The Commentariat -- January 29, 2018

It's kind of amazing that, with the plethora of news items on offer here in RC World, there are relatively few comments. I look forward every day to the ideas you all put forward. -- Akhilleus, at the end of Saturday's thread.

Ditto. Commenting on Reality Chex couldn't be easier. You can assume almost any pseudonym you like. I do suggest you keep a copy of your comment until it is published. To assure your comment has been published, just refresh the page; the comment should come up right away. The only rules are that (1) you don't attack other commenters -- disagree with their ideas, not with their characters or intelligence -- (2) you don't advocate ideas that shock the conscience, and (3) (which seems to be a difficult one) your comments stick to politics. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... P.S. re: Rule 1: Insulting or attacking me, Mrs. Bea McCrabbie, will not go well, as yesterday's thread attests.

Afternoon Update:

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! Uh, wait. The next story seems to present a problem. ...

... 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." ...

... 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."

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."

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....

*****

Jeet Heer of the New Republic (Jan. 26) on the "paranoid style in American politics." Now, as it did in the era of Joe McCarthy, that paranoid style begins at the top & has quite a few prominent adherents. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** Speaking of Sinister Plots. Jonathan Chait: "It is possible that the deafening drumbeat of charges in the GOP-controlled media about alleged liberal bias in the Justice Department and the FBI is only designed to prepare the base to disregard evidence of President Trump's culpability in the Russia scandal.... It seems much more likely now that the conspiracy theories and charges serve a different purpose: to give Trump cover to shut down Robert Mueller's probe and remake the Justice Department into an organ of his personal protection. Several new reports have clarified the president's disturbing intent.... So, why hasn't Trump acted yet? Reports have also answered this question: because his lawyers keep stopping him.... The question is how long this unstable equilibrium will last.... Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself because he was a key member of the campaign that was being investigated, and who also lied about his interactions with Russians, has selectively un-recused himself." (Also, Trump, not usually known for his subtlety, has found an odd euphemism for reminding fans that Rosenstein is an untrustworthy Jew. Disgusting.) Mrs. McC: Color me paranoid. Chait's evidence, especially two stories we've previously linked, is convincing. ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "I can't overstate the level of anxiety among sources close to Trump after the president told the NYT's Maggie Haberman last week he was willing and eager to submit himself to a live interview under oath with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.... One source, who knows Trump as well as anyone, told me he believes the president would be incapable of avoiding perjuring himself. ]Trump doesn't deal in reality,' the source said. 'He creates his own reality and he actually believes it.'"

... Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times: "A secret, highly contentious Republican memo reveals that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein approved an application to extend surveillance of a former Trump campaign associate shortly after taking office last spring, according to three people familiar with it. The renewal shows that the Justice Department under President Trump saw reason to believe that the associate, Carter Page, was acting as a Russian agent. But the reference to Mr. Rosenstein's actions in the memo -- a much-disputed document that paints the investigation into Russian election meddling as tainted from the start -- indicates that Republicans may be moving to seize on his role as they seek to undermine the inquiry.... No information has publicly emerged that the Justice Department or the F.B.I. did anything improper while seeking the surveillance warrant involving Mr. Page.... Mr. Trump considered firing Mr. Rosenstein last summer." ...

... MEANWHILE. Sheryl Stolberg & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Republican lawmakers warned President Trump on Sunday not to fire Robert S. Mueller III, but showed little sense of urgency to advance long-stalled legislation to protect the special counsel despite a report that Mr. Trump had tried to remove him last June. 'I don't think there's a need for legislation right now to protect Mueller,' Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, said Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'Right now there's not an issue. So why create one when there isn't a place for it?'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Right. Not an issue. Because Trump already has ordered the White House counsel to fire Mueller. So he would never do so again. ...

Ken Starr Thinks Trump Likely Should Be Impeached. Lois Beckett of the Guardian: 'If Donald Trump lied to the American people when he called reports he tried to fire Robert Mueller 'fake news', that would be grounds for impeachment, the independent counsel who investigated the Clinton White House said on Sunday. Ken Starr, who used Bill Clinton's false statements about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky as grounds for impeachment, told ABC's This Week: 'Lying to the American people is a serious issue that has to be explored. I take lying to the American people very, very seriously, so absolutely.' Starr said: 'That is something Bob Mueller should look at.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course the "fake news" shout-out was not the only time Trump lied to the public about firing Bob Mueller if the NYT is correct. According the the Times, Trump ordered Mueller's firing in June 2017. In August 2017, when asked by a reporter if he'd ever considered firing Mueller, Trump replied, "I haven't given it any thought." Worth noting also, as David Leonhardt does below, that an article of impeachment against Nixon is worded, "... made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States." ...

... David Leonhardt of the New York Times comes up with a list of Trump's publicly-known bad acts that should warrant an article of impeachment for obstruction of justice. Trump is unlikely to face impeachment anytime soon, or perhaps anytime at all. But it's time for all of us -- voters, members of Congress, Trump's own staff -- to be honest about what he's done. He has obstructed justice. He may not be finished doing so, either." ...

... "American Hustler." Franklin Foer, in the Atlantic, pores through years of e-mails written by Paul Manafort's daughters. "When Paul Manafort officially joined the Trump campaign, on March 28, 2016, he represented a danger not only to himself but to the political organization he would ultimately run. A lifetime of foreign adventures didn't just contain scandalous stories, it evinced the character of a man who would very likely commandeer the campaign to serve his own interests, with little concern for the collective consequences." A long piece. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Donald Trump, Climate Scientist. Benjamin Hart of New York: "President Trump has a long history of mind-bogglingly foolish statements about climate change, the most notorious of which is probably his 2012 Twitter declaration that the phenomenon is merely a Chinese hoax. On Sunday, he added another whopper to his least-greatest hits collection. Speaking to kindred spirit Piers Morgan on the British network ITV, Trump said that, despite what you may have heard, the polar ice caps are actually thriving. 'The ice caps were going to melt, they were going to be gone by now, but now they're setting records,' he said.... [And he's been saying (& tweeting) it for years.] The president also told Morgan, sagely: 'Look, it used to not be climate change, it used to be global warming. That wasn't working too well because it was getting too cold all over the place.'" Mrs. McC: The worst part: he believes this. ...

