The Commentariat -- December 17, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials. -- Donald Trump, letter to Nancy Pelosi, today ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday denounced what he called a 'partisan impeachment crusade' being waged against him by Democrats, calling the effort to remove him an unconstitutional abuse of power and an 'attempted coup' that would come back to haunt them at the ballot box next year. 'I have no doubt the American people will hold you and the Democrats fully responsible in the upcoming 2020 election,' Mr. Trump wrote in a rambling six-page letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent on the eve of House votes to impeach him on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. 'They will not soon forgive your perversion of justice and abuse of power.'... The president angrily disputed both impeachment charges against him in the letter, saying he had done nothing wrong and asserting that Ms. Pelosi and her allies were using the Constitution to attack him for the successful policies he had implemented." This is an update of a story about McConnell's refusal to accede to Schumer's request for witnesses, linked below. The Hill's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Trump's letter, via the Hill, is here. Mrs. McC: Recommended reading. It's kind of a Unabomber manifesto. You can tell the parts Trump wrote & the parts where his lawyers stepped in & added some "legal terminology" & other multi-syllable words.

Mrs. McCrabbie: The House Rules Committee met this morning to set parameters for the House debate on impeachment. I tuned into it for a few minutes, and it was sort of hilarious. There was Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) making cogent, off-the-cuff answers (he was filling in for Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler who was called away by a family emergency) to questions by either a member of the committee or a committee lawyer & Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins, spouting nonsense half-sentences and even half-words; e.g., "Constitu." Here's a brief example:

Collins reminded me of Porky Pig, if Porky came from Georgia:

Michael Shear of the New York Times: “Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, on Tuesday rejected demands by Democrats to call four White House officials as witnesses during President Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate. On the eve of a House vote on Wednesday that is all but certain to result in Mr. Trump's impeachment on two charges, Mr. McConnell said he would not agree to call the witnesses -- all of whom have firsthand knowledge of Mr. Trump's dealings with Ukraine -- including Mick Mulvaney, the White House chief of staff, and John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser. The White House blocked them from appearing during the House impeachment inquiry.... 'If House Democrats' case is this deficient, this thin, the answer is not for the judge and jury to cure it here in the Senate,' [McConnell said on the Senate floor]. 'The answer is that the House should not impeach on this basis in the first place.' Mr. Schumer responded moments later, saying that holding a trial without witnesses 'would be an aberration' and vowing to demand votes by senators on whether to call witnesses and subpoena documents during the trial."

Brendan Pierson of Reuters: "U.S. prosecutors said in court on Tuesday that Lev Parnas, an associate of ... Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, received a $1 million payment from Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash."

Aaron Rupar of Vox: “On Monday's edition of Fox News's The Ingraham Angle, [Rudy] Giuliani admitted he played a leading role in last spring's ouster of Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine. Yovanovitch's removal set the stage for the Trump administration's efforts over the summer to leverage Ukrainian diplomacy into investigations of Joe and Hunter Biden that stood to benefit the president. 'I forced her out because she's corrupt,' Giuliani said, before alluding to sketchily sourced information he dredged up during his just-completed trip to Ukraine and adding, 'I came back with a document that will show unequivocally that she committed perjury when she said that she turned down the visa for [Viktor] Shokin because of corruption .... there's no question that she was acting corruptly in that position, and had to be removed. She should have been fired, if the State Department weren't part of the deep state.'... As Will Saletan of Slate pointed out in response to a tweet in which Giuliani made the same claim, the House Republicans' impeachment report characterizes Giuliani’s effort to obtain a visa for Shokin, as 'potential impropriety' that the Trump White House 'shut down.'"

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Rick Gates, one of the most significant former Trump campaign advisers who flipped on ... Donald Trump in the Mueller investigation, was sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years probation by a federal judge Tuesday morning. Gates, a longtime deputy to 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort who shared searing details about Trump's efforts in 2016 with special counsel Robert Mueller, admitted to helping Manafort conceal $75 million in foreign bank accounts from their years of Ukraine lobbying work. He agreed to plead guilty to related charges of conspiracy and lying to investigators in February 2018. He also signed up to cooperate, giving Mueller's team key insights into Manafort and Trump's actions in 2016 during the height of the Russia investigations. 'I accept complete responsibility for my actions,' Gates told Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Tuesday." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. The Washington Post report is here.

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "More than 700 American historians have called for the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump." The statement, published in Medium,is here, along with the names of the signers.

Steve Peoples of the AP: "A small group of ... Donald Trump's fiercest conservative critics, including the husband of the president's own chief adviser, is launching a super PAC designed to fight Trump's reelection and punish congressional Republicans deemed his 'enablers.' The new organization, known as the Lincoln Project, represents a formal step forward for the so-called Never Trump movement, which has been limited largely to social media commentary and cable news attacks through the first three years of Trump's presidency." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a New York Times op-ed by George Conway, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver & Rick Wilson announcing the Lincoln Project.

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Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Over 550 protests calling for the impeachment and removal of Trump are planned [for Tuesday evening], sponsored by a coalition of progressive groups including Public Citizen, Indivisible, the Service Employees International Union and the Sierra Club. There will be at least one protest in every state. If you are disgusted by Trump's behavior, and by the way elected Republicans have built an impenetrable wall of lies to protect him, you should go." Goldberg links to the Impeach & Remove page, which has an easy search function to help you find an event near your home. Sponsors of each event include handy instructions on the when & where, plus relevant advice.

Profiles in Courage. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Democratic lawmakers representing conservative-leaning districts announced one by one on Monday that they would cast votes this week to impeach President Trump, signaling that a critical bloc of the most politically vulnerable Democrats is pulling together behind the party’s effort to seek his removal from office." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the New York Times' list of where members of Congress have (so far) said how they will vote on articles of impeachment.

Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "... Donald Trump committed criminal bribery and wire fraud, the House Judiciary Committee alleges in a report that will accompany articles of impeachment this week. The report, a 169-page assessment of the case for Trump's removal from office, contends that Trump committed 'multiple federal crimes' -- ones that Democrats addressed under the broad umbrella of 'abuse of power,' the first article of impeachment against the president. 'Although President Trump's actions need not rise to the level of a criminal violation to justify impeachment, his conduct here was criminal,' the panel's Democrats argue, labeling Trump's behavior 'both constitutional and criminal in character' and contending that the president 'betrayed the people of this nation' and should be removed from office.... The panel's Democrats cite his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani's trip to Ukraine just last week as evidence that Trump intends to continue the alleged scheme. Trump's lack of remorse over the Ukraine allegations, Democrats claim, is evidence that he poses a 'continuing threat if left in office.'... The staff report, which was filed to the House Rules Committee just after midnight Monday, argues that Trump directed a months-long scheme to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election, the allegation that forms the core of the two articles of impeachment -- abuse of power and obstruction of Congress -- approved by the Judiciary Committee last week.... The Judiciary Committee's report presents the panel's most thorough analysis yet of why Democrats believe the accusations against Trump are worthy of immediate impeachment and a recommendation that the Senate remove Trump from office. It comes a day before the Rules Committee formally considers the articles of impeachment, ahead of a likely Wednesday vote on the House floor." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The full report, via NPR, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The House Judiciary Committee formally presented its case for impeaching President Trump in a 658-page report published online early Monday morning, arguing just days before a final vote in the House that he 'betrayed the nation by abusing his high office.' The report, which echoes similar documents produced after the committee's approval of impeachment articles for Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton, contains no new allegations or evidence against Mr. Trump. But it offers a detailed road map for the two articles of impeachment the committee approved,.... The report includes a scathing 20-page dissent from Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, who accuses Democrats on the panel of conducting an unfair process in a partisan attempt to drive Mr. Trump from office because of their dislike of him and his policies." (Also linked yesterday.)

