The Commentariat -- January 12, 2018

It appears my host Squarespace is nowhere near solving the Comments problem. I did discover a semi-solution that MAG tested, and it worked. Like MAG, you too can become a Reality Chex member! Yeah, yeah, I know you wouldn't become a member of any club that would have you. If you've commented here before & have a burning desire to speak your mind before the Comments submissions function gets fixed -- e-mail me at constantweader@gmail.com . Send a login ID & password (they have to be at least 6 characters long), & I'll tell you how you can exercise the (I hope quite temporary) exclusive privilege of being a Reality Chex member. PLEASE don't give me a log-in or password you currently use anyplace else. I don't want to be the No. 1 suspect when some crook uses your Macy's card. When you're logged in, your comments should take -- at least for now.

If you'd rather just e-mail your comments to me, that's okay, too. The downside is that I will be IDed as the writer (tho of course I'll credit you). BTW, two contributors who already have log-ins also can comment while they're logged in. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... UPDATE: The Bad News: The host won't be able to fix this right away. The Good News: It's a system-wide problem, so they'll likely get right on it.

(Not much of an) Afternoon Update:

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday offered a vague denial about the language he chose to use about immigrants during a private meeting with lawmakers at the White House on Thursday, when he reportedly referred to African nations as 'shithole countries.' But Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said on Friday that the president did use the term 'shithole' during the course of the meeting on immigration -- which Mr. Durbin attended. The senator described Mr. Trump as saying 'things which were hate-filled, vile and racist.' In a Twitter post on Friday, just hours before the president signed a proclamation to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is Monday, Mr. Trump appeared to parse the language he used when he spoke about immigrants from different regions of the world.... 'It's not true,' Mr. Durbin said of Mr. Trump's denial. 'He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly.'... After Mr. Trump signed the proclamation for Martin Luther King Jr. Day later on Friday morning, the president ignored a question from a reporter about whether he is a racist."...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Who ya gonna believe? Dick Durbin or this crackpot. ...

... Glenn Kessler & Meg Kelly of the Washington Post: "President Trump has broken 2,000. With just 10 days before he finishes his first year as president, Trump has made 2,001 false or misleading claims in 355 days, according to our database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president. That's an average of more than 5.6 claims a day." ...

... ** "The 'Shithole Countries -- and the Rest of the World -- Respond to President Trump." Robin Wright of the New Yorker: "President Trump's credibility as a world leader has been, to borrow his vulgarity, shot to shit. With one word -- just the latest in a string of slurs about other nations and peoples -- he has demolished his ability to be taken seriously on the global stage. 'There is no other word one can use but "racist,"' the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, Rupert Colville, said at a briefing in Geneva. 'You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes,' whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.'... Trump's world view is tragic for so many reasons. First, he's just wrong on the basics.... Trump's bigoted world view also ignores history.... Having strong alliances with African nations is also crucial to Trump's national-security challenges.... Perhaps the ultimate irony is that Trump's own ancestors came from Africa, as did all mankind." Thanks to David R. for the link.

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump again stopped short of reimposing punitive sanctions on Iran that could break up its nuclear deal with world powers, the White House said on Friday. But Mr. Trump gave European allies only 120 days to agree to an overhaul of the deal or administration officials said he would pull the United States out of it. He also approved sanctions against the head of Iran's judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, a powerful figure whom the administration holds culpable for the violent crackdown on recent antigovernment protests. Mr. Trump's action, which was widely expected, is the third time he has given a reprieve to the agreement brokered by President Barack Obama, despite having labeled it 'the worst deal ever' and threatening repeatedly to rip it up."

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "In a tweet sent late Thursday evening, President Trump said he had canceled his trip to Britain next month because he was unhappy with the new U.S. Embassy in London -- and accused the Obama administration of making a 'bad deal' for an 'off location.' Many Britons disagreed, suggesting instead the president was simply worried his arrival in London would be greeted by mass protests. Those involved in the relocation of the U.S. Embassy in London also say Trump, a former real estate mogul in New York City, has a bad understanding of the deal. 'As usual, he's dead wrong,' said former ambassador Louis Susman, who served under the Obama administration between 2009 and 2013. 'He's 100 percent wrong.'" Taylor goes on to relay the explanations -- from people involved in the move, some from the Bush II administration -- of how Trump is wrong in every particular." Mrs. McC: I don't think Trump would tell the truth about the time of day.

YOU: What time is it, Mr. President?

TRUMP: 3:30.

PENCE: Uh, begging your pardon, your royal highness; it's 4:30, not 3:30. Maybe your watch is set to Daylight Savings Time.

TRUMP: I never said it was 3:30.

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Hayley Peterson of Business Insider on WalMart's closing 63 Sam's Clubs yesterday: "In some cases, employees were not told their store had closed before showing up to work on Thursday. Those employees learned their store would be closing when they found the store's doors locked and a notice announcing the closing, Sam's Club workers told Business Insider. At some stores, employees were turned away by police officers." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: How nice that a multi-trillion-dollar company (I guess) decided to screw these hourly-wage employees one last time. Obviously, there are expense of both time & $$ to get from home to work & back. Many of these workers had to take public transportation, for instance. And some probably had incurred extra expenses like daycare for children or disabled dependents. But WalMart doesn't care.

*****

Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday appeared to deny that used the phrase 'shithole countries' during a meeting with bi-partisan lawmakers, tweeting that 'this was not the language used.' 'The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!' the president tweeted Friday. Trump also denied he made derogatory comments about Haitians, including 'Why do we want people from Haiti here?' and saying that all Haitians have AIDS. 'Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country,' Trump tweeted. 'Never said "take them out." Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings -- unfortunately, no trust!'... In a series of Tweets leading up to that statement, Trump also criticized the 'so-called' bi-partisan Dreamers deal that lawmakers reached this week, calling it 'a big step backwards.'"

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: None of Trump's denials, of course, is remotely believable. ...

...safari: "Derogatory" and "outlandish" are both words with far too many syllables for Trump's stable brain. He obviously didn't write these tweets....

... Trump Has Lost It. Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they floated restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to two people briefed on the meeting. 'Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?' Trump said, according to these people, referring to African countries and Haiti. He then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met Wednesday. The comments left lawmakers taken aback.... Trump had seemed amenable to a deal earlier in the day during phone calls, aides said, but shifted his position in the meeting and did not seem interested.... The meeting was impromptu and came after phone calls Thursday morning, Capitol Hill aides said." Mrs. McC: At 7 pm ET, the article has almost 5,000 comments. ...

... Our White Supremacist President, Ctd. Julie Davis & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday balked at an immigration deal that would include protections for people from Haiti and African countries, demanding to know at a White House meeting why he should accept immigrants from 'shithole countries' rather than people from places like Norway, according to people with direct knowledge of the conversation. Mr. Trump's remarks left members of Congress attending the meeting in the Cabinet Room alarmed and mystified. They were there discussing an emerging bipartisan deal to give legal status to immigrants illegally brought to the United States as children, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity without authorization to discuss the explosive proceedings of the private meeting. When Mr. Trump heard that Haitians were among those who would benefit, he asked if they could be left out of the plan, according to the people familiar with the conversation, asking, 'Why do we want people from Haiti here?'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Second day in a row the NYT has used the word "shit" in covering the news. The Post puts "shithole" in its headline. Now, will you Congressional clunkweasels please roll out the 25th Amendment? ...

... Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "[T]here is one group that is embracing Trump's comments wholeheartedly: white supremacists.... Trump's comments were also popular on Stormfront, a message board for white supremacists.... White House officials told journalists that they weren't worried about Trump's comments because they would be popular with his base." --safari...

... Henrik Libell & Catherine Porter: Prominent Norwegian journalists, Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., the U.N. human rights office & many others condemned President Trump's remarks.

... James Downie of the Washington Post: "In September, ESPN anchor Jemele Hill tweeted that President Trump is a 'white supremacist.' An avalanche of criticism followed.... On Thursday, Trump proved once and for all that Hill wasn't crossing a line, but merely stating a fact: The president is, by definition a white supremacist.... It's hard to imagine how the president could have been more plainly racist [than his comments today proved]. The White House did not deny the quotes. Indeed, White House staffers told CNN they weren't worried about the comment because it would 'resonate with his base ... much like his attacks on NFL players.' Sorry, there are no prizes for guessing what NFL players and African immigrants have in common. The evidence for Trump's racism has long been overwhelming.... Admitting Trump is a white supremacist ... means reckoning with how it affects his administration's priorities." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The White House just asserted that Trump's fans were all racists.

... Jonathan Alter in The Daily Beast: "On Dec. 28, Army Pvt. Emmanuel Mensah rushed twice into a burning building in the Bronx and rescued four people. On his third trip in, he died. Mensah was from Ghana, one of President Trump's 'shithole countries.'... [J]ust because the president can't be impeached (at least not yet), court-martialed or fired doesn't mean he can't be punished. It's time to stop wringing our hands. There are remedies that lie between removal from office and doing nothing. The best short-term remedy is censure by both Houses of Congress, a move that would begin the essential process of checking Trump. Andrew Jackson -- whose painting Steve Bannon told Trump to hang in the Oval Office -- is the only president ever censured (for not turning over certain bank documents)... Members wouldn't have to debate immigration or foreign policy or even racism, merely vote that the president's conduct was ... unbecoming. Who can argue with that?" --safari...

...**Richard Wolffe of the Guardian: "Donald Trump knows a thing or two about 'shitholes'.'... His own father was reportedly so ashamed of coming from Germany ... that he pretended for most of his life that he was Swedish. These Aryan dreams glowed all blond and bright through Trump's seminal book, The Art of the Deal, in which he claimed his father arrived as a child from Sweden like some kind of Nordic dreamer.... Far too many people are surprised by your racism, which is as ignorant as it is blatant. This is confusing because you've made no secret of your attitudes.... With a depressing frequency, you have made it clear that you are literally a neo-Nazi sympathizer. If at some stage you promote eugenics on Twitter, we will save a few letters on our character counts and simply call you a neo-Nazi.... We could spend some time celebrating the fact that there's still consensus about hating your blithering racism. But we're far better off if we understand that you aren't some alien invasion....There's a clear thread connecting your racism about immigration to historic racism in the country your family adopted as home." --safari

Cristiano Lima of Politico: "... Donald Trump said he 'probably' has 'a very good relationship' with Kim Jong Un but would not say whether he has spoken to the North Korean leader during an interview with The Wall Street Journal Thursday.... Trump's relationship with Kim in his first year has been marked by antagonistic exchanges and threats, with the U.S. president deriding the North Korean leader with the nickname 'Lil' Rocket Man.' Last week, the combative rhetoric between world leaders reached a fever pitch as the two sparred over the size of their nuclear 'buttons.' The fiery exchanges, Trump told the newspaper, were part of his approach to personal relationships with foreign officials." ...

... Matt Shuham of TPM: "... Donald Trump said Thursday that text messages critical of him shared by FBI employees amounted to treason, the Wall Street Journal reported. Journal reporters interviewed Trump for 45 minutes, the paper reported, in a conversation that touched on everything from North Korea to Steve Bannon.... Trump also told the Journal, referring to ousted FBI Director James Comey, that everybody wanted Comey fired. I should be given credit for having great insight,' he added."

