The Cash-Stuffed Clown Car

By Safari

I recommend perusing the totality of just today's linked articles and take it all in as a whole, to get a real idea of the SOTU: where we are and where we're going one year in of the GOP's pursuit of their version of a "more perfect union".

None of these swamp episodes or ratfucking machinations are done by accident: Maybe some go in worse directions than planned, but few if any are held accountable, most if not all are boosted and abetted by a network of corrupt enablers, all leeches sucking power and prestige from the federal government vessel that they all collectively demean to their deplorable base, while frantically stepping on and over each other to board the Mother Ship, plain giddy from their elevated perches.

What I see from below is a complete abdication and perversion of governance, in a "post-truth" world. The modern GOP has radicalized to such an extent that not only has it renounced from any bipartisan measures, they've actively promoted legislation and/or executive orders to intentionally target Democratic-leaning constituents (raising taxes, offshore oil drilling, "sanctuary cities", sabotaging the census preparations, etc.). The GOP is so duty-bound to their fever swamps (see Rick Wilson's piece linked today for a primer) that they've completely lost their ability to hold a national vision of policy-making, moving us forward together as a nation.

Whether for gerrymandering, ideological purity, utter ignorance, spinelessness.... Holding all the levers, they can't govern the nation. This is now established fact. They're reduced to pandering to their pockets of power, and everyone else is written off and overlooked, as worthy and useful as that fictitious Cadillac-cruising welfare queen.

It's not Trump, it's the Republican Party, all aboard the cash-stuffed clown car canvassing any way forward.

The Commentariat -- January 31, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

** Adam Goldman & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, clashed publicly with the president for the first time on Wednesday, condemning a push by House Republicans to release a secret memo that purports to show how the bureau and the Justice Department abused their authorities to obtain a warrant to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser. The 'F.B.I. was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it,' the bureau said in a statement. 'As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy.' Though Mr. Wray's name was not attached to the statement, the high-profile comment by the F.B.I. thrust him into a confrontation with President Trump, who abruptly fired his predecessor, James B. Comey. Mr. Trump wants to see the memo released, telling people close to him that he believes it makes the case that F.B.I. and Justice Department officials acted inappropriately when they sought the highly classified warrant in October 2016 on the campaign adviser, Carter Page. The president's stance puts him at odds with much of his national security establishment. The Justice Department has warned repeatedly that the memo, prepared by Republican staffers on the House Intelligence Committee, is misleading and that its release would set a bad precedent for making government secrets public. F.B.I. officials have said privately that the president is prioritizing politics over national security and is putting the bureau's reputation at risk. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representative Devin Nunes, a California Republican and the chairman of the House committee, described the F.B.I. objections as 'spurious' and accused the two law enforcement agencies of making 'material omissions' to Congress and the courts." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Gee, Devin, I remember when you all wanted to lock up Hillary for including some reference to barely-classified or later-classified documents in a few e-mails -- not made public. Whatevah is the difference? ...

... Betsy Woodruff & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: Devin Nunes "dared the [FBI] to make the Justice Department's FISA application public -- something officials overseeing surveillance will be extremely reluctant to do, for fear of creating blueprints for counterintelligence targets to evade eavesdropping or compromising intelligence sources. 'The FBI is intimately familiar with "material omissions" with respect to their presentations to both Congress and the courts, and they are welcome to make public, to the greatest extent possible, all the information they have on these abuses,' Nunes said. As well, for the first time, Nunes confirmed that his still-classified memo substantially dwells on an accusation that the FBI misleadingly used ex-British spy Christopher Steele's salacious dossier to obtain surveillance warrants."

... Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein visited the White House in December seeking ... Donald Trump's help ... in fighting off document demands from House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes. But the President ... wanted to know where the special counsel's Russia investigation was heading. And he wanted to know whether Rosenstein was 'on my team.'... The exchange could raise further questions about whether Trump was seeking to interfere in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.... At the December meeting, the deputy attorney general appeared surprised by the President's questions, the sources said. He demurred on the direction of the Russia investigation.... And he responded awkwardly to the President's 'team' request.... 'Of course, we're all on your team, Mr. President,' Rosenstein told Trump...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: One would think the deputy attorney general of the US of A would be a worldly-wise person. One would think he might read the newspapers, thus would have known of that little incident where Trump asked Jim Comey for his loyalty & when Trump wasn't sufficiently satisfied with Comey's subsequent displays of "disloyalty," Trump fired him. So one would wonder why Rosenstein "appeared surprised" by Trump's question. Just practicing his thespian skills, perhaps?

... Howard Fineman of NBC News: "Sources say that Trump has adopted a two-track strategy to deal with the Mueller investigation. One is an un-Trumpian passivity and trust. He keeps telling some in his circle that Mueller -- any day now -- will tell him he is off the hook for any charge of collusion with the Russians or obstruction of justice. But Trump -- who trusts no one, or at least no one for long -- has now decided that he must have an alternative strategy that does not involve having Justice Department officials fire Mueller. 'I think he's been convinced that firing Mueller would not only create a firestorm, it would play right into Mueller's hands,' said [a] friend, 'because it would give Mueller the moral high ground.' Instead, as is now becoming plain, the Trump strategy is to discredit the investigation and the FBI without officially removing the leadership. Trump is even talking to friends about the possibility of asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to consider prosecuting Mueller and his team."

digby: "Presidents are always well-received by their own team at speeches to a joint session of Congress. But [Tuesday] night felt different. It was febrile and overstimulated, scary in its intensity. Perhaps the best way to fully understand that feeling is to read what future EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said about Trump in 2016: 'I think he has tendencies that we see in emerging countries around the world where -- he goes to the disaffected, those individuals. And says, "Look, you give me power and I will give voice to your concerns."... I believe that Donald Trump in the White House would be more abusive to the Constitution than Barack Obama -- and that's saying a lot.' Pruitt issued a statement this week after being reminded of those comments: 'After meeting him, and now having the honor of working for him, it is abundantly clear that President Trump is the most consequential leader of our time....' That evolution from conservative skeptic to flamboyant sycophant is representative of the evolution of the entire party."

Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "United States prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas in a far-reaching investigation of international sports corruption, seeking new information about some of the biggest sports organizations in the world -- including FIFA, the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Committee -- as well as the people who have successfully lobbied to host top global competitions. The Justice Department is exploring possible racketeering, money laundering and honest services fraud charges related to two track and field world championship events and the business executives who have consulted on bids for various other elite competitions, according to one of the subpoenas...."

Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "The Department of Justice moved on Wednesday to dismiss the remaining charges against Senator Robert Menendez, just weeks after prosecutors announced their intent to retry him on federal corruption charges, a decision that would allow the New Jersey Democrat to avoid running for re-election while under indictment. The motion to dismiss cites a decision last week by Judge William H. Walls to acquit Mr. Menendez of seven of the 18 charges he had faced, which included bribery charges stemming from accusations that he accepted political donations from a wealthy Florida eye doctor in exchange for lobbying on the doctor's behalf. The doctor, Salomon Melgen, was also charged in the case. The prosecutor's request will be decided by Judge Jose L. Linares, the chief United States district judge in New Jersey, who has temporarily taken over after Judge Walls recused himself."

Make That "Justice Gowdy." Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who has been at the forefront of investigations into both Hillary Clinton and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, said Wednesday he would not run for re-election, adding his name to a growing list of Republican lawmakers stepping aside. In a lengthy statement, Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said he would be leaving politics for good to return to a career in the justice system."

