The Commentariat -- May 15, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North Korea indefinitely postponed high-level talks with South Korea scheduled for Wednesday, citing a joint South Korean-United States air force drill, South Korean officials said. Senior officials from the two Koreas had been scheduled to meet in the 'truce village' of Panmunjom on their border on Wednesday to discuss putting in place an agreement to improve ties between the countries that their leaders signed in a meeting on April 27. But in a move that caught South Korea off guard, North Korea called the South shortly after midnight Tuesday unilaterally announcing that the talks will be 'postponed indefinitely,' the South's Unification Ministry said." Mrs. McC: The joint AF drill is held annually, so not exactly a surprise to the North.

Scott Shane & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "In weekly online posts last year, WikiLeaks released a stolen archive of secret documents about the Central Intelligence Agency's hacking operations, including software exploits designed to take over iPhones and turn smart television sets into surveillance devices. It was the largest loss of classified documents in the agency's history and a huge embarrassment for C.I.A. officials. Now, The New York Times has learned the identity of the prime suspect in the breach: a 29-year-old former C.I.A. software engineer who had designed malware used to break into the computers of terrorism suspects and other targets. F.B.I. agents searched the Manhattan apartment of the suspect, Joshua A. Schulte, one week after WikiLeaks released the first of the C.I.A. documents in March last year, and then stopped him from flying to Mexico on vacation.... But instead of charging Mr. Schulte in the breach, referred to as the Vault 7 leak, prosecutors charged him last August with possessing child pornography, saying agents had found the material on a server he created as a business in 2009 while he was a student at the University of Texas." Schulte received a conditional prison release in September 2017, but re-incarcerated in December for violating the terms of his release.

M.J. Lee of CNN: "A Qatari investor referenced in a series of tweets from Michael Avenatti this week confirmed to CNN through a spokesperson on Tuesday that he did attend meetings at Trump Tower in December 2016. The stated reason: Ahmed Al-Rumaihi wanted face time with Trump transition officials. 'Mr. Al-Rumaihi was at Trump Tower on December 12, 2016. He was there in his then role as head of Qatar Investments, an internal division of QIA, to accompany the Qatari delegation that was meeting with Trump transition officials on that date,' said a spokesperson for Sport Trinity, a company that Al-Rumaihi co-owns. 'He did not participate in any meetings with Michael Flynn, and his involvement in the meetings on that date was limited.'" The story will be updated.

Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday said Israel had reacted with restraint in its military response to protesters at the Gaza border, and dismissed suggestions the violence was caused by the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. Nikki Haley told the Security Council that Hamas, backed by Iran, had incited the violence by urging protesters over loudspeakers to burst through the fence separating the borders and flying kites into Israel with Molotov cocktails attached."

Katrina vanden Heuvel in the Washington Post: "In recent weeks, the Trump administration has announced policy proposals that appear to serve little purpose other than cruelty." Vandel Heuvel makes out a list of some of these policies, a few of which have received little press, like this one: "... the Labor Department is apparently planning to roll back child labor protections that limit the hours that teenagers can spend performing dangerous jobs, such as operating chainsaws and trash compactors. The agency risibly described its proposal as an effort to 'launch more family-sustaining careers by removing current regulatory restrictions.'..."

AP: "The Trump administration is designating the head of Iran's central bank as a terrorist and hitting him with sanctions intended to further isolate Iran from the global financial system. The Treasury Department accuses Valiollah Seif of helping transfer millions of dollars to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. Seif is the governor of the Iranian central bank. He's being named a 'specially designated global terrorist.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Hey, Iran, instead of yelling "Death to America" & grousing about the U.S.'s violation of the international nuclear accord, I suggest you spend half a billion backing the Trump Tower Tehran. All will be, as Daddy-o Trump would say, "cool."

No Apologies Genes. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "White House officials reiterated their position on Monday that a morbid joke an aide made about John McCain -- an 81-year-old, six-term Republican senator with brain cancer -- is not the sort of thing that warrants an apology on behalf of this administration. This decision led colleagues and relatives of Mr. McCain to wonder what sort of situation would. It has also drawn consternation from some Republicans, who are waiting for more lawmakers to back up their colleague and demand an apology from the White House. So far, they've heard little.... [The White House's] combative ethos has stood firm amid an assortment of insults and missteps."

Jeremy Herb & Manu Raju of CNN: "Gina Haspel..., Donald Trump's pick to be the next CIA director, says in a new letter that the CIA should not have conducted then-President George W. Bush's interrogation and detention program where waterboarding and other brutal interrogation tactics were used on detainees. In the letter to Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Haspel takes a position she wasn't willing to state publicly last week, writing that the interrogation program 'is not one the CIA should have undertaken.'" ...

... Karoun Demirjian & Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "Gina Haspel appears to have secured enough votes to be confirmed as the country's next CIA director after stating in a letter to a top Democrat that the agency never should have detained terrorist suspects and employed brutal interrogation techniques against them. In announcing his support for Haspel, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) said Tuesday that he had asked her to write down her views because he believed that in one-on-one meetings she had expressed greater regret, and more resolute moral opposition to the agency's interrogation program than she had communicated during her confirmation hearing last week."

All in the Family. Justin Sink & Toluse Olorunnipa of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump nominated Gordon Hartogensis, a self-described entrepreneur who is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao's brother-in-law, to lead the federal agency that pays worker pensions when employers terminate their retirement plans.... In making the announcement, the White House did not provide biographical information about him or answer questions about his relationship to Chao and McConnell, who are married. Hartogensis is married to one of Chao's sisters, according to a person familiar with the matter."

"Not an Onion Story." Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "A month after abruptly resigning from Congress in an apparent effort to avoid more fallout from sexual harassment allegations<, former Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) already has a new job: lobbying his former colleagues on port issues. Farenthold announced Monday on a Corpus Christi radio show that he landed a new gig at the Calhoun Port Authority in Port Lavaca, Texas, as reported by Caller Times. He is now the port's full-time legislative liaison, and his job responsibilities include increasing the port's visibility with federal lawmakers and the Trump administration."

Joe Pinsker in the Atlantic: The University of Pennsylvania will not talk about its most famous graduate: Donald Trump. The school has not invited Trump to give a speech, nor has it granted him an honorary degree, although "Gerald Ford and Joe Biden both delivered commencement speeches while in office, and Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton did while their husbands were.When I reached out to Penn, the school declined to discuss Trump. (Wharton, one of Penn's four undergraduate schools, and the one from which Trump graduated, did the same.)" Before Trump entered politics, the school favored him with awards & mentions & even appointed him to the Board of Overseers in 1987.

Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "A month after [Hungarian PM Viktor] Orban won a crushing electoral victory, the government is moving quickly to make good on his vow of 'revenge' against perceived enemies. The targets of his wrath, meanwhile, are actively preparing for the crackdown to come within this European Union and NATO member. A human rights group expects to be banned from assisting or even speaking about refugees. A progressive university is planning a possible retreat into exile. And the country's foremost advocate for a liberal alternative to Orban's self-proclaimed 'illiberal democracy' -- funded by billionaire George Soros -- is all but conceding defeat.... That will cheer Orban, who has made the Jewish investor his personal nemesis and national boogeyman in recent years."

*****

Today is primary day in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Idado & Oregon. Vox has a rundown of key elections.

... More photos here. ...

... Loveday Morris & Ruth Eglash of the Washington Post: "Ahead of another day of protests, the death toll for those killed by Israeli forces at the Gaza boundary fence climbed to 61 on Tuesday after an infant died overnight from tear gas inhalation along with two others, according to local health officials." ...

... David Halbfinger, et al., of the New York Times: "Palestinian officials say at least 55 people have been killed in the latest round of protests. More than 2,700 Palestinian demonstrators were wounded on Monday along the border fence with Gaza, the Health Ministry reported. The mass protests began on March 30 and had already left dozens dead. The latest protests took place as the United States Embassy was formally relocated to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, on the 70th anniversary of the formation of Israel. The formality and celebration created an almost surreal contrast to the violence raging barely 40 miles away." (Earlier versions of this report were linked yesterday.) ...

