;)
The Commentariat -- January 23, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Josh Lederman of the AP: "Multiple American citizens were killed and injured in the Taliban's 13-hour siege of an upscale hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, the State Department said Tuesday. No exact figures were immediately available for either the U.S. fatalities or injuries."
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours last week by the special counsel's office as part of the investigation into Russia's meddling in the election and whether the president obstructed justice since taking office, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman. The meeting marked the first time that investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, are known to have interviewed a member of Mr. Trump's cabinet.... Mr. Mueller's interest in Mr. Sessions shows how the president's own actions helped prompt a broader inquiry. What began as a Justice Department counterintelligence investigation into Russia's election interference is now also an examination of whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry, and the nation’s top law enforcement officer is a witness in the case." ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... there are increasing signs that Sessions has indeed done plenty of Trump's bidding behind closed doors. And he's done it on some dicey and very politically tinged issues -- so much so that he made Trump's second FBI director deeply uncomfortable with the whole thing.... It's only the latest evidence that Sessions and his Justice Department are taking specific actions that Trump has publicly urged, even as they, in some cases, risk looking like they are in service to Trump's political goals." ...
... Devlin Barrett & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "... several people familiar with the dynamic [between Christopher Wray & Sessions, et al.,] told The Post that they were not aware of Wray making such an explicit threat [to resign]. Firing [Deputy Director Andrew] McCabe could be problematic because he has limited civil service protections as a government employee. Such a move, in the aftermath of public criticism from the president and others, could prompt litigation." ...
... Margaret Hartmann of New York on FBI Director Christopher Wray's (disputed) threat to resign if TrumpSessions interfered with FBI operations: "While the White House is abandoning all pretense of avoiding interference in FBI operations, there's some good news here. First, Wray appears to be making good on his promise to stand up for the bureau's independence. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Wray said he wouldn't be 'pulling punches' as FBI director. 'I will never allow the FBI's work to be driven by anything other than the facts, the law, and the impartial pursuit of justice. Period,' he said."
Greg Sargent: "Republicans may be on the verge of publicly releasing a secret memo compiled by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), one of President Trump's most devoted bodyguards against accountability on Capitol Hill, that purports to show serious misconduct by the FBI and Justice Department toward the Trump campaign. The memo is the latest effort to build an alt-narrative that casts the FBI's Russia probe -- which became special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's probe -- as a Deep State Coup to remove Trump from power.... In an interview with me this morning, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) -- who is Nunes's Democratic counterpart on the House Intelligence Committee -- pushed back hard, alleging that the memo presents a profoundly doctored picture of what the classified information actually shows.... Schiff also ... said that in allowing the memo to be accessed in a classified setting by House Republicans, Nunes has violated an agreement with the FBI and the Justice Department."
Burgess Everett & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Chuck Schumer is taking his big spending boost for Donald Trump's border wall off the table. The Senate minority leader, through an aide, informed the White House on Monday that he was retracting the offer he made last week to give Trump well north of the $1.6 billion in wall funding Trump had asked for this year, according to two Democrats. And now they say Trump will simply not get a better deal than that on his signature campaign promise."
Sarah Jones of the New Republic: "Evangelicals don't care about Stormy Daniels. Evangelicalism once referred to a specific set of doctrinal beliefs. But as a new Politico interview with the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins makes clear, American evangelicalism is no longer about doctrine, at least not as much as it's about politics. Perkins knows all about ... Donald Trump's moral failings -- including the alleged Stormy Daniels affair -- and his response is to shrug. 'We kind of gave him -- "All right, you get a mulligan. You get a do-over here,"' Perkins told reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere[.]... By aligning himself with Trump, and convincing most of his movement to follow along, Perkins has altered the course of American Evangelicalism itself."
Kevin Dayton of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser: "Gov. David Ige [D] told reporters today that part of the delay in notifying the public that the Jan. 13 ballistic missile alert was a false alarm was that he did not know his Twitter account password. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency issued the false alarm at 8:07 a.m., and Ige was told the missile alert was a false alarm two minutes after the alert was sent to cell phones across the state. However, Ige's office did not get out a cancellation message until 17 minutes after the alert."