Martine Powers & Faiz Siddiqui of the Washington Post: "An Amtrak train carrying Republican lawmakers to an annual party conference in West Virginia collided Wednesday with a truck Wednesday. The extent of injuries was not immediately clear. Members of Congress and the local NBC affiliate were reporting one person was killed and two people were injured. Amtrak said there were no injuries to those aboard the train, which originated in Washington. The train was stopped near Crozet, Va. and was carrying members of the House and Senate, some of their spouses and children and aides...." Thanks to Victoria for the lead.

Chris Strohm & Billy House of Bloomberg: "FBI Director Christopher Wray told the White House he opposes the release of a controversial, classified GOP memo alleging bias at the FBI and Justice Department because it contains inaccurate information and paints a false narrative, according to a person familiar with the matter.... Donald Trump was overheard Tuesday night telling a Republican lawmaker that he was '100 percent' planning to release the memo, which was written by staffers on the House Intelligence Committee and is aimed at raising questions about the validity of the investigation into possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia, now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The FBI isn't included in the inter-agency review process led by the White House...." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: As if Trump would consider "inaccurate information" & a "false narrative" offputting. ...

... Charlie Savage of the New York Times writes a comprehensive report on the purpose of the Nunes memo. Here's a good part: "One potential clue to the strategy behind the Republican memo may be lurking in the broadcasts of ... Sean Hannity, a close ally of Mr. Trump whose programs often function as a conduit for his messaging. On the day House Intelligence Committee Republicans revealed the existence of their memo and voted to share it with the House, Mr. Hannity built his evening program around what he said his sources had already told him about its contents -- saying Americans would soon learn 'beyond any shadow of a doubt that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, and his band of Democratic witch hunters never should have been appointed and they need to be disbanded immediately.' And, though it was not yet public that the memo revealed [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein's role in extending the surveillance of [one of the Trump campaign's Russia cutouts, Carter] Page, Mr. Hannity himself raised the question: 'Did Rosenstein sign off on extension of this FISA warrant?' He also emphasized that 'I'm very interested about Rod Rosenstein in all of this' -- and called for him to be fired."

Mike Levine of ABC News: "In the weeks before special counsel Robert Mueller's team interviewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department turned over a cache of internal correspondence, including documents related to the proposed resignation of Sessions last year and emails with the White House about fired national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to a source with knowledge of the matter."

"Attack of the Chyron." A Low, Low-Budget Movie; Eric Trump, Producer. Gregory Korte, et al., of USA Today: "President Trump's re-election campaign sought to cash in on the State of the Union address Tuesday night with a fundraising pitch -- at bargain prices that dropped during the day. After initially asking donors to send at least $35 in exchange for having their names scrolled during a live stream of the president's speech, the Trump campaign later send out an email solicitation saying only one dollar would do. 'Even if you choose to only give $1, the proof of your support will send shockwaves around the world as they see every American who proudly stands behind our President,' said the pitch signed by the president's son, Eric Trump. The fundraising technique is raising eyebrows from ethics watchdogs, who say the unprecedented attempt to raise money off an official White House event crosses a line." Mrs. McC: Well, at least I'm not the only person who found this stunt to be beyond the pale.

Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, crap, I forgot all about the gossip:

... Kate Bennett of CNN: "In a break with longstanding tradition, Melania Trump opted to ride with the guests she invited to share her first lady's box during ... Donald Trump's State of the Union address. The motorcade ride, from the White House south lawn to the Capitol building, is just a handful of minutes, but for a first couple who has not been publicly seen together since New Year's Eve, the separate cars were another in a string of isolated movements from a very independent first lady." ...

... AND She Wore Her Hillary Outfit. Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times: "On Tuesday night Melania Trump finally appeared in public alongside her husband (or at least in the same very large room, though they apparently arrived separately) for the first time since the public allegations that President Trump had conducted, just weeks after Mrs. Trump had given birth to the couple's son, an affair with the porn star Stormy Daniels. That Mrs. Trump did so in a white pantsuit with a glowing white blouse -- exactly the kind of outfit that became a symbol of her husband’s rival, Hillary Clinton, during the last election, and has since become widely accepted as sartorial shorthand for both the suffragists and contemporary women's empowerment and something of an anti-Trump uniform, and also what the women gathered behind Kesha wore to display their sisterhood at Sunday's Grammy Awards -- seemed to be about as subtle a slap in the face as could be contained in a garment." ...

... P.S. Here's how happy Melania looked when she saw Donald show up at the party. ...

... Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "The allegations that Donald Trump paid hush money to hide an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels took another bizarre twist on Tuesday night during an interview with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that followed the president's first State of the Union address. Hours before she was set to appear on the show, Daniels issued a surprise statement in which she flatly denied the affair in 2006. But on the show, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, cast doubt on the authenticity of the statement, only to be contradicted by her attorney moments after the interview concluded. 'She was having fun on Kimmel and being her normal playful self,' her attorney, Keith Davidson, told the Guardian in an email."

*****

This must be the Alternative Reality SOTU:

Here's the New York Times' annotated transcript of Trump's speech.

Jonathan Chait: "After depicting the American economy as a bleak wasteland before his election, Trump has rebranded it as unimaginable prosperity, fueled by the hope inspired by his brilliant reforms. In fact, nothing has yet changed.... The same can be said of the various boasts Trump made on behalf of his agenda. 'We have ended the war on beautiful, clean coal,' he said. [Trump doesn't know what 'clean coal' is.]... Coal is losing market share to fuels that actually are cleaner, because they cost less.... 'Many car companies are now building and expanding plants in the United States -- something we have not seen for decades,' he said. In fact, car companies have been building plants in the United States in recent years.... What about Trump's repeated promises to replace Obamacare with a terrific new plan that gives everybody coverage for less money? He made no mention of this at all.... Trump spoke at slightly more length about trade, but in the place of detail simply offered redundant promises of great deals to come.... He is selling himself, not selling anything concrete. His endless superlatives take the place of any concrete value he can offer."...

...Hollowman. Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "[M]ore troublesome than Trump's braggadocio or anything he did say Tuesday night is what he didn't offer -- a remotely plausible solution for any of the major problems facing the country."--safari

Sarah Jones of the New Republic: "Donald Trump's solution to the opioid crisis? Less immigration. In his first State of the Union address, the president tied the nation's opioid epidemic to alleged criminals pouring over the border. Trump pivoted to the crisis right after listing 'four pillars' of an agenda designed to severely restrict immigration.... For Trump, it is easier to rail about MS-13 gangs than it is to provide health care to addicts and crack down on the pharmaceutical industry."

Henry Grabar of Slate: "President Trump began his first State of the Union speech with a tribute to American solidarity in the face of crises, including the brutal hurricane season last summer. 'To everyone still recovering in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, California, and everywhere else,' he said early in the address, 'we are with you, we love you, and we will pull through together.' That's not necessarily how things look from Puerto Rico, where FEMA made a surprise announcement on Tuesday that it would cease emergency operations on Wednesday, including the distribution of food and potable water. 'We were not informed that supplies would stop arriving, nor did the government of Puerto Rico authorize this action,' Héctor M. Pesquera, the government's public safety secretary, told CNN, adding that he thought the transition period should last two weeks."