... AND here are Trump's tweets this morning: (2) "Big day for Israel. Congratulations!" This one at 9:36 am ET, after news of the mass killings was public. (1) U.S. Embassy opening in Jerusalem will be covered live on @FoxNews & @FoxBusiness. Lead up to 9:00 A.M. (eastern) event has already begun. A great day for Israel!", three hours earlier. Mrs. McC: I'm just waiting for the pix of smiling Ivanka & Jarad at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Heather Horn of the New Republic: "'What a glorious day,' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said from the podium. 'Remember this moment.' As of 11 a.m. EST, The New York Times put the body count from Gaza's protests at 41." ...

... David Smith of the Guardian: "Washington lavished praise on the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem on Monday -- but was mostly silent on the killing of 55 Palestinians and injuring of at least 1,200 by Israeli security forces. Congressional Republicans and Democrats, who last year reaffirmed a 1995 law calling for the embassy in Tel Aviv to be relocated to Jerusalem, granted Donald Trump a victory lap by lauding his historic decision. The White House blamed the violence squarely on Gaza's rulers Hamas. In the eyes of critics, there was little to alter the view of Washington as a bubble of moral indifference. Only a handful broke ranks to condemn Israel's hardline response to the protests by tens of thousands of Palestinians...." ...

... digby: "The image of Kush[n]er and Ivanka with people being shot and killed at the protests is sickening. The Red Cross says that the hospitals are overflowing. I'm sure Trump is enjoying the festivities." ...

... Dana Milbank: "Here's a split-screen for our times: While Israeli troops were killing dozens of Palestinian protesters in Gaza on Monday, Trump administration representatives were 50 miles away in Jerusalem, celebrating with Israeli officials the opening of the U.S. Embassy there and praising their mutual devotion to peace. 'Moving the U.S. embassy,' Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan declared, is 'a step toward advancing peace.' President Trump himself, in a video message, pledged his commitment to a 'lasting peace agreement.' His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said 'peace is within reach.' And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared it 'a great day for peace.'"

... Michelle Goldberg: "The event was grotesque. It was a consummation of the cynical alliance between hawkish Jews and Zionist evangelicals who believe that the return of Jews to Israel will usher in the apocalypse and the return of Christ, after which Jews who don't convert will burn forever. Religions like 'Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism' lead people 'to an eternity of separation from God in Hell,' Robert Jeffress, a Dallas megachurch pastor, once said. He was chosen to give the opening prayer at the embassy ceremony. John Hagee, one of America's most prominent end-times preachers, once said that Hitler was sent by God to drive the Jews to their ancestral homeland. He gave the closing benediction. This spectacle, geared toward Donald Trump's Christian American base, coincided with a massacre about 40 miles away." ...

     ... Also, too, Dana Milbank notes in the column linked above, "... Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who spoke at a reception for the U.S. delegation, after which [Jared] Kushner and Ivanka Trump asked for Yosef's blessing. The rabbi made waves recently for comparing black people to monkeys and proposed blessing only 'a person with a white father and mother.'" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: So the only good news coming out of this tragedy is that if in the next two months Kim Jong-un removes every element of nuclear & non-nuclear arms technology & material from North Korea, gives up the throne (or whatever he sits on) to become a penniless monk & reunites the two Koreas in his last act as Dear Leader, Donald Trump is not getting a Nobel Peace Prize.

... If you didn't have time to read Olivia Nuzzi's article on the Trump-Hannity brotherhood (linked here yesterday), Stephen Colbert has the highlights:

"Leakers Are Traitors & Cowards Who Don't Exist." -- DiJiT. Jonathan Chait: "... it has taken Trump to elevate the Republican Party's reality-altering habits to a level that is literally Orwellian. The latest visit to the mind-bending frontier of pseudo-reality comes via this presidential tweet:... 'The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible. With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!' Here we learn that the anonymous quotes coming out of the White House are invented 'so-called leaks' by the hostile reporters of the 'Fake News Media.' At the same time, Trump denounces the leakers as 'cowards' and 'traitors.' 'Doublethink,' as George Orwell wrote, 'means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.'" ...

     ... OR, as contributor Nisky Guy wrote in a prescient aphorism a couple of days ago, "A foolish inconsistency is Standard Operating Procedure when the hobgoblin is in the White House." P.S. to Trump: "Overexaggeration" or "over exaggeration," as you wrote it (probably because it came up on your Twitter spellcheck as a misspelling), is not a word. It's a term people use when they're imitating English-speakers who have poor command of their native language. ...

... Louis Nelson of Politico: "Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Monday that she expects personnel changes in the White House in the wake of ... Donald Trump's latest outburst against leaks that have proven damaging to his administration."

Swalwell Has Trump's Number. Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) suggested early Tuesday that President Trump's business interests are driving his policy decisions regarding Russia, China and Turkey. 'I think the reason that he drew himself so closely to the Russians was that the Russians liked him and they invested in him. And he has made decisions that seem to favor them more than what would be our national security interests,' Swalwell said on CNN's 'New Day.' 'With China, they did the same thing,' he added. 'Turkey -- he has projects over there. When you ask, why does he like President Erdogan so much? Well there's a Trump Tower over in Turkey. So it does seem like the simplest explanation is the correct one -- it's money.... HuffPost reported on Monday that just days before Trump announced that he would work to save ZTE, the Chinese government agreed to put as much as $500 million in loans into a theme park and resort in Indonesia. The Trump Organization reportedly has a deal to license the Trump name to the project." ...

... Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress "During Monday's briefing, reporters repeatedly grilled [Deputy Press Secretary Raj] Shah about what prompted Trump's tweet promising to help ZTE -- especially since the tweet came on the heels of a campaign in which Trump accused China of 'the greatest single theft in the history of the world,' saying things like, 'we can't continue to allow China to rape our country.' Shah had no good answers for them." Here's Noah Bierman of the LA Times asking Shah about that Indonesian project:

... Margaret Hartmann: "The exact reason for Trump’s abrupt turn around [on China trade] remains a mystery; there are reports suggesting it's about the midterms, the upcoming negotiations with North Korea, Trump Organization business, or maybe all of the above. Here are the [six] leading theories on why the president developed a soft spot for a sanctions-defying Chinese tech company."

Bob Mueller Keeps on Truckin'. David Stern & Josh Meyer of Politico: "A Ukrainian politician who communicated with Trump associates about a controversial plan to resolve Ukraine's conflict with Kremlin-backed rebels said Monday that he has been called to testify before a grand jury connected to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Andrii Artemenko said ... he assumed he would be asked about the peace plan, about which he communicated with Michael Cohen ... in early 2017." ...

... Natasha Bertrand of the Atlantic: "FBI agents working for special counsel Robert Mueller allegedly detained a lawyer with ties to Russia who is closely associated with Joseph Mifsud, the shadowy professor who claimed during the election that Russia had 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton.... The lawyer allegedly questioned by Mueller’s team, Stephan Roh, is a German multimillionaire with ties to Russia. He hired Mifsud as a 'business-development consultant' in 2015, and is Mifsud's 'partner and best friend' and 'the money behind him,' [George] Papadopoulos's wife, Simona Mangiante, who worked for Mifsud briefly, told me." ...

... Greg Sargent: "... the gap between the real Mueller probe and the one that exists in #Foxlandia — and, as a result, in Trump's head -- has never been wider."

A.J. Vicens of Mother Jones: "Lawyers representing a Russian company indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for supporting meddling in the 2016 US elections accused the US of hypocrisy in a Monday court filing. Concord Management and Consulting LLC is one of the Russian companies indicted by Mueller on February 16 and accused of being used by its owner, Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, to fund the Internet Research Agency, the Russian 'troll farm' that Mueller has accused of having 'a strategic goal to sow discord in the US political system.'... Eric A. Dubelier and Katherine Seikaly of Washington’s Reed Smith LLP law firm claim that Mueller has accused Concord, their client, of engaging 'in the make-believe crime of conspiring to "interfere" in a United States election,' complaining that the charges 'have a strong odor of hypocrisy.' A footnote cites a December 2016 interview NPR conducted with Dov Levin, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, who found that the US interfered in foreign elections more than 80 times between 1946 and 2000.... Concord's lawyers have argued that Mueller is bucking years of US Department of Justice precedent 'to indict a Russian -- any Russian' as a means to 'justify his own existence.'" ...

