal & his daughter] were found in Salisbury on Sunday afternoon was now 'seriously ill' in hospital. His condition had deteriorated, Rowley said.... All three were suffering from 'exposure to a nerve agent'. Detectives now believed that Sergei and Yulia Skripal were specifically targeted, he added, in a deliberate act. The two victims are still critically ill in hospital." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Another Plot Thickens. Elizabeth Preza of the Raw Story: "A British security consultant close to the Russian agent who was poisoned last weekend worked for an investigative consultancy agency run by former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele, the Telegraph reports. According to the Telegraph, the consultant 'lived close' to Col. Sergei Skripal, the Russian double agent who was attacked by assassins Sunday." (The Telegraph story is subscriber-firewalled.)
John Santucci, et al., of ABC News: "Several White House staffers have been terminated or reassigned for issues related to their security clearances -- with at least one individual employed in the Office of the First Lady relieved of duty, sources with direct knowledge tell ABC News. There is a list of several other individuals with security clearance issues that are under consideration for possible termination or reassignment in the coming days, sources also tell ABC News. These individuals are likely lower level and could include people who work in the complex but not necessarily in the small confines of the West Wing. The full break down on the list of possible individuals that action could be taken against was not readily available on Wednesday." ...
... To the Victor.... Eric Lipton & Danielle Ivory of the New York Times: "... nearly 260 or so former Trump campaign and inauguration workers ... have gotten jobs reserved for political appointees in the administration, according to public records compiled by ProPublica and analyzed by The New York Times. In all, more than 2,475 political appointees have joined the federal government since President Trump took office, including at least 187 former lobbyists and also 125 people with ties to conservative think tanks..., the records show.... 'Overall, my reading is that the Trump political appointees have less expertise, in their respective areas, than any presidential administration dating back to at least the Reagan era,' said Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who reviewed the database."
This is not the way foreign policy normally is, or should be, conducted. The sending of the president's son-in-law -- someone with no experience in Mexican-U.S. relations -- is another example of the de-professionalization and personalization of diplomacy that will hurt U.S. interests and leverage in the region. -- Christopher Sabatini of Columbia University
I don't know if the new administration is just turning back the clock or just doesn't give a damn. -- Jeffrey Davidow, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico under Democratic and Republican presidents ...
... Azam Ahmed & Nicholas Casey of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner ... met with Mexico's president on Wednesday, arriving just weeks after a planned a meeting between the nations' leaders fell apart because of a bitter phone dispute over Mr. Trump's proposed border wall. Mr. Kushner's meeting with President Enrique Peña Nieto was meant to soothe tensions. Plans for the two presidents to meet have been abruptly canceled at least twice since Mr. Trump took office, and the relationship between their countries is suffering its roughest patch in decades. But the encounter between Mexico's president and Mr. Kushner, a political newcomer whose top-secret security clearance was stripped last month, underscored the profound shift in approach that the Trump administration has taken with Mexico, and with the region more broadly. Officials announced the visit less than a day before it happened, offering no guidance on what would be discussed. Beyond that, Mr. Kushner, who also met with Mexico's foreign minister, did not invite the American ambassador -- Roberta S. Jacobson, a diplomat with more than 30 years of experience in the region -- to join him in the meetings.... Mrs. Jacobson ... will leave her post in May." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sending the kid to non-democratic countries -- where monarchs or other autocrats privilege their own offspring -- may work. But Mexico is a representative democracy, & it's downright embarrassing to have to send the son-in-law on a lonely mop-up mission because the head-of-state cannot behave himself.
There is no nullification. There is no secession. Federal law is 'the supreme law of the land.' I would invite any doubters to Gettysburg, and to the graves of John C. Calhoun and Abraham Lincoln. -- AG Jeff Sessions, in Sacramento yesterday, criticizing the California state government
Yes, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is still pissed off about the outcome of the Civil War, and he doesn't mind using his lifelong pique as an argument for curbing the human rights of another ethnic group. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...
... Thomas Fuller & Vivian Yee of the New York Times: "... a visit by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to the California capital, Sacramento, on Wednesday produced an unfiltered shouting match that was remarkable even for the long-embattled antagonists, and seemed to be a culmination of fraying relations between the conservative administration and the country's deepest blue state. Mr. Sessions told a crowd of more than 200 law enforcement officials in a hotel ballroom that he would not stand for the insubordination of California lawmakers and what he called the dangerous obstruction of federal immigration laws.... A 10-minute walk away, in a briefing room of the State Capitol, Gov. Jerry Brown unleashed a tirade against Mr. Sessions and the Trump administration. He said that the administration was 'full of liars' and that Mr. Sessions was 'basically going to war against the state of California.'"
