The Commentariat -- November 6, 2017

Late Morning Update:

L'état, C'est Moi. Jonathan Swan of Axios recounts a June 2017 meeting in which President Trump told Native American tribal leaders how to cut the red tape that accompanies energy exploration on their lands: 'Chief, chief, what are they going to do? Once you get it out of the ground are they going to make you put it back in there? I mean, once it's out of the ground it can't go back in there. You've just got to do it. I'm telling you, chief, you've just got to do it.'"

Patricia Dvorak of the Washington Post: "It was the middle-finger salute seen around the world. Juli Briskman's protest aimed at the presidential motorcade that roared past her while she was on her cycling path in Northern Virginia last month became an instantly viral photo. Turns out it has now cost the 50-year-old marketing executive her job. On Halloween, after Briskman gave her bosses at Akima LLC, a government contracting firm, a heads-up that she was the unidentified cyclist in the photo, they took her into a room and fired her, she said, escorting her out of the building with a box of her things." Read on. Briskman did not ID her employer. It appears that if Briskman had been a man, the company would not have fired her.

** Junior Promised Russian Lawyer Tit-for-Tat. Irina Reznik & Henry Meyer of Bloomberg: "A Russian lawyer who met with … Donald Trump;s oldest son last year says he indicated that a law targeting Russia could be re-examined if his father won the election and asked her for written evidence that illegal proceeds went to Hillary Clinton's campaign. The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, said in a two-and-a-half-hour interview in Moscow that she would tell these and other things to the Senate Judiciary Committee on condition that her answers be made public, something it hasn't agreed to.... 'Looking ahead, if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it,' Trump Jr. said of the 2012 law, she recalled. 'I understand our side may have messed up, but it'll take a long time to get to the bottom of it,' he added, according to her. Veselnitskaya also said Trump Jr. requested financial documents showing that money that allegedly evaded U.S. taxes had gone to Clinton's campaign." ...

... Greg Sargent: “We know now as a matter of fact ... that the June 2016 meeting was held for the explicit purpose of getting a dump-truck's worth of Russian 'dirt' on Clinton -- Donald Trump Jr.'s email chain confirms it. And let's not forget, as The Post has reported, that Trump himself helped dictate an initial statement from Donald Trump Jr. that misleadingly claimed the meeting was 'primarily' about Russian adoptions. This was later proven false, which means Trump himself has been directly implicated in an effort to mislead the country about his own top campaign officials' eagerness to benefit from help from the Russian government. Whatever legal conclusions Mueller ends up reaching, we now know that Trump's top campaign officials were eager to collude with Russia to help him win the election and that Trump himself helped to cover that up." Veselnitskaya is not the most reliable witness.

Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump declared that the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Tex., that left at least 26 people dead was not 'a guns situation,' saying instead he believed that 'mental health' was the problem. Trump's comments came at a news conference in Tokyo, when he was asked about the shooting at a South Texas church and if stricter gun laws were the answer.... Though the alleged shooter has been identified as Devin Kelley, 26, the full mental state of Kelley has yet to be determined. Kelley, a Texas man who enlisted in the Air Force in 2010, was court-martialed in 2012 for assaulting his wife and child, and received a bad conduct discharge from the military in 2014."

Jack Holmes of Esquire: "... this president's ability to distinguish himself in the eyes of our Eastern allies is so potent he could start getting the job done before he even arrived. And so it emerged in The Japan Times, that nation's oldest English-language newspaper, that Trump has some intriguing views on the relationship between Japanese feudal history and North Korean ballistic missiles. '... Threats from North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile development programs were set to be high on the agenda in his talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday.... The U.S. president said he could not understand why a country of samurai warriors did not shoot down the missiles, the sources said....' Many have already sunk the slam-dunk snark-shot that katanas are a non-ideal weapon against cruise missiles." Do see Akhilleus' commentary below.

*****

The Paradise Papers

** Most Corrupt Administration Ever, Ctd. Jon Swaine & Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, is doing business with Vladimir Putin's son-in-law through a shipping venture in Russia.... Leaked documents and public filings show that Ross holds a stake in a shipping company, Navigator, through a chain of offshore investments. Navigator operates a lucrative partnership with Sibur, a Russian gas company part-owned by Kirill Shamalov, the husband of Putin's daughter Katerina Tikhonova. Ross, a billionaire and close friend of Trump, retained holdings in Navigator even after taking office this year. The relationship means that he stands to benefit from the operations of a Russian company run by Putin's family and close allies, some of whom are under US sanctions.... Democratic senators wrote to Ross in February demanding that he disclose 'the full extent of your connections to Russia'. Ross did not respond." --safari ...

... The New York Times story, by Mike McIntire & others, on Wilbur Ross's Kremlin ties, is here. "In a written response to questions by the Times, James Rockas, a spokesman for Mr. Ross, said that Navigator's relationship with Sibur began before Mr. Ross joined the board in March 2012, and that he had never met the Russian oligarchs who are Sibur's major shareholders. Public records show that Mr. Ross's firm became a major investor in Navigator in November 2011, three months before the company chartered its first ships to Sibur. 'Sibur was not under sanctions at the time the contract was signed and is still not subject to sanctions,' Mr. Rockas said. More broadly, he said that Mr. Ross 'recuses himself from any matters focused on transoceanic shipping vessels, but has been generally supportive of the administration's sanctions of Russian and Venezuelan entities.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Ross (via his spokesman) lied about the timing of his & Sibur's association with Navigator, as the Times story claims, can't we assume he is lying about other aspects of his business holdings? ...

... Richard Engel & Aggelos Petropoulos of NBC News: "Wilbur Ross ... shares business interests with Vladimir Putin's immediate family, and he failed to clearly disclose those interests when he was being confirmed for his cabinet position.... The documents seen by NBC News, however, along with a careful examination of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, tell a different story than the one Ross told at his confirmation. Ross divested most of his holdings, but did not reveal to the government the full details of the holdings he kept.... Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said members of Congress who were part of Ross' confirmation hearings were under the impression that Ross had divested all of his interests in Navigator. Furthermore, he said, they were unaware of Navigator's close ties to Russia. 'I am astonished and appalled because I feel misled,' said Blumenthal. 'Our committee was misled, the American people were misled by the concealment of those companies.' Blumenthal said he will call for the inspector general of the Commerce Department to launch an investigation." ...

... Kevin Drum speculates that Ross held onto the investment, which hasn't been very profitable, & misled the Senate "for reasons other than money." ...

