The Commentariat -- January 6, 2018

Afternoon Update:

David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "The President of the United States got up this 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[.] ...

     ... 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." ...

... 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.

Naturally, no one told Eric the family had scheduled a group portrait. 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..., 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." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Okay then, 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."

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."

Oh, Good News. Irony Has Been Resuscitated Already. 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.... But he wasn't successful."

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."

*****

David Remnick of the New Yorker: "Future scholars will sift through Trump's digital proclamations the way we now read the chroniclers of Nero's Rome -- to understand how an unhinged emperor can make a mockery of republican institutions, undo the collective nervous system of a country, and degrade the whole of public life.... There is little doubt about who Donald Trump is, the harm he has done already, and the greater harm he threatens. He is unfit to hold any public office, much less the highest in the land. This is not merely an orthodoxy of the opposition; his panicked courtiers have been leaking word of it from his first weeks in office. The President of the United States has become a leading security threat to the United States." ...

... Jordan Fabian & Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "President Trump on Saturday launched a remarkable defense of his mental fitness for office.... Trump made the defense in a series of tweets that appeared to push back on questions raised by a new book that painted a chaotic and dysfunctional picture of his campaign and early months of his presidency. 'Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart,' Trump tweeted. The president said doubts about his mental capacity have been frequently raised by his critics, but he proved them wrong with his stunning victory in the 2016 election and his career in television and business. 'I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!' he said." Thanks to Marvin S. for the lead. ...

... Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "By taking on the issue so directly, the president ensures that the discussion of his capacity will only intensify. He is set to undergo a physical examination this coming week, but those tests for presidents do not generally involve mental acuity.... Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation to force the president to submit to psychological evaluation. Mental health professionals have signed a petition calling for his removal from office." Includes screenshots of this morning's Twitterstorm.

The president believes in making sure that information is accurate before pushing it out as fact, when [the Wolff book] certainly and clearly is not. -- Sarah Sanders, Jan. 4

For the second straight day Thursday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders fought back against Michael Wolff's Trump tell-all. And in doing so, she may have finally killed off what's left of irony in the White House briefing room. -- Aaron Blake of the Washington Post, Jan. 5

... The Trumpies. Dana Milbank: "It's no small irony that book excerpts [from Michael Wolff's Fire & Fury] showing Trump's perfidy appeared the day after Trump announced that he would host 'THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS,' featuring 'Bad Reporting in various categories.' Call it the Trumpies? For once in his life, Trump is being modest. In the field of dishonesty, it is he who deserves the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement: Obama wiretapped him. He had the largest inauguration audience ever. The Russia story is fake news. Muslims celebrated in New Jersey on 9/11. He only got a small loan from dad. Hillary Clinton started the 'birther' movement. The tax cut will cost him a fortune." Milbank goes on to suggest "various categories" Trump would win, like "Best Actor in a Misleading Role." ...

Look, I think it's absolutely insane to think all of these individuals, reporters and others, who suddenly have a medical degree and think that they can diagnose somebody, many times who they've never even had a conversation with.... What I think is really mentally unstable is people that don't see the positive impact that this president is having on the country. -- Sarah Sanders, on Fox "News"

So it's "insane" for nonprofessionals to "diagnose" Trump's psychological disabilities from afar, but it's A-OK for Sanders to mass-diagnose tens of millions of unnamed Americans as "mentally unstable" based on their disliking Trump. That's pretty much the view of dictators who lock opponents & suspected dissidents in mental institutions. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxi.... Oh, Never Mind. Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "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. 'Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency,' read Trump's statement, which as The Daily Beast reported, he personally dictated key parts of.... After Trump made his statement, Bannon quickly spiked his own, according to The Hill and Axios. The Daily Beast has obtained portions of the final draft of Bannon's unreleased statement.... The text of Bannon's written statement that was obtained by The Daily Beast does not mention Kushner...."

Trump Takes Young Hostages. Sheryl Stolberg & Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "The White House on Friday presented Congress with an expansive list of hard-line immigration measures, including an $18 billion request to build a wall at the Mexican border, that President Trump is demanding in exchange for protecting young undocumented immigrants. The request, which totals $33 billion over a period of 10 years for border security measures including the wall, could jeopardize bipartisan talks aimed at getting an immigration deal. Among the items on Mr. Trump's immigration wish-list: money to hire 10,000 additional immigration officers, tougher laws for those seeking asylum, and denial of federal grants to so-called 'sanctuary cities.' The list, delivered to Senator Richard J. Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who has been leading the talks related to young immigrants without documentation, is identical to one Democrats declared a non-starter when the White House issued it in October." Durbin & other Democrats were not amused.

Trump Weaponizes the DOJ. Adam Goldman & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "F.B.I. agents have renewed asking questions about the dealings of the Clinton Foundation amid calls from President Trump and top Republicans for the Justice Department to take a fresh look at politically charged accusations of corruption. People familiar with the F.B.I.'s steps said on Friday that agents have interviewed people connected to the foundation about whether any donations were made in exchange for political favors while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Career prosecutors shut down that investigation in 2016 for lack of evidence.... [Trump] briefly struck a ... magnanimous tone after the election.... That has changed as Mr. Trump's legal problems have mounted.... He has openly called for Mrs. Clinton to be investigated and one of her top aides to be imprisoned.... Since the Watergate scandal, the Justice Department has conducted criminal investigations largely free of White House political influence. Mr. Trump, by contrast, has declared he has 'absolute authority' over the Justice Department." ...

... Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The FBI has been investigating the Clinton Foundation for months, reviving a probe that was dialed back during the 2016 campaign amid tensions between Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents about the politically charged case, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry resumed about a year ago. Agents are now trying to determine if any donations made to the foundation were linked to official acts when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, these people said. The people did not identify what specific donations or interactions agents were scrutinizing." ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The last time the U.S. had a federal "justice" system nearly this corrupt, J. Edgar Hoover was head of the FBI & John Mitchell was attorney general. ...

... Trump Enablers Pounce. Nicholas Fandos & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "More than a year after Republican leaders promised to investigate Russian interference in the presidential election, two influential Republicans on Friday made the first known congressional criminal referral in connection with the meddling -- against one of the people who sought to expose it. Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a senior committee member, told the Justice Department that they had reason to believe that a former British spy, Christopher Steele, lied to federal authorities about his contacts with reporters regarding information in a dossier, and they urged the department to investigate.... The decision by Mr. Grassley and Mr. Graham to single out the former intelligence officer behind the dossier -- and not anyone who may have taken part in the Russian interference -- infuriated Democrats and raised the stakes in the growing partisan battle over the investigations into Mr. Trump, his campaign team and Russia." ...

... Let's add to this the DOJ's newest investigation of Hillary Clinton's e-mail server, which Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast reported earlier this week. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Kevin Johnson of USA Today: "FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, whom President Trump has blamed for influencing the decision not to criminally charge Hillary Clinton for her use of private email server, did not oversee that inquiry while his wife was running for state office in Virginia as a Democrat, according to bureau records released Friday. The internal documents, published on the FBI's website, support what the bureau has asserted previously: that McCabe had no conflicts when he assumed oversight of the Clinton investigation. His role began in February 2016, following his appointment as deputy director and three months after his wife, Jill McCabe, lost her bid for a state Senate seat. McCabe has been repeatedly targeted by Trump and some Republican lawmakers.... As recently as last month, Trump seized on McCabe's role in the Clinton inquiry and his wife's political bid, noting that Jill McCabe received nearly $470,000 from a political action committee associated with Clinton ally and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe."