Students at Stoneman Douglas High panned Betsy DeVos's visit to the school. The kids are all right.
What a Mess! Lisa Rein & Emily Wax-Thibodeaux of the Washington Post: "Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin on Wednesday announced a sweeping overhaul of the senior leadership at troubled hospitals across the country following the release of a searing investigation into what the agency watchdog said were management failures that put patients at VA's flagship medical center in the District at risk. Shulkin said that one senior regional official has been reassigned and two others forced to retire to clean up the management of hospitals and clinics in the Washington area, New England, Phoenix and parts of California. And he said he is replacing leaders of about 20 medical centers across the country, including in Maryland and Virginia, after outside teams identified low-performing hospitals.... The personnel moves came as Shulkin tries to reassert control over the second-largest federal agency in the aftermath of a separate, critical report by Inspector General Michael J. Missal on a trip he took to Europe last summer. That report exposed deep factions in the agency's senior leadership ranks, with Shulkin claiming that political appointees on his staff are trying to oust him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Donovan Slack of USA Today: "Department of Veterans Affairs officials at nearly every level knew for years about sterilization lapses and equipment shortfalls at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center, but they were either unwilling or unable to fix the problems, an inspector general investigation found. The failures put patients at risk and squandered taxpayer dollars. Clinicians put patients under anesthesia before realizing they didn't have equipment to perform scheduled procedures. In some cases, they canceled and redid surgeries later. In others, they ran across the street to a private-sector hospital to borrow supplies midprocedure. Investigators found more than 1,000 boxes of unsecured documents that contained veterans' personal information -- including medical records -- in storage facilities, the basement and a dumpster. The hospital paid exorbitant amounts for supplies and equipment, including $300 per speculum it could have bought for $122 each, and $900 each for a special needle that was available for $250.... investigators did not find evidence that VA Secretary David Shulkin or his top deputies had been informed of the problems. Shulkin fired the Washington medical center director last year after the inspector general issued an emergency preliminary report concluding patients were in imminent danger at the facility." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is giving top officials permission to moonlight for private companies in their off-time, a practice that could conflict with their official duties at the federal agency. Two of the most prominent EPA officials currently under scrutiny are John Konkus, who serves as the EPA's deputy associate administrator for the Office of Public Affairs, and Patrick Davis, an EPA senior adviser.... Konkus received approval ... to work ... as a media consultant.... Th EPA is refusing to disclose Konkus's clients, raising more questions about potential conflicts of interest with his official and outside work.... Davis, a ... former director of Trump's presidential campaign in Colorado ... work[s] as the sales director for Telephone Town Hall Meeting, which does outreach for legislators and political campaigns.... Several current EPA political appointees have received approval ... to engage in outside activity for compensation." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Ben Carson Hates Black People. Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post: "Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is changing the mission statement of his agency, removing promises of inclusive and discrimination-free communities." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
President Trump Hates Puppies. Steve Contorno of the Tampa Bay Times: "In May of last year, the Tampa Bay Times asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide the three most recent inspections of 15 puppy breeders who supply Tampa-area stores. It took nine months, but the reply arrived last week: 54 pages of total blackout. Every word of every inspection -- from the date to the violations -- were redacted from the documents provided. Providing 'personnel and medical files,' the agency said, would 'constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.' These records used to be available on the USDA website for anyone to search and find. But in the first month after ... Donald Trump took office, the information was scrubbed entirely from the website. Why does that matter to Floridians? Because state lawmakers are now considering legislation that would null any local ordinance that prohibits the sale of dogs from a USDA-licensed breeder."
The Best People, Ctd. Stephanie Ebbs of ABC News: "The chief of the country's forestry agency has stepped down amid an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed to ABC News in a statement on Wednesday night.... Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue confirmed that he accepted Tooke's resignation.... A PBS News investigation first reported allegations against Chief Tony Tooke related to relationships with subordinates prior to when he assumed his current role. The U.S. Forest Service confirmed last week that an independent investigator was looking into concerns about Tooke's behavior.... The agency has a history of problems related to sexual harassment and misconduct allegations.... Tooke was appointed as Forest Service chief by ... Perdue [-- a Trump appointee --] on August 21, 2017."
