The Commentariat -- January 9, 2018

As the Sheeples Cheer. Michael Shear & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Trump delivered an economic victory lap during a speech to farmers on Monday in which he vastly overstated the size of the tax cuts passed by Congress late last year and played up a rollback of regulations on American businesses. Declaring that the 'American dream is roaring back to life,' Mr. Trump -- who has made clear that he likes big numbers -- claimed that the tax overhaul cut taxes by $5.5 trillion when, in fact, the legislation will reduce the overall tax burden on individuals and companies over the next decade by $1.5 trillion.... Mr. Trump apparently chose to highlight just one side of the ledger -- the total amount of tax reductions in the bill that he signed in December -- without counting the amount of taxes that were increased in the same legislation to help pay for the bill.... To applause from thousands of farmers in the audience, Mr. Trump said the tax cut would exempt most family farms from the estate tax.... In reality, only about 80 small businesses and farms would fall under the estate-tax tent this year.... The new law, which exempts more estates from the tax, will primarily benefit the richest Americans." ...

... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "According to Trump, the rising market is evidence of how awesome his presidency has been for the U.S. economy. At one point, he even touted a confused (i.e., wrong) claim that equity market increases were tantamount to wiping out our national debt.... Stock markets don't reflect the underlying health of the economy. Or the financial security of the middle class. Or any other broader measure of social welfare, for that matter.... Markets can also fall, making it super risky to tie your administration's success to stock prices. Stock prices have been rising fairly consistently since March 2009, meaning we're already in the second-longest bull market on record.... if the media were to judge presidents by stock performance, Obama would actually look better than Trump." ...

Jen Kirby of Vox: "A mix of cheers and boos roared through Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, as ... Donald Trump took the field before the College Football Playoff National Championship between the University of Alabama and University of Georgia on Monday night.... College players traditionally stay inside the locker rooms until after the National Anthem, so the ... two teams vying for the championship weren't on the field during Trump's appearance." ...

... Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "An Alabama football player yelled 'f[uck] Trump' as he took the field at the College Football Playoff national championship on Monday, which was attended by President Trump. Alabama running back Bo Scarbrough yelled the expletive as the team walked onto the field for the game, according to a clip shared by Sporting News." ...

... Who Said "Fuck Trump"? John Talty of AL.com: "Alabama running back Bo Scarbrough denied yelling 'F[uck] Trump' before Monday night's College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Sporting News posted a video clip on its Twitter account that quickly gained steam showing someone yelling "F[uck] Trump" as the Alabama players walked through the halls of Mercedes-Benz Stadium to the field. Sporting News identified Scarbrough as the Alabama player who said it...." Mrs. McC: In the Sporting News video, Scarbrough is out of frame at the moment someone says "Fuck Trump," & I couldn't see anyone in-frame moving his lips in sync with "Fuck Trump."

Andrew Marantz of the New Yorker on the Trump-"Fox & Friends" feedback loop. A teevee show ostensibly about the news is romancing the Trump. It's pretty sickening.

"The Worst & the Dumbest." Paul Krugman: "This great nation has often been led by mediocre men, some of whom had unpleasant personalities. But they generally haven't done too much damage, for two reasons. First, second-rate presidents have often been surrounded by first-rate public servants.... Second, our system of checks and balances has restrained presidents who might otherwise have been tempted to ignore the rule of law or abuse their position.... When the V.S.G. [Very Stable Genius] moved into the White House, he brought with him an extraordinary collection of subordinates -- and I mean that in the worst way.... While unqualified people are marching in, qualified people are fleeing.... Meanwhile..., leading Republicans in Congress are increasingly determined to participate in obstruction of justice." ...

... AND Yet. And Yet. Mrs. McCrabbie: I find myself agreeing, in general & in a number of specifics (tho not all), with David Brooks today.

Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has raised the likelihood with President Trump's legal team that his office will seek an interview with the president, triggering a discussion among his attorneys about how to avoid a sit-down encounter or set limits on such a session, according to two people familiar with the talks. Mueller brought up the issue of interviewing Trump during a late December meeting with the president's lawyers, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow. Mueller deputy James Quarles, who oversees the White House portion of the special counsel investigation, also attended. The special counsel's team could interview Trump very soon on some limited portion of questions -- possibly within the next several weeks, according to a person close to the president who was granted anonymity to describe internal conversations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Matt Apuzzo & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "... Robert S. Mueller III told President Trump's lawyers last month that he will probably seek to interview the president, setting off discussions among Mr. Trump's lawyers about the perils of such a move.... White House officials viewed the discussion as a sign that Mr. Mueller's investigation of Mr. Trump could be nearing the end. But even if that is so, allowing prosecutors to interview a sitting president who has a history of hyperbolic or baseless assertions carries legal risk for him.... One person familiar with the discussions said Mr. Mueller appeared most interested in asking questions about the former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, and the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey...." ...

... Investigating the Investigators, Ctd. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Broadening their political counterattack in defense of the White House..., Donald Trump's allies in Congress are placing new scrutiny on contacts between top Justice Department officials and reporters covering the Trump-Russia investigation.... On Thursday, Republicans demanded more information from the Justice Department officials about a meeting Andrew Weissman, a career federal prosecutor now on special counsel Robert Mueller's investigative team, held with reporters last April. In a Jan. 4 op-ed, [Rep. Mark] Meadows [R-N.C.] and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to be replaced, citing in part an 'alarming number of FBI agents and DOJ officials sharing information with reporters.' Last month, House Republicans cast public suspicion on communication they say occurred in the fall of 2016 between former FBI general counsel James Baker and a Mother Jones reporter who wrote stories at the time about the FBI's probe of Trump-Russia ties.... Republicans have offered no evidence of wrongdoing.... Democrats call the focus on reporter contacts the latest front in a wide-ranging campaign by some GOP lawmakers to discredit the Russia probe.... They also warn that Republicans are seeking to intimidate government officials and chill investigative reporting." ...

... John Solomon of the Hill: "Republican-led House and Senate committees are investigating whether leaders of the Russia counterintelligence investigation had contacts with the news media that resulted in improper leaks, prompted in part by text messages amongst senior FBI officials mentioning specific reporters, news organizations and articles. In one exchange, FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and bureau lawyer Lisa Page engaged in a series of texts shortly before Election Day 2016 suggesting they knew in advance about an article in The Wall Street Journal and would need to feign stumbling onto the story so it could be shared with colleagues." ...