House Defies Fox Administration, Passes Bill. Karoun Demirjian & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The House voted decisively Thursday to reauthorize a powerful government authority to conduct foreign surveillance on U.S. soil, overcoming opposition from privacy advocates and confusion sown by contradictory and seemingly misinformed tweets from President Trump questioning his administration's support for the program. The 256-to-164 vote sets up the legislation for consideration in the Senate, where leaders have said they think they can pass it before the program's statutory authorization expires on Jan. 19.... But the fate of the program appeared to be in jeopardy Thursday morning, after the president tweeted his doubts about it ... after seeing a segment about it on Fox News Channel. '"House votes on controversial FISA ACT today,"' Trump wrote, citing a Fox News headline. 'This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?' Trump attempted to walk back the tweet about 90 minutes later, urging lawmakers to reauthorize the program. But top Democrats seized on the confusion, calling on Republican leaders to withdraw the bill from consideration 'in light of the irresponsible and inherently contradictory messages coming out of the White House today,' Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on the floor." For more on Trump's big boo-boo, see Jonathan Chait's post, linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Susan Hennessey & Benjamin Wittes have a more serious discussion of what might be, so far, Trump's "most destructive, most irresponsible tweet.... Let's not mince words here: The lapse of Section 702 surveillance capabilities, even for a short time, would constitute a full-fledged national security emergency." Mrs. McC: If you read this story, remember who's got the big button. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: Here's Trump's second & supposed CYA tweet: "With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today's vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!" BUT, "The White House put out a statement last night supporting FISA renewal and opposing an amendment by Rep. Justin Amash and others that would limit the amount of information intelligence officials are allowed to gather on Americans." Mrs. McC: That is, the House rejected what Trump says was a "fix" he "personally directed," the one he believes allowed President Obama to "tapp his wires." Moron, idiot -- take your pick. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

It's official: we're living in Idiocracy --safari

** Russ Choma of Mother Jones: "In a new letter, five top Democrats on the House financial services committee, led by ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), are demanding Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin offer up his agency's resources in tracking financial crimes to investigate possible money laundering by the Trumps Kushners.... Additionally, Waters and her fellow committee Democrats are requesting that Mnuchin, who was the Trump campaign's finance chairman, answer questions about any improper foreign influence on the campaign's finances -- and recuse himself from any law enforcement or regulatory activity involving Trump and his family." --safari

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Trump said he has called off a planned ceremonial visit to Britain because he didn't want to be associated with what he called a bad real estate deal in which the U.S. Embassy is being relocated from central London to 'an off location.' In a Twitter message shortly before midnight Thursday, Trump implicitly rejected reports that the trip -- never announced but widely assumed to be in February -- was being scrapped over concerns that the U.S. leader would be met with widespread protests. 'Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for "peanuts," only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO,' Trump wrote." ...

... Heather Stewart & David Smith of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has cancelled a visit to Britain next month to open the new US embassy in London, amid fears of mass protests. The president claimed on Twitter that the reason for calling off the trip was his displeasure at Barack Obama.... But the embassy's plan to move from Mayfair to Nine Elms in London was first reported in October 2008, when George W Bush was still president." --safari...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: How would a normal leader bow out of a foreign country visit to avoid expected protests? Cite "security concerns." It wouldn't be a lie. But no. Trump has to cover his ass with self-aggrandizing boasts: by implying he's a desirable guy ("wanted there") & President Obama doesn't measure up to Donald Trump, real estate genius. Oh, & Gearan's reports: "The George W. Bush administration had decided more than a decade ago to relocate the embassy from offices on prime land in the tony neighborhood of Mayfair in central London to a plot on the banks of the Thames in the south of the city. Security concerns drove the move, in line with a worldwide upgrade and redesign of embassy facilities to better protect them from vehicle bombs and other terrorism." This is the Cliff Clavin presidency. But worse. ...

     ... CBS News: "A short time before the president's tweet, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders had disputed a report in the British newspaper the Daily Mail that the trip had been scrapped. Sanders said, 'The invitation was made [by U.K.] and we accepted. We are still finalizing dates for the state visit.'"

U.S. Delivers Fictional Fighter Jet to Norway (or to Fictional Country Normay). Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "... alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the White House on Wednesday..., President Trump ... [announced] that the United States had delivered F-52 fighter jets to Norway.... The 'F-52' is a fictional jet only available to fly if you're a gamer at the controls of 'Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.'" Mrs. McC: Which raises the question -- Does Trump spend some of that "executive time" playing childish military video games?

Amy Sorkin of the New Yorker: "As has become increasingly clear over the first year of Trump's Presidency, he cannot stop himself from turning almost any occasion -- almost any critical note -- into a cue for a complaint about Clinton. The Hillary test he seems to administer is simple, illogical, repetitive, and tiresome: yes, he is in the White House -- but why isn't she in prison?" Sorkin goes on to fact-check Trump's latest false claims about Clinton & her FBI interview.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Trump ... proved [Michael] Wolff's account stunningly accurate this week. Thursday, however, was a three-alarm fire for the White House and its effort to convince the country that Trump is capable of performing his job.... In the morning he attacked reauthorization of the FISA surveillance program -- apparently based on what he heard on a 'Fox & Friends'” segment.... He then reversed himself -- or had an aide draft a tweet with a 180-degree reversal so as not to prevent reauthorization of a program he is supposed to support.... Then came his boast that he had a great relationship with North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong Un.... Next came his assertion about immigrants.... This was a two-for -- that is, a demonstration of utter ignorance and out-and-out racism. White, European country good! Black and brown countries bad!"

Frank Rich: Michael "Wolff's re-creations of scenes are no more or less plausible than [Bob] Woodward's, and Wolff should not be faulted for favoring direct editorialization over Woodward's technique of encoding his judgments in subtext. People are reading and buying Fire and Fury because the story rings true. It would also be highly entertaining, as pure and utter farce, if only the fate of America and perhaps the world were not at stake." Mrs. McC: Sorry I missed this Wednesday & thanks to MAG for the lead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Russia Today

Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are calling on the panel's Republican chairman to subpoena documents from the Trump Organization. In a letter to Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) on Thursday, 17 panel Democrats called for a 'serious investigation' into whether President Trump's businesses are violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which bars federal officials from accepting payments or gifts from foreign governments.... he letter to Gowdy comes exactly a year after Trump held a news conference announcing that he would not liquidate his business assets or put them into a blind trust, but would instead hand day-to-day control of the Trump Organization over to his two adult sons.... The Democrats are seeking documents regarding how the Trump Organization identifies payments from foreign governments, as well as documents on whether Trump is making good on his promise to donate such payments to the U.S. Treasury." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sloppy Steve Lawyers Up. Betsy Woodruff, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Steve Bannon is lawyering up as he gets ready to face investigators looking into the Trump-Russia nexus. The Daily Beast has learned that the former top White House strategist has retained Bill Burck, of the firm Quinn Emanuel. Two sources tell us Burck is helping Bannon prepare for an interview with the House intelligence committee, which is currently scheduled for next week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

From Russia with Love. Denise Clifton of Mother Jones: "While the vast majority of the attacks from the 600 Twitter accounts tracked in real time by the Hamilton 68 dashboard are aimed at Democrats, the trolls also turn their sights on Republicans who sometimes stand up to Trump. Repeat targets have included Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. National security adviser H.R. McMaster has also been a target. But no Republican has faced more persistent wrath from the Russian-linked accounts than [John] McCain.... And those attacks on McCain have intensified in recent weeks. [T]he trolls tend to spread disinformation from far-right American sites rather than content from explicitly Russian ones.... In fact, the most prominent theme recently among the Russian-backed accounts is a growing campaign to discredit the Justice Department and FBI." --safari: EVERY DAY Putin's bots sow doubt into the minds of Confederates about our democratic institutions, and the Republicans in turn provide him daily cover and assistance. Treasonous bastards all the lot of 'em...

... **Raphael Satter of the AP: "The same Russian government-aligned hackers who penetrated the Democratic Party have spent the past few months laying the groundwork for an espionage campaign against the U.S. Senate, a cybersecurity firm said Friday.... 'They're still very active -- in making preparations at least -- to influence public opinion again,' said Feike Hacquebord, a security researcher at Trend Micro Inc., which published the report.... Hacquebord said he based his report on the discovery of a clutch of suspicious-looking websites dressed up to look like the U.S. Senate's internal email system.... Tend Micro, which has followed Fancy Bear for years, said there could be no doubt ... Fancy Bear's interests aren't limited to U.S. politics; the group also appears to have the Olympics in mind.... On Wednesday, a group ... began publishing what appeared to be Olympics and doping-related emails from between September 2016 and March 2017. The contents were largely unremarkable but their publication was covered extensively by Russian state media." --safari

Keepin' It in the Family. Lachlan Markay of The Daily Beast: "Eric Trump's controversial charitable foundation paid nearly $150,000 to Trump Organization companies in 2016, as donations to the group skyrocketed amid Donald Trump's presidential campaign.... Fundraising events brought in more than $1.7 million for the foundation in 2016, the new tax filing shows. It says that it paid $1.3 million of that sum to the events' charitable beneficiaries, and spent all of the remaining income — to the dollar -- on event expenses, leaving it with exactly $0 in net income." --safari

Cheri Jacobi of USA Today: "Steve Bannon -- the loathed architect of President Trump's alt-right hate machine, Breitbart lies, racism, misogyny and Twitter thug troll factory -- is banished to political Siberia.... Bannon is a deplorable human being who has no business being in a position of power or having the ear of any lawmaker. But as deplorable as he may be, his destruction by Trump and the sycophantic army Bannon helped incubate should frighten every American.... When Bannon promoted white nationalism, misogyny, an accused child molester, severe online bullying and conspiracy theories, he was a king to the right-wing media, Trump and most of the Republicans in Congress. But when he dared to tell the truth..., Bannon was cut out like a member of Tony Soprano's 'family' who turned state's evidence."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said Thursday that it would allow states to impose work requirements in Medicaid, a major policy shift in the health program for low-income people.... Seema Verma, the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ... said the Trump administration was responding to requests from Medicaid officials in 10 states that wanted to run demonstration projects testing requirements for work or other types of community engagement.... The proposals, she said, came from Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Khorri Atkinson of Axios: "The Environmental Protection Agency's internal inspector general said in an internal memo that he is expanding his investigation into agency head Scott Pruitt's air travel. A probe last year had found Pruitt's 'non-commercial' flights between June and August cost taxpayers more than $58,000." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Heather Caygle of Politico: "Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi complained Thursday that immigration negotiations are being led by 'five white guys' -- and was quickly rebuked by her No. 2, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, himself one of those white guys involved in the talks. 'The five white guys I call them, you know,' Pelosi said at her weekly news conference. 'Are they going to open a hamburger stand next or what?' Pelosi said, complaining that minority members of Congress were not involved in deciding the fate of Dreamers. Pelosi's quip was a reference to the hamburger chain Five Guys and the five white men leading the immigration negotiations.... 'That comment is offensive. I am committed to ensuring DREAMers are protected and I will welcome everyone to the table who wants to get this done,' Hoyer said to Politico in a statement."

Paul Krugman: "G.O.P. opposition to programs helping the less fortunate, from food stamps to Medicaid, is usually framed in monetary terms.... But ... it's about ... cruelty. Over the past few years it has become increasingly clear that the suffering imposed by Republican opposition to safety-net programs isn't a bug, it's a feature. Inflicting pain is the point." Krugman cites Republican positions on three issues -- ObamaCare Medicaid expansion, Medicaid work requirements, & children's health insurance. "Making lower-income Americans worse off has become a goal in itself for the modern G.O.P., a goal the party is actually willing to spend money and increase deficits to achieve."