*****
Shutdown, the Series
Season 1 Ended with Cliffhanger: Star Villain Disappeared
Season 2 Begins Today
Sheryl Stolberg & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Congress brought an end to a three-day government shutdown on Monday as Senate Democrats buckled under pressure to adopt a short-term spending bill to fund government operations without first addressing the fate of young undocumented immigrants. The House quickly approved the measure -- which will fund the government through Feb. 8 and extend funding for the popular Children's Health Insurance Program for six years -- and President Trump signed it on Monday night. The passage of the measure ended an ugly, if short-lived, impasse that threatened to give a black eye to both major political parties. The deal, reached after a bipartisan group of senators pushed their leaders to come to terms, enables hundreds of thousands of federal employees who had been facing furloughs to go back to work." ...
... Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The deal that ended the government shutdown on Monday paved the way for Senate consideration of immigration legislation, but it did nothing to ensure that the House would act on such a bill -- or that President Trump would sign it.... Still, Democratic senators said they believe that a Senate immigration bill passing with a significant bipartisan majority would ultimately force Republicans to capitulate."
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... Democrats just caved when it comes to ending the government shutdown; even some of their leading senators are admitting it.... Most Senate Democrats wound up voting to reopen the government. They did so after a deal was struck in which Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) was assured that the Senate would vote on some kind of immigration deal by Feb. 8 -- and if they didn't have a deal, there would be an up-or-down vote on DACA, the program protecting the children of illegal immigrants from deportation. Just 16 of the 49 members of the Senate Democratic caucus voted no, and it's a group that is full of potential 2020 contenders like [Kamala] Harris [D-Calif.] who have a clear interest in appealing to the base. But that's also the point. Those members have made appealing to the Democratic base their raison d'etre, and they've quickly wagered that this thing isn't going to fly with that same base." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: As some contributors suggested yesterday, I think the Senate Democratic leadership handled this as well as possible. If Republicans in both Houses don't pass some form of DACA that at least allows these educated, productive young people to stay in the U.S., Republicans will pay at the polls this year. I certainly want the Dreamers to receive a clear path to citizenship -- which they've earned -- but as Donna S. wrote in Sunday's thread, "the optics will be ... horrific ... if the Dreamers begin to be deported." We're already beginning to see feature stories about DHS's deporting successful people who are too old to qualify as Dreamers. ...
... Matt Fuller of the Huffington Post makes the case for the "cave": "Democrats staved off the worst effects of a government shutdown. They prevented a turn in public opinion against their party for this shutdown, as well as Dreamers. They got CHIP. They got a commitment from McConnell to bring up immigration legislation. And they gave up none of their leverage." ...
... Joy-Ann Reid, in the Daily Beast: "... the deal is actually more than it appears to be.... It freed 9 million kids the GOP was holding hostage.... Without CHIP in the mix, as Eric Boehlert pointed out on Twitter, the next round of negotiations will be 'clean' from a messaging point of view in that it will be all about the DREAMers.... It puts McConnell on the spot... It's now Trump and the crazy right vs. everyone else[.]" ...
... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "... it's just not the case that a minority party can force the majority party to do what it wants if only it summons enough righteous anger. It never has been. It's another version of the Green Lantern Theory of politics -- that if you care enough and try hard enough, you can do anything." ...
... ** Lawrence O'Donnell points out a very significant moment on the Senate floor last Friday night, when Claire McCaskill made Mitch McConnell personally own the witholding of military pay. Pretty damn sneaky but NO ONE fucking knew about it. Try messaging sometime... --safari
... Which makes this bullshit speech by mike pence even more egregious. Harriet Sinclair of Newsweek: "Mike Pence has lashed out at Senate Democrats over the government shutdown during a visit to U.S. troops overseas, telling them they and their families did not deserve to 'worry for one minute' about pay... 'Despite bipartisan support for a budget resolution, a minority in the Senate has decided to play politics with military pay, but you deserve better,' Pence [said]." -- safari: Yeah, sure, if that minority is Mitch McConnell you lying sack of shit. ...
