The Commentariat -- November 18, 2017

Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "The White House asked Congress on Friday for $44 billion in additional relief in response to this year's devastating hurricanes, but facing rising budget deficits and pushing a tax cut that could cost $1.5 trillion, the administration also suggested that lawmakers make spending cuts to offset disaster costs. Republicans have been conspicuously quiet about the ballooning national debt as they press to enact deep tax cuts before the end of the year. The deficit for the 2017 fiscal year totaled $666 billion, an increase of $80 billion from the previous year. And spending continues to climb." Mrs. McC: Republicans are trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip, & if you're not Warren Buffett or Donald Trump, you're the turnip. ...

... How much Donald Trump knows about macroeconomics? Nothing: ...

... ** Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "President Trump has promised to cut federal taxes and reduce the nation's trade deficit with the rest of world -- two economic priorities that are in direct conflict with each other. A wide range of experts agree that cutting taxes is likely to increase the trade deficit.... In fact, a larger trade deficit is not a byproduct of the tax plan -- it is the heart of the plan.... The connection between tax cuts and trade deficits is not controversial.... Republicans are proposing to reduce federal revenue through a $1.5 trillion tax cut without a commensurate reduction in federal spending. To pay for the tax cuts, the government will need to borrow more dollars, some of which will come from foreign investors. Foreigners will get those dollars by selling more goods and services to Americans, which will widen the trade gap.... One widely cited economic simulation, the Penn Wharton Budget Model, projects that the tax plan approved by the House on Thursday would increase the trade deficit by about $800 billion over 10 years. That would increase the annual trade deficit about 16 percent from its 2016 total of $502 billion." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: We could have a contest to see who can come up with the worst feature of the GOP tax bill. Trouble is, the contest would be like the ones they have in kindergarten -- everybody wins. ...

... Here's a Winner, with a BUT. Josh Delk of the Hill: "The latest version of the Senate Republican tax reform bill includes a break for companies that manage private jets. A measure in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would lower taxes on some of the payments made by owners of private aircraft to management companies that help maintain, store and staff those planes for owners. The language would exempt owners or leasers of private aircraft from paying taxes on certain costs related to the upkeep and maintenance of the jets, according to a description from the Joint Committee on Taxation." Uh-oh, looks as if Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) & Warren Buffett are behind this little scheme. Brown's spokesperson claims jet owners themselves don't actually get a break. Uh-huh.

... Joe Williams of Roll Call: "Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski suggested Thursday that her vote on the current version of theSenate GOP tax overhaul is contingent on the passing of a separate bill to stabilize the individual health insurance market. The tax legislation now includes a section to repeal the individual mandate in the 2010 health care law -- a provision that opens up more than $300 billion in revenue -- but could also threaten the viability of the overall law. The measure has caused some heartburn for moderate Republicans, particularly Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, two of the three senators who helped sink the GOP effort to repeal the health care law this summer." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, that's nice, but why don't Murkowski & Collins care about all the other crap that's in the bill? ...

... Steve Benen on the Sherrod Brown/Orrin Hatch dust-up (see yesterday's Commentariat): "... it's hard not to wonder if Hatch's outburst was the result of his genuine belief that Sherrod Brown's argument is 'bullcrap' or if it was because the truth hurts. The Republican National Committee [Friday] morning highlighted the committee clash and said the GOP chairman 'set the record straight' -- which, in reality, is the opposite of what actually happened.... As the Washington Post's Greg Sargent put it, the exchange 'perfectly captured the GOP's whole handling of the tax debate -- in all its dishonesty, misdirection and bottomless bad faith.'... Note, as part of diatribe, Hatch added, 'If we worked together, we could pull this country out of every mess it is in.' Hatch was in the process of pushing a partisan tax plan, written in secret, passed without so much as a meaningful hearing. Perhaps this was the wrong time to lecture committee members on the benefits of bipartisan cooperation."

I'm Shocked, Shocked, to Find that Money-Laundering Is Going on Here. -- Ivanka Trump. Aggelos Petropoulos [of Reuters?] & Richard Engel of NBC News: "An NBC News investigation into the Trump Ocean Club [in Panama City, Panama], in conjunction with Reuters, shows that the project was riddled with brokers, customers and investors who have been linked to drug trafficking and international crime. [Mauricio] Ceballos, who investigated the project, went as far as to call the skyscraper 'a vehicle for money laundering.'... Ceballos, who says he investigated transactions related to the Trump Ocean Club during his stint as an anti-corruption prosecutor in Panama, describes the building as a magnet for international organized crime, particularly from Russia.... The investigation revealed no indication that the Trump Organization or members of the Trump family engaged in any illegal activity, or knew of the criminal backgrounds of some of the project's associates. But [Alexandre] Ventura[, a real estate salesman,] said that the Trumps never asked any questions about the buyers or where the money was coming from.... Ventura says that the Trump family, and Ivanka Trump in particular, was involved in the details of the Trump Ocean Club, and that she interacted with him extensively.... 'The Trump Organization has to approve everything because of his name on the project,' Ventura said, describing the project as Ivanka Trump's 'baby.'... The Trump Organization was not the actual developer of the Panama tower.... For this deal, the Trump Organization would license its brand, operate the hotel and sell its expertise in managing the building, receiving a cut of every condo sale." ...

     ... Paul Waldman: "... it's fascinating how one Trump property after another winds up being associated with mobsters, criminals, and money launderers. Must be just a coincidence! It's also incredible when you consider how many years and millions of dollars Republicans devoted to investigating Whitewater, a two-bit land deal on which the Clintons lost some money. Is there going to be a congressional investigation of this, or the other shady Trump deals? Of course not."

Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "President Trump's decision to mock Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) for groping a sleeping woman while posing for a photo has once again made him a central figure in the national discussion about sexual assault, harassment and misconduct -- and has again brought attention to past accusations against the president himself.... Trump did not mention that [Franken accuser Leeann] Tweeden also accused Franken of kissing her against her will -- the same thing that at least eight women have publicly accused Trump of doing.... As a growing number of prominent men have publicly faced accusations, Trump has been selective in responding, largely on the basis of whether the accused is an ally or foe and focusing relatively little on the alleged victims. Trump called his own accusers 'horrible, horrible liars' and threatened to sue them, while coming to the defense of friends such as political commentator Bill O'Reilly and former Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes, accused of harassment or assault. Trump has also been mostly silent on Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama.... Trump has also said he was not surprised by accusations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, a major Democratic donor; released an ad during the presidential campaign calling former New York congressman Anthony Weiner a 'pervert;' and hosted a campaign news conference with three women who had accused former president Bill Clinton of sexual assault or misconduct, calling those women 'very courageous.'" ...

** Like everything else Trump touches, he hijacks it with his chronic dishonesty and childishness. The intense, angry and largely ignorant tribalism afflicting our politics predates Trump’s arrival on the scene. But he has infused it with a psychopath’s inability to accept that social norms apply to him. -- Mark Salter, longtime adviser to Sen. John McCain --

Very well said. Salter catches the essence of Trump. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... the notion that Mr. Trump himself would weigh in given his own history of crude talk about women and the multiple allegations against him surprised many in Washington who thought he could not surprise them anymore. A typical politician with Mr. Trump’s history would stay far away from discussing someone else’s behavior lest it dredge his own back into the spotlight." Mrs. McC: This is quite a good synthesis of the state of the conversation in Washington, incorporating several shorter stories. My favorite is Mrs. Huckleberry's rationale for Trump's behavior, which goes something like this: "He won, so STFU." ...

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Friday that he will uphold a government ban on hunters bringing trophies of elephants that were killed in Zimbabwe into the United States, pending a further review. His evening Twitter message reversed a decision by his own administration that was announced this week and promoted as recently as Friday afternoon by ... Sarah Huckabee Sanders." Mrs. McC: Guess Trump is mad at Junior, Ace Elephant Hunter, after all.

** Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: "A senior Russian official who claimed to be acting at the behest of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia tried in May 2016 to arrange a meeting between Mr. Putin and Donald J. Trump, according to several people familiar with the matter. The news of this reached the Trump campaign in a very circuitous way. An advocate for Christian causes emailed campaign aides saying that Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank who has been linked both to Russia’s security services and organized crime, had proposed a meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump. The subject line of the email, turned over to Senate investigators, read, 'Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,' according to one person who has seen the message. The proposal made its way to the senior levels of the Trump campaign before Jared Kushner ... sent a message to top campaign officials rejecting it, according to two people who have seen Mr. Kushner’s message.... Mr. Torshin’s request ... came just weeks after a self-described intermediary for the Russian government told a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, that the Russians had 'dirt' on Mr. Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton, in the form of 'thousands of emails.'... The latest disclosure about Mr. Torshin, who is a leading figure in Mr. Putin’s party, United Russia, shows the direct involvement of a high-ranking Russian official in the Kremlin’s outreach to the campaign.” ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So now we know what that "dinner invite" was, which was a mystery yesterday when it appeared as the subject of an e-mail from Jared Kushner which he accidentally forgot to turn over to Senate investigators. ...

... Manu Raju of CNN: "A West Virginia man ... proposed setting up a meeting with Russians and the Trump campaign last year to discuss their 'shared Christian values,' raising new questions for investigators to explore as part of their Russia inquiry. Current and former US intelligence and law enforcement officials, as well as other intelligence experts, say that Russians sought to employ covert tactics to find entry points into the Trump campaign. And more broadly, experts say, Russian intelligence services have sought to court conservative organizations, including religious groups, to build alliances in the United States.... The Trump campaign appears to have rejected the meeting request -- and seemed to believe it was serious enough to suggest that the matter should be handled by the State Department...." ...

... Something Else Jared Accidentally Forgot. Jeremy Herb & Evan Perez of CNN: "White House senior adviser Jared Kushner told congressional Russia investigators that he did not communicate with WikiLeaks and did not recall anyone on the Trump campaign who had, a source with knowledge of his testimony told CNN. But Kushner did receive and forward an email from Donald Trump Jr. about contact Trump Jr. had with WikiLeaks, according to a new report this week and a letter from the Senate Judiciary Committee.... A Democratic committee source said that Kushner was interviewed at a date when the panels 'did not yet have the documents we needed for the interview.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: On most mornings, Ivanka makes sure Jared is wearing pants before he leaves the house. Sometimes he just plain forgets.

... AND Jeff Sessions thinks the whole Russia-Trump-Sessions, et al., conspiracy is so funny that he tells jokes about it. In public. ...

... ** Tim Egan: "The Russians ... uploaded a thousand videos to YouTube and published more than 130,000 messages on Twitter about last year’s election. As recent congressional hearings showed, the arteries of our democracy were clogged with toxins from a hostile foreign power. But the problem is not the Russians — it’s us. We’re getting played because too many Americans are ill equipped to perform the basic functions of citizenship.... As we crossed the 300-day mark of Donald Trump’s presidency on Thursday, fact-checkers noted that he has made more than 1,600 false or misleading claims. Good God. At least five times a day, on average, this president says something that isn’t true. We have a White House of lies because a huge percentage of the population can’t tell fact from fiction." Read on. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is an essential element of the conversation we should be having. Egan's column may be the first time I've seen Americans' primal ignorance named as the root cause of Russia's great success in undermining our democracy. I would add that our often-inane, often-negligent news media are partly at fault, too. Where the public schools have failed our students, the media should pick up the slack by putting stories in context. Oftentimes they do, but too often news reports are limited to the most sensational or salacious aspects of a story. Important as it is for the public to know the facts, so is it essential that people can understand the meaning & implications of those facts. ...

... Should you care to find more evidence for Egan's contention, Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast obliges: "As I toggled over the home page [of Snopes], I was flabbergasted by what a high percentage of Snopes articles now are devoted to debunking fake news.... I mean, if I may use the phrase, real fake news. Garbage. And more specifically, right-wing garbage. Some stuff that’s in the actual news, though completely distorted, and other stuff that’s just totally made up, that who-knows-how-many thousands, or millions, of people are out there believing." Tomasky provides a number of laughable examples.

Why is that woman vamping for the camera? And what is she doing at the Bureau of Engraving anyway?... For the Love of Money. Mrs. McCrabbie: I missed this story earlier in the week. It seems Steve Mnuchin invited his wife, the Lovely Louise, on a visit to the Bureau of Engraving & Printing to admire the very first sheet of dollar bills with Mnuchin's signature on them. Martin Belam of the Guardian posted a few Twitter reactions to the pix. Here's one suggested caption: "Louise Linton holds the great love of her life. Also pictured, her husband #StevenMnuchin."

Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "By day, he was a clerk to a federal judge, a Harvard Law School graduate at the start of his career. By night, he was a ghost hunter and a devotee of the macabre. Brett Joseph Talley is now President Trump’s nominee for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench as a U.S. District Court judge in Alabama. Few in memory have been nominated with credentials quite like those of Talley, 36, an Alabama native, a political speechwriter, an author of horror books and a fledgling lawyer who has never tried a case. In 2009 and 2010, he was a member of the Tuscaloosa Paranormal Research Group, a volunteer operation that ... has held all-night vigils and used infrared cameras, handheld sensors and other devices to search for spectral entities in plantation mansions, abandoned hospitals and other buildings.... He is one of four Trump nominees to receive 'not qualified' ratings [from the American Bar Association] this year, the first such ratings to be disclosed by the association in more than a decade."

Ellie Silverman of the Washington Post: "Documents released by law enforcement officials in Montana on Friday show that Greg Gianforte, then the Republican candidate in the state’s special congressional election, told police in May that a reporter from the Guardian had grabbed his wrist during a physical altercation at his campaign headquarters, blaming the 'liberal media' for 'trying to make a story.' His statement appears to contradict the apology he later issued to Ben Jacobs, saying the reporter 'did not initiate any physical contact with me,' raising questions about whether the congressman was truthful with authorities. Gianforte won Montana’s lone U.S. House seat 24 hours after the assault and in June, he pleaded guilty to charges that he assaulted Jacobs and was sentenced to 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management classes and a $385 fine in court costs, according to the Associated Press.” ...

... Julia Wong of the Guardian: "US congressman Greg Gianforte misled police after his assault of Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs in May, falsely stating that Jacobs had initiated physical contact.... shortly after the assault, Gianforte’s campaign spokesman, Shane Scanlon, placed the blame for the violent incident on Jacobs.... That narrative was soon contradicted by audio of the incident captured by Jacobs, as well as the eyewitness accounts of a team of Fox News journalists. Jacobs decried the statement as 'defamatory', and Scanlon was harshly criticized by the political press for lying about the incident.... The police report suggests that the misleading narrative originated from Gianforte himself, however." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So very hard to believe Gianforte is a liar. Here I thought he was just a thug & a bully.

Democrats Behaving Badly:

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Some former female staffers of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) spoke out on Friday in his defense, saying that he had treated women with respect while they worked in his office.... The statement is co-signed by eight former Franken staffers who have worked for him since he was elected to the Senate in 2008.... The statement came on the same day that Leeann Tweeden, the Los Angeles radio news anchor who accused Franken of kissing and groping her against her will, said that she had heard directly from the senator and is willing to meet with him to discuss the allegations.... Tweeden made a round of national television appearances on Friday to discuss her allegations and to reiterate that she accepts Franken’s apologies...." ...

... AND. Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Hillary Clinton slammed ... Donald Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore on Friday over their alleged sexual misconduct, criticizing them for not accepting responsibility' and 'apologizing' for their reported transgressions as Sen. Al Franken did.... [Clinton] said Franken’s request to have the Senate ethics panel investigate his sexual misconduct 'is the kind of accountability I’m talking about.' 'I don't hear that from Roy Moore or Donald Trump,' she added during an interview with New York’s WABC radio. 'Look at the contrast between Al Franken, accepting responsibility, apologizing, and Roy Moore and Donald Trump, who have done neither.'... Asked whether there was anything she admired about the Trump’s tenure in office thus far, Clinton replied: 'No. The answer is absolutely no. I didn’t think he’d be as bad as he turned out to be,' she added.” ...

... Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "The clamor for Franken’s head is, at best, premature — sentence first, trial (or Senate Ethics Committee investigation) later. At worst, it is alarmingly extreme, absent evidence of a pattern or misbehavior in the Senate. Let us stipulate: ... His behavior was appalling.... The focus is, and should be, on victims. But as employers engage in an overdue reckoning on how to rid workplaces of intolerable conduct, they — we — are going to have to wrestle as well with how to treat the victimizers." ...