Yascha Mounk of Slate: "Trump called on Congress to give him unprecedented and unquestionably antidemocratic powers: 'Tonight,' he said, 'I call on the congress to empower every Cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers -- and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.'... Under Trump's proposal, any Cabinet secretary could decide that, say, a law enforcement official investigating the president had 'undermined the public trust' or 'failed the American people' -- and fire him on the spot. In other words, Trump is calling for an end to any semblance of independence for the IRS, the FBI, the Department of Justice, or any other federal agency." ...

... Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "... laws protecting civil servants against politically motivated firings are one of the foundations of liberal democracy. They are what enable a prosecutor ordered to bring frivolous charges against the president's political rivals to say no. They are what permit investigators to target people suspected of genuine legal violations, not companies that compete with the president's businesses. They enable environmental regulators to tell the presidents' appointees that they must obey the Clean Air Act.... Under current law, most civil servants may not be fired without 'good cause' once they have served for a three-year probationary period.... And now Trump wants to eliminate this shield against unchecked presidential power."

Esther Yu Hsi Lee of ThinkProgress: "During ... Donald Trump's State of the Union speech Tuesday, he welcomed Ji Seong-ho, an invited guest who endured torture and was able to escape North Korea. Trump ended Ji's story by stating it was a 'testament to the yearning of every human soul to live in freedom.'... But there's one hitch. Under a presidential proclamation issued in September 2017, the Trump administration would have restricted travel by people like Ji from North Korea among six other countries." --safari ...

... Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: After President Trump dropped his nomination of Victor Cha to be the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Cha wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post (linked below), warning against a pre-emptive strike on North Korea: "Cha's warning made Trump's State of the Union bellicosity toward North Korea particularly frightening.... Trump said, 'North Korea's reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland.' He added: 'Past experience has taught us that complacency and concessions only invite aggression and provocation. I will not repeat the mistakes of past administrations that got us into this very dangerous position.'... If the country goes to war in North Korea, future historians will struggle to understand how we sleepwalked into Armageddon behind a man whose own cabinet considers him contemptible."

Missy Ryan & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to keep the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in operation indefinitely, suggesting that he may use the facility to house new terrorism suspects for the first time in a decade. The order, issued as Trump delivered his first State of the Union address, solidifies the president's well-known intention to keep suspected militants locked up at the military facility, part of his promise to take a hard line on terror. But it also sheds new light on his administration's approach to thorny detainee issues, indicating a willingness to end a decade-long moratorium on growing the prisoner population at Guantanamo.... The order rescinds key portions of a measure issued nine years ago by ... Barack Obama, who promised to close Guantanamo but was unable to overcome political opposition to bringing detainees to the United States."

In case you want to follow the bouncing bobblehead without having to actually listen to him, the Washington Post is posting live updates of the State of the Union extravaganza here. ...

     ... Update: The New York Times' live analysis is here. Unfortunately it comes with live video of the big show. Clicking on the video seems to stop it.

... Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post has taken the liberty to anticipate what pundits will say after the big show. Mrs. McC: I'll just take her word for it & won't listen to the after-analysis hyperspin, either. ...

... Daniella Diaz of CNN: "Rep. Paul Gosar said he requested that US Capitol Police arrest undocumented immigrants attending ... Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday.... The Arizona Republican, who is known as an immigration hardliner, tweeted his request that police 'consider checking identification of all attending the State of the Union address and arresting any illegal aliens in attendance.' He added they should "arrest those using fraudulent social security numbers and identification to pass through security.' A considerable number of Democratic lawmakers are bringing undocumented immigrants to Trump's State of the Union address amid the immigration debate that's shaking out on Capitol Hill." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. Mrs. McC: These people are such twisted SOBs they don't know they're twisted SOBs -- in fact, they boast about it. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Neil MacFarquhar & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The Trump administration managed the unusual feat this week of outraging both Russia's leaders in Moscow and Russia's biggest critics in Washington with its handling of a new law intended to punish the Kremlin for interference in the 2016 American elections. The State Department angered members of Congress by announcing on Monday that it did not plan to impose new sanctions called for in a measure that President Trump reluctantly signed into law last year. And the Treasury Department angered Moscow late Monday night -- Tuesday morning in Russia -- with a new name-and-shame list identifying 210 senior Russian political and business figures." ...

... Say Congress wrote a bill, & you were the president* who signed that bill into law, a law which required your administration -- within six months -- to compile a list of Russian oligarchs involved in corruption. How would you go about putting together that list? Wouldn't you assign multiple staff from, say, the CIA, the NSA, the State Department, the Treasury, providing input & sharing information & analysis? Something like that. Well, no, not if you were Donald Trump. If you were Trump, you would crib that list from the magazine rack next to your golden throne. ...

... The Most Farcical Presidency in American History. Natasha Turak of CNBC: "The U.S. Treasury Department's list released Monday detailing 210 Russian oligarchs and close political affiliates of President Vladimir Putin bears a striking resemblance to a list of Russia's richest citizens published in Forbes Magazine in 2017. In fact, almost all 96 oligarchs listed in the unclassified annex of the report, who have a net worth of at least $1 billion, can be found in Forbes' ranking of the '200 richest businessmen in Russia 2017.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... John Hudson of BuzzFeed: "On Tuesday, a Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the unclassified annex of the report was derived from Forbes' ranking of the '200 richest businessmen in Russia 2017.'" (Also linked yesterday.)...

... Josh Marshall: The cribbed Forbes list is "a pretty clear sign of flagrantly crapping on the law because they didn't want to sign it in the first place and feel like they got trapped into signing it. Given that it's the Trump administration it's always possible that this is simply an example of manifest incompetence and sloppiness. But even for them, it seems much more like a big F-U to the entire sanctions mandate." Mrs. McC: My thoughts exactly. In fact, I don't even given them the incompetence copout. Josh is nicer than I am. ...

... ** Update. Ha! Trump's Revenge. Anders Aslund of the Atlantic Council: "This anticipated report was called the 'Kremlin list.'... The obvious aim was to identify those who had made their fortune on illicit contacts with the Kremlin. The various US government bodies involved clearly carried out conscientious work along these lines. At the last minute, however, somebody high up -- no one knows who at this point -- threw out the experts' work and instead wrote down the names of the top officials in the Russian presidential administration and government plus the 96 Russian billionaires on the Forbes list. In doing so, this senior official ridiculed the government experts who had prepared another report, rendering CAATSA ineffective and mocking US sanctions on Russia overall. By signing this list, the secretary of the treasury took responsibility for it. If this excerpt of the Kremlin phone book will have any effect, it will solidify the Russian elite behind Putin.... The main beneficiary of this list is Russia's president." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Mueller should look at the original list, prepared by experts. Odds are, at least one of the people on the "real list" is a Trump (and/or Kushner) creditor or ally. ...

... Sylvan Lane of the Hill: At a Senate Banking hearing this morning, "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday [-- in response to outrage over his handling of Russian sanctions --] the Trump administration will impose financial sanctions on dozens of wealthy Russians despite the president declining a congressional deadline to do so. Mnuchin said that a report issued Monday on suspected financiers of Russian government political efforts is not a substitute for financial restrictions Congress mandated in a bill passed last year.... Trump announced Monday night that the current regiment of financial sanctions on Russia was doing enough to deter the country's unstabilizing political and military actions, declining to add others." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) More on Munchkin's testimony below.