... All the President's Swamp. Jon Swain & Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Trump is surrounded by wealthy individuals who have legally either sheltered their own investments or presided over policies to keep company profits or clients' funds out of reach in tax havens.... The leaked documents reveal that for various periods between 2002 and 2006, [economic advisor Gary] Cohn was president or vice-president of 22 separate entities in Bermuda for Goldman Sachs.... Secretary of state [Rex Tillerson] is named in the leaked files as a director of an offshore firm used in a multibillion-dollar oil and gas venture in the Middle East that became embroiled in controversy.... Treasury secretary [Steven Mnuchin]'s former bank financed offshore private jets for wealthy clients.... The Trump administration's most senior banking watchdog [Randy Quarles] appears in the Paradise Papers in connection with an offshore bank that is under investigation by US authorities for possible tax evasion.... New US ambassador to Russia [Jon Huntsman] helped lead a previously undisclosed offshore company, according to the leaked files.... Ambassador to India [Kenneth Juster] benefited from the offshore business of his former investment company and its billion-dollar purchase of a shipping corporation.... [Carl] Icahn, a friend and former adviser to Trump, owns a $250m mining company spread across three tax havens and structured in a way that limits the information it must disclose to US authorities.... The chairman of Trump's inaugural committee [Tom Barrack] leads a $58bn real estate investment trust that channels some of its profits to the low- or no-tax jurisdictions of Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and Lebanon.... SEC chairman [Jay Clayton] received income from a hedge fund based in the Cayman Islands.... A biotechnology company headed by [Ben] Carson, Trump's housing and urban development (HUD) secretary, set up offshore firms that could have reduced its tax bill." --safari ...

... From Russia to Silicon Valley. Jon Swaine amp; Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Two Russian state institutions with close ties to Vladimir Putin funded substantial investments in Twitter and Facebook through a business associate of Jared Kushner, leaked documents reveal. The investments were made through a Russian technology magnate, Yuri Milner, who also holds a stake in a company co-owned by Kushner.... The discovery is likely to stir concerns over Russian influence in US politics and the role played by social media in last year's presidential election. It may also raise new questions for the social media companies and for Kushner." --safari ...

... Andrew Desiderio & Noah Shatchman of The Daily Beast: "Top White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, is also implicated. The documents reveal that Russian tech leader Yuri Milner invested $850,000 in a startup called Cadre that Kushner co-founded in 2014. Milner has long had a reputation in Silicon Valley as a big-league investor; his firm at one point owned major chunks of both Facebook and Twitter. But Milner was never considered particularly Kremlin-connected. These new documents call that reputation into question. The investing arm of Gazprom, the state-backed energy company, financed a share of Facebook worth up to $1 billion; a Kremlin-owned bank invested $191 million into a Milner firm, and some of that money was then injected into Twitter. Despite Milner's investment in his startup, Kushner said in July that he told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed-door meeting that he never 'relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector.... Kushner, who still has a stake in Cadre, did not previously disclose the firm's other business ties.'" --safari...

... Nick Hopkins of the Guardian explains the importance of the leaked "Paradise Papers", outing users of offshore tax havens. ...

... Max de Haldevang & Zachard Seward of Quartz also have a guide to major revelations in the Paradise Papers. ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "The leaked documents, which are being referred to as the 'Paradise Papers,' came from Appleby, a prominent law firm based in Bermuda that specializes in offshore bank accounts. They were originally procured by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, then given to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which made them available in part to several outlets. Approximately 13.4 million documents were leaked, with tax details of more than 100 public figures exposed."

Jane Perlez of the New York Times on how China's Xi Jinping plans to coax Trump into "a special relationship that sets China apart, as the other great power in an emerging bipolar world." Mrs. McC: Give him some golden things, Jinping. Tell him he's smart & handsome & say, "Oh, Mr. President, you hands are so-o-o big."

** Julia Ainsley, et al. of NBC: "Federal investigators have gathered enough evidence to bring charges in their investigation of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser [Michael T. Flynn] and his son as part of the probe into Russia's intervention in the 2016 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation." --safari ...

... digby: "Flynn isn't just dirty, he's nuts. Everyone knew he was nuts too. And he was Trump's most important National Security Adviser. Also, one of Trump's most egregious obstructions of justice was firing the acting AG who warned them and then telling the head of the FBI to go easy on Flynn." ...

... Andy Borowitz: "The White House called an unscheduled press briefing on Sunday to clarify Michael T. Flynn's role in the Trump campaign, claiming that his job consisted entirely of making coffee when George Papadopoulos was busy with other matters.... [Sarah] Sanders said that, in the weeks to come, the White House is likely to release the names of additional campaign staffers whose roles were limited to the preparation of coffee beverages, and that such names might include Jared Kushner and Donald Trump, Jr."

... Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... documents and interviews show there are at least nine Trump associates who had contacts with Russians during the campaign or presidential transition. Some are well-known, and others, such as Papadopoulos, have been more on the periphery.... Trump in the past denied that he or his associates communicated with Russia during the campaign. Now, he and his allies are seeking to minimize the importance of the contacts that have emerged.... Experts who have studied Russian tactics see something different: a picture emerging of a concerted and multifaceted Kremlin effort to infiltrate Trump's campaign." ...

... Michael Kranish & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post report on where Rick Gates, long Paul Manafort's deputy, fit into Trump world and what some of his previous business interests were. Mrs. McC: Whatever he did, "While Gates listed $2.2 million in assets in 2011, he filed a 2016 credit application saying he had a liquid net worth of $25 million and that his wife was worth $30 million...." That's a helluva jump. The $2.2MM sounds like total assets: houses, vehicles, college funds, retirement accounts AND liquid assets like checking accounts. $25MM in liquid assets, however, is money you can pull out of your pocket, so to speak. It would not include real property, IRAs, etc. ...

... Julia Manchester of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions needs to return to the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions about alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia after recent revelations suggest that Sessions's previous statements were false.... "This is getting a bit old with Jeff Sessions," he [told Chris Wallace of Fox 'News']. 'I asked a question "did anyone ever talk to you about talking with the Russians?" I didn't ask about collusions. So we now know that somebody at a meeting, Mr. Papadopoulos, raised the idea of meeting with Putin. There's nothing wrong with Trump meeting with Putin if he wanted to. It would be wrong to have the Russians help the Trump campaign,' he said. Graham's comments come after The New York Times reported that unsealed court documents revealed that Trump and Sessions were aware of correspondence between members of the campaign and Russian actors, despite saying earlier this year they were unaware of such communications."