... In case Daffy Duck wrote your science book, too, here's the Chicago Tribune's fact-check.

These next two stories are one atop the other in the Guardian:

     Martin Farrer: "A round-up of some of the more eyebrow-raising statements in the US president's interview with Piers Morgan [begins with,] 'I think I'm very popular in your country.' Morgan interjects: 'Let's not be too hasty Mr President.' Trump continued: 'I know but I believe that, I really do. I get so much fan mail from people in your country. They love my sense of security, they love what I'm saying about many different things. 'We get tremendous support from people in the UK.'"

     Nicola Swanson: "Protesters are readying themselves for the 'most incredible protest in our history' to coincide with Donald Trump's planned visit during the second half of the year. After a meeting between Theresa May and Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, it was confirmed that the US president would visit 'later this year'. A Facebook event set up to organise a large-scale protest already boasts of 20,000 attendees and a further 61,000 who are interested in attending."

Justin Bank of the New York Times: "President Trump bragged about lowering the black unemployment rate in a tweet directed at Jay-Z on Sunday morning. The message was seemingly a response to comments the hip-hop artist and businessman made during an interview with CNN on Saturday night.... Mr. Trump is right. Black unemployment in the United States reached its lowest level in December. But, as my colleague Linda Qiu reported two weeks ago, the record is the culmination of a longer trend, and there has been no shift in the larger racial unemployment gap[.]... Further, it's an open question whether a president can claim credit for economic outputs like unemployment." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: A friend sent me a thoughtful gift last week. Thanks, Trump! My neighbor has been ill, but she's feeling better. Thanks, Trump! The ice on my driveway from last week's icestorm finally melted. Thanks, Trump!

Preet Bharara & Christine Todd Whitman, in a USA Today op-ed: "One year into the Trump presidency, it's clear that the norms and boundaries traditionally guiding American political behavior have deeply eroded. That matters greatly. A workable democracy can thrive only when there are basic rules, often unwritten, that curb abuse and guide policymakers.... Now is the time to ensure the president and all our public officials adhere to basic rules of the road. It's time to turn soft norms into hard law. So far, President Trump has refused to divorce himself from his business interests, despite decades of tradition. He has repeatedly tried to influence federal criminal investigations. Policymaking processes have become haphazard. And we now see worrisome attacks on the independent press. All this shows just how easily a chief executive can ignore the unwritten rules that typically constrain presidents. We see similar erosion elsewhere in government, too. For example, a major tax bill, affecting the whole economy, enacted with no committee hearings.... Today, we're launching an independent democracy task force at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law to holistically review these informal rules, which ones should remain guidelines, and perhaps which ones should be enshrined into law."

** Julian Zelizer of the Atlantic: "Trump has proven to be a reflection of the nation's darkest political traditions.... Viewing the aggressive and socially divisive elements of President Trump's conservative populism as a deviation from the enlightened path of the nation romanticizes the American political tradition as being purely about cherished values such as liberty, freedom, equality, opportunity, representation, free markets, and justice. This view of America whitewashes away huge swaths of U.S. history in order to perpetuate the myth that at its essence America is a shining city on the hill." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.

Stars auditioned for a Grammy for their Fire & Fury readings. Watch to the end:

"This Land Is Your Land." Guardian: "Amid dangers from the Trump administration and climate change, sites including the Grand Canyon and Zion national park are facing yet another threat: 'massive disrepair'[.]... A huge funding shortfall [for the U.S. National Park System] means that the strain ... is showing Trails are crumbling and buildings are rotting. In all there is an $11bn backlog of maintenance work that repair crews have been unable to perform, a number that has mostly increased every year in the past decade.... National parks are just one part of an unparalleled system, managed by the government and held in trust for the public, and spanning over 600m acres of forests, deserts, tundra and glacier-covered peaks, as well as historical sites such as the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. They are integral to American life: an ancestral home for Native Americans; a retreat for vacationers, sportspeople and hunters; a source of grazing; and an economic engine. Yet their future is uncertain. Earlier this month 10 members of a National Park Service advisory board ... quit en masse, complaining that the new administration was unwilling to meet with them and was not prioritizing the parks.... Meanwhile advocates have raised concerns that the Department of Interior, which oversees many federal lands, is staffed with lobbyists for the energy industry. Even absent such issues, climate change, privatization and energy extraction risk changing the face of the country's public spaces forever."

Loveday Morris, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and the subsequent visit of the evangelical vice president [mike pence] to Israel mark the culmination of a long, complicated and sometimes uneasy alliance between Israeli leaders and Christian evangelicals that dates back to before the establishment of the state. But the high-water mark, ironically, comes just as younger American evangelicals are growing less attached to Israel. Recent polls have sparked anxiety among Israeli officials and Christian Zionist groups, which are trying to reverse the decline.... In the eyes of most Palestinians, however, the influence of evangelicalism on the White House has been disastrous for their relations with the United States.Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator, slammed the 'messianic discourse' of Pence during his visit.... Many Jews, for their part, have long viewed the missionary work of evangelicals and their messianic, prophetic beliefs with suspicion." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This worries me, not because I think the "messianic discourse" is a positive, but because I worry that anti-Semitism will become more powerful. It already is a driving force in the alt-right, of course. (And Trump seems to have caught the bug. See Rosenstein, Rod, above.)

