The Commentariat -- January 1, 2019

Afternoon Update:

An Uplifting Annual Message from the President* of the United States:

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE, INCLUDING THE HATERS AND THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA! 2019 WILL BE A FANTASTIC YEAR FOR THOSE NOT SUFFERING FROM TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. JUST CALM DOWN AND ENJOY THE RIDE, GREAT THINGS ARE HAPPENING FOR OUR COUNTRY!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2019

Richard Pérez-Peña of the New York Times: "The American man who was arrested last week in Russia on a spying charge is a Marine Corps veteran who was in Moscow to attend a wedding, his family said on Tuesday. Russia's Federal Security Service, known as the F.S.B., said on Monday that the American, Paul N. Whelan, had been detained on Friday 'during an act of espionage,' and that a criminal case had been opened against him. Conviction on a spying charge in Russia carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years."

*****

Matt Stieb & Britina Cheng of New York run down their version of "Trump's Worst Greatest Hits of 2018." Mrs. McC BTW: New York magazine has now gone to subscriber firewall. The won't reveal the number of free hits they allow per month, but you might consider opening linked articles in a private window. So far, this works with NY mag.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie's New Year's Day Quiz: Which party has behaved responsibly about funding the U.S. federal government? (a) Democratic; (b) Republican; (c) Whig. Here are a couple of hints to help you answer: ...

(1) Sheryl Stolberg & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "House Democrats are putting forward a proposal to reopen the federal government by severing funding for the Department of Homeland Security and border security from other spending bills that enjoy bipartisan support -- a gambit aimed at forcing President Trump to negotiate or to shoulder the blame for a protracted shutdown. The Democrats' plan, which will come up for a vote on Thursday when they take control of the House, consists of two bills. The first includes six bipartisan spending measures that would fully fund agencies like the Interior Department and the Internal Revenue Service through the end of the fiscal year in September. The second would extend homeland security funding at current levels through Feb. 8, including $1.3 billion for fencing but no funding for Mr. Trump's border wall -- a provision that renders it dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate." ...

... (2) Elham Khatami of ThinkProgress: "In a series of tweets Monday morning..., Donald Trump demanded that Democratic leaders return to Washington, D.C. to reach a border security deal, just days after GOP leadership sent Congress home without finalizing the bipartisan bill to avert a partial government shutdown of the president's own making. 'I campaigned on Border Security,' Trump tweeted, 'which you cannot have without a strong and powerful Wall ... Dems should get back here an (sic) fix now!'... Prior to the shutdown, Trump boasted that he would be 'proud to shut down the government for border security,' telling Democratic leaders, 'I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down -- I'm not going to blame you for it.'... GOP leaders in the House and Senate, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), have been largely absent over the past week and, according to the Washington Post, Republicans haven't organized meetings to develop a strategy to defend the president.... Meanwhile, House Democrats on Monday plan to announce their plan to end the government shutdown...." ...

... Ellen Knickmeyer & Jocelyn Gecker of the AP: "Human feces, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other damaging behavior in fragile areas were beginning to overwhelm some of the West's iconic national parks, as a partial government shutdown left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty.... The partial federal government shutdown, now into its 11th day, has forced furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal government employees. This has left many parks without most of the rangers and others who staff campgrounds and otherwise keep parks running. Unlike shutdowns in some previous administrations, the Trump administration was leaving parks open to visitors despite the staff furloughs, said John Garder, senior budget director of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association.... Under the park service's shutdown plan, authorities have to close any area where garbage or other problems become threats to health and safety or to wildlife, spokesman Jeremy Barnum said in an email Monday." ...

... Caitlin Emma of Politico: "The nation's largest union representing federal employees filed a lawsuit Monday afternoon against the government, seeking damages for the roughly 400,000 federal employees forced to work without pay during the partial government shutdown. The two plaintiffs -- Justin Tarovisky and Grayson Sharp -- work for high-security prisons the Justice Department runs. The American Federation of Government Employees argues that both plaintiffs have dangerous jobs and have been forced to work overtime without pay.... J. David Cox, AFGE's national president, said forcing federal employees to work without pay 'is nothing short of inhumane.'"

You know, I never said that I'm going to rush out. -- Donald Trump, to Lindsey Graham, on his order two weeks ago for all U.S. troops to leave Syria within 30 days (according to Trump) ...

... Eric Schmitt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump has agreed to give the military about four months to withdraw the 2,000 United States troops in Syria, administration officials said on Monday, backtracking from his abrupt order two weeks ago that the military pull out within 30 days. Mr. Trump confirmed on Twitter that troops would 'slowly' be withdrawn, but complained that he got little credit for the move after a fresh round of criticism from retired Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and reports from the departing White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, himself a retired Marine general, about the president's impulsive decision-making.... General [Joseph] Dunford[, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...,] spoke to [Sen. Lindsey] Graham about the Syria troop withdrawal before the senator's meeting on Sunday with Mr. Trump. Several Pentagon officials had hoped Mr. Graham could change Mr. Trump's mind on the pullout or at least persuade him to extend the withdrawal timetable.... Military officials have declined to specify the timing of the departure..., partly because ... officials recognize that Mr. Trump could change his mind at any moment and speed up the departure." ...

... Dan Lamothe & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "The president's latest pronouncements about Syria followed more than a week of criticism from many fronts, including quiet pressure from close ally Israel and conservative pro-Israel voters who are part of Trump's base of support. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged Trump to reconsider his abrupt announcement of an end to the mission, a senior Israeli official told reporters Monday. Trump agreed to a gradual withdrawal rather than a sudden one after a phone call with Netanyahu, several Israeli news outlets quoted the unidentified official as saying. Netanyahu is traveling in Brazil, where he will meet Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday when both attend the inauguration of populist President-elect Jair Bolsonaro. Netanyahu is expected to continue to press his case that the U.S. presence is a needed check on Iranian military proxies operating in Syria."

Trump Pretends He's at Work. POTUS tweeted earlier that he's in the Oval Office. Per pool, as off 11 am [Monday] there was no Marine guard outside the West Wing lobby, which there is when POTUS is in the Oval. -- Maggie Haberman, in a tweet

Because He's Trump. Wil Cruz of ABC News: "... Donald Trump defended his promise to build a solid border wall along the U.S.-Mexico early Monday, one day after outgoing chief of staff John Kelly said in an interview that erecting a concrete wall along the entire border was already off the table. The president tweeted Monday morning that the concrete wall was 'NEVER ABANDONED.' 'Some areas will be all concrete but the experts at Border Patrol prefer a Wall that is see through (thereby making it possible to see what is happening on both sides). Makes sense to me!' he tweeted.... Trump blamed the media in the tweet, even though Sunday's news cycle reported on Kelly's comments. In an interview published in the Los Angeles Times Sunday [linked here yesterday], Kelly, who will be leaving post this week, gave a wide-ranging account of the some of the president's policies, including immigration and the border wall. 'To be honest, it's not a wall,' Kelly he told the paper.... '... We left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration,' he said, 'when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

President and Mrs. Obama built/has a ten foot Wall around their D.C. mansion/compound. I agree, totally necessary for their safety and security. The U.S. needs the same thing, slightly larger version! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Sunday ...