... Kate Harding, in a Washington Post op-ed: "As a feminist and the author of a book on rape culture, I could reasonably be expected to lead the calls for Al Franken to step down.... I firmly believe he should suffer social and professional consequences for it. But I don’t believe resigning from his position is the only possible consequence, or the one that’s best for American women.... I am a Democrat because I am a feminist who lives under a two-party system, where one party consistently votes against the interests of women while the other sometimes does not.... Men’s harassment of and violence against women is a systemic issue.... Its roots lie in a patriarchal culture that trains men to believe they are entitled to control women’s bodies — for sex, for sport, for childbearing, for comedy.... If we set this precedent [of ousting known harassers] in the interest of demonstrating our party’s solidarity with harassed and abused women, we’re only going to drain the swamp of people who, however flawed, still regularly vote to protect women’s rights and freedoms.... In a sharply divided political climate where toxic masculinity knows no party, yet is only ever acknowledged by one, we must think about how to minimize harm to women." ...

... Eoin Higgins in the Huffington Post: "Lilian Adams and Zoey Jordan Salsbury were teenagers when they started working on opposite sides of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. Adams, then 19, joined Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Salsbury, then 18, joined Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign.... But each woman says she was sexually harassed by a fellow campaign worker — and that both campaigns were ill-equipped to address the allegations. ...

... MEANWHILE, in Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the Tampa Bay Times: "Stephen Bittel's rocky tenure as Florida Democratic Party chairman ended in disgrace Friday after he resigned following accusations from women that he leered at them, made suggestive comments and created an unprofessional work environment.... Elected in January after a contentious internal campaign, Bittel lasted less than a year on the job.His departure marks the latest case of sexual impropriety shaking the state Capitol. Bittel’s position became untenable after all four major Democratic candidates for Florida governor urged his ouster following a Politico Florida report late Thursday in which six women anonymously complained about Bittel’s behavior. They said he was 'creepy' and 'demeaning.' Bittel apologized, but it was not enough." ...

... Gubernatorial Race? Or Not. Lindsey Bever & Marwa Eltagouri of the Washington Post: "An Ohio Supreme Court justice who recently declared his intention to run for governor defended 'heterosexual males' Friday amid mounting accusations of sexual misconduct. Justice William O’Neill took to Facebook on Friday morning to make a statement about what he described as the 'national feeding frenzy about sexual indiscretions,' and in doing so he disclosed details about his sexual history. 'In the last fifty years I was sexually intimate with approximately 50 very attractive females,' O’Neill, a Democrat, wrote. 'It ranged from a gorgeous blonde who was my first true love and we made passionate love in the hayloft of her parents barn and ended with a drop dead gorgeous red head from Cleveland.'... By Friday afternoon, after a storm of bipartisan condemnation from Ohio politicians, the post was deleted. Shortly before 6 p.m., O’Neill posted new comments. 'As an aside for all you sanctimonious judges who are demanding my resignation, hear this. I was a civil right lawyer actively prosecuting sexual harassment cases on behalf of the Attorney General’s Office before Anita Hill and before you were born,' O’Neill wrote. 'Lighten up folks. This is how Democrats remain in the minority,' he wrote.” O'Neill's campaign spokesman is quitting. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently none of these 50 lucky duckies is a person with, you know, a personality, intellectual attributes, talents, etc. They're all "gorgeous blondes" or "drop-dead gorgeous redheads." "very attractive," or whatever. Pig. ...

Kaitlin Riordan of KREM TV (Spokane, Washington): "Officials with the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island said one of their aircraft was involved in the obscene skywritings spotted in Okanogan County. Photos sent to KREM 2 by multiple sources show skydrawings of what some people are saying is male genitalia.... In a statement to KREM 2 News navy officials said, 'The Navy holds its aircrew to the highest standards and we find this absolutely unacceptable, of zero training value and we are holding the crew accountable.'"

Way Beyond the Beltway

of the New York Times: "Zimbabwe’s governing party moved on Friday to expel President Robert Mugabe from its ranks, taking the first step in legally ousting the 93-year-old leader following a military intervention two days earlier. A majority of the leaders of the party, ZANU-PF, recommended Mr. Mugabe’s expulsion from the very organization that he had controlled with an iron grip since independence in 1980, according to ZBC, the state broadcaster. Military officers have insisted that their takeover was not a coup, but the party’s leaders appeared on Friday to be providing political cover for the intervention. The party’s central committee, Parliament and Mr. Mugabe’s cabinet could now take steps to officially end his presidency, if he does not resign."

News Lede

Washington Post: "Bobby Baker, a protege of future president Lyndon B. Johnson whose career of wealth and privilege came crashing down in an influence-peddling scandal, died Nov. 12 — his 89th birthday — in St. Augustine, Fla.." ...

     ... As I recall, my father -- who was a T-man -- was one of the team who arrested Baker. -- Marie

The Commentariat -- November 17, 2017

Thomas Kaplan & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The House passed a sweeping rewrite of the tax code on Thursday, taking a significant leap forward as Republicans seek to enact $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for businesses and individuals and deliver the first major legislative achievement of President Trump's tenure. The House voted to 227 to 205 to approve the bill, shortly after Mr. Trump came to Capitol Hill to address House Republicans. Thirteen Republicans voted against the bill, and zero Democrats voted for it. The Republicans who voted no were from New York, New Jersey, California and North Carolina." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The Rich Get Richer & the Poor Get Poorer. New York Times: "The Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress's bipartisan referee on tax policy, said on Thursday that the amended Senate's version of the tax bill will raise taxes on low-income Americans beginning in 2021, in what appears to be a side effect of the bill's decision to repeal the so-called individual mandate that requires most people buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Because of this decision, the joint committee's analysis showed that taxpayers earning less than $40,000 would see their tax bills go up in the second half of the next decade. The committee also forecast that taxpayers earning $75,000 or less would see, as a group, large tax increases in 2027, if the individual tax cuts in the bill expire as scheduled at the end of 2025.... Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the Republican chairman of the finance committee, said that the appearance of a tax increase was a mirage that is the result of arcane scoring rules." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: No doubt people struggling to get by will enjoy their tasty soupe du mirage, will imagine the electricity is still on, & won't even see that illusionary red ink in their bank statement. Or at least the ones who aren't dead from lack of health care will. Ain't we got fun. ...

... Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "The repeal and revision of higher-education tax benefits in the bill passed Thursday by the House would cost students and families more than $71 billion over the next decade, according to an official analysis by Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation.... The committee tallied the costs at the request of Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Pardon my Marxism, but this is intentional. The fewer young people who can afford higher education, the fewer there will be to challenge the offspring of the wealthy to high-paying, career-path jobs. This is just one of a multi-faceted approach to furthering income & wealth inequality.

... Paul Krugman: Nearly everyone hates this plan, including CEOs, who live in the real world. "They realize that even a huge tax cut wouldn't lead to much more spending. And with that realization, the rationale for this tax plan, such as it is, falls apart, leaving nothing but a scheme to make the rich -- especially those who rake in investment income rather than working for a living -- richer at everyone else's expense." ...

... Paul Waldman: "If you're one of those white working-class voters who propelled Donald Trump into the presidency and gave Republicans total control of Washington, the GOP has a message for you: Sucker!... Everyone always knew Republicans were going to cut taxes for the wealthy. They're Republicans; that's what they do. But it's a genuine surprise to see them raising taxes on people with more modest incomes.... it's important to understand that the tax cut is just one phase of a larger project Republicans have been dreaming of for years. Once this bill passes, they'll say that we face enormous deficits (made far worse by their tax cut, of course), and therefore we have no choice but to slash away at the safety net. As John Harwood points out..., they're already preparing to take aim at programs such as Medicaid and Social Security disability, whose largest group of recipients are working-class whites.... Trump's most ardent supporters won't care.... For many Trump voters, the election victory was itself the most important deliverable.... They're less concerned about what happens afterward, which gives Trump and congressional Republicans the ability to take their money and give it to those who need it least... A con ... works best when the marks are only too happy to let you con them." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Contributors P.D. Pepe & Patrick both linked to clips of yesterday's Senate committee hearing on the tax bill. Sorry, P.D., I'm posting Patrick's:

     ... Okay, here's P.D. Pepe's contribution. Old Hatch really acts as if he believes his party's bull. Let me just say that "I used to be poor" is not a defense of a bill that would profit him now that he is not only quite comfortable now but depends on the super-wealthy for their support:

Ali Vitali of NBC News: "... Donald Trump is troubled by the allegations against Roy Moore, but is not calling on the Alabama Republican to quit the Senate race and believes that his fate should be left up to the voters, the president's press secretary said Thursday." ...

