The Commentariat -- December 31, 2017

Sydney, Australia, Fireworks 2018:

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Under Mr. Trump, [the presidency] has become a blunt instrument to advance personal, policy and political goals. He has revolutionized the way presidents deal with the world beyond 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, dispensing with the carefully modulated messaging of past chief executives in favor of no-holds-barred, crystal-breaking, us-against-them, damn-the-consequences blasts borne out of gut and grievance. He has kept a business on the side; attacked the F.B.I., C.I.A. and other institutions he oversees; threatened to use his power against rivals; and waged war against members of his own party and even his own cabinet. He fired the man investigating his campaign and has not ruled out firing the one who took over. He has appealed to base instincts on race, religion and gender as no president has in generations. And he has rattled the nuclear saber more bombastically than it has been since the days of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Russia, Russia, Russia

** Happy New Year, Donaldo. You Are So Screwed. Sharon LaFraniere, et al., of the New York Times: "During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia's top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton. About three weeks earlier, Mr. Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to try to damage her campaign.... Two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials.... The hacking and the revelation that a member of the Trump campaign may have had inside information about it were driving factors that led the F.B.I. to open an investigation in July 2016 into Russia's attempts to disrupt the election and whether any of President Trump's associates conspired.... While some of Mr. Trump's advisers have derided him as an insignificant campaign volunteer or a 'coffee boy,' interviews and new documents show that he stayed influential throughout the campaign." If you like cloak & dagger, read on. ...

WOW, @foxandfrlends 'Dossier is bogus. Clinton Campaign, DNC funded Dossier. FBI CANNOT (after all of this time) VERIFY CLAIMS IN DOSSIER OF RUSSIA/TRUMP COLLUSION. FBI TAINTED.' And they used this Crooked Hillary pile of garbage as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign! -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2017

Actually, no. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Kevin Drum: The tweet above "is Exhibit A in the conservative agit-prop campaign to discredit the Trump-Russia investigation: It was all kicked by the Steele dossier, which was just a Hillary-funded hit job that the Trump-haters in the FBI used as an excuse to go after him.... [The FBI was] shocked -- as anyone would be -- that apparently the Trump campaign had advance knowledge of Russian dirty tricks aimed at the Clinton campaign." ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "... the Times article makes it clear that it was Papadopoulos, not Steele, who drove the investigation, at least in the beginning. This blows up an important line of attack for Republicans looking to tar Mueller -- though undoubtedly they'll find other ways to do it." ...

Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. -- Donald Trump, July 27, 2016

Oh, they were listening. And Trump knew it. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... digby: "The rest of the details in the [Times] piece are all fascinating but the one that stands out is the fact that Papadopoulos spilled the information about the Clinton emails to an Australian agent in a bar in May of 2016, long before it was public, but we are supposed to believe he never mentioned it to the Trump campaign. Does that sound right to you? Yeah, I didn't think so. They knew. They said nothing to any authorities. They went on to meet with Russians about dirt on Clinton in June and Donald Trump Jr even said he 'loved it' and would like them to release it later in the summer. Trump even publicly encouraged them to do more. Trump is right when he says this isn't collusion. It's conspiracy and that, my friends is a crime.... Devin Nunes and his crew are covering up something very, very big." ...

     ... digby also points out that Luke Harding of the Guardian reported in April 2017 that British intelligence learned "in late 2015 of suspicious 'interactions' between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents.... This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added." ...

... Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A growing campaign by President Trump's most ardent supporters to discredit the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and the law enforcement agencies assisting his investigation is opening new fissures in the Republican Party, with some lawmakers questioning the damage being done to federal law enforcement and to a political party that has long championed law and order. A small but vocal group of conservative lawmakers, much of the conservative media and, at times, the president himself have launched a series of attacks to paint not only Mr. Mueller but institutions once considered sacrosanct to Republicans like the F.B.I. and Justice Department as dangerously biased against Mr. Trump.... Now some Republican lawmakers are speaking out, worried that Trump loyalists, hoping for short-term gain, could wind up staining the party, dampening morale at the F.B.I. and Justice Department, and potentially recasting Democrats as the true friends of law enforcement for years to come. Straddling both camps is Mr. Trump, who in an interview on Thursday with The New York Times lavished praise on Republican congressmen who have defended him from a 'witch hunt' and expressed confidence that Mr. Mueller would 'treat me fairly.'"

Cashing In Again. Michelle Lee, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump is set to ring in the new year the same way he has for about two decades -- at the lavish party he hosts at his private club [in Palm Beach, Fla]. But this weekend's gala at Mar-a-Lago, his first since becoming president, will be a little different: The security will be tighter. The crowds will probably be bigger. And the tickets will run $750 a guest, a hike from last year...."