... They Thought It Was All in Fun! Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "Lawyers for Russian nationals accused of pushing online propaganda during the 2016 presidential election say Special Counsel Robert Mueller has not shown their clients knew what they were doing was illegal. The attorneys [for Concord Management] lay out this somewhat unusual argument in a legal filing posted Monday afternoon.... At issue is the question of mens rea -- the mental state of the Russians who put together the social media disinformation campaign that used Facebook and Twitter to spread fake news stories and socially divisive videos and memes. Attorneys for the Russians are saying that Mueller hasn't shown their clients knew what they were doing could have been against U.S. law."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Yesterday, I couldn't make out what purpose & meaning there might be to a December 16, 2017, Trump Tower meeting among Michael Cohen, Qatari businessman Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, & possibly others, as laid out in a Mother Jones report I linked. Jeremy Stahl of Slate offers some context & suggests the meeting may confirm a key claim of the Steele dossier. It's complicated, but Carter Page, Michael Flynn & soon-to-be Energy Secretary Rick Perry figure into the picture.

Steve M.: "America, I'm afraid, is getting used to Trump's bull-in-a-china-shop style. We may have reached the moment I've been afraid we'd reach, when Trump seems like a reassuring Republican presence to much of the white electorate, while the rest of us foresee the disastrous nature of what he's setting in motion but can't get our fellow citizens to see it."

Alexander Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "Republican officials now see [Vice President] Pence as seeking to exercise expansive control over a political party ostensibly helmed by Mr. Trump, tending to his own allies and interests even when the president's instincts lean in another direction. Even as he laces his public remarks with praise for the president, Mr. Pence and his influential chief of staff, Nick Ayers, are unsettling a group of Mr. Trump's fierce loyalists who fear they are forging a separate power base." ...

... Lewandowski Sent in to Mind pence. Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: Trump has repeatedly "changed his plans to one-up the veep ... [and has gone] out of his way to make sure Pence stays in his shadow.... The vice president has in recent months taken a starring role on the campaign trail, promoting the Republican tax reform bill for America First Policies, Trump's issue-advocacy group. But on Tuesday, Trump's first campaign manager and frequent adviser Corey Lewandowski announced he'll be joining Pence's own political action committee, Great America."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Melania Trump underwent a medical procedure on Monday morning to treat what the White House called a 'benign kidney condition' and was reported to be recovering without trouble at a military hospital outside the capital."

As Akhilleus outlined in yesterday's Comments, Evan Osnos of the New Yorker writes a devastating report on Trump's decimation of the the federal civil service, or as Trump calls it, the "deep state." "... Presidents have retained broad latitude to reshuffle civil servants without breaking the law in obvious ways. That would prove indispensable for the Trump Administration as it set out to 'deconstruct the administrative state.'... In Washington, the tactic of marooning civil servants in obscure assignments is known as sending them to the 'turkey farm.'... While the Administration wrestled the civil service into submission, it began introducing Washington to Trump's 'best and most serious people.' He had four thousand jobs to fill, and the White House was determined to subvert the traditional ways of doing so.... Republican think tanks and donors succeeded in installing preferred nominees.... Trump's struggle to attract competent people reflects a broader problem. For decades, Presidents and Congress have created a steadily increasing number of political appointees."

Brady Dennis & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Scott Pruitt began receiving round-the-clock security from the moment he stepped foot inside the Environmental Protection Agency in February 2017 at the behest of a Trump administration political appointee, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.... The ... emails ... show that the decision to provide Pruitt with 24/7 coverage was made by Don Benton, a Washington State GOP senator who served as the agency's senior White House adviser in the first weeks of the new administration.... The inspector general's office, which investigates threats made against any EPA employees, 'played no role in this decision,' [EPA Inspector General Arthur] Elkins [said].... Elkins made clear in his letter Monday that his office 'has never conducted a "threat assessment"' for Pruitt.... Grilled about the need for such extensive security at a hearing on Capitol Hill last month, Pruitt read directly from a list of alleged threats the inspector general had compiled last summer.... [Democratic Sens. Sheldon ] Whitehouse and [Tom] Carper, who requested the information that Elkins ultimately provided Monday, said in a statement..., 'This letter raises troubling questions about whether Administrator Pruitt told the truth during his testimony before the House.'"

Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Harry Reid, the former Senate Democratic leader from Nevada, underwent surgery on Monday to remove a cancerous tumor from his pancreas. 'His doctors caught the problem early during a routine screening, and his surgeons are confident that the surgery was a success and that the prognosis for his recovery is good,' Mr. Reid's family said in a statement."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a federal law that kept most states from authorizing sports betting, a ruling that is sure to set off a scramble among the states to find a way into a billion-dollar business. The challenge was brought by New Jersey, which had said it could be ready within weeks of a favorable decision to offer sports betting at its racetracks and casinos. Other states are expected to act quickly as well. The court's 6-3 decision struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which Congress passed in the early 1990s to protect the integrity of sports, according to its sponsors. Only Nevada's sports wagering industry was protected, and the measure said it was unlawful for other states to authorize such gambling." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ed Kilgore: "Unlike the original Poor People's Campaign headed up (in the days soon after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination) by Ralph David Abernathy, its revival a half-century later is by design not focused on Washington, D.C. As co-organizer Reverend William Barber II (already famed for the Moral Mondays movement he led in North Carolina) told the Los Angeles Times last week, a truly national movement is needed to reverse the many measures against poor people that have intensified in the last several years[.]... But to get the ball rolling Barber and his co-chair, Reverend Liz Theoharis, led a protest near the U.S. Capitol which, predictably, got them and others arrested for not moving away from the adjoining streets.... All told, over a thousand protesters were arrested, according to the Campaign. It begins a 40-day cycle in which participants hold weekly mass meetings on Sundays, 'direct action' protests on Mondays, and educational 'teach-ins' -- another '60s institution -- on Tuesdays."

Beyond the Beltway

AP: "Prosecutors on Monday abruptly dropped an invasion-of-privacy charge against Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens but said they still hope to pursue a case against him for allegedly taking a revealing photo of a woman with whom he has acknowledged having an affair. Greitens, who has long denied any criminal wrongdoing, emerged from the courthouse declaring vindication.... The prosecutor's surprise move, announced after the third day of jury selection, came after the judge had granted a request by Greitens' lawyers to call St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner as a witness for the defense. Greitens' defense team has repeatedly criticized Gardner's handling of the case...."

Laura Vozzella & Ted Mellnik of the Washington Post: "Last year's race for state delegate in Newport News went down in Virginia history for its razor-thin margin. Republican David E. Yancey won on Election Day by 10 votes; Democrat Shelly Simonds beat him by a single vote in a recount. Then, a judicial panel declared a tie, so officials picked a name out of a bowl to determine a winner, and it was Yancey. Now, a review of voter registration records and district maps by The Washington Post has found more than two dozen voters -- enough to swing the outcome of that race — cast ballots in the wrong district, because of errors by local elections officials. The misassigned voters lived in a predominantly African American precinct that heavily favored Democrats in the fall, raising the possibility that they would have delivered the district to Simonds had they voted in the proper race." [Had Simonds won,] it would have upended the balance of power in the House of Delegates.... Yancey's victory allowed the GOP to maintain control by a 51-to-49 margin, even after Democrats picked up 15 seats in a blue wave widely seen as a rebuke to President Trump." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Tamer El-Ghobashy & Mustafa Salim of the Washington Post: "The surprisingly strong showing of a ticket backed by maverick cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Iraqi elections over the weekend will force U.S. officials to recalculate how best to pursue American interests in the region at an especially sensitive moment. Sadr is a ferocious critic of American policies in the Middle East, and his unexpected electoral haul immediately calls into question the continuing presence of U.S. troops in Iraq. But his spokesman said Sadr supports honoring commitments between Iraq and the United States concerning the training of Iraq's security forces and weapons purchases as long as they serve Iraq's interests and there 'is no interference on the sovereignty of Iraq.'" ...

... Margaret Coker & Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Moktada al-Sadr, a firebrand militi leader whose forces once battled American troops in Iraq and were implicated in widespread atrocities against civilians, has emerged as the surprise front-runner in the Iraqi national elections, according to Iraqi election officials. Mr. Sadr;s soldiers were fierce opponents of American forces on the battlefields of Iraq. And as a political leader, he has strongly condemned the American troop presence here, as well as Iran's interference in the country."

Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: Experts consulted by Australia's "60 Minutes" have developed a theory of the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah depressureized the passenger cabins, knocking out the passengers, made a detour over Penang, Malaysia, the home town, then purposedly crashed the plane.

News Lede

New York Times: "Tom Wolfe, an innovative journalist and novelist whose technicolor, wildly punctuated prose brought to life the worlds of California surfers, car customizers, astronauts and Manhattan’s moneyed status-seekers in works like 'The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby,' 'The Right Stuff' and 'Bonfire of the Vanities,' died on Monday in a Manhattan hospital. He was 88."

The Commentariat -- May 14, 2018

Late Morning Update:

NEW. David Halbfinger, et al., of the New York Times: "A mass attempt by Palestinians to cross the border fence separating Israel from Gaza quickly turned violent, as Israeli soldiers responded with rifle fire. Tens of thousands of Palestinians took part in the Gaza protests, which spread on Monday to the West Bank, in opposition to the [U.S.] embassy move [to Jerusalem]. By 3:30 p.m., 37 Palestinians, including several teenagers, were dead and at least 1,000 were injured in Gaza, the Health Ministry said, making Monday the bloodiest single day since a campaign of demonstrations along the border fence began seven weeks ago. Israeli soldiers and snipers were using barrages of tear gas as well as live gunfire to keep protesters from entering Israeli territory. The Israeli military said some in the crowds were planting or hurling explosives, and many were flying flaming kites into Israel." ...

     ... Update: "Palestinian officials say at least 41 people have been killed in the latest round of protests. At least 1,700 Palestinian demonstrators were also wounded along the border fence with Gaza, the Health Ministry reported, as the mass protests that began on March 30 and that had already left dozens dead erupted again."

... AND here are Trump's tweets this morning: (2) "Big day for Israel. Congratulations!" This one at 9:36 am ET, after news of the mass killings was public. (1) U.S. Embassy opening in Jerusalem will be covered live on @FoxNews & @FoxBusiness. Lead up to 9:00 A.M. (eastern) event has already begun. A great day for Israel!", three hours earlier. Mrs. McC: I'm waiting for the pix of smiling Ivanka & Jarad at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a federal law that kept most states from authorizing sports betting, a ruling that is sure to set off a scramble among the states to find a way into a billion-dollar business. The challenge was brought by New Jersey, which had said it could be ready within weeks of a favorable decision to offer sports betting at its racetracks and casinos. Other states are expected to act quickly as well. The court's 6-3 decision struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which Congress passed in the early 1990s to protect the integrity of sports, according to its sponsors. Only Nevada's sports wagering industry was protected, and the measure said it was unlawful for other states to authorize such gambling."

Laura Vozzella & Ted Mellnik of the Washington Post: "Last year's race for state delegate in Newport News went down in Virginia history for its razor-thin margin. Republican David E. Yancey won on Election Day by 10 votes; Democrat Shelly Simonds beat him by a single vote in a recount. Then, a judicial panel declared a tie, so officials picked a name out of a bowl to determine a winner, and it was Yancey. Now, a review of voter registration records and district maps by The Washington Post has found more than two dozen voters -- enough to swing the outcome of that race -- cast ballots in the wrong district, because of errors by local elections officials. The misassigned voters lived in a predominantly African American precinct that heavily favored Democrats in the fall, raising the possibility that they would have delivered the district to Simonds had they voted in the proper race." [Had Simonds won,] it would have upended the balance of power in the House of Delegates, splitting the chamber down the middle -- 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. Yancey's victory allowed the GOP to maintain control by a 51-to-49 margin, even after Democrats picked up 15 seats in a blue wave widely seen as a rebuke to President Trump."

*****

Paul Mozur & Raymond Zhong of the New York Times: "President Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday that he was working with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to prevent the collapse of the Chinese electronics giant ZTE, which shut down major operations after being sanctioned by the United States Department of Commerce last month. 'Too many jobs in China lost,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!'... The department last month banned shipments of American technology to ZTE for seven years, saying the company had failed to reprimand employees who violated American trade controls on Iran and North Korea.... Mr. Trump's tweet on Sunday left many scratching their heads. The president has taken a tough stance on what his administration deems unfair trade practices by the Chinese government. And he has trumpeted his efforts to safeguard American jobs even if it means creating economic strain in other countries.... If Mr. Trump was announcing a huge concession with his tweet, it was without any indication of what he might have gotten in return." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Chas Danner of New York: "In a followup tweet on Sunday afternoon, Trump seemed to be addressing backlash to his announcement...: 'China and the United States are working well together on trade, but past negotiations have been so one sided in favor of China, for so many years, that it is hard for them to make a deal that benefits both countries. But be cool, it will all work out!'... There is also some understandable concern that the often impulsive and ill-informed president is -- for reasons unknown -- undermining his own Commerce Department and potentially weakening their ability to punish other companies with legal action in the future[.]" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... MEANWHILE. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Donald Trump is prepared to impose sanctions on European companies that do business in Iran following his withdrawal of the US from the international nuclear deal, his administration reiterated on Sunday. Trump's most senior foreign policy aides signalled that the US would continue pressuring allies to follow Washington in backing out of the pact, which gave Tehran relief from sanctions in exchange for halting its nuclear programme. John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser, predicted that 'the Europeans will see that it's in their interests to come along with us' rather than continue with the 2015 deal, under which major European corporations have signed billions of dollars of contracts in Iran. Asked on CNN's State of the Union whether that meant the Trump administration would impose sanctions against those firms, Bolton said: 'It's possible. It depends on the conduct of other governments.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Okay, then, we're going to punish our friends who are trying to save the world from a nuclear Iran, but we're going to help a major Chinese company which has been cited for, among other things, violating sanctions against Iran. ...

... Former Swedish PM Carl Bildt in a Washington Post op-ed: "... Trump's decision to try to blow up the nuclear deal with Iran is, in its execution, nothing less than a massive assault on the sovereignty of others -- most notably that of Europe. The president has now directed maximum economic sanctions to be applied.... The brunt of the sanctions offensive directly affects business in Europe. For instance, in a tweet, the new U.S. ambassador to Germany was quick to give orders to German companies on how they should behave.... Beyond the deep disagreements on policies relating to climate, trade and Iran, it would be most unwise to underestimate the long-term damage to the transatlantic relationship caused by Washington's assault on Europe." ...

... Robin Wright of the New Yorker: "The United States has now violated its obligation [under the Iran nuclear accord]; Iran, according to ten International Atomic Energy Agency reports, has not.... The credibility of the White House, the country's commitment to diplomacy as an alternative to war, the strength of America's alliances, and the mechanisms to limit nuclear proliferation have all been deeply damaged.... The fallout was immediate: Britain, France, and Germany rebuked Trump and vowed to honor the deal. China and Russia -- the other co-sponsors -- will stick to it, too. The European Union is also considering legislation to nullify the effects of Trump's sanctions on E.U. companies for engaging in transactions with Iran. Tensions between Israel and Iran threatened to turn Syria's civil war into a regional conflagration." ...

... David Sanger & William Broad of the New York Times: "For the White House, these have been dramatic days for nuclear disarmament: First President Trump exited the Iran deal, demanding that Tehran sign a new agreement that forever cuts off its path to making a bomb, then the administration announced a first-ever meeting with the leader of North Korea about ridding his nation of nuclear weapons. But for the American arsenal, the initiatives are all going in the opposite direction, with a series of little-noticed announcements to spend billions of dollars building the factories needed to rejuvenate and expand America's nuclear capacity. The contrast has been striking."

Thanks, Trump! Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "In the two months since the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs went into effect, the Commerce Department has been deluged with more than 8,200 exemption requests from companies that import foreign metals. With just a handful of countries temporarily exempted from Mr. Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, companies are scrambling to win exemptions for every screw and spring they import, with each width and length requiring stand-alone filings. One company alone has submitted 1,167 of the filings, according to government officials. The imposition of tariffs was supposed to help protect American companies from foreign competition. But they have also created a chaotic, time-consuming process and provoked deep uncertainty among executives, who are delaying investment, expansion and hiring as a result.... Those affected by the steel and aluminum tariffs say the administration's aggressive approach could backfire on American companies and workers."