... Michael Brice-Saddler of the Washington Post: "In one of his most recent arguments for a southern border wall, President Trump on Sunday falsely claimed that the Washington home of former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama is surrounded by a 10-foot wall.... Trump's assertion came as a surprise to two of the Obamas' neighbors Monday, who told The Washington Post that there is no such wall. The 8,200-square-foot structure, despite several security features, is completely visible from the street.... As The Post's Fact Checker notes, the Obamas added security fencing to a retaining wall in front of the home (it is not a compound) for the needs of the Secret Service. A guard booth was built, and fencing was added to the back."

Happy New Year, Vlad! Hope You Liked Your Xmas Gifts! Heather Hurlburt of New York: "For the record, I still don't believe [Trump's] helter-skelter policies are being devised and run from Russia.... But the fact is, we're ending the year with an arms control treaty that Moscow disliked on its way out and thousands of American troops set to leave places Moscow didn't want them to be. Meanwhile, ever-more Russian troops are on the Ukrainian border and Moscow still holds Ukrainian sailors it snatched in the Strait of Kerch last month. Institutions that sustain U.S. values are weaker, while Putin's claim to being a regional and global decider via his undemocratic methods is stronger. We may never know the whole truth about Trump's relationship with Russia. But this all raises an interesting question: to paraphrase Ronald Reagan (who pursued nuclear disarmament even as he prosecuted the Cold War relentlessly), is Putin better off than he was two years ago?" (Also linked yesterday.)

Dan Lamothe & Anne Gearan (linked above): "Departing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis closed out a two-year run as Pentagon chief Monday, ushering in a period of intense uncertainty for the military with President Trump set to choose new leadership and issuing murky orders for U.S. troops abroad. 'Our Department is proven to be at its best when the times are most difficult. So keep the faith in our country and hold fast, alongside our allies, aligned against our foes,' Mattis said in a farewell missive to Pentagon personnel.... [In his] short memo [Mattis] cited an 1865 message from President Abraham Lincoln to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant: 'Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your military movements, or plans.'"

Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "A United States citizen has been detained in Moscow on espionage charges, Russia's domestic security agency announced in a brief statement on Monday. The statement said that an American identified as Paul Whelan had been taken into custody on Friday on suspicion of spying. The statement implied that he had been caught red-handed, saying that the arrest had occurred 'during an act of espionage.'... The arrest comes during an extended period of tension in relations between Moscow and Washington.... A Russian citizen, Maria Butina, 30, pleaded guilty this month in Federal District Court in Washington to a single charge of conspiring to act as a foreign agent.... The Russian government, while strenuously denying that Ms. Butina is a Russian agent, has organized a social media campaign to win her release. While there is no apparent connection between her case and Mr. Whelan's, in the past, Russian authorities have arrested foreigners with an eye toward trading prisoners with other countries." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trumpification of Stratcom. (But Nothing to Worry about, Folks!) Matt Stevens & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "The unified command responsible for the United States' nuclear strike capabilities drew attention on Monday when it tweeted a message and video that threatened the possibility of dropping a bomb. In the tweet, which was posted as Americans prepared to celebrate New Year's Eve and was deleted about three hours later, the United States Strategic Command said, '... #TimesSquare tradition rings in the #NewYear by dropping the big ball...if ever needed, we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger,' the tweet said, adding the hashtags: '#Deterrence #Assurance #CombatReadyForce #PeaceIsOurProfession.'... A video that was part of the tweet showed a B-2 stealth bomber soaring across the sky before releasing two GPS-guided bombs that exploded into a giant ball of fire after hitting the ground below. In the video, which was viewed more than 120,000 times, pulsing music beats in the background as the words 'STEALTH,' 'READY' and 'LETHAL' flash across the screen in white block letters.... Walter M. Shaub Jr., who resigned in 2017 from his position as the head of the Office of Government Ethics, tweeted a screenshot of the deleted Stratcom message, asking: 'What kind of maniacs are running this country?' Other critics called it 'a sick, bragging joke' and inappropriate and unamusing."

Katherine Stewart in a New York Times op-ed: "Today's Christian nationalists talk a good game about respecting the Constitution and America's founders, but at bottom they sound as if they prefer autocrats to democrats. In fact, what they really want is a king. 'It is God that raises up a king,' according to Paula White, a prosperity gospel preacher who has advised Mr. Trump.... The great thing about kings like Cyrus [the 6th-century BCE king of Persia who freed Jews from the Babylonian captivity], as far as today's Christian nationalists are concerned, is that they don't have to follow rules. They are the law. This makes them ideal leaders in paranoid times.... This isn't the religious right we thought we knew. The Christian nationalist movement today is authoritarian, paranoid and patriarchal at its core. They aren't fighting a culture war. They're making a direct attack on democracy itself." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Stewart notes that the OT Book of Isaiah says Cyrus was "anointed by God," & she describes a Christian right film that compares Cyrus to Trump. I would add here that "anointed by God" is another term for "messiah." So now we have Americans who believe Trump is the American messiah. I suspect that if Trump has any religious belief, this is it.

Presidential Election 2020

Astead Herndon & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat and a sharp critic of big banks and unregulated capitalism, entered the 2020 race for president on Monday, becoming the first major candidate in what is likely to be a long and crowded primary marked by ideological and generational divisions in a Democratic Party desperate to beat President Trump. In an 8:30 a.m. email to supporters on New Year's Eve -- 13 months before the first votes will be cast in the Iowa caucuses -- Ms. Warren said she was forming an exploratory committee, which allows her to raise money and fill key staff positions before a formal kickoff of her presidential bid." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Stable Genius Weighs in on Warren Run. Gregg Re of Fox "News": "In [a Fox 'News'] ... interview..., President Trump suggested that only U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's 'psychiatrist' knows whether she thinks she can win the White House in 2020."