Justin Elliott of ProPublica: "The Justice Department is pushing for a question on citizenship to be added to the 2020 census, a move that observers say could depress participation by immigrants who fear that the government could use the information against them. That, in turn, could have potentially large ripple effects for everything the once-a-decade census determines -- from how congressional seats are distributed around the country to where hundreds of billions of federal dollars are spent. The DOJ made the request in a previously unreported letter, dated Dec. 12..., from DOJ official Arthur Gary to the top official at the Census Bureau, which is part of the Commerce Department. The letter argues that the DOJ needs better citizenship data to better enforce the Voting Rights Act 'and its important protections against racial discrimination in voting.'... People are not going to come out to be counted because they're going to be fearful the information would be used for negative purposes,' said Steve Jost, a former top bureau official during the 2010 census. 'This line about enforcing voting rights is a new and scary twist.' He noted that since the first census in 1790, the goal has been to count everyone in the country, not just citizens."

Josh Marshall (Dec. 28): "There is almost no limit to the bad policy included in the new GOP tax law.... I continue to believe that the (near total) end of deductions for SALT [state & local] taxes are likely to have the greatest political impact. They are also stimulating a new debate about the distribution of resources within the US federal system.... From a macro perspective, the SALT change means that the higher tax states (mainly but not exclusively blue states) will be sending a lot more money to the federal government. This is on top of the fact that blue/high tax states already send much more money in taxes to the federal government than they receive back in services, grants, general spending, etc. There are significant exceptions. But by and large federal taxing and spending policy draws money from the blue states and reallocates it into the red states.... This is all by design. This policy is intended to punish states that tend to vote Democratic." ...

... Rubio Opposes Bill He Voted for. Jacob Pramuk of CNBC (Dec. 29): "Sen. Marco Rubio says the GOP 'probably went too far' in slashing the tax burden on corporations. The Florida Republican told the News-Press of Fort Myers that corporations will largely use their major tax cut to buy back shares or increase dividends to shareholders -- which 'isn't going to create dramatic economic growth.'... 'By and large, you're going to see a lot of these multinationals buy back shares to drive up the price. Some of them will be forced, because they're sitting on historic levels of cash, to pay out dividends to shareholders.'" ...

... Josh Marshall: "... the most notable example [of Republicans opposing their own tax law] to me is not Marco Rubio and not specifically about the giveaways to the very wealthy but rather President Trump and his reference to the end of most deductions for SALT taxes.... What's he talking about [in his New York Times interview] with the SALT issue? As usual, in the same passage Trump can't seem to decide whether the change is awesome (Reagan tried and failed; I finally accomplished it.) or whether it's bad, too 'severe', etc. The upshot is that Trump seems to recognize that it's a problem and, because of that, tries to argue that it is Democrats' fault.... What stands out to me is that I think he recognizes that the SALT change is a political negative." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course Trump opposes the $10K limit on the SALT deduction. Trump & the kids own personal property in New York on which the pay property taxes. I don't know where they claim residency now, but it very well may be New York City, a very high-tax city in a very high-tax state. No matter how much tax avoidance they're able to accomplish through pass-throughs & corporations, etc., they still have to pay personal SALT taxes on some income, & the amount each pays certainly far exceeds $10K. I'd guess Trump -- who says he knows more about his draconian tax law than anyone -- missed that little provision. Probably Fox "News" didn't cover it until people started rushing to their local assessors' offices to prepay their taxes. But that's the Democrats' fault. It would be in Trump's personal, as well as political, interest to rescind this part of the tax heist. I'll be surprised if he doesn't propose it, though it's not a safe bet he could get it through Congress, even though Congressional Republicans love him. ...

... Jackie Wattles, et al., of CNN: "In a race against looming changes to the tax code, Goldman Sachs handed out millions of dollars worth of stock awards to hundreds employees. The move will save the firm an estimated $140 million on its tax bill next year, a source familiar with the matter told CNNMoney." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll bet many of those overcompensated yahoos -- the majority of whom probably live in high-tax states -- are happy to be able to apply SALT deductions to their 2017 super-booty. And they must be so grateful to former boss Gary Cohn for pushing hard for a tax heist that is going to deprive them of the deduction in future years, even as he & his craven cronies have lowered their tax rate.

Severe Gerrymandering A-OK in Pa. Trip Gabriel & Alexander Burns of the New York Times (Dec. 29): "A Pennsylvania judge said Friday the state's Congressional districts were drawn to give Republicans an advantage, but they did not violate the state Constitution, ruling in a high-profile gerrymandering case with the potential to have major consequences on the 2018 midterm elections. Judge P. Kevin Brobson of Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg noted that Republicans hold 13 out of 18 Congressional seats in Pennsylvania, a perennial swing state that has one of the most extensively gerrymandered maps in the country. Nonetheless, the judge said that Democrats who brought suit had failed to articulate a legal 'standard' for creating nonpartisan maps. The case now goes to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which has agreed to fast-track it."