The Astounding Lying Presidunce*. Adam Taylor in the Washington Post: "The embassy move is a historic -- and potentially explosive -- act with plenty of regional ramifications. But it also offers an insight into what may be the guiding principle of President Trump's foreign policy: making splashy foreign-policy decisions that deliver for Trump's domestic base but seem to be causing massive diplomatic headaches and long-term problems... In the case of the Jerusalem embassy, Trump has insisted he could build a new embassy on the cheap with his business acumen. For example, at a campaign rally in Elkhart, Ind., a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-decision-to-open-jerusalem-embassy-complicates-promise-to-seek-peace-in-the-region/2018/05/12/86113024-5557-11e8-9c91-7dab596e8252_story.html?">on Thursday he repeated his story about slashing the cost of the move from $1 billion down to about $400,000. That's only true if you look at the short term: ... the $400,000 only accounted for the first phase of moving the embassy to the existing consular building in Jerusalem, but that's likely to be a temporary home. Building a much larger permanent embassy -- and spending as much as a billion dollars to do so -- could take another ten years, by which time Trump's time in office will have ended." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: It turns out this isn't the first time Trump has made such a preposterous claim. Robert Farley of Factcheck.org checks the claim Trump made March 5: "'Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars versus a billion dollars. Is that good?' Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It would be if it were true. But Trump is comparing the cost of renovating and adding to an existing facility in Jerusalem to use temporarily as an interim embassy with the cost of building a new, permanent home for the embassy in Jerusalem. Moreover, it's unclear where Trump is getting that $1 billion estimate for the cost of the permanent facility." That's like my saying I flew to California & rented a nice car for a couple of days, and it saved me the $30,000 cost of buying a new car. This makes me think that the "Jerusalem embassy" is just another Trumpian con; Trump does not intend to permanently move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. After all, any permanent, spy-proof building likely would not be completed during a Trump presidency. ...

... More on the Jerusalem embassy opening below.

Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "Members of the Trump transition team appear to have met on December 12, 2016 with a group from Qatar that included Ahmed al-Rumaihi, the former Qatari diplomat and current head of a division of Qatar's massive sovereign wealth fund who is accused in a recent lawsuit of scheming to bribe Trump administration officials. Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for adult film actress Stormy Daniel, on Sunday shared an ambiguous tweet showing a group of unidentified men in a Trump Tower elevator with Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney. The photos include a person who appears to be al-Rumaihi, who in late 2016 and 2017 was part of an aggressive Qatari effort to forge ties with members of the Trump administration. It has not previously been reported that Qataris, including al-Rumaihi, met with Cohen in December 2016. Avenatti later followed up with another tweet asking why Cohen was meeting with Al-Rumaihi and Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security advisor." Mrs. McC: Not sure if this is going to mean much or is just a sideshow. But of course it seems shady.

Bedtime for Donzo. Olivia Nuzzi of New York: "Donald Trump & Sean Hannity like to talk before bedtime." Everything you ever wanted to know about Trump & his obnoxious "Trumplegänger."

"White House Leakers Leak about Leaking." Jonathan Swan of Axios interviews the most prolific White House leakers on why they leak, then invites other White House staff to leak. ...

... ** Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "A former National Security Council official now working for Attorney General Jeff Sessions explored ways to surreptitiously monitor the communications of White House staff for leaks or perceived political disloyalty to Donald Trump, according to three former Trump NSC officials.... Ezra Cohen-Watnick, whom former national security adviser Michael Flynn brought onto the NSC as senior director for intelligence, sought technical solutions in early 2017 for collecting and analyzing phone and other data on White House colleagues for interactions with reporters.... It is unknown whether Cohen-Watnick]s efforts actually resulted in any monitoring program.... Some staffers considered Cohen-Watnick's insider-threat focus ironic, considering that Cohen-Watnick himself reportedly played a role in a Trump White House effort to leak intelligence reports to Devin Nunes.... Nunes then subsequently used the reports in a failed attempt to reinforce Trumps baseless accusation that Barack Obama had placed his camp under surveillance.... Cohen-Watnick's former colleagues ... [suspect] that his new role is to be a political commissar, ensuring Sessions toes the party line desired by a president who distrusts his attorney general." Mrs. McC: An amusing read. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Chris Strohm & Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg reported April 11, "... Donald Trump personally ordered the Department of Justice to hire ... Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who was forced out of the National Security Council last year...."

Secretary DeVos has filled the department with for-profit college hacks who only care about making sham schools rich and shutting down investigations into fraud. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) ...

... The Grifters, Ctd. Danielle Ivory, et al., of the New York Times: "Members of a special team at the Education Department that had been investigating widespread abuses by for-profit colleges have been marginalized, reassigned or instructed to focus on other matters, according to current and former employees. The unwinding of the team has effectively killed investigations into possibly fraudulent activities at several large for-profit colleges where top hires of Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, had previously worked. During the final months of the Obama administration, the team had expanded to include a dozen or so lawyers and investigators who were looking into advertising, recruitment practices and job placement claims at several institutions, including DeVry Education Group. The investigation into DeVry ground to a halt early last year. Later, in the summer, Ms. DeVos named Julian Schmoke, a former dean at DeVry, as the team's new supervisor.... Ms. DeVos has taken a number of actions to roll back or delay regulations that sought to rein in abuses and predatory practices among for-profit colleges...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

L.M. Sixel of the Houston Chronicle: "Michael R. Bloomberg, media mogul, philanthropist and former mayor of New York City, asked the 2018 graduating class of Rice University to reject the divisive rhetoric and growing incivility on display in Washington and around the country as they leave to launch their own careers. The country is more divided now than it has been since the Civil War, Bloomberg told the graduates and their families. Bloomberg lamented an era during which 'alternative facts' and 'post-truth' have entered the nation's vocabulary, and like-minded groups huddle together, drowning out the opinions of others and rejecting scientific and other evidence that contradicts their world views. 'How did we go from a president who could not tell a lie,' Bloomberg said, referring to George Washington, 'to politicians who can not tell the truth?'... Some federal agencies have banned workers from using the words 'climate change,' showing that officials at the highest levels of power see the plain truth as a threat, he said.... 'And so here we are, in the midst of an epidemic of dishonesty, and an endless barrage of lies.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

When the "Communications" Office Is the "Stonewall Office." Avery Anapol of the Hill: "After dozens of calls for an official apology, the White House is still dodging questions over a comment made by one of its staffers. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley on Sunday refused to comment directly on special assistant Kelly Sadler mocking Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) brain cancer. Gidley, who was confronted about the comment on 'Fox & Friends,' said he was not present at the meeting, and therefore he does not know 'if the comment was even made.' 'Look, I wasn't in the meeting, I didn't hear the comment,' he said when asked if he thought the comment was 'kind.' Host Ed Henry shot back, 'You've heard the comment now, was it kind?' 'I don't know if the comment was even made or not,' Gidley responded. 'I wasn't in the meeting.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

A Meeting of Young American Heroes. Alex Horton of the Washington Post: Waffle House hero James Shaw, Jr., meets the Parkland activists.

The E-Mails! David Z. Seide, in a New York Times op-ed, explains why Jim Comey made a huge mistake in revealing, shortly before the 2016 election, that it was studying a new cache of Hillary Clinton's e-mails. It turns out that it would have been obvious to investigators that only a few thousand e-mails on Anthony Weiner's laptop were newly-found & that the great bulk of e-mails on his computer were duplicates which both the FBI & State Department had previously examined. The likelihood of finding a "smoking gun" in the small cache of newly-found e-mails was minimal, and, in any event, would have taken investigators only a few days to review. "If he had waited a few days, Mr. Comey would have made a better-informed decision." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Rod Rosenstein was right. Comey should have been fired over his handling of Clinton's e-mails. President Obama should have fired him.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "As months go, this has been a terrible one for NBC News.... 'Props to NBC for being so consistent in its terrible handling of everything from Brian Williams to Matt Lauer to Joy Reid to Hugh Hewitt to Tom Brokaw,' wrote Andrew Kirell, senior editor at the Daily Beast. (Anchor Brian Williams is back on the air, though in a diminished role, after glorifying his reporting history. MSNBC host Joy Reid suffered not a single disciplinary consequence after her dubious claims that some of her anti-gay statements from years ago were the result of her being hacked. And NBC brass gave only a tap on the wrist to a serious conflict of interest by Hewitt, and seemed to shrug off accusations of misconduct by network icon Tom Brokaw.) They point ... to a leadership problem."