Fred Imbert of CNBC: "Wall Street concluded a tumultuous 2018 on Monday as the major stock indexes posted their worst yearly performances since the financial crisis. After solid gains on Monday, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 6.2 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, for 2018. Both indexes logged in their biggest annual losses since 2008, when they plunged 38.5 percent and 33.8 percent, respectively. The Nasdaq Composite lost 3.9 percent in 2018, its worst year in a decade, when it dropped 40 percent. The S&P 500 and Dow fell for the first time in three years, while the Nasdaq snapped a six-year winning streak. 2018 was a year fraught with volatility, characterized by record highs and sharp reversals. This year also marks the first time ever the S&P 500 posts a decline after rising in the first three quarters.:

Matthew Dessem of Slate: "Comedian Louis C.K., who admitted to repeatedly exposing himself and masturbating in front of unwilling women in Nov. of 2017, said at the time he was going to 'step back and take a long time to listen.' Less than a year later, he returned to the stage at the Comedy Cellar to perform an unannounced set.... Bootleg audio from one of his shows -- it's labeled as being from Long Island comedy club Governor's on Dec. 16 -- has been uploaded to YouTube.... And what he's been up to, judging from the material, is bemoaning the money he lost, fuming over young people and political correctness, and writing some really killer jokes about the respective penis sizes of various ethnic groups. It's not just that it's not funny: it's positively sickening." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Last Day of 2018

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Sorry about the long publishing delay. My "publish" button had a hangover or something, and I was unaware it had taken the day off till a reader wrote wondering if I had a hangover. Of course not. I'm Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I'm too mean to get a hangover.

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: Eleven "journalists — ranging from familiar faces like Martha Raddatz of ABC to behind-the-scenes editors like Karen Toulon of Bloomberg News -- will share the Times Square limelight, part of an effort by organizers to recognize the erosion of press freedoms at home and abroad. The journalists will be tasked Monday with pressing the crystal button that initiates the minute-long descent of the New Year's Eve Ball, a prime moment on a night that attracts tens of millions of viewers. Among the scheduled attendees is Karen Attiah, who edited the Washington Post columns of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident and American resident who was murdered in Turkey this year by Saudi agents. [Lester] Holt of NBC, Alisyn Camerota of CNN, Vladimir Duthiers of CBS and Jon Scott, a weekend anchor on Fox News, are also expected to appear.... Tim Tompkins, the president of the Times Square Alliance, has sought in recent years to leverage the ball drop's worldwide audience to promote ivic causes."

*****

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Astead Herndon & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat and a sharp critic of big banks and unregulated capitalism, entered the 2020 race for president on Monday, becoming the first major candidate in what is likely to be a long and crowded primary marked by ideological and generational divisions in a Democratic Party desperate to beat President Trump. In an 8:30 a.m. email to supporters on New Year's Eve -- 13 months before the first votes will be cast in the Iowa caucuses -- Ms. Warren said she was forming an exploratory committee, which allows her to raise money and fill key staff positions before a formal kickoff of her presidential bid." ...

Trump Pretends He's at Work. POTUS tweeted earlier that he's in the Oval Office. Per pool, as off 11 am there was no Marine guard outside the West Wing lobby, which there is when POTUS is in the Oval. -- Maggie Haberman, in a tweet

Happy New Year, Vlad! Hope You Liked Your Xmas Gifts! Heather Hurlburt of New York: "For the record, I still don't believe [Trump's] helter-skelter policies are being devised and run from Russia.... But the fact is, we're ending the year with an arms control treaty that Moscow disliked on its way out and thousands of American troops set to leave places Moscow didn't want them to be. Meanwhile, ever-more Russian troops are on the Ukrainian border and Moscow still holds Ukrainian sailors it snatched in the Strait of Kerch last month. Institutions that sustain U.S. values are weaker, while Putin's claim to being a regional and global decider via his undemocratic methods is stronger. We may never know the whole truth about Trump's relationship with Russia. But this all raises an interesting question: to paraphrase Ronald Reagan (who pursued nuclear disarmament even as he prosecuted the Cold War relentlessly), is Putin better off than he was two years ago?"

Because He's Trump. Wil Cruz of ABC News: "... Donald Trump defended his promise to build a solid border wall along the U.S.-Mexico early Monday, one day after outgoing chief of staff John Kelly said in an interview that erecting a concrete wall along the entire border was already off the table. The president tweeted Monday morning that the concrete wall was 'NEVER ABANDONED.' 'Some areas will be all concrete but the experts at Border Patrol prefer a Wall that is see through (thereby making it possible to see what is happening on both sides). Makes sense to me!' he tweeted.... Trump blamed the media in the tweet, even though Sunday's news cycle reported on Kelly's comments. In an interview published in the Los Angeles Times Sunday [linked here yesterday], Kelly, who will be leaving post this week, gave a wide-ranging account of the some of the president's policies, including immigration and the border wall. 'To be honest, it's not a wall,' Kelly he told the paper.... '... We left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration,' he said, 'when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it.'"

Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "A United States citizen has been detained in Moscow on espionage charges, Russia's domestic security agency announced in a brief statement on Monday. The statement said that an American identified as Paul Whelan had been taken into custody on Friday on suspicion of spying. The statement implied that he had been caught red-handed, saying that the arrest had occurred 'during an act of espionage.'... The arrest comes during an extended period of tension in relations between Moscow and Washington.... A Russian citizen, Maria Butina, 30, pleaded guilty this month in Federal District Court in Washington to a single charge of conspiring to act as a foreign agent.... The Russian government, while strenuously denying that Ms. Butina is a Russian agent, has organized a social media campaign to win her release. While there is no apparent connection between her case and Mr. Whelan's, in the past, Russian authorities have arrested foreigners with an eye toward trading prisoners with other countries."

Matthew Dessem of Slate: "Comedian Louis C.K., who admitted to repeatedly exposing himself and masturbating in front of unwilling women in Nov. of 2017, said at the time he was going to 'step back and take a long time to listen.' Less than a year later, he returned to the stage at the Comedy Cellar to perform an unannounced set.... Bootleg audio from one of his shows -- it's labeled as being from Long Island comedy club Governor's on Dec. 16 -- has been uploaded to YouTube.... And what he's been up to, judging from the material, is bemoaning the money he lost, fuming over young people and political correctness, and writing some really killer jokes about the respective penis sizes of various ethnic groups. It's not just that it's not funny: it's positively sickening."

*****

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump's demand for billions of dollars to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border amounts to a 'ransom note' for taxpayers being held 'hostage' by the partial government shutdown, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Sunday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... What Is a Wall? Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It used to be a 30-foot-high concrete barricade (which would of course create a Mexican cottage industry producing 35-foot ladders). Trump is still calling it a wall sometimes but also a "slat fence" or "whatever." Once he even called it "great border security." Kellyanne Conway on CNN Sunday called it a four-letter word and "a silly semantic argument." John Kelly told the L.A. Times the wall "is not a wall." (Story linked below.) Obviously, they're all going for weasel definitions to give Trump a fake "win" in his battle for a wall. Then Sunday afternoon, Lindsey Graham completed the farce. He said the wall is a metaphor. Trump said last week he intended to visit the wall before his State of the Union address. Should be interesting. Visiting a metaphor. ...