... ** Conservative Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "This is an outrageous political stunt, one with no legal ramifications and obviously designed to take the heat off the White House as damning reports bolstering an obstruction-of-justice claim and questioning the president's mental fitness have sent the White House spinning. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Judiciary Committee and a former prosecutor, tells me, 'I cannot understand why it would be necessary for members of Congress to make a criminal referral to the FBI concerning information we know the FBI already has.' The referral itself is devoid of any particulars, simply accusing [Christopher] Steele of making false comments relating to the dossier. Were these under oath? How do they have knowledge of such comments?... [Committee] Democrats were never consulted on this.... Moreover, the statute that Grassley and Graham cite -- 18. U.S.C. 1001 -- requires that a misstatement be intentionally wrong and material. It is ironic that the Justice Committee chairman who witnessed now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions repeatedly make false statements under oath would ignore these misstatements of fact and choose instead to vaguely point to ones apparently made to other people." Read on. Rubin cites several other experts who make clear this is what a real "witch hunt" looks like. Emphasis original. ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones: "... the public now knows that the United States was attacked by Putin, that Trump associates were interacting with Russians during this period, and that Trump and his crew, intentionally or not, provided cover for Moscow by insisting no such operation was occurring. Yet what now draws the ire of congressional Republicans the most is [Christopher] Steele and his reports.... And it's not the first distraction they have tried to create. Remember the so-called 'unmasking' scandal of last spring?... The Republican Party, which for decades claimed it was the party that championed patriotism and national security, has jettisoned these priorities for Trump protectionism." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Republicans Are Weaponizing Law Enforcement Against Trump;s Enemies.... Two Republican senators, one of whom chairs the Judiciary Committee, have taken up Trump;s demands to treat the dossier's author, a well-respected British intelligence agent, like a criminal.... The [Clinton] foundation's arrangements may have been unwise, or even unethical, for a presidential candidate, but it has survived intense scrutiny without a hint of any criminal behavior.... It is impossible to imagine any new lead or legitimate reason to reopen an investigation [of Hillary Clinton's e-mails] that was completed last year, other than to satisfy Trump's lust to criminalize his opponents. At minimum, the effect will be to feed the right-wing news media's message that Trump's opponents are the real criminals, in order to supply a distraction for his base. At maximum, the 'charges' will allow Trump to have something to trade away -- he could fire Mueller while 'magnanimously' pardoning his enemies in the alleged spirit of letting old feuds die. In either case, the threat of investigation can be used to make any potential Trump critic think twice." ...

... Steve M.: "The GOP is a party of limitless bad faith -- we see that in the way they legislate, the way they investigate, the way they bottle up Democratic appointees. We use the word 'normalization' to attack efforts to minimize the baroque villainy of Trump -- but what about the media's normalization of the Benghazi inquisitions or the refusal to consider Merrick Garland's appointment? The press has made some serious efforts not to normalize Trump, and bravo for that. But McConnell and Ryan, Graham and Grassley, Nunes and Gowdy have all been normalized for years. The press hasn't been willing to portray them as the scoundrels they are. After we're rid of Trump, that will continue to be the case with regard to his enablers." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... we now have the Republican party as a whole fully complicit in Trump's crimes -- because that's what they are, whether or not he and those around him are ever brought to justice. What this means, among other things, is that expecting the GOP to exercise any oversight or constrain Trump in any way is just foolish at this point. Massive electoral defeat -- massive enough to overwhelm gerrymandering and other structural advantages of the right -- is the only way out." It's worth noting that Krugman wrote this before Grassley & Graham decided to initiate this latest hoax. ...

... Kevin Drum: "The American legal system is really getting a workout these days, now that we have a president who sees courts and the Justice Department primarily as tools to take revenge on his enemies. I hope it's up to the task."

Trump Family Scandal. Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "The digital director of the Trump campaign said Friday that the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and son Eric Trump 'were joint deputy campaign managers' whose 'approval' was required for every decision before the 2016 election. 'Nobody else. Not one person made a decision without their approval,' the digital director, Brad Parscale, tweeted.... Kushner was Parscale's 'patron.'... Kushner got Parscale hired, the person said, 'despite the fact that a number of people in the campaign wondered whether he had any idea what he was doing.'... Federal and congressional investigators are reportedly scrutinizing the data operation Kushner supervised and Parscale directed, looking into whether it colluded with Russian bots and trolls that targeted voters with disinformation and propaganda before the US election. Congressional committees are also investigating whether voter information stolen by Russian hackers from election databases in several US states made its way to the Trump campaign." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I, for one, am way thrilled that Eric von Trump has finally made his way into the Trump Family Scandal. The family that preys together stays together. Sweet! ...

... Alex Zielinski of the San Antonio Current: "Senator Dianne Feinstein has summoned Brad Parscale -- web director of San Antonio's Giles-Parscale design firm -- to testify and submit documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee on any interaction he's had with Russian nationals. This, of course, has to do with Parscale's integral role in Donald Trump's presidential campaign in which he led the team's digital media efforts. As the main guy pouring campaign money into the Facebook advertisements and marketing strategies that ushered Trump into the White House, Parscale has inevitably been linked to those in Trump's camp suspected of letting Russia interfere with the 2016 election. Parscale, who's called the Trumps 'family,' has previously denied any corroboration with Russia in regards to his campaign work." ...

... Russia Scandal Began with Sex, After All. David Wroe of the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald: "It was a chance romantic encounter by George Papadopoulos that set in train the events that led to the Australian government tipping off Washington about what it knew of Russian hacking efforts to swing the US presidential election. Fairfax Media can reveal a woman in London with whom Papadopoulos became involved happened to know Alexander Downer [-- Australia's ambassador to the U.K. --] and told ... [him] about Papadopoulos, a newly signed staffer for Donald Trump. Downer ... followed it up and arranged a meeting with the young American, who was mostly living in London at the time. What followed was the now infamous May 2016 conversation over many glasses of wine at the swanky Kensington Wine Rooms, during which the 28-year-old Papadopoulos spilled to Downer that he knew of a Russian dirt file on the rival Clinton campaign consisting of thousands of hacked emails. That night was a key moment that helped spark the FBI probe...." ...

... Conservative Jack Goldsmith in Lawfare: Deputy Attorney General Rod "Rosenstein ... appears to be smack in the middle of [Robert] Mueller's ostensible obstruction investigation. Indeed, he appears to have contributed to the firing and provided a seemingly neutral basis for it, with the knowledge that the president was motivated at least in part by the Russia investigation. If the president abused his power in firing [James] Comey due to the Russia investigation, Rosenstein appears to have knowingly contributed to it. I cannot fathom how, in this light, he remains the supervisor in charge of that investigation, since a reasonable person would question his impartiality in the matter.... Rosenstein's non-recusal might, despite the many stories to the contrary, be evidence that Mueller is not in fact investigating whether Trump obstructed justice or otherwise violated the law in firing Comey.... A second possibility is that Mueller is investigating obstruction by the president and that, with respect to that issue, Rosenstein has in fact recused himself but not publicly announced it.... A third possibility is that Rosenstein is bending the rules a bit.... Something here doesn't make sense."

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump has begun telling advisers that it will likely be impossible to advance legislation this year to reduce welfare spending and enrollment -- a priority he previously embraced with the backing of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and a number of conservative activists.... Some Republicans want to reduce health-care, housing and food-stamp spending by making it tougher for beneficiaries to receive the dollars -- such as through new work requirements.... A number of White House officials and advisers have begun tamping down expectations..., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has told Trump it's a nonstarter in his chamber because he would need the support of Democrats who oppose the idea...." ...

... Elizabeth Bruenig of the Washington Post: "If the poor must work to earn every dollar, shouldn't the rich?... Before deciding whether it's morally right for [needy Americans] to receive income without working, consider a far larger group that takes in far more money without toil: the idle rich. They soak up plenty of unearned money from the economy, in the form of rent, dividends and capital income. Salaries and wages -- that is, money paid for work -- only make up about 15 percent of the income of Americans making $10 million per year or more; the rest is capital income from simply owning assets.... [Yet] the government shells out huge sums of money to the rich every year through tax breaks and subsidies."

Tim Egan: "We know Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a small, backward-looking man with even smaller, more backward-looking ideas, but what was the thinking behind his new federal crackdown on legal marijuana? Punish the blue states? Create cannabis chaos in the large swath of the American West and the other states where voters have said they want the police to spend their time on real crime? Or is it just another betrayal of the fools who voted for a man aptly described from inside the White House in Michael Wolff's new book, as 'less a person than a collection of terrible traits'?... And yet, after the government spent more than $1 trillion over the last four decades on the failed drug war, Trump now wants to double down on the most failed aspect of modern prohibition.... More people are arrested for pot possession than all the crimes that the F.B.I. classifies as violent -- one arrest every minute. This at a time when only 14 percent of the people think marijuana should be illegal."

Nothing to Worry About, Folks. Rebecca Shabad of CBS News: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has scheduled a briefing for later this month to outline how the public can prepare for nuclear war. 'While a nuclear detonation is unlikely, it would have devastating results and there would be limited time to take critical protection steps. Despite the fear surrounding such an event, planning and preparation can lessen deaths and illness,' the notice about the Jan. 16 briefing says on the CDC's website, which features a photo of a mushroom cloud. The notice went on to say that most people don't know that sheltering in place for at least 24 hours is 'crucial to saving lives and reducing exposure to radiation.'... This comes amid rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. President Trump tweeted Tuesday night, boasting about the size of his 'nuclear button' and how it's 'much bigger & more powerful' than North Korea's."