... AND Trump is also "troubled" by allegations against Al Franken: "The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps? ..... And to think that just last week he was lecturing anyone who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for women. Lesley Stahl tape?" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump leaves us all to wonder why he isn't "troubled" by the evidence of his own long history of sexually abusing women.

Sean Illing of Vox: “'Politicians lie, but this is different,' says [Robert Dallek] a historian who studies presidential history, and estimates the Trump administration easily ranks among the most corrupt in American history.... Dallek estimates that historical examples of corruption, like that of the Warren G. Harding administration, don't hold a candle to how Trump and his people have conducted themselves in the White House. History will judge Trump, and it will not be kind." Illing interviews Dallek. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Juan Cole: "The US is usually number 1 in the German research firm Gfk's rankings, headed up by political consultant Simon Anholt. They ask some 22,000 people around the world to rank countries on six scales. This year it fell five full places to number 6. No such fall has taken place since 2004, when Americans elected George W. Bush to a second term. And in the past, falls only lasted for a year. Angela Merkel is the leader of the free world, not Trump.... The finding about the US decline is alarming and could be a sign that Trump is dragging the country down. In turn, that is important because many US goals require international cooperation.... The dimensions [Gfk measures] are governance, people, culture, exports, immigration-investment and tourism." --safari

Trump Klub. Andrew Kaczynski, et al. of CNN: "The head of faith-based and neighborhood partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security has said in the past that the black community is responsible for turning cities into 'slums' and argued that Islam's only contribution to society was 'oil and dead bodies,' a CNN KFile review of his time as a radio host reveals. Rev. Jamie Johnson was appointed in April by then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly.... In 2008, during a discussion on 'The Right Balance' on Accent Radio Network, Johnson said he believed black people were anti-Semitic out of jealousy of the success of Jewish people.... 'And it's an indictment of America's black community that has turned America's major cities into slums because of laziness, drug use and sexual promiscuity.'" --safari ...

     ... Update. Kaczynski Strikes Again. Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "A political appointee in the Department of Homeland Security abruptly resigned after the disclosure Thursday he previously made derogatory remarks about black people and Muslims on conservative talk radio. Rev. Jamie Johnson, who was appointed the head of the DHS's Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships in April, appeared on the program in 2008. The comments resurfaced Thursday after CNN published a report about them...."

Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak said on Wednesday that it would take him more than 20 minutes to name all of the Trump officials he's met with or spoken to on the phone. 'First, I'm never going to do that,' he said. 'And second, the list is so long that I'm not going to be able to go through it in 20 minutes.'" ...

... The Plots Thickens. Elizabeth Preza of RawStory: "A Turkish-Iranian gold trader [Reza Zarrab] scheduled to go to trial in New York on Monday is no longer in the U.S. prison system, but remains in federal custody, prompting speculation he may be cooperating with investigators as part of a plea deal -- and helping to build ... Robert Mueller's case against Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn.... Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating allegations that just before Trump's inauguration, Flynn met with senior Turkish officials at the 21 Club restaurant in New York to discuss a possible quid pro quo while in office. Investigators are reportedly looking into whether Flynn and Turkish officials discussed releasing Zarrab." --safari ...

... Katie Zavadski of the Daily Beast: "Mueller is reportedly looking at a December meeting blocks from Trump Tower where Michael Flynn -- shortly before Trump became president and named him national security adviser -- was reportedly offered upward of $15 million if he could help Turkey win the extradition of cleric Fethullah Gülen as well as the release of gold trader Reza Zarrab.... Zarrab's arrest in Miami last march, while he was on vacation with his family, ignited a bitter war of words between the Turkish government and the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he asked then-Vice President Joe Biden about arranging for the release of the 34-year-old trader, a dual Turkish and Iranian citizen who's socialized with the Turkish president and is married to a popular Turkish singer." ...

... Esme Cribb of TPM: "Special counsel Robert Mueller ... issued a subpoena in October to more than a dozen members of ... Donald Trump's campaign, the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Hope Mueller didn't waste much paper on a subpoena for Jared Kushner because Kushner isn't all that forthcoming with incriminating documents: ...

... Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "... Jared Kushner forwarded emails concerning a 'Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite' to Trump campaign officials and failed to produce those emails to the Senate Judiciary Committee, says a letter the senators sent Kushner's lawyer on Thursday. Kushner also failed to produce emails on which he was copied involving communication with WikiLeaks and with a Belarusan-American businessman named Sergei Millian, the senators said. Millian most recently headed a group called the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce.... The senators also said Kushner had not produced any phone records.... The Wall Street Journal and ABC reported earlier this year that Millian was 'Source E' in the dossier alleging ties between Trump and Russia." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Josh Dawsey of Politico: "Jared Kushner is still working with an interim security clearance 10 months into ... Donald Trump's administration, according to White House officials and others with knowledge of the matter. The top adviser and Trump son-in-law, who joined Trump for part of his Asia tour this month, has continued to work on sensitive foreign policy issues and other matters while his application for a permanent clearance remains under review, these people said. On Thursday, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein -- who jointly oversee the Senate Judiciary Committee's Russia probe -- requested documents from Kushner including 'transcripts from other committee interviews, additional documents from previous requests, communications with (former national security adviser) Michael Flynn and documents related to his security clearance.' Grassley and Feinstein said Kushner, citing confidentiality, declined to produce documents connected to his security clearance application, which includes a form that has been repeatedly amended to list Kushner's contacts with foreign officials." ...

... Conservative Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: "In all of [the Russia scandal], there is a spectacular accumulation of lies. Lies on disclosure forms. Lies at confirmation hearings. Lies on Twitter. Lies in the White House briefing room. Lies to the FBI. Self-protective lies by the attorney general. Blocking and tackling lies by Vice President Pence. This is, with a few exceptions, a group of people for whom truth, political honor, ethics and integrity mean nothing.... The Trump administration will be remembered for many things. The widespread, infectious corruption of institutions and individuals may be its most damning legacy." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm happy to see Gerson wrap VP Pious into this conspiracy of liars. That twerp has gotten too much of a pass for his convenient ignorance of any wrongdoing that comes to light.

Lee Ann Caldwell & Garrett Haake of NBC News: "A bipartisan group of senators Thursday unveiled legislation to improve background-checks for gun sales, a narrow measure that attempts to address the recent spate of mass shootings. The bill represents an incremental update to existing law but has the best chance of any effort to pass through Congress in recent years, with the weight of support from senior Senate Republicans behind it and no public opposition from the gun lobby. The bill, crafted by Sens. John Cornyn, R.-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., would attempt to better enforce current law and strengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check system to ensure all background check information is uploaded."

Thomas Moriarty of NJ.com: "A hopelessly deadlocked jury brought an end to the corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez Thursday with the declaration of a mistrial, after a contentious 11-week courtroom drama that concluded without a final act. The government now must decide whether to retry the Democratic lawmaker from New Jersey and co-defendant Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist, who are accused of swapping lavish gifts for government favors." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, who holds Hillary Clinton's former seat, said on Thursday that Bill Clinton should have resigned the presidency after his inappropriate relationship with an intern came to light nearly 20 years ago. Asked directly if she believed Mr. Clinton should have stepped down at the time, Ms. Gillibrand took a long pause and said, 'Yes, I think that is the appropriate response.'... A spokesman later said that Ms. Gillibrand was trying to underscore that Mr. Clinton's actions, had they happened in the current era, should have compelled him to resign. Still, it was a remarkable statement from a senator who enthusiastically backed Mrs. Clinton's presidential bid last year but has been deeply involved in legislative efforts to curb sexual abuse and harassment in the military and on college campuses.... Earlier, she said she would give all the donations her campaign had received from [Al] Franken's political action committee to Protect Our Defenders, which helps those assaulted in the military. She also introduced the 'Me Too Congress Act' on Thursday to address yearslong and rampant sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill." ...