Glenn Greenwald: "Facebook has been on a censorship rampage against Palestinian activists who protest the decades-long, illegal Israeli occupation, all directed and determined by Israeli officials.... As the New York Times put it in December of last year, 'Israeli security agencies monitor Facebook and send the company posts they consider incitement. Facebook has responded by removing most of them.' What makes this censorship particularly consequential is that '96 percent of Palestinians said their primary use of Facebook was for following news.' That means that Israeli officials have virtually unfettered control over a key communications forum of Palestinians.... Facebook now seems to be explicitly admitting that it also intends to follow the censorship orders of the U.S. government.... What this means is ... that the U.S. government -- meaning, at the moment, the Trump administration -- has the unilateral and unchecked power to force the removal of anyone it wants from Facebook and Instagram by simply including them on a sanctions list." ...

     ... True to form, Greenwald is overwrought here, but I think his argument is an important one.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Thomas Erkbrink of the New York Times: "Iran's leaders were confronted by unauthorized protests in major cities for the third straight day on Saturday, with crowds aiming their anger at the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and some demanding that he step down. The demonstrators first took to the streets of Mashhad, one of the holiest places in Shiite Islam, on Thursday. By Saturday, dozens of people had been arrested and the police had fired tear gas to disperse crowds. On Saturday night, the protests turned violent, with at least two demonstrators shot in the western town of Dorud, according to a series of videos posted on social media. At least one of the videos was verified by BBC Persian. It could not be determined who was responsible for the gunfire. The protests, which erupted over declining economic conditions, corruption and a lack of personal freedoms, presented a serious challenge to the government of President Hassan Rouhani, who won re-election on promises to revitalize the economy."

The Commentariat -- December 30, 2017

Late Morning Update:

Michael Grunwald of Politico Magazine: "The most consequential aspect of President Trump -- like the most consequential aspect of Candidate Trump -- has been his relentless shattering of norms: norms of honesty, decency, diversity, strategy, diplomacy and democracy, norms of what presidents are supposed to say and do.... If the big story of the Trump era is Trump and his unconventional approach to the presidency, two related substories will determine how the big story ends. The first is the intense personal and institutional pushback to Trump.... The second substory is the sometimes grudging but consistent support -- the critics call it complicity -- that Trump has enjoyed from the Republicans who control Congress." Mrs. McC: A pretty good review of Trumperconsequences."

Jason Auslander of the Aspen (Colorado) Times: "For Vice President Mike Pence, the message was unmistakable and the banner that carried it unmissable. 'Make America Gay Again,' the rainbow banner reads. Neighbors of the home near Aspen where Pence and his wife, Karen Sue, are staying posted the message Wednesday or Thursday on a stone pillar that sits at the end of driveways to both homes, Pitkin County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Buglione said Friday. 'You couldn't miss it,' he said of the sign off Owl Creek Road, adding that the man and woman who live in the home brought chili and corn muffins to deputies and Secret Service agents posted at the foot of the driveway. The Secret Service agents were not at all perturbed about the banner, Buglione said.... Donald Trump has joked that Pence 'wants to hang' all gay people, according to an October article in the New Yorker."

*****

Worst People in the World. Eric Levitz: "Donald Trump just made Democrats an offer they can't accept. In a Friday-morning tweet, the president issued an ultimatum: Build me a border wall -- and make it harder for legal immigrants to bring their foreign family members into the United States (a.k.a. 'chain migration') -- or the Dreamers get it.... 'The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc. We must protect our Country at all cost!'... On Thursday, Breitbart reported that the GOP's congressional leadership presented a nearly identical deal to House conservatives[.]... Dreamers have allies in corporate America, churches, unions, colleges, and countless local and state governments. The backlash to their dispossession will be huge and unrelenting. Republicans are already poised for a historic rebuke next November. Letting DACA expire without a replacement could turn a wave election into a tsunami." ...

... Pepe Le Trump. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Trump's demands closely track those of white nationalist groups who oppose many forms of lawful immigration and wish to restrict methods often used by non-white immigrants.... 'Chain migration,' which Trump refers to in his tweet, is a derogatory term used to describe the way that family members of current U.S. residents are permitted to immigrate into the United States.... Restricting so-called 'chain migration' would disproportionately impact Latinos and people of Asian origin, who are likely to be recent immigrants and therefore more likely to have close relatives outside the United States. Meanwhile, the 'ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration' that Trump references in his tweet most likely refers to the Diversity Visa Immigrant Program, which allows up to 50,000 people a year to immigrate to the United States from nations that are currently underrepresented in the U.S. population -- a system that disproportionately benefits African immigrants."

** Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "President Trump gave an impromptu half-hour interview with the New York Times on Dec. 28. We combed through the transcript and here's a quick roundup of the false, misleading or dubious claims that he made, at a rate of one every 75 seconds. (Some of the interview was off the record, so it's possible the rate of false claims per minute is higher.)" In the 30-minute interview, Kessler counted 24 false or misleading statements Trump made. Kessler lists a number of Trump's lies & contrasts them with the facts. ...

... Caretakers Unaware Their Patient Was Acting out Again. Ashley Parker & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "One White House official, when asked about the president's impromptu interview, was perplexed, wondering aloud, 'What interview? Today?' Another frustrated aide called it 'embarrassing.' Mar-a-Lago -- Trump's manicured, gilded oceanfront retreat here -- is the president’s 'Winter White House,' the villa to which he escapes for rounds of golf and family time. But, to the chagrin of many aides, Mar-a-Lago is also the place where Trump is often his most unrestrained and unfettered, making it harder for his West Wing staff to control his daily media diet and personal contacts as they now try to do in Washington.... Trump was enthusiastic about the [New York Times] interview and liked that the New York Times was at his golf course, people briefed on the interview said. The president, they added, enjoyed the coverage afterward and noted that it dominated TV most of Friday." ...

... Michael Schmidt of the New York Times describes his interview tactics & how he maneuvered to get the interview with Trump. ...

... John Harwood of CNBC: "Over and over during the 30-minute session, Trump cast his performance in terms so grandiose and extreme as to be self-evidently false. Taken together, his comments signaled an inability to grasp conditions in the country, the limitations of his own capacities and the nature of the office he holds." ...

... Charles Pierce: "In my view, the interview is a clinical study of a man in severe cognitive decline, if not the early stages of outright dementia.... In this interview, the president* is only intermittently coherent. He talks in semi-sentences and is always groping for something that sounds familiar, even if it makes no sense whatsoever and even if it blatantly contradicts something he said two minutes earlier. To my ears, anyway, this is more than the president*'s well-known allergy to the truth. This is a classic coping mechanism employed when language skills are coming apart.... The electric Twitter machine -- and most of the rest of the Intertoobz -- has been alive with criticism of [Michael] Schmidt for having not pushed back sufficiently against some of the more obvious barefaced non-facts presented by the president* in their chat.... I don't particularly care whether Michael Schmidt was tough enough, or asked enough follow-up questions.... We've got bigger problems." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I completely agree with Pierce on this, & for some of the same reasons -- like Pierce, I've seen similar decline in elderly friends & family. I've mentioned my view of Trump's waning mental acuity several times in the past. One sees it demonstrated often. (Yesterday's report by Margaret Hartmann on Trump's inability to grasp Angela Merkel's repeated explanations that Germany, as an E.U. member, cannot negotiate trade deals with non-member countries.) Surely Trump's staff is aware of his dementia, and they do a great disservice to the country by covering it up, just as Ronald Reagan's staff did, which Pierce notes. ...

... Kevin Drum: "This simply is not a man in full control of his mental faculties. He's always been narcissistic and blowhardish, but over the course of the interview he's completely unable to stay focused on a topic for even a few seconds.... I don't know what's going on with the guy, but even by Donald Trump standards he's not all there. This is not someone who should be occupying the Oval Office." ...

... Ezra Klein: "The president of the United States is not well. That is an uncomfortable thing to say, but it is an even worse thing to ignore.... In psychology, there's an idea known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. It refers to research by David Dunning and Justin Kruger that found the least competent people often believe they are the most competent because they 'lack the very expertise needed to recognize how badly they're doing.'... His comments are, by turns, incoherent, incorrect, conspiratorial, delusional, self-aggrandizing, and underinformed.... Whatever the cause, it is plainly obvious from Trump's words that this is not a man fit to be president, that he is not well or capable in some fundamental way." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bear in mind that Trump thought the interview went great & was thrilled in dominated Friday's news cycle.

Ian Millhiser: "Shortly before moving into the White House, Donald Trump promised to turn over 'complete and total control' of his business to his adult sons Don Jr. and Eric. 'They are not going to discuss it with me,' the then-president-elect assured the nation he was about to govern -- though, a couple months later, Eric Trump admitted that he would still provide his father with 'profitability reports and stuff like that' at least every quarter. Now, a new report by The Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff suggests that President Trump may have far more direct involvement with his businesses than he promised nearly a year ago. Woodruff quotes an email from Jeng Chi Hung, director of revenue management for the Trump Hotel in Washington, DC. 'DJT is supposed to be out of the business and passed on to his sons, but he's definitely still involved,' Hung wrote in that email. 'I had a brief meeting with him a few weeks ago, and he was asking about banquet revenues and demographics. And, he asked if his presidency hurt the businesses.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND as we pointed out here earlier in the week, Trump has spent one-third of his first year in office advertising some of his East Coast resorts."

