The Commentariat -- August 3, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Trade Wars Are Easy to Win, Ctd. Keith Bradsher & Cao Li of the New York Times: "China threatened on Friday to tax an additional $60 billion a year worth of imports from the United States if the Trump administration imposes its own new levies on Chinese goods. The threat comes just two days after President Trump ordered his administration to consider increasing the rate of tariffs it has already proposed on $200 billion a year of Chinese goods -- everything from chemicals to handbags -- to 25 percent from 10 percent."

Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone: "The National Rifle Association warns that it is in grave financial jeopardy, according to a recent court filing obtained by Rolling Stone, and that it could soon 'be unable to exist... or pursue its advocacy mission.'... The gun group has been suing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state's financial regulators since May, claiming the NRA has been subject to a state-led 'blacklisting campaign' that has inflicted 'tens of millions of dollars in damages.' In the new document -- an amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court in late July -- the NRA says it cannot access financial services essential to its operations and is facing 'irrecoverable loss and irreparable harm.' Specifically, the NRA warns that it has lost insurance coverage -- endangering day-to-day operations.... Without general liability coverage, it adds, the 'NRA cannot maintain its physical premises, convene off-site meetings and events, operate educational programs ... or hold rallies, conventions and assemblies.' The complaint says the NRA's video streaming service and magazines may soon shut down." Mrs. McC: Boo-fucking-hoo.

Justin Jouvenal, et al., of the Washington Post are liveblogging the Manafort trial.

David Brunnstrum of Reuters: "Less than two months after a landmark U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew back to the city state on Friday and said North Korea's continued work on weapons programs was inconsistent with its leader's commitment to denuclearize."

Alice Driver, in a CNN opinion piece: "According to Ivanka Trump in a recent interview with Axios, the issue of family separation 'was a low point' during her tenure as assistant to and daughter of the President. She discussed family separation in the past tense, as if it was over, further reinforcing her father's message that he has ended family separation. That implication does not reflect reality, because family separation continues.... Ivanka Trump waited a full month after her father declared an end to immigrant family separation to voice her disagreement with the policy and has not taken any action aside from tweeting to thank her father for ending family separation at the border.... If Ivanka Trump did care about migrant children separated from their parents, she could do more than call it a 'low point.'...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Loved the way she called it "a low point for me," as if the important thing were how Ivanka felt, not the devastation to thounds of children & their loved ones. Now we're all supposed to have a sad for Ivanka & forget about the kids because This Immigration Thing is so over except in Ivanka's wounded memory.

Meet Your Republican Party. Kate Riga of TPM: "Todd Kincannon, former executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party, has reportedly killed his dog due to his belief that he is Jesus Christ and needed to perform a sacrifice." Mrs. McC: The bulk of the story is a police report. I sure hope Jeff Sessions gets down there & defends Kincannon's religious freeeedom against those repressive local cops. I mean, you just can't get more Christian than Jesus Christ.

*****

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Trump administration officials on Thursday vowed to defend the United States' elections against threats from Russia and other countries, describing influence campaigns by America's adversaries in blunt terms rarely used by President Trump. The heads of the nation's national security agencies said Russia was still trying to influence and disrupt the midterm elections, and they pledged to help local and state governments counter those efforts in the weeks ahead. 'Russia attempted to interfere with the last election,' Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, said, adding that Russian operatives were continuing to operate against the election system in 'malign' ways. He said the United States government must face the threat with 'fierce determination and focus.' Mr. Wray and other top national security officials, who spoke at a White House news briefing, did not describe specific threats to the coming elections, and they were vague in saying how the government was responding to what they called Russia's interference campaign." ...

... Manu Raju of CNN: "Two leading senators are asserting that ... Donald Trump has not focused on the clear threat the Kremlin poses in the 2018 elections, with one Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee contending that Russian hackers may have already targeted most -- if not all -- sitting US senators. Ratcheting up the push for a more robust US response to Russian interference in the midterms and 2020 elections, Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are now slated to get a committee vote this month on a bipartisan bill is aimed at shoring up the nation's election system. But the two senators said their plan has run into hurdles for months -- and say the Russian threat is real headed into the midterms." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Karen Yourish & Troy Griggs of the New York Times: "On Thursday, the heads of the national security agencies said that Russia was still trying to influence and disrupt the midterm elections in the United States. Their pointed statements contradicted President Trump, who has continued to cast doubt on the role Russia played in the 2016 presidential election." The reporters contrast the remarks of agency heads & senators with those of the 400-pound man sitting on a bed in the White House.

Nick Hopkins of the Guardian: "US counter-intelligence investigators discovered a suspected Russian spy had been working undetected in the heart of the American embassy in Moscow for more than a decade, the Guardian has learned. The Russian national had been hired by the US Secret Service and is understood to have had access to the agency's intranet and email systems, which gave her a potential window into highly confidential material including the schedules of the president and vice-president. The woman had been working for the Secret Service for years before she came under suspicion in 2016 during a routine security sweep conducted by two investigators from the US Department of State's Regional Security Office (RSO). They established she was having regular and unauthorised meetings with members of the FSB, Russia's principal security agency. The Guardian has been told the RSO sounded the alarm in January 2017, but the Secret Service did not launch a full-scale inquiry of its own. Instead it decided to let her go quietly months later, possibly to contain any potential embarrassment."

Kara Swisher of the New York Times: Social media "companies began with a gauzy credo to change the world. But they have done that in ways they did not imagine -- by weaponizing pretty much everything that could be weaponized.... Which is why malevolent actors continue to game the platforms and why there's still no real solution in sight anytime soon, because they were built to work exactly this way.... At least [Mark] Zuckerberg has traveled a long way in admitting the problem and has said more than any other digital C.E.O. that he regrets that he had not taken action sooner.... Mr. Zuckerberg is now trying to fend off talk in Washington of regulating his company like the thing he once told me it was: a utility. He has also spent the last month meeting over dinners with a range of academic experts on free speech, propaganda and more to try to understand where to go from here. Call it the education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley, but on the world's dime. How much that has -- and will -- cost is probably immeasurable."

Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Paul Manafort's bookkeeper testified Thursday that she was unaware of more than a dozen offshore accounts the former Trump campaign chairman allegedly controlled in Cyprus. Testifying on the third day of special counsel Robert Mueller's trial against the longtime GOP operative, who is facing bank- and tax-fraud charges, Heather Washkuhn of the Southern California-based accounting firm NKSFB said she handled Manafort’s books from 2011 to 2018.... As his work as a political consultant with the Ukraine dried up, Manafort's international lobbying company was going into the red. Washkuhn testified that the firm lost $630,000 in 2015 and $1.1. million in 2016, the same year Manafort linked up with Donald Trump's presidential campaign.... Prompted by Mueller prosecutors who walked her through dozens of financial documents and email chains, Washkuhn acknowledged that Manafort gave banks several documents without her knowledge, including financial information that did not reflect her understanding of his monetary standing.... A lawyer for Manafort sought to get Washkuhn to concede that Gates sometimes unilaterally instructed her to make transactions related to the finances of Manafort or his political consulting firm, but the bookkeeper ... insisted she never acted without Manafort's direct authorization." ...

... Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Paul Manafort's longtime bookkeeper testified against him Thursday, telling a Virginia jury that his seven-figure lifestyle lasted until about 2015 when the cash ran out, the bills piled up and he and his business partner began trying to fudge numbers to secure loans. The dry but potentially damaging testimony from the bookkeeper, Heather Washkuhn, appeared to undercut Manafort's defense against bank and tax charges, which is that his business partner is responsible for any financial misdeeds. But Washkuhn testified that Manafort approved 'every penny.' Washkuhn spent hours on the witness stand, describing account balances, bills received and payments.... Washkuhn said Manafort's consulting firm, Davis Manafort Partners, took in millions of dollars a year before its revenue cratered in 2015. The firm reported only $388,542 in income in 2015 and a $1.2 million loss in 2016.... As his business was gasping, Manafort was tapped to run Trump's campaign in mid-2016. He received no pay for the job, even though his firm was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, according to election filings and evidence presented to the jury." ...

... Rachel Weiner, et al., liveblogged Thursday's testimony in the Paul Manafort case.

Jeet Heer: "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that [Michael Cohen] ... was set to make as much as $10 million dollars from Trump donor Franklin L. Haney, contingent upon Cohen's helped ensure that a nuclear power plant Haney was promoting in Alabama got built. Cohen would also receive a monthly fee for his lobbying efforts. The deal was made shortly before federal agents raided Cohen's residences and workplaces in April. It is no longer operative.... [From the WSJ:] 'James Thurber, a professor of government at American University, said success fees are 'outside the ethical norms' among Washington lobbyists.... Century-old court rulings deemed fees contingent on lobbyists obtaining public funds or killing legislation unenforceable and counter to public policy, saying they encouraged corruption, he said. Several lobbyists contacted by the Journal said $10 million was an unheard-of sum to pay a consultant for government-related work.'"

Anna Schecter, et al., of NBC News: "Special counsel Robert Mueller has requested an interview with Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, who helped set up the now infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting, according to Agalarov's lawyer."

Ann E. Marimow & Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Washington Post: "A former aide to ... Roger Stone must testify before the special counsel's grand jury, a federal judge in Washington ruled Thursday. The judge rejected a challenge from Andrew Miller, a former assistant to Stone who tried to block subpoenas from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The redacted opinion from U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell affirming the legal legitimacy of the special counsel's appointment does not identify Miller by name, but his attorney confirmed that the ruling is in response to Miller's request. Howell's ruling orders Miller to 'appear before the grand jury to provide testimony at the earliest date available' and to provide subpoenaed records.... Miller's attorneys had argued that Mueller 'wields too much power with too little accountability' and was unlawfully appointed, according to Howell's summary of Miller's filing."

Hazel Jones of the Daily Mail: "In an exclusive excerpt [of a new book] obtained by DailyMail.com, Omarosa [Manigault-Newman] ... tells of the dread she felt while watching Trump's interview with Lester Holt last May. 'While watching the interview I realized that something real and serious was going on in Donald's brain. His mental decline could not be denied,' she writes in Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House. 'Many didn't notice it as keenly as I did because I knew him way back when. They thought Trump was being Trump, off the cuff. But I knew something wasn't right.... Donald rambled. He spoke gibberish. He contradicted himself from one sentence to the next. Hope [Hicks, then communications director] had gone over the briefing with him a dozen times hitting the key point that he had fired Comey based on the recommendation by the DOJ which the vice president and other surrogates had been reinforcing for days.' But when questioned by Holt, the president contradicted previous reports about how the senior law-enforcement officer was dispatched from his office." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, yeah, I know this belongs in Infotainment (or nowhere at all), but it is definitely about "This Russia Thing." ...