Ezra Klein of Vox: "There are two Trump presidencies. One of them is the official presidency of Donald Trump, leader of the Republican Party, driver of the legislative agenda, head of the executive branch. A year in, that presidency looks surprisingly normal.... But there is another Trump presidency -- that of Donald J. Trump, reality television star and international brand. This is the presidency that I suspect matters more to Trump himself.... This is the presidency for which the measures of achievement aren't bills passed or jobs created but headlines grabbed and mindshare held. [F]or all its collateral damage, [it] is succeeding beyond Trump's wildest dreams.... His rule, his realization, is that you want as much coverage as possible, full stop. If it's positive coverage, great. If it's negative coverage, so be it. The point is that it's coverage -- that you're the story, that you're squeezing out your competitors, that you're on people's minds." --safari...

...Divider-in-Chief. Brian Resnick of Vox: "[A] year into his presidency, Trump still has immense power to sway public opinion that is fueling culture wars, divisiveness, and incivility in the United States. This power will remain even as his approval rating hovers near 40 percent. As we reflect on a year of his presidency ... remember this: We can expect more divisive rhetoric in the years to come.... As Yale professor Dan Kahan puts it, Trump is a 'toxic meme' generator.... [I]f you look at polling data, you can find several examples of how Republican voters seem to have changed their beliefs since Trump began his campaign for the presidency." --safari

Pamela Brown & Gloria Borger of CNN: "... Donald Trump's attorneys are arguing that special counsel Robert Mueller's team has not met the high threshold they believe is needed to interview a president in person, according to sources familiar with the ongoing deliberations.... Sources said this is an ongoing negotiation and the position by the President's lawyers is not a final stance.... The President's legal team argues that the President should not be treated like anyone else. Trump's attorneys would like Mueller's prosecutors to show that only the President can give them the information they require." ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones: "... there has been much speculation that Trump's master plan is to remove any institutional obstacle that might impede his ability to give Mueller the boot.... But there could be a more basic motive propelling Trump: his obsession for revenge.... Trump seems to live to settle grudges.... During the transition, Trump noted in several tweets that he believes the US intelligence community was out to get him. Since then, he has waged war on the FBI and the Justice Department -- and ignored the intelligence community's assessment that Vladimir Putin mounted a covert information warfare campaign to subvert the 2016 election to help elect Trump. Now Trump is out to get them -- whoever the them is in his feverish paranoia. He settled the score with Comey. He nailed McCabe.... Now, it seems, Trump's new target is Rod Rosenstein.... As long as he remains at the helm, the state of the union will be unstable."

** As Plot Lines Converge. Devlin Barrett & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department's inspector general has been focused for months on why Andrew McCabe, as the No. 2 official at the FBI, appeared not to act for about three weeks on a request to examine a batch of Hillary Clinton-related emails found in the latter stages of the 2016 election campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.... A key question of the internal investigation is whether McCabe or anyone else at the FBI wanted to avoid taking action on the laptop findings until after the Nov. 8 election, these people said. It is unclear whether the inspector general has reached any conclusions on that point.... On Monday, McCabe left the FBI, following a meeting with FBI Director Christopher A. Wray in which they discussed the inspector general's investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.... McCabe was aware of the matter by late September or early October at the latest, according to the people familiar with the matter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Note of Caution: It's not ridiculous to suspect the reporters' sources are members of the notorious Nunes Gang. Another likely possibility: The New York City-based Giuliani Gang, which has infiltrated the FBI branch there. ...

... BUT. Pete Williams & Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "FBI Director Chris Wray made clear in a message sent to all bureau employees on Monday night that Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's decision to step aside was a result of forthcoming information to be detailed in an inspector general report, according to a copy of his message obtained by NBC News.... 'It would be inappropriate for me to comment on specific aspects of the IG's review right now,' Wray said in the message. 'But I can assure you that I remain staunchly committed to doing this job, in every respect, "by the book." I will not be swayed by political or other pressure in my decision making.' In the next paragraph, Wray explained that McCabe had submitted his intention to retire, suggesting a connection between the findings of the IG report and McCabe's decision." ...

Stephanie Kirchgaessner & Nick Hopkins of the Guardian: "The FBI inquiry into alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 US presidential election has been given a second memo that independently set out some of the same allegations made in a dossier by Christopher Steele, the British former spy. The second memo was written by Cody Shearer, a controversial political activist and former journalist who was close to the Clinton White House in the 1990s. Unlike Steele, Shearer does not have a background in espionage, and his memo was initially viewed with scepticism, not least because he had shared it with select media organisations before the election. However, the Guardian has been told the FBI investigation is still assessing details in the 'Shearer memo' and is pursuing intriguing leads.... The Shearer memo was provided to the FBI in October 2016 ... by Steele -- who had been given it by an American contact -- after the FBI requested the former MI6 agent provide any documents or evidence that could be useful in its investigation.... Among other things, both documents allege Donald Trump was compromised during a 2013 trip to Moscow that involved lewd acts in a five-star hotel.... There is no evidence that the Clinton campaign was aware of the Shearer memo." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Josh Dawsey & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Top Justice Department officials made a last-ditch plea Monday to White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly about the dangers of publicly releasing a memo alleging abuses by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to people briefed on the meeting. Shortly before the House Intelligence Committee voted to make the document public, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein warned Kelly that the four-page memo prepared by House Republicans could jeopardize classified information and implored the president to reconsider his support for making it public, those people said. Rosenstein was joined in the meeting at the White House by FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. Rosenstein ... was not convinced the memo accurately describes its investigative practices. He said making the document public could set a dangerous precedent, according to a person familiar with the discussion.... Kelly told Rosenstein and Wray that the president was still inclined to release the memo but the White House would go through a review led by the National Security Council and the White House Counsel's Office...." ...

... One Reason Trump Is "Inclined to Release the Memo" -- The White House Helped Write It. Betsy Woodruff & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "During Monday's contentious closed-door [House Intelligence] committee meeting, Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat, asked [chair Devin] Nunes point-blank if his staffers had been talking with the White House as they compiled a four-page memo alleging FBI and Justice Department abuses over surveillance of President Trump's allies in the Russia probe.... Nunes made a few comments that didn't answer the question before finally responding, 'I'm not answering.'... Quigley's question harkened back to Nunes' history of surreptitiously working with the White House to deflect from the myriad inquiries into possible coordination between Trump's associates and the Kremlin." ...

... Kyle Cheney & Rachel Bade of Politico: "Speaker Paul Ryan urged Republican colleagues Tuesday to avoid overstating the findings of a classified House intelligence committee memo that alleges misconduct by FBI officials investigating Trump campaign contacts with Russia. In a closed-door meeting with House Republicans at the Capitol, Ryan (R-Wis.) also urged lawmakers not to connect the findings of the memo with the probe being run by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to a source in the room. Ryan pleaded with members not to oversell the memo and to distinguish it from Mueller's investigation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... MEANWHILE. Mike Emanuel of Fox "News": "House Speaker Paul Ryan called Tuesday to 'cleanse' the FBI as he openly backed the release of a controversial memo that purportedly details alleged surveillance abuses by the U.S. government. 'Let it all out, get it all out there. Cleanse the organization,' Ryan, R-Wis., said. He added: 'I think we should disclose all this stuff. It's the best disinfectant. Accountability, transparency -- for the sake of the reputation of our institutions.' The striking remarks came at a breakfast with anchors and reporters ahead of ... Donald Trump's State of the Union address; much of the session was off the record." (Also linked yesterday.)