Lynnley Browning of Bloomberg: "House Republicans should slow down their consideration of a tax-overhaul bill after investigative reports Sunday alleged offshore tax-avoidance by U.S. multinational companies including Apple Inc. and Nike Inc., congressional Democrats and tax-advocacy groups said. But the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee [Kevin Brady] indicated Sunday that the panel would stick to its plans to consider the bill this week.... House leaders want to pass the bill by Thanksgiving.... In all, the bill is 'very weak' on combating aggressive tax evasion by both corporations and individuals, said Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer who's an expert on financial crime and international tax abuse." --safari

Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "Republicans are mostly a party of cultural grievance-mongers, not ambitious legislators. That's why Donald Trump is their president. That's why they don't seem to notice or care that Paul Ryan is a total fraud. They'd be a lot happier if they just owned it. At the end of the day, mostly adhering the policy status quo while catering to the symbolic and social recognition demands of the ethno-sectarian majority is a perfectly plausible approach to the problems of party politics." --safari

Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) sustained five fractured ribs after he was assaulted by a neighbor at his Bowling Green home on Friday, a top adviser said Sunday -- and it's unclear when the senator will be able to return to Washington for work. 'Senator Paul has five rib fractures including three displaced fractures,' his chief political strategist, Doug Stafford, said in a statement Sunday. 'This type of injury is caused by high velocity severe force. It is not clear exactly how soon he will return to work, as the pain is considerable as is the difficulty in getting around, including flying.'... Authorities say Paul's neighbor, Rene Boucher, tackled the senator from behind at 3:21 p.m. on Friday, leaving Paul struggling to breathe and bleeding from cuts around his mouth. Boucher, 59, has been charged with one count of fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor that can carry up to one year in prison.... Officials have not disclosed a reason for Friday’s altercation." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So how come we heard yesterday, "Kelsey Cooper, Paul's Kentucky communications director, issued a statement to the Daily News indicating that 'Senator Paul is fine'"? (Yesterday's linked story has been updated to indicate Paul suffered rib fractures & lung contusions. The "Sen. Paul is fine" part has been disappeared.) And excuse me -- beating a person bloody, fracturing his ribs & leaving him unable to work is a misdemeanor??? There's something odd here. Update: The New York Times fingers the cops for the misdiagnosis: "The injuries ... appear to be much worse than the 'minor' injuries that the police had reported on Saturday." Well, no, Kelsey there works for Paul.

Beyond the Beltway

David Montgomery & Christopher Mele of the New York Times: "A gunman wearing all black and a ballistic vest opened fire with a rifle outside a small Baptist church in rural [Sutherland Springs,] Texas and continued firing inside the building on Sunday, killing at least 26 people and turning a tiny town east of San Antonio into the scene of the country's most recent mass horror. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas confirmed the death toll, which has steadily increased throughout the day after the shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.... At least 20 people were also injured.... Two law enforcement sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity..., identified the gunman as Devin P. Kelley, 26." ...

... The Houston Chronicle, in association with the San Antonio Express-News has updates here. The front page of the Chron has links to related stories.

Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "Runners taking part in a 5km race in a small city in North Carolina on Saturday afternoon ... followed a zigzag course that took them, literally, all around the houses. The event was intended as a live demonstration of the absurdity and insidiousness of the way voting boundaries have been redrawn -- or gerrymandered -- in Asheville, a liberal town at the western end of the state. The head-spinning route of the 'Gerrymander 5K' ...follow[ed] an invisible line that since 2011 has divided what was previously a single US congressional seat into two odd-shaped districts.... Each half was thus in a new district dominated by a traditionally Republican rural area. The result was that the GOP now has a firm lock on power in Asheville, a progressive enclave in a red state that is now represented in Washington by two Republicans, one an ultra-conservative." --safari

Way Beyond

Long Live Shady Practices. Hilary Osborne of the Guardian: "Millions of pounds from the Queen's private estate has [sic] been invested in a Cayman Islands fund as part of an offshore portfolio that has never before been disclosed, according to ... an investigation into offshore tax havens." --safari

Guardian: "Saudi Arabia arrested 11 princes, including a prominent billionaire, and dozens of current and former ministers, reports said, in a sweeping crackdown as the kingdom's young crown prince consolidates power. Saudi King Salman appointed two new ministers on Saturday to key security and economic posts, removing one of the royal family;s most prominent members as head of the national guard, as part of a series of high-profile sackings that sent shock waves in the kingdom." --safari...

...Saudi Power Grabs. Juan Cole: "The Secretary-General of Hizbullah, the Lebanese party-militia, Hassan Nasrullah, gave a major speech Sunday in the wake of the resignation of prime minister Saad Hariri. Nasrullah characterized this step as a Saudi move dictated to Hariri by Riyadh.... Nasrullah said he was surprised by Hariri's sudden move. He maintained that until recently, Hariri had reported at cabinet meetings that Saudi Arabia wants a stable Lebanon and backed the national unity government.... Then Hariri recently went back to Riyadh, Nasrullah said, and this time he did not come back.... So the Hizbullah leader is implying that something changed in the politics of the royal family all of a sudden, and they imposed this resignation on Lebanon through their proxy.... In any case, Hariri's resignation has caused a crisis in Lebanon." --safari.

The Commentariat -- November 5, 2017

Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "The White House on Saturday disparaged the legacies of the only two living Republican presidents to precede Donald Trump, after reports that both men castigated Trump in interviews last year and refused to vote for him. Former president George H.W. Bush mocked then-candidate Trump as a 'blowhard' and voted for a Democratic president, while the younger Bush worried aloud that Trump would destroy the idea of a Republican president in all but name, according to 'The Last Republicans,' which is scheduled to go on sale later this month. The White House response followed a CNN report about the new book in an extraordinary war of words involving three presidents from the same party. 'If one Presidential candidate can disassemble a political party, it speaks volumes about how strong a legacy its past two presidents really had,' the White House wrote to CNN. It called the younger Bush's decision to wage war on Iraq 'one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes in American history.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Nakamura & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump donned a military-style bomber jacket shortly after arriving in Japan on Sunday and projected confidence that the United States will confront threats in Asia, telling hundreds of U.S. troops that they will have the resources 'to fight, to overpower and to always, always, always win.' Trump's tough talk in a speech to U.S. and Japanese military personnel at Yokota Air Base, shortly after Air Force One touched down here, aimed to set a tone for his five-nation tour during which the president said he is likely to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a regional summit in Vietnam later this week. The president told reporters during his flight that he wants 'Putin's help on North Korea,' as his administration attempts to consolidate support for its strategy to pressure Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons program."