... Amy Wang, et al., of the Washington Post: "Broadcaster and model Leeann Tweeden said Thursday that Al Franken 'forcibly kissed' and groped her during a USO tour in 2006, two years before the Minnesota Democrat's election to the U.S. Senate -- prompting Franken to apologize and call for a Senate ethics investigation into his actions. 'You knew exactly what you were doing,' Tweeden wrote in a blog post for Los Angeles radio station KABC, for which she works as a morning news anchor. 'You forcibly kissed me without my consent, grabbed my breasts while I was sleeping and had someone take a photo of you doing it, knowing I would see it later and be ashamed.'... Tweeden's blog post included an image of Franken looking into a camera, his hands either over or on Tweeden's chest as she slept.... Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Franken's home state colleague, also didn't immediately respond to inquiries. She is co-sponsor of a bill unanimously approved by the Senate last week that will mandate sexual harassment training for all senators and their staffs.... On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) announced that the House will adopt a policy change to make anti-harassment training mandatory for all members and staff. That announcement followed a congressional hearing during which members publicly came to terms with sexual harassment as a pervasive problem on Capitol Hill. Female lawmakers aired tantalizing details, albeit without naming names, of unwanted sexual comments and advances taking place in their midst." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The swift, unsparing response came from Republicans and Democrats alike. Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, the Senate leaders, wasted no time before forwarding the matter to the Senate Ethics Committee -- a move supported by Democrats, including Mr. Franken. Lawmakers did stop short of meting out a punishment on a fellow senator, and it appeared that Mr. Franken would be able to weather the disclosure.... While his fellow senators rushed to rebuke him, Mr. Franken hunkered down out of sight, skipping four votes in the Senate and the Democrats' regularly scheduled luncheon.... Republicans, eager to talk about sexual accusations other than Mr. Moore's, tried to turn the allegations to their political favor."

... Esme Cribb of TPM: "Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), accused on Thursday of forcibly kissing and groping a woman on a USO tour in 2006 before he was in office, has made the prevention of sexual assault and violence against women one of his signature issues as a lawmaker. Franken on Thursday said he 'certainly' did not remember the incident 'in the same way' as Leeann Tweeden, who accused Franken of kissing her over her protestations and later groping her in a photograph. Franken offered his 'sincerest apologies.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Via Politico, here's the text of Franken's full apology, made after his initial statement. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... A Curious Twist. Josh Delk of the Hill: "Former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone appeared to know there were sexual misconduct allegations involving Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) hours before they became public. Stone has been banned from Twitter, but at 1 a.m. on Thursday morning an account connected to him tweeted a quote from the Republican political operative. 'Roger Stone says it's Al Franken's "time in the barrel". Franken next in long list of Democrats to be accused of "grabby" behavior," read the tweet from Enter the Stone Zone.... After Tweeden's account went public, Enter The Stone Zone tweeted again, sharing a Politico report about the allegations." ...

     ... Gets Curiouser. Karen Wehrstein of Daily Kos: "... and: InfoWars knew too.... [The tweets from Stone & InfoWars surrogates are] all within nine minutes of each other -- from 1:12 to 1:21 a.m. Nov. 16. Several hours later, Leeann Tweeden, who is connected with Fox as a six-year employee of Fox Sports, and has appeared on Hannity, issued her Franken accusation." Following this, Putinbots started tweeting furiously about Franken." ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post looks at immediate fallout & possible consequences for Franken. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Michelle Goldberg makes a multi-faceted argument on why Franken should not resign, but she concludes, "I would mourn Franken's departure from the Senate, but I think he should go, and the governor should appoint a woman to fill his seat. The message to men in power about sexual degradation has to be clear: We will replace you." ...

     ... Kevin Drum: "No. The message to men in power should be: we will treat you fairly. That should be our message to everyone, the guilty and the innocent alike. If we get to the point where we sacrifice individuals just for the sake of movement optics, that's where I get off the train." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm with Drum on this. Based on what we know now -- that is, unless we find out Franken is still making "jokes" like this or has abused a number of other women -- he should not resign. I'd favor censure or some other form of reprimand. Since he has joined the Senate, Franken has been a serious legislator, educating himself on the issues, and BTW, championing women's issues & rights. What we've seen in Sen. Franken is a new & improved Al. If that's a facade, then sure, adios, go freeze your ass off in Minnesota. In the meantime, stick around, Al, & atone for your gross mistreatment of a woman who was trying to do a good deed for American servicemen & women. ...

... Steve M.: "... if Franken stays, every Alabama Republican voter who's on the fence about Roy Moore receives a Get Out of Moral Quandary Free card. Hey, the lib harasser gets to stay, so hell yeah, I'm voting for Roy Moore. I still think a Doug Jones victory in Alabama is a long shot, though people who are smarter than I am think it's possible. But it won't be possible if Franken hangs on. That's not the main reason he should go. But he should go." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Okay for Fox "News": Not for the Senate. Bill O'Reilly, who had a sex-abuse pass written into his Fox "News" contract, is also saying that Franken is not fit for the Senate.

Looks as if Poppy Has Been Grabbing Ass for a Long Time. Athena Jones of CNN: "Former President George H.W. Bush is facing new allegations from a Michigan woman who said he touched her inappropriately while he was in office at an event in April 1992. The woman, now 55, spoke exclusively with CNN and said she was attending a fundraiser for Bush's re-election campaign in Dearborn, Michigan, with her father when the president grabbed her rear end during a photo-op. 'We got closer together for a family photo and it was like "Holy crap!'" she said, describing the moment Bush touched her buttocks. 'It was like a gentle squeeze.'... 'All the focus has been on "He's old." OK, but he wasn't old when it happened to me,' she told CNN.... CNN has spoken with the woman's ex-husband and her best friend, both of whom she told of the incident soon after it occurred." CNN has not published the woman's name, at her request, but it did publish the "family photo," & it reveals that, yeah, Poppy could have been copping a feel. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bush seems to regard ass-grabbing as a sort of performance art; that is, he does it for the cameras. "Look! I'm the leader of the free world AND I can abuse women in plain sight! What fun!" This is somewhat similar to Al Franken's not-so-funny photo, except Bush -- a former CIA director -- adds a secretive element to it.

Senate Race

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "The Alabama Republican Party on Thursday offered unqualified support to the embattled candidacy of Roy S. Moore, ignoring the condemnation of national Republican leaders and brushing aside worries that he could lose a Senate race in a solidly conservative state -- or be expelled from Congress if he wins. Invoking the need for guidance from God, a statement from the party's chairwoman, Terry Lathan, referred only indirectly to the allegations of sexual misconduct and unwanted overtures against women that have upended the Senate race here." ...

... Oliver Darcy of CNN: "U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore published an open letter to Sean Hannity on Wednesday night pushing back against allegations of sexual abuse.... In the letter, which came one night after Hannity said he would give Moore 24 hours to explain inconsistencies in how he has addressed the allegations before calling on him to step aside in the race, Moore [wrote]..., 'I am suffering the same treatment other Republicans have had to endure.'... Moore said in his letter to Hannity that he was 'in the process of investigating' what he characterized as 'false allegations.'... Hannity responded to Moore's letter at the end of his Wednesday night program and said that the allegations against Moore 'are beyond disturbing and serious.' But Hannity declined to drop his support for Moore...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "During Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court seat Senate Republicans held open for a year until Donald Trump could fill it, the judge was dogged by questions about a case in which he voted against a trucker who nearly froze to death in a broken down truck. Thursday evening, Gorsuch turned this case into a punchline.... After [the trucker] began to show symptoms of hypothermia, he unhitched the trailer -- despite instructions from a supervisor not to do so -- and left seeking help. He was later fired for 'violating company policy by abandoning his load while under dispatch.'" Gorsuch dissented from the two other judges on the appellate panel, who ruled for the trucker. "A judge may be presented with a law, Gorsuch began his joke, and 'immediately know three things. One, the law is telling me to do something really, really stupid. Two, the law is constitutional and I have no choice but to do that really stupid thing the law demands. And three, when it's done, everyone who is not a lawyer is going to think I just hate truckers.' The joke was a hit with the gathered Federalist Society members, who laughed and clapped uproariously after Gorsuch delivered his punchline." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Gorsuch's "joke" is even worse than Franken's.

Mayra Cuevas & Steve Almasy of CNN: "A total of 210,000 gallons of oil leaked Thursday from the Keystone pipeline in South Dakota, the pipeline's operator, TransCanada, said. Crews shut down the pipeline Thursday morning and officials are investigating the cause of the leak, which occurred about 3 miles southeast of the town of Amherst, said ... a spokesman for the state's Department of Environment and Natural Resources. This is the largest Keystone oil spill to date in South Dakota, Walsh said. The leak comes just days before Nebraska officials announce a decision on whether the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, a sister project, can move forward.... In March..., Donald Trump's administration officially issued a permit that approved construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.... Trump said the new pipeline will be a big win for American workers, but critics say it won't be, because most of the jobs would be temporary." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, but remember that Keystone XL is Xtra Large, so count on Xtra Large spills that will generate a lot of temporary jobs that would open up again & again with each new spill. Always look on the bright side.