Alex Hern of the Guardian: "Sensitive information about the location and staffing of military bases and spy outposts around the world has been revealed by a fitness tracking company. The details were released by Strava in a data visualisation map that shows all the activity tracked by users of its app, which allows people to record their exercise and share it with others. The map, released in November 2017, shows every single activity ever uploaded to Strava -- more than 3 trillion individual GPS data points, according to the company. The app can be used on various devices including smartphones and fitness trackers like Fitbit to see popular running routes in major cities, or spot individuals in more remote areas who have unusual exercise patterns. However, over the weekend military analysts noticed that the map is also detailed enough that it potentially gives away extremely sensitive information about a subset of Strava users: military personnel on active service."

A Secret Photo, Revealed. Esme Cribb of TPM (Jan. 25): "A journalist announced last week that he will publish a photograph of then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (D) and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan that he took in 2005 at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting, but did not make public because he believed it would have 'made a difference' to Obama's political future. The photographer, Askia Muhammad, told the Trice Edney News Wire that he 'gave the picture up at the time and basically swore secrecy.' 'But after the nomination was secured and all the way up until the inauguration; then for eight years after he was President, it was kept under cover,' Muhammad said. Asked whether he thought the photo's release would have affected Obama's presidential campaign, Muhammad said, 'I insist. It absolutely would have made a difference.'... TPM has published the photo above with Muhammad's permission." ...

... Vinson Cunningham of the New Yorker: "The latter months of Hillary Clinton's losing 2008 primary campaign were characterized by a Pyrrhically effective, subtly racialized populist appeal to the people she referred to, at one point, as 'hard-working Americans, white Americans,' in states such as Michigan and Ohio. As Clinton chugged beers and downed shots of whiskey at every notch along the Rust Belt, her campaign disseminated photos of Obama looking especially black or exotic, or standing next to figures of questionable repute.... When I saw a recently released photo, by Askia Muhammad, of Obama and a beaming Louis Farrakhan, I immediately thought of the Clinton campaign. What fun they could've had with this one!" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND people chastize me for not being a big Hillary fan. One of a dozen reasons: Barack's so black.

** Cloak & Dagger One Step Ahead of Nixon. Eric Lichtblau in the New Yorker: Daniel "Ellsberg was aided [in his theft & distribution of the Pentagon Papers] by about a half-dozen volunteers whose identities have stayed secret for forty-six years, despite the intense interest of the Nixon Administration, thousands of articles, books, documentaries, plays, and now a major film, 'The Post.'... Ellsberg told me that the hidden role of this group was so critical to the operation that he gave them a code name -- 'The Lavender Hill Mob,' the name of a 1951 film about a ragtag group of amateur bank robbers. He has referred obliquely to his co-conspirators over the years. But he held back from identifying them because some in the group still feared repercussions. Now, [some of Ellsberg's team have] agreed to be revealed for the first time.... Several other members of the group told me that they still wished to remain anonymous, or declined interview requests."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Nutella!

The Commentariat -- January 28, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Jeet Heer of the New Republic (Jan. 26) on the "paranoid style in American politics." Now, as it did in the era of Joe McCarthy, that paranoid style begins at the top & has some prominent adherents.

"American Hustler." Franklin Foer, in the Atlantic, pores through years of e-mails written by Paul Manafort's daughters. "When Paul Manafort officially joined the Trump campaign, on March 28, 2016, he represented a danger not only to himself but to the political organization he would ultimately run. A lifetime of foreign adventures didn't just contain scandalous stories, it evinced the character of a man who would very likely commandeer the campaign to serve his own interests, with little concern for the collective consequences." A long piece.

*****

For anyone hoping for what safari humorously calls in today's Comments, a "potentially transformative" SOTU address, let's see how the President* chose to begin SOTU week:

Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "President Trump, in two late-night tweets on Saturday pitched his immigration plan while slamming Democrats, saying they are only interested in obstruction. Trump called his fix for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program 'wonderful'.... 'I have offered DACA a wonderful deal, including a doubling in the number of recipients & a twelve year pathway to citizenship, for two reasons: (1) Because the Republicans want to fix a long time terrible problem. (2) To show that Democrats do not want to solve DACA, only use it!' he said. 'Democrats are not interested in Border Safety & Security or in the funding and rebuilding of our Military. They are only interested in Obstruction!' he added in a subsequent tweet."

If you get to what's most essential and important and, I think, really damaging to our country, beyond just the confines of this administration, it's this attack on our democratic institutions and particularly the Department of Justice. It is a firm tradition at the Department of Justice that the White House just has absolutely no involvement in criminal investigations or prosecutions, period. It seems like there are almost weekly efforts to try to get DOJ to open up a case on his former political rival.... The near daily attacks on the FBI -- we've never seen anything anywhere close to this before. -- Sally Yates, former acting director of the Justice Department, whom Trump fired ...

... The "Trump Justice Department." Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, as Republicans were clamoring to make public a secret document they think will undercut the investigation into Russian meddling, President Trump made clear his desire: Release the memo. Trump's directive was at odds with his own Justice Department, which had warned that releasing the classified memo written by congressional Republicans would be 'extraordinarily reckless' without an official review. Nevertheless, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly relayed the president's view to Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- although the decision to release the document ultimately lies with Congress. Kelly and Sessions spoke twice that day ... and Kelly conveyed Trump's desire, a senior administration official said.... The intervention with Sessions ... marked another example of the president's year-long attempts to shape and influence an investigation that is fundamentally outside his control. Trump, appearing frustrated and at times angry, has complained to confidants and aides in recent weeks that he does not understand why he cannot simply give orders to 'my guys' at what he sometimes calls the 'Trump Justice Department,' two people familiar with the president's comments said." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: We all know that Trump is an obstreperous, ignorant authoritarian, so it is not surprising that he came into office unaware of the fundamental concept of an independent judiciary. "Concepts" are not his thing. Neither are inconvenient facts. (This is a guy who, after all, said in 2016 that as president, he would uphold the nonexistent Article 12 of the Constitution.) But staff must have explained to him 370-some times since he took the oath that the president must keep his mitts off the Justice Department. And yet. After more than a year on the job, he "does not grasp why he cannot simply give orders around [his] guys" at the "Trump Justice Department." "Unfit for office," you say? ...