Ashley Parker & Courtney Teague of the Washington Post: "Stopping in Hawaii en route to his five-country, 12-day trip in Asia -- his longest foreign trip since assuming office -- the president appeared energetic and enthusiastic, from almost the moment Air Force One climbed into the sky." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Business, As Usual. Lindsay Gibbs of ThinkProgress: "Oh his way to Asia for a five-country diplomatic tour, one of his most significant international trips since taking office..., Donald Trump stopped in Honolulu, Hawaii to visit the USS Arizona Memorial, which is dedicated to the victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor. But on his way back to the airport, Trump made another stop -- this time at the Trump Hotel in Waikiki. According to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump wanted to greet the employees and thank them for their hard work in making the Trump Hotel a 'tremendously successful project.' This stop, which happened amidst a taxpayer-funded trip, was both unexpected and unannounced, according to reporters travelling with the president."

"Trump Committed Another Impeachable Offense." Frank Bowman in Slate: "On July 27, 1974..., the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon because he sought to turn the immense power of the Justice Department and federal criminal investigative agencies against his political adversaries.... No respectable scholar of the Constitution doubts that directing the criminal justice and intelligence systems of the United States against political opponents ... is among the impeachable 'high crimes and misdemeanors' of Article II, Section 4. Friday morning..., Donald Trump sent out a series of tweets in which he explicitly urged the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party for a grab bag of supposed offenses -- emails deleted from then-Secretary of State Clinton's private server, the Russia-uranium kerfluffle, activities by Tony Podesta (lobbyist and brother of Secretary Clinton's campaign manager), and the allegation that officials at the Democratic National Committee worked with Clinton's campaign to give it a boost over Sen. Bernie Sanders'.... Trump followed up these tweets with statements to the press in which he said he is 'disappointed' with the Justice Department and would not rule out firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions if Sessions won't investigate Democrats. In my view, Trump's tweets tiptoed right up to the line of an impeachable offense. His subsequent statements to the press stepped firmly over it." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: One big difference: Nixon had the sense to do his dirty work in secret; he knew what he was doing violated his oath of office, even if he later "justified" his actions by claiming that "if the president does it, it's not illegal." Trump is either too stupid to know or too imperious to care that he repeatedly flouts his Constitutional duties & limitations. ...

... Leigh Caldwell & Frank Thorp of NBC News: "The Trump administration has downplayed the role of foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos during the 2016 presidential campaign. But the public record shows that Papadopoulos, who attempted to set up a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, was a more prominent figure than previously understood." The story goes on to cite several instances in which Papadopoulos represented the campaign over a period of several months. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs! Jeff Ostrowski of the Palm Beach Post: "Trump won permission to hire 70 [foreign] maids, cooks and servers at the Mar-a-Lago Club for the 2017-18 tourist season, according to newly released data from the U.S. Labor Department. In 2016-17, Trump hired 64 foreign workers at the Palm Beach property. The trend is similar throughout Palm Beach County."

Dan Balz & Scott Clement of the Washington Post: "A majority of Americans say President Trump has not accomplished much during his first nine months in office and they have delivered a report card that is far harsher even than the tepid expectations they set for his tenure when he was sworn into office, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News survey.... Trump has an approval rating demonstrably lower than any previous chief executive at this point in his presidency over seven decades of polling. Fewer than 4 in 10 Americans -- 37 percent -- say they approve of the way he is handling his job."

NEW. "Way Bigger than Donald Trump." Jonah Shepp of New York: "... the Russian government has developed a sophisticated digital propaganda and misinformation strategy based on using hacked data from public figures and institutions in countries of interest to influence public opinion and elections in those countries.... Even more disconcerting is that because Trump was at best an unwitting beneficiary in last year';s election meddling, he cannot see past his own role in this story to understand these implications in the longer term.... Perhaps instead of trying to catch the administration in another lie, the White House press corps should start asking what they are doing to prevent this type of interference from happening again in the future. Responding to such threats is part of the president's job, and if he refuses to do so, he should pay a price for that negligence, at least in the court of public opinion."

Heather Long of the Washington Post: "President Trump promised to cut taxes for the middle class, but some would end up paying more under the 'Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,' according to a report released Friday night by Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeepers tasked with determining how much any tax legislation would add to the debt and how it would impact the poor, middle class and wealthy.... The JCT found that the GOP bill would add nearly $1.5 trillion to the debt over the next decade and that, on average, families earning between $20,000 and $40,000 a year and between $200,000 to $500,000 would pay more in individual income taxes in 2023 and beyond.... Democratic tax experts say most of the benefits go to the richest Americans. 'JCT's estimates show that this bill is heavily tilted toward the wealthy,'says Lily Batchelder, a tax law professor at New York University and former member of President Obama's National Economic Council." ...

... ** Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: The House tax "bill bristles with tax increases aimed at low- and moderate-income households -- small in their aggregate effect but burdensome on the targeted taxpayers -- that have no apparent social rationale. Here's a sampling.... The tax bill would eliminate tax deductions for interest on student loans.... Teachers lose their deduction for classroom supplies.... The tax plan eliminates a deduction for catastrophic medical expenses that already had been made less generous than in the past.... The bill repeals the adoption tax credit, which allows families to offset up to $13,570 in taxes for every child adopted out of foster care.... Despite a surge of weather-related disasters in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, the tax bill would repeal deductions for property and casualty losses.... The tax measure would continue the Republican attack on renewable energy by ending the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric cars.... Beyond these provisions, the tax bill would take away modest deductions and exclusions that help ordinary people live their lives." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: These "reforms" are a lesson in nasty. Even the stupidest members of Congress can understand the moral purpose of each of these tax breaks. Some are to help ordinary people suddenly hit with unexpected financial crises -- high medical costs, weather disasters. Some are to help people who do the right thing -- provide school supplies for kids, purchase a fuel-efficient car. Most are family-friendly -- help send the kids to college, take in an orphan, etc. Eliminating any of these deductions would place more American families in greater financial stress. And the "reason" for removing these deductions aimed at people who need them? Of course it's to put more money in the pockets of people who already have way more money than they need to live in luxury.

Don Sergent of the Bowling Green (Kentucky) Daily News: "A Bowling Green man was arrested Friday and charged with fourth-degree assault after an incident at the Bowling Green home of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul. Rene Boucher, 59, is in the Warren County Regional Jail in lieu of a $5,000 bond, according to online jail records available Saturday afternoon. Paul suffered minor injuries, according to a news release from Kentucky State Police Post 3 in Bowling Green. Kelsey Cooper, Paul's Kentucky communications director, issued a statement to the Daily News indicating that 'Senator Paul is fine.' 'Senator Paul was blindsided and the victim of an assault,' Cooper said in an email."