E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration recently denied a fourth young undocumented immigrant the right to an abortion, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said on Thursday.... She has access to private funds to cover the cost of the procedure and staff at the shelter where she is living have indicated a willingness to accompany her. However, the government is refusing to allow her access to an abortion — making this case the fourth time in four months that the Trump administration has prevented an undocumented minor from obtaining the legal procedure." --safari

Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, waded into the bumpy waters of partisan politics on Thursday, announcing that it will use some of its savings under the new tax bill to provide wage increases, bonuses and expanded benefits to its hourly workers. The giant retailer ... said it would raise its minimum starting wage to $11 an hour, from $9. It will also expand maternity and family leave benefits, and give bonuses of up to $1,000 to eligible employees. By tying its pay increases to the tax break it expects to receive, as other large companies have done in recent weeks, Walmart provided support for claims by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress that the new tax law will benefit not just the wealthy but also working-class Americans.... But within hours, Walmart had undercut its triumphal message when news leaked that it was closing 63 of its Sam's Club stores. Labor groups and Senate Democrats seized on the news to question Walmart's motives and criticize the tax bill as failing to protect low-wage workers." ...

... Charles Bethea of the New Yorker: "Carrier Corporation..., owned by United Technologies Corporation -- a federal contractor whose climate, controls, and security division, of which Carrier is a part, reported three billion dollars in operating profit in 2016 -- is letting go of more than two hundred employees in its second and final wave of Indiana-based layoffs, which began last July. In total, the company will be laying off more than five hundred employees as it moves manufacturing jobs to Monterrey, Mexico. Many of those employees voted for Donald Trump, who made saving Carrier's 'big, beautiful plant' [in Indianapolis] one of his most repeated campaign promises.... Organizers with Good Jobs Nation, a Washington, D.C.-based labor-advocacy group, and a handful of local Democratic politicians and political hopefuls stood before a small crowd at Sully's [Bar & Grill, across the street from Carrier's Indianapolis plant] and denounced Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence, Indiana's former governor. Obscenities were liberally employed. The most pointed denunciation came from Chuck Jones, the former president of United Steel Workers Local 1999, in Indianapolis, who disputed Trump's initial characterization of the Carrier deal and was targeted by Trump on Twitter as a result. 'Trump is a liar and an idiot,' Jones told the crowd, adding, 'He's a con man, pure and simple, who sold us a bag of shit.'"

Issa Considers Change of Venue. Scott Wong & Katie Williams of the Hill: "GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, who said Wednesday he is not seeking reelection in California's 49th district, has been discussing with colleagues the possibility of running in a neighboring San Diego district if embattled Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) resigns, multiple sources told The Hill. Some of these discussions happened as recently as Wednesday, the day Issa announced he would not be running for reelection in his coastal Southern California district after 15 years in the House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Dana Ferguson of The Argus Leader: "Sen. Neal Tapio, R-Watertown [South Dakota], watched as about 50 people representing various religions ... prayed at the Capitol rotunda Wednesday morning. The faith leaders prayed for tolerance and religious acceptance on what was the Legislature's second day in session. Members of the group invited Tapio to join them for a group photo. Tapio, looking uncomfortable, stood with them as cameras clicked and flashed. Then he ... began yelling at those around him, 'I don't like being called a racist.' [He] then launched into a speech.... He stressed the need to ban travel to the United States by Muslim individuals, particularly from Muslim-majority countries where groups have supported Sharia law." --safari

Tom Dart of the Guardian: "It would rank as one of the greatest political upsets of 2018 and a stunning rebuke to Trumpism: a gay Latina Democrat grabbing hold of the country's biggest red state. But is Texas ready for Lupe Valdez? The question was first posed in Dallas in 2004, when Valdez scored a surprise victory to become the nation's first openly gay female Hispanic sheriff on the same night that George W Bush secured a second term in the White House. She won re-election three times in Dallas county before announcing last month that she would resign to stand for Texas governor.... Texas's Hispanic population grew by over 60% from 2000 to 2015, according to the Pew Research Center, and Latino people now comprise 39% of the state's 28 million residents; 43% of Texans are white.... A Democrat has not won a statewide race in Texas since 1994." --safari

Rob Haskell in Vogue writes a long portrait of Serena Williams' life post-pregnancy, and how she almost died after giving birth. --safari

Way Beyond

William Branigin & Simeon Tegel of the Washington Post: "Ecuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the South American nation's foreign minister announced Thursday, in a bid to resolve an 'unsustainable' situation at its embassy in London, where Assange sought refuge more than five years ago. But a standoff with British authorities continued, as the Foreign Office rejected an Ecuadoran request that it grant diplomatic status to Assange, insisting instead that the Australian national 'leave the embassy to face justice.' Ecuador's foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, subsequently said that Assange would not leave the embassy in the absence of security guarantees. She said in a news conference Thursday in Quito, the Ecuadoran capital, that Assange was granted citizenship on Dec. 12, after having applied for it in September.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Robert Tait of the Guardian: "The Czech president, Miloš Zeman, has been accused of promoting a climate of 'vulgarity, incompetence and corruption' as the Czech Republic heads into a presidential election [this Friday and Saturday] widely seen as a referendum on his controversial brand of anti-immigrant populism and the country's place in the western alliance. The scathing critique has been issued by a rival candidate, Jiří Drahoš, a former chairman of the Czech academy of sciences, who has emerged as the main challenger to Zeman in this week's poll.... Drahoš pledged to 'restore the moral authority' once associated with former Czech leaders such as the late Vaclav Havel, which he said had been squandered by Zeman’s penchant for incendiary statements and the rise of populist parties in parliament. He vowed to reverse the president's friendly approach to Russia and instead reaffirm the Czech Republic's commitment to the EU and Nato." --safari

The Commentariat -- January 11, 2018

Afternoon Update:

House Defies Fox Administration, Passes Bill. Karoun Demirjian & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The House voted decisively Thursday to reauthorize a powerful government authority to conduct foreign surveillance on U.S. soil, overcoming opposition from privacy advocates and confusion sown by contradictory and seemingly misinformed tweets from President Trump questioning his administration's support for the program. The 256-to-164 vote sets up the legislation for consideration in the Senate, where leaders have said they think they can pass it before the program's statutory authorization expires on Jan. 19.... But the fate of the program appeared to be in jeopardy Thursday morning, after the president tweeted his doubts about it ... after seeing a segment about it on Fox News Channel. '"House votes on controversial FISA ACT today,"' Trump wrote, citing a Fox News headline. 'This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?' Trump attempted to walk back the tweet about 90 minutes later, urging lawmakers to reauthorize the program. But top Democrats seized on the confusion, calling on Republican leaders to withdraw the bill from consideration 'in light of the irresponsible and inherently contradictory messages coming out of the White House today,' Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on the floor." For more on Trump's big boo-boo, see Jonathan Chait's post, linked below. ...

... Susan Hennessey & Benjamin Wittes have a more serious discussion of what might be, so far, Trump's "most destructive, most irresponsible tweet.... Let's not mince words here: The lapse of Section 702 surveillanc capabilities, even for a short time, would constitute a full-fledged national security emergency." Mrs. McC: If you read this story, remember who's got the big button.

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: Here's Trump's second & supposed CYA tweet: "With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to th unmasking process since taking office and today's vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!" BUT, "The White House put out a statement last night supporting FISA renewal and opposing an amendment by Rep. Justin Amash and others that would limit the amount of information intelligence officials are allowed to gather on Americans." Mrs. McC: That is, the House rejected what Trump says was a "fix" he "personally directed," the one he believes allowed President Obama to "tapp his wires." Moron, idiot -- take your pick.

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said Thursday that it would allow states to impose work requirements in Medicaid, a major policy shift in the health program for low-income people.... Seema Verma, the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ... said the Trump administration was responding to requests from Medicaid officials in 10 states that wanted to run demonstration projects testing requirements for work or other types of community engagement.... The proposals, she said, came from Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin."

Khorri Atkinson of Axios: "The Environmental Protection Agency's internal inspector general said in an internal memo that he is expanding his investigation into agency head Scott Pruitt's air travel. A probe last year had found Pruitt's 'non-commercial' flights between June and August cost taxpayers more than $58,000."

Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are calling on the panel's Republican chairman to subpoena documents from the Trump Organization. In a letter to Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) on Thursday, 17 panel Democrats called for a 'serious investigation' into whether President Trump's businesses are violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which bars federal officials from accepting payments or gifts from foreign governments.... he letter to Gowdy comes exactly a year after Trump held a news conference announcing that he would not liquidate his business assets or put them into a blind trust, but would instead hand day-to-day control of the Trump Organization over to his two adult sons.... The Democrats are seeking documents regarding how the Trump Organization identifies payments from foreign governments, as well as documents on whether Trump is making good on his promise to donate such payments to the U.S. Treasury."

Sloppy Steve Lawyers Up. Betsy Woodruff, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Steve Bannon is lawyering up as he gets ready to face investigators looking into the Trump-Russia nexus. The Daily Beast has learned that the former top White House strategist has retained Bill Burck, of the firm Quinn Emanuel. Two sources tell us Burck is helping Bannon prepare for an interview with the House intelligence committee, which is currently scheduled for next week."

Frank Rich: Michael "Wolff’s re-creations of scenes are no more or less plausible than [Bob] Woodward's, and Wolff should not be faulted for favoring direct editorialization over Woodward's technique of encoding his judgments in subtext. People are reading and buying Fire and Fury because the story rings true. It would also be highly entertaining, as pure and utter farce, if only the fate of America and perhaps the world were not at stake." Mrs. McC: Sorry I missed this yesterday & thanks to MAG for the lead.

Issa Considers Change of Venue. Scott Wong & Katie Williams of the Hill: "GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, who said Wednesday he is not seeking reelection in California's 49th district, has been discussing with colleagues the possibility of running in a neighboring San Diego district if embattled Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) resigns, multiple sources told The Hill. Some of these discussions happened as recently as Wednesday, the day Issa announced he would not be running for reelection in his coastal Southern California district after 15 years in the House."

William Branigin and Simeon Tegel of the Washington Post: "Ecuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the South American nation's foreign minister announced Thursday, in a bid to resolve an 'unsustainable' situation at its embassy in London, where Assange sought refuge more than five years ago. But a standoff with British authorities continued, as the Foreign Office rejected an Ecuadoran request that it grant diplomatic status to Assange, insisting instead that the Australian national 'leave the embassy to face justice.' Ecuador's foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, subsequently said that Assange would not leave the embassy in the absence of security guarantees. She said in a news conference Thursday in Quito, the Ecuadoran capital, that Assange was granted citizenship on Dec. 12, after having applied for it in September.”

*****

Julie Davis & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday declined to commit to being interviewed by the special counsel investigating whether his campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 election, backing off a promise he made last year to talk to Robert S. Mueller III under oath.... In the East Room during a news conference with Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, when asked whether he would speak with Mr. Mueller without preconditions, [Trump said,] 'We'll see what happens.' The dodge was a marked change from last June, when Mr. Trump defended his firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, denying that it was related to his handling of the Russia investigation, and said he would '100 percent' be willing to give a sworn statement to Mr. Mueller." ...