... Then Again. "... In His Own Bubble, Thinking He Controls Stuff." Alberto Nardelli of BuzzFeed News: "Shortly after leaving the G7 Summit in Canada in June..., Donald Trump tweeted to say he had instructed US officials not to endorse a statement he had agreed to just hours earlier with other world leaders. Trump was displeased with something Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during the summit's closing press conference, which the president was following on TV from Air Force One. But almost two months on, those instructions from Trump have never been acted upon, apparently ignored, two sources who were directly involved in the G7 process told BuzzFeed News. US inaction means Trump effectively endorsed the final statement after all.... Trump had left the leaders of Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and the UK stunned and bewildered.... 'The White House and State Dept. are actively ignoring the tweets of the president,' one of the sources said. 'It's like there's a reality TV president, in his own bubble, thinking he controls stuff. It's like The Truman Show.' Trump's tweet, the source explained, wasn't sufficient to pull out of the communique itself because 'the G7 has a suite of diplomatic tools for communications, and Twitter isn't one of them.'" ...

... AND. Politico: "... Donald Trump issued one of his patented Twitter endorsements on Thursday, urging people to vote for a top political ally next week. But ... he's not on the ballot. Trump tweeted that Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), who is leading House Republicans' efforts to keep the chamber in this fall's midterm elections, has earned his 'full [and] total endorsement.' Stivers, Trump wrote, 'has done a fantastic job' as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. 'Get out and vote for Steve on Aug 7th,' Trump wrote.... The fourth-term incumbent was unopposed in his primary, all the way back in May. He will next go before voters on Nov. 6, when he faces Democrat Rick Neal."

Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "Trump is lying more, and he's doing it on purpose." ...

... Gabriela Galindo of Politico: "... Donald Trump told supporters that Queen Elizabeth II kept him waiting during his first official visit to the United Kingdom, blaming the media for reporting he'd been the one who was late for their meeting. Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday, Trump claimed he had actually arrived 15 minutes early for his meeting with the 'incredible' queen, slamming the 'fake, fake, disgusting news' media reports that noted he had been the one who was late. The president's visit to Britain was broadcast live on television, including footage of the 92-year-old queen waiting for Trump for 12 minutes and looking at her watch.... Trump then claimed he had 'a better relationship' with European leaders 'than any other [American] president has had.'" Mrs. McC: But remember, "What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."...

... Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Trump devoted the majority of his time at a rowdy rally [in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,] on Thursday targeting the news media, deriding the reporters present as 'fake, fake disgusting news.' The rally, intended to galvanize support for Representative Lou Barletta, a Republican who is running for Senate in this fall's midterm elections, did eventually turn to what Mr. Trump called 'boring subjects,' but for much of the event, the president focused on his multiple grievances with the Washington press corps." ...

... Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress has a rundown of some other lies & threats Trump made during the Wilkes-Barre "rally."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Thursday formally announced its long-awaited proposal to dramatically weaken an Obama-era regulation on planet-warming vehicle tailpipe pollution. The publication of the proposal sets up a race among opponents of the change -- an unusual mix of environmentalists, automakers, consumer groups and states -- to temper the plan before it is finalized this year. The proposal would freeze rules requiring automakers to build cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars, including hybrids and electric vehicles, and unravel one of President Barack Obama's signature policies to combat global warming. It would also challenge the right of states to set their own, more stringent tailpipe pollution standards, setting the stage for a legal clash that could ultimately split the nation's auto market in two." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: How does this make America great again? Well, for one thing, you'll be able to see the air better. ...

... Brad Plumer of the New York Times: "... the Trump administration... is now arguing [that] ... forcing automakers to build cleaner cars will lead to more highway accidents and deaths." Plumer discusses the arguments, pro and con. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Emily Atkin of the New Republic: "... the administration has concocted a tortured, flimsy argument -- that cleaner cars will cost thousands more, and kill thousands more people -- to scare Americans into believing that the government should scrap its most consequential policy for reducing emissions.... The administration can’t say it wasn't warned about the flaws in its logic. According to The Washington Post, an earlier version of this proposal was presented to the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, and officials said it contained 'a wide range of errors, use of outdated data, and unsupported assumptions.'... On Thursday morning, 20 attorneys general pledged to sue the Trump administration over the proposed rule.... To justify this regressive policy, Trump is using two familiar ingredients: fear and falsehoods."

Ivanka Will Save Us! John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Ivanka Trump said Thursday that she does not agree with her father's characterization of the media as 'the enemy of the people' and that she was 'vehemently against' separating children from parents at the border, calling that a low point of her White House tenure. The comments from Trump, a White House adviser, came during an event hosted by Axios...." (Also linked yesterday.) And see safari's comment in yesterday's thread. Mrs. McC: I'd say safari has Ivanka's number. Plus, apparently Ivanka said in the same Q&A that she really enjoyed traveling around the country. Guess that doesn't include visiting child prisoners in Trump Summer Camps, which even Melanie, who does not have a West Wing job, did. ...

... MEANWHILE, in Other Trump Family News. Eli Watkins of CNN: "... Donald Trump's eldest son said the platform of the Democratic Party is similar to that of the Nazi Party in Germany during the early 1930s and that history classes are biased against conservatives.In a video posted Thursday by the pro-Trump One America News Network, Jack Posobiec -- a prominent right-wing voice online who supported the Pizzagate hoax -- spoke with Donald Trump Jr., who compared the present-day Democratic Party to Nazis and disparaged history taught by academics. 'I've been out hearing the left talking about all these things, fascism, Nazism on the right,' Trump Jr. said. 'And when you look at the actual history of how these things evolved, and when you actually look at that platform versus the platform of the modern left, you say wait a minute, those two are really heavily aligned and, frankly, contrary to the right.... 'You see the Nazi platform in the early 1930s and what was actually put out there ... and you look at it compared to like the DNC platform of today, and you're saying, man, those things are awfully similar, to point where it's actually scary,' Trump Jr. said.... Trump Jr. made his comments at a movie premiere for Dinesh D'Souza...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Viewer Warning: A self-loading video of Junior making these remarks accompanies the story. If you are prone to throw things when someone irritates the hell out of you, hit the "pause" buttom ASAP.

Mrs. McCrabbie: Also in yesterday's thread, see Akhilleus's commentary on Gamergate. It's nothing we've ever covered on Reality Chex, but it helps explain how we ended up with Trump & the Trumpbot contingent. BTW, I'd say Trump knows who these people are: "somebody sitting on their [sic.] bed that weighs 400 pounds." And, yes, as Akhilleus says, Trump has betrayed these losers (or "loosers," as they would write), but as Steve M. pointed out (see yesterday's Commentariat) in a related post, Trump is not essential to these people: "Trump is just, in their belief, the greatest fighter they've had."

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "During a tense White House briefing on Thursday, [CNN's Jim Acosta] challenged the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to disavow President Trump's description of journalists as 'the enemy of the people.' Ms. Sanders declined to do so, saying she had been personally attacked in the media and had faced threats since starting her job.... 'It would be a good thing if you were to state right here, at this briefing, that the press -- the people who are gathered in this room right now, doing their jobs every day, asking questions of officials like the ones you brought forward earlier -- are not the enemy of the people,' Mr. Acosta said.... Ms. Sanders deflected [saying the media picked on her].... Mr. Acosta tried again.... 'This democracy, this country, all the people around the world watching what you are saying, Sarah, and the White House for the United States of America -- the president of the United States should not refer to us as "the enemy of the people,"' he said. 'His own daughter acknowledges that, and all I'm asking you to do, Sarah, is to acknowledge that right now and right here.' Ms. Sanders replied: 'I appreciate your passion. I share it. I've addressed this question.' At that, Mr. Acosta promptly walked out."

Jonathan Chait: "[Wednesday], the Trump administration unveiled plans to allow insurers to skim healthy customers out of the insurance pool by offering skimpy plans that last for up to three years. The legally dubious maneuver is the crowning touch on the administration's persistent efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act.... The Republican line maintains that all these blatant attempts to kill the law are somehow the fault of the law's designers.... This is demonstrably false.... Having spent years insisting they had an army of wonks who could design a better alternative to the Obamacare 'train wreck,' the Republican plan of attack has dissolved into a rearguard sabotage campaign with no pretense of doing anything to help the poor and sick afford medical care." ...

... Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "After congressional Republicans repeatedly failed last year to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump promised to 'let Obamacare implode' on its own. A new lawsuit being filed Thursday argues that Trump's efforts to make good on that promise violate the U.S. Constitution. Trump has 'waged a relentless effort to use executive action alone to undermine and, ultimately, eliminate the law,' the complaint charges, according to a draft obtained by NBC News. The lawsuit is being filed in Maryland federal court by the cities of Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati and Baltimore." (Also linked yesterday.)

Chutzpah. Trump DOJ Sez ACLU Should Find the Parents Trump Deported. Ted Hesson of Politico: "The Trump administration on Thursday informed a federal judge that it isn't responsible for locating deported parents separated forcibly from their children at the southern border. DOJ said in a court filing that the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit over family separations, should instead take the lead in reunifying deported parents with their children. 'Plaintiffs' counsel [i.e., the ACLU] should use their considerable resources and their network of law firms, NGOs, volunteers, and others, together with the information that defendants have provided (or will soon provide), to establish contact with possible class members in foreign countries,' DOJ said."

Ben LeFebvre of Politico: "... the [In Interior D]epartment's inspector general will be asking whether [Secretary Ryan Zinke] colluded to have the chairman of Halliburton, one of the leading companies with business before the department, build him [a microbrewery in Whitefish, Montana]." Read on. Mrs. McC: The other day there was some discussion in the Comments about local vs. federal governance. The Zinke beermeister serial is a good reminder that those self-dealing opportunists who sit on your town council sometimes get federal jobs where they continue to self-deal, if sometimes on a grander scale.

Primary Election Results -- Tennessee

Senate Race. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Republicans braced for a difficult, high-stakes campaign in the heart of Trump country as Tennessee Democrats nominated a popular former governor to run for the state's open Senate seat. Phil Bredesen won the Democratic nomination Thursday, giving his party its best chance of a statewide general election victory in more than a decade. He has presented himself as an affable centrist willing to work with President Trump, and his presence on the ballot forces the GOP to play defense on its home turf as the party seeks to preserve a narrow 51-to-49 Senate majority. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who is backed by Trump and has largely championed his agenda, won the Republican nomination."