... Along Those Same Lines. Jordan Bhatt of International Business Times: "Donald Trump is refusing to visit the UK unless Theresa May can ensure that he is not met with protests. Bloomberg revealed that Trump complained in a phone call to May about the 'negative coverage' he has received in the British press. May told the US president that that was how the UK media operated and she could do little to change it. Trump went on to say that he would not visit the UK unless there were guarantees that he would not be met with protests. Advisers who had been listening to the phone call are reported to have been 'astonished' at the demands." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Among the other fundamental liberties Trump doesn't get: freedom of assembly. All modern representative democracies have some form of baked-in guarantee of "the right of the people peaceably to assemble." Trump is not just a huge embarrassment on the world stage, he's a danger to society -- even without controlling the nuclear football. Argumentum ad Hitlerum is no longer a fallacy.

The Abdication of Asia. Ben Wescott of CNN: "In just one year, US President Donald Trump has changed the way Asia looks at the United States. The cornerstones of American power in Asia, Japan, Australia and South Korea, all lost a little faith in their longtime close ally and protector in 2017.... No military assets have been withdrawn, no embassies closed, but the lack of interest expressed by a US administration focused on 'America First' has deeply shaken its status in the region.... Uncertainty about America's commitment to the region has prompted local leaders to strengthen ties with each other, to prepare for the day when the US no longer has their backs." --safari ...

... Max Greenwood of The Hill: "President Trump said that he 'deeply respects' the people of Africa and pledged 'strong and respectful relationships' with the continent's nations in a letter sent to African leaders this week. The letter ... comes after allegations emerged that Trump demanded in a meeting with lawmakers this month to know why the U.S. should admit immigrants from 'shithole countries,' including African nations." --safari

** Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "President Donald Trump's first non-Fox television interview in a long time, conducted with CNBC's Joe Kernen from Davos, Switzerland, is in many respects weirdly devoid of substance. And much of the substance that's there consists of misstatements of fact. But lurking in that is an important insight: Trump is holding the office of president, but he's not doing the job of president. He seems to have no real idea what's going on, even with his own signature policy moves.... Listening to him talk is interesting from an entertainment perspective ... but it conveys no information about the world, the American government, or the Trump administration's policies." --safari

Amy Sorkin of the New Yorker: Robert Mueller's "most consequential questions for Trump might not be about Russian influence over American voters but about the power that the President of the United States believes he has to control, or to abrogate, the rule of law.... If Trump thinks that Mueller can be scared off by the prospect of being fired ... [as Trump as either threatened or actually fired other top Justice Department officials], he will have misunderstood not only the laws that restrain any President but the terms of his own employment. This time, Trump could be the one to lose his job."

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Russian bots on Twitter retweeted President Trump hundreds of thousands of times during the last months of his presidential campaign, Twitter told Congress. The company revealed to lawmakers on Thursday that the Russian-linked accounts had retweeted Trump nearly 470,000 times from Sept. 1 to Nov. 15, 2016. The accounts retweeted Hillary Clinton less than 50,000 times during the same timeframe."

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn on Saturday stepped down as Republican National Committee finance chairman, according to three senior Republicans briefed on the decision. The decision followed a Friday report in the Wall Street Journal alleging that Wynn engaged in sexual harassment. Wynn, 76, was ... Donald Trump's handpicked choice for the finance position.... 'Today I accepted Steve Wynn's resignation as Republican National Committee finance chair,' said RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, who spoke about the Wynn situation with the president on Saturday morning...." ...

... Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "For 24 hours, the Republican Party said nothing. The silence was particularly remarkable in light of the GOP's reaction to reports in October that Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted numerous women. The same day the first report was publish, the Republican Party demanded the Democratic Party and all Democratic officials return money from Weinstein, who was a major donor to Democrats.... The statement was released to press [by the RNC] but does not appear on the GOP website or Twitter account. It was also not posted to Twitter by [Ronna Romney] McDaniel.... It doesn't even make an oblique mention to the importance of women to the Republican Party.... The GOP demanded Democrats return every cent from Weinstein.... Thus far Republicans are keeping Wynn's money -- and keeping their mouths shut." --safari: Some could claim a case of hypocrisy here, but that concept is only reserved for principled Democrats. Republicans are just plain ratfucking scoundrels: hypocrisy need not apply. ...

... Victoria Cavaliere and Joe Sutton of CNN: "The board of directors of Wynn Resorts has formed a special committee to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct made against the company's founder and CEO Steve Wynn." ...

... Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed: "Not only was [Hillary Clinton's faith] adviser, Burns Strider, not pushed out [of her 2007 presidential campaign after allegedly harassing a young female staffer] -- he thrived after her campaign, landing a senior role at a super PAC preparing for her next presidential bid. In that job, he exhibited the same kinds of inappropriate behavior toward women who worked there, particularly two young female subordinates. In at least three separate instances between 2007 and 2015, women who worked for the Clinton campaign or the pro-Clinton PAC said that Strider, 52, harassed them at work." Cramer provides the disturbing details. ...

... ** Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post unloads, appropriately on Hillary Clinton: "... classically, infuriatingly, this episode and its aftermath exposes, once again, the trademark Clinton failure to take personal responsibility; the allergy to owning up to error; the refusal to cede any ground, no less apologize; the incessant double-standarding, with different, more forgiving rules for the Clintons and their loyalists." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course I didn't know of Burns Strider's behavior -- and Hillary's response to it, I am not surprised. Marcus perfectly captures the essential Hillary -- a smug, pompous person who privileges her allies & sickophants (not a misspelling) over ordinary Americans. I know many of you are fans. I voted for her, of course, but I am glad she is not my president. ...