It Ain't Over Till the Fat Bastard Goes. Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Lawyers for the House told a federal court on Monday that lawmakers will continue their impeachment investigation even after the House votes later this week to impeach ... Donald Trump. In a filing to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, House General Counsel Douglas Letter argued that the House's demands for grand jury materials connected to former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation were still urgent because such evidence might become relevant to the Senate's expected impeachment trial next month. But Letter went further to note that even apart from the Senate trial, the House Judiciary Committee intends to continue its impeachment investigation arising from the Mueller probe on its own merit. That investigation began earlier this year."

Laurence Tribe in a Washington Post op-ed endorses the McCrabbie Move: “Now that President Trump's impeachment is inevitable, and now that failing to formally impeach him would invite foreign intervention in the 2020 election and set a dangerous precedent, another option seems vital to consider: voting for articles of impeachment but holding off for the time being on transmitting them to the Senate. This option needs to be taken seriously now that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced his intention to conduct not a real trial but a whitewash.... The House, whose historical role is to prosecute articles of impeachment in the Senate after exercising its 'sole' power to impeach, is under no affirmative constitutional obligation to do so instantly."

William Webster, former director of the FBI & the CIA in a New York Times op-ed: "Today, the integrity of the institutions that protect our civil order is, tragically, under assault from too many people whose job it should be to protect them.... The president's thinly veiled suggestion that the director, Christopher Wray, like his banished predecessor, James Comey, could be on the chopping block, disturbs me greatly. The independence of both the F.B.I. and its director is critical and should be fiercely protected by each branch of government.... The aspersions cast upon [the men and women of the F.B.I.] by the president and my longtime friend, Attorney General William P. Barr, are troubling in the extreme. Calling F.B.I. professionals 'scum,' as the president did, is a slur against people who risk their lives to keep us safe. Mr. Barr's charges of bias within the F.B.I., made without providing any evidence and in direct dispute of the findings of the nonpartisan inspector general, risk inflicting enduring damage on this critically important institution.... I'm profoundly disappointed in another longtime, respected friend, Rudy Giuliani.... His activities of late concerning Ukraine have, at a minimum, failed the smell test of propriety."

PolitiFact's 2019 Lie of the Year. Katie Sanders of PolitiFact: "Since the Sept. 26 release of the whistleblower complaint about his call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump has insisted more than 80 times that the whistleblower's account is fake, fraudulent, incorrect, 'total fiction,' 'made up,' and 'sooo wrong.'... On Oct. 5 he tweeted that the 'second hand information "Whistleblower" got my phone conversation almost completely wrong.'... Despite what Trump claims, the whistleblower got the call 'almost completely' right.... The whistleblower's account is verified by the same set of facts supplied by [Alexander] Vindman, [Jennifer] Williams and [Tim] Morrison, and others who were in the know. And one more source: Trump.... The Lie of the Year -- the only time PolitiFact uses the word 'lie' -- speaks to a falsehood that proves to be of real consequence and gets repeated in a virtual campaign to undermine an accurate narrative."

Sergey Lavrov, the Power Behind the Trump Throne. Julia Davis of the Daily Beast: "As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov returned home from his visit with ... Donald Trump in the Oval Office last week, Russian state media was gloating over the spectacle. TV channel Rossiya 1 aired a segment entitled 'Puppet Master and "Agent" -- How to Understand Lavrov's Meeting With Trump.' Vesti Nedeli, a Sunday news show on the same network, pointed out that it was Trump, personally, who asked Lavrov to pose standing near as Trump sat at his desk. It's almost the literal image of a power behind the throne.... State-television news shows use every opportunity to demoralize the Ukrainians with a set of talking points based on the U.S. president's distaste for their beleaguered country." Mrs. McC: This is a demotion for Trump: he used to be Putin's Puppet; now Putin gets the help to pull Trump's strings.