... Betsy Woodruff & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "In recent months, congressional negotiators have been working on a bill codifying an umbrella of mass-surveillance activities known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The authorization for those activities is due to expire in a matter of days. But [House Intelligence] Chairman Devin Nunes [R-Trumpsylvania] threw a monkey wrench into the process, by initially pushing to include in the bill an unrelated a provision on so-called unmasking, the process that intelligence agencies use to reveal the names of U.S. persons who may be involved in crimes like spying.... Nunes' effort played a role -- though a minor one -- in slowing down negotiations.... Nunes was ultimately forced to strip the provision.... What distinguished it, multiple Hill and intelligence sources told The Daily Beast, was that it was the only unforced error in the process -- the result of Nunes' effort to resurrect a controversy members of his own party have dismissed. Reauthorizing the program is the top legislative priority of the Justice Department...."

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times reviews Fire & Fury. ...

... ** See, at the top of today's thread, Elizabeth's commentary on fact-checking, vis-à-vis Fire & Fury. Essential reading.

... Oops! Matt Shuham of TPM: "Former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka wrote Monday that he had been told to participate in Michael Wolff's blockbuster book, 'Fire and Fury.'... In an op-ed in the Hill, he wrote..., '[W]hen I met Michael Wolff in Reince Priebus' office, where he was waiting to talk to Steve Bannon, and after I had been told to also speak to him for his book, my attitude was polite but firm: "Thanks but no thanks."'..." Gorka wrote." ...

... Addy Baird of ThinkProgress: "Gorka -- in an effort to stand by his man — has confirmed that Wolff did indeed have access to the White House and that staffers were asked to speak with him for the book. After Mediaite ran a piece about Gorka's accidental admission, Gorka responded on Twitter, saying that the '[r]equest to please @MichaelWolffNYC the hack came from outsite @WhiteHouse....'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: These people are not too bright. Besides the gaffe, the guy can't spell: "outsite @WhiteHouse?" (Normally, I would not pick on someone who learned English as a second language, which Gorka likely did -- his parents were Hungarians & he did post-grad work in Budapest. But he was born in London, went to school & university there & lived there until he was 22. He should have learned to spell "outside.") ...

... These People Were Not "Outsite @WhiteHouse." Olivia Beavers of the Hill: "Michael Wolff ...said Monday both current and former top White House officials encouraged other aides 'to cooperate' in interviews for the book. 'Everybody was told to speak to me,' Wolff said in an ... interview ... on CNN's 'Tonight with Don Lemon.' '[Stephen] Bannon told people to cooperate, Sean Spicer told people to cooperate, Kellyanne Conway told people to cooperate, Hope Hicks,' he said respectively about the president's former chief strategist, former press secretary, senior adviser and current communications director."

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times on the Trump administration's latest deportation extravaganza: this time, 200,000 Salvadorans who have enjoyed temporary protection status for more than a decade. Mrs. McC: once again, this isn't just cruel; it's stupid. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Vivian Yee, et al., of the New York Times: "... immigrants from Haiti and Central America ... have staked their livelihoods on the temporary permission they received years ago from the government to live and work in the United States. Hundreds of thousands now stand to lose that status under the Trump administration, which said on Monday that roughly 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador would have to leave by September 2019 or face deportation. Even if they remain here illegally, they, like the young immigrants known as Dreamers whose status is also in jeopardy this winter, will lose their work permits, potentially scratching more than a million people from the legal work force in a matter of months. And the American companies that employ them will be forced to look elsewhere for labor, if they can get it at all.... [A] report, by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, estimates that stripping the protections from Salvadorans, Hondurans and Haitians would deprive Social Security and Medicare of about $6.9 billion in contributions over a decade, and would shrink the gross domestic product by $45.2 billion." ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "These days, it's almost as if there are two Donald Trump Presidencies. One is a circus performed daily on Twitter and cable news. The other Presidency, which has to do with policy formulation and implementation, receives less attention, but it is more consequential because it is hurting the welfare of millions of people.... While the President lolls about the White House watching Fox News, the Administration he heads is busy trying to implement the agenda he has championed.... One notable area where they are seeing success is the targeting of legal immigrants. Yes, legal.... Even though Trump himself appears to spend much of his time goofing off and spouting off, his minions are far more diligent in targeting some of the most marginalized and defenseless members of society. Amid all the craziness, that should never be overlooked."

... Billions for Bupkis. Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "The Trump administration would cut or delay funding for border surveillance, radar technology, patrol boats and customs agents in its upcoming spending plan to curb illegal immigration -- all proven security measures that officials and experts have said are more effective than building a wall along the Mexican border. President Trump has made the border wall a focus of his campaign against illegal immigration.... Under spending plans submitted last week to Congress, the wall would cost $18 billion over the next 10 years, and be erected along nearly 900 miles of the southern border. The wall also has become a bargaining chip in negotiations with Congress as lawmakers seek to prevent nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants from being deported. But security experts said the president's focus on a border wall ignores the constantly evolving nature of terrorism, immigration and drug trafficking."

Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday unanimously rejected a proposal by Energy Secretary Rick Perry that would have propped up nuclear and coal power plants struggling in competitive electricity markets. The independent five-member commission includes four people appointed by President Trump, three of them Republicans. Its decision is binding.... [Perry's] plan ... was widely seen as an effort to alter the balance of competitive electricity markets that federal regulators have been cultivating since the late 1980s. Critics said it would have largely helped a handful of coal and nuclear companies, including the utility FirstEnergy and coal-mining firm Murray Energy, while raising rates for consumers."