Jon Meacham in a New York Times op-ed, compares Trump to Joe McCarthy & contrasts him with earlier presidents, who -- unlike Trump & McCarthy -- knew the limitations of media exposure. Mrs. McC: In general, I think Meacham is a bloviating, self-satisfied jerk, but in this essay, he might be right.

Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "... the Trump administration is strongly considering whether to withhold $255 million in aid that it had delayed sending to Islamabad, according to American officials, as a show of dissatisfaction with Pakistan's broader intransigence toward confronting the terrorist networks that operate there.... American officials said a final decision could be made in the coming weeks.American officials said a final decision could be made in the coming weeks."

Frances Robles & Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "For the first time in the 100 days since Hurricane Maria slammed Puerto Rico, the government finally knows how many people still don't have power: about half. The figure released Friday by the island's governor and power utility company indicates that more than 1.5 million people on the island are still in the dark. Experts say some parts of the island are not expected to get power back until next spring." ...

... Joshua Hoyos of ABC News: "On the 100-day mark since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, San Juan's Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz called federal response to the storm inadequate while slamming ... Donald Trump as the 'disaster-in-chief.' In an interview with ABC News from San Juan this week, Cruz said of the president, 'He was disrespectful to the Puerto Rican people, he was disrespectful to the American people who were leaving their homes to come help us here.... President Trump does not embody the values of the good-hearted American people that have [made] sure that we are not forgotten,' Cruz added."

Kathy Orton & Aaron Gregg of the Washington Post: "The steady increase in housing prices in many of the nation's priciest markets ... is expected to slow in coming years, analysts say, as the Republican tax law begins to reshape a major part of the U.S. economy. For generations, the tax code has subsidized homeownership, particularly for people in the upper middle class and beyond. The Republican tax legislation, however, pushed in the opposite direction, scaling back subsidies once thought untouchable. To pay for other tax cuts benefiting individuals and corporations, the GOP tax plan trims the mortgage interest deduction and property tax deduction, which combined allow some homeowners to take tens of thousands of dollars off their taxable income."

Attack of the Ghouls. Reid Wilson of the Hill: "Ambitious Republicans anxious for a shot at a U.S. Senate seat have begun quietly jockeying to be appointed as the successor to Sen. John McCain (R), even as he battles an aggressive form of brain cancer. The lobbying campaigns, described to The Hill by half a dozen GOP strategists and aides, have angered many Republicans, who see any public chatter as disrespectful to a senator who has helped shape modern Arizona. Chief among those upset is the man who would make an appointment, Gov. Doug Ducey (R), who issued a brushback pitch during a radio appearance last week."

Eric Armstrong of the New Republic: "Minnesotans don't want Al Franken to resign. Amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, the state's junior senator announced in early December that he would step down 'in the coming weeks.' But a Public Policy Polling survey released on Thursday reveals that his constituents don't want him to go: 50 percent say he shouldn't resign, compared to 42 percent who say he should. He remains popular not only with Democrats, but independents, who are split 52-41 percent in favor of not resigning. Franken also has the support of 57 percent of women."

Blue Collar World -- Where Sexual Harassment Can Kill. Susan Chira of the New York Times: "Sexual harassment has been endemic in blue-collar workplaces from the moment that women entered them and continues to this day, according to interviews with more than a dozen employment lawyers, academics and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission workers, as well as dozens of women who described such incidents. More than 80 women in these fields responded to a call for accounts of sexual harassment. They, along with several others interviewed, cited sustained, even dangerous, abuse in workplaces from factories to shipyards, mines to construction sites.... Physical danger is one issue that sets sexual harassment in blue-collar environments apart; unions, torn between representing the accuser and the accused, are another. Women in these jobs also often endure deliberate humiliations like not having bathrooms provided for them on construction sites. They can be blacklisted in construction or similar fields where tight networks and referrals are crucial to win the next job."

Beyond the Beltway

Eli Rosenberg & Herman Wong of the Washington Post: "A police officer in Wichita fatally shot a man while responding to an emergency call that authorities now say was a tragic and senseless prank. The 28-year-old man, whom officials did not immediately identify, was killed around 6:20 p.m. Thursday after police responded to a report that there had been a shooting and hostages taken at the house." A police spokesman called "it a case of 'swatting.' Swatting, which has a long history in the online gaming world, refers to the practice of making an emergency call about a fake situation often involving a killing or hostages, in the hopes of sending police to the address of an adversary or random person." ...