... Even Maureen Dowd Gets It: "It's a shattering moment for the country, when many of the institutions that gave America its identity as a smart, brave, generous, fair country -- the presidency, Congress, sports, faith, Hollywood, big business -- seem corroded and immoral." Mrs. McC: This is another of Dowd's trademark gossipy columns, but she does hit some of the "highlights" of where we are. I think a lot of people voted for Trump in the vain hope he might grow into the office ("I can be so presidential") over Clinton, whom they intuitively knew would not. ...

... So Does This Guy, sort of:

Dirty Laundry? Emily Hazzard of ThinkProgress: "On Friday, a federal judge rejected a request to hide details of rental properties affiliated with Jared Kushner's real estate empire.... Kushner still owns a stake in, and collects income from, at least one of the companies in the suit, according to his last financial disclosure filed with the federal government. And those Kushner-owned companies are fighting to keep their investors secret.... Under the order issued Friday, the companies have to file the unsealed information about their investors in federal court by Feb. 9. The information could provide the public with a rare look into how the companies are structured." --safari

Beyond the Beltway

Susannah Bryan of the Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Hallandale Beach [Florida] Mayor Joy Cooper [D], who was removed from office Friday after being snared in an FBI sting, solicited illegal campaign contributions not only for herself but for two political allies, court documents say.Gov. Rick Scott suspended Cooper on Friday, a day after she was arrested and accused of accepting contributions funneled through Alan Koslow, a once prominent attorney who has since been disbarred after a conviction on federal charges. In August 2012, undercover agents handed Koslow a Dunkin' Donuts bag filled with $8,000 in cash -- all in $100 bills, investigators said in court records." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Electing Democrats & women will not solve all our problems.

Way Beyond

Robert Tait of the Guardian: "Miloš Zeman, the Czech Republic's populist president, has been narrowly re-elected in a tense contest against a liberal challenger, marking a victory for anti-immigrant, far-right forces in the country and potentially tilting its politics in an anti-western direction.... Zeman, who is a vocal supporter of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and who has promoted ties with China, has called for referendums on the Czech Republic's membership of the EU and Nato.... His electoral triumph appeared to be due to strong support in the provinces and far-flung areas, while his opponent scored heavily in the major cities, particularly Prague." --safari

Joshua Eaton of ThinkProgress: "An oil tanker carrying nearly a million barrels of ultra-light crude oil burned for days in the East China Sea before sinking on Jan. 14, killing all 32 crew members. Now, the disaster threatens to become the worst oil spill in 35 years, according to a report Friday by Reuters -- potentially devastating reefs and fishing grounds and polluting seafood from the region.... The ship was carrying 34 million gallons of ultra-light condensate -- a form of oil that is extremely toxic, highly flammable, and difficult to detect." --safari...

...Here's the Reuters piece with some great graphics showing the potential impacts of the spill. --safari

News Ledes

New York Times: "Ingvar Kamprad, a Swedish entrepreneur who hid his fascist past and became one of the world's richest men by turning simply-designed, low-cost furniture into the global Ikea empire, died on Saturday at his home in Smaland, Sweden. He was 91."

New York Times: "Mort Walker, the creator of 'Beetle Bailey,' a comic strip about an Army private who malingered his way through seven decades at Camp Swampy to the consternation of his commanding officers and the delight of his fans in the armed forces and beyond, died on Saturday at his home in Stamford, Conn. He was 94.... Mr. Walker had the longest tenure of any cartoonist on an original creation, King Features, which began its syndication of 'Beetle Bailey' in 1950, said in a statement."

The Commentariat -- January 27, 2018

It's kind of amazing that, with the plethora of news items on offer here in RC World, there are relatively few comments. I look forward every day to the ideas you all put forward. -- Akhilleus, at the end of yesterday's thread.

Ditto. Commenting on Reality Chex couldn't be easier. You can assume almost any pseudonym you like. I do suggest you keep a copy of your comment until it is published. To assure your comment has been published, just refresh the page; the comment should come up right away. The only rules are that (1) you don't attack other commenters -- disagree with their ideas, not with their characters or intelligence -- (2) you don't advocate ideas that shock the conscience, and (3) (which seems to be a difficult one) your comments stick to political matters. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Murray Waas of Foreign Policy, via Digby: "... Donald Trump pressed senior aides last June to devise and carry out a campaign to discredit senior FBI officials after learning that those specific employees were likely to be witnesses against him as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, according to two people directly familiar with the matter. In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, recently fired FBI Director James Comey disclosed that he spoke contemporaneously with other senior bureau officials about potentially improper efforts by the president to curtail the FBI's investigation.... Not long after Comey's Senate testimony, Trump hired John Dowd, a veteran criminal defense attorney, to represent him in matters related to Mueller's investigation. Dowd warned Trump that the potential corroborative testimony of the senior FBI officials in Comey's account would likely play a central role in the special counsel's final conclusion, according to people familiar with the matter. In discussions with at least two senior White House officials, Trump repeated what Dowd had told him to emphasize why he and his supporters had to 'fight back harder,' in the words of one of these officials.... Dowd denied the accounts of administration officials contained in this story.... Since Dowd gave him that information, Trump -- as well as his aides, surrogates, and some Republican members of Congress -- has engaged in an unprecedented campaign to discredit specific senior bureau officials and the FBI as an institution." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: digby has a link to the original FP story, but unless you already have a subscription or wish to purchase one, trying to get thru FP's firewall probably is not worth the trouble, IMO. digby has a bit more than I've excerpted. ...

... Kevin Drum: "It's a little unclear [from Waas's report] precisely what Dowd told Trump, or precisely what orders Trump gave to others. Those details are going to make the difference between whether this is a 3 or a 7 on the obstruction-of-justice Richter scale." ...