Rudy Speaks! Again. Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani said on Monday that he provided President Trump with detailed information this year about how the United States ambassador to Ukraine was, in Mr. Giuliani's view, impeding investigations that could benefit Mr. Trump, setting in motion the ambassador's recall from her post. In an interview, Mr. Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, described how he passed along to Mr. Trump 'a couple of times' accounts about how the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch, had frustrated efforts that could be politically helpful to Mr. Trump. They included investigations involving former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Ukrainians who disseminated documents that damaged Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign. The president in turn connected Mr. Giuliani with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who asked for more information, Mr. Giuliani said. Within weeks, Ms. Yovanovitch was recalled as ambassador at the end of April and was told that Mr. Trump had lost trust in her.... Mr. Giuliani's account, in an interview with The New York Times on Monday evening, provided additional detail about the president's knowledge of and involvement in one element of a pressure campaign against Ukraine. 'There's a lot of reasons to move her,' Mr. Giuliani said, asserting that his briefings of Mr. Trump and Mr. Pompeo most likely played a role in their decision to recall Ms. Yovanovitch." ~~~

~~~ AND Again. Guardian impeachment liveblog at 13:44 ET Monday: "Rudy Giuliani ... said in a New Yorker interview that he wanted Maria Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, 'out of the way' as he pushed for investigations into Joe Biden. 'I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way,' Giuliani told the magazine last month, according to a newly published article. 'She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody.' Democrats will likely point to Giuliani's comments as evidence that Trump abused his power by recalling Yovanovitch, a widely praised career diplomat whose reputation was smeared by some of the president's allies." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It is awesome how delighted lawyer Rudy is to incriminate his "client." Most attorneys, on account of their code of ethics and all, try to get their clients off the hook even when all indications are that said clients did the crimes.

Brendan Pierson of Reuters: "An associate of ... Rudy Giuliani on Monday urged a judge to let him stay free on bail while he awaits trial, denying prosecutors' accusations that he lied about receiving a $1 million payment from Russia shortly before he was arrested. A lawyer for Lev Parnas, who is charged with campaign finance crimes, said the payment was a loan to Parnas' wife [Svetlana], and that it had been disclosed to authorities before his bail was set." Mrs. McC: Another thing dese guys think wives are for is to aid & abet them in nefarious schemes. (Also linked yesterday.)

Casey Michel of The New Republic: "Through the former New York City mayor [Rudy Giuliani]'s enabling, Donald Trump has ... open[ed] the floodgates for foreign operators to stick their paws in America's upcoming presidential election. And there's a world of heinous governments and criminal networks more than willing to take Giuliani and Donald Trump up on their global smear efforts.... Whatever antediluvian assurances Americans had about the sanctity of their elections, at least as pertained to keeping foreign hands off the vote, are gravely endangered, if not gone, displaced by the grotesquery of Trump's willingness to do whatever it takes to remain in power..... As the past few weeks have made clear, [Dmytro] Firtash is no longer the only Ukrainian oligarch racing down this path.... There is another [Ihor Kolomoisky], plying tales about Biden in order to erase what may well be the largest money-laundering case the U.S. has ever seen -- a man now embodying the way our collapsing electoral guardrails might help cement America's central role in global kleptocracy." --s

AND I linked this for the joke that begins at about 1:20 minutes in:

Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Monday rebuffed accusations by President Trump's first national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, that F.B.I. agents and federal prosecutors engaged in misconduct in his criminal case, delivering a comprehensive rebuke to his 11th-hour claims. The 92-page ruling by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan also effectively ended Mr. Flynn's hopes that the judge would toss his conviction as prosecutors consider whether to ask for prison time for Mr. Flynn. It was also a blow to supporters of Mr. Flynn, who have amplified a false narrative that he was framed in a plot by the so-called deep state to sabotage Mr. Trump. Judge Sullivan set sentencing for Jan. 28." ~~~

     ~~~ Tom Winter & Rich Schapiro of NBC News: "Flynn's attorneys filed court papers in August accusing prosecutors of suppressing exculpatory evidence and alleging that he was targeted by federal investigators for 'concocted and political purposes.'... [Judge] Sullivan also cited 'ethical concerns' in Flynn's brief, saying his legal team 'lifted verbatim portions from a source without attribution.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Flynn fired his original defense team & in June 2019 hired Sidney Powell as his top lawyer. Todd Gillman of the Dallas Morning News wrote of Powell at the time, "A conservative commentator and former federal prosecutor in Texas and Virginia, she describes [Robert] Mueller and others involved in investigating Russian election interference as 'creeps on a mission -- to destabilize and destroy this President.'" And to think such a nice lady plagiarized her court filing.

Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "In 2017, President Trump made nearly 1,999 false or misleading claims. In 2018, he added another 5,689, for a total of 7,688. Now, with a few weeks still left in 2019, the president already has more than doubled the total number of false or misleading claims in just a single year. As of Dec. 10, his 1,055th day in office, Trump had made 15,413 false or misleading claims, according to the Fact Checker's database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement he has uttered. That's an average of more than 32 claims a day since our last update 62 days ago." (Also linked yesterday.)

David Nather & Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Some officials treat Trump's frequent venting sessions as a storm that just needs to blow over -- or in some cases, be contained.... Others, like [OMB acting director Russell] Vought and his team, take the approach that Trump is the president and he has the right to get what he wants -- if there's any legal way to get it done. And in their view, there usually is.... Throughout his nearly three years as president, aides say Trump has often complained about his White House lawyers being too 'conservative' and always telling him 'no' when he asks for things. In that context, the budget office has become an island of 'yes' in Trump's government." --safari: Problem is, it's not always done legally. See Ukraine.

Sharay Angulo of Reuters (Dec. 14): "Mexico's deputy foreign minister, Jesus Seade, said on Saturday he sent a letter to the top U.S. trade official expressing surprise and concern over a labor enforcement provision proposed by a U.S. congressional committee in the new North American trade deal.... An annex for the implementation of the treaty that was presented on Friday in the U.S. House of Representatives proposes the designation of up to five U.S. experts who would monitor compliance with local labor reform in Mexico. 'This provision, the result of political decisions by Congress and the Administration in the United States, was not, for obvious reasons, consulted with Mexico,' Seade wrote in the letter. 'And, of course, we disagree.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Katie Lobosco, et al., of CNN: "Top trade negotiators from both the United States and Mexico reaffirmed Monday that the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement ... is a done deal -- despite complaints from Mexico over the weekend about a labor provision included in the bill unveiled by Democrats. The trade agreement is still headed for debate and a vote in the US House later this week. The Senate is expected to take it up in January after impeachment. Mexico's Undersecretary for North America, Jesus Seade, rushed to Washington to meet with trade officials Monday, after writing to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to say he was 'surprised' about the modifications to the USMCA, which has already been ratified in its original form by both Mexico and Canada. But on Monday, Seade said he was 'very satisfied' with the new terms."

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "About 400 of America's largest corporations paid an average federal tax rate of about 11 percent on their profits last year, roughly half the official rate established under President Trump's 2017 tax law, according to a report released Monday. The 2017 tax law lowered the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, but in practice large companies often pay far less than that due to deductions, tax breaks and other loopholes. In the first year of the law, the actual amount corporations paid in federal taxes on their incomes -- their so-called 'effective rate' -- was 11.3 percent on average, possibly its lowest level in more than three decades, according to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.... The report also found that 91 corporations in the Fortune 500, many worth billions of dollars, paid no federal taxes last year." Greenwich Time has Stein's report here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ CNBC has a list of the 91 Fortune-500 companies that paid no federal taxes in 2018.

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Congressional negotiators cemented a $1.3 trillion federal spending deal Monday, with a pay raise for federal workers, money for federal gun violence research and the repeal of several taxes associated with the 2010 health care law. Congress is expected to pass the legislation this week ahead of Friday's shutdown deadline and send it to President Trump for his signature. Negotiators released the 2,313-page bill late Monday. A high-profile conflict over border wall spending -- the issue that sparked a record 35-day partial government shutdown a year ago -- was resolved with a retreat to the status quo: Funding remains unchanged from 2019 levels at $1.375 billion, short of the $8.6 billion President Trump requested from Congress. The Trump administration, however, retains the ability to transfer funds from other accounts, though the bill does not replenish the accounts it drew from earlier this year. Funding for immigration enforcement agencies also remains unchanged from 2019 levels." Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "Federal agencies will receive $25 million from Congress to study gun violence in a government spending deal reached by House and Senate negotiators -- a major win for Democrats who have long pushed for dedicated funding to research the issue, a source told The Hill. 'Democrats have broken the ban on funding for the first time in decades,' the source said. The deal includes $12.5 million each for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health to study gun violence and ways to prevent it. It's the first time in more than 20 years that Congress has appropriated money for gun violence research."

(U.K.) Independent: "Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to recognise the killing of Native Americans at the hand of European settlers in a tit-for-tat attack on Washington's decision to rebuke Ankara for the Armenian genocide. The US Senate voted in favour of recognising the genocide last week, a move initially stalled by Republicans at the urging of Donald Trump - who had been due to meet with the Turkish leader at the time. However, with the bill now passed, Mr Erdogan has threatened to respond by recognising US killings of Native Americans -- saying the deaths of millions of indigenous people at the hands of European settlers should also be viewed as a genocide." ~~~

     ~~~ digby: "I think it would be fine to condemn us for the fact that we were among the last more or less developed countries to end slavery too. Have at it, Erdogon.... Many descendants of those indigenous people are still living in poverty, suffering the consequence of that conquest and the bigotry that accompanied it. The legacy of slavery is still here for all to see.... I don't see the problem."

Presidential Race 2020

Joe Biden, Can You Hear Me? Saira Asher of BBC News Singapore: "If women ran every country in the world there would be a general improvement in living standards and outcomes, former US President Barack Obama has said. Speaking in Singapore, he said women aren't perfect, but are 'indisputably better' than men. He said most of the problems in the world came from old people, mostly men, holding onto positions of power." (Also linked yesterday.)

Senate Race. Benjamin Fearnow of Newsweek: "Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is statistically tied with Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison, with the staunch pro-Trump incumbent seeing his favorability ratings plummet among independent voters. Graham, who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002, is clinging to a 2-percentage point lead over Harrison, 47 to 45 percent, with nearly 10 percent of voters surveyed still remaining undecided about their 2020 vote." (Also linked yesterday.)