And Another One Bites the Dust. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward R. Royce said Monday he will not seek reelection this year, adding his name to a growing list of senior Republican lawmakers who have chosen to retire in what is shaping up to be a difficult election year for the GOP. Royce (R-Calif.), first elected in 1992, is one of eight House Republican chairmen who have announced they will forego a reelection campaign for the House ahead of the midterm elections. Like most of the others, he would have lost his gavel in the next Congress in accordance with party rules that place a three-term limit on a chairman's service."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday gave a black death row inmate in Georgia a chance to challenge his death sentence because a white juror in his case later used a racial epithet in an affidavit and questioned whether black people have souls. The justices stayed the execution last fall of Keith Leroy Tharpe, who was sentenced to death in 1991 for the murder of his sister-in-law, Jaquelin Freeman. He shot and killed Freeman and left her body in a ditch while kidnapping and later raping his estranged wife." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pete Williams of NBC News: "The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to take up a legal battle over a Mississippi law that allows state employees and private businesses to deny services to LGBT people based on religious objections. Signed into law in 2016 in response to the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling, it allows county clerks to avoid issuing marriage licenses to gay couples and protects businesses from lawsuits if they refuse to serve LGBT customers. The law was immediately challenged. But lower courts, without ruling on the merits of the law, said those suing could not show that they would be harmed by it. A new round of challenges is expected from residents who have been denied service, and the issue could come back to the Supreme Court's doorstep." See also Akhilleus's commentary in yesterday's thread. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Seems as if the Supremes may have declined to take the case because the law's challengers were deemed to have failed the "standing" test. That doesn't mean the underlying case doesn't have merit; it just means the challengers are going to have to find more convincing victims. That should be pretty easy. I'd guess there are already a number of Mississippi couples who were denied marriage licenses or were refused services because their names were John & Joe or Emily & Heather. (Also linked yesterday.)

** Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "I loved Oprah's Golden Globes speech on Sunday. It was mesmerizing, pitch perfect, and gave voice to many lifetimes of frustration and vindication with eloquence and a full authority she has earned. But I found the strange Facebook response of 'Oprah 2020' weirdly discordant and disorienting. Oprah's speech -- in my hearing -- wasn't about why she needs to run for office. It was about why the rest of us need to do so, immediately. The dominant theme I heard was about giving voice to invisible people. It was the arc of the entire speech.... What Winfrey and [President] Obama talk about is the limits of top-down power. It is one of the great sins of this celebrity age that we continue to misread this message as a call to turn anyone who tries to deliver it into our savior. When someone tells you 'I alone can fix it,' you should run screaming for the emergency exits." Mrs. McC: A video of Oprah's speech is in the Infotainment column. I would have put it in the Commentariat, but that would mean it would disappear from the page more quickly. ...

... ** Mehdi Hasan in the Intercept: "Oprah Winfrey for president: have we all gone bonkers?... Is this really what most Americans want or what the United States government needs? Another clueless celebrity in possession of the nuclear codes? Another billionaire mogul who doesn't like paying taxes in charge of the economy? And how would it be anything other than sheer hypocrisy for Democrats to offer an unqualified, inexperienced presidential candidate to the American electorate in 2020, given all that they said about Trump in 2016? Granted..., Oprah would be a far superior, smarter, and more stable president than Trump in every imaginable way. But that, of course, is a low, low bar." Mrs. McC: An excellent argument against an unqualified, liberalish celebrity candidate. ...

... Steve M.: "An Oprah run [for the presidency] validates Donald Trump's political career -- hey, Trump was right, you don't need any experience and you don't need deep knowledge of domestic and foreign-policy issues. I'll change my mind if, come 2019, Oprah can address the issues in a way that transcends bumper-sticker slogans and platitudes.... Apart from that, my biggest problem with Oprah is her fondness for promoting quacks and charlatans -- the author of The Secret, for instance, or Dr. Oz.... If she's the Democratic nominee, I think Trump's team will portray him as a seasoned, deeply knowledgeable political veteran, while condemning her as a neophyte out of her depth.... I suspect she won't run. Celebrities at her level exercise a considerable amount of control over what the public gets to know about them, and you can't maintain that control if you're in politics."

... Also, Colbert's review of Jake Tapper's interview of Stephen Miller is pretty funny.

Beyond the Beltway

Robert Anglin of the Arizona Republic: "Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, his two sons and a militia member will not face a retrial on charges that they led an armed rebellion against federal agents in 2014. A federal judge Monday said the federal prosecutors' conduct was 'outrageous' and 'violated due process rights' of the defendants. U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro said a new trial would not be sufficient to address the problems in the case and would provide the prosecution with an unfair advantage going forward. She dismissed the charges against the four men 'with prejudice,' meaning they cannot face trial again.... Navarro's decision comes less than a month after she declared a mistrial in case and found that federal prosecutors willfully withheld critical and 'potentially exculpatory' evidence from the defense." Navarro is an Obama appointee.

If you're in danger of imminent arrest & detention, try to look good in your mugshot -- it could pay off. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North Korea agreed on Tuesday to send athletes to February's Winter Olympics in South Korea, a symbolic breakthrough after months of escalating tensions over the North's rapidly advancing nuclear and missile programs. In talks held at the border village of Panmunjom, North Korean negotiators quickly accepted South Korea's request to send a large delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next month, according to South Korean news reports. In addition to the athletes, the North will send a cheering squad and a performance-art troupe. The event will be the first time North Korea has participated in the Winter Games in eight years."

The Commentariat -- January 8, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has raised the likelihood with President Trump's legal team that his office will seek an interview with the president, triggering a discussion among his attorneys about how to avoid a sit-down encounter or set limits on such a session, according to two people familiar with the talks. Mueller brought up the issue of interviewing Trump during a late December meeting with the president's lawyers, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow. Mueller deputy James Quarles, who oversees the White House portion of the special counsel investigation, also attended. The special counsel's team could interview Trump very soon on some limited portion of questions -- possibly within the next several weeks, according to a person close to the president who was granted anonymity to describe internal conversations."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday gave a black death row inmate in Georgia a chance to challenge his death sentence because a white juror in his case later used a racial epithet in an affidavit and questioned whether black people have souls. The justices stayed the execution last fall of Keith Leroy Tharpe, who was sentenced to death in 1991 for the murder of his sister-in-law, Jaquelin Freeman. He shot and killed Freeman and left her body in a ditch while kidnapping and later raping his estranged wife."