... Michael Shear & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "Senate Democrats said on Friday that they would seek to ensure that continuing budget negotiations included legislation to protect Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia investigation, from being fired by President Trump. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Democrat in the Senate, said an article in The New York Times detailing an effort by Mr. Trump to fire Mr. Mueller in June demonstrated the urgency for Congress to act.... The move by the Democratic leadership escalates previous efforts by lawmakers in both parties to stave off a possible constitutional crisis should Mr. Trump try to shut down the Russia investigation by getting rid of Mr. Mueller.... The legislation went nowhere as the president, his lawyers and his top aides insisted that he was not -- and never had been -- considering firing Mr. Mueller." ...

... Karen Freifeld of Reuters: "White House Counsel Donald McGahn threatened to quit last June because he was 'fed up' after ... Donald Trump insisted he take steps to remove the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.... The person told Reuters on Friday that Trump asked McGahn to raise what he said were Mueller's conflicts with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.... McGahn ... did not discuss the issue with Rosenstein and threatened to quit when Trump continued to insist that he do so, the person said. The lawyer did not issue an ultimatum directly to the president but told then White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and then chief strategist Steve Bannon he wanted to quit because he was 'fed up with the president,' the person said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm guessing Bannon was one of the NYT's sources. ...

... White House Switches to Non-Denial Denials. Oliver Willis of Shareblue: "Appearing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump was asked about the latest revelation that Trump had plotted to fire [Robert] Mueller almost immediately after his appointment.... 'Did you seek to fire Mueller?' a reporter asked. 'Fake news, folks, fake news,' he responded. 'Typical New York Times, fake story.' But in the past when reporting indicated that Trump has sought to remove Mueller, the denial was far more detailed than his go-to rhetoric attacking the free press. There are at least eight instances of the Trump and his team denying plans to go after Mueller.... Now there has been a dramatic shift in tone, from unequivocal denials to now simply attacking a news outlet." ...

... Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "No, Trump Did Not 'Deny' Reports That He Tried to Fire Mueller.... his promiscuous use of the phrase ['fake news'] leaves it with no real meaning. As Steve Coll wrote last month in the New Yorker, Trump's 'definition of "fake news" is credible reporting that he doesn't like.'... Trump may [have] avoided a direct denial of the story because an overt lie about an effort to fire the head of an investigation into him could be used by Mueller to demonstrate that Trump had intent to obstruct justice. Lying about the attempt could show that Trump was aware his actions were improper.... By labeling the [NYT] scoop 'fake news,' Trump obfuscated while giving his supporters something to rally behind. When publications describe Trump's non-denial as a denial, they are unwittingly assisting him in this effort." ...

... Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "The issue of whether President Trump obstructed justice centers on his decision to fire James Comey ... last May. This is a classic intent case. The President clearly had the right to fire Comey, but he did not have the right to do so with improper intent.... It is this question of corrupt intent that makes the Times's recent blockbuster scoop so important. According to the article, the President tried to fire Robert Mueller ... last June, but he stopped when Don McGahn, the White House counsel, threatened to resign if Trump insisted on the dismissal. Trump apparently offered three [pretextual] justifications to fire Mueller.... McGahn recognized ... that Trump wanted to fire Mueller ... because his investigation was threatening to him. This, of course, also illuminates the reasons behind Trump's firing of Comey.... On perhaps the most important question of all -- whether the President of the United States committed the crime of obstruction of justice -- the answer now seems clear."

... Timothy O'Brien of Bloomberg: "As the White House gets rattled further, Trump will test how deeply Congress believes in and respects the rule of law.... Republicans and Democrats in Congress should remind themselves of that and prepare for the very real possibility that the president will try to fire the special counsel again -- especially if Mueller's probe ensnares any of the Trumps, including the paterfamilias." ...

... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... it is increasingly clear that [White House counsel Don] McGahn has been at the center of nearly everything [Robert] Mueller's obstruction investigation is scrutinizing. Mr. McGahn was the first White House official to hear the Justice Department's concerns that Michael T. Flynn ... was vulnerable to blackmail by Russia. On Mr. Trump's orders, he tried to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. He also took part in Mr. Trump's dismissal of the F.B.I. director James B. Comey. As a participant to those events, Mr. McGahn has been interviewed at length by Mr. Mueller's team as it has sought to understand the president's motivations and thinking. The investigators have also obtained memos, notes and emails about how Mr. McGahn tried to carry out Mr. Trump's decisions in legally appropriate ways.... Mr. McGahn's threat to resign is an example of how he has tried to both help and constrain an idiosyncratic client who hates to be managed and defies the norms of the presidency.... He has had a major effect on public policy through his support of efforts to dismantle regulations and his role in the administration's aggressive attempt to fill vacancies in the upper reaches of the federal judiciary with deeply conservative judges." ...

... Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "Newsmax chief executive Chris Ruddy, a longtime friend of Donald Trump's, was roundly discredited by the White House communications shop last June when he went on television to warn that the president was seriously considering the politically damaging step of firing special counsel Robert Mueller. On Friday ... Ruddy was taking a victory lap of sorts. 'I don't want to get into a pissing match with the White House press shop, but I stand by the comments I made in June that the president was considering firing Robert Mueller,' Ruddy told The Daily Beast. '... I had been told by very high-ranking senior White House officials that he was seriously moving in that direction....'" ...