Planned Nominee Too Sensible; Trump Drops Him. David Nakamura & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "The White House's original choice for U.S. ambassador to South Korea is no longer expected to be nominated after he privately expressed disagreement in late December with the Trump administration's North Korea policy, according to people familiar with the matter. Victor D. Cha, an academic who served in the George W. Bush administration, raised his concerns with National Security Council officials over their consideration of a limited strike on the North aimed at sending a message without sparking a wider war -- a risky concept known as a 'bloody nose' strategy. Cha also objected to the administration's threats to tear up a bilateral trade deal with Seoul that President Trump has called unfair to American companies. Last week, the administration imposed new tariffs on imports of washing machines and solar energy panels, a move criticized by the South Korean government.... [Late last year,] South Korean officials [had] quickly signed off on Cha, a formal process in international affairs known as 'Agrément.'" ...

... After getting the ax, Victor Cha speaks out in a Washington Post op-ed: "North Korea, if not stopped, will build an arsenal with multiple nuclear missiles meant to threaten the U.S. homeland and blackmail us into abandoning our allies in Asia. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un will sell these weapons to state and nonstate actors, and he will inspire other rogue actors who want to undermine the U.S.-backed postwar order. These are real and unprecedented threats. But the answer is not, as some Trump administration officials have suggested, a preventive military strike. Instead, there is a forceful military option available that can address the threat without escalating into a war that would likely kill tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Americans."

Alan Rappeport & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged Congress on Tuesday to raise the federal government's statutory borrowing limit and said Washington must soon grapple with the mounting federal debt, just as lawmakers are embarking on a significant spending spree. Annual deficits are creeping up to $1 trillion and the national debt has topped $20 trillion. On Monday, Treasury said that the United States will need to borrow $441 billion in privately held debt this quarter, the largest sum since 2010, when the economy was emerging from the worst downturn since the Great Depression.... Mr. Trump and Republicans are pushing for a big increase in military spending.... The president wants $25 billion for border security, including his promised wall on the border with Mexico. Mr. Mnuchin also said on Tuesday that infrastructure would be an administration priority this year.... [Mnuchin] dismissed suggestions that the tax cut, which is projected to add more than $1 trillion to the deficit over a decade even with economic growth, would only worsen the problem."

"Capitalism is Awesome", Prison Edition. Lauren Gill of Newsweek, via RawStory: "The Trump administration has ordered the transfer of more inmates from government-run facilities to private lockups, a leaked memo from the Bureau of Prisons has shown. The move marks the latest boost given to the private prison industry, which donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the president's election campaign and his inauguration.... In February 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued guidance in scrapping an Obama administration policy to phase out private prisons." --safari

"This Land Is Their Land." Natasha Geiling of ThinkProgress: "Since the 1920s, companies seeking to build pipelines through national parks have had to obtain approval from Congress -- but a single provision in the Trump administration's proposed infrastructure plan could completely upend that status quo. According to a leaked draft of the infrastructure plan ... the administration is ... [a] change [that] would only require approval from the secretary of the interior -- a move that environmental and conservation groups derided as a giveaway to the oil and gas industry at the expense of public lands.... In April, leaked documents from the Bureau of Land Management revealed that the Trump administration wanted to 'streamline' the extraction process for fossil fuels on federal lands, representing a shift in priorities for an agency that, under the Obama administration, prioritized conservation over extraction." --safari

Swamp. Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "Right before Hurricane Harvey hit, President Donald Trump rolled back rules that would have made communities more resilient to floods. A new report released Tuesday by Democracy Forward shows that this rule change was a priority for his longtime friend and New York City real estate magnate who was given a role in shaping infrastructure policy.... Richard LeFrak was appointed by Trump last year to be the co-chair of his [controversial, and now disbanded] Infrastructure Council." --safari

A Peek at Trump's Future "Swamp Wall". Kiah Collier of The Texas Tribune & Christian Miller of ProPublica: "The kickback scheme was allegedly hashed out over weeknight drinks at a steakhouse in a border county in south Texas.... There, Godfrey Garza Jr., director of the county's drainage district, cajoled company executives to hire a firm owned by his family in exchange for a cut of lucrative construction contracts.... The new allegations come a month after an investigation by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica revealed that Homeland Security poured more than $174 million into the project while largely ignoring safeguards to protect taxpayer funds." --safari: Imagine how much fraud these cronies can pull off with $25 billion.

Swamp. Susan Antilla & Gary Rivlin of The Intercept: "Since winning Senate approval as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission in May, [Jay]Clayton had talked tough about protecting small investors. But he had already given Wall Street any number of gifts.... Clayton is a man Wall Street itself might have picked to run its most important federal regulator.... [H]e has worked his entire adult life at Sullivan & Cromwell, an elite law firm based in downtown Manhattan.... In October, SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar, a Republican appointee, described the current direction of the agency as 'such a complete change from the past few years that you could appropriately call it "SEC 180."'... Scholars have found that SEC enforcement actions in general have declined under Clayton, as have the size of fines." --safari: A long read of Wall Street bukkake theater.

Swamp. Sarah Karlin-Smith & Brianna Ehley of Politico: "The Trump administration's top public health official bought shares in a tobacco company on month into her leadership of the agency charged with reducing tobacco use.... The stock was one of about a dozen new investments that Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made after she took over the agency's top job, according to documents obtained by Politico. Fitzgerald has since come under congressional scrutiny for slow walking divestment from older holdings that government officials said posed potential conflicts of interest." --safari ...

... ** NEW. Sheila Kaplan of the New York Times: "The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resigned on Wednesday, in the middle of the nation’s worst flu epidemic in nearly a decade, over financial investments that had posed potential conflicts of interest. In a statement, Alex Azar, the newly appointed secretary of Health and Human Services, announced the resignation of the director, Brenda Fitzgerald, citing her 'complex financial interests that have imposed a broad recusal limiting her ability to complete all her duties as the C.D.C. director.'" Mrs. McC: I don't know how this could have happened. Oh. Former HHS Secretary Tom Price, who was such an ethical disaster even Trump ousted him (tho probably not because Price was as crooked as the old man in the nursery rhyme) appointed Fitzgerald to the post.

Rick Wilson (a conservative "Never-Trumper"), in The Daily Beast: "The Republican Party's head-first dive into breathless conspiratorial fantasies in defense of Donald Trump is a brand-defining moment as the Party of Lincoln morphs into the Party of LaRouche.... A diseased slurry of fake news, post-Truth Trumpism, and Russkie agitprop infects the Republican Party.... This loon-centric new world of crazy talk has dissolved the old ideological skeleton of the GOP and reduced it from the Conservative Party of Ideas to the Crackpot Party of Infowars.... [T]he GOP is becoming defined as a party of conspiracy. It's is a bad look for a governing party, and it's getting worse by the day." --safari ...

... ** Meet the GOP. Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "The National Republican Congressional Committee [the arm of the Republican party whose mission is to get as many GOP members elected to Congress as possible] has picked as the speaker for its next monthly communications workshop Greg Gianforte, the US congressman who violently attacked Guardian journalist Ben Jacobs and then tried to mislead the public and the police about it.... Venturing further into the surreal, the monthly workshop is held at the National Indian Gaming Association offices in Washington and the invitation points out, specifically, that eats will be provided by Chick-fil-A, the fast food company that made headlines in 2012 for its leadership's anti-gay stance." --safari

Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "Three major employers, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase, announced Tuesday they were partnering to create an independent company aimed at reining in health-care costs. There were almost no details available about how the company would function or how it would disrupt and simplify the complicated fabric of American health care. But there's no doubt that the companies, which collectively employ more than 1 million workers worldwide, have a real interest in ratcheting down their spending on health care. Health care premiums are split between employers and employees and have been growing much faster than wages." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nicole Hensley of the New York Daily News: "Hillary Clinton penned a massive missive explaining that if given a second chance to fire a 2008 presidential campaign staffer accused of sexual harassment, she would. The two-time Democrat candidate expressed regret Tuesday night after reports revealed she allowed a man to remain employed despite having repeatedly harassed a female subordinate."