... Shorter Trump: "No collusion, no collusion, Hillary Clinton, no collusion, maybe no interview":

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's possible Trump could have said something even more stupid, so I guess this is his idea of being presidential here. ...

... ** "The Crime Is Worse than the Coverup." Brian Beutler of Crooked: "On multiple occasions in 2016, and perhaps stretching back into the previous year, Donald Trump's presidential campaign fielded solicitations from Russian spies and cutouts offering up stolen Democratic Party emails and other assistance in the election. At no point, so far as we know, did anyone working on the campaign report this pattern of behavior to the FBI. After Trump secured the Republican Party nomination, the FBI warned him and his advisers that Russians would try to penetrate their campaign, and asked them to alert law enforcement officials if and when they noticed anything suspicious. They said nothing.... [By contrast,] we learn ... that [Glenn] Simpson and [Christopher] Steele were doing their civic-minded best to alert authorities, and failing that, the public, to what they believed to be the alarming and dangerous truth." Beutler goes on to describe "a monument to Republican complicity in Trump's jaw-dropping misconduct." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: By the time you finish reading Buetler's article, you'll wonder why Mueller doesn't investigate Chuck Grassley for criminal conspiracy. ...

... Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Wednesday that 'nobody' in the Trump administration talks about Hillary Clinton<, denying that the White House has sought to rehash the 2016 election.... Trump himself frequently mentions his 2016 win and Clinton, including arlier on Wednesday, when he decried the fact that the former Democratic presidential candidate had submitted to an FBI interview about her use of a private email server while secretary of state with ertain conditions. He also reiterated his claim that the ongoing investigations into possible collusion between his campaign and Russia were based on false claims made up by Democrats as an excuse for Clinton's loss in the election." Mrs. McC: Maybe she means Trump is a nobody. ...

... Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has added a veteran cyber prosecutor to his team, filling what has long been a gap in expertise and potentially signaling a recent focus on computer crimes. Ryan Dickey was assigned to Mueller's team in early November from the Justice Department's computer crime and intellectual-property section, said a spokesman for the special counsel's office.... Legal analysts have said that one charge Mueller might pursue would be a conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, if he can demonstrate that members of Trump's team conspired in Russia's hacking effort to influence the election." ...

... Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump labeled Sen. Dianne Feinstein as 'Sneaky' in a Twitter attack Wednesday morning and urged Republicans to 'take control' of the sprawling investigation into his administration and campaign and potential collusion with Russia.... It was unclear what Trump meant by saying that Republicans should take control. He has raged about the various congressional investigations into his administration, which are led by Republicans.... Minutes after he slammed Feinstein on Twitter on Wednesday, Trump turned to the Russia investigation, which he called the 'single greatest Witch Hunt in American history,' added that 'Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing.'" Also, too -- after being questioned about it -- the White House added back in the part of the transcript of yesterday's DACA meeting which they had "accidentally" omitted from the official transcript-- the "clean bill" part. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update: Oh, that "accidental" scrub? Katy Tur just said on the teevee that hardline anti-immigrant Stephen Miller was reportedly the accidental scrubber. Mrs. McC: Just erase it, Stephen, & it didn't happen. Control, alt-right, delete. Dimwit. ...

... Stephen Miller Is Such a Prick! Say Republicans. Anita Kumar of McClatchy News: "Here's one thing even Republicans negotiating an immigration deal agree on: Trump aide Stephen Miller is hurting their chances of getting anything done. They blame him for insisting the administration gets approval for an unrealistic number of immigration policies in exchange for protections for young people brought into the country illegally as children.... They accuse him of coordinating with outside advocacy groups that oppose their efforts.... 'Stephen is unfairly trying to sabotage this,' said a former DHS official for President George W. Bush who is in contact with Republican staffers in the Senate. Many on Capitol Hill remember how Miller, then an aide to Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican who led the opposition to the deal, worked in 2013 to kill a bipartisan immigration deal in the Senate that would have allowed immigrants in the country illegally to gain legal status and eventually citizenship. 'Look what happened last time,' said a second former Trump adviser, who worked with Miller and is in close contact with the White House. 'He almost single handily blew (the bill) up. They are having flashbacks.' ]It's no secret that he's an obstacle to getting anything done on immigration,' said a Republican House member involved in the immigration talks." ...

... Trump could be a better president if he were not surrounded by the likes of Stephen Miller.... -- Dana Milbank ...

... Milbank explains why: "Trump proves he is a parrot.... This week's extraordinary session in the Cabinet Room with a bicameral, bipartisan group of lawmakers, and an impulsive decision by Trump to let journalists film 55 minutes of his meeting, gave the world a glimpse of Trump's agree-with-the-last-speaker tendency we've heard described. Clearly, Trump is merely echoing, not embracing, the words he hears.... Trump -- remarkably unideological and also undisciplined -- pinged from one lawmaker's argument to another's, agreeing heartily with virtually all, no matter how at odds they were with each other.... Perhaps he didn't care that, in his reflexive echoing of each speaker, he had contradicted himself repeatedly. More likely he didn't even notice." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There are two things going on here. 1. Trump really was trying to be presidential, the definition of which is "does not scream at others." He thought he did great: as Michael Grynbaum reported (story linked below), Trump claimed "that network anchors had sent him 'letters of congratulations' on Tuesday about [the] ... meeting... 'A lot of those anchors sent us letters saying that was one of the greatest meetings they’ve ever witnessed.' (White House aides said later that the 'letters' in question referred to complimentary tweets from journalists.) 2. When my mother was in college, a professor caught her up when she was daydreaming. The professor asked her how she felt about the subject at hand, & -- having no idea what he was talking about -- she said she agreed. "What exactly do you agree with?" he asked. "Whatever you just said," she replied. That's Trump. If he doesn't know what's going on, he just "agrees." It's a coping mechanism, and it's sad. ...

... More Evidence of Trump's Dementia? Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday welcomed members of the media to the 'studio' as they arrived for his first Cabinet meeting of 2018. 'Welcome back to the studio. Nice to have you,' Trump remarked as members of the media filed into the Cabinet Room.... Trump, who prior to entering politics hosted 'The Apprentice' on NBC, responded on Wednesday by saying his performance at the meeting 'got great reviews.'"

WATCH: President Trump welcomes press to today's Cabinet meeting: "Welcome back to the studio" pic.twitter.com/hgDBV4VQWc

— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 10, 2018

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Was he kidding? You decide. A few seconds later, when he formally begins the meeting, Trump looks at his notes to announce he's holding a Cabinet meeting. I'd guess his staff is aware he might not know why he's in the "studio." ...

... Not Enough? How 'bout This? Jonathan Chait: "Confused Trump Tricked by Fox News Into Opposing His Own Surveillance Bill. During his morning Executive Time, President Trump took a well-deserved break from his long hours of document study to watch Fox News. The segment featured one of the talking heads urging Trump to oppose the House bill reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The president immediately tweeted out his alarmed confusion that the House was apparently on the verge of approving the very law the sinister Deep State had used to 'tapp' his phones: '"House votes on controversial FISA ACT today." This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?'... Ideally, Trump would be posing questions like this to his own advisers, rather than to the entire world. The president’s alarm was unfortunate, since the Trump administration strongly supports reauthorization of this law." Mrs. McC: Sad! ...

strong>... Jared Miller & Liz Rowley of New York: "The publication of Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury sparked a debate on Donald Trump's mental health, which the president attempted to settle by declaring himself a 'stable genius.' But whether he's a genius or not, Trump did speak much more coherently in previous decades than he does now." Mrs. McCrabbie: The short video this blurb introduces is well worth watching, but it starts automatically & goes on to other videos, so I had to "disembed" it.

We're So Surprised. Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump called the United States courts system 'broken and unfair' on Wednesday, the morning after a federal judge's ruling that ordered the administration to restart a program that shields young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.... 'It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is whe the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.'... 'We find this decision to be outrageous, especially in light of the president's successful bipartisan meeting with House and Senate members at the White House on the same day,' Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... said in a statement released Wednesday morning.... Mr. Trump has previously criticized the courts system after judges have halted or held up his policy initiatives." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You have to wonder how stupid Mrs. Huckleberry is. According to her, a judge writes a decision that estops a Trump order until lawsuits are adjudicated. But on the day the judge releases his decision, Trump holds a made-for-teevee meeting (in which, BTW, there is no agreement) on the very same topic. Ergo, the judge's decision is "outrageous." ...

... Thomas Kaplan & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Prominent House Republicans stepped forward on Wednesday with a vision of immigration policy that clashed fiercely with President Trump's recent overtures of bipartisanship and highlighted how difficult it will be for Congress and the president to reach accord in the coming weeks. The proposal, championed by the chairmen of the House Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees, would crack down on illegal immigration and sharply reduce the number of legal immigrants to the United States. Coming one day after Mr. Trump held an extraordinary meeting in which he laid out the parameters for a bipartisan immigration deal, the House proposal highlighted the uncertainty surrounding negotiations that are supposed to coalesce before the government runs out of money on Jan. 19.... The House measure ... would require employers to use an Internet-based system, known as E-Verify, to confirm that they are hiring only legal workers; crack down on so-called sanctuary cities by denying them federal grants; allow for the detention of minors who are arrested at the border with their parents; and toughen sentences for criminals who have been deported and return illegally. The measure would end the diversity visa lottery program, as Mr. Trump wants, and end family-based migration for all relatives other than spouses and minor children. It would offer three-year renewable work permits to DACA recipients, without offering them a path to citizenship." ...

... Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: Once again a federal judge uses Trump's own Twitter feed against him: "'Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!' the president wrote in a Sept. 14 tweet. Another read: 'Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can't, I will revisit this issue!'... 'We seem to be in the unusual position wherein the ultimate authority over the agency, the Chief Executive, publicly favors the very program the agency has ended,' the judge wrote. 'For the reasons DACA was instituted and for the reasons tweeted by President Trump, this order finds that the public interest will be served by DACA's continuation.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Maria Sacchetti, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration vowed Wednesday to fight a federal injunction that temporarily blocked its plans to rescind work permits for young undocumented immigrants.... On Capitol Hill, lawmakers said a bipartisan proposal could come as early as Thursday or Friday, but such legislation would likely face fierce resistance from progressives opposed to ceding any ground on immigration rights and conservatives who feel the same on security issues. President Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a top priority, a stance that was underlined Wednesday with a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement search for undocumented workers at dozens of 7-Eleven stores nationwide. The agency said it was the largest targeting of a single employer since Trump took office."

Still Stewing over the Wolff Book. Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday repeated a pledge to make it easier for people to sue news organizations and publishers for defamation, denouncing the country's libel laws as a 'sham' a day after his personal lawyer filed a lawsuit against a major media outlet, BuzzFeed News. The salvo from Mr. Trump, who has long expressed hostility toward traditional press freedoms, followed a days-long effort by him and his team to undercut the unflattering portrayal of the White House in a new book by the writer Michael Wolff. ''We are going to take a strong look at our country's libel laws, so tha when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts,' Mr. Trump said during a public portion of a cabinet meeting in the White House.... First Amendment lawyers were quick to point out that Mr. Trump has little power to modify those laws, barring a Supreme Court appeal or constitutional amendment. Other libel laws are determined at the state level, where Mr. Trump, as president, has no direct influence.... Mr. Trump is no stranger to defamation claims, having filed several of them himself, without success."