... Nichole Manna of the Wichita Eagle: "Online gamers have said in multiple Twitter posts that the shooting was the result of a 'swatting' call involving two gamers. [The victim] Andrew Finch was not involved in the online game, according to his mother and people in the gaming community." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: One would assume that even the mildest form of prank call to 911-- "Prince Albert in a can" -- is illegal in every state. ...

     ... UPDATE: Mark Osbourne of ABC News: "A 25-year-old man has been arrested over an alleged prank call that led to police killing a man in Kansas on Thursday, Los Angeles police said. Tyler Barriss from South Los Angeles was arrested Friday, according to ABC station KABC in Los Angeles."

Way Beyond

Guy Faulconbridge, et al., of Reuters: "Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea on at least three occasions in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea, according to two senior Western European security sources, providing an economic lifeline to the secretive Communist state. The sales of oil or oil products from Russia, the world's second biggest oil exporter and a veto-wielding member of the United Nations Security Council, breach U.N. sanctions, the security sources said. The transfers in October and November indicate that smuggling from Russia to North Korea has evolved to loading cargoes at sea since Reuters reported in September that North Korean ships were sailing directly from Russia to their homeland."

Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "Protests over the Iranian government's handling of the economy spread to several cities on Friday, including Tehran.... President Hassan Rouhani began his second term in August after winning re-election on promises to revitalize an economy hurt by sanctions. Although foreign investment is rising, the country continues to survive mainly on oil sales. Youth unemployment stands at more than 40 percent, sluggish state-owned enterprises control significant sectors of the economy, and American sanctions prevent most international banks from providing financing or credit to Iran. Many of the international sanctions against Iran were lifted under the 2015 accord on Iran's nuclear program. But unilateral American sanctions on doing financial transactions with Iran remain in place, and the cumulative effect of sanctions has been severe. Mr. Rouhani, who heralded the agreement as a fresh start, has faced criticism for not doing enough to jump-start the economy."

The Commentariat -- December 29, 2017

Sorry about the light entries today. Busy morning here in the frozen Northeast (1 degree & snowing in my neck of the woods). I'm adding some entries below; they're marked "NEW."

There was tremendous collusion on behalf of the Russians and the Democrats. -- Donald Trump, in an interview with New York Times reporters

Since Trump always accuses his enemies of doing what he has done, we can safely assume there was "tremendous collusion on behalf of the Russians and the Trumpies." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Michael Schmidt & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump said Thursday that he believes Robert S. Mueller III ... will treat him fairly, contradicting some members of his party who have waged a weekslong campaign to try to discredit Mr. Mueller and the continuing inquiry. During an impromptu 30-minute interview with The New York Times at his golf club in West Palm Beach, the president did not demand an end to the Russia investigations swirling around his administration, but insisted 16 times that there has been 'no collusion' discovered by the inquiry. 'It makes the country look very bad, and it puts the country in a very bad position,' Mr. Trump said of the investigation. 'So the sooner it's worked out, the better it is for the country.'" Read on. ...

     ... Here are excerpts, which are not too infuriating to read, because it's like reading what crazy Uncle Fred said at the family holiday dinner, only instead of having to listen to that lying, bloviating ass, you can skim the speeches & chuckle. ...

... NEW. Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "As we've almost come to expect by now, when Trump speaks at length without a script, he skitters back and forth along the line that divides the comical from the terrifying, telling one obvious lie after another, making endless digressions that devolve into incomprehensible word salad, and generally sounding like someone with only the most tenuous grip on his faculties.... For someone who fancies himself a genius, he is almost completely lacking in any real guile. He doesn't play eight-dimensional chess. His lies are obvious and straightforward, clearly false at the moment they leave his lips. His strategies require no deconstruction or disentanglement to understand." ...

... NEW. Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "As is often the case with Trump, he feels the need to lie about Obama as a way to justify his own actions. 'I don't want to get into loyalty, but I will tell you that, I will say this: Holder protected President Obama. Totally protected him. When you look at the I.R.S. scandal, when you look at the guns for whatever, when you look at all of the tremendous, ah, real problems they had, not made-up problems like Russian collusion, these were real problems. When you look at the things that they did, and Holder protected the president.' At least one former U.S. Attorney felt the need to respond directly to that lie. 'The first time President Obama met with his US Attorneys, he told us, "I appointed you but you don't serve me. You serve the American people. And I expect you to act with independence & integrity." None of us ever forgot that." -- Joyce White Vance" ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York recounts how Angela Merkel tried to school Trump on basic international political realities, and failed. Here's one incident: "... a senior German official told the Times of London that Trump also tried to pursue a bilateral trade deal with Germany. 'Ten times Trump asked [Merkel] if he could negotiate a trade deal with Germany. Every time she replied, "You can't do a trade deal with Germany, only the E.U.,"' the official said. 'On the eleventh refusal, Trump finally got the message, "Oh, we'll do a deal with Europe then."'"