Trump Has "Absolute Right" to Do What He Wants with DOJ AND Twitter. Brian Feldman of New York: "Having twisted itself in knots over the last few years trying to defend its free-speech absolutism as its platform grew increasingly toxic, Twitter has recently earned a lot of flack for continuing to offer Donald Trump a place to drop his bad ideas.... In a short blog post, the company writes, 'Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate. It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.'... This is probably as straightforward an articulation of Twitter's messy internal thinking as we're going to get. 'He's the president, duh' makes more sense than most of the reasons Twitter has tried to supply."

Beyond the Beltway

Marwa Eltagouri of the Washington Post: "The home of Tina Johnson, who accused former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of groping her, was destroyed Wednesday in a fire that is being investigated as an arson, though officials say they do not believe it is related to the Moore allegations." ...

... The AL.com story, by Anna Vollers, is here.

The Commentariat -- January 5, 2018

** Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Trump gave firm instructions in March to the White House's top lawyer [Donald McGahn]: stop the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from recusing himself in the Justice Department's investigation into whether Mr. Trump's associates had helped a Russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election.... McGahn ... carried out the president's orders and lobbied Mr. Sessions to remain in charge of the inquiry.... Mr. McGahn was unsuccessful, and the president erupted in anger in front of numerous White House officials, saying he needed his attorney general to protect him. Mr. Trump said he had expected his top law enforcement official to safeguard him the way he believed Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general, had done for his brother John F. Kennedy and Eric H. Holder Jr. had for Barack Obama. Mr. Trump then asked, 'Where's my Roy Cohn?'... The lobbying of Mr. Sessions is one of several previously unreported episodes that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has learned.... Mr. Mueller has also substantiated claims that [James] Comey made in a series of memos describing troubling interactions with the president before he was fired in May." There's lots more. Read on. ...

... Barbara McQuade in The Daily Beast: "To be effective, the Department of Justice must be independent from partisan politics. And, just as important, it must be perceived as independent.... The Department of Justice is not the president's personal legal team, designed to lock up his rivals.... Bowing to the wishes of the president to investigate his political enemies would undermine public confidence in the objectivity of DOJ's charging decisions in this case and all others.... Reopening this case could set a dangerous precedent for future administrations to reconsider all charging decisions with which they disagree.... Even that sort of charade would be an abuse of the awesome powers of the Department of Justice and a waste of resources that could be better spent on new cases." --safari

Michael Wolff publishes the second excerpt of his upcoming book in The Hollywood Reporter. Some highlights: "[A]fter the abrupt Scaramucci meltdown, hardly any effort inside the West Wing to disguise the sense of ludicrousness and anger felt by every member of the senior staff toward Trump's family and Trump himself. It became almost a kind of competition to demystify Trump. For Rex Tillerson, he was a moron. For Gary Cohn, he was dumb as shit. For H.R. McMaster, he was a hopeless idiot. For Steve Bannon, he had lost his mind. Most succinctly, no one expected him to survive Mueller.... There was more: Everybody was painfully aware of the increasing pace of his repetitions. It used to be inside of 30 minutes he'd repeat, word-for-word and expression-for-expression, the same three stories -- now it was within 10 minutes.... At Mar-a-Lago, just before the new year, a heavily made-up Trump failed to recognize a succession of old friends." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Another good read. Less sensational than the parts excerpted yesterday -- unless you consider numerous proofs of a sitting U.S. president's unfitness for office to be a matter of some interest. ...

... Michael Wolff's third installment of his new book, in British GQ. Some highlights: "Trump, goaded by Bannon, would continue to do the things that would delight ­conservative media and incur the wrath of liberal media. That was the programme.... But Trump himself was desperately wounded by his treatment in the mainstream media.... Slights were singled out and replayed again and again, his mood worsening with each replay (he was always rerunning the DVR).... Women, according to Trump, were simply more loyal and trustworthy than men. Men might be more forceful and competent, but they were also more likely to have their own agendas. Women, by their nature -- or Trump's version of their nature -- were more likely to focus their purpose on a man. A man like Trump ... felt women understood him.... [Kellyanne] Conway seemed to have a convenient 'on-off' toggle.... She channelled Trump: she said exactly the kind of Trump stuff that would otherwise make her put a finger-gun to her head." And so on. --safari ...

As a former prosecutor, it is clear to me that the repeated attempts by @POTUS to influence the criminal investigation against him, such as this attempt to order AG Jeff Sessions to not recuse, screams CONSCIOUSNESS OF GUILT -- Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), in a tweet

... Andy Borowitz: "Donald J. Trump, legendary among U.S. Presidents for his aversion to reading, demanded on Thursday that members of his White House circle act out Michael Wolff's new book, 'Fire and Fury,' in a command performance in the Oval Office. According to those who witnessed the dramatic presentation, Jared Kushner played the role of Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump played the role of Ivanka Trump, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders played Steve Bannon." ...

... Eric Levitz looks over some of the evidence, including that which Wolff provides, that Trump is suffering from some degree of dementia. But that's not all: "By all accounts, most GOP Congress members recognize that Donald Trump is a pathological narcissist with early stage dementia and only peripheral contact with reality -- and they have, nonetheless, decided to let him retain unilateral command of the largest nuclear arsenal on planet Earth because it would be politically and personally inconvenient to remove his finger from the button. You don't need a degree in psychiatry to call that crazy." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Quite a while back -- I (or my also-imaginary predecessor) mentioned that I thought Trump suffered from dementia -- based heavily on the contrast between his speech pattern from years ago & the childish way he speaks now (and also on my experience with older people). I don't believe anyone commented on my assessment, which suggested to me that people kinda thought mine was a far-out opinion -- or perhaps too kindly. It is, after all, more satisfying to feel someone like Trump is an evil wanker than it is to feel a little sorry for him because he's suffering from a neurological disease. But I would hope that by now some would agree with my unprofessional diagnosis. ...

... Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... most of all, the book confirms what is already widely understood -- not just that Trump is entirely unfit for the presidency, but that everyone around him knows it.... And yet these people continue to either prop up or defend this sick travesty of a presidency.... Some of the military men trying to steady American foreign policy amid Trump's whims and tantrums might be doing something quietly decent, sacrificing their reputations for the greater good. But most members of Trump's campaign and administration are simply traitors. They are willing, out of some complex mix of ambition, resentment, cynicism and rationalization, to endanger all of our lives -- all of our children's lives -- by refusing to tell the country what they know about the senescent fool who boasts of the size of his 'nuclear button' on Twitter.... Trump, Wolff's reporting shows, has no executive function, no ability to process information or weigh consequences. Expecting him to act in the country's interest is like demanding that your cat do the dishes. His enablers have no such excuse." ...

... Jack Shafer of Politico speculates on how Trump "got Wolffed." Mrs. McC: Helpful to read in conjunction with the Hollywood Reporter excerpt. ...

... TMZ: In Fire & Fury, Woolf "claims [Hope] Hicks and the married [Corey] Lewandowski had an affair during the campaign, and she became upset when the media started going after him. Wolff claims Trump responded to her, 'Why? You've already done enough for him. You're the best piece of tail he'll ever have.' Wolff claims Hicks ran from the room." ...

... Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "An enraged President Trump called acting attorney general Sally Yates 'a c[un]t' after she refused to uphold his contentious travel ban targeting Muslims, according to a new book about the Trump administration."

... Timothy O'Brien of Bloomberg: "... one of the more substantive issues Bannon has surfaced shouldn't get lost in the cacophony. Bannon, in his interviews with Wolff, has invited us to consider the families of Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner as possible targets of a significant federal money-laundering investigation.... 'This is all about money laundering,' Wolff quotes Bannon saying. 'Their path to [expletive] Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr. and Jared Kushner.'... 'It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner stuff,' Bannon adds. 'The Kushner stuff is greasy. They're going to go right through that.'" ...

     ... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Bannon's argument is that Mueller's team is focused not on Russian meddling but on unearthing money laundering by [Paul] Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and [Jared] Kushner that can then be used as leverage against [Donald] Trump.... We contacted Chris Quick, a retired FBI special agent who specialized in financial crimes.... He walked us through how money laundering works in the real-estate industry and how others may be implicated in that criminal activity." ...