... Eric Levitz of New York: "The GOP isn't eager to pass a DREAM Act. It is about as afraid of angering its nativist base as it is of deporting Dreamers. The best option for Republicans is to do nothing; keep zombie-DACA in place past March 5; and direct the public's attention to some other topic -- like, for example, the negative effects of a government shutdown.... The efficacy of a prolonged shutdown, as a tactic for forcing action on DACA is, at the very least, unclear. And the substantive harms of the tactic are considerable.... Given the seriousness of these harms, and the uncertainty of success, it's not clear [to] me that a launching a prolonged government shutdown next month is a good idea. But sticking with one now, and thus, adding the slow-motion collapse of CHIP to the list of downsides -- when you can fund CHIP and still preserve the option to force a shutdown in three weeks -- seems borderline indefensible." --safari: For those thinking the Dem's made the right call, Levitz lays out the argument...
... The Little Man Who Wasn't There. Ashley Parker & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Republicans pursued a clear strategy to keep Trump contained during the three-day standoff that ended Monday.... A photo released by the White House over the weekend showed Trump seated in the Oval Office behind a desk barren of papers, wearing a white 'Make America Great Again' hat while appearing to talk on the phone. The staging epitomized Trump's role during the roughly 72-hour crisis: A president to be seen but not publicly heard outside the confines of his team's highly controlled communications operation. The approach was particularly striking given the storms that led to the shutdown in the first place, which were exacerbated by the president's mixed signals and controversial statements on immigrants.... Over the weekend, aides like [Mick] Mulvaney, [John] Kelly and [Marc] Short warned Trump to stay out of the fight and let it play out on Capitol Hill." ...
... One Night I Saw upon the Throne, a Little Man Who Soon Was Gone. David Graham of the Atlantic: "With leaders in Congress at an impasse, the most logical person to step in and broker an arrangement was the president.... That's usually the case, but it's especially true now, with a president whose name, thanks to his first book, is practically synonymous with deals. And yet, Donald Trump remained strangely absent.... The deal [to end the shutdown] was struck between Schumer and ... McConnell. 'The great dealmaking president sat on the sidelines,' Schumer said on Monday, as he announced the arrangement, accusing Trump of being unwilling to 'take yes for an answer.'... Often fixated on appearing active and virile, Trump has come off as passive and distant in the current crisis. Even worse, this is exactly the approach he accused Barack Obama of using in 2013...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie (yesterday): Let's see how Trump -- who has had nothing to do with the most recent negotiations. Other than muddying them & insulting Democrats -- takes credit for ending the government shutdown. ...
... UPDATE. Ha Ha Ha. New York Times: "Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... insisted that the deal that the Senate voted on was not 'drastically different' than what was discussed on Friday between the president and Mr. Schumer. Despite what was characterized by both parties as Mr. Trump's invisibility this weekend, Ms. Sanders still insisted that he was responsible for making a eal happen. 'What the president did clearly worked,' she said, calling the numbers more in Mr. Trump's favor 'than in Senator Schumer's favor.' 'The president stayed firm, Republicans stayed firm and Democrats I think realized that they had to move past that piece of legislation' in order to discuss immigration going forward, Ms. Sanders said." This part of the report is down the page. Mrs. McC: OR, as Victoria more credibly speculates in today's thread, staff has probably locked Trump in the basement. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** "L'état, C'est Moi." Paul Krugman: "... Donald Trump [is] a man who has evident contempt for the rule of law and who, like Louis [XIV], sees no distinction between loyalty to the nation and loyalty to himself. The main difference is that Louis seems to have at least tried to understand the issues. On Friday night, something unprecedented happened: The U.S. government shut down temporarily even though the same party controls both Congress and the White House. Why? Because when it comes to Trump, a deal isn't a deal -- it's just words he feels free to ignore a few days later.... Trump's whole business career has been a series of betrayals -- failed business ventures from which he personally profited while others ... ended up holding the bag.... His ability to keep betraying those who trust him depends entirely on the willingness of Republicans in Congress to go along.... The result is that promises from the U.S. government are now as worthless as those from a tinpot dictator." ...