The Commentariat -- November 16, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Thomas Kaplan & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The House passed a sweeping rewrite of the tax code on Thursday, taking a significant leap forward as Republicans seek to enact $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for businesses and individuals and deliver the first major legislative achievement of President Trump's tenure. The House voted to 227 to 205 to approve the bill, shortly after Mr. Trump came to Capitol Hill to address House Republicans. Thirteen Republicans voted against the bill, and zero Democrats voted for it. The Republicans who voted no were from New York, New Jersey, California and North Carolina." ...

... The Rich Get Richer & the Poor Get Poorer. New York Times: "The Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress's bipartisan referee on tax policy,said on Thursday that the amended Senate's version of the tax bill will raise taxes on low-income Americans beginning in 2021, in what appears to be a side effect of the bill's decision to repeal the so-called individual mandate that requires most people buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Because of this decision, the joint committee's analysis showed that taxpayers earning less than $40,000 would see their tax bills go up in the second half of the next decade. The committee also forecast that taxpayers earning $75,000 or less would see, as a group, large tax increases in 2027, if the individual tax cuts in the bill expire as scheduled at the end of 2025.... Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the Republican chairman of the finance committee, said that the appearance of a tax increase was a mirage that is the result of arcane scoring rules." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: No doubt people struggling to get by will enjoy their tasty soupe du mirage, will imagine the electricity is still on, & won't even see that illusionary red ink in their bank statement. Or at least the ones who aren't dead from lack of health care will. Ain't we got fun.

Thomas Moriarty of NJ.com: "A hopelessly deadlocked jury brought an end to the corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez Thursday with the declaration of a mistrial, after a contentious 11-week courtroom drama that concluded without a final act. The government now must decide whether to retry the Democratic lawmaker from New Jersey and co-defendant Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist, who are accused of swapping lavish gifts for government favors."

Amy Wang, et al., of the Washington Post: "Broadcaster and model Leeann Tweeden said Thursday that Al Franken 'forcibly kissed' and groped her during a USO tour in 2006, two years before the Minnesota Democrat's election to the U.S. Senate -- prompting Franken to apologize and call for a Senate ethics investigation into his actions. 'You knew exactly what you were doing,' Tweeden wrote in a blog post for Los Angeles radio station KABC, for which she works as a morning news anchor. 'You forcibly kissed me without my consent, grabbed my breasts while I was sleeping and had someone take a photo of you doing it, knowing I would see it later and be ashamed.'... Tweeden's blog post included an image of Franken looking into a camera, his hands either over or on Tweeden's chest as she slept.... Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Franken's home state colleague, also didn't immediately respond to inquiries. She is co-sponsor of a bill unanimously approved by the Senate last week that will mandate sexual harassment training for all senators and their staffs.... On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) announced that the House will adopt a policy change to make anti-harassment training mandatory for all members and staff. That announcement followed a congressional hearing during which members publicly came to terms with sexual harassment as a pervasive problem on Capitol Hill. Female lawmakers aired tantalizing details, albeit without naming names, of unwanted sexual comments and advances taking place in their midst." ...

... Esme Cribb of TPM: "Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), accused on Thursday of forcibly kissing and groping a woman on a USO tour in 2006 before he was in office, has made the prevention of sexual assault and violence against women one of his signature issues as a lawmaker. Franken on Thursday said he 'certainly' did not remember the incident 'in the same way' as Leeann Tweeden, who accused Franken of kissing her over her protestations and later groping her in a photograph. Franken offered his 'sincerest apologies.'" ...

... Via Politico, here's the text of Franken's full apology, made after his initial statement. ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post looks at immediate fallout & possible consequences for Franken. ...

... Steve M.: "... if Franken stays, every Alabama Republican voter who's on the fence about Roy Moore receives a Get Out of Moral Quandary Free card. Hey, the lib harasser gets to stay, so hell yeah, I'm voting for Roy Moore. I still think a Doug Jones victory in Alabama is a long shot, though people who are smarter than I am think it's possible. But it won't be possible if Franken hangs on. That's not the main reason he should go. But he should go."

Oliver Darcy of CNN: "U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore published an open letter to Sean Hannity on Wednesday night pushing back against allegations of sexual abuse.... In the letter, which came one night after Hannity said he would give Moore 24 hours to explain inconsistencies in how he has addressed the allegations before calling on him to step aside in the race, Moore [wrote]..., 'I am suffering the same treatment other Republicans have had to endure.'... Moore said in his letter to Hannity that he was 'in the process of investigating' what he characterized as 'false allegations.'... Hannity responded to Moore's letter at the end of his Wednesday night program and said that the allegations against Moore 'are beyond disturbing and serious.' But Hannity declined to drop his support for Moore...."

Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "... Jared Kushner forwarded emails concerning a 'Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite' to Trump campaign officials and failed to produce those emails to the Senate Judiciary Committee, says a letter the senators sent Kushner's lawyer on Thursday. Kushner also failed to produce emails on which he was copied involving communication with WikiLeaks and with a Belarusan-American businessman named Sergei Millian, the senators said. Millian most recently headed a group called the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce.... The senators also saidKushner had not produced any phone records.... The Wall Street Journal and ABC reported earlier this year that Millian was 'Source E' in the dossier alleging ties between Trump and Russia."

Sean Illing of Vox: "'Politicians lie, but this is different,' says [Robert Dallek] a historian who studies presidential history, and estimates the Trump administration easily ranks among the most corrupt in American history.... Dallek estimates that historical examples of corruption, like that of the Warren G. Harding administration, don't hold a candle to how Trump and his people have conducted themselves in the White House. History will judge Trump, and it will not be kind." Illing interviews Dallek.

*****

AFP/Getty Image by Herika Martinez.... Shame on the USA. You Risked Your Lives for the U.S. Now Get Out. Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: The men on the Cordova International Bridge between El Paso, Texas, & Juarez, Mexico, are deported U.S. veterans saluting the American flag & a pair of empty boots, on Memorial Day 2017, to pay homage to fallen U.S. soldiers. The photo went viral on Veterans Day.

Trump Has His Marco Moment:

Small Hands, Smaller-Minded. Trump Calls for Tribute. AP: "... Donald Trump is asking whether three UCLA basketball players released from detention in China will thank him. Trump said he raised their case with China's president when he visited Xi Jinping ... in Beijing last week. Freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley returned to Los Angeles on Tuesday and ignored questions from reporters. Trump returned late Tuesday from a trip through Asia and tweeted Wednesday: 'Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!'" ...

... Even Chris Cillizza, not the sharpest tack on the board, gets this right: "Larry Scott, the PAC-12 commissioner -- the conference that includes UCLA -- quickly issued a statement thanking Trump. "We want to thank the President, the White House and the US State Department for their efforts towards resolution," said Scott. That 'thank you' is apparently not enough for Trump, at least according to his tweet. He wants the actual players -- LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill -- to say 'thank you.' That the three players are all young black men should also not be lost here.... Part of being President is trying to get US citizens out of dicey situations in foreign countries.... Even if you take out the racial element, what Trump is asking for is to be thanked (or, more accurately, thanked by the 'right' people) for doing his job." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump's appeal is not just asking for high-profile public praise; it also is meant to suggest that black people expect to get everything handed to them, so if any ever showed gratitude for one of the handouts he's used to getting, it would be unusual for a person of his race. Every president I can remember has worked to get Americans abroad out of trouble, & not a one ever demanded praise for it.

... Update. Adam Raymond of New York: "President Trump got the public praise he was looking for Wednesday after helping to bring home three UCLA basketball players arrested for shoplifting in China. Cody Riley, Jalen Hill, and LiAngelo Ball, brother of Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball, appeared at a press conference Wednesday morning and all three thanked Trump by name.... On Tuesday Trump told reporters he put a word in with Chinese president Xi Jinping. 'The basketball players, by the way -- I know a lot of people are asking -- I will tell you, when I heard about it two days ago, I had a great conversation with President Xi,' he said. 'What they did was unfortunate. You know, you're talking about very long prison sentences. [The Chinese] do not play games.' Neither Trump's suggestion of a 'very long' prison sentence or a full decade in jail is in line with Chinese law, as the Washington Post reports.... The U.S. State Department also assisted in the effort, as did Jack Ma, the billionaire CEO of the Chinese shopping giant Alibaba, a sponsor of the Shanghai game. But Trump was the only one to make a personal plea for gratitude." ...