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Former Democratic National Committee head Donna Brazile writes in a ew book that she seriously contemplated replacing Hillary Clinton as the party's 2016 presidential nominee with then-Vice President Biden in the aftermath of Clinton's fainting spell, in part because Clinton's campaign was 'anemic' and had taken on 'the odor of failure.' In an explosive new memoir, Brazile details widespread dysfunction and dissension throughout the Democratic Party, including secret deliberations over using her powers as interim DNC chair to initiate the removal of Clinton and running mate Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) from the ticket after Clinton's Sept. 11, 2016, collapse in New York City. Brazile writes that she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt most certain would win over enough working-class voters to defeat Republican Donald Trump. But then, she writes, 'I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, surely that would have gone smoothly. ...

... Jesse Ferguson of the Clinton campaign: "We were shocked to learn the news that Donna Brazile actively considered overturning the will of the Democratic voters by attempting to replace Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine as the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees. It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate's health." ...

... Steve M.: "And while she was at it, [Brazile] was going to pick her presidential nominee's running mate for him.... Did she have the right to do this? Absolutely not. Three days after the fainting incident, The Washington Post's Joshua Tucker interviewed Richard Pildes, an NYU law professor and election law expert. As Pildes noted, the decision to remove a Democratic nominee is up to the entire Democratic National Committee, not the DNC chair. It's Josh Marshall's belief, after a look at the DNC's charter and bylaws, that the process can be initiated only in the event of a vacancy. In other words, Clinton would have had to agree to removal from the ticket, and Kaine as well.... And if Clinton and Kaine had been replaced, could they have made it onto state ballots? In many states they might not have.... This is insane." ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "Most bizarrely, [Brazile] writes of fearing for her life after the murder of Seth Rich, the DNC staffer whose death has been the locus of deranged Republican conspiracy theories surrounding WikiLeaks and Hillary Clinton's emails. Whether Brazile's apparent fabulism will be dismissed as a bookselling stunt or cause any real internecine conflict among Democrats is unclear. But with a pivotal, uncomfortably close gubernatorial election just around the corner in Virginia, one thing's for sure: The timing for a massive distraction for the party could scarcely be worse." ...

... Paul Campos, in LG&$: "What's next, Pizzagate?"

Anne Bernays, in a Washington Post op-ed, on the indignities of being female.

Adam Vary of BuzzFeed: Kevin "Spacey is alleged to have consistently used his sexuality in a way that was unwanted and unwarranted, and often unrelenting. In Spacey's case, these stories also demonstrate the complex effect the closet can have for men of any sexual orientation when talking about sexual misconduct by another man. Spacey appears to have discovered how to weaponize the closet, shielding his own behavior from scrutiny under the guise of merely protecting his privacy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Brent Lang & Daniel Holloway of Variety: "Producers are exploring several options for getting 'House of Cards' back on track in the wake of sexual assault and harassment allegations against star Kevin Spacey. One scenario being discussed is to kill off Spacey's character, the villainous Frank Underwood, and have the show's sixth and final season concentrate on his equally manipulative wife Claire, played by Robin Wright, according to insiders." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia announced the arrest on Saturday night of the prominent billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, plus at least 10 other princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers.m he announcement of the arrests was made over Al Arabiya, the Saudi-owned satellite network whose broadcasts are officially approved. Prince Alwaleed's arrest is sure to send shock waves both through the Kingdom and the world's major financial centers. He controls the investment firm Kingdom Holding and is one of the world's richest men, with major stakes in News Corp, Time Warner, Citigroup, Twitter, Apple, Motorola and many other well-known companies. The prince also controls satellite television networks watched across the Arab world. The sweeping campaign of arrests appears to be the latest move to consolidate the power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son and top adviser of King Salman."

Juan Cole: "In a news conference this week, [Secretary of Energy Rick Perry] expressed the opinion that fossil fuels would prevent sexual assault.... It should be noted that when governor of Texas Perry actively resisted Federal regulations to reduce prison rape, so he seems more interested in hydrocarbons than in do-gooding.... Lack of electricity is certainly a problem for development in Africa.... But electrification can be pursued in environmentally sustainable ways ... solar and wind are everywhere and there is no impetus to fight over control of them. As for fossil fuels, they are responsible for enormous numbers of rapes.... Take [South] Sudan ... it fell into civil war as elites of these two struggled for control of the vast oil wealth. It doesn't get the press that Syria did, but South Sudan is one of the most brutal civil wars on the planet.... Then there is the violent conflict in the Niger Delta of southern Nigeria. It is also over oil and its proceeds, and their distribution.... There is war rape." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- November 4, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Former Democratic National Committee head Donna Brazile writes in a new book that she seriously contemplated replacing Hillary Clinton as the party's 2016 presidential nominee with then-Vice President Biden in the aftermath of Clinton's fainting spell, in part because Clinton's campaign was 'anemic' and had taken on 'the odor of failure.' In an explosive new memoir, Brazile details widespread dysfunction and dissension throughout the Democratic Party, including secret deliberations over using her powers as interim DNC chair to initiate the removal of Clinton and running mate Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) from the ticket after Clinton's Sept. 11, 2016, collapse in New York City. Brazile writes that she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt most certain would win over enough working-class voters to defeat Republican Donald Trump. But then, she writes, 'I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her....'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, surely that would have gone smoothly.

Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "The White House on Saturday disparaged the legacies of ;the only two living Republican presidents to precede Donald Trump, after reports that both men castigated Trump in interviews last year and refused to vote for him. Former president George H.W. Bush mocked then-candidate Trump as a 'blowhard' and voted for a Democratic president, while the younger Bush worried aloud that Trump would destroy the idea of a Republican president in all but name, according to 'The Last Republicans,' which is scheduled to go on sale later this month. The White House response followed a CNN report about the new book in an extraordinary war of words involving three presidents from the same party. 'If one Presidential candidate can disassemble a political party, it speaks volumes about how strong a legacy its past two presidents really had,' the White House wrote to CNN. It called the younger Bush's decision to wage war on Iraq 'one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes in American history.'"

Ashley Parker & Courtney Teague of the Washington Post: "Stopping in Hawaii en route to his five-country, 12-day trip in Asia -- his longest foreign trip since assuming office -- the president appeared energetic and enthusiastic, from almost the moment Air Force One climbed into the sky."