Gubernatorial Race. Joey Garrison of the Tennessean: "Karl Dean easily defeated Craig Fitzhugh in Thursday's Tennessee Democratic gubernatorial primary, setting up a November general election where he'll try to become the first Democrat to win a statewide race in the Volunteer State in a dozen years. In a landslide, Dean, former mayor of Nashville, won the Democratic nomination with around 75 percent of the vote, crushing the nearly 20 percent captured by Fitzhugh, the minority leader of the state House. Mezianne Vale Payne, a nurse from Gainesboro, finished with 5 percent. Dean will now face Republican nominee Bill Lee, a Franklin businessman."

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "The National Archives said Thursday it will not be able to produce the full cache of documents requested by the Senate on Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh until the end of October, but Republicans indicated they would press ahead with plans to hold confirmation hearings next month.... The scope of documents requested by Republicans does not touch on an even bigger group of documents from Kavanaugh's three years as [George W.] Bush';s staff secretary. Democrats are demanding those papers, but Republicans say they are out of bounds.... Politically, a delay in document production could give red-stat Democrats a reason to wait on saying how they would vote on the Trump nominee. Among those in the spotlight are three facing tough reelections in November -- Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.). All three voted to confirm Neil M. Gorsuch to the court." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So Chuck Grassley asked for fewer docs than Democrats want to see, and they can't get all of those, BUT they're going ahead with a vote anyway. ...

... Breaking. Orrin Hatch Loses Memory of Everything Occurring Before 2017. I really want to compliment the Democrats who have stood up and are willing to stand up for Judge Kavanaugh because they realize we can't keep going down this partisan, picky, stupid, dumbass road that has happened around here for so long.... I'm tired of the partisanship and, frankly, we didn't treat them -- their candidates for these positions the way they're treating ours. -- Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)

I'm sure Judge Merrick Garland will send condolences. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Linda Greenhouse looks at one year -- this past term -- in the estimable career of Clarence Thomas. If you haven't time to read the whole essay, at least read her "favorite" concurrence. Thanks to Gloria for the link. Mrs. McC: CJ Roberts should order Thomas to wear knee breeches & powdered wigs to court, because the old fart refuses to emerge from the 18th century. As Greenhouse writes, "Taken as a whole, as the work of a single justice during a single Supreme Court term, they paint an extraordinary picture of a judge at war not only with modernity but with the entire project of constitutional law."

Elisabetta Povoledo & Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Pope Francis has declared the death penalty inadmissible in all cases because it is 'an attack' on the 'dignity of the person,' the Vatican announced on Thursday, in a definitive shift in Roman Catholic teaching that could put enormous pressure on lawmakers and politicians around the world. Francis, who has spoken out against capital punishment before -- including in 2015 in an address to Congress -- added the change to the Catechism, the collection of beliefs for the world's 1.2 billion Catholics." (Also linked yesterday.)

Monica Hesse of the Washington Post: "'He never harassed me,' isn't evidence. It's misdirection.... Sexual harassment seems to be one of the few misdeeds for which we accept testimonies from non-victims as evidence of innocence.... Earlier this week, following a rash of accusations against CBS chief Les Moonves, the Atlantic writer Megan Garber called this the Familiarity Fallacy.... She cited the litany of women who have come forward on Moonves's behalf, who stated that he'd been good to them and was therefore good in general. Garber pointed out how absurd this was. Serial harassers victimize some women and not others." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is different from but akin to the popular Blame the Victim Fallacy. "Her skirts are too short." "She's very flirtatious." "She shouldn't have traveled on business with him."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Mrs. McCrabbie: In the past, I may have linked to one Red State story. So this will be my second. Unless the author of the story mocked up the tweets he's posted (and that's possible -- all of the tweets start with Sarah Jeong's "professional twiter name" -- and yeah, that's "twiter," not "twitter"), it's a disturbing story: "Yesterday, the New York Times announced that it was hiring a journalist named Sarah Jeong as a member of their editorial board.... Ms. Jeong is apparently more than a journalist, she's also a virulent racist." The post goes on to reproduce quite a few awful anti-white tweets. Other right-wing sites -- Daily Caller & National Review -- have the story, too. What do you think? (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Here's a follow-up by Brian Flood of Fox "News": "The New York Times is standing by its hiring of tech writer Sarah Jeong despite several derogatory tweets of hers aimed at white people having been recently unearthed on her Twitter account.... [Jeong issued a statement: ] 'I engaged in what I thought of at the time as counter-trolling. While it was intended as satire, I deeply regret that I mimicked the language of my harassers. These comments were not aimed at a general audience, because general audiences do not engage in harassment campaigns. I can understand how hurtful these posts are out of context, and would not do it again,' Jeong wrote." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Amanda Arnold of New York: "Today, the Times declared that it was standing by Jeong -- but also issued an apology in response to the bad-faith criticism from the right.... Right-wing trolls are notorious for taking comments and jokes out of context and drumming up disingenuous outrage to target their opponents; although the Times didn't cave to their demands, it did legitimize them with a response." Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm still not sure. One has to assume the tweets were satirical. Maybe they were.

News Lede

USA Today: "Hiring slowed in July as employers added 157,000 jobs, a possible sign that worker shortages and widening U.S. trade spats are starting to curb employment gains. The unemployment rate fell from 4 percent 3.9 percent, close to its 18-year low, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected 192,000 payroll gains."

The Commentariat -- August 2, 2018

Late Morning Update:

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Thursday formally announced its long-awaited proposal to dramatically weaken an Obama-era regulation on planet-warming vehicle tailpipe pollution. The publication of the proposal sets up a race among opponents of the change -- an unusual mix of environmentalists, automakers, consumer groups and states -- to temper the plan before it is finalized this year. The proposal would freeze rules requiring automakers to build cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars, including hybrids and electric vehicles, and unravel one of President Barack Obama's signature policies to combat global warming. It would also challenge the right of states to set their own, more stringent tailpipe pollution standards, setting the stage for a legal clash that could ultimately split the nation's auto market in two." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: How does this make America great again? Well, for one thing, you'll be able to see the air better. ...

... Brad Plumer of the New York Times: "... the Trump administration... is now arguing [that] ... forcing automakers to build cleaner cars will lead to more highway accidents and deaths." Plumer discusses the arguments, pro and con.

Ivanka Will Save Us! John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Ivanka Trump said Thursday that she does not agree with her father's characterization of the media as 'the enemy of the people' and that she was 'vehemently against' separating children from parents at the border, calling that a low point of her White House tenure. The comments from Trump, a White House adviser, came during an event hosted by Axios...."

Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "After congressional Republicans repeatedly failed last year to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump promised to 'let Obamacare implode' on its own. A new lawsuit being filed Thursday argues that Trump's efforts to make good on that promise violate the U.S. Constitution. Trump has 'waged a relentless effort to use executive action alone to undermine and, ultimately, eliminate the law,' the complaint charges, according to a draft obtained by NBC News. The lawsuit is being filed in Maryland federal court by the cities of Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati and Baltimore."

Manu Raju of CNN: "Two leading senators are asserting that ... Donald Trump has not focused on the clear threat the Kremlin poses in the 2018 elections, with one Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee contending that Russian hackers may have already targeted most -- if not all -- sitting US senators. Ratcheting up the push for a more robust US response to Russian interference in the midterms and 2020 elections, Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are now slated to get a committee vote this month on a bipartisan bill is aimed at shoring up the nation's election system. But the two senators said their plan has run into hurdles for months -- and say the Russian threat is real headed into the midterms."

Elisabetta Povoledo & Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Pope Francis has declared the death penalty inadmissible in all cases because it is 'an attack' on the 'dignity of the person,' the Vatican announced on Thursday, in a definitive shift in Roman Catholic teaching that could put enormous pressure on lawmakers and politicians around the world. Francis, who has spoken out against capital punishment before -- including in 2015 in an address to Congress -- added the change to the Catechism, the collection of beliefs for the world's 1.2 billion Catholics."

Mrs. McCrabbie: In the past, I may have linked to one Red State story. So this will be my second. Unless the author of the story mocked up the tweets he's posted (and that's possible -- all of the tweets start with Sarah Jeong's "professional twiter name" -- and yeah, that's "twiter," not "twitter"), it's a disturbing story: "Yesterday, the New York Times announced that it was hiring a journalist named Sarah Jeong as a member of their editorial board.... Ms. Jeong is apparently more than a journalist, she's also a virulent racist." The post goes on to reproduce quite a few awful anti-white tweets. Other right-wing sites -- Daily Caller & National Review -- have the story, too. What do you think? ...

... Here's a follow-up by Brian Flood of Fox "News": "The New York Times is standing by its hiring of tech writer Sarah Jeong despite several derogatory tweets of hers aimed at white people having been recently unearthed on her Twitter account.... [Jeong issued a statement: ] 'I engaged in what I thought of at the time as counter-trolling. While it was intended as satire, I deeply regret that I mimicked the language of my harassers. These comments were not aimed at a general audience, because general audiences do not engage in harassment campaigns. I can understand how hurtful these posts are out of context, and would not do it again,' Jeong wrote."

*****

... Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "As of day 558 [of his presidency, Trump has] made 4,229 Trumpian claims -- an increase of 978 in just two months. That's an overall average of nearly 7.6 claims a day. When we first started this project for the president-s first 100 days, he averaged 4.9 claims a day. But the average number of claims per day keeps climbing the longer Trump stays in office. In fact, in June and July, the president averaged 16 claims a day.... In his first year as president, Trump made 2,140 false or misleading claims. Now, just six months later, he has almost doubled that total.... Not surprisingly, immigration is the top single source of Trump's misleading claims, now totaling 538.... But moving up the list quickly are claims about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether people in the Trump campaign were in any way connected to it."