Matthew Chapman of Raw Story: "On Monday, the Washington Post reported that a former investment manager with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has filed a whistleblower complaint with the IRS, accusing the Church of misleading both federal tax agents and their congregants about a set of accounts collectively worth $100 billion. David Nielsen, himself a Mormon, worked at Ensign Peak Advisors, the investment division of the church, prior to filing the complaint. He is urging the IRS to strip the Church of its nonprofit status and fine the organization for misusing charitable funds.... Nielsen claims ... the Church is instead stockpiling this money and using it as a slush fund to prop up two private businesses." -- safari: Sounds like the Mormons are running their own Trump Foundation. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post report, by Jon Swaine & others, is here.

Jan Hoffman & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "As scrutiny of Purdue Pharma's role in the opioid epidemic intensified during the past dozen years, its owners, members of the Sackler family, withdrew more than $10 billion from the company, distributing it among trusts and overseas holding companies, according to a new audit commissioned by Purdue. The amount is more than eight times what the family took out of the company in the 13 years after OxyContin, its signature product, was approved in 1995. The audit is likely to renew questions about how much the Sacklers should pay to resolve more than 2,800 lawsuits that seek to hold Purdue accountable for the opioid crisis." A summary report by Reuters is here.

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Twenty-three women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault have said the disgraced movie mogul is 'trying to gaslight society', after he told the New York Post his 'pioneering' work on 'movies directed by women and about women' was being forgotten.... The actors Rosanna Arquette, Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan were among the women who signed the statement." The New York Times story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Ben Nadler & Kate Brumback of the AP: "A federal judge is allowing Georgia to proceed with a mass purge of its voting rolls planned for Monday evening, but he also scheduled a hearing later in the week to hear more arguments about the matter. That decision came after a lawyer for the state assured him that if the judge finds later that some people should not have been removed, they can be easily and quickly reinstated. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in October released a list of over 313,000 voters whose registrations were at risk of being canceled, about 4% of the state's total registered voters. Notices were mailed in November giving those voters 30 days to respond in order to keep their registration valid. A spokesman for the secretary of state's office said last week that the purge was set to begin Monday evening.

Kentucky. Deborah Yetter of the Louisville Courier Journal>: "Gov. Andy Beshear [D] on Monday ended former Gov. Matt Bevin's [RTP] quest to scale back Kentucky's Medicaid program by requiring 'able-bodied' adults to report work hours and other changes critics said would cost up to 100,000 Kentuckians their health coverage.... By revoking Bevin's plan, Beshear, a Democrat, fulfilled the last of three actions he pledged to take during his first week in office to reverse actions of his Republican predecessor -- reorganizing the state Education Board, restoring voting rights to 140,000 ex-offenders and abolishing the Medicaid plan Bevin rolled out in 2016."

Mississippi. AP: "A Mississippi man who has been tried six times in the same murder case will be allowed to post bail and leave custody for the first time in 22 years. During a hearing on Monday, a judge granted a bond request made by attorneys for 49-year-old Curtis Flowers. Bond was set at $250,000. In July 1996, four people were shot dead in a furniture store in the north Mississippi town of Winona. Two trials involving Flowers ended in a mistrial. He was convicted four times. All four convictions were overturned. In the sixth trial, in 2010, Flowers was sentenced to death. Earlier this year the US supreme court overturned that conviction, finding prosecutors had shown an unconstitutional pattern of excluding African American jurors. Flowers was moved off death row at the Mississippi state penitentiary at Parchman and taken to a regional jail in Louisville. On Monday, the circuit judge Joseph Loper said Flowers would have to wear an electronic monitor while out of custody. It was 'troubling', he said, that prosecutors had not responded to the defense motion to drop the charges against Flowers."

Oklahoma. Doha Madani of NBC News: "Experts at the University of Oklahoma believe they have found a possible mass grave site from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre at a city cemetery, although they are unsure how many bodies are underneath. Geophysical scanning identified two spots at the Oaklawn Cemetery that might bear bodies of those killed in the city's race riots almost 100 years ago, Scott Hammerstedt, a senior researcher for the Oklahoma Archeological Survey, said Monday at a public hearing in Tulsa." The Washington Post story is here.

Way Beyond

India. Sigal Samuel of Vox: "India is home to 200 million Muslims. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they have faced mounting threats to their status in the majority-Hindu country. And on Wednesday..., the upper house of India's Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB).... At first glance, the bill may seem like a laudable effort to protect persecuted minorities.... But one major group has been left out: Muslims. That's no coincidence. The CAB is closely linked with another contentious document: India's National Register of Citizens (NRC). That citizenship list is part of the government's effort to identify and weed out people it claims are illegal immigrants in the northeastern state of Assam.... When the NRC was published in August, around 2 million people -- many of them Muslims, some of them Hindus -- found that their names were not on it. They were told they had a limited time in which to prove that they are, in fact, citizens. Otherwise, they can be rounded up into massive new detention camps and, ultimately, deported.... Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said it plans to extend the NRC process across the country.... If the Indian government proceeds with its plan, in a worst-case scenario we could be looking at the biggest refugee crisis on the planet." --s. Thanks to RAS for the link.

The Commentariat -- December 16, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "In 2017, President Trump made nearly 1,999 false or misleading claims. In 2018, he added another 5,689, for a total of 7,688. Now, with a few weeks still left in 2019, the president already has more than doubled the total number of false or misleading claims in just a single year. As of Dec. 10, his 1,055th day in office, Trump had made 15,413 false or misleading claims, according to the Fact Checker's database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement he has uttered. That's an average of more than 32 claims a day since our last update 62 days ago."

Rudy Speaks! Again. Guardian impeachment liveblog at 13:44 ET Monday: "Rudy Giuliani ... said in a New Yorker interview that he wanted Maria Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, 'out of the way' as he pushed for investigations into Joe Biden. 'I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way,' Giuliani told the magazine last month, according to a newly published article. 'She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody.' Democrats will likely point to Giuliani's comments as evidence that Trump abused his power by recalling Yovanovitch, a widely praised career diplomat whose reputation was smeared by some of the president's allies."

Brendan Pierson of Reuters: "An associate of ... Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Monday urged a judge to let him stay free on bail while he awaits trial, denying prosecutors' accusations that he lied about receiving a $1 million payment from Russia shortly before he was arrested. A lawyer for Lev Parnas, who is charged with campaign finance crimes, said the payment was a loan to Parnas' wife [Svetlana], and that it had been disclosed to authorities before his bail was set." Mrs. McC: Another thing dese guys think wives are for is to aid & abet them in nefarious schemes.

Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "... Donald Trump committed criminal bribery and wire fraud, the House Judiciary Committee alleges in a report that will accompany articles of impeachment this week. The report, a 169-page assessment of the case for Trump's removal from office, contends that Trump committed 'multiple federal crimes' -- ones that Democrats addressed under the broad umbrella of 'abuse of power,' the first article of impeachment against the president. 'Although President Trump's actions need not rise to the level of a criminal violation to justify impeachment, his conduct here was criminal,' the panel's Democrats argue, labeling Trump's behavior 'both constitutional and criminal in character' and contending that the president 'betrayed the people of this nation' and should be removed from office.... The panel's Democrats cite his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani's trip to Ukraine just last week as evidence that Trump intends to continue the alleged scheme. Trump's lack of remorse over the Ukraine allegations, Democrats claim, is evidence that he poses a 'continuing threat if left in office.'... The staff report, which was filed to the House Rules Committee just after midnight Monday, argues that Trump directed a months-long scheme to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election, the allegation that forms the core of the two articles of impeachment -- abuse of power and obstruction of Congress -- approved by the Judiciary Committee last week.... The Judiciary Committee's report presents the panel's most thorough analysis yet of why Democrats believe the accusations against Trump are worthy of immediate impeachment and a recommendation that the Senate remove Trump from office. It comes a day before the Rules Committee formally considers the articles of impeachment, ahead of a likely Wednesday vote on the House floor." ~~~

     ~~~ The full report, via NPR, is here. ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The House Judiciary Committee formally presented its case for impeaching President Trump in a 658-page report published online early Monday morning, arguing just days before a final vote in the House that he 'betrayed the nation by abusing his high office.' The report, which echoes similar documents produced after the committee's approval of impeachment articles for Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton, contains no new allegations or evidence against Mr. Trump. But it offers a detailed road map for the two articles of impeachment the committee approved.... The report includes a scathing 20-page dissent from Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, who accuses Democrats on the panel of conducting an unfair process in a partisan attempt to drive Mr. Trump from office because of their dislike of him and his policies."

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "About 400 of America's largest corporations paid an average federal tax rate of about 11 percent on their profits last year, roughly half the official rate established under President Trump's 2017 tax law, according to a report released Monday. The 2017 tax law lowered the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, but in practice large companies often pay far less than that due to deductions, tax breaks and other loopholes. In the first year of the law, the actual amount corporations paid in federal taxes on their incomes -- their so-called 'effective rate' -- was 11.3 percent on average, possibly its lowest level in more than three decades, according to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.... The report also found that 91 corporations in the Fortune 500, many worth billions of dollars, paid no federal taxes last year." Greenwich Time has Stein's report here.

Sharay Angulo of Reuters (Dec. 14): "Mexico's deputy foreign minister, Jesus Seade, said on Saturday he sent a letter to the top U.S. trade official expressing surprise and concern over a labor enforcement provision proposed by a U.S. congressional committee in the new North American trade deal.... An annex for the implementation of the treaty that was presented on Friday in the U.S. House of Representatives proposes the designation of up to five U.S. experts who would monitor compliance with local labor reform in Mexico. 'This provision, the result of political decisions by Congress and the Administration in the United States, was not, for obvious reasons, consulted with Mexico,' Seade wrote in the letter. 'And, of course, we disagree.'"

Joe Biden, Can You Hear Me? Saira Asher of BBC News Singapore: "If women ran every country in the world there would be a general improvement in living standards and outcomes, former US President Barack Obama has said. Speaking in Singapore, he said women aren't perfect, but are 'indisputably better' than men. He said most of the problems in the world came from old people, mostly men, holding onto positions of power."

Senate Race 2020. Benjamin Fearnow of Newsweek: "Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is statistically tied with Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison, with the staunch pro-Trump incumbent seeing his favorability ratings plummet among independent voters. Graham, who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002, is clinging to a 2-percentage point lead over Harrison, 47 to 45 percent, with nearly 10 percent of voters surveyed still remaining undecided about their 2020 vote."