On Today's Religious Intolerance

Two Bigots in a Pod. David Badash in RawStory: "Pastor Robert Jeffress, a Fox News contributor, megachurch Baptist preacher from Dallas, and close Trump ally and surrogate, has been chosen by the Trump administration to lead a prayer at Monday's opening dedication celebration of the new -- and highly controversial -- U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.... Jeffress ... has a long history of delivering incendiary and bigoted remarks.... In short, Jeffress says that if you're not a Christian -- and a certain type of Christian - you-re going to hell.... He has said Islam promotes pedophilia, and is 'evil,' 'violent,' and a 'false' religion.... [In an interview on Fox, he said] 'Islam is wrong, it is a heresy from the pit of Hell; Mormonism is wrong, it is a heresy from the pit of Hell, and, 'Judaism, you can't be saved being a Jew.'" --safari: You paying any attention, Bibi? (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... NEW. Mitt Gets It. Louis Nelson of Politico: "The evangelical pastor delivering a blessing at Monday's opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem is a 'religious bigot' who is unworthy of such an honorary role, Utah Senate hopeful Mitt Romney wrote on Twitter Sunday night. 'Robert Jeffress says "you can't be saved by being a Jew," and "Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell,"' Romney, who is Mormon, wrote on Twitter Sunday night. 'He's said the same about Islam. Such a religious bigot should not be giving the prayer that opens the United States Embassy in Jerusalem.'" ...

... Aiden Pink of Forward: "Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reportedly received a blessing in Jerusalem on Sunday from Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef -- who was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League earlier this year for comparing black people to monkeys.... Yosef had also attracted criticism for other comments in the past few years, such as implying in 2017 that secular women behave like animals because of their immodest dress and claiming in 2016 that according to Jewish law, non-Jews are forbidden from living in Israel." --safari ...

... Nothing New, But Worth the Reminder. AFP: "Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has said America's decision to shift its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem was evidence that negotiations and 'appeasement' have failed Palestinians as he urged Muslims carry out jihad against the United States.... The embassy move will take place on the 70th anniversary of Israel's founding, while the following day Palestinians will mark the Nakba, or 'catastrophe', commemorating the more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. Top US officials have meanwhile insisted they could still push forward the troubled peace process despite outrage across the Arab world." --safari

... Juan Cole lays out the history of Jersualem: "[I]t isn't true that Jerusalem has throughout history been 'Jewish.' For hundreds of years under the Romans, whether pagan or Christian, the city was made completely devoid of Jews, at least by law. Ironically, it was Iran and the Muslims who rescued the Jews from that exile from Jerusalem." --safari

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hannah Ellis-Peterson & Kate Lamb of the Guardian: "A family of five, including an eight-year-old child, has carried out a bomb attack on a police headquarters in Surabaya, killing at least four people and injuring 10, an Indonesian police official has said. The suicide bombing comes just one day after 13 people were killed in the city during coordinated suicide bombings targeting three churches.... Monday's blast comes after a bomb explosion in an apartment building in East Java killed three people on Sunday evening.... [T]he explosion killed three people: a father, mother and their child. Two other children, a son and daughter from the same family, were rushed to Siti Khodijah hospital for treatment. However, according to East Java police, the parents and children were the ones who carried out the attack. [Reasons for the attacks are so far unknown, although ISIS-affiliated groups are suspected]" --safari

Hannah Summers of the Guardian: "With [Burundi] gripped by violence in the prelude to a controversial referendum vote on 17 May, the conflict ... is this time drawn along political rather than ethnic lines. The vote could allow the extension of Pierre Nkurunziza's term from five to seven years, paving the way for him to stay in power until 2034, as the proposed changes would allow him to stand for re-election despite having already served three terms. The campaign been marked by allegations of widespread intimidation and violence against opposition supporters.... The UN has condemned what it has described as a 'campaign of terror' by government-backed militia in Burundi calling for the rape and murder of those with perceived links to the opposition." --safari

AFP: "Teaching manuals in Gulf Arab-financed mosques in Belgium promote anti-semitic stereotypes of Jews and call for the persecution of homosexuals, according to a leaked Belgian intelligence report. The texts used in mosques including the Brussels Grand Mosque call for gays to be stoned to death or thrown off buildings and describe Jews as 'evil', the report by the OCAM national terrorism monitoring centre said. The writings, which are used to train preachers and theology professors.... The report singled out Arabic-language religious training manuals in the Grand Mosque, which is near EU headquarters in Brussels. The Belgian government said in March that it would terminate Saudi Arabia's half-century old lease of the Grand Mosque over concerns it was promoting radicalism." --safari

Reuters: "An Iraqi nationalist cleric who led two uprisings against US troops has taken a surprise lead in parliamentary elections, fending off Iran-backed rivals and the country's incumbent prime minister, the electoral commission has said. With 95% of the votes counted in 10 of Iraq's 18 provinces, Moqtadr al-Sadr, a rare enemy of both the US and Iran, is ahead with Tehran-backed Shia militia chief Hadi al-Amiri's bloc in second place and the prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, trailing in third.... He will not become prime minister as he did not run in the election but his apparent victory puts him in a position to pick someone for the job. Winning the largest number of seats does not automatically guarantee that, however. The other winning blocs would have to agree on the nomination." --safari

The Commentariat -- May 13, 2018

Late Morning Update:

Paul Mozur & Raymond Zhong of the New York Times: "President Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday that he was working with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to prevent the collapse of the Chinese electronics giant ZTE, which shut down major operations after being sanctioned by the United States Department of Commerce last month. 'Too many jobs in China lost,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!'... The department last month banned shipments of American technology to ZTE for seven years, saying the company had failed to reprimand employees who violated American trade controls on Iran and North Korea.... Mr. Trump's tweet on Sunday left many scratching their heads. The president has taken a tough stance on what his administration deems unfair trade practices by the Chinese government. And he has trumpeted his efforts to safeguard American jobs even if it means creating economic strain in other countries.... If Mr. Trump was announcing a huge concession with his tweet, it was without any indication of what he might have gotten in return." ...

... Chas Danner of New York: "In a followup tweet on Sunday afternoon, Trump seemed to be addressing backlash to his announcement...: 'China and the United States are working well together on trade, but past negotiations have been so one sided in favor of China, for so many years, that it is hard for them to make a deal that benefits both countries. But be cool, it will all work out!'... There is also some understandable concern that the often impulsive and ill-informed president is -- for reasons unknown -- undermining his own Commerce Department and potentially weakening their ability to punish other companies with legal action in the future[.]"

... MEANWHILE. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Donald Trump is prepared to impose sanctions on European companies that do business in Iran following his withdrawal of the US from the international nuclear deal, his administration reiterated on Sunday. Trump's most senior foreign policy aides signalled that the US would continue pressuring allies to follow Washington in backing out of the pact, which gave Tehran relief from sanctions in exchange for halting its nuclear programme. John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser, predicted that 'the Europeans will see that it's in their interests to come along with us' rather than continue with the 2015 deal, under which major European corporations have signed billions of dollars of contracts in Iran. Asked on CNN's State of the Union whether that meant the Trump administration would impose sanctions against those firms, Bolton said: 'It's possible. It depends on the conduct of other governments.'" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Okay, then, we're going to punish our friends who are trying to save the world from a nuclear Iran, but we're going to help a major Chinese company which has been cited for, among other things, violating sanctions against Iran.

Secretary DeVos has filled the department with for-profit college hacks who only care about making sham schools rich and shutting down investigations into fraud. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) ...

... The Grifters, Ctd. Danielle Ivory, et al., of the New York Times: "Members of a special team at the Education Department that had been investigating widespread abuses by for-profit colleges have been marginalized, reassigned or instructed t focus on other matters, according to current and former employees. The unwinding of the team has effectively killed investigations into possibly fraudulent activities at several large for-profit colleges where top hires of Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, had previously worked. During the final months of the Obama administration, the team had expanded to include a dozen or so lawyers and investigators who were looking into advertising, recruitment practices and job placement claims at several institutions, including DeVry Education Group. The investigation into DeVry ground to a halt early last year. Later, in the summer, Ms. DeVos named Julian Schmoke, a former dean at DeVry, as the team's new supervisor.... Ms. DeVos has taken a number of actions to roll back or delay regulations that sought to rein in abuses and predatory practices among for-profit colleges...."