Nothing to See Here, Folks. Nick Penzenstadler of USA Today: "President Trump’s companies sold more than $35 million in real estate in 2017, mostly to secretive shell companies that obscure buyers' identities, continuing a dramatic shift in his customers' behavior that began during the election, a USA Today review found.... The trend toward Trump's real estate buyers obscuring their identities began around the time he won the Republican nomination, midway through 2016, according to USA Today's analysis of every domestic real estate sale by one of his companies. In the two years before the nomination, 4% of Trump buyers utilized the tactic. In the year after, the rate skyrocketed to about 70%. USA Today's tracking of sales shows the trend held firm through Trump's first year in office.... Trump appointed an independent ethics advisor, attorney Bobby Burchfield, to review new deals.... Burchfield wouldn't say if he declined to sign off on any Trump real estate deals in 2017."

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: "Two political scientists [-- Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblat --] specializing in how democracies decay and die have compiled four warning signs to determine if a political leader is a dangerous authoritarian: 1. The leader shows only a weak commitment to democratic rules. 2. He or she denies the legitimacy of opponents. 3. He or she tolerates violence. 4. He or she shows some willingness to curb civil liberties or the media. 'With the exception of Richard Nixon, no major-party presidential candidate met even one of these four criteria over the last century,' they say, which sounds reassuring. Unfortunately, they have one update: 'Donald Trump met them all.' We tend to assume that the threat to democracies comes from coups or violent revolutions, but the authors [of a book titled How Democracies Die] say that in modern times, democracies are more likely to wither at the hands of insiders who gain power initially through elections. That's what happened, to one degree or another, in Russia, the Philippines, Turkey, Venezuela, Ecuador, Hungary, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Poland and Peru."

Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "With an eye on bolstering cyber security protocols and cracking down on leaks to the media, Chief of Staff John Kelly issued a memo to staff on Wednesday outlining the administration's new ban on personal cell phones within the West Wing complex of the White House.... While the memo cites the need to protect classified information, one senior White House official says this is really more about preventing those embarrassing and politically damaging leaks that have plagued Trump's first year in office. 'It's designed to prevent leaks and ensure the productivity of the people who work here,' the official said. The policy goes further than originally expected and is not just limited to personal cell phones. It also includes laptops, smartwatches and 'devices with WiFi, Bluetooth, radio, or cellular capabilities' and 'any portable device that emits an electric signal and was not issued by the White House Communications Agency,' according to the memo."

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Senator Kirsten Gillibrand plans to use a prerogative given to home-state senators to try to block the confirmation of Geoffrey S. Berman if he is nominated by President Trump as the United States attorney in Manhattan, her spokesman said on Wednesday. The senator, Democrat of New York, intends to use her 'blue-slip prerogative' to lodge her objection over reports that President Trump had personally interviewed Mr. Berman as part of the selection process.... Mr. Berman was appointed last week by Attorney General Jeff Sessions as the interim United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, placing him in charge of the powerful arm of the Justice Department in Manhattan that has jurisdiction, among other things, over President Trump's businesses there." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: These "interim appointments" are a way to delay "blue slip prerogative" objections.

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "At 5:20 on Tuesday evening, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke tweeted a photo of himself at the Tallahassee airport with Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, announcing that he had decided, after meeting with Governor Scott, to exempt the state from a new Trump administration plan to open up most of the nation's coastline to offshore oil drilling.... Mr. Trump's critics say the move highlights the president's willingness to blatantly use the nation's public lands and waters as political bargaining chips. [Scott is expected to run again veteran Senator Bill Nelson (D), & Nelson called Zinke's move a "shameless political stunt."] It also appears to illustrate the clumsiness with which the Trump administration drafts federal policies. By publicly putting forth the comprehensive new coastal drilling plan and then abruptly announcing a major change to it less than a week later, with little evident public or scientific review, the Interior Department appears to have opened itself to a wave of legal challenges. Within hours of Mr. Zinke's tweet, governors in other coastal states began demanding their own drilling exemptions." Read on. ...

... Dave Weigel & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's decision to exempt Florida from expanded offshore drilling kicked off a frenzy Wednesday in other coastal states, with governors from both political parties asking: Why not us?... By Wednesday afternoon, state attorneys general, joined by environmental groups, were suggesting that [Interior Secretary Ryan] Zinke had undermined the entire drilling rule with his high-profile visit to Tallahassee, where he heaped praise on 'straightforward, easy to work for' Gov. Rick Scott (R) -- a political ally whom Trump has repeatedly urged to run for the U.S. Senate.... The commentary about Trump;s properties was bipartisan.... Zinke said he felt a personal connection with the governor, so when Scott contacted him in writing he felt an obligation to respond. Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), a former governor who represents his state's Atlantic coastline, suggested during an interview with CNN that the president held one standard for states where he vacationed and one for the rest of the country." ...

... Juliet Eilperin & Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke launched an unprecedented effort Wednesday to undertake the largest reorganization in the department's 168-year history, moving to shift tens of thousands of workers to ne locations and change the way the federal government manages more than 500 million acres of land and water across the country. The proposal would divide the United States into 13 regions and centralize authority for different parts of Interior within those boundaries. The regions would be defined by watersheds and geographic basins, rather than individual states and the current boundaries that now guide Interior's operations. This new structure would be accompanied by a dramatic shift in location of the headquarters of major bureaus within Interior.... Moving thousands of employees around the country would require congressional authorization.... Moving thousands of employees around the country would require congressional authorization."

Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "The federal government has ended a national registry designed to provide information to the public about evidence-based mental health and substance use interventions and programs. The National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices, which is funded and administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has existed since 1997 to help people, agencies and organizations identify and implement evidence-based behavioral health programs and practices in their communities, according to the website. But the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the department under HHS that manages the program, wrote on its website that the contract for the database had been discontinued." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The data base is no doubt one of the cheapest ways to help afflicted people & their families to find affordable help.

Jim Puzzenghera of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request for a preliminary injunction to remove Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The judge sided with Mulvaney -- President Trump's choice for the interim position -- over Leandra English, the agency's deputy director who has said she is the rightful acting director. 'The court finds that English is not likely to succeed on the merits of her claims, nor is she likely to suffer irreparable harm absent the injunctive relief sought,' said Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in a 46-page decision. The ruling came after Kelly denieda request by English last month for a temporary restraining order to remove Mulvaney and install her as acting director."

Luke Jones of WREG Memphis: "He proudly served his country, but when it came time to bury him, a Navy veteran's father said the government wouldn't grant his son's mother a visa to attend his funeral. Ngoc Truong, a four-year Navy veteran, died of leukemia Dec. 17 at the age of 22. Truong's father ... said Truong's Vietnam-born mother applied for a visa twice but was denied both times. She ended up missing the funeral.... [The elder] Truong said he doesn't know why the visa requests were denied, and the State Department isn't shedding any light on it."

Be Still My Heart. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Representative Darrell Issa, whose hard-edge partisan attacks on President Barack Obama began softening as his district trended toward the Democrats, said on Wednesday that he would not seek re-election -- the latest and one of the most prominent Republican retirements in the face of a potential Democratic wave." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Morgan Cook of the San Diego Union-Tribune: "A federal grand jury is slated to hear evidence this month regarding certain transactions in Rep. Duncan Hunter's [R] campaign treasury, which has been under scrutiny since the spring of 2016 as a result of frequent personal expenditures. A subpoena dated Dec. 21 was issued by the U.S. District Court in San Diego to a business in Hunter's congressional district. The subpoena commanded the witness to appear before a grand jury in downtown San Diego later this month.... Federal Election Commission records show Hunter's campaign spent thousands of dollars at the business in 2012 and 2014.... Use of campaign contributions for personal benefit is forbidden by federal law to protect against undue influence by donors.... Hunter has denied intentional wrongdoing but has reimbursed his campaign for more than $60,000 of purchases including video games, oral surgery, groceries, garage door repair, family vacations, surfing equipment, dance recital trips, school lunches, school tuition and school uniforms." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: Hey, maybe he was buying video games & surfing equipment for poor kids. And how was Duncan to know that getting his teeth fixed was a "personal benefit"?

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Husted v. Philip Randolph Institute, is one of the most consequential of the current term.... Ultimately at its heart..., it's about whether Ohio can end-run federal statutes that prohibit states from throwing voters off the rolls for failure to vote -- by claiming the law that says a state cannot strike someone from the rolls for failure to vote allow them to strike voters who have moved. And the way the state shows that you have moved? Failure to vote. While [Justices Elena] Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and [Sonia] Sotomayor are clearly deeply bothered by Ohio's practices [during oral arguments yesterday], they seem to stand alone in their outrage."

Notorious R.B.G. to the Rescue. Mark Stern of Slate: "On Tuesday, a federal district court made history by striking down North Carolina's congressional map. The decision marks the first time a court has invalidated a congressional redistricting scheme as illegally gerrymandering along partisan lines.... Tuesday's rigorous ruling ... relies heavily on the writing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who aided opponents of gerrymandering in a crucial but often overlooked 2015 opinion.... In several remarkable passages [in the 2015 opinion, which she wrote], Ginsburg cast aspersions on partisan gerrymandering itself. The justice began her opinion by stating flatly that 'partisan gerrymanders are incompatible with democratic principles.' She described political redistricting as a 'problem' that 'subordinate[s] adherents of one political party and entrench[es] a rival party in power.' And she pointed out that this practice contravenes 'the core principle of republican government' -- that 'the voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around.'... Her masterful opinion has already given lower courts the tools they need to restore democracy in states where it is under siege."

Matthew Haag & Matt Stevens of the New York Times: "A former editor at The New Republic revealed in a lengthy essay published late Wednesday that she had started the online list of men in the media industry accused of sexual harassment. The editor, Moira Donegan, said she created the Google spreadsheet in October to allow women in the media industry to put in writing what many of them had long discussed in private: the names of men to stay away from, including sexual harassers and abusers. Within hours of its creation, the list grew beyond her expectations, as women shared it with friends and co-workers who anonymously added new names and new accusations.... The list, titled 'Shitty Media Men,' had real consequences, not only for several men named on the list who eventually lost their jobs, but also for Ms. Donegan. In her essay, she wrote that she lost friends and her job after the list was published.... This week, writers and editors warned on Twitter that Harper's Magazine planned to name the list's creator in an article in the March issue. The writer of the essay, Katie Roiphe, told The New York Times on Wednesday that she did not know who created it and would not out anyone in the essay." ...

     ... Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Mrs. McCrabbie: Congratulations to the Gray Lady for publishing the word "shitty." ...

... Donegan's essay in the New York magazine's "The Cut," is here.

David Foldenflik of NPR: "On the Friday before Christmas, Fox News confirmed that its chief Washington correspondent, James Rosen, had left the network. He had worked there for 18 years and become something of a legend. The U.S. Justice Department under the Obama administration was so frustrated by his reporting on U.S. intelligence about North Korea that it conducted a leak investigation into his sources. The network cited no reason for Rosen's exit and did not announce it on the air. According to Rosen's former colleagues, however, he had an established pattern of flirting aggressively with many peers and had made sexual advances toward three female Fox News journalists, including two reporters and a producer. And his departure followed increased scrutiny of his behavior at the network, according to colleagues.... Rosen's behavior was drawing attention from Fox News at a time when its controlling owner, Rupert Murdoch, declared there had been no allegations of sexual misconduct at the network since the ouster of the late Fox News chairman and CEO, Roger Ailes, in July 2016.... Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, Fox's parent company, had to issue a statement cleaning up the damage caused by those remarks among outraged female employees.... Yet Ailes was not the only prominent Fox figure accused of sexual harassment."