~~~~~~~~~~

Burgess Everett of Politico: "In a letter sent on Sunday evening to [Mitch] McConnell, the majority leader, [Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer says Senate Democrats want to hear testimony from four administration witnesses, including acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton. There is almost no chance Senate Republicans would vote to subpoena those witnesses without assent from the White House and calling their own preferred witnesses. Schumer also proposes that the trial process begin on Jan. 6, with the trial itself starting on Jan. 9, and asks for a structure similar to the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999." Schumer's letter is here. The New York Times story is here.

Chandelis Duster & Kevin Bohn of CNN: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Sunday said he would like for some witnesses to be called during the expected Senate impeachment trial against ... Donald Trump and for withheld administration documents to be introduced as evidence. 'I think there are any number of witnesses that should be called in the Senate trial, and many witnesses the American people would like to hear from that the administration has refused to make available,' Schiff told ABC's 'This Week.' 'And perhaps of equal and if not greater importance are the thousands and thousands of documents that the administration refuses to turn over. I would hope that every senator of both parties would like to see the documentary evidence.'"

Aubree Weaver of Politico: "'It isn't just the president who's on trial in an impeachment proceeding,' Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois told CBS' Margaret Brennan on Sunday. 'The Senate is on trial, and we have a constitutional responsibility.'... 'I hear people like Sen. [Mitch] McConnell talking about the fact that he sat down with the folks at the White House,' Durbin added, referring to the Senate majority leader. 'He's already made his decision even before he's taken his oath to promise impartial justice. He sees no need for us to spend a lot of time. My friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, refers to the whole thing as a crock.['] Durbin said he believes McConnell needs to sit down Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to start the proceedings in a bipartisan fashion -- just as former Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott sat down with Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in the late '90s."

Karoun Demirjian & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler accused Senate Republicans of violating their oath to be impartial jurors in an impeachment trial, as GOP senators defended their right to work for President Trump's acquittal.... Senators take an oath to 'do impartial justice' at the start of any impeachment trial -- but several Republican senators argued that impartiality doesn't cover politics.... 'Senators are not required, like jurors in a criminal trial, to be sequestered, not to talk to anyone, not to coordinate. There's no prohibition,' Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said on 'This Week,' calling impeachment 'inherently a political exercise' and Trump's impeachment a 'partisan show trial.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Riley Beggin of Vox covers much of the same subject matter. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: These yahoos are too dumb to realize that the more they make a travesty of the Senate "trial," and the more they boast about deciding for Trump before they hear evidence, the more obvious it will be to Americans who pay only scant attention to the news that the Senate proceedings are a sham. I think this tactic could blow up in their faces. For better or for worse, Americans will equate the Senate trial with a criminal trial, and they've all watched enough teevee to know jurors are excused if deemed for some reason to be partial & can be prosecuted if they are found to have lied about some specific bias or foreknowledge they might have.

Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "A private campaign is underway to draft Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) as an impeachment manager in the Senate trial of President Trump, a bid to diversify House Democrats' appeal to voters with a rare conservative voice. A group of 30 freshman Democrats, led by Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), has asked House leaders to consider the libertarian, who left the Republican Party earlier this year, for the small group tasked with arguing its case for removing Trump in the upper chamber, according to several Democratic officials. The thinking, according to these people, is that Amash would reach conservative voters in a way Democrats can't, potentially bolstering their case to the public. He also would provide Democrats cover from GOP accusations that they're pursuing a partisan impeachment; Amash is one of the most conservative members of the House and a vocal Trump critic.

"A Republic if You Can Keep It." Elizabeth Drew in a New York Times op-ed: "The current proceedings have demonstrated how fragile the Constitution's impeachment clause is.... Today's partisanship is more intense than ever.... In our highly polarized world, a strong-willed president like Mr. Trump can limit impeachment -- and possibly wreck it.... Unless our political system undergoes a radical change, we could be on the brink of having no check on the president, no matter how radically he defies the Constitution."

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Support for impeaching ... Donald Trump hit a record high of 54% in a Fox News poll that was released on Sunday. Half of those surveyed told Fox News that the president should be impeached and removed. An additional 4% believe that the president should only be impeached. In all, 13 percent more respondents thought that the president should be impeached than those who thought he shouldn't.... In October, Trump lashed out at Fox News after the network published a poll that found a majority of registered voters backed impeachment. Since that time, Trump has tried to create the false narrative that support for impeachment is waning."