L.M. Sixel of the Houston Chronicle: "Michael R. Bloomberg, media mogul, philanthropist and former mayor of New York City, asked the 2018 graduating class of Rice University to reject the divisive rhetoric and growing incivility on display in Washington and around the country as they leave to launch their own careers. The country is more divided now than it has been since the Civil War, Bloomberg told the graduates and their families. Bloomberg lamented an era during which 'alternative facts' and 'post-truth' have entered the nation's vocabulary, and like-minded groups huddle together, drowning out the opinions of others and rejecting scientific and other evidence that contradicts their world views. 'How did we go from a president who could not tell a lie,' Bloomberg said, referring to George Washington, 'to politicians who can not tell the truth?'... Some federal agencies have banned workers from using the words 'climate change,' showing that officials at the highest levels of power see the plain truth as a threat, he said.... 'And so here we are, in the midst of an epidemic of dishonesty, and an endless barrage of lies.'"

When the "Communications" Office Is the "Stonewall Office." Avery Anapol of the Hill: "After dozens of calls for an official apology, the White House is still dodging questions over a comment made by one of its staffers. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley on Sunday refused to comment directly on special assistant Kelly Sadler mocking Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) brain cancer. Gidley, who was confronted about the comment on 'Fox & Friends,' said he was not present at the meeting, and therefore he does not know 'if the comment was even made.' 'Look, I wasn't in the meeting, I didn't hear the comment,' he said when asked if he thought the comment was 'kind.' Host Ed Henry shot back, 'You've heard the comment now, was it kind?' 'I don't know if the comment was even made or not," Gidley responded. 'I wasn't in the meeting.'"

*****

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "The frantic final days before Mr. Trump's announcement [that he was pulling the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal] demonstrate that the Iran deal remained a complicated, divisive issue inside the White House, even after the president restocked his war cabinet with more hawkish figures like [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo and John R. Bolton, the new national security adviser.... Mr. Bolton is emerging as an influential figure, with a clear channel to the president and an ability to control the voices he hears. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who opposed leaving the deal but did not push the case as vocally toward the end, appears more isolated. And Mr. Pompeo may play a swing role, a hard-line former congressman and C.I.A. director who, in his new job, seems determined to give diplomacy a fair shot."

Kim Tong-Hyung of the AP: "North Korea said Saturday that it will dismantle its nuclear test site in less than two weeks, in a dramatic event that would set up leader Kim Jong Un's summit with ... Donald Trump next month. Trump welcomed the 'gracious gesture.' In a statement carried by state media, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said all of the tunnels at the country's northeastern testing ground will be destroyed by explosion, and observation and research facilities and ground-based guard units will also be removed.... Analysts say that while the closure of the site is important, it doesn't represent a material step toward full denuclearization."

Rudy Continues Marching in that Parade Where He Steps on Trump's Fictions. Brian Stelter of CNN: "With five simple words, 'the president denied the merger,' President Trump's new lawyer Rudy Giuliani contradicted months of statements by the White House and the Justice Department. The subject was AT&T's $85 billion bid for Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. Giuliani is now back-tracking. 'He told me directly he didn't interfere,' Giuliani told CNN's Dana Bash on Saturday morning.... On Saturday morning, the White House said Giuliani got it wrong. 'The Department of Justice denied the deal,' press secretary Sarah Sanders told CNN Saturday morning, reiterating the administration's past position." ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "Trump has personally railed against the Time Warner-AT&T deal, a stance that may well have more to do with his burning hatred of CNN than anything else. The Department of Justice's opposition to the detail raised eyebrows because, while its position may be defensible on antitrust grounds, it doesn't fit with the rest of the Trump administration's laissez-faire ideology. The Trump administration has insisted that the president's personal opinions have nothing to do with the DOJ's position. Someone apparently forgot to send Giuliani the memo, and on Saturday, he once again had to walk back a careless remark."

How Corrupt Is Trump? Max Greenwood of the Hill: "President Trump's flagship golf club in Scotland received thousands of dollars from the U.S. government for VIP hotel stays, Scottish newspaper The Scotsman reported. The payments amounted to more than £5,600 -- about $7,600 -- and marks the first known instance that one of the president's Scottish properties has received U.S. government money.... Citing a source at Trump Turnberry, The Scotsman reported that the hotel stays were connected to Trump's upcoming trip to the United Kingdom. The trip to the U.K. -- set for July -- also includes a stop in Scotland. The payment was authorized by the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, and then transferred to the resort by the U.S. Embassy in London, The Scotsman reported."

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

A Lousy Investment. Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "Like other firms that hired [Michael] Cohen for his connections, Columbus Nova ended up disappointed with the fixer. The Columbus Nova sources said Cohen failed to deliver the big fish. 'He couldn't bring in the volume of introductions,' one of the sources recalled. As a result, [Columbus Nova U.S. CEO Andrew] Intrater, after consulting with Cohen, stopped making payments to Cohen about halfway through the year, the sources said. In their account, it turns out, Cohen was a lousy investment for the firm." (Also linked yesterday.)

"Nunes vs. the DOJ." Nicholas Fandos & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The relationship between the Justice Department and [Rep. Devin] Nunes [R-Ca.] has so eroded that when he trekked down Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday from the Capitol to the department to discuss his latest request, Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a Republican colleague and former federal prosecutor, tagged along at the encouragement of the House speaker to help keep the meeting civil, according to a person familiar with the matter. Democrats believe the pattern is clear: Mr. Nunes is abusing his authority to undermine the Russia investigation.... Top officials at the Justice Department have privately expressed concern that the lawmakers are simply mining government secrets for information they can weaponize against those investigating the president, including the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sarah Westwood & Sara Murray of CNN: "A former senior campaign and transition aide to ... Donald Trump recently inked a deal to help a Russian oligarch's conglomerate shed sanctions the Trump administration slapped on them last month. Bryan Lanza, who is in regular contact with White House officials, is lobbying on behalf of the chairman of EN+ Group, an energy and aluminum firm presently controlled by Oleg Deripaska, according to several sources. Deripaska is a billionaire who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and was the target of US sanctions imposed last month. Lanza is also a CNN contributor.... The deal is the latest brazen example of how Trump's 'drain the swamp' campaign pledge has led to little change in a town where paying for access is a lucrative industry." Mrs. McC: Your move, CNN.

Dominic Holden of BuzzFeed: "The Trump administration on Friday rolled back rules that allowed transgender inmates to use facilities that match their gender identity, including cell blocks and bathrooms, thereby reversing course on an Obama administration effort to protect transgender prisoners from sexual abuse and assault. The Bureau of Prisons now 'will use biological sex' to make initial determinations in the type of housing transgender inmates are assigned, according to a notice posted Friday evening that modifies the previous policy."

Ben Mathis-Lilly of Slate: John Kelly, who doesn't think immigrants can assimilate, should visit some of the U.S.'s great cities.... "New York City, where I live, is home to 3 million people who were born abroad, many of whom were or are undocumented.... Why doesn't John Kelly think about New York's 3 million immigrants -- or those immigrants in such other appealing and diverse American population centers as Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, and Washington, D.C. -- when he thinks about successful 'assimilation' into American culture? Probably because of the self-justifying right-wing premise that 'America' means 'a low-density area of working-class white people.'..." ... Mrs. McC: Funny thing is, John, most Americans don't live in "real America" (tho they might have country houses there!).