David Edwards of RawStory: "Former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros accused deceased former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes of watching women at Fox News change clothes by placing surveillance equipment in dressing rooms.... The news of the CCTV system was first reported by Buzzfeed News. Tantaros has also alleged that Ailes installed spyware on her mobile phone 'that enabled [Fox] to turn on the microphone and camera of the device at will without the knowledge' of the employee." --safari

Matt Shuham of TPM: "Former Mississippi Gov.[, former RNC chair & long-time admirer of White Citizens' Councils (so much more respectable than the KKK)] Haley Barbour says he will pay a fine after being arrested with a loaded handgun in his briefcase as he went through an airport security checkpoint." His excuse? -- "I forgot." Good one, Haley.

Beyond the Beltway

Brian Fung & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The Hawaii employee who sent out a false alarm earlier this month warning of an incoming missile attack said he misheard a message played during a drill and believed a ballistic missile was actually heading for the state, according to a federal investigation. This contradicts the explanations previously offered by Hawaii officials, who have said the Jan. 13 alert was sent because the employee hit the wrong button on a drop-down menu." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

AP in the Guardian: "More than 63 million women are 'missing' statistically across India, and more than 21 million girls are unwanted by their families, government officials say. The skewed ratio of men to women is largely the result of sex-selective abortions, and better nutrition and medical care for boys, according to the government's annual economic survey, which was released on Monday." --safari

The Commentariat -- January 30, 2018

Afternoon Update:

** As Plot Lines Converge. Devlin Barrett & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department's inspector general has been focused for months on why Andrew McCabe, as the No. 2 official at the FBI, appeared not to act for about three weeks on a request to examine a batch of Hillary Clinton-related emails found in the latter stages of the 2016 election campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.... A key question of the internal investigation is whether McCabe or anyone else at the FBI wanted to avoid taking action on the laptop findings until after the Nov. 8 election, these people said. It is unclear whether the inspector general has reached any conclusions on that point.... On Monday, McCabe left the FBI, following a meeting with FBI Director Christopher A. Wray in which they discussed the inspector general's investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.... McCabe was aware of the matter by late September or early October at the latest, according to the people familiar with the matter." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Note of Caution: It's not ridiculous to suspect the reporters' sources are members of the notorious Nunes Gang. Another likely possibility: The New York City-based Giuliani Gang, which has infiltrated the FBI branch there.

Daniella Diaz of CNN: "Rep. Paul Gosar said he requested that US Capitol Police arrest undocumented immigrants attending ... Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday.... The Arizona Republican, who is known as an immigration hardliner, tweeted his request that police 'consider checking identification of all attending the State of the Union address and arresting any illegal aliens in attendance.' He added they should "arrest those using fraudulent social security numbers and identification to pass through security.' A considerable number of Democratic lawmakers are bringing undocumented immigrants to Trump's State of the Union address amid the immigration debate that's shaking out on Capitol Hill." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. Mrs. McC: These people are such twisted SOBs they don't know they're twisted SOBs -- in fact, they boast about it.

Floor Me Once..., Floor Me Twice.... Say Congress wrote a bill, & you were the president* who signed that bill into law, a law which required your administration -- within six months -- to compile a list of Russian oligarchs involved in corruption & therefore whom the U.S. should sanction. How would you go about putting together that list? Wouldn't you assign multiple staff from, say, the CIA, the NSA, the State Department, the Treasury, providing input & sharing information & analysis? Something like that. Well, no, not if you were President* Trump. If you were Trump, you would crib that list -- not from U.S. intelligence agencies & other government sources, but from the magazine rack next to your golden throne. ...

... The Most Farcical Presidency in American History. Natasha Turak of CNBC: "The U.S. Treasury Department's list released Monday detailing 210 Russian oligarchs and close political affiliates of President Vladimir Putin bears a striking resemblance to a list of Russia's richest citizens published in Forbes Magazine in 2017. In fact, almost all 96 oligarchs listed in the unclassified annex of the report, who have a net worth of at least $1 billion, can be found in Forbes' ranking of the '200 richest businessmen in Russia 2017.'" ...

... John Hudson of BuzzFeed: "On Tuesday, a Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the unclassified annex of the report was derived from Forbes' ranking of the '200 richest businessmen in Russia 2017.'" ...

... Sylvan Lane of the Hill: At a Senate Banking hearing this morning, "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday [-- in response to outrage over his handling of Russian sanctions --] the Trump administration will impose financial sanctions on dozens of wealthy Russians despite the president declining a congressional deadline to do so. Mnuchin said that a report issued Monday on suspected financiers of Russian government political efforts is not a substitute for financial restrictions Congress mandated in a bill passed last year.... Trump announced Monday night that th current regiment of financial sanctions on Russia was doing enough to deter the country's unstabilizing political and military actions, declining to add others."

Stephanie Kirchgaessner & Nick Hopkins of the Guardian: "The FBI inquiry into alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 US presidential election has been given a second memo that independently set out some of the same allegations made in a dossier by Christopher Steele, the British former spy. The second memo was written by Cody Shearer, a controversial political activist and former journalist who was close to the Clinton White House in the 1990s. Unlike Steele, Shearer does not have a background in espionage, and his memo was initially viewed with scepticism, not least because he had shared it with select media organisations before the election. However, the Guardian has been told the FBI investigation is still assessing details in the 'Shearer memo' and is pursuing intriguing leads.... The Shearer memo was provided to the FBI in October 2016 ... by Steele -- who had been given it by an American contact -- after the FBI requested the former MI6 agent provide any documents or evidence that could be useful in its investigation.... Among other things, both documents allege Donald Trump was compromised during a 2013 trip to Moscow that involved lewd acts in a five-star hotel.... There is no evidence that the Clinton campaign was aware of the Shearer memo."

Kyle Cheney & Rachel Bade of Politico: "Speaker Paul Ryan urged Republican colleagues Tuesday to avoid overstating the findings of a classified House intelligence committee memo that alleges misconduct by FBI officials investigating Trump campaign contacts with Russia. In a closed-door meeting with House Republicans at the Capitol, Ryan (R-Wis.) also urged lawmakers not to connect the findings of the memo with the probe being run by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to a source in the room. Ryan pleaded with members not to oversell the memo and to distinguish it from Mueller's investigation." ...

... MEANWHILE. Mike Emanuel of Fox "News": "House Speaker Paul Ryan called Tuesday to 'cleanse' the FBI as he openly backed the release of a controversial memo that purportedly details alleged surveillance abuses by the U.S. government. 'Let it all out, get it all out there. Cleanse the organization,' Ryan, R-Wis., said. He added: 'I think we should disclose all this stuff. It's the best disinfectant. Accountability, transparency -- for the sake of the reputation of our institutions.' The striking remarks came at a breakfast with anchors and reporters ahead of ... Donald Trump's State of the Union address; much of the session was off the record."

Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "Three major employers, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase, announced Tuesday they were partnering to create an independent company aimed at reining in health-care costs. There were almost no details available about how the company would function or how it would disrupt and simplify the complicated fabric of American health care. But there's no doubt that the companies, which collectively employ more than 1 million workers worldwide, have a real interest in ratcheting down their spending on health care. Health care premiums are split between employers and employees and have been growing much faster than wages."

Brian Fung & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The Hawaii employee who sent out a false alarm earlier this month warning of an incoming missile attack said he misheard a message played during a drill and believed a ballistic missile was actually heading for the state, according to a federal investigation. This contradicts the explanations previously offered by Hawaii officials, who have said the Jan. 13 alert was sent because the employee hit the wrong button on a drop-down menu."

*****

At 10:00 am ET, the top New York Times story is about how upset Trump's supporters are they he might not be leading the Hail Trump! salute & wearing his Pepe the Frog badge at tonight's SOTU speech. Mrs. McC: I'm not reading or linking the story, but there's a good chance it contains some disgusting sentiments.

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, apparently disregarding Justice Department warnings that their actions would be 'extraordinarily reckless,' voted Monday evening to release a contentious secret memorandum said to accuse the department and the F.B.I. of misusing their authority to obtain a secret surveillance order on a former Trump campaign associate. The vote threw fuel on an already fiery partisan conflict over the investigations into Russia's brazen meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Republicans invoked a power never before used by the secretive committee to effectively declassify the memo that they had compiled. Democrats called the three-and-a half-page document a dangerous effort to build a narrative to undercut the department's ongoing Russia investigation, using cherry-picked facts assembled with little or no context." This story is breaking fast & @ 7:00 pm ET, the NYT is not yet on top of it. ...

     ... Chris Matthews of MSNBC News is a jerk, but he's right about this: "It looks like a slow-motion Saturday Night Massacre.... It's a purge." ...

... Ken Dilanian & Alex Johnson of NBC News: "... legal experts say the release of such classified surveillance details would be extraordinary on two counts: It could spill extremely sensitive secrets, and it could undermine the secrecy of a pending criminal investigation.... Republican House members have said the memo suggests that the FBI obtained its original Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, warrant to conduct surveillance on [Trump campaign screwball Carter] Page by citing the dossier compiled by former British intelligence operative Christopher Steele, which was funded in part by Democrats. In fact, U.S. officials say the FBI had many other sources of information -- including intelligence from foreign governments -- suggesting possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, in addition to the dossier. If the Republicans believe a national security warrant was obtained improperly, [Frank] Figliuzzi[, a former chief of FBI counterintelligence,] said, they could have alerted the Justice Department's inspector general or the judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, who sign the warrants. Instead, he said, they are taking a path that seems designed to inflict damage on the Russia investigation." ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "... the vote followed negotiations by both the FBI and the committee to give greater access for the bureau, to a memo that the FBI has not seen and which the Justice Department warned might harm counterintelligence investigations should it be released without vetting." ...

... Adam Goldman & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Andrew G. McCabe has stepped down as the F.B.I.'s deputy director, a move that was widely expected as he has repeatedly come under fire from Republicans in Congress and from President Trump. Mr. McCabe made his intentions known to colleagues on Monday, an American official said. He will immediately go on leave and plans to retire when he becomes eligible in mid-March." Mrs. McC: Well, the Von Trump Family Shitslingers can dance around the campfire tonight carrying McCabe's head on the end of stake. They're such WINNERS! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "Andrew G. McCabe abruptly stepped down on Monday as the F.B.I.'s deputy director after months of withering criticism from President Trump, telling friends he felt pressure from the head of the bureau to leave, according to two people close to Mr. McCabe." ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "Two days before Christmas, Trump tweeted, 'FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!'... McCabe was expected to stick around until March. Instead, he abruptly departed Monday, though he'll still be collecting those benefits. The deputy director is taking what is ominously known as 'terminal leave' -- he has accrued enough leave to depart his post now but not officially retire until benefits vest."

... The Nastiest Ass in the U.S.A. Carol Lee of NBC News: "The day after he fired James Comey as director of the FBI, a furious ... Donald Trump called the bureau's acting director, Andrew McCabe, demanding to know why Comey had been allowed to fly on an FBI plane from Los Angeles back to Washington after he was dismissed, according to multiple people familiar with the phone call. McCabe told the president he hadn't been asked to authorize Comey's flight, but if anyone had asked, he would have approved it, three people familiar with the call recounted to NBC News. The president was silent for a moment and then turned on McCabe, suggesting he ask his wife how it feels to be a loser -- an apparent reference to a failed campaign for state office in Virginia that McCabe's wife made in 2015. McCabe replied, 'OK, sir.' Trump then hung up the phone." ...

     ... digby's headline: "Good God what an asshole."

... Another Time Trump Lost It. Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump's frustrations with the Russia investigation boiled over on Air Force One last week when he learned that a top Justice Department official had warned against releasing a memo that could undercut the probe, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. Trump erupted in anger while traveling to Davos after learning that Associate Attorney General Stephen Boyd warned that it would be 'extraordinarily reckless' to release a classified memo written by House Republican staffers.... For Trump, the letter was yet another example of the Justice Department undermining him and stymieing Republican efforts to expose what the president sees as the politically motivated agenda behind Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe. Trump's outburst capped a week where Trump and senior White House officials personally reproached Attorney General Jeff Sessions and asked White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to speak to others -- episodes that illustrate Trump's preoccupation with the Justice Department." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "In the last 24 hours we've seen two stories of Trump throwing deranged temper tantrums related to the FBI probe.... Donald Trump has spent his entire life insulated from repercussions by his father's money, and by an entire coterie of much more intelligent and talented people protecting him from his actions. A fixer like Roy Cohn takes care of everything for him: every woman he assaults or uses gets paid off or destroyed in the press, every business partner or contractor he burns gets pennies on the dollar or countersued, every bad investment and scam that would put a normal person into the poorhouse or worse gets taken care of through clever legal and accounting jujitsu.... The problem for Trump is that there is no fixer for the situation he is in. He famously asked 'Where's my Roy Cohn?' when the walls of the Russia investigation slowly began to close in around him.... What will he do when the pressure becomes too much to bear? ... When that day comes, it will be a trial for American democracy like few before it." ...

... Susan Glasser of Politico Magazine: "Congress late last year received 'extraordinarily important new documents' in its investigation of ... Donald Trump and his campaign's possible collusion with the 2016 Russian election hacking, opening up significant new lines of inquiry in the Senate Intelligence Committee's probe of the president, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) says in an exclusive new interview.... Warner calls out [Rep. Devin] Nunes [R-Calif.], the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in arguably more explicit terms than any Democrat has yet, saying he has read the underlying classified material used in the memo and that Nunes misrepresented it as part of a McCarthyite 'secret Star Chamber' effort to discredit the FBI probe of the president.... Warner offers a provocative rationale for why it is we are now seeing such a stepped-up campaign by Trump and his defenders against those who seek to provide us the answers. 'Mueller is getting closer and closer to the truth,' Warner tells me, and 'closer and closer to the truth is getting closer and closer to the president.'... The spectacle on Capitol Hill is sure to continue." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Paul Rosenzweig, in the Atlantic, details why Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, or anybody else in the Justice Department is highly unlikely to indict Trump. "The resolution of the current American crisis is going to be political, not criminal. The future lies with Congress and, ultimately, the electorate, not with prosecutors and the courts." Mrs. McC: I have no idea whether or not Rosenzweig is correct in every particular & conjecture -- many attorney disagree with him -- but his is a sober reality chek for those of us hoping something would be done to rid us of Trump.