John Bowden of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday tweeted that Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) teeth were 'falling out of her mouth' during a press conference days earlier in which she was discussing the impeachment inquiry. The comment came as part of a retweet of Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who had quote-tweeted a clip of Pelosi explaining why bribery was not one of the articles of impeachment filed by House Democrats against the president last week. 'Because Nancy's teeth were falling out of her mouth, and she didn't have time to think!' Trump tweeted, apparently responding to the reporter's question in the clip.... The president's remark is just the latest in a series of increasingly personal attacks he has aimed at the Speaker in recent weeks...." ~~~

~~~ Wait, Wait, There's More. Aubree Weaver of Politico: "Former FBI Director James Comey on Sunday said he was 'wrong' about the bureau's use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the Russia investigation, prompting ... Donald Trump to question whether jail time was warranted for the director he fired in 2017.... 'I was overconfident in the procedures that the FBI and Justice had built over 20 years. I thought they were robust enough. It's incredibly hard to get a FISA.... [IG Michael Horowitz is] right: There was real sloppiness,' Comey added. A few hours later, Trump seized on those comments.... 'So now Comey's admitting he was wrong,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'Wow, but he's only doing so because he got caught red handed. He was actually caught a long time ago. So what are the consequences for his unlawful conduct. Could it be years in jail? Where are the apologies to me and others, Jim?' Trump also went after Horowitz, who has served as inspector general since 2012. 'As bad as the I.G. Report is for the FBI and others, and it is really bad, remember that I.G. Horowitz was appointed by Obama,' Trump tweeted. 'There was tremendous bias and guilt exposed, so obvious, but Horowitz couldn't get himself to say it. Big credibility loss. Obama knew everything!'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Another example of how nuts Trump is. Comey admits "mistakes were made" while he was on the job. It's rare for Comey (and many of us) to admit error, but it's admirable. For that, Trump suggests he should be criminally prosecuted & jailed, then jumps to the assumption that Comey & President Obama were diabolically plotting "everything." Donald Trump is stark staring mad. Wouldn't it be ironic if, just as the Senate declined to remove him from office, Trump went so off his rocker that the Cabinet had no choice but to invoke the 25th Amendment?

International Cloak & Dagger Section

Edward Wong & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The American government secretly expelled two Chinese Embassy officials this fall after they drove on to a sensitive military base in Virginia, according to people with knowledge of the episode. The expulsions appear to be the first of Chinese diplomats suspected of espionage in more than 30 years. American officials believe at least one of the Chinese officials was an intelligence officer operating under diplomatic cover, said six people with knowledge of the expulsions. The group, which included the officials' wives, evaded military personnel pursuing them and stopped only after fire trucks blocked their path. The episode in September, which neither Washington nor Beijing made public, has intensified concerns in the Trump administration that China is expanding its spying efforts in the United States as the two nations are increasingly locked in a geopolitical and economic rivalry. American intelligence officials say China poses a greater espionage threat than any other country." ~~~

     ~~~ James West of Mother Jones has a summary report. "Some of the early details reported by the Times ... could have been lifted from a pulpy television spy drama like The Americans: Some of the early details reported by the Times, quoting 'six people with knowledge of the expulsions,' could have been lifted from a pulpy television spy drama like The Americans...."

Guardian: "Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater and prominent supporter of Donald Trump, made a secret visit to Venezuela last month and met Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez -- one of Nicolás Maduro's closest allies. The visit ... came just eight months after Prince floated a plan to deploy a private army to help topple the Venezuelan leader. It was unclear what Prince, the brother of Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, discussed with Rodríguez. The meeting was first reported by Bloomberg. A meeting with Rodríguez, who is under US sanctions, could raise questions about whether Prince might have run afoul of US law, which prohibits Americans from virtually any business dealings with sanctioned individuals and specifically with the Venezuelan government. The Venezuelan vice-president's office also oversees the country's national intelligence service." --s

Presidential Race 2020

Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: Joe "Biden[, senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for most of the Iraq war,] got the Iraq war wrong before and throughout invasion, occupation, and withdrawal. Convenient as it is to blame Bush -- who, to be clear, bears primary and eternal responsibility for the disaster -- Biden embraced the Iraq war for what he portrayed as the result of his foreign policy principles and persisted, most often in error, for the same reasons.... Biden is the last of the pre-Obama generation of Democratic foreign policy grandees who enabled the Iraq war. John Kerry and Hillary Clinton both lost their presidential bids, saddled in both cases with the legacy of the war they supported. Now Biden confronts rivals like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who are both sketching out foreign policies that begin with ending a generation of war." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Mark Landler recalled in a 2017 NYT story, "Mr. Obama was a state senator from Illinois in October 2002 when he famously condemned Iraq as a 'dumb war.'" Those of you who remember the 2008 Democratic presidential primary will likely remember that what distinguished Barack Obama from candidates like Clinton & Biden was that, unlike them, he opposed the Iraq War in real time. I think that, ultimately, that 2002 speech of a young state senator is why he won the Democratic primary and ultimately the presidency (over "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" McCain). Whether Iraq will be a factor so many years later, I don't know, but I do know that Trump -- who falsely claims to have contemporaneously opposed the Iraq War -- will hammer Biden for his support of it. Biden's long record has plenty of pickings for Trump to exploit & exaggerate, and this is but one of them.

Thanks to Ken W. & Son for the photo, snapped in Palo Alto, Calif.

Emma Newburger of CNBC: "Wedding website Zola will no longer run advertisements on the Hallmark Channel after the network removed four commercials that featured two brides kissing each other." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Aimee Ortiz of the New York Times: "Hallmark apologized on Sunday after facing days of backlash for pulling four television ads that featured brides kissing each other.... Hallmark said in [a] statement that it would work with GLAAD, a national L.G.B.T.Q. media advocacy organization, 'to better represent the L.G.B.T.Q. community across our portfolio of brands,' and that it planned on contacting Zola to 're-establish our partnership and reinstate the commercials.'" Mrs. McC: I'd suggest, as a means of atonement, Hallmark create a line of greeting cards for bigots who can't find their own appropriate words of apology. You know, "I wouldn't have called you a [gay slur] if I'd known how sensitive you are," and "I'll never show up in blackface again, Bro," and "Really, I love the Jews. Jesus, my daughter married one of you people." But maybe classier, and in a fancy script font. When you care enough to send the very best.

Beyond the Beltway

Arkansas. AP: "Federal prosecutors have recommended a reduced sentence for a New Jersey political consultant [Donald 'D.A.' Jones] caught in an Arkansas political corruption case.... Prosecutors on Thursday filed a memorandum that was first reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette saying Jones should receive prison time, but deserves an unspecified reduced sentence because of his cooperation in the wide-ranging case that led to the convictions of several former Arkansas lawmakers.... Jones pleaded guilty in 2017 to conspiracy and admitted paying $219,000 in kickbacks to lobbyist Milton 'Rusty' Cranford of Rogers and $45,000 to former state Rep. Eddie Cooper of Melbourne. Cranford and Cooper both pleaded guilty. Cranford admitted bribing former Sen. Jon Woods, Rep. Hank Wilkins and Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson in an effort to increase revenue for the Missouri-based nonprofit Preferred Family HealthCare. Woods was convicted and is appealing while Wilkins and Hutchinson, the nephew of Gov. Asa Hutchinson and son of former U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson, each pleaded guilty." --s