... Jeet Heer of the New Republic argues that the past few weeks have showed that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is "the real president." Heer lays out the evidence. Mrs. McC: This is a conclusion I reached last week as I watched Kelly bat back all of President* Dimwit's forays into negotiating with Democrats. Turns out quite a few closer & wiser observers came to the same conclusion. For instance: Dick Durbin: "As soon as the guest leaves the office, Gen. Kelly calls in the right wingers and they bat it down and say you can't do it. We'll never reach an agreement unless there's a more open approach at the White House and the president is more constructive." Heer adds this: "Trump has a proven history of pushing aside staffers who get too powerful, or who are perceived as such.... The open question is whether Trump will continue just grousing privately [at Kelly], or if he has the will to take back the reins of his presidency." So it would be helpful if more mainstream media outlets wrote articles marveling at Kelly's power. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Update. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "Donald Trump's relationship with John Kelly, his chief of staff, fraught from the beginning, may finally have gone past the point of no return. Two prominent Republicans in frequent contact with the White House told me that Trump has discussed choosing Kelly's successor in recent days.... Trump has increasingly been chafing at the media narrative that he need Kelly to instill discipline on his freewheeling management style. 'The more Kelly plays up that he's being the adult in the room -- that it's basically combat duty and he's serving the country -- that kind of thing drives Trump nuts,' a Republican close to the White House said. In recent days, Trump has fumed to friends that Kelly acts like he's running the government while Trump tweets and watches television. 'I've got another nut job here who thinks he's running things,' Trump told one friend, according to a Republican briefed on the call. A second source confirmed that Trump has vented about Kelly, mentioning one call in which Trump said, 'This guy thinks he's running the show.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Medlar & I have been debating whether the White House is more opera buffa or soap opera. But we've decided, conditionally, that it's more like those situation comedy series where the buffoonish star of the show does something stupid every week (in Trump's case, every day), and hilarity ensues. ...
... Steve M. has some useful observations about Trump's ambivalence about DACA. And Maggie Haberman's, too! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** The Sins of the Father, Visited upon the Sons. Digby, in Salon, also has a great piece on how Trump's right-wing advisors have repeatedly repressed any gossamer angels of his better nature: "His racist id and his desire to get a 'win' are being pulled in opposite directions, depending on whom he listens to at any given time. His lack of understanding of the issue or how laws are actually made makes him a hindrance to deal making. But we know what Trump wants." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Over a million Puerto Ricans still lack electrical power a stunning four months after Hurricane Maria made landfall.... This jaw-dropping chart from Reuters compares power relief efforts following Hurricanes Wilma and Irma to the Trump administration's botched effort to rebuild Puerto Rico's grid -- on which they have made no progress whatsoever in the past seven weeks.... The degree of incompetence on display is staggering." --safari
Jonathan Chait: "[E]ven as conservatives have grown more satisfied with Trump's accomplishments, they have retreated from their giddy belief that he could and would dismantle his predecessor's. Indeed, in a curious way, Trump has inadvertently affirmed the value and durability of the 44th presidency. One year after his departure, Obama's legacy is actually stronger than ever." --safari
Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday that a new United States Embassy to Israel would open in Jerusalem before the end of 2019." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Emma Green of The Atlantic: "The vice president['s visit to Israel] underscores just how far Trump has moved the administration away from facilitating [a peaceful solution].... After Trump's announcement [on Jerusalem], the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, publicly declared his refusal to meet with Pence. The vice president will skip his planned visit to Bethlehem and the West Bank.... And during Pence's Monday speech at the Knesset, Arab members were roughly ushered out after raising signs in protest.... The administration may have also undermined its own goals in the region. Originally, Pence's trip was supposed to focus on Christian persecution.... But influential religious leaders in Egypt -- including Tawadros II, the Coptic patriarch, and Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of Al-Azhar mosque -- refused to meet with him.... [H]is limited trip is a reminder that America's role as a broker in the Middle East has become more complicated under Trump, including on issues that are critical to the president's base." --safari ...
... In Other News from Jerusalem... CBS News/AP: "Vice President Mike Pence says reports that an adult film star had an alleged affair with President Trump are 'baseless allegations.' Pence spoke to The Associated Press during a visit to Jerusalem on Monday. He said he was 'not going to comment on the latest baseless allegations against the president.'" Mrs. McC: And you know that how, mikey? The prudish pence has as much trouble grappling with facts as does his libidinous boss. ...
... The Week: "On Monday, the nonprofit government watchdog group Common Cause filed two federal complaints, alleging that President Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 in October 2016 to an adult film star who had an affair with Trump, and this may have been a violation of campaign finance laws. In a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Common Cause's campaign finance expert Paul S. Ryan wrote that 'because the funds were paid for the purpose of influencing the 2016 presidential general election,' this payment should have been considered a campaign expense, but was never reported." ...