Trump Gone Wild! Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday to end the special counsel investigation, an extraordinary appeal to the nation's top law enforcement official to end an inquiry directly into the president.... '..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!'... Mr. Trump's lawyers quickly elaborated on the president's message, saying it was not an order to a member of his cabinet, but merely an opinion.... Mr. Trump gave the directive in a series of Twitter posts hitting familiar notes in his objections to the investigation and accusing an investigator of being 'out to STOP THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP.' Some of his messages contained quotations the president attributed to a staunch supporter, the lawyer Alan Dershowitz. Mr. Trump also tweeted on Wednesday that Mr. Manafort did not work for his campaign long, a defense he has used repeatedly to distance himself from his former campaign chairman.... The special counsel is also looking into some of Mr. Trump's tweets about Mr. Sessions and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey and whether the messages were intended to obstruct the inquiry." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, Trump gave [Robert Mueller] more potential evidence [of obstruction of justice].... Trump is apparently calling for Sessions to un-recuse himself from a case in which he has acknowledged he cannot be seen as neutral, and then to end it.... In defending the tweet, Trump's lawyers told The Post that it wasn't an explicit command. 'He carefully used the word, "should,'" [Rudy] Giuliani noted. Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow added: 'The president has issued no order or direction to the Department of Justice on this.'... Every person has the right to defend themselves publicly, but as the Starr Report showed, a president's misleading public statements can be used against him." ...

... AND Al Capone Is Back. Jeet Heer: "Trump makes bad Al Capone analogy while trying to obstruct justice. On Wednesday, the president returned to tweeting on a familiar theme that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is a witch hunt. But Trump did so with a new urgency:... 'Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and "Public Enemy Number One," or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?'... The Capone tweet is remarkable for a number of reasons. First of all, the president misspelled 'Alphonse.'... More substantially..., [the analogy] cuts against the argument Trump is making. Capone was a gangster but the government couldn't prove it, so they used the charge of income tax evasion to put him behind bars. This clearly parallels the way that Mueller is using money laundering charges to put the squeeze on Paul Manafort.... Bringing up Capone cuts against Trump's claim that Mueller is conducting a witch hunt because it reminds us that federal prosecutors often use the broad sweep of the law against offenders." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The stupidest part: even most Trumpbots don't see Capone as a sympathetic figure picked on by a bunch of overzealous G-men. There's no upside to comparing your own campaign manager to Al Capone.

Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump pushed his lawyers in recent days to try once again to reach an agreement with the special counsel's office about him sitting for an interview, flouting their advice that he should not answer investigators' questions, three people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. Mr. Trump has told advisers he is eager to meet with investigators to clear himself of wrongdoing, the people said. In effect, he believes he can convince the investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, of his belief that their own inquiry is a 'witch hunt.'" The reporters provide some details about the substance of the negotiations. ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's hard for me to believe that Trump is stupid enough to believe his own hype. This sounds like posturing on his part to me. If my lawyers told me not to testify, I wouldn't testify. ...

... Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "... Robert S. Mueller III indicated this week that he is willing to reduce the number of questions his investigators would pose to President Trump in an interview, renewing negotiations with Trump's lawyers about a presidential sit-down after an extended standoff, according to two people briefed on the negotiations. The latest proposal by the special counsel comes as Trump has stepped up his attacks on his investigation and Mueller personally. In a letter sent Monday, Mueller's team suggested that investigators would reduce by nearly half the number of questions they would ask about potential obstruction of justice, the two people said. It's unclear which topic or topics would be left out." ...

... John Santucci of ABC News: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's office wants to ask ... Donald Trump about obstruction of justice, sources close to the White House tell ABC News.... According to sources familiar with the President's reaction Wednesday morning, that was the genesis for his early morning tweet storm." ...

... President Bizarro. Margaret Hartmann: "On Wednesday President Trump's day started, as it often does, with a bizarre tirade attacking Special Counsel Robert Mueller.... Once again, Trump seemed to be undermining his own case, providing Mueller with fresh evidence of obstruction of justice as he lashed out.... There's no good explanation for Trump's tweet -- so instead, his team made one nonsensical claim after another.... A few hours later, several stories emerged [that suggested Trump was willing & eager to sit down for a Mueller interview.]" Ergo, shut down the investigation I want to participate in. Mrs. McC: If Trump thinks he can end the "witch hunt" by sweet-talking the hunters, these two threads are not contradictory.

Josh Gerstein & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is hurtling through its tax- and bank-fraud case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, with prosecutors predicting their case could wrap up as soon as next week. Under constant pressure from U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis to keep their questioning brief and to the point, prosecutors whipped through eight witnesses Wednesday -- all vendors who sold Manafort items like luxury suits or services like home remodeling. All indicated that payment for the bills Manafort ran up came from obscure companies in offshore banking havens like Cyprus or the Grenadines.... [Prosecutor Greg] Andres said prosecutors said they plan to present two more vendors Thursday -- a home theater installer and a landscaper -- before moving on to a slew of bookkeepers and accountants who dealt with the veteran lobbyist and political consultant. Many of those witnesses demanded immunity in exchange for their testimony." ...

... Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post live-updated Day 2 of the Paul Manafort trial. "Witnesses described how Manafort paid for a life of luxury -- spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on suits and home renovations -- via wire transfers from foreign bank accounts. The judge repeatedly warned prosecutors not to dwell on the extravagance of the purchases Manafort made. Prosecutors suggested they might not call Manafort's former business partner, Richard Gates, as a witness. They also revealed they are ahead of schedule and could rest their case next week." (Same story linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Tierney Snead of TPM posts a bunch of photos of Manafort's expensive wardrobe which the prosecution wished to enter into evidence. Judge Ellis so far has not allowed the prosecution to do so. Mrs. McC: It probably doesn't matter. My reaction to, for instance, to the photo of the ostrich jacket: "You paid $15K for that?" ...

... Mark Mazzetti & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "At the trial of Paul Manafort, an unflattering picture has emerged of lawyers, lobbyists and consultants from both political parties winning big paydays for work on behalf of a Kremlin-aligned former Ukrainian strongman. Some spent the money on cars and homes, prosecutors said, and a jacket made of ostrich for Mr. Manafort. The vigor with which Mr. Mueller has investigated the flows of foreign money from Ukraine, Turkey and other countries into Washington could be as much a part of his legacy as special counsel as whatever he discovers about possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign or presidential obstruction of justice.... Over the past year, Mr. Mueller and the Justice Department have pursued numerous cases both under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, and related to foreign influence operations more broadly. FARA prosecutions were once almost unheard-of.... Whereas the public once thought of the Justice Department's counterintelligence mission as primarily trying to catch foreign spies seeking to obtain government secrets, the department has made clear in a recent cybercrimes report and congressional testimony that influence has become as great a threat." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Times story fits into the narrative both Franklin Foer of the Atlantic & Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast told in pieces I linked yesterday. If you missed those stories, I recommend you take a peek now. Even as the players may change, the game will never get old.

Andrew Desiderio of the Daily Beast: "The Senate on Wednesday rejected a bid by Democrats to appropriate an additional $250 million in grants to individual states to bolster the security of their voting systems. The rejection of new funding comes ... as ... Donald Trump's intelligence chiefs are sounding the alarm about the continued threat of election interference emanating from Russia.... All Republicans, except for Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), voted against the measure. Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and John McCain (R-AZ) were not present for the vote. The amendment, offered by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), received 50 votes. It needed 60 to pass. Earlier this year, the Senate set aside $380 million for similar protective measures to guard against election interference and cyberattacks launched by foreign governments."

Aaron Blake: "... Sarah Huckabee Sanders just accused the media of hindering the American government's pursuit of Osama bin Laden just a few years before 9/11.... While defending Trump supporters' vulgar treatment of a CNN reporter..., [Sanders claimed,] 'The media routinely reports on classified information and government secrets that put lives in danger and risk valuable national security tools...,' clearly reading a prepared bit of gaslighting. 'One of the worst cases was the reporting on the U.S. ability to listen to Osama bin Laden's satellite phone in the late '90s. Because of that reporting, he stopped using that phone, and the country lost valuable intelligence.' Except this has been pretty well debunked -- and Sanders's version of it is particularly flawed." ...

... Greg Sargent: "On Tuesday, CNN's Jim Acosta -- one of President Trump's favorite human targets -- and other members of the media were abused and heckled by Trump supporters at a rally in Florida. Videos of the event -- see here or here -- show the crowd at one point loudly chanting 'CNN sucks,' with many angrily brandishing middle fingers in the direction of the living, breathing members of the press corps.... Eric Trump tweeted out video of the 'CNN sucks' chant, with the hashtag #Truth, while directly singling out Acosta. And the president himself retweeted his son. The president's son is actively encouraging Trump supporters to direct rage and abuse toward working journalists, and the president is joining in, helping to spread the word.... Jay Rosen calls all of this a 'hate movement against journalists' that is essential to Trump’s political style, and urges them to recognize it as such.... The deliberate goal, as [Steve] Bannon has put it, is 'to throw gasoline on the resistance.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm with Sargent & Rosen. Time for the Southern Poverty Law Center to add "Trump administration" to its list of hate groups. ...

Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy. pic.twitter.com/IhSRw5Ui3R

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 1, 2018

... Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "In Tampa..., several journalists described an atmosphere of hostility that felt particularly hard-edge. And far from condemning these attacks on the press, the president and his team have endorsed them." ...

... Charles Blow: "It is simply not healthy for the country to have a president stuck perpetually in attack mode, fighting enemies real and imagined, pushing a toxic agenda that mixes the exaltation of grievance and the grinding of axes. The president's recent rallies have come to resemble orgies for Donald Trump's ego, spaces in which he can receive endless, unmeasured adulation and in which the crowds can gather for a revival of an anger that registers as near-religious. They can experience a communal affirmation that they are not alone in their intolerance, outrage and regression.... Such was the case again this week at a Trump rally in Florida, at which his supporters aggressively heckled and harassed the free press that Trump incessantly brands with the false descriptor of 'fake news.'... Trump doesn't want a free press; he wants free propaganda."

... Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Making matters worse was a dark novelty: The emergence at the [Trump] rally [in Tampa] of a cultish group called QAnon. These are the deranged devotees of a supposed government agent who they believe is waging war against the 'deep state' that threatens the Trump presidency.... As the Washington Post reported, 'As the president spoke, a sign rose from the audience. "We are Q,' it read. Another poster displayed text arranged in a "Q" pattern: "Where we go one we go all."' The group, born on Internet message boards such as Reddit and 8Chan, is a close cousin to the Pizzagate conspiracy theory that led a gunman to open fire in a D.C. restaurant last year. The Huffington Post's Andy Campbell described it as a mishmash: 'It's every conspiracy, all at once, an orchestra tune-up of theories.' And although the group has staged public events in recent months, Tuesday night's Trump rally was its real coming-out party." ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "The QAnon theories are elaborate and contradictory but at their heart is the idea that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a cabal of pedophiles who hold positions of power in the government and the media.... The curious thing about the QAnon conspiracy theory is that Trump will have a hard time either embracing it or denouncing it." ...