... China, BTW, is not saying whether or not Trump had anything to do with the men's release: "'I am not aware of the details,' Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Wednesday, 'But I believe the Chinese police would have handled the case in strict accordance with the law.'" Jen Kirby of Vox has more detail on the saga.

IRS Building a Safe for Trump's Tax Returns. Michael Grunwald of Politico Magazine: "In an hourlong conversation with Politico Magazine's Michael Grunwald, [retiring IRS Commissioner John] Koskinen ... discussed Democratic concerns that ... Donald Trump and his appointees could breach the independence of the IRS, using the agency to harass or persecute his enemies. Koskinen doesn't share those concerns -- not because of his faith in Trump, but because of his faith in the IRS staff and the strict rules governing the integrity of its audits and investigations.... He hasn't spoken to Trump or anyone in the White House in 2017, even though he's known the president since they negotiated the sale of the Commodore Hotel in New York City in 1975. He's never looked up Trump's tax returns -- legally, he can't, and neither can any other IRS employee who isn't working on them -- and says the agency not only keeps them in a locked cabinet in a locked room, but is replacing the cabinet with a safe." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The expensive safe likely would not be necessary if Trump -- like every other top presidential candidate in the last decades -- had released recent returns to the public.

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is preparing to interview the woman who's seen it all: Hope Hicks.... As a senior White House adviser and now as communications director, she's been in the room for moments critical to Mueller's probe, which has grown to include the president's response to the Russia investigation itself." ...

... WTF? Noor Al-Sibai of RawStory: "A lawyer working to get charges against now-infamous Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos dismissed has claimed that special prosecutor Robert Mueller tried to have him killed.... As the New York Times' Adam Goldman noted, this lawyer tried to do the same for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Earlier in the day, legal reporters had expressed confusion after discovering that someone had filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against Papadopoulos." --safari: I'm smelling the thick sweat of panicked desperation in the air. ...

... Alex Hern of the Guardian: "It is impossible to accurately estimate the number of Russian state-sponsored accounts operating on Twitter and Facebook. Researchers come up with a wide range of possibilities, suggesting that Russian interference in British political and cultural life could come from anywhere between 50 and 150,000 accounts. The explanation for this is not because the Russians are particularly secretive or expert at covering their tracks, but the attitude of Twitter and Facebook who fight attempts by independent researchers to come up with an answer.... The problem for all the researchers is that only one organisation has the data they need, and Twitter is not willing to share it." --safari ...

... "In Cahoots". Bill Buzenburg in Mother Jones: "On Monday, The Atlantic published private messages from September 2016 in which WikiLeaks gave Donald Trump Jr. the password to a forthcoming site documenting his father's ties to Russia. But there was more to the story of WikiLeaks' apparent effort to conspire with the Trump campaign against PutinTrump.org -- and I had a front-row seat to it, as editorial director of the site. Within just minutes of reaching out to Trump Jr., WikiLeaks also publicized the password, setting off a wave of online harassment, email bombs, and personal threats against people behind the site. Here's the deeper story." --safari...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't see why Buzenburg didn't just change the password -- which wasn't exactly difficult to guess -- & delete all the alt-right crap. ...

Illustration needs weird orange combover.... Even the Intercept Has Turned on Assange. Robert Mackey of the Intercept: "Before his private messages to Trump Jr. were leaked, [Julian] Assange himself had categorically denied that he or WikiLeaks had been attacking Hillary Clinton to help elect Donald Trump. 'This is not due to a personal desire to influence the outcome of the election,' he wrote in a statement released on November 8 as Americans went to the polls. Even though Assange had by then transformed the WikiLeaks Twitter feed into a vehicle for smearing Clinton, he insisted that his work was journalistic in nature.... While WikiLeaks has undoubtedly facilitated the release of information that is both true and important, it is Assange's Trump-like willingness to traffic in ... unsubstantiated rumors, conspiracy theories, and innuendo not supported by evidence that undermines his claim to be a disinterested publisher, not a political operative."

... ** Luke Harding of the Guardian has a long read on "The inside story of how a former British spy was hired to investigate Russia's influence on Trump -- and uncovered explosive evidence that Moscow had been cultivating Trump for years." --safari ...

... Russians Meddled in Brexit Vote. David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "More than 150,000 Russian-language Twitter accounts posted tens of thousands of messages in English urging Britain to leave the European Union in the days before last year's referendum on the issue, a team of researchers disclosed on Wednesday. More than 400 of the accounts that Twitter has already identified to congressional investigators as tools of the Kremlin, other researchers said, also posted divisive messages about Britain's decision on withdrawing from the bloc, or Brexit, both before and after the vote. Most of the messages sought to inflame fears about Muslims and immigrants to help drive the vote, suggesting parallels to the strategy that Russian propagandists employed in the United States in the 2016 election to try to intensify the polarization of the electorate."

Junior bags an elephant, poses with severed tail.Stephanie Ebbs of ABC News: "The Trump administration plans to allow hunters to import trophies of elephants they killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia back to the United States, reversing a ban put in place by the Obama administration in 2014, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official confirmed to ABC News today. Even though elephants are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, a provision in the act allows the government to give permits to import these trophies if there is evidence that the hunting actually benefits conservation for that species. The official said they have new information from officials in Zimbabwe and Zambia to support reversing the ban to allow trophy hunting permits." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Probably Dad's gift to Junior for doing such a great job with the Russia thing.

Stupidest Senator Makes Sense. Alan Rappeport & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: Ron Johnson, (R-Wis.) "became the first senator in his party to declare that he could not vote for the tax bill as written, and other senators expressed serious misgivings over the cost and effect on the middle class. The House is set on Thursday to pass its own version of the tax bill, which would cut taxes by more than $1.4 trillion over 10 years and broadly rewrite the business tax code. But as with the health care debate earlier this year, the Senate emerged as the inconstant ally in President Trump's pursuit of a major legislative accomplishment in his first year. [Johnson] came out against both chambers' tax plans on Wednesday, saying that the bills favored corporations over small businesses and other so-called pass-through entities, whose owners pay taxes on profits through the tax code for individuals." ...

... Paul Waldman sums up the tax "reform" bill: "The Republican tax bill raises taxes on somewhere between 16 million (Senate version) and 47 million (House version) American households; the difference is mostly because the Senate bill doesn't get rid of as many deductions as the House bill. Most of the benefits of the tax bill go to the wealthy and corporations. It may raise taxes on people with large medical expenses, and parents who adopt children, and people with student loans, and graduate students (these provisions are in the House bill, which ends these deductions, but not the Senate bill). It raises taxes on people who live in states with significant state and local taxes, because it does away with this deduction (in both versions). Because it eliminates personal exemptions, it raises taxes on many families with multiple children (in both versions). It will increase insurance premiums and lead to 13 million fewer Americans with health coverage. It could trigger a $25 billion cut to Medicare because of existing budget rules. If you had to sum it up simply..., you could say that Republicans are raising taxes on millions of Americans and taking away health insurance from millions more, all to pay for a huge giveaway to corporations."

Hannah Levintova of Mother Jones: "On Monday, the Senate Banking Committee announced that it struck a rare bipartisan deal to deregulate banks. The deal would gut several of the protections enacted in 2010 in response to the financial crisis as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, most notably a key rule requiring that 'Too Big To Fail' banks -- those with more than $50 billion in assets -- undergo stricter oversight. The deal is backed by nine Democrats.... The total number of financial institutions subject to this highest level of supervision would drop from 40 to about 12. This same deregulation was proposed this summer by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, an alum of Goldman Sachs, and a number of the banks that would be excluded have failed stress tests in the past." --safari

Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "After the financial crisis in 2008, the Obama administration turned one of the banking industry's friendliest regulators into one of its toughest. But that agency is now starting to look like its old self -- and becoming a vital player in the Trump administration's campaign to roll back regulations. The regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees the nation's biggest banks, has made it easier for Wall Street to offer high-interest, payday-style loans. It has softened a policy for punishing banks suspected of discriminatory lending. And it has clashed with another federal regulator that pushed to give consumers greater power to sue financial institutions. The shift, detailed in government memos and interviews with current and former regulators, is unfolding without congressional action or a rule-making process. It is happening instead through directives issued at the stroke of a pen by the agency's interim leader, Keith A. Noreika, who -- like the nominee to fill the post going forward -- has deep connections to the industry." ...