Ken Starr Is Still a Subversive. David Kendall, in a Washington Post op-ed: "In his Dec. 24 Sunday Opinion commentary, former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr proposed a 'reset' of the Russia investigation in which Congress 'steps up' to establish a bipartisan investigative panel and the 'executive branch's approach' changes from criminal law enforcement to some kind of nebulous fact-finding. Despite its bland profession of respect for the probe, Starr's column was really just a subtler version of suddenly pervasive efforts by Trump apologists to undermine the investigation into Russian tampering with the 2016 election. The reasons given for Starr's reset are wholly specious[.]" A useful read & a good summary of the those wholly specious arguments. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Starr, he has nothing else to do but write op-eds since Baylor fired his ass for enabling members of the school's football team to violently assault women.

NEW. ... Donald Trump proved once again in a tweet Thursday that he doesn't seem to understand the difference between weather and climate. -- Pam Wright & Bob Henson of the Weather Channel

Dino Grandoni of the Washington Post: Trump shoots an Inhofe-style global warming tweet (from Palm Beach, Florida, where the temps are in the 70s) because he's completely ignorant of the fact that it's warmer than usual in the Southern Hemisphere right now & of the possibility that manmade global warming may cause "the jet stream encircling the Arctic to wobble southward." Mrs. McC (writing from a place where it's currently -7 degrees): Apparently the way to convince Trump of global warming is to ask him to step outside the Oval on a steaming hot day in August. Alas, like the jet stream, his conviction will wobble if there's a chilly night in September. ...

     ... Here's How It Works. Sammy Roth of USA Today: "Even this week's cold weather is probably being caused at least in part by global warming, said Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan. The Arctic is warming much faster than most of the planet, leading to a dramatic decline in the amount of sea ice that covers the region each winter. That loss of ice has allowed more heat to transfer from the ocean to the atmosphere, causing a weakening of the polar vortex winds over the Arctic. Those winds usually 'insulate the rest of the Northern Hemisphere' from freezing Arctic temperatures, Overpeck said. But as the winds have weakened, it's gotten easier for freezing Arctic air to swoop further south, he said. 'That is due to the warming of the Arctic, which in turn is due to human emissions of greenhouse gases and primarily burning of fossil fuels,' Overpeck said in an interview." Mrs. McC: This isn't rocket science; it's climate science. But a person has to be able to grasp at least six concepts in succession to understand cause & effect, & Trump could not do that even if he tried, which he won't. (See Margaret Hartmann's post above, if you think I'm just being snide.)

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If you were wondering why Rex Tillerson decided to write an op-ed in the failing New York Times (linked yesterday) about how President Trump & the State Department were doing a great job handling the international relations stuff, no doubt the answer is that the Times gave Tillerson a heads-up on this feature story:

... ** Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Nearly a year into his presidency, Mr. Trump remains an erratic, idiosyncratic leader on the global stage, an insurgent who attacks allies the United States has nurtured since World War II and who can seem more at home with America's adversaries. His Twitter posts, delivered without warning or consultation, often make a mockery of his administration's policies and subvert the messages his emissaries are trying to deliver abroad. Mr. Trump has pulled out of trade and climate change agreements and denounced the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. He has broken with decades of American policy in the Middle East by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. And he has taunted Kim Jong-un of North Korea as 'short and fat,' fanning fears of war on the peninsula. He has assiduously cultivated President Xi Jinping of China and avoided criticizing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia -- leaders of the two countries that his own national security strategy calls the greatest geopolitical threats to America. Above all, Mr. Trump has transformed the world's view of the United States from a reliable anchor of the liberal, rules-based international order into something more inward-looking and unpredictable. That is a seminal change from the role the country has played for 70 years, under presidents from both parties, and it has lasting implications for how other countries chart their futures."

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Romanian hackers took over two-thirds of the District's outdoor surveillance cameras just before President Trump's inauguration, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Thursday. The January attack affected 123 of the D.C. police department's 187 outdoor surveillance cameras, leaving them unable to record for several days. Two Romanians, whom law enforcement officials describe as part of a bigger extortionist hacking group, are being charged in D.C. federal court with fraud and computer crimes. 'This case was of the highest priority due to its impact on the Secret Service's protective mission and its potential effect on the security plan for the 2017 Presidential Inauguration,' Bill Miller, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu, said in a statement."

NEW. Daily Beast: "The remaining 16 members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS were told they were being fired Wednesday, via a FedExed letter from the White House. Six members resigned in June in protest of what they called the Trump administration’s inaction on the issue." Many are Obama appointees.