** Wray Stood up to Trump. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- at the public urging of ... Donald Trump -- has been pressuring FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, but Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed, according to three sources with direct knowledge. Wray's resignation under those circumstances would have created a media firestorm. The White House -- understandably gun-shy after the Comey debacle -- didn't want that scene, so McCabe remains.... [He is expected to resign shortly when he becomes eligible for a full pension.] Trump and other Republicans have been hammering McCabe -- who was selected by the White House as acting director after the Comey firing -- for months on Twitter. On July 26, Trump tweeted: 'Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got...big dollars ($700,000) for his wife's political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!'... Trump has also tweeted negatively about other senior FBI officials who are allies of Comey, including the former top FBI lawyer James A. Baker who was recently 'reassigned' after pressure from Sessions."
"There's a Lot to Come." Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... the fiancee of George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser who pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts and is cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, says he is being miscast. 'I believe history will remember him like John Dean,' said Italian-born Simona Mangiante, referring to the former White House counsel who pleaded guilty to his role in the Watergate coverup and then became a key witness against other aides to President Richard Nixon.... Without offering specifics [on the advice of Papadopoulos's attorneys], Mangiante said there is much more that has not yet been told publicly about Papadopoulos' 10 months as an informal national security adviser to Trump...."
Melanie Schmitz of ThinkProgress: "An Associated Press report on Monday showed that despite President Trump's pledge to donate all profits his hotels received from foreign governments, his business has not yet made a single payment to the U.S. Treasury.... The initial deadline to make a donation of those profits was set for the end of last year, but the deadline came and went with no payout.... Overall, the Trump Organization has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits from various foreign governments in the past year, according to a report released earlier in January by Public Citizen." --safari: Trump has confirmed for future presidents that the Emoluments Clause is merely voluntary window-dressing for democratic governance.
Alternative Facts. Spencer Ackerman of The Daily Beast: "The document didn't mince words. It claimed three-quarters of 'international terrorism' convicts were immigrants, an assertion meant to bolster Donald Trump's cherished Muslim-focused ban on entering the country. And the report put the claim in the mouths of an agency assembled to keep Americans safe after 9/11: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).... But the Department of Homeland Security did not perform that analysis.... The document released last week did not include the contributions of those career DHS officials tasked with providing professional and objective analysis. They were not asked to participate.... To some within DHS ... the perception is that the Trump administration used the Department to conflate immigrants with terrorists in support of the president's signature immigration crackdown." --safari
War on Truth. Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump and his administration have censored or stifled science -- particularly climate science -- almost 100 times since the election.... The tracker is a new initiative from the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund and Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.... Since the tracker is entirely based on what has been reported by the media, this suggests the actual degree to which the administration is directly undermining science may be much higher.... To date, the tracker has 96 entries, including 41 examples of outright government censorship." --safari ...
... Ana Swanson & Brad Plumer of the New York Times: "President Trump slapped steep tariffs on imports of washing machines and solar energy cells and panels on Monday, the first major step by the administration to erect the kind of trade barriers Mr. Trump has frequently said are necessary to protect manufacturers in the United States.... White House advisers warned that additional trade measures related to steel, aluminum and other products from China could be coming, a signal that Mr. Trump is ratcheting up the protectionist policies he has long espoused as part of his 'America First' approach. The imposition of tariffs will most likely exacerbate trade tensions with other nations, including China, and could result in an escalation of retaliatory trade measures against imports from the United States. Both China and South Korea harshly criticized the move, with both suggesting they could take their complaints to the World Trade Organization, which settles trade disputes between countries." ...