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "The Washington Post suspended reporter Joel Achenbach on Wednesday for what it called 'inappropriate workplace conduct' involving current and former female colleagues. Achenbach, a veteran reporter, is the first Post journalist to be disciplined for misconduct of this kind since a wave of sexual-harassment allegations began roiling through news outlets and other organizations in the wake of revelations about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in early October. The Post said Achenbach would be suspended for 90 days without pay, the most severe newsroom punishment the paper has handed out in recent years for violations of its workplace or journalistic standards. His suspension began immediately. The paper’s top news managers declined to describe Achenbach's misconduct in detail and said the investigation into his behavior took two months."

Daniel Miller & Amy Kaufman of the Los Angeles Times: "... five women who, in interviews with The Times, accused [actor/director/producer/teacher James] Franco, 39, of behavior they found to be inappropriate or sexually exploitative. Four were his students [at his film school], and another said he was her mentor. In some cases, they said they believed Franco could offer them career advancement, and acquiesced to his wishes even when they were uncomfortable. 'I feel there was an abuse of power, and there was a culture of exploiting non-celebrity women, and a culture of women being replaceable, said [Sarah] Tither-Kaplan, who was one of many women who took to Twitter on Sunday night to vent anger over Franco's win [of a Golden Globe for best actor in a motion picture]."

Harriet Sinclair of Newsweek: "Donald Trump's spiritual adviser has suggested that people send her money in order to transform their lives, or face divine consequences. Paula White, who heads up the president’s evangelical advisory committee, suggested making a donation to her ministries to honor the religious principle of 'first fruit,' which she said is the idea that all firsts belong to God, including the first harvest and, apparently, the first month of your salary. 'Right now I want you to click on that button, and I want you to honor God with his first fruits offering,' she said in a video shared to her website, in which she encourages her followers to donate to her ministries to get blessings from God.... Explaining the principle of the donations, the Pentecostal televangelist, who has recently spoken out in defense of Trump's mental health following claims in a tell-all book that the president is unwell, suggested that people would reap rewards after donating to her." Mrs. McC: A shameless huckster is surely an appropriate "spiritual advisor" for the shameless huckster in the White House.

Beyond the Beltway

Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "New York City is seeking to lead the assault on both climate change and the Trump administration with a plan to divest $5bn from fossil fuels and sue the world’s most powerful oil companies over their contribution to dangerous global warming. City officials have set a goal of divesting New York's $189bn pension funds from fossil fuel companies within five years in what they say would be 'among the most significant divestment efforts in the world to date'. Currently, New York City’s five pension funds have about $5bn in fossil fuel investments. New York state has already announced it is exploring how to divest from fossil fuels. 'New York City is standing up for future generations by becoming the first major US city to divest our pension funds from fossil fuels,' said Bill de Blasio, New York's mayor."

Lauren Trager of KMOV-TV St. Louis: "Governor Eric Greitens [R-Mo.] on Wednesday night confirmed to News 4 he had an extramarital affair, an admission a months-long News 4 investigation prompted. In a recording obtained by News 4, a woman says she had a sexual encounter with Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and that he tried to blackmail her to keep the encounter quiet. The details were provided to News 4 by the woman's ex-husband, claiming the sexual relationship happened between his now ex-wife and Greitens in March 2015.... During his campaign and while serving in his first year in office as Missouri's Governor, Eric Greitens has billed himself a family man. During his campaign announcement, he stated: 'I'm Eric Greitens, I'm a Navy SEAL, native Missourian and most importantly, a proud husband and father.'"

Paul Schwartzman & Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Democrat Shelly Simonds, who lost a random drawing to settle a deadlocked state legislative race last week, conceded defeat Wednesday, ending a tumultuous election and cementing Republicans' narrow control of Virginia's House of Delegates. Simonds tweeted her concession less than an hour before the House reconvened in the state Capitol for its 60-day session and cleared the way for her Republican opponent, Del. David Yancey (Newport News), to take his seat without protests from Democrats. Simonds, in a telephone interview from Florida, said she chose not to seek a second recount -- one to which she was entitled — because she did not expect to prevail in a dispute that captured national attention. 'I'm my usual angry, pissed-off self about the situation,' Simonds said. 'But we assessed all the options, and they all landed us in court. And I don't think we would win.'"

The Commentariat -- January 10, 2018

We're So Surprised. Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump called the United States courts system 'broken and unfair' on Wednesday, the morning after a federal judge's ruling that ordered the administration to restart a program that shields young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.... 'It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.'... 'We find this decision to be outrageous, especially in light of the president's successful bipartisan meeting with House and Senate members at the White House on the same day,' Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... said in a statement released Wednesday morning.... Mr. Trump has previously criticized the courts system after judges have halted or held up his policy initiatives." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You have to wonder how stupid Mrs. Huckleberry is. According to her, a judge writes a decision that estops a Trump order until lawsuits are adjudicated. But on the day the judge releases his decision, Trump holds a made-for-teevee meeting (in which, BTW, there is no agreement) on the very same topic. Ergo, the judge's decision is "outrageous." ...

... Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: Once again a federal judge uses Trump's own Twitter feed against him: "'Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!' the president wrote in a Sept. 14 tweet. Another read: 'Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can't, I will revisit this issue!'... 'We seem to be in the unusual position wherein the ultimate authority over the agency, the Chief Executive, publicly favors the very program the agency has ended,' the judge wrote. 'For the reasons DACA was instituted and for the reasons tweeted by President Trump, this order finds that the public interest will be served by DACA's continuation.'"

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump labeled Sen. Dianne Feinstein as 'Sneaky' in a Twitter attack Wednesday morning and urged Republicans to 'take control' of the sprawling investigation into his administration and campaign and potential collusion with Russia.... It was unclear what Trump meant by saying that Republicans should take control. He has raged about the various congressional investigations into his administration, which are led by Republicans.... Minutes after he slammed Feinstein on Twitter on Wednesday, Trump turned to the Russia investigation, which he called the 'single greatest Witch Hunt in American history,' added that 'Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing.'" Also, too -- after being questioned about it -- the White House added back in the part of the transcript of yesterday's DACA meeting which they had "accidentally" omitted from the official transcript-- the "clean bill" part. ...

     ... Update: Oh, that "accidental" scrub? Katy Tur just said on the teevee that hardline anti-immigrant Stephen Miller was reportedly the accidental scrubber. Mrs. McC: Just erase it, Stephen, & it didn't happen.

Be Still My Heart. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Representative Darrell Issa, whose hard-edge partisan attacks on President Barack Obama began softening as his district trended toward the Democrats, said on Wednesday that he would not seek re-election -- the latest and one of the most prominent Republican retirements in the face of a potential Democratic wave."

*****

NEW. David Sirota of International Business Times: "The Trump administration has waived part of the punishment for five megabanks whose affiliates were convicted and fined for manipulating global interest rates. One of the Trump administration waivers was granted to Deutsche Bank -- which is owed at least $130 million by ... Donald Trump and his business empire, and has also been fined for its role in a Russian money laundering scheme. The waivers were issued in a little-noticed announcement published in the Federal Register during the Christmas holiday week. They come less than two years after then-candidate Trump promised 'I'm not going to let Wall Street get away with murder.'... In late 2016, the Obama administration extended temporary one-year waivers to five banks -- Citigroup, JPMorgan, Barclays, UBS and Deutsche Bank. Late last month, the Trump administration issued new, longer waivers for those same banks, granting Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Barclays five-year exemptions. UBS and Deutsche Bank received three-year exemptions.... Sources have told the Financial Times the total amount of money Trump owes Deutsche is likely around $300 million.... The New York Times reported federal prosecutors had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank records related to ... [Jared] Kushner and his vast business holdings."

The Apprentice, White House Spin-off:

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday appeared to endorse a sweeping immigration deal that would eventually grant millions of undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship, saying he would be willing to 'take the heat' politically for an approach that many of his hard-line supporters have long viewed as unacceptable. The president made the remarks during an extended meeting with congressional Republicans and Democrats.... Mr. Trump has said such a deal must be accompanied by new money for a border wall and measures to limit immigrants from bringing family members into the country in the future, conditions he repeated during the meeting on Tuesday.... The White House meeting was extraordinary, an extended negotiating session that was televised by the news channels.... Laying out conditions that many Democrats view as nonstarters, Mr. Trump said the legislation must fortify the nation's borders; end 'chain migration,' a term used by immigration critics to refer to immigrants' ability to bring members of their extended family to the United States after gaining their own legal status; and cancel the diversity visa lottery program." ...

... Tal Kopan of CNN: "... Donald Trump appeared to contradict himself multiple times in a meeting on immigration with a bipartisan group of lawmakers Tuesday -- a reflection of growing frustration from Capitol Hill about the lack of direction from the White House on the issue. The President at times suggested he would be looking to sign everything from a stand-alone fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program -- set to expire in March -- to comprehensive immigration reform, often appearing to being guided by lawmakers in the room to modify his positions." ...

... Idiot/Moron in Charge. Jonathan Chait: "In the hope of proving he is not the semiliterate ignoramus numerous media have depicted him to be, Donald Trump held a televised meeting with members of Congress to discuss immigration. It was, the White House told a friendly reporter [David Martosko of the Daily Mail], the president's very own idea.... During the meeting, Trump put on full display his lack of interest in, or understanding of, public policy. The meeting centered on Trump's signature policy issue, immigration, which his staff no doubt considered safe.... The meeting instead confirmed the very idea Trump had set out to refute. Michael Wolff had reported that Mitch McConnell said of the president, 'He'll sign anything we put in front of him.'... 'When this group comes back with an agreement ... I'm signing it,' [Trump] promises. 'I will be signing it.'... Trump may occasionally appear to be trans-ideological, but in fact he is sub-ideological.... This pattern has happened on immigration, health care, the Paris climate agreement -- any time he listens to liberals pitching a bipartisan deal, it sounds good to him. The problem is that he quickly returns back to orthodox conservatism as soon as he is ensconced with his right-wing advisers. You can't 'pivot' if you don't understand that you changed your stance in the first place." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "'What about a clean DACA bill now, with a commitment that we go into a comprehensive immigration reform procedure?' asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Trump responded: 'Yeah, I would like to do that....' The problem? Trump didn't know what 'clean DACA bill' meant. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) quickly interjected and made clear that Trump believes a 'clean' bill would include border security. Except that's not at all what a clean bill is; that's a compromise bill. A clean bill, by definition, only has one component to it.... If anything, the whole mess showed pretty vividly just how utterly disengaged Trump is in the finer details of policy discussions.... Trump almost continually moves the goal posts on what he wants, shifts the terms of the debate, and misstates what's actually contained in the legislation that is before Congress. The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey said it well: 'Just because he says it or agrees to t doesn't mean he will say something totally different later or keep the agreement. Just remember that.'... Trump has repeatedly assured us that he knows this stuff better than almost anyone and that he's the world's preeminent negotiator. What we saw Tuesday was neither of those things." ...