... Steve M. "I don't think QAnon-style thinking is just a sideshow. I think it's the point of conservatism now. Not every pro-Trump conservative believes the specific QAnon theories, but they all believe that their enemies -- who now include not just all Democrats but every Republican who won't genuflect to Trump -- are unspeakably evil.... So I'm not sure that Trumpism requires Trump at all. Trump is the center of a personality cult because he's the first politician at his level who seems to regard us as the unholy monsters that rank-and-file conservatives believe we are.... Trump isn't the point -- the fight against us is the point. Trump is just, in their belief, the greatest fighter they've had." Steve posts a QAnon video "so you know how far around the bend your right-wing neighbors have become."

Eric Levitz of New York: "The Trump administration is doing (virtually) everything in its power to make the Affordable Care Act more costly for the federal government; Obamacare's plans more generous for the poor; and 'market-based' approaches to universal health care more toxic within the Democratic Party." --safari

Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The Treasury Department on Wednesday announced it had imposed sanctions on two top Turkish government officials whom the United States accused of playing a leading role in the detention of an American pastor being held on espionage charges. The move was an unusual use of financial sanctions against the government of a vital NATO ally, and is sure to inflame tensions that were already simmering over Washington's refusal to extradite a cleric suspected of leading a failed 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. The sanctions target Abdulhamit Gul, Turkey's justice minister, and Suleyman Soylu, the interior minister. They were issued just days after President Trump warned the Turkish government to immediately release the pastor, Andrew Brunson -- a demand he made directly last week in a telephone call with Mr. Erdogan." ...

... Constantine Courcoulas & Tugce Ozsoy of Bloomberg: "Turkish markets are plunging deeper into the wild. Unprecedented sanctions imposed by the U.S., its NATO ally, have added to the cross-currents buffeting investors.... The U.S. 'move will likely only incense Erdogan and a commensurate response is already promised,' Timothy Ash, a strategist at BlueBay Asset Management in London, said in emailed comments." --safari

Min Joo Kim and Simon Denyer of the Washington Post: "More than 60 years after the last shot was fired in the Korean War, the U.S. military prepared Wednesday to fly home what are believed to be the remains of more than 50 service members after the first such handover by North Korea in more than a decade. North Korea transferred the remains last week, the first tangible moves from agreements reached between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their meeting in Singapore on June 12. After a solemn ceremony at the U.S. military’s Osan Air Base in South Korea, 55 boxes of remains draped in the United Nations flag were taken to a pair of U.S. military planes, which flew them to a military laboratory in Hawaii for analysis and identification.... Vice President Pence, who was on hand at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii to receive the remains in an honorable carry ceremony.... The Pentagon estimates that nearly 7,700 U.S. troops are unaccounted for from the war.... Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week it was possible that some of the remains could belong to soldiers from those nations [which fought alongside the U.S.], and if so, they would be repatriated once they have been identified."

Alex Emmons of The Intercept: "The Intercept has learned of a previously unreported episode that stoked the UAE and Saudi Arabia's anger at [then-Sec. of State Rex] Tillerson and that may have played a key role in his removal. In the summer of 2017, several months before the Gulf allies started pushing for his ouster, Tillerson intervened to stop a secret Saudi-led, UAE-backed plan to invade and essentially conquer Qatar, according to one current member of the U.S. intelligence community and two former State Department officials, all of whom declined to be named.... Some Gulf watchers speculate that the incentive for the planned invasion may have been partly financial.... Since the current king [Mohammed bin Salman] came to power in 2015, the country has spent more than a third of its $737 billion in reserves, and last year, the Saudi economy entered a painful recession." --safari

Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "An employee atan Arizona facility that houses immigrant children separated from their families at the border has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl, according to Phoenix police.... One of the victim's roommates informed police on July 25 that she had witnessed the suspect kiss the girl multiple times and touch her breasts and crotch over her clothes in the bedroom she shared with two other minors.... According to the Phoenix Police Department, the suspect admitted to his involvement and was booked into jail on one count each of molestation, aggravated assault, and sexual abuse." --safari

Sam Fulwood III of ThinkProgress: "Black Lives Matter activists in Memphis, Tennessee learned last week that they'd made some new friends on Facebook: Local law enforcement.... In response to a lawsuit brought by the ACLU in Tennessee..., Memphis city officials released a cache of previously sealed documents.... The materials ... painted a detailed, if reluctant, portrait of how the Memphis police -- under the direction of its Office of Homeland Security, a special team created after the September 11, 2001 attacks -- used social media platforms to spy on BLM activists." --safari

March of the Lemmings. Doug Sosnik in Politico Magazine: "There's an underappreciated reason for Congress' inability to stand up for itself: the mass departures of leading members who were more committed to the institutions of the House and Senate than they were to their political tribe.... [A] dramatic turnover in the composition of Congress has occurred at the same time as the emergence of a newly rigid partisanship. The convergence of these two forces -- an inexperienced Congress and political tribalism — has hastened the decline of institutional politics.... Loyalty to party is now the most important thing.... Not long ago..., congressional leaders defined themselves as stewards of the bodies they served, and they were rewarded by their ability to bridge differences and build coalitions of diverse interests. Now, our politics rewards politicians who ... draw sharp lines to emphasize their cultural identity and to convey the shared preferences and -- just as important -- the resentments and grievances of their supporters.... Contrary to popular opinion, this state of affairs is not all Donald Trump's fault."

Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "Retired Ohio State wrestling coach Russ Hellickson reached out to two ex-team members and asked them to support their former assistant coach, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a day after they accused the powerful congressman of turning a blind eye to alleged sexual abuse by the team doctor, according to the wrestlers and text messages they shared with NBC News. The former wrestlers said their ex-coach made it clear to them he was under pressure from Jordan to get statements of support from members of the team.... Complicating things further for Hellickson is the fact that he was videotaped ... this year [by Michael DiSabato, whose whose whistleblowing spurred the university's investigation], before the accusations against Jordan were reported, talking about some of the lewd behavior he had witnessed at the wrestling team's headquarters in Larkins Hall.... Asked if Jordan got Hellickson to contact the wrestlers...," Jordan's spokesman wouldn't say. ...

... Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "Ohio State announced Wednesday evening that the head coach of its storied football team, Urban Meyer, was being put on paid administrative leave while the university investigates allegations that Meyer knew a longtime former assistant coach had been accused of domestic abuse in 2015. Meyer, one of the most successful coaches of the past two decades, said last week that he had not heard of the domestic abuse accusations until they came to light in recent days, but a report has accused Meyer of having known about the accusations for far longer.... The escalation to paid administrative leave for Meyer came after Brett McMurphy, an independent journalist who formerly covered college football for ESPN, published a report on Facebook in which Courtney Smith, the ex-wife of the former assistant coach Zach Smith, said Meyer's wife had extensive knowledge of the abuse allegations. Courtney Smith's story was backed up by text messages, according to the report."

2018 Elections

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Former President Barack Obama took a public step back into the electoral arena on Wednesday, issuing a slate of 81 endorsements for Democrats running in the 2018 elections and giving his stamp of approval to more than a dozen veterans of his administration and election campaigns who are seeking office in their own right. Among the most prominent candidates to earn his backing were Richard Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who is running for governor of Ohio; J.B. Pritzker, the private equity executive and Hyatt Hotels heir who is the party's nominee for governor in Illinois; and Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia House minority leader who is vying to become the first African-American woman elected governor of a state. But Mr. Obama also extended his political blessing to Democrats running far down the ballot, backing legislative candidates in states such as North Carolina and Texas, as well as Democrats running for relatively low-profile offices...." ...

Kavanaugh Double-Speak. Manu Raju of CNN: "Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has privately told senators he views the appointment of a special counsel by the Justice Department as appropriate, a comment that could shed new light about his views of Robert Mueller's investigation into Donald Trump's presidential campaign, according to sources familiar with the meetings. But Kavanaugh has also stood by his stated views that question whether a sitting US president can be indicted on criminal charges, instead saying Congress should play the lead role in impeaching and removing a president -- and also enact a law ensuring a president can be indicted after leaving office." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter: TVEyes, a service that stores TV content for researchers, is taking Fox "News" to the Supreme Court in a challenge to case it lost to Fox in appellate court over the fair-use doctrine.

"Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd". Ryan Gallagher of The Intercept: "Google is planning to launch a censored version of its search engine in China that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest, The Intercept can reveal. The project -- code-named Dragonfly -- has been underway since spring of last year, and accelerated following a December 2017 meeting between Google's CEO Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official.... The app Google is building for China will comply with the country's strict censorship laws, restricting access to content that Xi Jinping's Communist Party regime deems unfavorable." --safari

Beyond the Beltway

Josh Marshall of TPM: "2018 has been a year with constant new innovations in the field of politician revenge porn.... Meet rising star State Rep. Nick Sauer from Illinois.... Two years ago ... Sauer began a relationship with a California woman [Kate Kelly] who he met on the dating app Tinder.... [Long story short] Kelly shares nude photos of herself with Sauer as part of their long-distance relationship. Sauer takes those photos and posts them to an Instagram account which is based on her identity but which she doesn't know about. Sauer then sexts with the men who express sexual interest in 'Kelly' under the guise that Sauer is his then-girlfriend. Sauer is sexting wit other men while impersonating his girlfriend.... The crap hit the fan earlier this month." --safari...

     ... UPDATE: Sauer has since resigned from the legislature. Sad.

Way Beyond

Andrew Roth of the Guardian: "Three Russian journalists killed in the Central African Republic this week were investigating a Russian private military company with links to the Kremlin, their editors said. The Investigations Management Centre (IMC) said on its website on Tuesday that the team of reporters, led by the veteran war correspondent Orkhan Djemal, had been researching the actions of the Russian military firm Wagner, which has also been active in Syria and Ukraine.... Media reports said that the men may have been ambushed and killed Monday evening near the village of Sibut, about 185 miles (300km) north of the CAR's capital, Bangui.... The three Russians were accomplished journalists who had worked with independent or opposition media organisations." --safari

The Commentariat -- August 1, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Trump Gone Wild! Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday to end the special counsel investigation, an extraordinary appeal to the nation's top law enforcement official to end an inquiry directly into the president.... '..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!'... Mr. Trump's lawyers quickly elaborated on the president's message, saying it was not an order to a member of his cabinet, but merely an opinion.... Mr. Trump gave the directive in a series of Twitter posts hitting familiar notes in his objections to the investigation and accusing an investigator of being 'out to STOP THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP.' Some of his messages contained quotations the president attributed to a staunch supporter, the lawyer Alan Dershowitz. Mr. Trump also tweeted on Wednesday that Mr. Manafort did not work for his campaign long, a defense he has used repeatedly to distance himself from his former campaign chairman.... The special counsel is also looking into some of Mr. Trump's tweets about Mr. Sessions and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey and whether the messages were intended to obstruct the inquiry." ...