Iowa. Nothing Is Racist if You Say It's Not Racist. Fox 32 Chicago: "A homeowner living next to an elementary school in Iowa is facing backlash for painting Confederate battle flags and swastikas on pallets around his property. The symbols are clearly visible from the school. School officials say the students, who are about 60% nonwhite, see the symbols when arriving and leaving the school and even from the playground.... 'It's a free country,' [homeowner] William Stark said. 'I'll put it out there if I want to.'... [He said] "people shouldn't construe the painted pallets as racist. 'They don't know their history, evidently,' Stark said. 'That's the only reason I can think of that they can think anything bad about it -- they don't know their history.'" Mrs. McC: Also too, this report gets my vote for the Best Both-Sides Report of the Year. Not once does the report make a value judgment. The reporter just records what Stark says & what unnamed "school officials" say.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Denmark/China. Editors of Berlingske: "Huawei likes to present itself as an independent, privately owned company which does not take orders from the Chinese state.... [According a leaked audio clip], a Faroese [Faroe Islands] government official states that the Chinese ambassador to Denmark, Mr. Feng Tie, threatened leading members of the Faroese government in order to secure a contract for Huawei to develop a 5G network. If the company was not awarded this contract, the Chinese government would drop a proposed free trade agreement with the Faroe Islands. This information exposes the extent to which the Chinese state is willing to use its economic power to blackmail a tiny nation into securing contracts for Huawei. It is thus a mere illusion to think that Huawei is a private company like any other. Huawei is a pawn in China's quest for global technological dominance." --s

India/Kashmir. Niha Masih, et al., of the Washington Post: India's shutdown of Kashmir's Internet access has "entered its 134th day Monday, [and] is now the longest ever imposed in a democracy, according to Access Now.... Only authoritarian regimes such as China and Myanmar have cut off the Internet for longer. India imposed the shutdown on Aug. 5, when authorities revoked Kashmir'autonomy and statehood, snapped all communications and detained the region's mainstream politicians. Landlines and calls on some mobile phones were subsequently restored, but the Internet remains blocked...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Now ask yourself, "Could this happen in the U.S.?" Maybe in certain neighborhoods, say, where some of "those people" weren't sufficiently "respectful" of law enforcement? Or maybe in parts of Nancy Pelosi's "dangerous and disgusting Slum"/district?

North Korea. The Art of No Deals. AP in Politico: "North Korea said Saturday that it successfully performed another 'crucial test' at its long-range rocket launch site that will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent. The test possibly involved technologies to improve intercontinental ballistic missiles that could potentially reach the continental United States.... The announcement suggests that the country is preparing to do something to provoke the United States if Washington doesn't back down and make concessions to ease sanctions and pressure on Pyongyang in deadlocked nuclear negotiations." --s

The Commentariat -- December 15, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Karoun Demirjian & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler accused Senate Republicans of violating their oath to be impartial jurors in an impeachment trial, as GOP senators defended their right to work for President Trump's acquittal.... Senators take an oath to 'do impartial justice' at the start of any impeachment trial -- but several Republican senators argued that impartiality doesn't cover politics.... 'Senators are not required, like jurors in a criminal trial, to be sequestered, not to talk to anyone, not to coordinate. There's no prohibition,' Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said on 'This Week,' calling impeachment 'inherently a political exercise' and Trump's impeachment a 'partisan show trial.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: These yahoos are too dumb to realize that the more they make a travesty of the Senate "trial," and the more they boast about deciding for Trump before they hear evidence, the more obvious it will be to Americans who pay only scant attention to the news that the Senate proceedings are a sham. I think this tactic could blow up in their faces. For better or for worse, Americans will equate the Senate trial with a criminal trial, and they've all watched enough teevee to know jurors are excused if deemed for some reason to be partial & can be prosecuted if they are found to have lied about some specific bias or foreknowledge they might have.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Impeach." New York Times Editors: "... the story told by the two articles of impeachment approved on Friday morning by the House Judiciary Committee is short, simple and damning: ... Donald Trump abused the power of his office by strong-arming Ukraine, a vulnerable ally, holding up hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid until it agreed to help him influence the 2020 election by digging up dirt on a political rival. When caught in the act, he rejected the very idea that a president could be required by Congress to explain and justify his actions, showing 'unprecedented, categorical and indiscriminate defiance' in the face of multiple subpoenas. He made it impossible for Congress to carry out fully its constitutionally mandated oversight role, and, in doing so, he violated the separation of powers, a safeguard of the American republic.... The president insists he is innocent of any wrongdoing, yet he refuses to release any administration documents or allow any administration officials to testify -- though, if his assertions are in fact true, those would presumably exonerate him..... Republican legislators ... have been working overtime to abet the president's wrongdoing. They have spread toxic misinformation and conspiracy theories to try to justify his actions and raged about the unfairness of the inquiry.... [Mitch] McConnell there was 'no chance' the Senate would vote to convict. For now, that leaves the defense of the Constitution, and the Republic, to the House of Representatives." ~~~

     ~~~ Rebecca Leber of Mother Jones: "It's significant, and rather unusual, for the Times to take such a firm stand on impeachment. Editorial page editor James Bennet shed light on their reluctance to call for earlier impeachment inquiries both of Trump and for Andrew Johnson in 1868, Richard Nixon in 1974 and Bill Clinton in 1998...."

The Emptiest Suit in the Senate. Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Saturday that he's made up his mind that President Trump should be acquitted, dismissed the notion that he has to be a 'fair juror' and said he doesn't see the need for a formal trial in the Senate. Graham, a staunch defender of the president, made the comments overseas during an interview with CNN International at the Doha Forum in Qatar.... On Saturday, a clip of Graham during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton made the rounds on social media, showing the then-representative make an appeal to his colleagues not to rush through the process or make a judgment before it's over.... Graham said then, 'Members of the Senate have said, "I understand everything there is about this case, and I won't vote to impeach the president." Please allow the facts to do the talking.... Don't decide the case before the case's end.'" The CNN story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Aliza Worthington of Crooks & Liars: "Whatever you do, DON'T remind [Lindsey] of [1998 video of Lindsey begging Democrats to consider the impeachment of Bill Clinton carefully,] by tweeting that video to him at @LindseyGrahamSC . DEFINITELY don't call him at his Washington, DC office at (202) 224-5972 to applaud him for his 1998 plea to his fellow senators to 'Please let the facts do the talking.' I certainly hope you will NOT write to him at his DC office to remind him of his 1998 concern that 'people have made up their mind in a political fashion that will hurt this country long term. Here is the address at which you should NOT write him: 290 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510. And, for the love of all things holy, PLEASE REFRAIN from clicking this link to send 2019 Lindsey Graham a message about when 1998 Lindsey Graham urged, 'Do justice to the case. Don't decide the case before the case is in.' Thank you." ~~~