Pete Williams of NBC News: "The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to take up a legal battle over a Mississippi law that allows state employees and private businesses to deny services to LGBT people based on religious objections. Signed into law in 2016 in response to the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling, it allows county clerks to avoid issuing marriage licenses to gay couples and protects businesses from lawsuits if they refuse to serve LGBT customers. The law was immediately challenged. But lower courts, without ruling on the merits of the law, said those suing could not show that they would be harmed by it. A new round of challenges is expected from residents who have been denied service, and the issue could come back to the Supreme Court's doorstep." See also Akhilleus's comment below. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Seems as if the Supremes may have declined to take the case because the law's challengers were deemed to have failed the "standing" test. That doesn't mean the underlying case doesn't have merit; it just means the challengers are going to have to find more convincing victims. That should be pretty easy. I'd guess there are already a number of Mississippi couples who were denied marriage licenses or were refused services because their names were John & Joe or Emily & Heather.

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times on the Trump administration's latest deportation extravaganza: this time, 200,000 Salvadorans who have enjoyed temporary protection status for more than a decade. Mrs. McC: once again, this isn't just cruel; it's stupid.

If you're in danger of imminent arrest & detention, try to look good in your mugshot -- it could pay off.

*****

NEW. Get Out! Washington Post: "The Department of Homeland Security will not renew the Temporary Protected Status designation that has allowed the Salvadorans to remain in the United States since at least 2001, when their country was struck by a pair of devastating earthquakes, according to multiple people with knowledge of the plan." This is a breaking story & will be updated. Mrs. McC: Disgusting how every Trump administration immigration decision is an "only whitey-white people allowed" decision.

NEW. Brian Stelter of CNN: "Oprah Winfrey is 'actively thinking' about running for president, two of her close friends told CNN Monday. The two friends, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely, talked in the wake of Winfrey's extraordinary speech at the Golden Globes Sunday night, which spurred chatter about a 2020 run. Some of Winfrey's confidants have been privately urging her to run, the sources said. One of the sources said these conversations date back several months. The person emphasized that Winfrey has not made up her mind about running." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: We've had two celebrity presidents in the last half-century (and one of them had been governor of California for eight years). How'd that work out? Of course I'd like to see a woman become POTUS, but please, not one who made Dr. Phil a star.

NEW. Yeah, #StableGenius. Louis Nelson of Politico: "For a few minutes Sunday night..., Donald Trump claimed his has been an 'enormously consensual' presidency. The claim was a typo, part of a string of tweets excerpting a New York Post column praising Trump's administration. The original post was soon replaced with a new one that contained the correct word, 'consequential,' but that didn't stop the president's tweet from becoming the subject of online ridicule.... The tweet stood out in part because multiple women have accused the president of harassment or abuse." ...

... Susannah Cullinane of CNN: Conservative New York Post columnist Michael"Goodwin [who wrote the laudatory column Trump misquoted] appears to have retweeted Trump's initial post, thanking the President on his Twitter feed above a box that Sunday night read, 'This tweet is unavailable,' before retweeting Trump's replacement version. Others on Twitter denied that they had 'consented' to Trump's leadership and a number included the hashtag #StableGenius when commenting on Trump's typo...."

"Executive Time." Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Trump's days in the Oval Office are relatively short -- from around 11am to 6pm, then he's back to the residence. During that time he usually has a meeting or two, but spends a good deal of time making phone calls and watching cable news in the dining room adjoining the Oval. Then he's back to the residence for more phone calls and more TV.... This is largely to meet Trump's demands for more 'Executive Time,' which almost always means TV and Twitter time alone in the residence, officials tell us. The schedules shown to me are different than the sanitized ones released to the media and public.... In the earliest days of the Trump administration it began earlier and ended later." ...

... Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Trump's schedule is significantly shorter than those of past presidents. Former President George W. Bush would arrive in the Oval Office by 6:45 a.m., and former President Obama would arrive between 9 and 10 a.m. after his morning workout. [Mrs. McC: Obama also worked late into the evening after having dinner with his family.] The New York Times reported that Trump spends up to 8 hours a day watching television, which Trump has disputed." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Turns out those fake "working vacations" Trump takes every weekend have stretched into every weekday. ...

... It's Not Trump Who's Unstable; It's Fox "News"! Matthew Gertz in Politico Magazine (Jan. 5): "Everyone has a theory about Trump's hyperaggressive early morning tweetstorms.... But my many hours following the president's tweets for Media Matters for America, the progressive media watchdog organization, have convinced me the truth is often much simpler: The president is just live-tweeting Fox, particularly the network's Trump-loving morning show, Fox & Friends.... After comparing the president's tweets with Fox's coverage every day since October, I can tell you that the Fox-Trump feedback loop is happening far more often than you think. There is no strategy to Trump's Twitter feed; he is not trying to distract the media. He is being distracted. He darts with quark-like speed from topic to topic in his tweets because that's how cable news works."

"Where's My Roy Cohn?" Washington Post Editors: "ALL OFFICIALS entering government must swear an oath of loyalty to the Constitution of the United States. President Trump made his own such promise. Yet he appears to believe that the public servants of the Justice Department owe their allegiance not to the Constitution but to him. The litany of Mr. Trump's attacks on the integrity of federal law enforcement is lengthy.... Most disturbingly, Mr. Trump seems not to recognize anything wrong or unusual in his conduct.... It's the responsibility of those who work with Mr. Trump to restrain him as best they can from destroying the norms he fails to recognize -- as [White House counsel Don] McGahn allegedly failed to do. And it's the responsibility of Congress to fulfill its constitutional role as a check to the president's abuses. The Senate can start by refusing to consider any future U.S. attorney nominee who has been interviewed by Mr. Trump." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This editorial would have been a lot better if the writers had mentioned that Trump's attempt to manipulate the DOJ is an important & dangerous piece of his dictatorial intention to run the federal government as his private fiefdom. (Or as a Chinese political analyst put it, according to Evan Osnos of the New Yorker, Trump practiced "jiatianxia..., an obscure phrase from feudal China [that means] 'to treat the state as your possession.'") "As long as critics write, "Well, he shouldn't have done this," & in another column write, "He shouldn't have done that," the public will not grasp the whole picture.