... Brian Eckhouse, et al., of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump just dealt his biggest blow to the renewable energy industry yet. On Monday, Trump approved duties of as much as 30 percent on solar equipment made abroad, a move that threatens to handicap a $28 billion industry that relies on parts made abroad for 80 percent of its supply. Just the mere threat of tariffs has shaken solar developers in recent months, with some hoarding panels and others stalling projects in anticipation of higher costs. The Solar Energy Industries Association has projected 23,000 job losses this year in a sector that employed 260,000.... The tariffs are just the latest action Trump has taken that undermine the economics of renewable energy.... 'We are inclined to view it as posing greater trade risk for all types of energy, particularly if other nations establish new trade barriers against U.S. products,' Washington-based research firm ClearView Energy Partners LLC said in a report Monday.... For Trump, the tariffs represent a step toward making good on a campaign promise to get tough on the country that produces the most panels -- China." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In an earlier story on this, Lacey Johnson of Greentech Media (Jan. 12) wrote, "On Wednesday, the bipartisan group Coalition for a Prosperous America sent a letter urging the president to impose a 'global tariff' on [solar] imports." As I scanned the story I read the name of the group as, "Coalition for a Preposterous America." Unfortunately, we already have such a coalition. Its more common name is "the Republican party." Johnson recounted some expert opinions on both sides of the tariff debate. Here's one: "'To be honest, I don't know who has the president's ear on this case,' said Clark Packard, [of] ... the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank. 'Obviously, there's only one person who knows the answer to this, and trying to get inside his head is bananas.'" ...
... Nathanael Johnson of Grist: "Ironically, this is exactly the sort of thing that might have saved Solyndra, the failed solar company that in 2011 became a whipping boy for Republicans critical of [President] Obama's efforts on renewables. Solyndra was working on a \more efficient form of solar cell, but it was swamped by a flood of cheap imported silicon cells. Now, we have a Republican president interfering with free trade to shelter today's Solyndras. We're through the looking glass." ...
... Oh, AND This. Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "The Trump administration is waiving dozens of environmental regulations to speed up construction of President Trump's proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Homeland Security Secretary Kirsten Nielsen said in a notice published in the Federal Register Monday that she was waiving the rules to accelerate construction on part of the wall in New Mexico. The waiver excludes rules from major laws including the National Environment Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Antiquities Act, among others."
Spencer Hsu & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump's voting commission asked every state and the District for detailed voter registration data, but in Texas's case it took an additional step: It asked to see Texas records that identify all voters with Hispanic surnames, newly released documents show.... Texas since 1983 has identified voters with a Hispanic name to mail bilingual election notices in Spanish and English as required by state and federal laws.... One voting commission member, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap (D), who has sued the voting panel to disclose records that he says were not provided to him, said the selection of Hispanic names appeared improper and could explain why the voting panel has sought to act in secret.... Voting commission vice chairman, Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach (R) [claimed he was shocked there was ethnic profiling going on here].... The voting commission was disbanded Jan. 3 after Trump cited a host of ongoing state and federal lawsuits and resistance from state officials over the sweeping pursuit, in the name of investigating alleged voter fraud, of information about more than 150 million voters across the country." ...
... Kira Lerner of ThinkProgress: "During testimony before the Kansas legislature earlier this month, Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) claimed he was unaware of any security breaches with the Interstate Crosscheck Program, a project Kansas administers to compare voter registration databases across states for duplicate voters.... Less than 10 days later, Florida announced it would be providing free credit checks to 945 individuals whose social security numbers Kansas inadvertently sent through unsecured email and that Florida then provided to an individual who filed a public records request seeking information about the state's participation in the program." --safari
AP: "Hours after a humanitarian group released videos showing border patrol agents kicking over water bottles left for migrants in the Arizona desert, a volunteer for the organization was arrested and charged and with harboring undocumented immigrants. Scott Daniel Warren, 35, a volunteer with the group No More Deaths, faces a federal charge of harboring two people in the country illegally. Caitlin Deighan, [an] activist with No More Deaths, stopped short of calling the arrest retaliation but said it looked suspicious that Warren had been charged so soon after the release of the videos. 'We see it as an escalation and criminalization of aid workers,' Deighan said...." --safari
Trumpism. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "A Michigan man has been arrested for threatening to kill CNN employees after telephoning the network and saying: 'Fake news. I'm coming to gun you all down.' Brandon Griesemer appeared in federal court in Detroit on Friday charged with using interstate communications to threaten injury. Griesemer, 19, could face up to five years in prison if convicted. He was released on a $10,000 bond.... The FBI alleged that Griesemer called CNN's headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, approximately 22 times between 9 January and 10 January, threatening violence against the network's staff and making racist remarks." --safari
Kelly Cohen of the Washington Examiner: "House Speaker Paul Ryan collected nearly $500,000 in campaign contributions from Charles Koch and his wife after helping usher through a massive tax reform law. According to a recent campaign finance report filed Thursday, Koch and his wife Elizabeth each donated $247,7000 to Ryan's joint fundraising committee.... The Republican tax overhaul plan passed in December benefited Koch Industries, as it cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, among other cuts. The legislation then got a boost from the Kochs' multimillion-dollar public relations campaign to highlight its benefits. And 13 days after it passed, Charles and Elizabeth Koch made the near $500,000 donation to Team Ryan, which raises money for the congressman, the National Republican Congressional Committee and a political action committee run by Ryan. On the same day, Charles and Elizabeth Koch also each donated $237,000 to the NRCC." ...