... AND Al Capone Is Back. Jeet Heer: "Trump makes bad Al Capone analogy while trying to obstruct justice. On Wednesday, the president returned to tweeting on a familiar theme that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is a witch hunt. But Trump did so with a new urgency:... 'Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and "Public Enemy Number One," or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?'... The Capone tweet is remarkable for a number of reasons. First of all, the president misspelled 'Alphonse.'... More substantially..., [the analogy] cuts against the argument Trump is making. Capone was a gangster but the government couldn't prove it, so they used the charge of income tax evasion to put him behind bars. This clearly parallels the way that Mueller is using money laundering charges to put the squeeze on Paul Manafort.... Bringing up Capone cuts against Trump's claim that Mueller is conducting a witch hunt because it reminds us that federal prosecutors often use the broad sweep of the law against offenders." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The stupidest part: even most Trumpbots don't see Capone as a sympathetic figure picked on by a bunch of overzealous G-men. There's no upside to comparing your own campaign manager to Al Capone.

Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post are live-updating the Paul Manafort trial: The entry at 12:28 p.m. ET: The prosecutor told the judge it may not call Rick Gates, after all. Here's part of the 12:01 pm ET entry: "FBI Special Agent Matthew Mikuska has retaken the stand, but his testimony may not be as colorful as prosecutors may have hoped. Judge T.S. Ellis III expressed continued displeasure with the prosecution's desire to enter detailed evidence about the items Paul Manafort purchased with money routed from offshore bank accounts. Ellis deferred on ruling whether prosecutors may enter photos of luxury suits found in Manafort's condo until later in the trial, indicating he wants to better understand whether the pictures are necessary to prove they were purchased with income hidden in foreign bank accounts. But he denied prosecutor Uzo Asonye's request to show the jury pictures of the suits and their high-end labels, which means the pictures were also not shown to the public."

Greg Sargent: "On Tuesday, CNN's Jim Acosta -- one of President Trump&'s favorite human targets -- and other members of the media were abused and heckled by Trump supporters at a rally in Florida. Videos of the event ... show the crowd at one point loudly chanting 'CNN sucks,' with many angrily brandishing middle fingers in the direction of the living, breathing members of the press corps.... Eric Trump tweeted out video of the 'CNN sucks' chant, with the hashtag #Truth, while directly singling out Acosta. And the president himself retweeted his son. The president's son is actively encouraging Trump supporters to direct rage and abuse toward working journalists, and the president is joining in, helping to spread the word.... Jay Rosen calls all of this a 'hate movement against journalists' that is essential to Trump's political style, and urges them to recognize it as such.... The deliberate goal, as [Steve] Bannon has put it, is 'to throw gasoline on the resistance.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm with Sargent & Rosen. Time for the Southern Poverty Law Center to add "Trump administration" to its list of hate groups.

Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy. pic.twitter.com/IhSRw5Ui3R

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 1, 2018

Kavanaugh Double-Speak. Manu Raju of CNN: "Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has privately told senators he views the appointment of a special counsel by the Justice Department as appropriate, a comment that could shed new light about his views of Robert Mueller's investigation into Donald Trump's presidential campaign, according to sources.... But Kavanaugh has also stood by his stated views that question whether a sitting US president can be indicted on criminal charges, instead saying Congress should play the lead role in impeaching and removing a president -- and also enact a law ensuring a president can be indicted after leaving office."

*****

Breaking News! Trump Doesn't Grocery-Shop. Ashley Hoffman of Time: "... Donald Trump's latest head-scratching comment has lit up the internet. 'You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out and you want to buy anything, you need ID and you need your picture,' Trump said at Tuesday night's Tampa, Fla., rally to drum up support for GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis'gubernatorial bid. He was -- in the moment -- throwing his support behind tougher ID requirements for voters. 'Only American citizens should vote in American elections. The time has come for voter ID like everything else,' Trump said." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Of course this isn't true. People under the age of 40 do need IDs to prove they're old enough to make certain age-restricted purchases in grocery stories: liquor & cigarettes, for instance. But that's it. All major grocery stores -- as far as I know -- accept credit cards that don't sport the holders' pictures. None, in my experience, ever asks to see a picture ID. Decades ago, before credit cards became nearly universal, people often paid for groceries with checks, & stores usually required some kind of ID before accepting checks. However, back then, the usual forms of ID -- drivers licenses -- didn't all have the holders' pictures on them, either. So pretty much at no time in history have major grocery chains required picture IDs to buy hamburger & Cap'n Crunch. And cash is always good, sans ID.

Stephanie Murray of Politico: "'The Fake News Media is going CRAZY! They are totally unhinged and in many ways, after witnessing first hand the damage they do to so many innocent and decent people, I enjoy watching,' [Donald] Trump said in a tweet [Tuesday morning]. 'In 7 years, when I am no longer in office, their ratings will dry up and they will be gone!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ken Meyer of Mediaite: Trump spent a good deal of the morning Tuesday tweeting "news" he heard on Fox "News." Mrs. McC: And cynics call Fox "state media." How unfair! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Sharon LaFraniere & Emily Baumgaertner of the New York Times: "Before a packed federal courtroom, jury selection began Tuesday in the bank and tax fraud trial of Paul Manafort, President Trump' former campaign chairman.... The court began choosing 16 jurors -- 12 to be seated and four alternates. The trial is expected to last at least three weeks.... Mr. Manafort, 69, is the first American charged in the inquiry by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to maintain his innocence and to force the prosecutors to prove their case at trial.... The trial is being carefully watched because of Mr. Manafort's role as the chairman of the Trump campaign and his longstanding ties with pro-Russia businessmen and politicians, which he developed over a decade of political consulting work in Ukraine." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... This story has been updated to include these developments: "... The bank and tax fraud trial of Paul Manafort ... got off to a quick start on Tuesday as the judge seated a jury and prosecutors and defense lawyers delivered opening statements. Uzo Asonye, an assistant United States attorney on the team of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, told the jury that Mr. Manafort had engaged in an elaborate, multi-year scheme to evade $15 million in taxes and obtain fraudulent loans. Setting out Mr. Manafort's defense for the first time, one of his lawyers ... blamed associates of Mr. Manafort for mishandling his finances, saying Mr. Manafort had placed his trust in the wrong people. He singled out Rick Gates, Mr. Manafort's former business partner. Mr. Gates has pleaded guilty in the case and is cooperating with Mr. Mueller's inquiry.... Dressed in a black suit with a silver tie, he consulted frequently with his five defense lawyers during the jury selection process, donning glasses to pore over his notes...." ...

... Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Prosecutors accused ... Paul Manafort of being a 'shrewd' liar who orchestrated a global scheme to avoid paying taxes on millions of dollars, in opening statements that kicked off Manafort's trial on Tuesday. Manafort lived an 'extravagant lifestyle' fueled by 'secret income' that he earned from his lobbying in Ukraine, said Uzo Asonye, a prosecutor working on the case with special counsel Robert Mueller's team. Manafort became wealthy from the 'cash spigot' that came from working for his "golden goose in Ukraine," former President Viktor Yanukovych, Asonye said. The opening statement indicated that prosecutors plan to put Manafort's wealth on trial as a key element of their case, arguing he funded his lavish spending habits by breaking the law." ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York has a good synopsis of Day 1 of the Manafort trial. ...

... Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "Trump and some of his defenders contend that Mueller's prosecution of Manafort on charges unrelated to collaboration with Russia during the 2016 election means such evidence does not exist. But that is a flawed assumption. The special counsel has constructed cases that offer the best chance of convicting Manafort.... If Manafort is convicted, prosecutors may hope to use what could essentially amount to a life sentence to push him to cooperate with their broader investigation.... Yet as they lay out a case against Manafort, prosecutors have released tidbits that seem to hint at Manafort coordinating with Russia.... Prosecutors have alleged in court filings that Manafort's longtime business associate in Ukraine, Konstantin Kilimnik, has ties to Russian intelligence that were active in 2016.... Federal filings connected to a search of Manafort's property last year have also revealed that he may have had a major motive to help Russia: He allegedly owed millions to [Russian aluminum magnate Oleg] Deripaska." ...

... Matthew Rosenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, has referred three investigations into possible illicit foreign lobbying by Washington insiders to federal prosecutors in New York who are already handling the case against [Michael Cohen]..., according to multiple people familiar with the cases. The cases cut across party lines, focusing on both powerful Democratic and Republican players in Washington.... They also tie into the special counsel investigation of Mr. Trump: All three cases are linked to Paul Manafort.... The cases involve Gregory B. Craig, who served as the White House counsel under President Barack Obama before leaving to work for the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; former Representative Vin Weber, Republican of Minnesota, who joined Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying firm, after leaving Congress; and Tony Podesta, a high-powered Washington lobbyist whose brother, John D. Podesta, was the chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. The three men have not been charged with any crimes, those familiar with the cases said." ...

     ... The CNN story by Erica Orden, which broke the news, is here.

Nicholas Fandos & Kevin Roose of the New York Times: "Facebook announced on Tuesday that it has identified a coordinated political influence campaign, with dozens of inauthentic accounts and pages that are believed to be engaging in political activity around divisive social issues ahead of November's midterm elections. In a series of briefings on Capitol Hill this week and a public post on Tuesday, the company told lawmakers that it had detected and removed 32 pages and accounts connected to the influence campaign on Facebook and Instagram as part of its investigations into election interference. It publicly said it had been unable to tie the accounts to Russia, whose Internet Research Agency was at the center of an indictment earlier this year for interfering in the 2016 election, but company officials told Capitol Hill that Russia was possibly involved, according to two officials briefed on the matter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ian Bogost of the Atlantic: Facebook "found, and removed, possible election interference on its platforms. But the government, and the world, is too reliant on the company to protect democracy.... [But] Facebook's assurances [that it had caught entities engaging in 'coordinated inauthentic behavior'] also offer some reason for greater worry. Today's announcement doesn't detail everything that led the company to identify and ban these particular accounts, pages, events, and posts, but it does suggest that a few missteps by those in charge of these campaigns contributed to their unmasking.... Intelligence and security has become an arms race, a new kind of cold war made from memes instead of warheads. And yet, the U.S. government hasn't established a sufficient approach to the threat. ...

... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "On Monday..., Virginia Senator Mark Warner’s office [released a blueprint] featuring 20 'potential policy proposals' for regulating tech companies, on issues ranging from national security to fair competition to consumer protection. It's a crucial and belated first step for Democratic lawmakers..., but it also shows just how far Congress is from taking legislative action -- and how complicated and politically fraught passing any regulation ... will be. The policy paper is, in many ways, the inverse of [Mark] Zuckerberg's appearance before the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees in April. That hearing ... was something of a charade. When the Facebook founder wasn't being interrogated about unrelated matters..., he came across like a grandson patiently explaining the internet to his confused grandparents.... Warner's paper, by contrast..., is careful.... The proposed regulations are sensible and, for the most part, not particularly radical. But they would go a long way to simultaneously protect consumers from exploitation and protect American democracy from foreign interference. The paper considers how to hold tech companies accountable for policing their platforms and for ensuring that hostile actors are swiftly removed."

Duncan Campbell of Computer Weekly: "A British IT manager and former hacker launched and ran an international disinformation campaign that has provided ... Donald Trump with fake evidence and false arguments to deny that Russia interfered to help him win the election. The campaign is being run from the UK by 39-year-old programmer Tim Leonard, who lives in Darlington, [England,] using the false name 'Adam Carter'. Starting after the 2016 presidential election, Leonard worked with a group of mainly American right-wing activists to spread claims on social media that Democratic 'insiders' and non-Russian agents were responsible for hacking the Democratic Party.... The claims led to Trump asking then CIA director Mike Pompeo to investigate allegations circulated from Britain that the Russian government was not responsible for the cyber attacks, and that they could be proved to be an 'inside job', in the form of leaks by a [Democratic] party employee. This was the opposite of the CIA's official intelligence findings." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Digby, in Salon, does a good job of summarizing the weird Giuliani media blitz of the past couple of days. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Follow the $. Jason Leopold & Anthony Cormier of Buzzfeed: "[B]ank transactions totaling nearly $300,000, none of which have been made public, offer the first detailed look at how an accused foreign agent [Maria Butina] and a Republican operative financed what prosecutors say was a Russian campaign to influence American politics.... Now counterintelligence officers say the duo's banking activity could provide a road map of back channels to powerful American entities such as the National Rifle Association, and information about the Kremlin's attempt to sway the 2016 US presidential election.... Bank officials found that he paid her rent, her tuition at American University, and even a monthly furniture bill...But bankers also saw that [Paul] Erickson was often in dire financial straits. His personal and business accounts were overdrawn by a total of $2,300. He was hit with 77 overdraft fees. He took out payday loans of about $3,000 and had a balance of just $9 in one of his accounts." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: See related story by Betsy Woodruff, linked below. And the following story about the Useful Idiot Junior Falwell is tangentially related to both. ...

... More Useful Idiots. Noor Al-Sabai of RawStory: "Liberty University president and televangelist spawn Jerry Falwell Jr. admitted that he asked President Donald Trump to thaw relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin -- and cited the alliance of the former Soviet Union with the Allied powers during World War II as his justification." --safari

Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare: "It isn't every day that the U.S. Department of Justice acknowledges formally that the President of the United States lied in a speech to Congress. But that's how I read a letter I received a few days ago from the department's Office of Information Policy in connection with one of my Freedom of Information Act suits against the department.... In [his] first address to Congress in February 2017..., [Trump claimed,] 'According to data provided by the Department of Justice, the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside of our country.'... In April of last year, I filed two FOIA requests. I asked for any records supporting the president's claim before Congress, along with any records 'relating to the nationality or country of origin of individuals convicted of terrorism-related offenses.'" In a letter to Wittes dated July 24, 2018, the DOJ wrote, "... [N]o responsive records were located."

Matt Shuham of TPM: "White House chief of staff John Kelly announced to staff Monday that he'd agreed to stay in that position through the 2020 election, the Wall Street Journal first reported Tuesday. Citing unnamed White House officials, the Journal said Kelly was responding to Trump's request that he stay through 2020." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The White House is considering a second sharp reduction in the number of refugees who can be resettled in the United States, picking up where President Trump left off in 2017 in scaling back a program intended to offer protection to the world's most vulnerable people, according to two former government officials and another person familiar with the talks. This time, the effort is meeting with less resistance from inside the Trump administration because of the success that Stephen Miller, the president's senior policy adviser and an architect of his anti-immigration agenda, has had in installing allies in key positions who are ready to sign off on deep cuts. Last year, after a fierce internal battle that pitted Mr. Miller, who advocated a limit as low as 15,000, against officials at the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Pentagon, Mr. Trump set the cap at 45,000, a historic low. Under one plan currently being discussed, no more than 25,000 refugees could be resettled in the United States next year, a cut of more than 40 percent from this year's limit.... The program's fate could hinge on Mike Pompeo..... His department has traditionally been a strong advocate for the refugee program, but Mr. Pompeo is now being advised by two senior aides who are close to Mr. Miller and share his hard-line approach...."

Nick Miroff & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Trump administration officials mounted a fierce defense Tuesday of the controversial family separation policy at the border, defending sites as 'more like a summer camp' than holding facilities, and arguing that the detention system simply was not set up to facilitate court-ordered reunions easily. 'I'm very comfortable with the level of service and protection that is being provided,' top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Matthew Albence told the Senate Judiciary Committee about the conditions at the 'family residential centers,' which he likened to summer camps. He and other administration officials told senators that the government had mechanisms in place to return children to their parents after they were separated, but they had to improvise a new reunification system under orders from a federal judge. 'This is a novel situation,' said Cmdr. Jonathan D. White, a public health coordinating official for the reunification effort. 'The systems were not set up to have referrals include parent information.'... The defensive comments from Trump officials dumbfounded Democratic members of the committee, such as Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who charged that the Trump administration had created a situation at the border that was like a Kafka novel, suggesting that ... Chuck E. Cheese had a better system for preventing children from being separated from their parents than the U.S. government." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... No More Drugging the Kiddies at Summer Camp. Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Monday found that U.S. governmentofficials have been giving psychotropic medication to migrant children at a Texas facility without first seeking the consent of their parents or guardians, in violation of state child welfare laws. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles ordered the Trump administration to obtain consent or a court order before adm inistering any psychotropic medications to migrant children, except in cases of dire emergencies. She also ordered that the government move all children out of a Texas facility, Shiloh Residential Treatment Center in Manvel, except for children deemed by a licensed professional to pose a 'risk of harm' to themselves or others. Staff members at Shiloh admitted to signing off on medications in lieu of a parent, relative or legal guardian, according to Gee's ruling.... The facility also has a history of troubling practices, including allegations of child abuse, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Melanie Schmitz of ThinkProgress: "Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross pressured the Justice Department to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 decennial census, months prior to the department's formal request, a recent court disclosure reveals.... [E]mails contradict Ross' previous version of events, which he relayed to the House Ways and Means Committee in March. At the time, the secretary claimed the Justice Department had 'initiated the request for inclusion of the citizenship question' on its own in December 2017.... Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have leapt to condemn Ross over that inconsistency." --safari: Despite obvious inconsistencies and mounting evidence of political ratfking, the GOP will run roughshod right over the flailing Democrats. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Michael Wines of the New York Times covered the e-mail evidence of Ross's false claim this last week. Last week Chris Hayes also found three separate hearings where Ross lied to Congress about the DOJ's supposedly initiating the citizenship question, but I was never able to find an isolated video of the segment (and I still can't). Two days ago, Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post gave Ross 4 Pinocchios -- the max -- for his false testimony. The issue is an important one, because, as Emily Badger of the New York Times writes (July 31), "The primary effect would be to dilute the power of the most populous states and, within states, the cities where immigrants are densely clustered. Other American political institutions like the Senate and Electoral College systematically disadvantage large urban areas relative to rural ones. Political maps redefined to count only citizens, or voting-age citizens, would push that dynamic further." In the meantime, as Michael Wines wrote (July 26), "A federal judge on Thursday gave the green light to a lawsuit seeking to block the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census, saying plaintiffs had made a plausible case that the move was a deliberate attempt by the White House to discriminate against immigrants. The ruling, by United States District Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan, set the stage for a trial this fall that is expected to delve into how and why the Trump administration decided in March to add a question to the next census about citizenship status."

"Trump's Crony Capitalists Plot a New Heist." New York Times Editors: "It seems that last year's $1.5 trillion tax-cut package, despite heavily favoring affluent investors and corporate titans over workers of modest means, was insufficiently generous to the wealthy to satisfy certain members of the Trump administration. So now Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin offers an exciting plan to award an additional $100 billion tax cut to the richest Americans. Specifically, Mr. Mnuchin has directed his department to explore allowing investors to take inflation into account when calculating their capital gains tax bill.... Independent analyses say that a whopping 97 percent of the savings from Mr. Mnuchin's plan would go to the highest 10 percent of income earners. So ... the administration is looking to hand $66 billion-plus to the ultrarich like -- just to name a few -- Mr. Mnuchin..., Wilbur Ross..., Betsy DeVos..., and, of course, the extended Trump-Kushner clan.... Thus die the final vestiges of this president's pretty little narrative about being a populist hero." ...