Ana Swanson & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Trump will head to Tennessee on Monday to appeal to farmers, a key demographic that helped elect him, as he promotes his tax law and previews a new White House strategy to help rural America. But back in Washington, some of the economic policies his administration is pursuing are at odds with what many in the farm industry say is needed, from a potentially drastic shift in trade policies that have long supported agriculture to some little-noticed tax increases in the $1.5 trillion tax law."

Jeremy Peters, et al., of the New York Times: "Isolated from his political allies and cut off from his financial patrons, Stephen K. Bannon ... issued a striking mea culpa on Sunday for comments he had made that were critical of the president's eldest son. Mr. Bannon, who is quoted in a new book calling Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russians in 2016 'treasonous,' tried to reverse his statements completely, saying that the younger Mr. Trump was 'both a patriot and a good man.' Mr. Bannon spoke out after five days of silence, a delay that he said he regretted. He said his reference to 'treason' had not been aimed at the president's son, but at another campaign official who attended the 2016 Trump Tower meeting, Paul Manafort." Also, Stephen Miller got in a fight with Jake Tapper. & Tapper kicked Miller off the air. More on Miller's grand performance below. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Here's Bannon's full statement, via the New York Times. You may recall that a few days ago Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast reported that "On Wednesday morning, Steve Bannon and his closest advisers were preparing a statement to atone for scorched-earth comments he'd made about ... Donald Trump and his eldest son Donald Trump Jr., that had been printed in Michael Wolff's new book on the Trump White House. But before Team Bannon was able to make its statement public, the president dropped atomic tonnage on his former White House chief strategist." So Bannon decided not to publish his mea culpa." ...

... David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "Stephen K. Bannon's mea culpa came as Trump and his senior aides continued a barrage of public insults against him.... Trump on Sunday continued to lambaste Wolff on Twitter, denouncing the 'Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author.'... The president's top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, on Sunday called Bannon an 'angry, vindictive person' whose 'grotesque comments are so out of touch with reality.'" ...

... Chris Cillizza of CNN: "White House senior adviser Stephen Miller was by turns combative and obsequious in an interview Sunday with CNN's Jake Tapper -- veering from savaging former ally Steve Bannon and author Michael Wolff to lauding ... Donald Trump's intelligence and political savvy. It was something to behold. Below are the most memorable Miller lines from an epic back-and-forth. (It's worth watching the whole thing!)" Cillizza suggests Miller's "24 most grotesque lines" from the interview. Thanks to MAG for the link. ...

... BUT, as Tapper suggested, Miller's target audience liked it: Trump tweeted "Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration. Watch the hatred and unfairness of this CNN flunky!" "Tapper led off his next segment with the words, 'Welcome back to CNN and planet Earth.'" ...

... Wait, Wait, There's a Coda! Linette Lopez of Business Insider: "White House adviser Stephen Miller was escorted off the set of CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday after a contentious interview with host Jake Tapper. Two sources close to the situation told Business Insider that after the taping was done, Miller was politely asked to leave several times. He ignored those requests and ultimately security was called and he was escorted out, the sources said." Mrs. McC: This must be the first time in history a top White House official has been throw out of a TV studio. Maybe Miller can share notes with Omarosa, who also knows how it feels to be unceremoniously "escorted" off the premises.

E.J. Dionne: Michael Wolff "deserves our thanks for creating Trump's 'emperor has no clothes' moment, even if this point should have been reached before, say, Nov. 8, 2016. Trump's tweets on Saturday pronouncing himself 'a very stable genius' only underscored the damage Wolff has done and Trump's dumbfounding insecurity.... In response to what is little more than a traditional right-wing agenda, there has been a marked erosion of loyalty to Trump among voters who thought they were casting ballots for a populist and are getting ideological and plutocratic policies instead. A Pew Research Center survey last month found Trump losing ground particularly among whites without college degrees and white evangelical Christians.... On the other hand, the more Trump proves his populism to be phony and behaves like a traditional Republican, the more the congressional GOP will want to prop him up." ...

... Jacqueline Thomsen: "WikiLeaks posted the full text of Michael Wolff's explosive new book about President Trump on Sunday. The website's official account tweeted a link to a Google Drive containing the full text of the book.... 'New Trump book "Fire and Fury" by Michael Wolff. Full PDF: https://t.co/sf7vj4IYAx" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Update: BTW, I tried the link & it didn't work. First I got a notice from Google that I had to "authorized"; then I got an e-mail from Google that "the address couldn't be found." ...

... Turns out That Was Not Trump's Hair on Fire. Laura Dimon & Terence Cullen of the New York Daily News: "A small fire broke out on the roof of Trump Tower on Monday morning, officials said. Smoke was seen billowing off the top of the Manhattan skyscraper, carrying for several blocks. The blaze appeared to break out in the building's heating and cooling system, the FDNY said. Two people suffered injuries, including one man who was taken away on a stretcher after battling the rooftop fire. Eric Trump ... confirmed the rooftop cooling tower ignited [Mrs. McC: and made a misstatement, which is a requirement for all Trumpentweets]. 'Fire crews are responding to a fire at Trump Tower. There have been no injuries or evacuations, and the President is not currently at Trump Tower,'" Eric Trump tweeted.

Kristen Welker, et al., of NBC News: "Anticipating that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will ask to interview ... Donald Trump, the president's legal team is discussing a range of potential options for the format, including written responses to questions in lieu of a formal sit-down, according to three people familiar with the matter. Lawyers for Trump have been discussing with FBI investigators a possible interview by the special counsel with the president as part of the inquiry into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.... Trump's legal team has been debating whether it would be possible to simply avoid it.... Justice Department veterans cast doubt on the possibility that Mueller, who served as FBI director for 12 years, would forgo the chance to interview the president directly." The writers note that both Bill (while president) & Hillary Clinton have allowed federal investigators to depose them. Mrs. McC: The feds should put Trump under oath, not so he'll tell the truth but so they'll have another charge against him -- lying under oath to federal investigators, a charge that also would bolster an obstruction indictment. ...