Leigh Caldwell & Frank Thorp of NBC News: "The Trump administration has downplayed the role of foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos during the 2016 presidential campaign. But the public record shows that Papadopoulos, who attempted to set up a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, was a more prominent figure than previously understood." The story goes on to cite several instances in which Papadopoulos represented the campaign over a period of several months.

Adam Vary of BuzzFeed: Kevin "Spacey is alleged to have consistently used his sexuality in a way that was unwanted and unwarranted, and often unrelenting. In Spacey's case, these stories also demonstrate the complex effect the closet can have for men of any sexual orientation when talking about sexual misconduct by another man. Spacey appears to have discovered how to weaponize the closet, shielding his own behavior from scrutiny under the guise of merely protecting his privacy." ...

... Brent Lang & Daniel Holloway of Variety: "Producers are exploring several options for getting 'House of Cards' back on track in the wake of sexual assault and harassment allegations against star Kevin Spacey. One scenario being discussed is to kill off Spacey's character, the villainous Frank Underwood, and have the show's sixth and final season concentrate on his equally manipulative wife Claire, played by Robin Wright, according to insiders."

*****

I'm the only one that matters. -- Donald Trump

I don't know. I'm really not involved with the Justice Department. I'd like to let it run itself. But honestly, they should be looking at the Democrats. They should be looking at Podesta and all of that dishonesty.... And a lot of people are disappointed in the Justice Department, including me. -- Donald Trump, to reporters on the White House South Lawn, Friday, when asked if he would fire Jeff Sessions if DOJ doesn't take action against Hillary Clinton ...

... ** Dumb Guy Surprised by -- & Ignores -- Job Requirements. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "One of President Trump's biggest disappointments in office, by his own account, was discovering that he is not supposed to personally direct law enforcement decisions by the Justice Department and the F.B.I. So, instead, he has made himself into perhaps the most vocal critic of America's system of justice ever to occupy the Oval Office. Just this week, he denounced the criminal justice system as 'a joke' and 'a laughingstock.' He demanded that the suspect in the New York terrorist attack be executed. He spent Friday berating the Justice Department and F.B.I. for not investigating his political opponents. He then turned to the military justice system and called a court-martial decision [of Bowe Bergdahl] 'a complete and total disgrace.' The repeated assaults on law enforcement cross lines that presidents have largely observed since the Watergate era, raising questions about the separation of politics and the law." ...

... Philip Rucker & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday repeatedly called on the Department of Justice and FBI to investigate his Democratic political opponents, a breach of the traditional executive branch boundaries designed to prevent the criminal justice system from becoming politicized. Trump urged federal law enforcement to 'do what is right and proper' by launching criminal probes of former presidential rival Hillary Clinton and her party -- a surprising use of his bully pulpit considering he acknowledged a day earlier that presidents are not supposed to intervene in such decisions. In a flurry of accusatory morning tweets, Trump claimed there was mounting public pressure for new Clinton probes, including over her campaign's joint fundraising agreement with the Democratic National Committee that effectively gave her some control over the party's finances, strategy and staffing before the primaries began. Trump invoked Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who had said that she believed the Democratic primaries were rigged in Clinton's favor based on details of the arrangement in a new book by former DNC interim chair Donna Brazile. Using his pejorative nickname for Warren, Trump tweeted: 'Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats, lead [sic] by the legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the Primaries! Lets [sic] go FBI & Justice Dept.' Trump also called for probing the deleted emails from Clinton's private server while she was secretary of state, as well as the sale of a uranium company to Russia and the international business of Democratic super-lobbyist Tony Podesta, the brother of John D. Podesta, who served as Clinton's campaign chairman." ...

... Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Trump's calls for both the Justice Department and the FBI to dig into a series of purported Democratic scandals have been widely dismissed as a way to deflect attention from special counsel Robert Mueller and the criminal charges he filed earlier this week against three of the president's former campaign aides. But Trump is still the president of the United States, and his public statements encouraging investigations into his current and former opponents have drawn widespread criticism across the ranks of current and former law enforcement officials. Trump's statements also leave his political appointees at the Justice Department in a bind: Do they follow the orders of the president who put them in their jobs, or do they follow the historical norms and rules of their department that mandate they stay clear of politics when they open, investigate and close any criminal cases?" ...

... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) is firing back at President Trump over his push for the Justice Department to investigate Democrats and Hillary Clinton. 'President Trump's pressuring of the Justice Department and FBI to pursue cases against his adversaries and calling for punishment before trials take place are totally inappropriate,' Corker said in a statement. He added that the president's remarks 'not only undermine our justice system but erode the American people's confidence in our institutions.'" ...

... Brandon Carter of the Hill: "Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said Friday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions 'absolutely' committed perjury in his Senate testimony regarding contacts between President Trump's campaign and Russian officials. 'He lied under oath at least twice and most recently, both Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, based on their testimony and their statements, they show that Jeff Sessions contradicted himself when he said he was not aware of any campaign official talking to the Russians,' Lieu said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Lieu said Sessions should resign from his post because 'the top law enforcement official in the United States can not have committed a crime and still be there.'"...

... Carol Leonnig & Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "The House Intelligence Committee has called former longtime [Trump] bodyguard Keith Schiller to appear for an interview Tuesday as part of its probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Investigators plan to press Schiller about allegations in the 35-page dossier that Russian officials obtained compromising information about Trump's personal behavior when he visited Moscow for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, according to people familiar with the investigation.... The president has indicated that Schiller will say that the Moscow allegations are false. 'Keith was there,' the president told the New York Times in July. 'He said, "What kind of crap is this?" I went there for one day for the Miss Universe contest, I turned around, I went back.'... The House panel also plans to ask Schiller about another episode that is a central focus in the investigations by congressional committees and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III: the firing of former FBI Director James B. Comey. Trump tasked Schiller with hand-delivering to the FBI the president's letter terminating Comey." ...

... Mark Mazzetti & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump presidential campaign, met Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip he took to Moscow, according to testimony he gave on Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee. Shortly after the trip, Mr. Page sent an email to at least one Trump campaign aide describing insights he had after conversations with government officials, legislators and business executives during his time in Moscow.... The email was read aloud during the closed-door testimony. The new details of the trip present a different picture than the account Mr. Page has given during numerous appearances in the news media in recent months and are yet another example of a Trump adviser meeting with Russians officials during the 2016 campaign. In multiple interviews with The New York Times, he had either denied meeting with any Russian government officials during the July 2016 visit or sidestepped the question, saying he met with 'mostly scholars.' Mr. Page confirmed the meetings in an interview on Friday evening, but played down their significance."