... Steve M.: "[T]here are enough doubts about [the] veracity [of Michael Wolff's book] that The Washington Post has already published two columns warning us to read the book skeptically.... Well, Trumpers, if you're being lied about in a high-profile media account, that sucks -- but welcome to our world.... Being slandered and libeled in the media just comes with the territory for Democratic presidents and aspirants. John Kerry allegedly fabricated his military record. Bill and Hillary Clinton allegedly had a lot of people killed. Chelsea Clinton was allegedly the result of a marital rape. Barack Obama is allegedly a Kenyan by birth who allegedly gay-married his Pakistani roommate and then used the same wedding ring (with Arabic inscription!) to marry Michelle.... The GOP has built itself on lies about Democrats. If there's dishonesty in the Wolff book, it's Republicans getting a taste of their own medicine." --safari ...

... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "When candidate Donald Trump first spoke of a plan to 'open up' libel laws..., he seemed serious. And he also seemed ill-informed: As president, Trump would lack the requisite power over the courts to make it easier for people to secure damages for defaming other people. Now installed in the White House, Trump has occasionally returned to his authoritarian fantasy of shutting down independent media outlets.... The Thursday letter from Trump attorney Charles Harder ... directed ... Michael Wolff and his publisher, Henry Holt & Co. ... [to] 'immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the Book, the Article, or any excerpts or summaries of either of them, to any person or entity, and that you issue a full and complete retraction and apology [blah blah]....' ... Laughable, all of it.... Don't say that the media didn't prepare us for this enduring national embarrassment. A USA Today investigation during the campaign found that Trump had been involved in at least 3,500 legal actions over the previous three decades." ...

... Ashley Parker & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "... legal experts and historians said the decision by a sitting president to threaten 'imminent' legal action against a publishing house, a journalist and a former aide represented a remarkable break with recent precedent and could have a chilling effect on free-speech rights.... 'Trump is stealing a page out of Richard Nixon's playbook once again,' [presidential historian Douglas] Brinkley said. 'When you get criticized by the press or a book that attacks you, you attack back with ferocity.... It's a misuse of presidential powers.'... For nearly half a century, Trump has used lawsuits -- and often just the threat of them -- as a primary weapon in his arsenal against critics and competitors, deploying libel and slander allegations to push back against those who might embarrass or contradict him. He has had his lawyers threaten book authors, business rivals, attorneys, and critics of his real estate developments and political views." ...

... Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "In a new statement Thursday, billionaire conservative donor Rebekah Mercer said..., 'I support President Trump and the platform upon which he was elected,' Mercer said. 'My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements.' Mercer almost never speaks publicly, and her statement about her longtime ally represented an extraordinary rebuke. It comes in the wake of new book by journalist Michael Wolff...," which includes incendiary comments by Bannon about the president he helped elect and about Trump's family.... She said she remains committed in her support for Breitbart News, where she holds a minority stake and where Bannon serves as chairman. People familiar with the conservative news website said discussions have begun at the organization about potentially removing him [as chairman]." ...

     ... Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "Republican mega-donor [KKK] Rebekah Mercer publicly rebuked Steve Bannon on Thursday in a rare, and brutal, public statement. But before she did, Mercer spoke to President Donald Trump.... Mercer and Trump addressed Bannon's scorched-earth comments that appear in Michael Wolff's new book on the Trump White House, and the donor reaffirmed her support for Trump's presidency and his agenda. White House spokesman Raj Shah declined to confirm the call or its details, but did not deny that it took place." --safari...

     ... Adam Raymond of New York: "If Bannon is fired by Breitbart News, the move would have the support of the White House. When she was asked Friday if Bannon should be ousted..., Sarah Sanders said, 'I certainly think that it's something they should look at and consider.'" Mrs. McC: Needless to say, remarking on private companies' employment decisions is not something a real presidential press secretary would do, even in more extreme cases of wrongdoing. But it does stand to reason that a president* also would have a press secretary.*

... Pax Trvmpvs Never Lasts Long. Ron Klain in a Washington Post op-ed: "On Nov. 22, 2016 ... Donald Trump ... said that he opposed further investigation of Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, as it would be 'very, very divisive' for the country and Clinton had already 'suffered greatly in many different ways.'... A year later, Trump ... has all but ordered his Justice Department to reopen the investigation into Clinton's emails, and to explore the fantabulous theory that the Clinton Foundation somehow got nine federal agencies to tamper with the review of a commercial uranium transaction. This week, he called for jailing a former Clinton aide and prosecuting former FBI director James B. Comey. If that weren't enough, Trump's allies are calling for an investigation of 'high ranking Obama government officials who might have colluded to prevent' Trump's election.... Trump and his allies are proposing a bargain, with a not-so-subtle message to Democrats: '... If my people are going to be investigated, then so will yours.'... The actions of Trump and his allies tell us a lot about what they fear could be found." ...

... Josh Marshall: "The idea that a sitting President can seek to silence critics and silence dissent using the civil courts is as monstrous as it is comical and is entirely in keeping with the practice of broken democracies that slip into autocracy.... Have you ever see a coiled hose that suddenly has hugely pressurized water run through it?... It swings and jerks violently this way and that. It gets everyone wet.... That's our President. But it's not water, it's fire.... That's what's happening today and will continue for every day of his Presidency, albeit with lulls of lethargy and torpor here and there. He is likely the most reviled and mocked man in the entire world today. He is also the most powerful.... The whole situation is comical, mind-boggling and deeply dangerous." --safari

Today in Il Duce's New Rules

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration will allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all United States waters, it announced Thursday. The plan would give the energy industry broad access to drilling rights in most parts of the outer continental shelf, including Pacific waters near California, Atlantic waters near Maine and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The proposal lifts a ban on drilling, imposed by President Barack Obama in his final days in office, that protected more than 100 million offshore acres along the Arctic and Eastern Seaboard. Such a reversal deals a serious blow to Mr. Obama's environmental legacy and signals that the Trump administration is nowhere near done unraveling the environmental restrictions of its predecessor in an effort to promote domestic energy production." ...

... Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration unveiled a controversial proposal Thursday to permit drilling in most U.S. continental-shelf waters, including protected areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic, where oil and gas exploration is opposed by governors from New Jersey to Florida, nearly a dozen attorneys general, more than 100 U.S. lawmakers and the Defense Department. Under the proposal, only one of 26 planning areas in the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean would be off limits to oil and gas exploration, according to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke." Even Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R-Trumpy) is pissed off. ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: When Trump is having a bad day, he lashes out at some perceived enemy. There need not be cause-and-effect. Neither President Obama nor the coastline had anything whatsoever to do with Michael Wolff or Steve Bannon or other White House leakers. But hey, whatever -- good time to roll out a program for creating coastal waters catastrophes. AND there's more. Much more. ...

Emily Badger & John Eligon of the New York Times: "Undermining another Obama-era initiative, the Trump administration plans to delay enforcement of a federal housing rule that requires communities to address patterns of racial residential segregation. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, in a notice to be published Friday in the Federal Register, says it will suspend until 2020 the requirement that communities analyze their housing segregation and submit plans to reverse it, as a condition of receiving billions of federal dollars in block grants and housing aid.... Since joining the agency, [Secretary Ben] Carson [-- who has opposed the rule --] has said that he wants to 'reinterpret' the rule."

Mark Landler & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The United States will suspend nearly all security aid to Pakistan, the Trump administration announced on Thursday in a sign of its frustration with the country's refusal to confront terrorist networks operating there. Administration officials said as much as $1.3 billion could be frozen, although Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman, did not provide an estimate of the total aid funds affected. Ms. Nauert said the suspension could be lifted if Pakistan changed its behavior by doing more to fight terror groups.... The United States has provided Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid since 2002. Additionally, the State Department announced earlier on Thursday that it had placed Pakistan on a special watch list for what it described as the country's severe violations of religious freedoms."

** Sessions Is a Cowardly Sack of Shit. Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "Justice Department officials are taking a fresh look at Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she served as secretary of State, The Daily Beast has learned.... A former senior DOJ official familiar with department leadership's thinking said officials there are acutely aware of demands from ... Donald Trump that they look into Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of State -- and that they lock up her top aide, Huma Abedin.... It's an open question as to whether Justice Department officials would have the same level of interest in Clinton's server without a political directive from the White House, the former official said.... Conservatives said the revelation that Justice Department officials are looking at Clinton's email server comes as a relief." --safari ...