... Jesse Drucker of the New York Times: "... the Kushner Companies' extensive financial ties to Israel continue to deepen, even with [Jared Kushner's] prominent diplomatic role in the Middle East. The arrangement could undermine the ability of the United States to be seen as an independent broker in the region.... Mr. Kushner resigned as chief executive of Kushner Companies when he joined the White House last January. But he remains the beneficiary of a series of trusts that own stakes in Kushner properties and other investments. Those are worth as much as $761 million, according to government ethics filings, and most likely much more.... The Baltimore-area buildings in which Menora [-- an insurer that is one of Israel's largest financial institutions --] invested were the subject of an article by a ProPublica reporter in the The New York Times Magazine last year that documented the poor living conditions and aggressive tactics used by Kushner Companies, including garnishing the bank accounts of low-income tenants and turning off heat and hot water." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's kinda hard to reckon why a huge Israeli investment fund would want to traffic in Baltimore slum property -- unless, unless -- Jared!

Chip, Chip, Chipping Away. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Interior Department has approved a land swap deal that will allow a remote Alaskan village to construct a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, according to local officials. The action effectively overrules wilderness protections that have kept the area off limits to vehicles for decades. The land exchange, which has been agreed to but not formally signed, sets in motion a process that would improve King Cove's access to the closest regional airport. The village, with roughly 925 residents, has lobbied federal officials for decades to construct a 12-mile gravel road connecting it to the neighboring town of Cold Bay.... Environmentalists, along with two Democratic administrations, have blocked the road on the grounds that it would bisect a stretch of tundra and lagoons that provide a vital feeding ground for migrating birds as well as habitat for bears, caribou and other species. The refuge was established by President Dwight Eisenhower, and all but 15,000 of its 315,000 acres have been designated as wilderness since 1980. Motorized vehicle access is traditionally prohibited in such areas."

Beyond the Beltway

Matt Arco of NJ.com interviewed Chris Christie during his last days as governor of New Jersey. Among the things Christie said, "He grades himself as a B+ governor (with 'A moments') and thinks people will come to the same conclusion. He says he doesn't care about his bad poll numbers, but blames them on the media -- mostly the New Jersey press and other 'know-nothing voyeurs' -- who he said attacked him mercilessly after Bridgegate with a 'floodgate' of negative stories and attention. He concedes that scandal over closed lanes on the George Washington Bridge changed the course of his administration and political career because he lost 'the benefit of the doubt.' He 'absolutely' believes he'd be president if Donald Trump didn't enter the race." ...

... Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "An acclaimed book about discrimination against African Americans in the criminal justice system has been banned from some prisons in New Jersey, according to newly obtained records. The New Jim Crow, an award-winning book by Michelle Alexander published in 2010, appears on lists of publications that inmates in state correctional facilities may not possess. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which obtained the banned book lists in response to a public records request, called for the ban to be lifted and said it violated the rights of inmates under the first amendment to the US constitution."

The Commentariat -- January 7, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Jeremy Peters, et al., of the New York Times: "Isolated from his political allies and cut off from his financial patrons, Stephen K. Bannon ... issued a striking mea culpa on Sunday for comments he had made that were critical of the president's eldest son. Mr. Bannon, who is quoted in a new book calling Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russians in 2016 'treasonous,' tried to reverse his statements completely, saying that the younger Mr. Trump was 'both a patriot and a good man.' Mr. Bannon spoke out after five days of silence, a delay that he said he regretted. He said his reference to 'treason' had not been aimed at the president's son, but at another campaign official who attended the 2016 Trump Tower meeting, Paul Manafort." Also, Stephen Miller got in a fight with Jake Tapper. ...

... A video of the interview is here. Mrs. McC: I haven't watched the Sunday showz in years. I might have to start watching "State of the Union" now.

*****

I thought Jeanne taught us a new word yesterday: "clunkweasel." But, even better, it turns out she coined a new word. In the vast universe of the Googles, this is the only place a "clunkweasel" has been spotted. It applies it to fellows like Lindsey Graham & Chuck Grassley. But oh so many others. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Old Man Goes Camping with Bought-and-Paid-for "Friends." Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump again insisted on Saturday that he was not under investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian influence on the 2016 election, adding that 'there's been no collusion, there's been no crime.' 'Everything I've done is 100 percent proper,' Mr. Trump said during a news conference at Camp David, where he was asked about a New York Times report that he had pressed Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the Russia inquiry. 'That is what I do, is I do things proper.'" Mrs. McC: Among the things you don't do "proper" is modifying verbs. In other news, Mitch wore jeans. ...

... Chas Danner of New York has a good rundown of the newsy items in Trump's impromptu presser. Mrs. McC: Also, Mitch wore jeans. ...

... "Trump Is Shocked ... Reporters Check Facts." Caroline Orr of Shareblue: "... many journalists have cautioned readers that [Michael] Wolff's credibility is not exactly rock solid. That's what journalists do -- at least most of them. At Fox News, however..., facts tend to be treated as optional. According to Politifact, 60 percent of the claims they fact-checked from Fox and Fox News have been rated 'Mostly False,' 'False,' or 'Pants on Fire.'... At Camp David, Trump [said,] 'What I really was heartened by ... was the fact that so many of the people that I talk about in terms of fake news actually came to the defense of this great administration, and even myself, because they know the author and they know he's a fraud,' Trump said. In Trump's eyes, journalists who stuck to the facts were coming to his defense. In reality, they were just doing their jobs. But when Fox News is your standard, sticking to the facts is anything but ordinary. Really, though, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Trump thinks everything is 'fake news' -- because on Fox, most of it is."

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "In a White House marked by a string of high-level comings and goings, an extraordinary level of palace intrigue and a general sense of unpredictability, there remains but one constant. That is the disorder at the center.... The first week of the year was breathtaking for its shock value: a presidential tweetstorm of personal animus and policy provocation that overshadowed positive news about the economy.... Meanwhile, almost every news organization has reported about the private rages, the lack of focus, the indiscipline and the isolation that also define the style of the 45th president.... Trump continues to make himself the issue. The past week proved it once again, and Saturday's tweets added a startling exclamation point." ...

... Josh Marshall: "The most important thing to know about this debate [over Trump's mental health] is that it simply doesn't matter.... For public purposes, clinical diagnoses are only relevant as predictors of behavior. If the President has a cognitive deficiency or mental illness that might cause him to act in unpredictable or dangerous ways or simply be unable to do the job, we need to know. But My God, we do know!... All the diagnosis of a mental illness could tell us is that Trump might be prone to act in ways that we literally see him acting in every day: impulsive, erratic, driven by petty aggressions and paranoia, showing poor impulsive control, an inability to moderate self-destructive behavior. He is frequently either frighteningly out of touch with reality or sufficiently pathological in his lying that it is impossible to tell." ...