Presidential Race. Trump's Self-Dealing Candidacy, Ctd. S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump's re-election campaign last year spent over a half-million dollars for Trump Tower offices ― a choice that put donors' money into the president's pocket, but provided workspace for at most a handful of staff. According to a HuffPost analysis of Federal Election Commission filings, the monthly rent was more than what candidate Trump had been charging from June 2015 to March 2016, back when he was largely self-funding his campaign and when there were, on average, several dozen employees in the midtown Manhattan office. And while it is unclear why Trump's re-election campaign has rented so much room for so few people, its decision to do so has helped fill office space that appears to have become much more difficult to rent out since Trump won the presidency."
Senate Race. Sen. Rafael Edward Cruz (R-Texas) Attacks Opponent for Using Nickname. Eric Bradner of CNN: "As Tuesday's primaries were closing, [Ted] Cruz's campaign released a 60-second radio ad that was a country music jingle prodding [Democratic Rep. Beto] O'Rourke for going by 'Beto' rather than 'Robert.'... 'My parents have called me Beto from day one, and it's just -- it's kind of a nickname for Robert in El Paso. It just stuck,' he said in a brief phone interview Tuesday night. O'Rourke has previously posted a baby picture of himself in a hand-stitched 'Beto' sweater on Instagram.... He declined to comment on the Republican senator, whose given name is Rafael Edward Cruz, going by 'Ted.'"
Shahien Nasiripour, et al., of Bloomberg: "Wells Fargo & Co. has emerged as the preferred financier for the U.S. gun industry. The bank has helped two of the biggest U.S. firearm and ammunition companies access $431.1 million in loans and bonds since December 2012, when the gun control debate gained steam after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That puts it on the top of the list of banks arranging funding for gunmakers. Wells Fargo also has a long relationship with the National Rifle Association, inherited from banks that Wells took over. The San Francisco-based Wells Fargo created a $28 million line of credit for the NRA and operates the primary accounts for the pro-Second Amendment group, financial documents show." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I closed out my large account with Wells Fargo last year after publication of all those stories about WF's cheating its customers. I still have a small checking account. As soon as the snow melts from this latest Nor'easter, I'm closing that out, too.
Kate Taylor of Business Insider: "People driving by a McDonald's in Lynwood, California, might be baffled by an upside-down sign. The golden arches, typically standing as an M, have been flipped over to become a W.... The upside-down arches are in 'celebration of women everywhere," a McDonald's representative told Business Insider.... Patricia Williams, the location's franchisee, flipped her restaurant's sign in honor of International Women's Day on Thursday. McDonald's says it will turn its logo upside down on all its digital channels, such as Twitter and Instagram, on Thursday, while 100 restaurants will have special 'packaging, crew shirts and hats, and bag stuffers' to celebrate."
Beyond the Beltway
Steve Bousquet, et al., of the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau: "Three weeks after the Parkland murders, a somber and divided House gave final passage Wednesday to Florida’s first gun restrictions in three decades and approved $400 million for mental health and school safety. The vote was 67-50. The gun and school safety bill (SB 7026), which earlier passed the Senate on a precarious 20-18 vote, goes to Gov. Rick Scott, who said he will consult with Parkland families but declined to say whether he will sign or veto it."
Martin Cizmar of RawStory: "Texas Republicans are not taking the Democratic surge in the Lone Star State lightly.... Record turnout has apparently sent chills through Republicans in the state.... Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is accusing local school districts of 'electioneering,' by encouraging students to vote and bussing them to polls. Paxton, who survived an indictment for securities fraud when a judge dismissed the case, has said that students cannot be bussed to the polls on election day and issued cease-and-desist letters to the school districts.... He' also tried to ferret out opponents in those schools by filing records requests for 'all emails between superintendents and principals pertaining to voting,'" --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Lede
Weather Channel: "Winter Storm Quinn continues to pound the Northeast, where it has brought more than 2 feet of heavy, wet snow and wind gusts over 50 mph, causing more than 700,000 power outages just days after another nor'easter knocked out power to over 2 million. Into Thursday morning, snow will continue spreading northward across most of New England, although rain may stubbornly hang on in far southeastern New England. Winds will also intensify in portions of New England, with gusts over 50 mph at times. Widespread thundersnow was reported in the New York City area, parts of New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and southern New England Wednesday afternoon and early-evening, along with snowfall rates up to 3 inches per hour."
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