... Gone Fishin'. John Solomon of The Hill: "The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, law enforcement officials and a witness tells The Hill.... Several GOP members of Congress have recently urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special counsel to look at the myriad of issues surrounding the Clintons. Justice officials sent a letter to Congress in November suggesting some of those issues were being re-examined, but Sessions later testified the appointment of a special prosecutor required a high legal bar that had not yet been met." --safari...

... No, No, Sessions Is Tough on Trivial "Crime." Charlie Savage & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "The Trump administration freed federal prosecutors on Thursday to more aggressively enforce marijuana laws, effectively threatening to undermine the legalization movement that has spread to six states, most recently California. In a move that raised doubts about the viability and growth of the burgeoning commercial marijuana industry, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded an Obama-era policy that had discouraged federal prosecutors from bringing charges of marijuana-related crimes in states that have legalized sales of the drug. In a statement, Mr. Sessions said the Obama-era guidance undermined 'the rule of law. and the Justice Department's mission to enforce federal statutes.... The move seemed certain to increase the confusion surrounding whether it is legal to sell, buy or possess marijuana in the United States.... Mr. Sessions was a vocal opponent of marijuana legalization as a United States senator from Alabama. At his confirmation hearing in January, he ... [Mrs. McC: ... lied his elfin ass off.] ...

     ... "Senator Cory Gardner, Republican of Colorado, accused Mr. Sessions of violating promises had made and threatened retaliation. 'This reported action directly contradicts what Attorney General Sessions told me prior to his confirmation. With no prior notice to Congress, the Justice Department has trampled on the will of the voters in CO and other states,' Mr. Gardner wrote on Twitter, adding: 'I am prepared to take all steps necessary, including holding DOJ nominees, until the Attorney General lives up to the commitment he made to me prior to his confirmation.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yo, Jeff, what happened to prosecutorial discretion? What happened to your preference for states' rights? What happened to common sense? ...

     ... Thomas Fuller of the New York Times: "The sale of recreational cannabis became legal in California on New Year's Day. Four days later, the Trump administration acted in effect to undermine that state law by allowing federal prosecutors to be more aggressive in prosecuting marijuana cases. A memo by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday was widely interpreted in the nation's most populous state as the latest example of Trump vs. California, a multifront battle of issues ranging from immigration to taxes to the environment. And on marijuana, once again California reacted with defiance. 'There is no question California will ultimately prevail,' Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor of California, said."

Kira Larner of Think Progress: "Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap (D) had strong words for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) on Thursday after Kobach tried to lay blame for the failure of President Trump's Election Integrity Commission at the feet of Dunlap and three other Democratic commissioners. '[It's a] bunch of balderdash,' Dunlap told ThinkProgress in an interview.... Kobach, the commission's vice-chair, claimed that Democrats on the panel jeopardized their opportunity to be involved in setting federal voting policy.... Kobach [was] likely referring to over a dozen lawsuits against the group by Democrats and voting advocates, including one by a Democratic commissioner against his own commission.... Dunlap said he suspected that Kobach would choose to terminate the commission rather than involve the four Democrats." --safari

Chip, Chip, Chipping Away. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Thursday proposed sweeping new rules that could make it easier for small businesses to band together and create health insurance plans that would be exempt from many of the consumer protections mandated by the Affordable Care Act.... The proposal would allow small business owners, their employees, sole proprietors and other self-employed individuals to join together as a single group to buy insurance in the large-group market. The new health plans could be exempt from some requirements of the Affordable Care Act. They would, for example, not have to provide certain 'essential health benefits' like mental health care, emergency services, maternity and newborn care and prescription drugs.... Consumer groups, state officials and Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans have strenuously opposed similar ideas for years. Association health plans, they say, will tend to attract employers with younger, healthier workers, leaving behind sicker people in more comprehensive, more expensive plans that fully comply with the Affordable Care Act." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: When you look at all the "new rules" that came out yesterday, it seems like a safe bet that Trump or some White House staffer called every Cabinet head & told them that if they had any draconian measures in the works -- especially draconian measures that would appease Trump's hatred for President Obama -- to roll them out today to help temper President Tantrum. Those who answered the call included Zinke, Tillerson, Sessions, Carson & whoever is running HHS now. Why hasn't Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao ordered the trains to run on time?

Thomas Homan Embraces His Inner Trump. Jonathan Blitzer of the New Yorker: "Even though he leads [Immigration & Customs Enforcement,] the federal agency that's arguably been the most receptive to Trump's agenda, [Thomas] Homan wasn't seen as an extremist by those who worked with him. A career immigration-enforcement official who has served under six Presidents, he didn't have the profile of a Trump supporter, either -- in fact, he was expected to retire at the start of last year, and had a job lined up at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the international consulting firm. ICE colleagues even held a goodbye party for him one Friday last January, only to be surprised the following Monday when he returned to work. (He became ICE's acting director that very night, when Trump unexpectedly demoted Homan's former boss.) 'He was thoughtful and nuanced,' a former Obama Administration official who worked closely with Homan in 2014, while implementing new enforcement priorities at ICE, said. 'None of us recognize this guy.'... In November, Trump nominated him to be the official head of ICE."

Lachlan Markay of The Daily Beast: "Veteran Republican operative and self-described 'ratfucker' Roger Stone is advocating for military operations, including drone strikes, in Somalia on behalf of his first lobbying client in 17 years. Stone recently disclosed that he had done lobbying work for a Buffalo-area company that acts as a middleman for the sale of African livestock to clients around the world.... Stone's work for Capstone began in May 2017, as the Trump administration stepped up U.S military operations in Somalia, including a href="https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/a3jjaz/u-s-airstrikes-on-somalia-have-soared-under-trump">major escalation in drone strikes against insurgent groups in the country. The number of U.S. troops in Somalia has more than doubled to over 500 since Trump took office." --safari...

     ... safari: Roger Stone, Somali expert,Trump whisperer, drone strikes. Another normal day in TrumpWorld.

Complicit. Laura Jarrett, et al. of CNN: "House Speaker Paul Ryan backed his fellow congressional Republican, House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, during a meeting over the Russia investigation Wednesday, capping off a months-long dispute between the committee and the Justice Department.... At Wednesday's meeting -- initiated at [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein's request -- Rosenstein and Wray tried to gauge where they stood with the House speaker in light of the looming potential contempt of Congress showdown and Nunes' outstanding subpoena demands.... During the meeting ... it became clear that Ryan wasn't moved and the officials wouldn't have his support if they proceeded to resist Nunes' remaining highly classified requests.... Sources also ... had learned recently that the White House wasn't going to assert executive privilege or otherwise intervene to try to stop Nunes.... A compromise was reached later Wednesday that allows House Intelligence Committee members to go to a Justice Department facility to view the documents, sources said.... The Justice Department has also approved a slew of Justice and FBI officials to be interviewed by the committee in January." --safari...

Beth Reinhard of the Washington Post: "In a lawsuit that echoes a civil case against President Trump, an Alabama woman on Thursday sued failed U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore and his campaign for defamation, citing harsh personal attacks she faced after coming forward with allegations he touched her sexually when she was 14 years old. Leigh Corfman is not seeking financial compensation beyond legal costs. She is asking for a declaratory judgment of defamation, a public apology from Moore, and a court-enforced ban on him or his campaign publicly attacking her again. She said in a statement that the suit seeks 'to do what I could not do as a 14-year-old -- hold Mr. Moore and those who enable him accountable.'... Under a landmark Supreme Court ruling, the legal standard for defamation of a public figure is that the statements were known to be false or showed a 'reckless disregard for the truth,' experts say." Mrs. McC: Good for Corfman: I hope she wins, even though we know Brother Roy will swear an oath on the Bible & promptly bear false witness again & again, so help him, God.

Richard Morgan in a Washington Post "Perspective" essay: "... I've seen [Woody Allen's] whole career up close -- going through all of his drafts and scribblings ... that exists in the 56-box, 57-year personal archives he has been curating since 1980 at Princeton University (which he did not attend).... From cover to cover, and from the very beginning to the very end, Allen, quite simply, drips with repetitious misogyny. Allen ... never needed ideas besides the lecherous man and his beautiful conquest.... Allen's work is flatly boorish. Running through all of the boxes is an insistent, vivid obsession with young women and girls." Mrs. McC: In real life, Woody Allen is as creepy as you imagined.