... AND we must remember that we can't trust Trump, when it's time to get out his big fat Sharpie, not to change his mind about what the meaning of the word "wall" is. Zeke Miller of the AP: "In August 2015 during his presidential campaign, Trump made his expectations for the border explicitly clear, as he parried criticism from rival Jeb Bush.... 'Jeb Bush just talked about my border proposal to build a "fence,"' he tweeted. 'It's not a fence, Jeb, it's a WALL, and there's a BIG difference!' Trump suggested as much again in a tweet on Sunday: 'President and Mrs. Obama built/has a ten foot Wall around their D.C. mansion/compound. I agree, totally necessary for their safety and security. The U.S. needs the same thing, slightly larger version!'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's the new "perimeter barrier" the Obamas "has" around their D.C. house. Is it a wall or a fence? You decide. (I just learned in searching for this photo that Trumpbots were very upset about the Obamas' "hypocrisy" in securing their in light of the fact that Obama did not want to build a wall around the U.S.):

Jason Easley of Politics USA: "Kellyanne Conway criticized incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for being in Hawaii during the government shutdown, while Conway was in Florida apparently for Trump's New Year's Eve party.... It doesn't matter where Nancy Pelosi is spending her time, because Pelosi is not the Speaker of the House yet. It would be Paul Ryan's responsibility to bring the House back into session and end the government shutdown before January 3rd."

Molly O'Toole of the Los Angeles Times: "In [a] phone interview Friday, [outgoing White House chief-of-staff John] Kelly defended his rocky tenure, arguing that it is best measured by what the president did not do when Kelly was at his side. It was only after Kelly's departure was confirmed Dec. 8, for example, that Trump abruptly announced the pullout of all U.S. troops from Syria and half the 14,000 troops from Afghanistan, two moves that Kelly had opposed. Kelly's supporters say he stepped in to block or divert the president on dozens of matters large and small. They credit him, in part, for persuading Trump not to pull U.S. forces out of South Korea, or withdraw from NATO, as he had threatened.... Trump sometimes pressed his advisors on the limits of his authority under the law, often asking Kelly, '"Why can't we do it this way?"' But Trump never ordered him to do anything illegal, Kelly stressed, 'because we wouldn't have.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "A few months ago, a senior Trump administration official wrote a controversial anonymous op-ed in the New York Times that said forces within the administration were working to rein in President Trump's potentially damaging whims. And in a recent interview [with the LA Times], Trump's departing chief of staff basically confirms it.... Kelly defended those serving Trump as delivering him the right information, even if it might be disregarded.... This is ... a person who was involved in those decisions covering his backside and basically saying, 'We tried to tell him!' Kelly also distanced himself from the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border, blaming then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for a zero-tolerance border policy.... It's worth noting that Kelly himself floated just such a policy in a 2017 interview with CNN. He also defended it as chief of staff, while emphasizing he hoped it would only be temporary.... Kelly again suggested Trump's border wall demands were less-than-serious. 'To be honest, it's not a wall,' he said, noting the barriers were only part of the proposal. Previously, Kelly drew Trump's ire by telling congressional Democrats that Trump had 'evolved' on the wall and was not 'fully informed' when he made it a campaign issue.... The idea that Kelly regards his biggest success as standing in Trump's way is a pretty strong indictment of Trump as a person and of his presidency." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Roey Hadar of ABC News: "The former top commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, retired four-star Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, criticized ... Donald Trump's behavior and handling of the presidency, saying the commander-in-chief is dishonest and immoral.... 'If we want to be governed by someone we wouldn't do a business deal with because their -- their background is so shady, if we're willing to do that, then that's in conflict with who I think we are. And so I think it's necessary at those times to take a stand.'... McChrystal said he would not take a job in the Trump administration if he were asked." McChrystal said he disagreed with Trump's pullout of Syria & "the president's leaked guidance" on a major troop pullout in Afghanistan. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Feliciz Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) said Sunday that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell is 'doing a good job' and rejected the notion that President Trump could fire him..., in the strongest statement yet from a Republican against any moves by the president to oust the central bank chief. Trump most likely does not have the authority to remove Powell, experts say. Yet amid the markets' recent volatility, the president has repeatedly sought to blame Powell and asked advisers whether he has the power to fire him, two people familiar with the exchanges told The Washington Post. In an interview on CBS News's 'Face the Nation,' Shelby described the Federal Reserve as 'the bedrock of our financial system' and said it is 'set up to be independent.' 'I don't believe blaming the Federal Reserve for this or that ... helps matters,' Shelby said. 'The president cannot fire the chairman of the Federal Reserve, except for cause....' Shelby chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and previously led the Senate Banking Committee, which is responsible for holding confirmation hearings for Fed nominees." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kevin Liptak & Devan Cole of CNN: "Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says ... Donald Trump now understands what is at stake in Syria and has agreed to slowing, for now, his plans to immediately withdraw all US troops from Syria. 'After discussions with the President and (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph) Dunford, I never felt better about where we are headed. I think we're slowing things down in a smart way,' the South Carolina Republican said, adding later: 'I think we're in a pause situation where we are reevaluating what's the best way to achieve the President's objective of having people pay more and do more.' Graham said during the President's trip to Iraq, commanders on the ground informed Trump that ISIS is not 'completely destroyed,' which he said was an 'eye-opening' experience for the commander in chief.... Earlier in the day, Graham said that withdrawing US troops from Syria could directly result in the deaths of Kurdish people there." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Not sure why Trump's advisors like Generals Mattis & Dunford couldn't open Trump's eyes right here in the USA. As George Packer, in the piece linked below, notes, "Everyone, even the Trump mouthpieces on Fox News, knows that the Islamic State isn't 'defeated.'" But for some reason, Trump had talk to "commanders on the ground" in Iraq to have his "eyes opened." You'll never convince me the moon isn't made of green cheese unless NASA beams me up there. Anyway, does this mean that Lindsey is the new "adult in the room"? Heaven help us. ...

... George Packer of the Atlantic: "Nothing in the presidency of Donald Trump combines tragedy and farce so perfectly as his decision to withdraw the 2,000 American troops in Syria. 'We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,' he tweeted on the morning of December 19. The claim was false on its face. The Islamic State has lost most of its territory, but it retains thousands of fighters in the desert where the Euphrates River crosses from Syria to Iraq. Those fighters could be more dangerous as insurgents and terrorists than as the territorial army of a self-proclaimed caliphate.... The most that Americans have tried to achieve in Syria is to mitigate the worst to deter Bashar al-Assad from gassing his own people, to stabilize areas occupied by the Syrian Democratic Forces, to counteract Russian and Iranian influence, to keep the Islamic State on the run, to prevent Turkey from slaughtering the Kurds. Those goals suggested an American presence, however small, without end."