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Candidate Trump announced his "foreign policy team" of six members in late March 2016. Of the six, one-third -- George Papadopoulos & Carter Page -- had, or claimed to have, Russian connections. Leading the campaign was Paul Manafort, who had extensive financial dealings with Vladimir Putin's oligarch buddies & political puppets. Later, Trump began taking foreign policy advice from Mike Flynn, who was friendly with the Kremlin and whom Trump liked so much he named Flynn his top national security advisor. As president, Trump chose as his number one diplomat Rex Tillerson, who also was known to be friendly with Putin. In other words, Trump chose a group of advisors who had connections to Putin. To me, this outsized pro-Russia crew in itself is a big red flag -- one that sports a hammer & sickle. If, as he frequently claims,Trump is not "under investigation," he should be, and not just because of his odd but well-known support for Putin or Junior & Jared's meeting with Russian operatives. ...

... Easy Marks. Alex Finley, in Politico Magazine: "By now, it should be clear to anyone following the news that Russian intelligence made a formidable effort to approach the Trump campaign and assess the potential to manipulate its members. As a former officer of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, I can tell you that Russian security services would have been derelict not to evaluate the possibility of turning someone close to Trump. While the question of collusion remains open, it's beyond dispute that Russia tried to get people around the president to cooperate. The June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower is indication enough, but other encounters bolster the argument.... From an intelligence point of view, the people surrounding Trump, and Trump himself, make easy targets for recruitment." Finley lays out the methods the Kremlin likely used to compromise key campaign figures, including Trump. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "Former Trump campaign advisor Michael Caputo went on MSNBC [Friday] afternoon and said George Papadopoulos was 'stupid' and 'had no business' being at that March 2016 foreign policy advisor meeting.... This is all 100%, unquestionably true.... But none of this is a defense. It's irrelevant. He had no business being there and yet he was there.... The Trumpers have long pushed this argument that they were too inexperienced, disorganized or simply too stupid to have conspired with Russians to subvert the election. That's not how it works. As we've noted in recent days, intelligence operatives (of any country) are looking precisely for people who are desperate, stupid, inexperienced, crooked.... That is when you have something to work with.... Which brings us back to Paul Manafort." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Marshall argues that Manafort was the one guy on the Trump campaign who was not an idiot & that Bob Mueller seems to know that, too. ...

... Raphael Satter, et al., of the AP: "... the AP drew on forensic data to report Thursday that the hackers known as Fancy Bear were closely aligned with the interests of the Russian government. The AP's reconstruction -- based on a database of 19,000 malicious links recently shared by cybersecurity firm Secureworks -- shows how the hackers worked their way around the Clinton campaign's top-of-the-line digital security to steal chairman John Podesta's emails in March 2016. It also helps explain how a Russian-linked intermediary could boast to a Trump policy adviser, a month later, that the Kremlin had 'thousands of emails' worth of dirt on Clinton." Mrs. McC: I'm not exactly a technical junkie, but the methodology here is interesting. Combine Russia's successful hacking with their methods of compromising Trump's staff (a child could do it), as Alex Finley & Josh Marshall lay out, & it's impossible to think Russia did not insert itself into Trump's campaign. ...

... Because They're Blinded by the Stupid. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Three conservative House Republicans are expected to file a resolution Friday calling on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to recuse himself from his probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, accusing him of conflicts of interest. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who wrote the resolution, accuses Mueller of having a conflict of interest because he was serving as FBI chief when the Obama administration approved a deal allowing a Russian company to purchase a Canada-based mining group with uranium operations in the United States, according to a draft obtained by The Washington Post." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Update. They did it.

Terrence Suzplat in a Washington Post op-ed: "As if on cue, Trump has broken out the authoritarian's playbook and delivered his own shameful performance, chapter and verse, [in response to the terrorist attack in New York City].... Like any good demagogue, Trump moved quickly to find a villain: Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.).... Most alarming, Trump resorted to the oldest trick in the demagogue's book -- dehumanizing the enemy. The perpetrator is not simply a terrorist, he is, Trump said, an 'animal.'... Such language is particularly ominous given Trump's habit of conflating terrorists with the broader Muslim American community.... Trump has once again succumbed to his worst impulses. The question for the rest of us is, which is stronger -- the demagogue or our democracy?"

Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday slammed a military judge's decision for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to not serve any prison time after pleading guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, calling the ruling 'a complete and total disgrace to our country and to our military.'" ...

... Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was dishonorably discharged from the Army on Friday by a military judge, but received no prison time, for desertion and endangering troops, ending a drama that began more than eight years ago in war-torn Afghanistan." (Also linked yesterday.)

So we don't need all the people they want. I'm a businessman, and I tell my people, 'When you don't need to fill slots, don't fill them.' But we have some people that I'm not happy with there. Lemme tell you, the one that matters is me. I'm the only one that matters, because when it comes to it, that's what the policy is going to be. -- Donald Trump, Thursday, on the many unfilled vital State Department positions ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "Trump then blamed Chuck Schumer and Democrats for obstructing nominees (which is definitely not what's happening) and defended 'cost saving' as a diplomatic strategy. The autocratic egoism on display echoed several previous Trump moments, from his campaign ad released earlier in the week ('President Trump will fix it') to his frightening speech at the Republican National Convention speech in 2016."

Your Friday Night News Dump. Lisa Friedman & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Directly contradicting much of the Trump administration's position on climate change, 13 federal agencies unveiled an exhaustive scientific report on Friday that says humans are the dominant cause of the global temperature rise that has created the warmest period in the history of civilization. Over the past 115 years global average temperatures have increased 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, leading to record-breaking weather events and temperature extremes, the report says. The global, long-term warming trend is 'unambiguous,' it says, and there is 'no convincing alternative explanation' that anything other than humans -- the cars we drive, the power plants we operate, the forests we destroy -- are to blame. The report was approved for release by the White House, but ... put out a statement Friday that seemed to undercut the high level of confidence of the report's findings. 'The climate has changed and is always changing,' Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, said in the statement."