... Charles Pierce: "One thing you have to give the members of the Koch family: They're excellent tippers.... We don';t even have to argue about the price any more with him. It's 500-large. And, as always, it's time to revisit the wisdom of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Anthony Kennedy, from his opinion in Citizens United v. FEC. 'Independent expenditures do not lead to, or create the appearance of, quid pro quo corruption.' Deathless brilliance."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Rebekah Entralgo of ThinkProgress: "Bank of America has eliminated its free checking account program, a service that was popular with many low-income customers looking to avoid extra fees for having a low balance. Beginning this month, all eBanking customers will face a $12 monthly fee unless the customer has a direct deposit of $250 or more or a minimum balance of $1,500.... A monthly fee of $12 could cause some customers to overdraft on their accounts, resulting in even more fees. Overdraft fees collectively cost consumers over $15 billion annually, and around 18 percent of account holders pay three or more overdraft fees a year.... Meanwhile, Bank of America, along with the rest of the country's top banks, will get a significant tax windfall from the recently passed Republican tax bill -- a $3.5 billion tax windfall..., according to a Goldman Sachs report...."
Beyond the Beltway
Joseph Ax of Reuters: "Pennsylvania's top court on Monday threw out the state's congressional map, ruling that Republican legislators unlawfully sought partisan advantage, and gave them three weeks to rework it in a decision that could boost Democratic chances of retaking the U.S. House of Representatives. In a 5-2 decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the electoral map violated the state Constitution by manipulating the district boundaries to minimize the voting power of Democratic voters, a practice called partisan gerrymandering." Thanks to Jeanne for the lead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Or Maybe It Was a 4-3 Decision. Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "In a 4-to-3 decision, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ordered the Republican-controlled state legislature to redraw the lines by Feb. 9, an extraordinarily quick timeline that will reset the districts in time for the state's May congressional primaries. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf will have veto power over the maps." The opinion itself has not yet been released (at 4:00 pm ET Monday). (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Nope, Make that 5-2. Michael Wines & Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "In Monday's decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court split along party lines in striking down the state's House map, with the court's five Democrats in the majority and its two Republican judges in dissent.... An appeal to the federal courts would very likely fail, election experts said, because decisions based solely on interpretations of state law -- as this one appears to be -- are generally beyond the reach of federal judges.... Unless the [U.S.] Supreme Court intervenes in the Pennsylvania case as well, the state may be the only one where a new court-ordered map will take effect in time for the midterm elections."
Reefer Madness. German Lopez of Vox: "Vermont is now the ninth state to legalize marijuana. Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, on Monday signed a legalization bill, making the state the first to legalize cannabis through its legislature instead of a ballot initiative. The bill legalizes possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and up to two mature and four immature cannabis plants for adults 21 and older. It doesn't legalize recreational pot sales, as has been done in the eight states (excluding Washington, DC) to legalize marijuana so far. The law takes effect in July." --safari
Harper Neidig of The Hill: "Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) signed an executive order on Monday requiring internet service providers with state contracts to abide by net neutrality principles. The order makes his state the first to push back on the Federal Communications Commission's decision to repeal the open internet rules last month." --safari
Way Beyond
Michael Safi of the Guardian: "India's minister for higher education [Satyapal Singh] has been condemned by scientists for demanding the theory of evolution be removed from school curricula because no one 'ever saw an ape turning into a human being'." --safari
News Lede
New York Times: "Ursula K. Le Guin, the immensely popular author who brought literary depth and a tough-minded feminist sensibility to science fiction and fantasy with books like 'The Left Hand of Darkness' and the Earthsea series, died on Monday at her home in Portland, Ore. She was 88."
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