~~~ Burgess Everett of Politico: "Sen. Lindsey Graham is inviting Rudy Giuliani to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his recent trip to Ukraine. In an interview airing on Face the Nation Sunday, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said that Giuliani ... could appear before his committee separately from the impending Senate impeachment trial."

** The New Rudy Is Just Like the Old Rudy. Clyde Haberman (Maggie's dad) in BuzzFeed News: "What is going on with Rudy Giuliani? The man who long enjoyed the flattering if empty sobriquet 'America's mayor' often comes across as completely unhinged these days, as when he screamed 'Shut up, moronShut up, shut up!' at an antagonist on Fox News not that long ago.... The reality, as clear-eyed New Yorkers could tell you, is that this is the same tower of truculence Giuliani has always been: a kiss-up, kick-down kind of guy, someone fittingly described by the late columnist Jimmy Breslin as 'a small man in search of a balcony.'"

Jonathan Martin & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, a moderate Democrat who is among his party's staunchest opponents of impeaching President Trump, told aides on Saturday that he is planning to switch parties and declare himself a Republican as soon as next week, just as the House is casting its historic votes on articles of impeachment. At a White House meeting on Friday, Mr. Van Drew sought Mr. Trump's blessing for the move, which could be critical to his ability to avoid a primary challenge next year, and the president urged him to make the jump, according to two Democrats and one Republican...." A Politico story is here.

Evan Semones of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday lit into Fox News' decision to interview two of his politico foes -- James Comey and Rep. Adam Schiff.... 'Hard to believe that @FoxNews will be interviewing sleazebag & totally discredited former FBI Director James Comey, & also corrupt politician Adam 'Shifty'Schiff,' Trump tweeted. 'Fox is trying sooo hard to be politically correct, and yet they were totally shut out from the failed Dem debates!' In a subsequent tweet, Trump likened the conservative cable network to 'Commiecast MSNBC' and 'Fake News CNN,' saying they'd 'die together as other outlets take their place.' Fox announced this week that the former FBI director and House Intelligence Committee chairman would sit for separate interviews with Chris Wallace on 'Fox News Sunday.'"

"Truth Decay." David Smith of the Guardian: "... as impeachment looms, [Donald Trump's] allies appear to be waging an increasingly frantic political and media counter-offensive that puts truth itself in the dock. A bewildering array of fake news, warped facts and conspiracy theories have been propagated in the past week by conservative media, Republican politicians, White House officials and the president in his own defence.... Trump has far more tools at his disposal than Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton did when facing impeachment in the 1970s and 90s. No matter how outlandish, his assertions are amplified and seldom questioned by loyal hosts on Rupert Murdoch's Fox News network.... [The false assertions are] further augmented by social media.... This calibrated, multi-pronged Republican assault has left the nation in what some call a state of 'truth decay' as all sense of shared reality breaks down. The tactics offer a chilling preview of how the president intends to fight next year's election." --s

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Carter Page fought the law, and the law lost. The former Trump campaign adviser was one of the first four suspects identified by the FBI in the early days of its investigation of President Trump's 2016 campaign aides, and the only one of that group to have his electronic communications secretly targeted by a U.S. foreign intelligence court. But when the dust settled three years later, he was also the only one of the four without a criminal conviction -- a feat all the more remarkable in that he did much of it without a lawyer.... Page had declared that the year-long surveillance of his communications was an abuse of government power, and he received a significant measure of vindication last Monday in a 434-page report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz. Horowitz concluded that the FBI made 17 significant errors or omissions in its applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to surveil Page. 'It doesn't vindicate anyone at the FBI who touched this, including the leadership,' Horowitz told Congress."

William Saletan of Slate runs down the remarkable passel of lies Bill Barr has told about the Russia investigation. It's quite a stunning list and a prime example of what David Smith of the Guardian calls "truth decay." The actual truth is that any defenses of Trump require the defenders to lie. And they're happy to do it.

David Rogers of Politico: "... Donald Trump's border wall is facing a surprising new legal hurdle down in Texas: an obscure legislative provision crafted by House Republicans in 2014 when the GOP was targeting then-President Barack Obama's budget powers. The amendment, carried forward into current law, has resurfaced with a vengeance in El Paso, Texas. U.S District Court Judge David Briones has been quoting back its words in a series of rulings against Trump's decision to take $3.6 billion from military construction projects to expedite his wall. As first adopted, the Republican language specifically prohibited Obama from taking any step to 'eliminate or reduce funding for any program, project, or activity as proposed in the President's budget request' until it's cleared with Congress. The triggering event was a relatively narrow dispute in 2013 over funding for space exploration. But when they were enacted in Jan. 2014, the restrictions applied government-wide. And a year later, under full Republican control, Congress added the word 'increase' alongside 'eliminate or reduce' funding. What goes around, in other words, comes around. But what's most remarkable is how much the legislative phrasing -- aimed squarely at Obama -- applies directly to the current fight involving Trump."

Donald Trump's ideal woman is vapid, accommodating & pretty. The Trumpettes oblige:

~~~ Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post rips supposed anti-bullying crusader Melania Trump for her response-excuse (actually, Stephanie Grisham's response-excuse) re: Donald Trump's bullying 16-year-old Greta Thunberg. ~~~

~~~ Otillia Steadman of BuzzFeed News: "At the Doha Forum in Qatar..., in a room packed with high level officials from around the world, [Ivanka] Trump answered admiring questions about her pet project advocating for women's economic development from a spokesperson for her own government, who is also working on the project.... The forum typically hosts tough interviews, and an array of senior leaders took hard questions before and after Trump spoke."

Courtney Kube & Carol Lee of NBC News: "The Trump administration intends to announce the drawdown of about 4,000 troops from Afghanistan as early next week, according to three current and former U.S. officials. The withdrawal will leave between 8,000 and 9,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the officials said. The announcement would come just days after Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad rejoined diplomatic talks with the Taliban, which had broken down in September.... The U.S. has between 12,000 and 13,000 troops in Afghanistan now. The officials would not say when the drawdown would begin, but did characterize it as a phased withdrawal that would occur over a few months." --s

Presidential Race 2020

Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed News: "Cory Booker has asked his fellow presidential candidates to sign a letter petitioning the Democratic National Committee to make its debate qualification rules less exclusionary. All seven participants in next week's debate, as well as Julián Castro, who also has not qualified, have signed the letter, a DNC official said on Saturday afternoon. Booker, the 50-year-old New Jersey senator who has struggled to move beyond low single digits in national and early-state polls, failed to qualify for the Democratic debate next week in Los Angeles.... Booker has upped his criticisms of the DNC's process over the last two weeks, particularly since Sen. Kamala Harris ended her campaign. The party, he said, is enforcing 'artificial rules' that would have hurt successful past candidates like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama while allowing billionaires like Tom Steyer to get onto the debate stage.... In a statement provided on Saturday, DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa defended the debate qualification criteria as 'extremely low.'" ~~~

~~~ Alex Thompson & Elena Schneider of Politico: "The Democratic National Committee is pushing back against a request from the party's presidential candidates to change debate requirements to allow Cory Booker and Julián Castro to appear on the January stage." The article includes a longer statement from the DNC & a complaint about Booker from a gutless unnamed "rival campaign operative."

Heather Murphy of the New York Times: "The Hallmark Channel pulled four TV ads featuring brides kissing each other on Thursday after a targeted campaign by a conservative group. Asked to explain why the ads had been rejected, an employee of Hallmark's parent company said the channel did not accept ads 'that are deemed controversial,' according to an email exchange shared with The New York Times. A spokesman for Hallmark said the women's 'public displays of affection' violated the channel's policies, but he declined to comment on why a nearly identical ad featuring a bride and groom kissing was not rejected.... Tensions over the ads coincided with a potential shift at the Hallmark Channel. This month Bill Abbott, Crown Media's chief executive, announced that he was 'open' to airing Christmas movies that feature L.G.B.T.Q. families, according to The Advocate." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Besides discriminating against gay couples, by eliminating those ads, the network is leaving viewers with the impression that the advertiser Zola, a wedding Website service, is strictly for straight couples. Like millions of Americans, I object to the "Cars for Kids" ad. I wonder if the networks will stop running the ad because we hate it. I hate the ads for something that is supposed to straighten bent penises; it features a bent banana. The "conservative" group is just a stupid bigotry-advocacy organization. The channel made a huge mistake in caving to them. Now I won't be watching their fabulous boy-meets-girl-at-Christmas movies (as if I would have done), just in case the movies might have scenes where the couples kiss.