... David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "The President of the United States got up [Saturday] morning, watched Fox And Friends do a segment on his mental health, and used his Twitter thumbs to give the world a textbook example of the Dunning Kruger effect[.] (Jim Fallows explains the Dunning Kruger effect in an article linked below.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... David Frum of the Atlantic: "There's a key difference between film and reality, though: The Corleone family had the awareness and vigilance to exclude Fredo from power. The American political system did not do so well." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Another difference between the Fredo character & Trump is that Fredo made his assertion privately to his brother while Trump made his in writing for the world to see. ...

... AND Here Is How Actual, Like, Smart People Act. Jim Fallows of the Atlantic: "Here are three traits I would report from a long trail of meeting and interviewing people who by any reckoning are very intelligent. They all know it.... Virtually none of them (need to) say it.... They know what they don't know. This to me is the most consistent marker of real intelligence. The more acute someone's ability to perceive and assess, the more likely that person is to recognize his or her limits.... On the other hand, we have something known as the Dunning-Kruger effect: the more limited someone is in reality, the more talented the person imagines himself to be. Or, as David Dunning and Justin Kruger put it in the title of their original scientific-journal article, 'Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments.'" ...

... Steve M. finds quite a few tweeters who were driven to writing Gilbert & Sullivan ditties in response to the Twit-in-Chief's defense of his gen-i-us. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's essential to remember that Trump is not only mentally unstable; he is also destabilizing the federal government & international relations:

Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "Two things stand out about the foreign policy messages Mr. Trump has posted on Twitter since taking office: How far they veer from the traditional ways American presidents express themselves, let alone handle diplomacy. And how rarely Mr. Trump has followed through on his words. Indeed, nearly a year after he entered the White House, the rest of the world is trying to figure out whether Mr. Trump is more mouth than fist, more paper tiger than actual one.... There is an increasing sense that the credibility of the administration, and the presidency itself, is being eroded." ...

... AND Here at Home, Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker takes a look at many ways Trump has subverted -- or attempted to subvert -- the rule of law. One way is by not bothering to appoint officials to key posts but instead putting "acting" officials in place, thus skirting the confirmation process & relying on officials who report only to Trump's Cabinet members & Trump himself. "Trump's Presidency may look like a series of chaotic lurches. But there is, alas, madness to his method." Mrs. McC: And Toobin doesn't even mention the pardoning Joe Arpaio, when is a screaming emblem of Trump's disdain for the rule of law. As Mueller closes in on the Von Trump Family Stinkers & sundry members of the Von Trump Choir, we are likely to see that pardon pen run out of ink.

Jim Acosta of CNN: "More White House officials were involved in the effort to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself in the Russia investigation beyond counsel Don McGahn, a senior administration official said Friday. Among those who participated in calls between the White House and Justice Department were former chief of staff Reince Priebus and ex-press secretary Sean Spicer, the senior administration official said.... Earlier Friday, Spicer said on Good Morning America that he wasn't aware of the President's reported request that [White Housel counsel Don] McGahn urge Sessions to decide against recusal.... In one of the calls, Spicer said 'he (Sessions) doesn't need to recuse himself,' according to the official.... This official asked on one of the calls how Spicer, who is not an attorney, could reach such a conclusion.... 'It was just chaos,' the official said about the conversations with Sessions' team." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It is impossible to believe three top White House officials -- counsel, chief-of-staff & press secretary -- just happened to call up Sessions of their own volition to urge him not to recuse. Trump did it with a hammer in the Oval Office. ...

... Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider interviewed Simona Mangiante, George Papadopoulos' fiancee. Shortly after the FBI arrested Papadopoulos, "Mangiante flew to Chicago to see Papadopoulos and was promptly served with a subpoena by a federal agent working for special counsel Robert Mueller. 'The interview [with agents working for Mueller] lasted about two hours, and they asked a lot of questions about Joseph Mifsud, Mangiante said, referring to the London-based professor who told Papadopoulos in April 2016 that the Russians had 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton in the form of 'thousands of emails.'... Mangiante ... work[ed] for Mifsud -- from September through November of 2016 -- at the London Centre of International Law Practice." Bertrand goes on to describe what's publicly known about Mifsud. ...

... More Trump Family Troubles. David Cloud of the Los Angeles Times: "Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has recalled for questioning at least one participant in a controversial meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016, and is looking into President Trump's misleading claim that the discussion focused on adoption, rather than an offer to provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Some defense lawyers involved in the case view Mueller's latest push as a sign that investigators are focusing on possible obstruction of justice by Trump and several of his closest advisors for their statements about the politically sensitive meeting, rather than for collusion with the Russians. Investigators also are exploring the involvement of the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, who did not attend the half-hour sit-down on June 9, 2016, but briefly spoke with two of the participants, a Russian lawyer and a Russian-born Washington lobbyist. Details of the encounter were not previously known." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Okay, that's three Trump kiddies (Junior, Eric & Ivanka) & one son-in-law who are now under investigation. Couldn't be more pleased. And who better to design the orange jumpsuits than Ivanka? Maybe a family crest? ...

... Brennan Weiss of Business Insider: "The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a probe into Kushner Companies, the New York real-estate firm owned by the family of ... Jared Kushner, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The investigation reportedly focuses on the company's use of the EB-5 visa program, which allows 10,000 immigrant visas each year in an effort to promote investment from foreign countries into less-developed regions or create jobs in the US." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julia Manchester of the Hill: "A Breitbart editor blasted a tweet from President Trump attacking his former chief strategist and current Breitbart chairman Stephen Bannon.... 'This is outrageous even by POTUS standards,' Breitbart London editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam tweeted late Friday, responding to a tweet from Trump that went after 'Sloppy Steve Bannon.' In a tweet blasting a new tell-all book, Trump claimed that Bannon 'cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad!'" ...