Reality Check. Sydney Pereira of Newsweek: "The ocean is running out of oxygen at a rapid speed -- and the depletion could choke to death much of the marine life these waters support. A sweeping review published Thursday in Science documented the causes, consequences and solutions to what is technically called 'deoxygenation.' They discovered a four-to-tenfold increase in areas of the ocean with little to no oxygen, which researchers say is alarming because half of Earth's oxygen originates from the ocean.... Without oxygen in the oceans, marine life will die off or relocate.... [T]he amount of water in the open ocean without oxygen has quadrupled in 50 years. It is more than twice as bad for coastal waters, such as estuaries and seas.... Oxygen is typically replenished when surface water mixes with the deeper water, but when the oceans are hotter, there is less vertical mixing." --safari

The Commentariat -- January 4, 2018

David Smith of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president's son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as 'treasonous' and 'unpatriotic', [and 'bad shit'], according to an explosive new book seen by the Guardian. Bannon, speaking to author Michael Wolff, warned that the investigation into alleged collusion with the Kremlin will focus on money laundering and predicted: 'They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.'" Read on for the fun of it. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... John Wagner & Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: Michael "Wolff says that his book is based on 200 conversations over the past 18 months with Trump, most members of his senior staff, some of whom he talked to dozens of times, and many people with whom they had spoken. Some conversations were on the record, while others were off the record or on 'deep background.'... Here are 12 [details of the book] that stand out[.]" Mrs. McC: Many fun facts or "facts." ...

... Here's an excerpt (or adaptation) of Wolff's book, published in New York magazine. Qualifies for the Mrs. McCrabbie Seal of Approval. ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "In his comments to Wolff, Bannon isn't expressing horror at [Junior, Manafort & Kushner's] treason, but suggesting that Kushner and company were too stupid to do it properly. Bannon even suggests that campaign collusion with Russia could have worked if there were proper cut-outs: 'Bannon went on, Wolff writes, to say that if any such meeting had to take place, it should have been set up 'in a Holiday Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire, with your lawyers who meet with these people'. Any information, he said, could then be 'dump[ed] ... down to Breitbart or something like that, or maybe some other more legitimate publication....' Bannon is speaking as a disgruntled former employee, making the case that he would not have screwed up as much as the guys who still work in the White House have." ...

... Kevin Drum: "... the most interesting part, I thought, was the editor's note at the end: 'Shortly after Trump's inauguration, Wolff says, he was able to take up 'something like a semi-permanent seat on a couch in the West Wing' -- an idea encouraged by the president himself. Because no one was in a position to either officially approve or formally deny such access, Wolff became 'more a constant interloper than an invited guest.' There were no ground rules placed on his access, and he was required to make no promises about how he would report on what he witnessed.' This sort of arrangement is fairly common in presidential campaigns. But it's not common in presidential administrations.... But apparently Trump is such an insane narcissist that he couldn't see any downside to this. He simply couldn't conceive that unrestricted access would produce anything other than a glowing tribute to the most sensational first 100 days of any presidency ever."...

...Bob Brigham of RawStory: "Donald Trump had an intricate plan of deception to bed the wives of his friends, according to yet another bombshell revelation from Michael Wolff's new book Fire and Fury. MSNBC obtained a copy of the book and NBC News' former embedded reporter with the Trump campaign, Katy Tur, tweeted a highlighted section. 'Trump liked to say that one of the things that made life worth living was getting your friends' wives into bed,' the starred paragraph begins...." --safari...

...Tim Teeman of The Daily Beast: "The mystery of Donald Trump's hair ('style' would be an over-reach), so long contested, may have finally been solved by his daughter Ivanka Trump -- at the same as she reportedly mocks her father's hair affair to friends. As reported by Michael Wolff in his new book about President Trump's first year in office...we learn that it is Trump's beloved daughter that leads the chorus of those who mock the Trump 'do' (or 'don't').... Every morning, Trump is his own '60s housewife, wrestling his bouffant to prettified submission. The only method of control for these wanton tendrils: spray, and more spray." --safari: Turns out it was Ivanka, in the Parlor room, with a cellphone. ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "Donald Trump shows little affinity for reading, but he is familiar with the conceit of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: An ambitious figure creates a monster in the hopes of glorifying himself, only to have the spurned monster wreak havoc on its creator. The president is living that plot, too, with Steve Bannon.... In describing the Trump Tower meeting as 'treasonous' and 'unpatriotic,' Bannon becomes the first major Trump insider to say what is at this point clear to anyone willing to look at the facts: Whether or not there were any crimes committed, Trump aides colluded with Russia. The pattern runs from George Papadopoulos's conversations with Russian agents, through the Trump Tower meeting, and up to Michael Flynn's conversations with then-Ambassador Sergey Kislyak...." ...

... Brian Stelter of CNN: "The national news coverage of the book's revelations -- including shocking quotes from Steve Bannon -- sent the book soaring on Amazon.com. By 3 p.m. ET, it was ranked #1 on the site's best-selling books list. Twenty-four hours earlier, it had been ranked #48,449." ...

... Eileen Sullivan, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump essentially excommunicated his onetime chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, from his political circle on Wednesday, excoriating him as a self-promoting exaggerator who had 'very little to do with our historic victory' and has now 'lost his mind.' In a written statement brimming with anger and resentment, Mr. Trump fired back at Mr. Bannon, who had made caustic comments about the president and his family to the author of a new book about the Trump White House. While Mr. Bannon had remained in touch with Mr. Trump even after being pushed out of the White House last summer, the two now appear to have reached a breaking point." Mrs. McC: Boo-fucking-hoo." ...

... Here's Trump's statement in full, via the New York Times. ...

... David Graham: "While the tone of Trump's statement is jarring, the maneuver of distancing himself is old hat. Each time a former staffer causes a problem for Trump, he pretends they played no role, that he barely even knew them." Besides Bannon, think Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, & George Papadopoulos." ...

... Josh Dawsey & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "Late Wednesday, lawyers for Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon, arguing he violated the employment agreement he signed with the Trump Organization in numerous ways and also likely defamed the president. They ordered that he stop communicating either confidential and or disparaging information, and preserve all records in preparation for 'imminent' legal action.... Bannon has in recent weeks also alienated his main financial backer, Rebekah Mercer, after he told several other major conservative donors that he would be able to count on the Mercers' financial support should he run for president, a person familiar with the conversations said. The person said Mercer now does not plan to financially support Bannon's future projects -- and that she was frustrated by his moves in Alabama and some of his comments in the news media that seemed to stoke unnecessary fights." ...

     ... Kevin Drum: "I really hope Trump goes through with [his threat to sue Bannon]. Presidents routinely get upset about leaks and tell-all books, and often do ill-advised things to try stop it. But this! This would be the stupidest thing ever. And it would include discovery! And depositions under oath! And two titanic assholes vying for the title of who's the bigger asshole. That's all too good to be true, so it probably won't happen. But wouldn't it be great if it did?" ...

... Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, sued the special counsel on Wednesday and asked a federal court to narrow his authority, escalating Republican efforts to discredit an investigation that has stretched longer than the White House expected.... He sued both [Robert] Mueller and Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who appointed Mr. Mueller.... The unusual move comes as Mr. Trump tries to portray the investigation as a politically motivated witch hunt that has cast a dark cloud over his administration and, in his view, the country.... As part of that investigation, prosecutors indicted Mr. Manafort on money laundering charges related to years of foreign lobbying -- but not related to Russian election interference or the Trump campaign.... The case faces an uphill climb because Mr. Rosenstein has said publicly that he has specifically approved every significant step that Mr. Mueller has taken in the investigation." ...

     ... Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "On Wednesday, [Paul] Manafort's lawyers responded to [Manafort's] indictment with a highly unusual lawsuit challenging Mueller's authority to prosecute the case.... The lawsuit is procedurally irregular. It relies on regulations that explicitly deny Manafort a right to sue. It makes dubious factual claims. And it is far from clear that Manafort is entitled to any meaningful remedy even if all of his claims are accurate.... The bottom line, in other words, is that Manafort's tactic is unlikely to succeed. He's claiming a right he doesn't have, in a courtroom he shouldn't be in, based on facts that probably don't exist." --safari ...

... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Chris Wray made an unannounced visit to Speaker Paul Ryan's office Wednesday as the Justice Department grapples with an increasingly hostile faction of House Republicans demanding documents related to the bureau's Russia probe. Rosenstein was spotted entering Ryan's office, and a spokesman for the speaker confirmed that Rosenstein and Wray had requested the meeting. A second person familiar with the meeting said it was related to a document request issued over the summer by House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes. Nunes (R-Calif) has mounted an aggressive push -- with the threat of contempt citations for members of the FBI and Justice Department -- to glean more information about how the FBI handled a disputed dossier alleging illicit ties between ... Donald Trump and the Kremlin.... It was not immediately clear what Rosenstein and Wray sought from Ryan." ...