Vladimir Soldatkin of Reuters: "... Vladimir Putin told ... Donald Trump in a New Year letter on Sunday that Moscow was ready for dialogue on a 'wide-ranging agenda', the Kremlin said following a series of failed attempts to hold a new summit.... Moscow has said one of the key issues it wanted to discuss with the United States is Washington's plans to withdraw from a Cold War era nuclear arms pact." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

A Year of Lies. Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: A "fusillade of tweets [on January 2] was the start of a year of unprecedented deception during which Trump became increasingly unmoored from the truth. When 2018 began, the president had made 1,989 false and misleading claims, according to The Fact Checker's database, which tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president. By the end of the year, Trump had accumulated more than 7,600 untruths during his presidency -- averaging more than 15 erroneous claims a day during 2018, almost triple the rate from the year before.... [Presidential historian Michael] Beschloss noted that the U.S. Constitution set very few guidelines in this regard because the expectation was that the first president would be George Washington and he would set the tone for the office. 'What is it that schoolchildren are taught about George Washington? That he never told a lie,' the historian said. 'That is a bedrock expectation of a president by Americans.'"

Republican, Independent, Democrat. (Yes, this gif is from "Dumb & Dumber," but it's apt.)Dante Chinni & Sally Bronston of NBC News: "A range of surveys show more people believe [climate change] is happening and more people believe humans are responsible.... [A recent massive survey,] showed 70 percent of Americans believe 'global warming is happening' and 57 percent believe 'global warming is being caused mostly by human activities.' In a nation as divided as the United States is right now, those are remarkable numbers.... [But i]n the places where it counts, where laws and regulations are made, the feelings concerning what should be done about climate change are much more divided.... cross a range of races and ethnicities there is widespread agreement.... The one area where we still see a big disagreement is between the nation's two major political parties. Among Democrats, 71 percent say climate change is an urgent problem. That is a 42-point increase since 1999. For independent voters, 47 percent say they want action taken on climate change, a figure that is up 22 points since 1999. But ... only 15 percent [of Republicans] see a pressing need to deal with the issue. More noteworthy than the difference, however, is the stability of the Republican figure. That 15 percent mark is unchanged since the same question was asked in 1999."

Election 2018. We're So Surprised. Kendall Karson of ABC News: "Despite calls for refunds, new campaign filings show Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith kept $50,000 in donations from major companies like Walmart and Facebook in the wake of her controversial special election victory in November. The latest Federal Election Commission filing -- released amid the government shutdown at the end of last week -- showed that Republican Hyde-Smith did not issue refunds to most of the corporate donors who asked for their campaign contributions to be returned in November in the wake of her 'public hanging' comment."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Dakin Andone & Marlena Baldacci of CNN: "California's largest public utility provider could face murder or manslaughter charges if it were found responsible for causing the state's recent deadly wildfires, according to court documents filed by the state attorney general. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., or PG&E, could potentially face a range of criminal offenses if any of the wildfires broke out as a result of the utility failing to properly operate and maintain power lines, per an amicus brief filed in US District Court Friday by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.... The attorney general's office has not come to a conclusion about PG&E's responsibility for the recent fires and is not taking a position on the issue, the brief states. The brief was filed in response to a request by US District Court Judge William Alsup that officials explain what crimes PG&E might potentially have committed if it were ultimately found responsible for the wildfires.... In the blaze's aftermath, PG&E reported 'an outage' on a transmission line in the area where the blaze began, about 15 minutes before it started. The company also reported finding power equipment and a downed power pole riddled with bullet holes and a downed line with tree branches on it." ...

... Paige St. John, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "The fate of Paradise was cast long before a windstorm last month fueled the deadliest fire in California history.... A Los Angeles Times investigation found that Paradise ignored repeated warnings of the risk its residents faced, crafted no plan to evacuate the area all at once, entrusted public alerts to a system prone to fire, and did not sound citywide orders to flee even as a hail of fire rained down. Historical records show the Camp fire was typical of the catastrophic wind-driven fires responsible for California's greatest wildfire losses.... National transportation planners say the town's destruction should set a new bar for emergency planners in wildfire areas, the way Hurricane Katrina reshaped evacuation planning on the Gulf Coast. But despite vows to create statewide evacuation standards after previous deadly wildfires, California has yet to take action and evacuation planning remains a local responsibility."

Florida. You Absolutely 100 Percent Knew This Would Happen. Daniel Rivero of NPR: "Beginning Jan. 8, more than a million new people may be able to register to vote in Florida. They're convicted felons who have served their sentences and finished their parole or probation. In November, voters in the state overwhelmingly passed a ballot initiative for a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to felons in Florida, convicted murderers and sex offenders excluded. It was one of the few remaining states to automatically restrict felons' ability to vote. But the incoming governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, some state lawmakers and election officials say they need to weigh in on the amendment before any changes are made.... DeSantis, who ran against the amendment..., sent this statement: 'The Governor-elect intends for the will of the voters to be implemented but will look to the Legislature to clarify the various questions that have been raised.'... Local elections are taking place as early as Feb. 2019, in Florida and the legislature doesn't meet until March."

The Commentariat -- December 30, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Molly O'Toole of the Los Angeles Times: "In [a] phone interview Friday, [outgoing White House chief-of-staff John] Kelly defended his rocky tenure, arguing that it is best measured by what the president did not do when Kelly was at his side. It was only after Kelly's departure was confirmed Dec. 8, for example, that Trump abruptly announced the pullout of all U.S. troops from Syria and half the 14,000 troops from Afghanistan, two moves that Kelly had opposed. Kelly's supporters say he stepped in to block or divert the president on dozens of matters large and small. They credit him, in part, for persuading Trump not to pull U.S. forces out of South Korea, or withdraw from NATO, as he had threatened.... Trump sometimes pressed his advisors on the limits of his authority under the law, often asking Kelly, '"Why cant we do it this way?"' But Trump never ordered him to do anything illegal, Kelly stressed, 'because we wouldn't have.'" ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "A few months ago, a senior Trump administration official wrote a controversial anonymous op-ed in the New York Times that said forces within the administration were working to rein in President Trump's potentially damaging whims. And in a recent interview [with the LA Times], Trump's departing chief of staff basically confirms it.... Kelly defended those serving Trump as delivering him the right information, even if it might be disregarded.... This is ... a person who was involved in those decisions covering his backside and basically saying, 'We tried to tell him!' Kelly also distanced himself from the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border, blaming then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for a zero-tolerance border policy.... It's worth noting that Kelly himself floated just such a policy in a 2017 interview with CNN. He also defended it as chief of staff, while emphasizing he hoped it would only be temporary.... Kelly again suggested Trump's border wall demands were less-than-serious. 'To be honest, it's not a wall,' he said, noting the barriers were only part of the proposal. Previously, Kelly drew Trump's ire by telling congressional Democrats that Trump had 'evolved' on the wall and was not 'fully informed' when he made it a campaign issue.... The idea that Kelly regards his biggest success as standing in Trump's way is a pretty strong indictment of Trump as a person and of his presidency."