What's wrong with this picture?They Screw up Everything, Including M & N. Heather Caygle of Politico: Here's a shot of the official invitation to the event formerly known as the State of the Union address. ...

... Keeping It Classy. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump is seeking to parlay his first State of the Union address on Tuesday into cash for his reelection campaign by offering supporters a chance to see their name flashed on the screen during a broadcast of the speech. In a fundraising solicitation on Monday, Trump offered those willing to pay at least $35 the opportunity to see their name displayed during a live streaming of the address on his campaign website." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Ah well, their names probably will be misspelled. Let us pause to remind ourselves that the SOTU address is a solemn Constitutional mandate. "[The President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." (Article II, Sec. 3) The SOTU address or is not a campaign speech even if most presidents in recent memory have treated it as a vehicle for self-promotion. To treat the SOTU like the jumbotron at a ball game might be the sleeziest thing I've ever heard of. The same guy who claimed ball players kneeling for justice were "disrespecting the flag" (they were doing the opposite), also thinks it's A-OK to treat the Constitution as a marketing tool. (The Constitution is far more important than the flag, since the Constitution is the basis of nation while the flag is merely a symbol of it.) I thought Trump had lost the power to floor me. I was wrong. ...

... "Please Don't Call Him Presidential." Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... I'm begging my fellow pundits not to get too excited should Trump manage to read from a teleprompter without foaming at the mouth or saying anything overtly racist. No matter how well Trump delivers the lines in his State of the Union ... he will not become presidential. There will be no turning of corners or uniting the country. At best, Trump will succeed in impersonating a minimally competent leader for roughly the length of an episode of 'The Apprentice.' And if he does, recent history suggests that he will be praised as the second coming of Lincoln." ...

... "The State of the Union Is Awfully Precarious." Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "How does a 'union,' of the sort the president will boast about tonight,go from being a nation of laws to a fiefdom of a dear leader's whim? Through a hundred small steps from Jan. 20, 2017, to now. But for present purposes, let's focus on three. And interestingly ... they're not mostly Donald Trump's fault. They're mostly the fault of his Republican enablers.... we are in imminent -- imminent -- danger of losing the right to call ourselves a republic, a nation of laws."

Patricia Zengerle of Reuters: "The Trump administration said on Monday it would not immediately impose additional sanctions on Russia, despite a new law designed to punish Moscow's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, insisting the measure was already hitting Russian companies.... Under [a law Congress passed almost unanimously last summer & President Trump signed to avoid the embarrassment of a veto override], the administration faced a deadline on Monday to impose sanctions on anyone determined to conduct significant business with Russian defense and intelligence sectors, already sanctioned for their alleged role in the election. But citing long time frames associated with major defense deals, [an administration spokesperson] said it was better to wait to impose those sanctions.... Shortly before midnight (0500 GMT) on Monday, the Treasury Department released an unclassified 'oligarchs' list [as mandated by the law], including 114 senior Russian political figures and 96 business people.... Critics blasted [Trump] for failing to announce any sanctions."

** Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "The White House's immigration plan is ... a sleight of hand designed to help the far right shove through sharp new limits on legal immigration, under the pretense of moderation and reasonableness.... Nearly everyone, Democrat and Republican, wants to protect dreamers.... Yet somehow Trump and his fellow Republicans [and media observers] pretend that any offer to protect dreamers is a painful giveaway, for which Democratic leadership should grovel in gratitude.... the Trump framework packages protection for dreamers -- something both sides demand -- with stuff only the right demands, such as border wall funding, curbs to family-sponsored visas and an end to the diversity visa lottery.... It's not a quid pro quo; it's just quid." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Democrats must, once again, insist upon a "clean" DACA bill. ...

... Charles Pierce: "When the damage done by this administration* is toted up, assuming there will be somebody left to count the cost, the unleashing of Border Patrol and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, and the subsequent depredations thereof, are going to rank right at the top of the list. If you want to see real fascism in action, look at what these people have been up to. Somebody leaves water in the desert for undocumented immigrants, and the Border Patrol pours it all out and then arrests the guy.... Meanwhile, ICE has run wild. They are busting parents while their kids are at school. They're publicizing 'sweeps' in cities like they're chasing down Capone or someone. And there's a very good possibility that, in the so-called 'sanctuary cities,' we will see confrontations between ICE agents and local law enforcement. And now we have this latest insanity, whereby technology will be handed to an agency sliding swiftly toward a very dangerous point. From The Verge: 'The system gives the agency access to billions of license plate records and new powers of real-time location tracking, raising significant concerns from civil libertarians...."

Emily Stewart of Vox: "National security officials are reportedly considering a plan to nationalize the United States' next-generation 5G wireless network in an effort to guard against competitive and cybersecurity threats from China. It would be an unprecedented move -- especially from a Republican administration. And so ... Donald Trump's Federal Communications Commission, which would be a major player in such a project, immediately pushed back. This all started Sunday, when Axios reported that officials at the National Security Council have put together a memo saying that America needs a centralized nationwide 5G network within the next three years. It proposes that the best option would be for the US government pay for and build the network and then rent it to carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: Can hardly wait to see how Trump can screw up my 5G service AND raise the price.

Another One Bites the Dust. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, will retire from Congress at the end of this term, giving a boost to Democratic hopes of winning back the House of Representatives with wins in fast-changing suburbs.... Frelinghuysen, first elected in 1994, represents suburbs and exurbs of New York City that had long voted solidly Republican.... Donald Trump won just 48.8 percent of the vote in Frelinghuysen's 11th Congressional District. Democrats piled into the 2018 campaign, with Mikie Sherrill, a Navy veteran and federal prosecutor, garnering the most attention and largely clearing the field." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eric Levitz of New York: Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), who is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, outraised Cruz over the last three months. O'Rourke has not taken money from corporate superPACS. Cruz will probably win -- because Texas. But Levitz has written a fine remembrance of just in case:

Ted Cruz is living proof that the invention of high-school debate was a world-historic error on par with the Manhattan Project. He is a seething mass of smug self-regard; a 'populist' who, whilst at law school, refused to study with anyone who hadn't gotten their bachelor's degree at Harvard, Princeton, or Yale; an anti-Establishment gadfly who tried desperately to win a spot in George W. Bush's inner circle; a one-time #NeverTrump conservative who spent much of the past year licking the president's boots; and (almost certainly) a serial killer with a taste for cryptography.... (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Paul Krugman advises his barber not to buy Bitcoin. A very useful column.

Way Beyond the Beltway

A Cautionary Tale. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "... political analysts agree that the only sure bet in Italy's coming and critical March 4 elections is that [former Prime Minister Silvio] Berlusconi will return as a major force in Italian, and possibly European, politics. Even if he will not be prime minister immediately (he is barred until next year following a fraud conviction), he is likely to be the kingmaker.... He has been investigated over accusations of mob links. He entered politics in part to protect his vast business interests and then, as the owner of the majority of Italy's commercial television stations, used his sprawling media empire to stay in power. He hosted underage women at what he called 'elegant dinners' but what the world knew as sex-fueled Bunga Bunga bacchanals. He made a habit of embarrassing Italy on the global stage."