... So This Is Soooooo Trumpian. Ashley Parker & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "When the White House released its official transcript Tuesday afternoon, the president's line -- 'Yeah, I would like to do it' -- was missing. A White House official said that any omission from the transcript was unintentional and that the context of the conversation was clear." Mrs. McC: That's right. When Trump says something stupid, the White House thinks nobody will know if they just hit delete. They're like toddlers who think if they cover their eyes, no one can see them. The whole report is worth reading because it gives a good picture of what it's like to "negotiate" with an ignorant boob with a CYA obsession: "... he ... muddled through the policy by seeming to endorse divergent positions, including simply protecting the dreamers or a plan contingent upon funding for his long-promised wall at the nation's southern border." Emphasis added. ...

... Steve M.: "Please, please, stop waiting for the moderate Trump to emerge. It can't happen as long as his mind is full of Fox talking points and he's ceding all policy to knee-jerk conservatives."

... Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in California issued a nationwide preliminary injunction Tuesday blocking the Trump administration's decision to phase out a program that shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation. The injunction by U.S. District Judge William Alsup says those protections must remain in place for nearly 690,000 immigrants already in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program while a legal challenge to ending the Obama-era program proceeds. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the decision to terminate the program on Sept. 5 and said no renewal applications would be accepted after Oct. 5. Under the administration's plan, permits that expired starting March 5 could not be renewed. But Alsup ruled that while the lawsuit is pending, anyone who had DACA status when the program was rescinded Sept. 5 can renew it, officials said." Alsup is a Clinton appointee. ...

     ... The New York Times story, by Michael Shear, is here.

Maggie Haberman & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump is expected to attend the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, in the coming weeks, an administration official said on Tuesday.... Presidents have rarely attended the forum in Davos, in part out of a concern that it would send the wrong message to be rubbing shoulders with some of the world's richest individuals.... The event in Switzerland is a global symbol of everything that Mr. Trump's former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, railed against during the presidential campaign and the first seven months in the administration.... His team decided not to send a representative to the 2017 gathering.... Mr. Trump's appearance at the forum is certain to highlight the clash between his America First agenda and the more globalist approach of some of America's closest allies around the world." ... AND speaking of Sloppy Steve ...

... The Short Shelf Life of an Overripe Bannona. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Stephen K. Bannon is stepping down from his post as executive chairman of Breitbart News, the company announced Tuesday. Mr. Bannon's departure, which was forced by a onetime financial patron, Rebekah Mercer, comes as Mr. Bannon remained unable to quell the furor over remarks attributed to him in a new book in which he questions President Trump's mental fitness and disparages his elder son, Donald Trump Jr."

** Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday unilaterally released a highly anticipated transcript of the committee's interview with one of the founders of the firm that produced a salacious and unsubstantiated dossier outlining a Russian effort to aid the Trump campaign. The interview, with Glenn R. Simpson of Fusion GPS, took place last summer and was expected to shed light on the origins of the firm's work, its concerns about the Trump campaign's activities, and what the F.B.I. may have done with the information. 'The American people deserve the opportunity to see what he said and judge for themselves,' Ms. Feinstein said. 'The innuendo and misinformation circulating about the transcript are part of a deeply troubling effort to undermine the investigation into potential collusion and obstruction of justice. The only way to set the record straight is to make the transcript public.'... Ms. Feinstein moved to do so without the committee's Republican chairman, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, almost certainly escalating partisan tensions on the committee. Mr. Grassley last week rejected the firm's request to release the transcript...." ...

... Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Sens.Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) made a fateful decision acting unilaterally with a phony 'criminal referral' of Christopher Steele. They set a new standard that anyone on the committee could act independently and without bipartisan consent of their colleagues. So Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Cal.) did them one better.... What stands out most from an initial perusal of the transcript is the professionalism and seriousness of Fusion GPS and Steele. By attempting to suppress a candid look into the dossier..., Republicans once again are caught acting like Trump henchmen...." Rubin also lists some of the revelations in Simpson's testimony. ...

... Devlin Barrett & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "A spokesman for Grassley called Feinstein's move 'totally confounding' and done without consultation. 'Her action undermines the integrity of the committee's oversight work and jeopardizes its ability to secure candid voluntary testimony relating to the independent recollection of future witnesses' said the spokesman, Taylor Foy.... Glenn Simpson told congressional investigators that someone inside Trump's network had also provided the FBI with information during the 2016 campaign, according to a newly released transcript, a claim quickly disputed by people close to the investigation.... At another point in the interview, a lawyer for Fusion GPS, Joshua A. Levy, makes a jarring assertion: that the dossier's publication had led to someone's murder." ...

... Ken Dilanian & Mike Memoli of NBC News: "... two sources close to Fusion GPS told NBC News that Simpson’s testimony inaccurately conflated what he had been told, and that the human source was actually George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign aide who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller. By the time Steele sat down with the FBI in September, an Australian diplomat had passed to U.S. officials details of his conversation with Papadopoulos, who seemed to know that the Russians possessed hacked Democratic emails." ...

... Alan Yuhas & Julian Borger of the Guardian: "According to the transcript, Simpson told Congress that [Christopher] Steele, the former British spy, stopped sharing information with the FBI just one week before the US election because of concerns that the law enforcement agency was being 'manipulated' by Trump insiders. According to Simpson, Steele 'severed his relationship with the FBI' after the New York Times published a story in late October 2016 that said agents had not found 'any conclusive or direct link between Mr Trump and the Russian government'.... [Simpson] said that at the time Steele was hired, the alleged Trump links to the Kremlin were an open secret in Moscow." ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. How the New York Times Helped Elect Trump. Tommy Christopher of Shareblue: "The New York Times faced heavy and justified criticism for its obsessive focus on the bogus Hillary Clinton email story during the 2016 election, but it turns out the paper also had a hand in silencing information about the FBI's investigation into Trump's involvement with Russia. Shortly after then-FBI Director James Comey's unprecedented and ill-fated letter to Congress about reopening the email investigation, reporting emerged about the Trump campaign being investigated over its ties to Russia. That's when The New York Times published an article, titled 'Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia,' that seemed designed to quash those reports -- and has proved to be demonstrably false. We know now that the FBI did, in fact, have information directly tying the Trump campaign to the Russians at that time, information that led them to believe that the now-infamous 'Steele dossier' was credible. And thanks to bombshell testimony released by Democrats, we now know that the author of that dossier severed ties with the FBI because that same New York Times article led him to believe that the FBI was being politically manipulated in Trump's favor." ...

... The New York Times has the transcript of the committee's interview here; Feinstein's release is here. Mrs. McC: For what it's worth, I found Feinstein's version (pdf) more easily-readable. ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "A senior National Security Council official proposed withdrawing some U.S. military forces from Eastern Europe as an overture to Vladimir Putin during the early days of the Trump presidency, according to two former administration officials. While the proposal was ultimately not adopted, it is the first known case of senior aides to Donald Trump seeking to reposition U.S. military forces to please Putin -- something that smelled, to a colleague, like a return on Russia's election-time investment in President Trump.... The official who offered the proposal, a deputy assistant to Trump for strategic planning, mused in February 2017 about withdrawing U.S. troops close to Russian borders as part of a strategy proposal to 'refram[e] our interests within the context of a new relationship with Russia,' the former official [said], Kevin Harrington. Harrington is the NSC's senior official for strategic planning. He had neither military experience nor significant government experience before joining the White House. But he had an influential credential:... he was close to Trump patron and ally Peter Thiel.... Michael Flynn announced Harrington's arrival in early February as part of a 'talented group' ready to bring 'fresh ideas to the table.'" ...

... Pete Madden of NBC News: "Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's personal attorney and close confidant, says he filed a pair of lawsuits on Tuesday, one in federal court against the private investigative firm Fusion GPS and the other in state court against the popular website BuzzFeed [and its editor Ben Smith & others]. In both suits, Cohen claims that the infamous dossier of salacious but unconfirmed allegations of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Russian agents compiled by Fusion GPS and later published by BuzzFeed contained 'false and defamatory' allegations that resulted in 'harm to his personal and professional reputation, current business interests, and the impairment of business opportunities.'" Mrs. McC: I guess Cohen will have to sue Dianne Feinstein, too. ...

... Ben Smith, in a New York Times op-ed, defends BuzzFeed's decision to publish the Steele dossier.

... Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump may not know most of the words to 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' For a man who has spent so much time demanding that players respect the national anthem by standing, he seemed to struggle when it came to mouthing along to the patriotic song. Fortunately, 'Bad Lip Reading' is here to decipher what exactly Trump was singing...[:]

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Actually, Bad Lip Reading seems to be doing some pretty accurate lip-reading.

Julian Borger: "The Trump administration plans to loosen constraints on the use of nuclear weapons and develop a new low-yield nuclear warhead for US Trident missiles, according to a former official who has seen the most recent draft of a policy review.... The new nuclear policy is significantly more hawkish that the posture adopted by the Obama administration, which sought to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in US defence. Arms control advocates have voiced alarm at the new proposal to make smaller, more 'usable' nuclear weapons, arguing it makes a nuclear war more likely, especially in view of what they see as Donald Trump's volatility and readiness to brandish the US arsenal in showdowns with the nation’s adversaries." ...

... Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "U.S. officials have reportedly talked about the potential to conduct a targeted strike against sites in North Korea in a 'bloody nose' strategy. The Wall Street Journal reported that the strategy involves launching a targeted strike at a North Korean facility in response to a nuclear or missile test. The strike would be an effort to show North Korea the potential consequences of its actions without leading to an all-out war."...

... Uri Friedman of The Atlantic has a long read on 'The World According to H.R. McMaster:' : "A legendary tank commander during the Gulf War and one of the on-the-ground architects of U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in the second Iraq War, McMaster burnished a reputation as one of the Army's leading thinkers about the future of war.... And, to one former collaborator, something seems very off about McMaster's talk of potential war with North Korea." --safari

Lisa Foster in a Washington Post op-ed: "Jeff Sessions has endorsed an unconstitutional fine on the poor.... Across the country, millions of people -- including children -- are charged a fine as punishment for traffic, misdemeanor and felony offenses and then taxed with fees used to fund the justice system and other government services.... Since 1983, however, the Supreme Court has held that it is unconstitutional to punish a person 'solely because he lacks funds to pay a fine.'... Yet the Justice Department under Attorney General Jeff Sessions retracted two important legal guidances> last month that were intended to help courts reform abusive practices.... To rescind the guidance on fines and fees is to condone unconstitutional conduct and tell millions of Americans that the Justice Department refuses to live up to its name." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I would guess Sessions can get away with this because the DOJ is not required to provide guidance on this or any other matter. ...

... Lauren Gill of Newsweek, (Dec. 30, 2017): "As public support for the death penalty hits historic lows, Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to increase the use of capital punishment in federal cases.... The administration is expecting to OK more death penalty cases than Barack Obama's, a senior Department of Justice official told The Wall Street Journal, adding that Sessions sees capital punishment as a 'valuable tool in the tool belt.'... There have been just three federal executions since 1963, with the last taking place in 2003." --safari

Natasha Geileng of ThinkProgress: "According to a new report ... by the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI), the first year of the Trump administration has been marked by 'substantial shifts in whether and how the topic of climate change and efforts to mitigate and adapt to its consequences are discussed across a range of federal agencies' websites.'... According to EDGI, which has tracked changes to climate and environment-related information across tens of thousands of government websites for the past year, the problem isn't so much that the Trump administration is obviously deleting or suppressing data; the main concern is that the administration has made hundreds of smaller changes, many of which might not be immediately noticeable to the average user, but which together undermine both the scientific consensus on climate change and the government's position as a trusted purveyor of information." --safari...

... Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "... Donald Trump sent the names of several controversial candidates back to the Senate -- including one nominee a Senate Democrat described as 'overwhelmingly unfit for such a crucial position' -- as he seeks to fill high-level environmental and science positions in his administration.... Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the Trump administration should expect a fight on [Kathleen] White's renomination [for head of the Council on Environmental Quality].... White is a senior fellow and director of the Armstrong Center for Energy and the Environment at the fossil-fuel funded Texas Public Policy Foundation and previously served as chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.... Trump also renominated Barry Lee Myers, the CEO of weather forecasting company AccuWeather, to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.... AccuWeather's business model is to take NOAA data and products on weather, developed with taxpayer dollars, and deliver them to the public in a proprietary form that customers want. He has been a strong advocate against NOAA having the capability to provide such products directly to the public." --safari...

Steve Bousquet of the Tampa Bay Times: "A hastily-arranged airport rendezvous Tuesday ended with an announcement from ... Donald Trump's administration that the state of Florida is 'off the table' for new offshore oil drilling, a declaration that brought both relief and protests of election-year politics. Florida Gov. Rick Scott met with U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke at the airport in Tallahassee Tuesday afternoon. Both men emerged 20 minutes later to face waiting reporters.... 'As a result of our interest in making sure that there's no drilling here, Florida will be taken off the table'" Scott said. Zinke said the decision was a culmination of multiple meetings between Scott and Trump administration officials. 'Florida is obviously unique,' Zinke said. 'For Floridians, we are not drilling off the coast of Florida, and clearly the governor has expressed that it's important.'... Scott, a Trump supporter ... is strongly considering running for the U.S. Senate this year against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. In a statement Tuesday, Nelson ... [said,] '"This is a political stunt orchestrated by the Trump administration to help Rick Scott, who has wanted to drill off Florida's coast his entire career.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the lead.

Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "Usually, when the FBI arrests a terrorist and the Justice Department charges them, it's a big deal.... Officials will typically blast out a press release, and, if it's a big takedown, might even hold a press conference. The Justice Department didn't do any of that when federal prosecutors unsealed terrorism charges last week against Taylor Michael Wilson.... [a] 26-year-old white supremacist from St. Charles, Missouri, [who] allegedly breached a secure area of an Amtrak train on Oct. 22 while armed with a gun and plenty of backup ammunition. He set off the emergency brake, sending passengers lunging as the train cars went 'completely black.'... The lack of attention the Wilson case has received actually reflects the priorities embedded in a system built up by U.S. lawmakers and law enforcement officials over the years: a U.S. criminal code and federal law enforcement apparatus that treats domestic terrorism as a second-class threat." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. Mrs. McC: Quite an informative read. Reilly explains the difference between the way the feds handle domestic terrorism & what they consider foreign or foreign-inspired terrorism. ...

Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "When the Federal Communications Commission voted last month to deregulate Internet providers by eliminating the agency's net neutrality rules, opponents of the decision vowed to fight in Congress and in court. Now, those who are pushing for the FCC's vote to be overturned say they've won an initial victory. Senate Democrats led by Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) have now amassed 40 co-sponsors for a congressional measure that, if successful, would invalidate the FCC's recent vote. In doing so, the lawmakers passed a critical 30-member threshold allowing them to use the Congressional Review Act to seek to overrule the FCC. Clearing that hurdle paves the way for a full vote on the Senate floor -- potentially forcing every senator to take a position on the FCC's rollback of the net neutrality rules.... But the resolution faces long odds. Even if it passes the Senate with a simple majority, it must clear the House and be signed by President Trump. Trump supported the FCC's bid to undo the net neutrality rules...."

Betsy Woodruff & Lachlan Markay of The Daily Beast: "The 2016 Republican presidential primary left scores of relationships frayed and hobbled. The most consequential — at least, from a financial perspective — is likely the breakdown between Manhattan billionaire hedge fund heiress Rebekah Mercer and the new-money self-made fracking billionaire brother duo Dan and Farris Wilks." --safari: A tale of intrigue, donation dollars, and "butthurt billionaires".

Senate Race

With Candidates Like These.... Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Joe Arpaio, the longtime Phoenix-area sheriff whose headline-grabbing approach to immigration made him an ally of President Trump, will run in the 2018 Republican primary to replace Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).... Arpaio ... said he decided to run as a 'big supporter of President Trump' who would back the president wholeheartedly. He is entering a primary against Kelli Ward, a former state senator also running as a Trump ally. His decision may create an opening for Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), a Republican with more moderate views on immigration who is contemplating a bid for the seat and is backed by party leaders in Washington.... Flake, meanwhile, suggested that Arpaio's run looks like a scam. He said he wasn't sure that the former sheriff would even stay in the race." ...

... Charles Pierce: "There goes Roy Moore. Here comes Joe Arpaio.... Now the [Arizona] Republican primary race for an extraordinarily important Senate seat comes down to conservative Martha McSally, unbelievably conservative Kelli Ward, and holy-shit-it's-Joe-Arpaio. This is what happens when crazy takes the wheel."

Jeet Heer of the New Republic on "why the Democrats won't nominate Oprah for president.... [Unlike Republicans,] the more typical Democratic message was expressed by Jonathan Bernstein on BloombergView: 'The presidency is a real job, and a damn hard one. The easily visible parts — the speeches and the interviews, even the moral leadership — are a relatively small part of the responsibilities of the office. There's simply no substitute for a good grasp of public policy and government affairs.' The problem is not only that Winfrey lacks political expertise. Like Trump, she also has a history of encouraging charlatans who traffic in quack ideas, as she has given a platform to dubious figures like Dr. Oz, a purveyor of pseudoscience, and vaccine denier Jenny McCarthy. This raises questions about her judgment and her acceptance of establishment truths. And that, ultimately, is why she shouldn't -- and won't -- be the Democratic nominee for president." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's the problem with Heer's analysis: "the Democrats" are ordinary voters. It's true that if all the Democratic superdelegates -- that is, the party's professional politicians -- chose another candidate, they could probably erase any lead Oprah might have in the primaries. But Democrats have had the superdelegate system in place since the 1982, & the superdelegates have, as a whole, always gone along with the popular vote in fear of engendering a revolt that would give away the election to the Republican nominee.

Alan Blunder & Michael Wines of the New York Times: "A panel of federal judges struck down North Carolina's congressional map on Tuesday, condemning it as unconstitutional because Republicans had drawn the map seeking a political advantage. The ruling was the first time that a federal court had blocked a congressional map because of a partisan gerrymander, and it instantly endangered Republican seats in the coming elections. Judge James A. Wynn Jr., in a biting 191-page opinion, said that Republicans in North Carolina's Legislature had been 'motivated by invidious partisan intent' as they carried out their obligation in 2016 to divide the state into 13 congressional districts, 10 of which are held by Republicans. The result, Judge Wynn wrote, violated the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection.... The unusually blunt decision by the panel could lend momentum to two other challenges on gerrymandering that are already before the Supreme Court -- and that the North Carolina case could join if Republicans make good on their vow to appeal Tuesday's ruling." Mrs. McC: Both Clinton & Obama nominated Wynn; in 1999, the GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee refused to give Wynn a hearing.

Alleen Brown of The Intercept: "The Dakota Access pipeline leaked at least five times in 2017.... The series of spills in the pipelines' first months of operation underlines a fact that regulators and industry insiders know well: Pipelines leak.... In Pennsylvania, construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline, which is owned by Energy Transfer Partners via its subsidiary Sunoco, was shut down by regulators last Wednesday after Sunoco repeatedly drilled under waterways without permits.... Suspension of construction 'is necessary to correct the egregious and willful violations' by Sunoco, said the shutdown order issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection." --safari...

Beyond the Beltway

The Way We Were (and Perhaps Still Are.) Katie Zavadski of the Daily Beast: "On an afternoon in late April 1994, a young woman was raped in broad daylight in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Two days later, the biggest columnist in New York City’s biggest newspaper called her a liar. The woman -- black, a lesbian, and an activist—became the target of a vicious smear campaign by a Daily News columnist [Mike McAlary] and sources within the NYPD, who charged that she had made up a 'hoax' to advance a political agenda.... Twenty-four years years later, her rapist was identified through DNA evidence, according to the NYPD. On Jan. 8, police told Jane Doe they had a match, with James Webb, a career criminal who'd been sentenced to prison for rape before Jane Doe's assault. He was arrested and imprisoned again in 1995, for still more sexual assaults and is presently serving 75 years to life in prison." Read on for the details.

Reuters: "California Governor Jerry Brown will propose his final state budget on Wednesday, setting out a spending blueprint that last year topped $125 billion and marking the first time the state's coffers will be bolstered from sales taxes on marijuana.... The 2018-2019 budget will include anticipated taxes on sales of marijuana, which became legal for recreational use Jan. 1, estimated to eventually reach $1 billion. The estimated budget surplus of $7.5 billion is a far cry from the $27 billion hole that was projected as Brown took the reins for his third term in January 2011." --safari

Charles Pierce on the Bundy gang's release: "... if you're going to defy lawful authority and gather some folks to draw down on federal officials, apparently, it helps to be old and white. It also helps when the prosecution botches the rules of evidence beyond all recall.... The prosecution apparently let its loyalty to the FBI override its obligations to due process, and it got caught.... here is one king irony to this whole thing: Cliven Bundy and his family and his spavined cattle are all free now because the system he was so hell-bent on defying actually works. I think the cattle will understand this before he does." See also yesterday's Commentariat.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Haaretz & Nati Tucker: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's son Yair Netanyahu was recorded telling the son of Israeli businessman and gas tycoon Kobi Maimon outside a strip club that the prime minister set up $20 billion for the latter's father, according to a report on Israel Television News Company Monday. 'My dad set up 20 billion dollars for your dad, and you're fighting with me about 400 shekels [about $115]?' said Yair in the 2015 recording of the conversation with his friend, upon leaving the strip club. Netanyahu later said the 400 shekels was for a prostitute. The 2015 conversation was with the son of Kobi Maimon, a real estate mogul and a shareholder in Isramco, which owns Israel's offshore Tamar gas fields. Also present was Roman Abramov, the Israeli liaison of Australian billionaire James Packer.... A state-funded security guard and driver accompanied Netanyahu and his friends from one strip club to another." ...

... The Washington Post story, by Cleve Wootson, which is more comprehensive & sensational, is here.

Thanks, Friends. Now Get Out. Paul Goldman, et al., of NBC News: "An American Quaker group that won a Nobel Peace Prize for its support of Holocaust refugees has vowed to press ahead with its work on behalf of Palestinian rights after Israel said its staff members may be denied entry to the country. The group, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), is among 20 organizations whose employees could be barred from entering Israel over their support for the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS)."

News Lede

CNN: "Heavy rains unleashed destructive rivers of mud and debris in Southern California on Tuesday -- leaving at least 13 people dead, destroying homes and spurring rescues as the flooding forced heavily traveled roads to close. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said the death toll could rise. Officials said many of the deaths are believed to be in the coastal Montecito area, where mudflows and floodwater have inundated areas downstream from where the Thomas Fire burned thousands of acres last month. At least two dozen people were unaccounted for and authorities rescued at least 50 people in the Montecito area."