Roey Hadar of ABC News: "The former top commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, retired four-star Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, criticized ... Donald Trump's behavior and handling of the presidency, saying the commander-in-chief is dishonest and immoral.... 'If we want to be governed by someone we wouldn't do a business deal with because their -- their background is so shady, if we're willing to do that, then that's in conflict with who I think we are. And so I think it's necessary at those times to take a stand.'... McChrystal said he would not take a job in the Trump administration if he were asked." McChrystal said he disagreed with Trump's pullout of Syria & "the president's leaked guidance" on a major troop pullout in Afghanistan.

Feliciz Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) said Sunday that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell is 'doing a good job' and rejected the notion that President Trump could fire him..., in the strongest statement yet from a Republican against any moves by the president to oust the central bank chief. Trump most likely does not have the authority to remove Powell, experts say. Yet amid the markets' recent volatility, the president has repeatedly sought to blame Powell and asked advisers whether he has the power to fire him, two people familiar with the exchanges told The Washington Post. In an interview on CBS News's 'Face the Nation,' Shelby described the Federal Reserve as 'the bedrock of our financial system' and said it is 'set up to be independent.' 'I don't believe blaming the Federal Reserve for this or that -- whoever the president or a congressman or senator is -- helps matters,' Shelby said. 'The president cannot fire the chairman of the Federal Reserve, except for cause....' Shelby chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and previously led the Senate Banking Committee, which is responsible for holding confirmation hearings for Fed nominees."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump's demand for billions of dollars to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border amounts to a 'ransom note' for taxpayers being held 'hostage' by the partial government shutdown, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Sunday."

Vladimir Soldatkin of Reuters: "... Vladimir Putin told ... Donald Trump in a New Year letter on Sunday that Moscow was ready for dialogue on a 'wide-ranging agenda', the Kremlin said following a series of failed attempts to hold a new summit.... Moscow has said one of the key issues it wanted to discuss with the United States is Washington's plans to withdraw from a Cold War era nuclear arms pact."

*****

Zeke Miller of the AP: "Trump tweeted Saturday that he was 'in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security.' But there has been little direct contact between the sides during the stalemate, and Trump did not ask Republicans, who hold a monopoly on power in Washington for another five days, to keep Congress in session.... Talks have been at a stalemate for more than a week, after Democrats said the White House offered to accept $2.5 billion for border security last Saturday. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schume rtold Vice President Mike Pence that it wasn't acceptable, nor was it guaranteed that Trump, under intense pressure from his conservative base to fulfill his signature campaign promise, would settle for that amount.... The White House has not directly engaged in weeks with the House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who has all but locked up the support she needs to win the speaker's gavel after the new Congress convenes on Thursday." ...

... Home Alone. Anna Palmer, et al., of Politico: "The President has the unique ability to mold the newscycle to his liking -- especially with Congress out of town. Yet he hardly did anything publicly. Further ... why didn't Trump instruct GOP leadership to keep Congress in town until they got a deal? ... If he believes his position is the right one, why not try to highlight that?... The White House has been putting out the message that Chuck Schumer wants a deal, but Nancy Pelosi -- fearful she'll lose the speakership -- is holding Democrats back. Schumer and Pelosi have worked judiciously to make sure there is zero daylight between them. Plus, she takes the majority in five days, at which point the game shifts in her direction.... If the White House is so concerned about Pelosi, why has ... Donald Trump not spoken with Pelosi since Dec. 11? That's 18 days without contact between the president and the incoming speaker during a federal government shutdown. The White House has not reached out to Pelosi's staff to try to schedule a get together. There has been no outreach to Pelosi at all from VP MIKE PENCE or Interim Chief of Staff MICK MULVANEY." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The fake author of The Art of the Deal thinks "negotiation" is sitting home pouting, whining & wailing, lashing out at & making ridiculous claims against opponents -- while waiting for public opinion to turn against him. It's a strategy, I guess. Of course, I'm not a dealmaker like Trump, so what do I know?

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump blamed Democrats on Saturday for the deaths of two migrant children brought into the country by their parents, his first public remarks about the episodes since they died in detention at the southwest border this month. The comments came in twin posts on Twitter, where the president spent much of the day denouncing Democrats as the partial government shutdown approached its eighth day over his demand for funding for a border wall. 'Any deaths of children or others at the border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally,' he wrote in one message. 'They can't. If we had a wall, they wouldn't even try!'... The president dug in further on Saturday, claiming: 'For those that naïvely ask why didn't the Republicans get approval to build the wall over the last year, it is because IN THE SENATE WE NEED 10 DEMOCRAT VOTES, and they will gives us "NONE" for Border Security! Now we have to do it the hard way, with a shutdown. Too bad!' Democrats have repeatedly indicated that they would support substantial funding increases for security at the southern border with Mexico. Many voted to do so in 2013 as part of a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration overhaul. But they view a wall like the one Mr. Trump advocates as an ineffective and costly response to an immigration system in disrepair." ...

... Rebecca Leber of Mother Jones: "On Saturday..., Donald Trump offered his first response to the deaths [of two young migrant children], but rather than offering condolences he lashed out and blamed Democrats for not funding his wall, while trying to absolve his administration of any responsibility by calling the children 'very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol.'... Adam Isacson, a[n] expert on Mexico..., recently explained to Mother Jones how Trump's immigration policies risk more migrant deaths. He pointed to Trump's policy to require migrants to wait in Mexico while their applications for asylum in the US are pending. It has nothing to do with the wall[.]" ...

... Nomaan Merchant, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump sought to deflect blame for the deaths of two Guatemalan children in U.S. custody by claiming they were 'very sick' when they arrived, even though immigration authorities have said both children passed initial health checks." ...

... Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "With President Trump, there is no bottom. Every time you think you have seen it, he manages to sink even lower. It is not news that the president is indifferent to human suffering. His limp response to the devastation of the 2017 hurricane in Puerto Rico -- which he claimed to have been a 'fantastic job' on the part of his administration -- stands out in that regard. But on Saturday, we saw yet another level of depravity when Trump made his first comments regarding the deaths in recent days of two migrant Guatemalan children after they were apprehended by federal authorities. It revealed not only callousness but also opportunism, as he sought to turn this tragedy into a partisan advantage in his current standoff with Democrats over the government shutdown." ...