     ... Update: Karoun Demirjian & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post have a newer, more detailed story on the meeting: Devin "Nunes said in a statement Wednesday night, 'After speaking to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein this evening, I believe the House Intelligence Committee has reached an agreement with the Department of Justice that will provide the committee with access to all the documents and witnesses we have requested.'" ...

... Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "... Donald Trump's social-media manager, Dan Scavino, 'may have corresponded with Russian nationals regarding Trump campaign social media efforts,' Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) wrote Wednesday in a letter asking Scavino to agree to an interview this month with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Feinstein's letter says the committee, where she is the ranking Democrat, has 'received information' regarding Scavino's potential communications with Russians. [She] did not elaborate." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So from golf caddie to Russian agent. What a career!

The Madman of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Kevin Liptak & Dana Bash of CNN: "... Donald Trump started 2018 in a fury partly fueled by anger at his legal team for offering shifting timelines about when the Russia investigation would end, according to two sources familiar with the President's mindset. The anger continued until midday Wednesday as Trump helped draft his blistering break-up letter to former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who offered a scathing attack on Trump and his family's handling of the Russia investigation. That followed his taunting tweet Tuesday evening directed at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which caught many top administration officials off guard and prompted renewed worry among staff and allies about whether the President fully comprehends the risks he's taking in provoking adversaries. After Trump's North Korea broadside, aides inside the White House reached out to some of Trump's allies seen as having influence over the President to talk to him about his tweets and the risks they carry.... Trump's venting began Tuesday with a 16-tweet onslaught that White House officials largely saw as an attempt by a media-obsessed President to whip up new storylines that center on him." ...

** Eric Levitz: "A senile Fox News addict -- with delusions of grandeur and poor impulse control -- has the unilateral authority to instigate a nuclear holocaust whenever he wants.... So now, the United States is inching toward a shooting war with North Korea; the president is bragging about the size and potency of his 'Nuclear Button' over Twitter; and White House officials are venting fears of an imminent, 'accidental' catastrophe to their confidantes in the fake news media.... The 'adults' on Trump's foreign policy team (James Mattis, H.R. McMaster, and, to a lesser extent, Rex Tillerson) haven't set the terms of the administration's national security strategy by winning arguments with the president, but by holding their ground long enough for him to lose interest.... [But] At this point, the most influential voices in the president's ear appear to be Fox News producers -- Trump's latest threat of nuclear war was ostensibly inspired by a cable news segment. This state of affairs has made it virtually impossible for the United States to conduct credible diplomacy." ...

... E.J. Dionne: "Trump is, without question, doing enormous damage to the United States' standing in the world, and his strategy for political survival is rooted in a willingness to destroy our institutions.... The United States does have extraordinary gifts for self-correction. But we must face the fact that Trump is accelerating us toward the breaking point.... Not even Mueller has a button on his desk he can press to get us out of this without scars." ...

... Annie Karni of Politico: "Lawmakers concerned about ... Donald Trump's mental state summoned Yale University psychiatry professor Dr. Bandy X. Lee to Capitol Hill last month for two days of briefings about his recent behavior. In private meetings with more than a dozen members of Congress held on Dec. 5 and 6, Lee briefed lawmakers -- all Democrats except for one Republican senator, who Lee declined to identify. Her professional warning to Capitol Hill: 'He's going to unravel, and we are seeing the signs.' In an interview, she pointed to Trump 'going back to conspiracy theories, denying things he has admitted before, his being drawn to violent videos.' Lee also warned, 'We feel that the rush of tweeting is an indication of his falling apart under stress. Trump is going to get worse and will become uncontainable with the pressures of the presidency.'... The ['Nuclear Button'] tweet resuscitated the conversation about his mental state and the 25th Amendment, which allows for the removal of the president from office if the vice president and a majority of the cabinet deem him physically or mentally 'unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.'"...

... ** Susan Glasser of Politico: "Ever since Trump took the oath of office on January 20, the world has been taking his measure, trying to make sense of his 'America First' foreign policy and what it means for them.... The jarring reality of [world leaders'] encounters with Trump has at times been even more disturbing to America's friends and allies than the initial news accounts have suggested.... And if interactions with Trump were troubled, his emerging team offered little reassurance.... [Jared] Kushner was 'very dismissive' about the role of international institutions and alliances and uninterested in the European's recounting of how closely the United States had stood together with Western Europe since World War II. 'He told [an official], "I'm a businessman, and I don't care about the past. Old allies can be enemies, or enemies can be friends." So, the past doesn't count,' the official recalled." --safari

More Fun News. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Wednesday announced that he is disbanding a controversial voter commission launched last year in the wake of his baseless claim that he lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 because of millions of illegally cast ballots. The commission met only twice amid a series of lawsuits seeking to curb its authority and claims by Democrats that it was stacked to recommend voting restrictions favorable to the president's party. In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there is 'substantial evidence of voter fraud' and blamed the ending of the commission on the refusal of many states to provide voter data sought by the commission and the cost of ongoing federal lawsuits. The bipartisan panel, known the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, had been nominally chaired by Vice President Pence and led by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who has aggressively sought to prosecute voter fraud in his state." Mrs. McC: Mrs. Huckleberry lies about everything, doesn't she?

Mark Landler of the New York Times: Trump, "so accustomed to being the center of attention, must now watch from the sidelines as these longstanding enemies [North & South Korea] open a dialogue. The talks at first are likely to focus on North Korea's potential participation in the Winter Olympics, which are being held next month in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang.... Above all, [White House] officials said, the Trump administration will resist efforts by the North to drive a wedge between the United States and its ally.... The White House also reiterated that Mr. Trump would continue to defy Mr. Kim, regardless of any diplomacy underway." ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Kim's nuclear button boast had, of course, come more than 24 hours before Trump's tweet [threatening nuclear war]. But rather than learning of it through intelligence or diplomatic channels and considering a response, Trump appears to have found out about it a day late via his TV and decided to fire off some tweets.... Everything from Trump's alarming suggestion that the Justice Department prosecute former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin to his absurd contention that he deserves credit for an aviation safety streak that dates back to 2009 had its origins in a Fox News segment." Yglesias provides a Trump-Fox "News" tweetie time line, courtesy of Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Indeed, it seems clear that hours after Kim's speech, Trump had no knowledge of it whatsoever. As Joon Ian Wong of Quartz noted, "Trump was at the New Year's Eve celebration at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when reporters asked for his reaction to Kim's speech. 'We'll see, we'll see,' he said, according to the BBC." Other news outlets referred to the "we'll see" remark as a "muted" or "moderate" response. No, it was a bluff. "We'll see" means "I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm not going to admit that." ...

... Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Former Vice President Joe Biden called ... Donald Trump's war of words with North Korea 'not presidential' on Wednesday, cautioning him against engaging the U.S. in a competition over the size of the countries' nuclear arsenals. 'This is not a game. This is not about can I puff my chest out bigger than yours. It's just not -- it's not presidential,' Biden told NBC News.... 'The only war that's worse than one that's intended is one that's unintended,' [Biden told reporters Wednesday]." ...

... Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "For seventy years, North Korea has baited America with threats of mayhem, and, for seventy years, American Presidents, with rare exceptions, understood that squabbling with a pariah state whose economy is smaller than that of Rhode Island would diminish their own stature and America's standing. Trump, by contrast, summoned the world's attention and then sawed himself off at the knees. After a year of the President's casual threats of mayhem, of his belittling of American alliances, of claims so bizarre that a man shouting them on a public bus would get a wide berth, the response from Americans generally ranges from disbelief to despair to numbness. They are moments that defy the usual analysis, other than psychoanalysis.... In the short term, Trump's taunts will almost certainly compel North Korea to respond in words or actions." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's fair to assume that Kim is thrilled with the attention Trump has showered on him. ...

... Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "This is an extremely tense military standoff where the two sides have no formal lines of communication and haven't held any formal negotiations in years. A single misperception -- a single moment of believing that the US might be about to attack -- could cause North Korea to launch a preemptive strike. Millions of lives hang in the balance.... Trump seems to think -- at least in part -- that the dispute is part of a personal contest between him and Kim Jong Un. It isn't just the implied dick joke in the most recent tweet. It's calling him 'short and fat,' and saying that he's a 'sick puppy.' It's the constant, unending references to the North Korean dictator as 'Little Rocket Man.' This reflects Trump's longstanding approach to people he sees as enemies. His feud with Rosie O'Donnell -- in which Trump called her 'fat' and 'dumb,' among other things -- goes all the way back to 2006, per a CNN timeline. Between June 2015 and today, the New York Times reports, Trump has insulted 410 people, places, and things on Twitter alone." ...