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The White House probably thinks it cannot punish Kelly Sadler for her awful comment about John McCain because President Trump has also said nasty things about McCain. It may worry that showing her the door would set a troubling precedent for a president who may one day cross a very similar line. Welcome to the ongoing degradation of our political discourse. Destination: No end in sight.... The comment, as it happens, was first reported Thursday just hours after a Fox Business Network pundit suggested McCain had given up key information while being tortured as a prisoner of war -- a claim for which the network soon apologized. But while Trump's favorite cable news company was quick to atone for merely airing someone else's view that crossed a line, the White House is apparently not going to take any public action for a staffer talking blithely about the death of an American war hero." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Tara Palmieri of ABC News: "Press secretary Sarah Sanders scolded her staff Friday for the derogatory comment about Sen. John McCain leaked from a closed-door meeting, according to multiple senior White House officials. Sanders called the comment 'unacceptable,' but was said to be more upset about the leak than the off-handed comment from White House staffer Kelly Sadler that McCain's opposition to their CIA director nominee Gina Haspel 'doesn't matter, because he's dying anyway.' She was at the meeting standing at the other side of the room and did not apologize for the comment, according to people in the room." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios has more about the meeting where Mrs. Huckleberry reamed out her "team" for leaking the Sadler remark. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Luis Sanchez of the Hill: "White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney on Saturday defended the White House aide who made a derisive comment about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), saying the real issue was that the 'bad joke' had been leaked to the press. 'This was a private meeting inside the White House. It was a joke. It was a badly considered joke that she said fell flat,' Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said during an appearance on Fox News. But Mulvaney argued that the leak of the comment posed the greater issue: 'The leak was designed to hurt that person. Also, it completely ignored the harm it would do to the McCain family, which is doubly inconsiderate.'" Mrs. McC: Fortunately, we all already knew Mulvaney was a flaming ass. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Josh Delk of the Hill: "Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.) chided White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Saturday, arguing that leaks from White House staff might stop if officials behaved 'normally.' Lieu, one of President Trump's most vocal critics in Congress, offered the mocking advice after Sanders reportedly scolded her staff for allowing the leak of a derisive comment about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) this week. 'One way to prevent leaks is if Administration officials stopped saying demeaning things, stopped wasting taxpayer funds, and started behaving normally. Then the leaks wouldn't be of interest to the American people. Get it?' Lieu tweeted." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Trump Totally Supports Pruitt's Decision to Wine and Dine an Accused Sex Offender." Bess Levin of Vanity Fair: "The fact that [Scott Pruitt] was able to hold onto his job after all [his bad press], despite working for a guy who supposedly takes great pleasure in firing people, suggests that there is basically nothing Pruitt could do that would result in his dismissal. Not even entertaining an alleged pederast on the taxpayer dime.... During a meeting at the White House, the president was asked if he still had confidence in the E.P.A. administrator, to which Trump responded, 'Yes, I do.' That question presumably came up because a day earlier, The New York Times had reported that Pruitt shared a meal at a five-star restaurant in Italy with, among others, Cardinal George Pell, a Vatican official the E.P.A reportedly knew was under investigation for alleged child sexual abuse."

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "Science Magazine reported Wednesday that the White House has ended NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), a $10 million-per-year program that has supported 65 projects since 2010. The effort measures carbon dioxide and methane using satellites and similar mechanisms.... Among other things, with the CMS gone it will be challenging to verify the emission reductions laid out by the Paris climate agreement in 2016.... The decision to end the CMS marks a major swipe at NASA's climate efforts and indication of what the agency may look like under Jim Bridenstine, who took over last month.... A Republican Oklahoma congressman, Bridenstine is the first elected official to serve in this position.... He is also a climate science denier without any scientific credentials." --safari

Two Bigots in a Pod. David Badash in RawStory: "Pastor Robert Jeffress, a Fox News contributor, megachurch Baptist preacher from Dallas, and close Trump ally and surrogate, has been chosen by the Trump administration to lead a prayer at Monday's opening dedication celebration of the new -- and highly controversial -- U.S. embassy in Jerusalem ... Jeffress ... has a long history of delivering incendiary and bigoted remarks.... In short, Jeffress says that if you're not a Christian -- and a certain type of Christian -- you're going to hell.... He has said Islam promotes pedophilia, and is 'evil,' 'violent,' and a 'false' religion.... [In an interview on Fox, he said] 'Islam is wrong, it is a heresy from the pit of Hell; Mormonism is wrong, it is a heresy from the pit of Hell, and, 'Judaism, you can't be saved being a Jew.'" --safari: You paying any attention Bibi?

Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "Sen. Joe Donnelly on Saturday became the second Democrat to announce he will cast his vote in favor of CIA director nominee Gina Haspel -- boosting her prospects of being confirmed. Donnelly, a Democrat in a heavily Republican state that voted for Donald Trump in 2016, faces a tough reelection battle against self-described Republican outsider Mike Braun in November. Donnelly voiced his support for Haspel on Twitter Saturday morning, saying he believes Haspel learned from the past and has the experience needed as the U.S. faces 'dynamic and challenging security threats.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"A War on Brown People." Tom Eblen of the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader: "Eddie Devine voted for ... Donald Trump because he thought he would be good for American business. Now, he says, the Trump administration's restrictions on seasonal foreign labor may put him out of business. 'I feel like I've been tricked by the devil,' said Devine, owner of Harrodsburg-based Devine Creations Landscaping. 'I feel so stupid.'... Devine said he believed Trump's America-first promises. But cutting off a good supply of seasonal foreign labor when Americans won't take those jobs is only hurting American business owners and the U.S. workers they employ, he said. These workers aren't immigrants, and there is no path to U.S. citizenship. When their seasonal work is done, they return home. That's why Devine thinks the Trump administration's stifling of guest-worker programs has more to do with racism than economics. 'I think there's a war on brown people,' he said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

"War on the Poor", Ctd. Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "Next week, the House will vote on a farm bill largely constructed by Republicans.... One of the most controversial parts of the farm bill are the tough work requirements for SNAP recipients.... Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation show 58 percent of working-age, nondisabled SNAP households are employed while receiving benefits; that figure rises to 62 percent for households with children. Hidden in the House farm bill draft, however, is a sinister measure that could harm families receiving SNAP who are already working, the very group the GOP claims to support." --safari

Jon Schwarz of The Intercept: "The National Rifle Association has always been clear about drugs: They're terrifying.... It seems odd, then, that the next president of the NRA will soon be Oliver North, who spent years in the 1980s working together with large-scale cocaine traffickers and protecting a notorious narco-terrorist from the rest of the U.S. government. This reality about North has been largely covered up, first by North himself and then by Fox News and the passage of time. Thirty years later, it's been almost totally forgotten. But the facts remain genuinely appalling." --safari: Lots of details in this report, and one I didn't know: "[North and then-dictator and known drug trafficker of Panama Manuel Noriega] discussed sabotaging a Nicaraguan airport and oil refinery, as well as creating a program to train Contra and Afghan mujahedeen commandos in Panama with Israeli help."

Beyond the Beltway -- News from "Real America"

Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma signed a bill on Friday that gay rights groups said would allow private adoption agencies to discriminate against L.G.B.T. couples on religious grounds when placing children. The law would allow the agencies to choose not to place children in certain homes if it 'would violate the agency's written religious or moral convictions or policies.' Critics of the law, which also applies to private agencies working in foster care, said it was unconstitutional and harmful to children."

You Might Think This Law Is Unnecessary. Apparently Not. Stephanie Griffith of ThinkProgress: "As of this week, it is illegal for police in Kansas to have sexual relations with people they've detained in a traffic stop, or are otherwise holding in custody.... The legislation was signed into law on Thursday by the state's Republican governor Jeff Colyer. According to the Kansas City Star, the new law makes it a crime for a police officer to have sex with a detained person 'during the course of a traffic stop, a custodial interrogation, an interview in connection with an investigation, or while the law enforcement officer has such person detained.'"

Way Beyond

Kim Willsher of the Guardian: "A knifeman killed one person and injured four others, one of them critically, before being shot dead by police in Paris. The attacker struck in one of the most popular areas of the city, near the celebrated opera house and theatres.... The knifeman, dressed entirely in black, lunged at people at random crying 'Allahu Akbar', according to witnesses. This was confirmed by public prosecutor François Molins. He was carrying no identity papers...."

"The Man with the Golden Arm." If you're looking for a feel-good story, Amy Wang of the Washington Post is at your service. She profiles James Harrison, an 81-year-old Australian who has helped something like 2.4 million babies because his blood contains a rare antibody, & he has donated blood every week since he was 18. "... his plasma has been used to make millions of Anti-D injections, according to the Red Cross." And, no, Donald Trump, he didn't take a dime for it.