... Pamela Larson of the Arizona Republic: "Children in Border Patrol holding facilities 'would vomit on their clothing' and had no soap to clean up. One child 'had diarrhea, had dry lips, he had a fever,' but border agents declined to seek medical care and closed the cell door. Children were told they could drink water from a sink, but 'are not given any cups' nor soap to wash their hands. Those allegations and many others, from families apprehended by Border Patrol agents, were included in a raft of legal filings in August 2018. Four months later, two Guatemalan children being held by the Border Patrol in New Mexico got sick, began vomiting and soon died. The deaths of Jakelin Caal, 7, and Felipe Gómez Alonzo, 8, prompted widespread outcry and, this week, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced 'a series of extraordinary protective measures,' adding health screenings and more medical professionals for migrant children. But concerns about migrant children becoming sick -- and the lack of medical care for them in ill-equipped Border Patrol stations -- were far from new.... Federal officials did not comment on the filings directly, but in an interview with The Arizona Republic, defended their handling of migrants and said border agents were not expected to be medical professionals." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, because it takes a medical professional to know that children need clean, safe housing, clean clothing, bathing facilities, healthy nourishment & liquids, & access to medical care when they show signs of illness like fevers, chills, vomiting & diarrhea. One thing that has surprised me throughout this horrifying detention period is that Trump has never tweeted something like, "THESE PEOPLE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD back in their shithole countries." Turns out that's because back in their shithole countries, things weren't much worse.

This is just pouring salt into the wound. It is shocking that federal employees are taking yet another financial hit. As if missed paychecks and working without pay were not enough, now they have been told that they don't even deserve a modest pay increase. -- Tony Reardon, National Treasury Employees Union President. ...

... This Is the Definition of "Adding Insult to Injury." Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "President Trump issued an executive order on Friday freezing pay for federal civilian workers in 2019, even as about 800,000 of them were either furloughed or working without pay because of a partial government shutdown. The executive order follows a proposed pay freeze that the president outlined in the budget he sent to Congress last February, and in a letter he sent to Congress in August stating that he would cancel pay increases. Some union officials representing federal government workers said they expected Congress to pass a nearly 2 percent increase, which the Senate has already done in a bipartisan vote, and the incoming Democratic House appears likely to do. Federal workers may still receive a raise in 2019 if Congress approves it and the president signs it, perhaps as part of legislation to reopen the federal government. But that scenario would require resolving a fight between Democrats in Congress and the president over funding for a border wall, the issue at the heart of the shutdown." ...

... Michael Brice-Saddler of the Washington Post: "The agency that oversees the government's civilian workforce [Office of Personnel Management] is facing scrutiny after suggesting federal employees affected by the partial government shutdown barter with their landlords if they can't make rent payments, advice that it later said was posted 'inadvertently.'... In a Saturday statement, an OPM spokesman said the ... language was from the 2013 government shutdown. The office 'regrets any unintended concern caused by legacy documentation,' the spokesman wrote." Mrs. McC: In other words, it's all Obama's fault.

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

He owed us a lot of money. And he was offering ways to pay it back. -- Victor Boyarkin, speaking of Paul Manafort ...

... Simon Shuster of Time: A former Russian intelligence officer, Victor Boyarkin, whose name was at the top of the list of those the U.S. Treasury recently sanctioned, had pressured Paul Manafort, to repay his supposed large debts to Oleg Deripaska, for whom Boyakin worked. Manafort had worked for Deripaska to help Montenegro gain its independence from Serbia. But the government of Montenegro had a falling-out with Deripaska: "After years of disputes over unpaid debts, the Russian billionaire sued Montenegro in 2014 for seizing the aluminum plant he controlled. The country then sped up its plans to join the NATO military alliance and integrate with the West." The Russians of course opposed Montenegro's move to NATO, & in 2016, after losing his gig on the Trump campaign, Manafort reportedly went to work for the anti-NATO/pro-Russia faction, although "It remains unclear whether Manafort actually provided any services in Montenegro in 2016." "This summer, President Trump took issue with [NATO's protection of Montenegro]. 'Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people,' he said, after being asked by Fox News in July if the U.S. should come to Montenegro's defense. 'They are very aggressive people, they may get aggressive, and congratulations, you're in World War III.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So once again, Trump just accidentally happens to take Putin's side against our NATO allies. Funny that. ...

     ... Josh Marshall: "This is another article that helps see the bigger picture beyond individual emails and meetings and who exactly denies or admits to some meeting. Manafort worked for the same Russian oligarch (with or through, depending on your perspective) in Ukraine, Montenegro and various other countries. His appearance in US politics, running the campaign of the future President, fits the model from those other countries pretty much exactly."

Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "New Jersey prosecutors have collected evidence that supervisors at President Trump's Garden State golf club may have committed federal immigration crimes -- and the FBI as well as special counsel Robert Mueller have played part in the inquiry.... Anibal Romero, a Newark attorney who represents several undocumented immigrants who used to work at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, said Friday he recently met with investigators from the state attorney general's office and handed over fraudulent green cards and Social Security numbers that management at the club allegedly procured and gave his clients, Victorina Morales and Sandra Diaz.... Morales, a Guatemalan national who is still employed at the club but has stopped going to work, and Diaz, a Costa Rican national who used to work there and has since obtained legal status, are among at least five undocumented housekeepers at the club who allege they were set up with fraudulent documents and subjected to abuse and racial harassment. Morales and Diaz first came forward with their allegations in interviews with The New York Times earlier this month." ...

... digby: Trump "employs undocumented workers and foreign workers on visas at all of his properties. I suspect if anyone ever really grilled him on that he'd says it's because he's a very stable genius who hires the cheapest labor he can --- and that his followers would all nod their heads and agree that makes good sense. And then they'd all chant 'build that wall' and cheer the horror of little children being held in cages as a good 'deterrent.'"...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Mueller ever writes a report, I think it will begin something like this: "Donald J. Trump, currently President of the United States, has been running a multi-facted criminal enterprise since at least [fill in the year]."

Jonathan Alter & Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast: "On Dec. 27, McClatchy DC -- a reputable news outlet that broke the most important stories about the Iraq War -- reported that cell phone tower records obtained by foreign intelligence sources place Michael Cohen (or at least his phone) in Prague in the late summer of 2016.... But ... unlike many other scoops about the Mueller probe, no other outlet has been able to confirm McClatchy's reporting.... The stakes are immense.... On the other hand, if the McClatchy story is false, it significantly lessens the odds that Mueller can prove a conspiracy case -- the only case that is likely to lead to impeaching the president and removing him from office.... Multiple prominent national security reporters told The Daily Beast they were unconvinced by the story...."