... GOP Senators Still Dangerously Irresponsible Trump Toadies. Jenna Lifhits & Haley Byrd of the (right-wing) Weekly Standard: "Republican senators on Wednesday night brushed off ... Donald Trump's tweet threatening North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with the size and power of his 'nuclear button,' the latest in a series of heated exchanges between the two leaders. 'It's Trump being Trump,' South Dakota Senator John Thune told The Weekly Standard. 'Trump being Trump,' echoed North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis on his way to votes."

Adam Raymond of New York: "Acting ICE director Thomas Homan, who will become the permanent head of the agency if President Trump has his way, thinks it's time to start arresting politicians in sanctuary cities and charging them with crimes. In an interview Tuesday with Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto, Homan said political leaders in sanctuary cities, which don't cooperate with ICE officials looking to make immigration arrests, are breaking the law when they 'knowingly shield and harbor an illegal alien.' 'That is a violation of 8 USC 1324. That's an alien-smuggling statute. I've asked the Department of Justice to look at this,' he said.... Homan, who has called sanctuary cities 'un-American,' appears to want California governor Jerry Brown locked up first. In October, Brown signed a bill making California the nation's first 'sanctuary state.'"

Joe Difazio of International Business Times, via RawStory: "The administration of President Donald Trump is closer to watering down Obama era rules that protected college students defrauded by universities from having to pay back their student loan debts, according to a Department of Education draft proposal acquired by Politico....The document showed that the Department plans to limit the number of defrauded students eligible for loan forgiveness and raise the bar for what is considered fraud.... Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has indicated in the past that she would ease protections for defrauded borrowers, to the benefit of lenders, but the document shows how they propose to do so." --safari

David Perry of Pacific Standard: "On the Thursday afternoon before the Christmas holidays, Attorney General Jeff Sessions' Department of Justice rescinded 25 guidance documents that the department found 'unnecessary, inconsistent with existing law, or otherwise improper.' The list included 10 texts on disability rights, including one as recent as 2016 (i.e. hardly out of date). This recent document codified the labor rights of disabled people as they move from sheltered workshops paying sub-minimum wage into the integrated economy. Its deletion represents the latest effort of the Trump administration to roll back disability protections in the 21st century.... Segregated workshops are legally allowed to pay disabled workers pennies per hour. They are incredibly lucrative, and often their owners use their wealth to buy political access.... There's strong evidence to support the conjecture that the sheltered-workshop lobbyists are behind the latest DOJ move.... It's hard to keep track of all the threats, especially when they are dumped en masse right before a major holiday weekend. Trump and his team claim they are cutting through red tape. What they are really doing is merrily slicing through the network of carefully crafted guidelines and regulations once meant to ensure equal access to civil rights for all." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: What will a Republican do for political contributions? Kick a disabled person, for one thing. The essential cruelty of the party ethos makes me cry. Campaign finance reform would not change these GOP officials' characters, but it would give them less incentive to legislatively & administratively activate their bullying.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Two new senators -- Doug Jones, Democrat of Alabama, and Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota -- were sworn in on Wednesday, in a history-laden ceremony attended by three current and former vice presidents. Vice President Mike Pence, in his role as president of the Senate, presided over the swearing in. Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. escorted Mr. Jones down the central aisle of the Senate chamber, while former Vice President Walter Mondale escorted Ms. Smith." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Pajama Boy, Ctd. Sunlen Serfaty, et al., of CNN: "Disgraced Rep. Blake Farenthold has not yet repaid $84,000 in taxpayer money for a settlement reached with a former aide who accused him of sexual harassment and other improper conduct, despite the Texas Republican's statement late last year saying he would do so. Nearly one month after the initial statement, Farenthold's communications director, Stacey Daniels, tells CNN that he has not yet written a check, and on the advice of counsel is waiting to see what changes the House will make to the Congressional Accountability Act before repaying those funds."

Cade Metz & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "Computer security experts have discovered two major security flaws in the microprocessors inside nearly all of the world's computers. The two problems, called Meltdown and Spectre, could allow hackers to steal the entire memory contents of computers, including mobile devices, personal computers and servers running in so-called cloud computer networks."

Beyond the Beltway

Corrupt Republican Judges Rule for Republican. Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "The winner of a pivotal Virginia legislative race will be decided by lottery Thursday, one day after a recount court rejected a request to toss out a disputed ballot that brought the contest to a tie. In a race full of unexpected twists, the State Board of Elections is set to break the tie by randomly selecting the name of either Republican incumbent David E. Yancey or Democrat Shelly Simonds.... The spectacle ... could break the GOP's 18-year hold on the House of Delegates. But even if Simonds wins the drawing -- splitting the 100-member chamber right down the middle -- odds are the GOP will retain control on day one of the 2018 General Assembly session.... That's because the candidate who loses the drawing can request another recount, a process not likely to be completed before the legislature convenes on Jan. 10. And based on history, neither candidate would probably be seated if there is a pending recount, giving the GOP a 50-49 majority when delegates pick a speaker for the next two years." ...

     ... The Richmond Times-Dispatch story, by Graham Moomaw, is here.

Kelly Weill of The Daily Beast: "The sovereign citizen movement is a fringe conspiracy whose adherents claim to be immune from U.S. law.... [A] New Hampshire lawmaker, Republican state Rep. Richard Marple, is scheduled to introduce a bill that treats sovereign citizens as a recognized legal class, and proposes a $10,000 fine for state agencies that don't buy into sovereigns' legal make believe.... House Bill 1653 isn't Marple's first attempt to introduce sovereign-friendly laws in New Hampshire, although the bill has more co-sponsors than many of his previous attempts." --safari

Fund or Die. Stephen Marche of Mother Jones: "By now, almost everybody has seen pleas for help covering urgent medical bills in their Facebook feeds. With health care costs and high-deductible plans on the rise for more than a decade, medical expenses are the largest single cause of bankruptcies nationwide.... In 2011, sites like GoFundMe and YouCaring were generating a total of $837 million. Three years later, that number had climbed to $9.5 billion.... Crowdfunding companies say they're using technology to help people helping people, the miracle of interconnectedness leading to globalized compassion. But an emerging consensus is starting to suggest a darker, more fraught reality -- sites like YouCaring and GoFundMe may in fact be fueling the inequities of the American health care system, not fighting them." --safari

Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Authorities put out a fire at the New York property of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, a Clinton spokesman confirmed.... A Clinton spokesman, Nick Merrill, said the fire occurred in a Secret Service facility not connected to the couple's home in Chappaqua. Merrill added on Twitter that the 'small fire' occurred while the Clintons were not at the residence."

Way Beyond

Ruth Maclean of the Guardian: "Ethiopia's prime minister has announced that political prisoners will be released and a prison camp notorious for torture closed, acknowledging for the first time that the country holds such prisoners. Rights groups and activists welcomed the surprise promise by Hailemariam Desalegn to 'widen the democratic space for all', saying it could herald the end of a repressive, violent era for the country." --safari

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The unusual winter storm that pasted parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina with ice and snow Wednesday explosively intensified Wednesday night becoming one of the strongest East Coast winter storms in modern history.... Blizzard warnings extend from the Virginia Tidewater region up the coast to eastern Maine.... Between Wednesday and Thursday morning, the storm strengthened at an astonishing rate.... On Thursday afternoon, several wind gusts of at least 70 mph were clocked in coastal Massachusetts, including around Nantucket[.]" ...

... Weather Channel: "Winter Storm Grayson is undergoing bombogenesis off the Eastern Seaboard, spreading its mess of heavy snow, high winds and blizzard conditions that will likely trigger widespread power outages in New England as fresh bitter cold Arctic air settles in through the weekend.... A large shield of snow blankets the East from eastern North Carolina into New England. Embedded in that are bands of heavier snow, with snowfall rates of 1 to 3 inches per hour. Several locations from northeast North Carolina and the Virginia Tidewater to Delaware and the Jersey shore have already picked up 6 inches of snow, including Wildwood, New Jersey, Stockley, Delaware, and Hampton, Virginia. Newville, Virginia, between Norfolk and Richmond, tallied 8.5 inches of snow."