Cold as ICE. Mark Curnutte of the Cincinnati Enquirer: "Federal immigration officials said Friday they will proceed with the deportation of an Ohio man who is the sole provider and trained medical caregiver of a 6-year-old paraplegic boy. The Detroit office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a statement via email to The Cincinnati Enquirer, which profiled the boy, Ricky Solis, and had requested an update on the case on Wednesday. Yancarlos Mendez, 27, of Springdale has lived with the boy's mother, Sandra Mendoza, since 2014 and has become the only father Ricky has known. His birth father is no longer in Ricky's life after he had beaten and emotionally abused Mendoza." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

All the Best People, Ctd. Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "A former National Park Service official who improperly helped Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder cut down more than 130 trees to improve a river view at his Potomac, Md., estate has been chosen by the Trump administration to be one of the agency's highest-ranking leaders. According to an internal email circulated at the Department of the Interior, P. Daniel Smith will assume the agency's deputy director position on Monday.... [To help Snyder remove the trees,] Smith pressured lower-level officials to approve a deal that disregarded federal environmental laws, harmed the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park and left the agency vulnerable to charges of favoritism, according to an Inspector General report." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: We know from the early days of the transition that Trump was promising to be a horrible president, based solely on his first picks for high-level positions. It seems to me that his picks are purposely making a mockery of the government he is supposedly running. Of course, this particular in-your-face appointment is probably what Trump considers an apt response to all of the environmental roadblocks here & abroad (Scotland) that Trump has faced in building his golf resorts. Wealthy people, after all, should be free to do what they want, & if what they want leads to local environmental degradation, well, so what?

No, Irony Isn't Dead. Adam Raymond of New York: "National Security Agency head Admiral Mike Rogers is retiring in the spring, he reportedly told staffers in a 'classified memo' Friday. The memo has since leaked to NPR and Politico, among others. It's a fitting end to Rogers's four-year tenure at the NSA, which was marked by high-profile intelligence leaks and his efforts to prevent them. Brought on in the aftermath of Edward Snowden's bombshell NSA leaks, Rogers was tasked with making sure nothing of the sort ever happened again. But he wasn't successful." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump may have killed his panel probing allegations of widespread voter fraud, but the controversy surrounding its mission appears destined to continue. Upon issuing an executive order last week terminating the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity -- which met only twice and faced a flood of lawsuits -- Trump said he had asked the Department of Homeland Security to take a look at the panels work and 'determine next courses of action.' Boosters of the commission, including its vice chairman and driving force, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), are pushing for the DHS to focus on using data that the department collects on citizenship to ferret out illegal voters on state voting rolls."

Max Greenwood of the Hill: "New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is coming out against President Trump's plan to expand offshore drilling in federal waters off the U.S. coast. 'Of course I oppose drilling off of New Hampshire's coastline,' Sununu, a Republican, said Saturday, according to The Associated Press. The Trump administration announced a plan on Thursday to drastically expand the federal waters in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans available for offshore oil and natural gas drilling." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is pretty great because, by one official measure, New Hampshire has only 13 miles of coastline.

Tim Arango of the New York Times: "... the growing divide between California and the Trump administration erupted this past week over a dizzying range of flash points.... What had been a rhetorical battle between a liberal state and a conservative administration is now a full-fledged fight. Just as Californians were enjoying their first days of legal pot smoking, the Trump administration moved to enforce federal laws against the drug. On the same day, the federal government said it would expand offshore oil drilling, which California's Senate leader called an assault on 'our pristine coastline.' When President Trump signed a law that would raise the tax bills of many Californians by restricting deductions, lawmakers in this state proposed a creative end-around -- essentially making state taxes charitable contributions, and fully deductible.... New laws that went into effect on Jan. 1 in California raised the minimum wage, allowed parents to withhold gender on birth certificates and strengthened what were already some of the toughest gun laws in the country by restricting ammunition sales and assault weapons, and barring school officials from carrying concealed weapons at work. Taken together, the measures are the surest signs yet of how California is setting itself apart from Washington -- and many parts of America, too."

Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed: "One of the Democratic Party's biggest donors says she is reconsidering her support for the women in the U.S. Senate who called for Al Franken's resignation following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate touching. The San Francisco-based donor, Susie Tompkins Buell, 75, has given millions of dollars to Democratic causes since the 1990s. She is best known as a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton, but has also contributed for decades to Democratic women senators, hosting a regular spring fundraiser for the lawmakers in California called 'Women on the Road to the Senate.'... In two interviews this week, Buell described the push for Franken's departure as 'unfair,' 'cavalier,' and somewhat politically motivated -- 'a stampede,' 'like a rampage,' she said, speaking in stark terms about senators she has backed for years, naming [Kirsten] Gillibrand [D-N.Y.] in particular." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Katherine Stewart in a New York Times op-ed: "The Museum of the Bible, which sits a few blocks southwest of the United States Capitol..., is a safe space for Christian nationalists, and that is the key to understanding its political mission.... Ralph Drollinger, the founder and president of Capitol Ministries and one of the most politically influential pastors in America..., held a training conference for some 80 international associates at the museum on the topic of 'creating and sustaining discipleship ministries to political leaders.' Mr. Drollinger believes that social welfare programs 'have no basis in Scripture,' that Christians in government have an obligation to hire only Christians and that women should not be allowed to teach grown men.... Mr. Drollinger was an early, passionate supporter of Donald Trump's presidential candidacy.... The participants in his groups, however, aren't just anybody. They include Mike Pompeo...; Jeff Sessions...; Mike Pence; Betsy DeVos ...; and other senior officials in the Trump administration." The museum's founder is Steve Green of Hobby Lobby infamy. "Given the theologico-political goals of its founders and patrons, it isn't hard to see that the location of this museum was an act of symbolic and practical genius. If you're going to build a Christian nation, this is where you start."

News Lede

New York Times: "John W. Young, who walked on the moon, commanded the first space shuttle mission and became the first person to fly in space six times, died on Friday at his home in Houston. He was 87.... Mr. Young joined NASA in the early years of manned spaceflight and was still flying, at age 53, in the era of space shuttles. He was the only astronaut to fly in the Gemini, Apollo and shuttle programs. He was also chief of NASA's astronauts office for 13 years and a leading executive at the Johnson Space Center in Houston."