Grace Panetta of Business Insider: "As of now..., Donald Trump faces over a dozen ongoing investigations into his 2016 campaign, his conduct as president, and other criminal and civil offenses relating to his alleged campaign finance violations, business practices, and his charity.The investigation Trump publicly disparages most often as a 'rigged witch hunt' and a 'disgrace' is special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign collaborated with Russia to tilt the race in Trump's favor. But the one that poses the most immediate danger to Trump himself is the campaign finance probe in the Southern District of New York. In that case, federal prosecutors secured a guilty plea from his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen for paying for the silence of women who alleged affairs with Trump, a crime to which prosecutors listed Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator. Here are all the areas currently subjected to ongoing government investigations and state-led lawsuits involving Trump[.]"

Alone Are We. Katie Lobosco of CNN: "A major 11-country agreement goes into effect Sunday, reshaping trade rules among economic powerhouses like Japan, Canada, Mexico and Australia -- but the United States won't be a part of it.... It's the opposite of what the Obama administration planned when it began negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, known as TPP. The proposed deal, which never passed Congress, formed the backbone of the US strategy to counter Chinese economic influence, but it was one of the first things ... Donald Trump moved to undo when he took office, pulling the United States out of the deal in January of 2017. Instead, he's pursued a series of direct bilateral agreements, launching a trade war with escalating tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods to force Beijing to the negotiating table. The strategy has led to a new round of talks between Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping -- but leaves US producers out of broader regional arrangements with other Pacific Rim nations, for now.... The stakes will be even higher now that the Trans-Pacific deal is going into effect -- especially for American farmers who were eager to take advantage of more open markets abroad."

** Susan Glasser of the New Yorker on how Trump has alienated our allies, particularly Germany, and how they are dealing with it. Sounds a bit boring, but it isn't. The description of Trump at the G-7 in Canada is itself worth the price of admission. The November 2016 meeting between President Obama & Chancellor Merkel, as Glasser describes it, was remarkable.

Mary Jo Pitzi of the Arizona Republic: "Videos from a Southwest Key shelter for migrant children show staffers dragging and pushing children, incidents that occurred shortly before the federal government suspended the shelter's operations early this fall. The Arizona Republic obtained the videos from the Arizona Department of Health Services under state public-records law. Southwest Key had reported the mid-September incidents, which involved three children and numerous staffers at the Youngtown shelter, to state authorities, as well as local law-enforcement and federal officials, but declined to publicly provide details at the time. Southwest Key ultimately closed the shelter, called Hacienda Del Sol, in late October. That came in the wake of negotiations with state health authorities over potential revocation of all 13 licenses that Southwest Key holds in Arizona, because of the company's lapses in background checks for staff." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: What digby said, linked above. Also too, what Trump said: child abuse is the Democrats' fault. At least the feds & the state shut down this (and another Southwest Key) facility.

There were no Trump fans on the set. I don't know a single person who worked on the show who voted for Trump. -- Jonathan Braun, an editor on "The Apprentice" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Since I linked but didn't read the New Yorker's profile of Mark Burnett, the producer of "The Apprentice," I missed these tidbits, which Daniel Politi of Slate highlights: "Although Trump immediately proved himself to be an ideal character for reality television, producers had to do a lot of editing work to make him seem coherent. 'He wouldn't read a script -- he stumbled over the words and got the enunciation all wrong,' Katherine Walker, a producer on the show, said. Producers didn't just edit Trump so that his words made sense; they also made sure to make it seem as though Trump's decisions were coherent with what happened in the challenges every week. Trump often was unprepared for the 'board room' sessions and fired people 'on a whim.' That sometimes meant he got rid of people who had done a good job in the challenge, so editors would go back and 'reverse engineer' the episode. Show veterans see lots of parallels with what Trump is doing as president now. 'I find it strangely validating to hear that they're doing the same thing in the White House,' Jonathon Braun, an editor, said."

Tony Barboza, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "A cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery disruptions at several newspapers across the country on Saturday including the Los Angeles Times.... The attack led to distribution delays in the Saturday edition of The Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and several other major newspapers that operate on a shared production platform. It also stymied distribution of the West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, which are all printed at the Los Angeles Times' Olympic printing plant in downtown Los Angeles.... All papers within The Times' former parent company, Tribune Publishing, experienced glitches with the production of papers."

Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah, a Saudi Arabian national living in the United States, allegedly killed a 15-year-old girl, Fallon Smart, in a hit-and-run in which he was driving 71 mph on a 25-mph street in Portland, Oregon. Noorah returned to the scene, possibly because the license plate had fallen off his vehicle when he hit Smart, and he showed no remorse, according to police officers. He was charged with first-degree manslaughter. The Saudi government paid $100K for his bail, which was set at $1MM. However, the Saudis gave the money to Noorah, so he theoretically paid the bail & would be responsible for the $900K if he fled. The court confiscated his passport & required him to wear a GPS ankle bracelet. On a court-approved outing, Noorah removed the bracelet & fled to Saudi Arabia. Shawn Overstreet, the prosecutor, believes -- though he has no direct evidence -- that the Saudi government must have helped Noorah flee. "The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Saudis really seem to think it's okay to kill Americans & American residents.

Beyond the Beltway

Living While Black. Daniel Politi of Slate: "The DoubleTree hotel in Portland, Oregon that found itself engulfed in controversy this past week fired the two employees who were responsible for calling police on a black guest while he was talking on the phone in the lobby. The Hilton-owned hotel posted a statement on Twitter saying that the 'mistreatment' of Jermaine Massey was 'inconsistent with our standards & values.... Massey's story went viral after he posted a series of videos on Instagram showing how a security guard and a manager at the hotel were responsible for kicking him out even though he was a guest there. The guard -- who came to be known as 'Hotel Earl' on social media -- apparently asked Massey whether he was a guest in the middle of his phone call and then decided to call police when he was not satisfied with the answer. When police arrived they told Massey he had to leave, meaning he was forced to find a new place to spend the night at around midnight."

News Ledes

New York Times: "When she died on Wednesday in Germantown, Md., at 93, Dr. [Nancy] Roman was remembered as 'the mother of the Hubble.' As NASA's first chief of astronomy and the first woman in a leadership position at the space agency, Dr. Roman oversaw the early planning for the Hubble Space Telescope, which began orbiting Earth above its atmosphere in April 1990 to capture an unobstructed view of the universe.... She was a trailblazer for women at a time when science was considered a man's world, and she became a longtime advocate for women in science."

Guardian: "Georges Loinger used all his skill and cunning -- and a large dash of chutzpah -- to rescue Jewish children from deportation and near-certain death during the second world war. The French Resistance hero, who has died at the age of 108, would set up ball games for children along the Swiss border in France. Having trained the children to run like the wind, he would throw the ball over the border and tell them to chase after it and then keep running."