Ed Kilgore of New York: "Normally, midterm elections at least partially operate as a referendum on the performance of the president and the president's party. But there are growing signs Donald Trump will try something entirely new: making the midterms a referendum on his defeated 2016 opponent.... Republicans who want to keep the focus on Trump's vanquished foe will receive considerable assistance from Democrats who cannot seem to disentangle themselves from the controversies arising from the Clinton-Sanders nomination contest." --safari

Nick Miroff & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "More than 300,000 Central Americans and Haitians living in the United States under a form of temporary permission no longer need to be shielded from deportation, the State Department told Homeland Security officials this week, a few days ahead of a highly anticipated DHS announcement about whether to renew that protection. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a letter to acting DHS secretary Elaine Duke to inform her that conditions in Central America and Haiti that had been used to justify the protection no longer necessitate a reprieve for the migrants, some of whom have been allowed to live and work in the United States for 20 years under a program known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).... DHS has until Monday to announce its plans for roughly 57,000 Hondurans and 2,500 Nicaraguans whose TPS protections will expire in early January."

David Savage of the Tribune Washington Bureau: "In a highly unusual move, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Friday to discipline lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union because they helped a 17-year old migrant obtain an abortion two weeks ago.... On Friday, new Solicitor General Noel Francisco filed an appeal that asks the Supreme Court to set aside the lower court's rulings and to consider 'disciplinary action' against the ACLU.... Sessions said the abortion took place early in the morning, before the Justice Department could lodge an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court." --safari...

Gail Collins notices again that Rick Perry, unlike his predecessors, is not a physicist. She seems to suggest that if he were, he might not say that fossil fuels would prevent sexual assaults in Africa...

...Juan Cole:"In a news conference this week, [Secretary of Energy Rick Perry] expressed the opinion that fossil fuels would prevent sexual assault.... It should be noted that when governor of Texas Perry actively resisted Federal regulations to reduce prison rape, so he seems more interested in hydrocarbons than in do-gooding.... Lack of electricity is certainly a problem for development in Africa.... But electrification can be pursued in environmentally sustainable ways ... solar and wind are everywhere and there is no impetus to fight over control of them. As for fossil fuels, they are responsible for enormous numbers of rapes.... Take [South] Sudan ... it fell into civil war as elites of these two struggled for control of the vast oil wealth. It doesn't get the press that Syria did, but South Sudan is one of the most brutal civil wars on the planet...Then there is the violent conflict in the Niger Delta of southern Nigeria. It is also over oil and its proceeds, and their distribution...There is war rape." --safari

Jonathan Chait of New York: "It is a testament to the power of self-delusion that Republicans have convinced themselves that their political self-interest demands that they pass a deeply unpopular tax-cut plan. The House has designed a proposal that not only violates Senate budget rules but seems virtually designed to seed an endless supply of attack ads against congressional Republicans.... The bill contains three categories of political poison." --safari ...

... As contributor Ken W. writes, Dylan Matthews of Vox does a fine job of explaining the House's tax bill. Because of all the variables, unless you're in the top one percent, you'll just have to guess whether or not you stand to gain or lose, but most Americans -- including those of you who are financially comfortable -- are losers & as the deficit rises & more benefits for the rich kick in, more will become losers. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Zaid Jilani of The Intercept: "House Republican lawmakers are sponsoring legislation that would prohibit doctors from performing abortions after a heartbeat is detected. In fact, 169 lawmakers -- all are Republicans but one -- have co-sponsored the bill, known as the 'Heartbeat Protection Act of 2017.'... At the same time, the Republican tax proposal released Thursday would make it more difficult for American parents to turn to what many anti-abortion groups offer as an alternative: adoption. The House Republican tax reform bill would completely eliminate the adoption tax credit, which has been in the tax code since 1997." --safari

Elana Schor of Politico: "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said Friday that she is readying a proposal to strengthen Capitol Hill's system for handling sexual harassment complaints in the wake of a growing number of reports detailing past misconduct by lawmakers and aides. Gillibrand announced her legislation after Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.), as well as former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and former Reps. Mary Bono (R-Calif.) and Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), shared their stories of past sexual harassment by male lawmakers with The Associated Press. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) last week divulged, while she unveiled plans for her own bill to overhaul the Hill's sexual misconduct policies, that as a young congressional aide she was forcibly kissed by the male chief of staff in her office."

Al Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "The police in New York on Friday said that they were developing a strong criminal case against the producer Harvey Weinstein after an actress's claim that he raped her seven years ago. Speaking at a news conference at Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan, officials in the Police Department said they were gathering evidence with an eye toward preparing a warrant to arrest Mr. Weinstein, whose representatives have said he is undergoing therapy outside New York. The claims of the actress, Paz de la Huerta, have been a focus of investigators in the department's Special Victims Division for several days, since Mr. Weinstein;s long history of allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault of women was detailed in reports by The New York Times and The New Yorker early last month. Those reports prompted a mountain of tips to the police in New York and London about other episodes."

Marc Caputo, et al., of Politico: "Six women who work in Florida's Capitol say the state Senate's powerful budget chairman, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Latvala, has inappropriately touched them without their consent or uttered demeaning remarks about their bodies. The women, who include Senate staff and lobbyists affiliated with both major parties..., did not want to be identified for fear of losing their jobs, getting a bad reputation in the male-dominated Capitol or running afoul of an influential politician who can kill their clients' issues. The incidents, they said, occurred over a period of several years, happening in the privacy of Latvala's Senate office or in public places like the Capitol rotunda, a bar or an elevator."

How to Quit Your Job:

Beyond the Beltway

Tyler Estep of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Joe Briggs says he isn't anti-Semitic -- just anti-Israel. And the Suwanee City Council candidate finds it strange that a series of controversial tweets he wrote about Jews have come to light just a few days before next week's election. 'I'm absolutely not racist in the very least,' Briggs said.... The posts are critical of Israel's government and its role in American affairs -- and they also compare Jews to Nazis, refer to Zionists as 'cockroaches' and call American slavery 'cheap labor to big business.'... 'Get the Jews out of the White House and out of POTUS' ear,' Briggs wrote in a tweet from September that referenced the U.S. weighing a more 'aggressive' approach in Iran. Two days later, with an inspiration that was unclear: 'At least the Nazis assimilated and contributed to US society.'" --safari

Way Beyond

Cécile Allegra of the Guardian: "Male rape is being used systematically in Libya as an instrument of war and political domination by rival factions, according to multiple testimonies gathered by investigators.... The atrocity is being perpetrated to humiliate and neutralise opponents in the lawless, militia-dominated country. Male rape is such a taboo in Arab societies that the abused generally feel too damaged to rejoin political, military or civic life." --safari: Warning: graphic info.

If this card were for Marie Burns, she would never share it because she's far too modest to purposely do anything that smacks of the self-congratulatory. But Bea McCrabbie doesn't give a crap what anybody else thinks, and she really appreciates this clever, thoughtful birthday card. Many thanks to the sender.