... Franklin Foer of the Atlantic: "On the eve of the Paul Manafort trial, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin casually announced that the Trump administration was considering a fresh $100 billion tax cut for the wealthy. The two events -- the trial and the tax cut -- should be considered plot points in the very same narrative. Manafort had grown very rich by looting public monies, and Mnuchin was proposing an arguably legal version of the same.... This proposed cut would be implemented by executive fiat, without a congressional vote -- a highly unusual and highly undemocratic act of plunder that would redirect money from the state to further enrich the American elite, not to mention Mnuchin himself. The trial of Paul Manafort ... is an occasion for the United States to awaken from its collective slumber about the creeping dangers of kleptocracy.... Over the past three decades..., America has become the sanctuary of choice for laundered money, a bastion of shell companies and anonymously purchased real estate.... Manafort is one of the architects of this new world order." Read on. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: When I read Foer's essay, I immediately thought of Henry Kissinger, even though Foer doesn't mention Kissinger & his international shenanigans. But Kissinger has long seemed to me to be a master facilitator of corrupt money schemes benefitting the world's most brutal characters. So as luck would have it, the next story I read was this one by Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast, ostensibly about Mariia Butina. The gist of the story is that Butina pushed creepy American financier [Maurice "Hank"] Greenberg (think AIG) to invest heavily in a particularly crooked -- and failing -- Russian bank called Investtorgbank. "Butina's efforts ... did not succeed. In April 2015.... Butina and [her mentor] Alexander Torshin ... attended a private discussion of Russia';s financial situation at the Center for the National Interest.... Greenberg ... [who] is a main source of funding for the Center -- participated in the meeting. The Center's honorary chairman -- former secretary of state and accused war criminal Henry Kissinger -- is one of Vladimir Putin's closest international confidants; the two have met 17 times over the years. Kissinger also advised Donald Trump to move closer to Russia.... People close to the Center have risen to prominence in the Trump administration.... Trump himself gave the first major foreign policy speech of his presidential campaign at an event the Center hosted, on April 27, 2016...." Here again, you have to read the whole story to get a glimpse of the corrupt entanglements Foer describes. Trump played only in the margins of this gang; thanks to his new job, he's moving closer to its center now. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As MAG points out in today's comments (here I'm citing a July 30 WashPo story), "'With Paul Manafort, who really is a nice man, you look at what's going on, it's like Al Capone,' the president said in a recent Fox News interview, comparing the prosecution strategy to the one used to take down the murderous gangster on tax evasion charges." Yeah but. The "murderous gangster" Capone confined most of his dirty ops to the U.S.; efforts by Manafort & his cronies extend world-wide; they aid & abet quite a few "murderous gangsters." "A nice man"?

Contributer forrest m. has been doing original research for us re: the DOJ's new so-called "religious liberty task force" (related stories linked below.) forrest "tried Googling how many Baptist churches have been attacked by the LGBTQ community and guess what---it's less than zero." Also in today's thread, Jeanne doesn't seem all that sure we need a taxpayer-funded "Christian freedom" enforcement squad: "Why do we have to have an entire subcabinet outfit to ballyhoo and whine and complain that one can't practice one's Christian religion anymore when we have that font of virtue, Sam Brownback? Wasn't he supposed to be the gatekeeper so none of the 'wrong' religions get consideration ever?" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Deanna Paul, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge has blocked the public availability of blueprints that provide instructions for making guns using 3-D printers, just hours before the documents were expected to be published online. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik granted a temporary restraining order on Tuesday night barring a trove of downloadable information about creating the do-it-yourself weapons. Eight attorneys general and the District of Columbia argued that the instructions posed a national security threat. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) on Tuesday also issued a cease-and-desist order against the man who was scheduled to post them online.... The Pennsylvania attorney general also sued Defense Distributed on Sunday, and the company agreed to temporarily block Pennsylvania users from its website. Democrats in the House and Senate also filed legislation that would in effect ban guns constructed from 3-D-printed material. But despite the efforts, some of the plans went online on Friday, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro." ...

... Michael Shear & Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "State officials, Democratic lawmakers and gun control groups waged a frantic legal fight on Tuesday to block the online distribution of blueprints for 3-D printed 'ghost guns,' even as President Trump said he is 'looking into' his administration's decision last month to allow the posting of instructions for making the untraceable, plastic firearms. Cody Wilson, a champion of gun-rights and anarchism from Texas who has waged a yearslong legal battle for the right to post the schematics for making homemade guns, has said he will begin making the plans available following a settlement with the State Department ending the government' effort to stop him. But with just hours before an August 1 deadline when Mr. Wilson has said he will upload many more schematics -- including instructions for making AR-15-style rifles -- alarmed public officials accelerated their efforts to get courts to prevent Mr. Wilson from moving forward with his plans."

States' Rights! (Exceptions). Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "Senate Republicans introduced legislation on Tuesday that would take regulatory power away from states in order to expedite the approval of energy infrastructure projects that are facing stiff resistance from the public. The bill, dubbed the Water Quality Certification Improvement Act of 2018, is part of an effort by the Trump administration and its allies in Congress to reduce the ability of states to use their authority under section 401 of the Clean Water Act to prevent the construction of projects such as pipelines or coal export terminals." --safari

Spectrum News: "North Carolina's largest health insurer ... Blue Cross and Blue Shield ... said Tuesday it proposed prices to state insurance regulators that could lower rates for next year's Affordable Care Act policies by 4.1 percent on average, which is the first rate decrease in more than 25 years.... About 85 percent of the savings comes from last year's federal income tax cut and Congress suspending a tax on insurers for 2019. Blue Cross says it could have lowered average rates by another 18 percent if Congress and the Trump Administration hadn't eliminated the penalty for people who don't buy health." [Emphasis added] --safari

Laura Litvan & Katherine Scott of Bloomberg: "Senator Susan Collins of Maine told reporters Tuesday that she has no objection to a decision late Friday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, to leave out of a federal document request all the paperwork and emails from [Supreme Court nominee Brett] Kavanaugh's time as staff secretary to President George W. Bush.... 'I met with Senator Grassley yesterday about the document request and, as he described it to me, it seems eminently reasonable,' Collins said. Mrs. McC: Still wondering where Collins will come down on the confirmation vote? ...

... BUT Jeff Toobin, in the New Yorker, argues that Democrats should keep on fighting anyway. "... the current Republican margin in the Senate (owing to John McCain's absence) is just a single vote, and Kavanaugh's long paper trail, both as a judge and as a Republican political appointee, gives Democrats a great deal of material to exploit. Most of all, they need to remember that fighting Supreme Court nominees, even against formidable odds, can succeed -- and produce a better Court than anyone might have expected."

"Everyone Talked." Writing a Book about the Trumpies for Fun & Profit. Annie Karni of Politico: Bob Woodward is writing a book pre-titled "Fear: Trump in the White House," which is scheduled to be released Sept. 11. "The cover is a striking red wash over an uncomfortably close close-up of Trump's face.... According to half a dozen former administration officials and people close to the administration, Woodward was never officially granted access to the White House or to the president, and the communications department did nothing to help him in researching or writing his book.... [BUT] Senior officials, acting as lone wolves concerned with preserving their own reputations, spoke to Woodward on their own -- with some granting him hours of their time out of a fear of being the last person in the room to offer his or her viewpoint. As one former administration official put it... : 'It's gonna be killer. Everyone talked with Woodward.'" In yesterday Comments thread, PD Pepe linked to a similar HuffPost story by Nick Visser.

"The Stephen King of the Horror Story We Live in":

... In another segment, Colbert goes on to discuss the #MeToo movement, and elaborates on his gutsy opening about his boss Les Moonves:

... Anna Silman of New York: "Last night on CBS's Late Show, Stephen Colbert did something that many people in the #MeToo movement have not: He took his boss to task.... Colbert's response stands out compared to others at CBS who have gone on the record about the allegations faced by their shared boss. After Farrow's report broke on Friday, many top female executives and personalities came out in support of Moonves, including Sharon Osbourne, Lynda Carter, president and chief advertising revenue officer Jo Ann Ross, and executive vice-president of daytime programs Angelica McDaniel. Moonves's wife, Julie Chen, expressed full-throated support on The Talk, the CBS show she co-hosts. The company's board said that while they would investigate the claims against him, Moonves would remain CEO."

Beyond the Beltway

** Jonathan Oosting of the Detroit News: "A proposal to create an independent redistricting commission will appear on the November ballot, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled late Tuesday in a closely watched case. The 4-3 decision is rife with political implications in Michigan, where Republicans have maintained or grown congressional and legislative advantages since last drawing the state's political boundaries in 2011.... The proposal would create a 13-member redistricting commission that would be composed of four Democrats, four Republicans and five independent members who vow they are not affiliated with any major political party. The secretary of state would select the commission members. The committee would be tasked with redrawing political boundaries every 10 years, a power currently reserved for whichever political party controls Lansing at the time.... Republicans who drew the current boundaries have publicly denied an overt bias and say existing laws already limit manipulation. But recently revealed emails between map makers that were disclosed as part of a separate federal lawsuit point to political calculus." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Especially if this ballot measure passes, it could become a blueprint for reform in other states. You can bet opponents will mount an extremely vigorous campaign against the measure.

Way Beyond

Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, in Tehran, Mr. Trump’s open invitation [to meet with Iran's president Hassan Rouhani] seemed to be on everybody's mind. Increasingly desperate, many [Iranian citizens] say they would >welcome any option that could ease Iran's economic quagmire.... But if anything, Iran's leaders seem paralyzed by Mr. Trump's offer. Direct talks with the United States go against their ideology. And in their minds, sitting down publicly with Mr. Trump, whom they have called particularly ignorant, capricious, arrogant and rude, would be an especially humiliating submission to imperialism and pressure. When dealing with the United States over the past decades, Iranian leaders have often preferred to do it through secret talks, far away from ordinary Iranians, who are bombarded daily with organized anti-Americanism from their schoolbooks to state television."

Simon Tisdall of the Guardian: "The suicide bombing and hostage-taking at a government building in Jalalabad is the latest in a series of attacks, attributed to Islamic State terrorists, that have killed or wounded hundreds of people in eastern Afghanistan since mid-June.... But the terrorists' lethal escalation including Tuesday's assault has also coincided, probably deliberately, with signs of progress in renewed efforts to halt the 17-year-old, US-orchestrated war between the Afghan government and the Taliban." --safari

Juan Cole: "After the passage last week of the 'nationality' law, Israel is no longer multicultural. It is a country where national sovereignty solely lies in the hands of its Jewish citizens. Among the Palestinian-Israelis with Israeli citizenship, only about 130,000 are Druze ... a medieval offshoot of the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam.... Alone among the Palestinian-Israelis, the Druze serve in the military. And therein lies the rub.... They say they were fighting for their 'nationality' but that now it isn't theirs anymore.... They say they will do whatever they can to ensure that their grandchildren don't serve in the Israeli army. Druze elders are petrified of this sentiment ... which threatens to turn their community into ordinary Palestinians, and they have commanded the Druze rank and file to stay out of politics and do their military service.... They are not stateless the way the latter are, but they aren't full citizens either. The statelessness of the refugees and the Occupied has finally rubbed off on them." --safari