... Sara Murray, et al., of CNN: "Months after his reported effort to fire special counsel Robert Mueller..., Donald Trump is still fuming over the Russia investigation and has Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in his crosshairs. The President has been venting about Rosenstein -- who oversees [Robert] Mueller and the special counsel investigation -- in recent weeks, according to four sources familiar with the situation. At times, Trump even gripes about wanting Rosenstein removed, two of those sources said. One source said the President makes comments like 'let's fire him, let's get rid of him' before his advisers convince him it's an ill-fated idea.... Trump has come to view Rosenstein as one-in-the-same as Mueller -- another government official who is out to get the President, one source said." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: A couple of days ago contributor Fleeting Expletive asked, Michael "Wolff spent a year in the WH -- did his book (haven't read more than excerpts) allude to T's attempt to fire Mueller back on June 12,2017? Did he not hear about it at the time, or was he just that discreet in not revealing it? Sounded like the WH was in screaming-fits mode as that was going on: If he was there how did he miss it?" I haven't read the book either (though a friend is sending me her used copy (at my request, in a plain brown wrapper!). Here's the answer, more or less:

... Noor Al-Sibai of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's lawyers are reportedly researching a 1997 federal court case whose ruling found that presidents and their advisors are protected from disclosing information about their decisions. As the Wall Street Journal reported Friday evening, the 1997 case involved then-Agriculture Secretary Michael Espy, who was indicted for taking improper gifts in his official capacity but later acquitted in appeals court. In the case, an independent counsel subpoenaed the White House for records regarding Epsy." Mrs. McC: I heard several lawyers on the teevee saying that the opinion in the Espy case specifically states that the decision does not apply to a president or his top aides. ...

... Richard Painter & Norman Eisen, in a New York Times op-ed: "Reports that President Trump ordered the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, to bring about the firing of the special counsel Robert Mueller last June are deeply troubling -- not only as evidence of what the president has already done, but what he may yet do to obstruct justice and undermine the rule of law.... [The order to fire Mueller] is yet more evidence that the president is determined to block the investigation at all costs.... The argument that President Trump has the absolute right to fire Mr. Mueller is just plain wrong.... Mr. McGahn's forbearance in this instance offers only limited comfort to lawmakers and the public." The writers remind us of a number of times McGahn has reportedly acted unethically. ...

... Oh, for Pete's Sake. Sadie Gurman of the AP: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday his own Justice Department may be fair game for criticism amid Republican complaints of anti-Trump bias in the FBI. Sessions, speaking to law enforcement officials in Norfolk, Virginia, said the department's mission is to identify and correct 'mistakes of the past' and eliminate political bias 'in either direction' from its investigations and prosecutions, a suggestion that that has not always been the case." ...

... Issie Lapowsky of Wired: "The Department of Justice's special counsel Robert Mueller and his office have interviewed at least one member of Facebook's team that was associated with President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter. The interview was part of Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and what role, if any, the Trump campaign played in that interference. Facebook and other social platforms have emerged as a key part of that investigation, not only because the company embedded staff with the San Antonio -- based digital team working on Trump's campaign but also because it sold more than 3,000 Facebook and Instagram ads to fake accounts linked to the Russian propaganda group Internet Research Agency. All in, content shared by those accounts reached 126 million Facebook users, including more than 62,000 of whom signed up to attend events organized by those fake accounts."

Trump Makes Nice to Global Fat Cats. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump reassured the world's political and financial leaders on Friday that his 'America First' agenda was not a rejection of international cooperation, but he insisted that cross-border trade had to be made fairer and vowed to take action against predatory practices." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Tom Embury-Dennis of the (U.K.) Independent: "Donald Trump has been booed at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos after launching an attack on what he described as the 'nasty, mean and fake' press. 'It wasn't until I became a politician, that I realised how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be,' Mr Trump said. Pointing into the crowd, he added: '... as the cameras start going off in the back.' The comment was met by a mixture of boos and laughter from the audience." Mrs. McC: If only the U.S. press weren't so "impartial" & polite. AND of course this is ludicrous coming from someone who denied President Obama was even an American, constantly called his opponent "crooked," slammed the press to its face, & so forth. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Threatens Young People. Addy Baird of Think Progress: "The New York Times reported Thursday that White House officials ... 'warned that if no deal is reached [on immigration reform], DACA recipients will face deportation when the program fully expires on March 5.' One unnamed senior official said the young immigrants would not be specifically targeted, but rather they would be treated as 'illegal immigrants' who would be processed for deportation if they came into contact with immigration officers.... The government has a vast amount of personal information on each Dreamer that they were required to turn over to apply for the program -- without the DACA program, its recipients will lose their work permits." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Peter Overby & Emily Sullivan of WAMU Radio (Washington, D.C. & Baltimore): "Barely a month ago, a federal judge in New York dismissed an anti-corruption lawsuit against President Trump. But on Thursday, another federal judge, in a different courtroom, gave the same basic argument a much friendlier response. Judge Peter Messitte, of federal district court in Greenbelt, Md., seemed sympathetic to the assertion that the Trump profits from the nexus of his hotels and the presidency.... Judge Messitte seemed to urge the plaintiffs to amend the suit in ways that might make it more likely to succeed.... The Justice Department is defending the president." Thanks to NJC for the link. As NJC notes, contrary to the DOJ's position, "The problem is that Congress IS a potted plant." ...

... Melanie Schmitz of ThinkProgress: "The Kuwaiti embassy is set to host its annual independence day celebration at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., according to a source who provided ThinkProgress with a copy of the invitation. It's the second year in a row the embassy has chosen the venue for its national day party." --safari

Your Tax Dollars at Work: Trump Gets Two $12MM Refrigerators. Zachary Cohen & Ryan Browne of CNN: "Air Force One is primed to receive an upgrade that will include new refrigerators expected to cost American taxpayers nearly $24 million. The US Air Force awarded Boeing a $23.6 million contract in December to replace two of the five 'cold chiller units' aboard the aircraft.... The $24 million contract will cover the costs of engineering support services for the new chillers -- including prototype design, manufacturing and installation, according to the DOD contract." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's funny, because I remember way back when Trump promised to cut better deals with Boeing. Apparently that does not apply to AF1. Are these fridges solid gold, like that toilet Trump didn't want to borrow?