NEW. The Best Interns, Too. Martin Gould of the Daily Mail: "A former White House intern is coming under fire after flashing a known 'white power' sign during a photo-op with President Donald Trump. Jack Breuer ... is clearly bucking orders -- personally given by the president -- to give a thumbs-up in the picture that was taken in the White House in November. While the other hundred or so interns smile and follow Trump's command, Breuer ... stands stony-faced giving the 'OK' sign that has been linked with far-right groups. It is the same sign that white nationalist Richard Spencer gave on the steps of the Trump International Hotel on election night and that right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos posed with in front of the White House.... Breuer worked for Stephen Miller, the president's senior advisor for policy." Mrs. McC: Just a coincidence, I'm sure, that a white nationalist (Miller) hired a white-nationalist intern. I seldom link to Daily Mail stories, but they have pictorial proof on this.

Happy Trails to Roy. Hope We Don't Meet Again. Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Alabama officials on Thursday unhesitatingly pushed aside a legal challenge from Roy S. Moore and certified Doug Jones as the winner of this month's Senate election. The action, during a brief meeting at the State Capitol, was essentially the state's final step before the seating of the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Alabama in a quarter century. It was also a swift rejection, by some of the state's most powerful Republicans, of Mr. Moore's complaint that he was the victim of 'systematic voter fraud.' Mr. Jones's margin of victory was 21,924 votes, with more than 1.3 million ballots cast. The certification leaves Mr. Moore, 70, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court whose campaign faltered partly because of allegations of sexual misconduct against teenage girls, with almost no avenues to derail Mr. Jones's ascension to the Senate. The election aftermath followed a familiar pattern for Mr. Moore, who in the past has been eager to declare victories and pronounce grievances -- but loathe to concede defeats." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sadly, as Blinder reports, we may not have seen the backside of Moore's horse for the last time: "... there is already speculation in Montgomery that he might run for governor or attorney general next year."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "Breitbart News is covering up its recent promotion of an openly white nationalist and anti-Semitic congressional candidate, Paul Nehlen. Meanwhile, Joel Pollak, the site's senior editor-a-large and frequent spokesman, is falsely claiming the site hasn't covered him in 'months.' In reality, Nehlen's public association with white nationalists dates back more than a year and was contemporaneous with Beitbart's relentless promotion of his primary challenge to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI). On December 18, just 10 days ago, Nehlen was a guest on a Breitbart radio show, Whatever It Takes with Curt Schilling. The interview was posted to Breitbart's account on SoundCloud but quietly removed in the last few days.... The interview occurred weeks after Nehlen began regularly using the phrase 'It's OK to be white,' which has been adopted as a motto of white supremacists, including former KKK grand wizard David Duke."

Beyond the Beltway

"Son of a Hanging Chad." Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: In response to Florida's nightmare 2000 presidential vote recount, Virginia "began writing a guidebook on how to handle [questionable ballots]. The latest edition includes pictographs of ballots marked in unconventional ways -- names crossed out, several boxes checked, 'My guy' scrawled over a candidate's name. Despite the best intentions to avoid a Florida-style snafu, that is where Virginia now finds itself, with lawyers fighting over how to interpret one questionable ballot. And at stake is possible control of the Legislature."

How to Get Free Tickets to a Colts Game. Justin Mack & Kaitlin Lange of the Indianapolis Star: "An Indiana lawmaker is filing legislation that would require the Indianapolis Colts to offer fans refunds if Colts players kneel during the national anthem at home games. Rep. Milo Smith, R-Columbus, said his bill would allow fans who feel disrespected by the kneeling to ask for a refund during the first quarter.... Smith is a social conservative who played a key role in advancing a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage onto the Indiana House floor in 2014. His son, who is gay, criticized his father for his vote at the time."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Shivering, snowbound cities are scrapping their outdoor New Year's Eve countdowns. Polar-bear plunges are being canceled because of fears of frostbite and hypothermia. Winter-hardened towns are gaping at their new lows: 32 degrees below zero in Watertown, N.Y. Minus 36 in International Falls, Minn. Record-breaking snowfalls have stranded older and disabled residents inside their homes for days. Cars are buried under mountains of snow, and lethally low temperatures are forcing cities across the Northeast and Midwest to open emergency 'warming centers' for homeless residents and people whose furnaces are no match for the cold. A mass of Arctic air now has much of the north half of the country wrapped in an icy bear hug, and meteorologists expect the single-digit temperatures to stick around for at least another week."

New York Times: "Rose Marie, who became a radio star as a toddler in the 1920s and a television star on the hit sitcom 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' in the 1960s -- and who continued performing into the 21st century -- died on Thursday in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles. She was 94." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you were a young woman who watched "The Dick Van Dyke Show," Rose Marie's character Sally Rogers told you three things: (1) a woman could be smart, funny & successful, (2) but she'd still have to play a supporting role, & (3) she'd have to remain unmarried as ordinary men couldn't handle a woman who was a whole person. A mixed message, for sure.