... 'Twas Nice While It Lasted. Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress: "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Richard Cordray plans to leave the agency several months shy of the expiration of his five-year term.... Cordray's abrupt departure comes after years of work by Wall Street's allies in Congress to strip the agency of its independence, an effort for which the CFPB's director was a natural lightning rod.... It's unclear who President Donald Trump might turn to as a replacement in the meantime as those efforts continue on Capitol Hill. But if the notoriously distractible administration cares to move quickly here, it has a number of available candidates suited to replace Cordray's pragmatic approach with right-wing economic ideology." --safari: Expect the worst.

Trump U Spite. Edwin Rios of Mother Jones: "For-profit college magnates Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute shuttered operations in recent years after facing state and federal investigations into fraudulent and predatory practices.... The Department of Education under President Barack Obama made it easier for students to submit 'borrower defense claims' to try and recoup the funds. By January 2017, the administration announced it had granted more than $650 million in relief.... Since Donald Trump took office, the approval of such claims has ground to a halt.... In 10 months, the Trump administration has yet to approve a single claim." --safari...

Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "The number of leak probes run out of the Justice Department has increased 800%, according to testimony Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered [Tuesday] on Capitol Hill.... Sessions said the Justice Department currently has 27 open investigations into these matters. He added that in the previous three years, there have been a total of nine such investigations -- just three last year. A nine-fold increase, in other words.... 'In the whole history of the country, there have only been about a dozen prosecutions for leaks,' said Ben Wizner, an attorney with the ACLU who also represents Edward Snowden. 'So the 27 number, if it's real, is staggering.'" --safari

Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: Louis Gohmert "Brought This Chart To An Important Hearing And Everyone Is Very Confused." Mrs. McC: This report is starred not because the post is insightful or important, but because it is hilarious. Before linking to Geidner's post, you might want to read Akhilleus' analysis in yesterday's thread, which is what brought this moment of levity to my attention. I can't stop laughing. (Also linked late yesterday morning.)

The AP in the Guardian: "Papa John's has apologized for comments made by CEO John Schnatter blaming sluggish pizza sales on NFL players kneeling during the national anthem.... Schnatter donated to Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Papa John's added that it is 'open to ideas from all. Except neo-nazis.' It has previously tried to distance itself from white supremacists who praised Schnatter's comments, saying it does not want those groups to buy its pizza. The company's stock has fallen by nearly 13% since Schnatter's comments." --safari

Senate Race

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Alabama's increasingly bizarre Senate race was convulsed again on Wednesday as four more women came forward to describe encounters with the Republican candidate, Roy S. Moore, and Mr. Moore's campaign sharply questioned the credibility of another accuser."

Stephanie McCrummen, et al., of the Washington Post: Another woman, Gena Richardson, gives a detailed account of Roy Moore's pursuing her when she was about 18 years old & working at the Gadsden Mall. When she turned him down for a date, he called her at her high school. Later, he lured her into his car & gave her a "forceful," unwanted kiss. Richardson said she was afraid of Moore, & a friend & co-worker -- who today backs up her report -- would warn her when Moore came into the store so Richardson could escape to a back room. Others say that Moore trolled young women & girls working at the mall. Becky Gray, who also worked at the mall & was 22 at the time "says Moore kept asking her out and she kept saying no." Moore's persistence made her uncomfortable, & when she complained to the store manager, he told her that hers was not the first complaint about Moore. ...

... Anna Vollers of AL.com: "A Gadsden woman [-- Tina Johnson --] says Roy Moore groped her while she was in his law office on legal business with her mother in 1991. Moore was married at that time." Johnson was 28. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Like most sexual predators, Moore picked on vulnerable women. These young women were working in capacities (store clerks, a waitress) in which they were required to be nice to customers. If a well-dressed man walked into the socks department in 1980 & asked the clerk for a date or flattered her in an inappropriate way, she couldn't just tell him to fuck off. ...

... AND Moore Continues to Try to Intimidate. Nicole Lafond of TPM: "An attorney for Alabama Senate Republican candidate Roy Moore's wife and his Foundation for Moral Law has sent a letter to a local news outlet asking the newspaper to retract stories about allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore and threatening to sue, according to several reports.... AL.com's publisher, Alabama Media Group, is standing by its reporting." ...

... Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans turned to President Trump on Wednesday in hopes he would join their urgent attempt to force GOP nominee Roy Moore out of the Senate race in Alabama following allegations of sexual misconduct -- but Trump did not oblige. Instead, back in Washington after a 12-day Asia trip, Trump was silent on Moore.... His daughter Ivanka Trump, however, voiced confidence in Moore's accusers and said there is 'a special place in hell for people who prey on children' in comments to the Associated Press. She did not call for Moore to step aside." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Is there "a special place in hell" for a man who says publicly that he'd like to date his own daughter because she's so hot? BTW, the headline on the WashPo story is hilarious: "Senate Republicans look to Trump to restore order amid Alabama upheaval." Good luck to anybody who wants President Chaos to "restore order" to anything as complicated as his sock drawer. ...

... Jeremy Diamond & Jeff Zeleny of CNN: "Behind the scenes, the President and his advisers are closely watching the developments in Alabama's special election.... That includes, in particular, the reaction of influential conservative supporters such as Fox News host Sean Hannity.... Trump, one source said, believes the allegations of child sexual abuse and sexual assault against Moore are bad for the Republican brand.... In conversations in the West Wing on Wednesday, Trump expressed apprehension about being dragged into the topic of sexual assault or harassment if he weighs in.... [T]he President believes his accusers were unfair and some of Moore's may be, too." -- safari: This entire article is outrageous in the callousness and absolute cowardice of the entire Trump administration, from its rotten head to its fetid feet. ...

... Rick Hasen explains why a couple of Republicans ideas to get themselves out of the Moore Mess violate the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Mrs. McC: So far, it appears there are no good options for Republicans. For Alabama & the nation, of course, the best option would be for Alabama's voters to choose Democrat Doug Jones. ...

... Brett Samuels of the Hill: "An attorney for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore seemed to suggest Wednesday that MSNBC host Ali Velshi's 'background' might help the journalist understand why the Republican nominee would date underage women." When Velshi's co-host Stephanie Ruhle challenged him, attorney Trenton Garmon said, something something, Kenya, something, arranged marriages. Because you can't say Muslim, Muslim, Muslim on the teevee. Mrs. McC: BTW, I have no idea if Velshi is Muslim, but I found out from the segment that he's a Canadian. I'm pretty sure Garmon -- who says he checked up on Velshi's "background" -- thinks Velshi is Muslim so he should be good with sexually assaulting young teens. Or else he thinks Canadians are into pedophilia. They are foreigners, after all.

Beyond the Beltway

Thomas Fuller of the New York Times: "The death toll in a Northern California shooting rampage rose to five on Wednesday after the authorities said they found the body of the gunman's wife hidden under the floor of the couple’s house.... Phil Johnston, assistant sheriff of Tehama County ... said investigators believed that the rampage started with the killing of [Kevin] Neal’s wife, possibly on Monday night. The police believe that Mr. Neal shot and killed his wife, cut a hole in the floor of their house and placed her body inside."

Way Beyond

David Agren of the Guardian: "Violence in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero ... has shut down the state's overcrowded morgues as workers walked off the job, saying the stench of hundreds of decomposing bodies had become unbearable.... Bodies have arrived in such numbers that morgues in the state have neither the space to store them nor the personnel to carry out autopsies, workers told local media.... 2017 looks set to be the country's most murderous year since such statistics were first compiled in 1997." --safari

Way, Way, Way Beyond

Stuart Clark of the Guardian: "A potentially habitable world, termed Ross 128 b, has been discovered just 11 light years away. It is roughly Earth-sized and orbits its parent star once every 9.9 days. Astronomers calculate that its surface temperature could lie somewhere between -- 60° and 20°, making it temperate and possibly capable of supporting oceans, and life." --safari