Chris D'Angelo of Mother Jones: "President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke have repeatedly said they oppose selling off federal lands.... It was over this very issue that Zinke ... resigned as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2016. And in a speech one day after arriving at his new post, Zinke promised Interior staffers: 'You can hear it from my lips. We will not sell or transfer public land.' But a leaked White House infrastructure plan has many conservation groups concerned that Trump and Zinke could soon be singing a different tune: that of the Republican Party, whose platform calls for transferring control of federal lands to states." --safari

Kyla Mendel of ThinkProgress: "Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, powerful conservative donors with close ties to the Trump administration, donated millions of dollars to climate science denial groups, newly released 2016 tax filing details show. According to the tax filings ... nearly a quarter (23 percent) of the total $19 million donated to nonprofits by the Mercer Family Foundation in 2016 went to groups working, at least partially, on spreading misinformation around climate change and pushing to repeal environmental protections." --safari

Cristiano Lima of Politico writes a Page Six-style piece on rumors about Melania & Donald Trump, etc. Mrs. McCrabbie: Being a person of probity & discernment, I read almost every word. ...

Steve Wynn. A picture is worth 1,000 words.Adam Raymond of New York: "Billionaire Steve Wynn, the flamboyant casino mogul and finance chair for the Republican National Committee, has engaged in a 'decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct,' The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. In interviews with dozens of people who worked at Wynn's casinos over the years, the Journal learned that the 75-year-old has a well-known reputation for making sexual advances on salon and spa employees from whom he received massages and manicures.... The most 'striking' story the Journal heard was about a manicurist who said Wynn forced her to have sex with him. Wynn later paid her a $7.5 million settlement.... The allegations against Wynn come less than a week after he and Ronna [Romney!] McDaniel, the chairwoman of the RNC, threw a $100,000-a-head bash at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate the first anniversary of President Trump's inauguration. Wynn became the RNC's finance chair last January at Trump's request, despite their history of feuding." ...

... German Lopez of Vox: The Journal "heard back from dozens of people that Wynn repeatedly sexually harassed employees and pressured them to perform sex acts.... [Wynn's victims] were also physically intimidated in some cases, such as when Wynn would make the requests in a small office space with one or more of his German shepherds present.... Wynn blamed the allegations on his ex-wife Elaine Wynn, 'with whom I am involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement.' The Wall Street Journal said it reached out to employees on its own and did not speak to Wynn's ex-wife.... Wynn has given millions to Republicans and their dark money groups...."

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bad news for GOP members of Congress: they need Wynn's $$$. ...

... BUT the RNC Isn't Talking. Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Just months after the Republican Party worked to tie Democrats to alleged serial sexual abuser Harvey Weinstein, the GOP's chief fundraiser has been accused of pressuring multiple women, over the course of decades, into performing sex acts.... The [WSJ] report ... puts the [Republican National Committee] in a bind after it made a show of demanding that Democrats return money that Weinstein donated to their campaigns over his years of activity in party fundraising circles. Numerous Democrats ended up giving their Weinstein donations to either charities or, in some cases, political groups who work to elect progressive female lawmakers. Officials at the RNC and those close to it deemed such giving insufficient.... The RNC, which last year chose not to distance itself from another official credibly accused of sexual harassment -- Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore -- did not respond to a request for comment as to whether they would now do the same." ...

... Allan Smith of Business Insider lists some of the politicians & political groups to whom Steve Wynn has contributed. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: See also Schlub's comment in today's thread. Apparently sexual abuse is rampant in Las Vegas & is scarcely limited to Wynn & Co.

Maggie Haberman & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "A senior adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign who was accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a young subordinate was kept on the campaign at Mrs. Clinton's request according to four people familiar with what took place. Mrs. Clinton's campaign manager at the time recommended that she fire the adviser, Burns Strider. But Mrs. Clinton did not. Instead, Mr. Strider was docked several weeks of pay and ordered to undergo counseling, and the young woman was moved to a new job.... Mr. Strider, who was Mrs. Clinton's faith adviser, was a founder of the American Values Network..., was hired five years later to lead an independent group that supported Mrs. Clinton's 2016 candidacy, Correct the Record, which was created by a close Clinton ally, David Brock. He as fired after several months for workplace issues, including allegations that he harassed a young female aide, according to three people close to Correct the Record's management." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Matt Stevens of the New York Times: "Bowing to the demands of the United States Olympic Committee, U.S.A. Gymnastics confirmed Friday night that all the remaining members of its board of directors would resign -- the latest fallout from a widespread sexual abuse scandal involving the federation's longtime national team doctor, Lawrence G. Nassar. The announcement came one day after the head of the Olympic committee threatened in an email to decertify U.S.A. Gymnastics -- the sport's national governing body — if its entire board of more than 20 people did not resign by next Wednesday. Several board members, including the chairman, Paul Parilla, had already resigned by the time the email was sent." ...

... Paula Lavigne & Nicole Noren of ESPN: "Michigan State University administrators have long claimed, to the federal government and public, that they have handled sexual assault, violence, and gender discrimination complaints properly. But an Outside the Lines investigation has found a pattern of widespread denial, inaction and information suppression of such allegations by officials ranging from campus police to the Spartan athletic department, whose top leader, Mark Hollis, announced his retirement on Friday. The actions go well beyond the highly publicized case of former MSU athletic physician Larry Nassar. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd be surprised if the only schools to suppress multiple allegations of sexual abuse by coaches & players were Michigan State & Penn State.

... Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "Michigan State University was pushed further into disarray on Friday when the university's athletic director, Mark Hollis, announced his resignation just two days after the university presient resigned amid widespread outrage over Lawrence G. Nassar, who is accused of serially abusing more than 150 young women while he was a doctor at Michigan State and for the national women's gymnastics team." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Saudi Arabia's most prominent and flamboyant investor, has been released from detention in the Ritz-Carlton in the capital [Ridyah, Saudi Arabia] after he was arrested amid a sweeping crackdown on corruption, two close associates of his family said on Saturday. The billionaire prince was arrested in November and detained in Riyadh, along with 10 other princes and hundreds of other members of the Saudi elite, as part of what the government called a mass crackdown on corruption. But the arrests were also seen as the latest moves by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to consolidate power."