The Commentariat -- August 7, 2018

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times is liveblogging the Manafort trial. "On Tuesday, prosecutors began leading [Manafort's right-hand-man Rick Gates] through a clinical examination of his and Mr. Manafort's business dealings, including how he doctored invoices. Mr. Gates admitted on Monday that they committed crimes together." ...

     ... Update: @4:25 pm ET, here's the latest recap: "Rick Gates ... is being cross-examined by defense lawyers in Mr. Manafort's trial on bank and tax fraud charges in Alexandria, Va. As defense lawyers attacked his credibility, Mr. Gates admitted to having an affair about a decade ago, but he denied using company money for his trysts. Prosecutors led him through a clinical examination of his and Mr. Manafort's business dealings, including how he hid income to avoid taxes. It is unclear whether Mr. Manafort will take the stand in his own defense. His lawyers would not say. The prosecutors said they expect to wind up their case this week." ...

... The Washington Post's liveblog, which provides more detail on the testimony, is here. ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "For days, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis has been cracking the whip at prosecutors in the Paul Manafort fraud trial, prodding them again and again to keep the case moving forward and to drop matters he considers irrelevant. Prosecutors' frustration with those exhortations spilled out publicly Monday in a series of prickly clashes in which Ellis snapped at one of special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors, Greg Andres, and Andres sometimes lashed back at the judge -- something lawyers rarely do.... The clashes with the judge were unusual and could be risky, since some of them took place with the jury in the room."

Rick Wilson in Rolling Stone: "As these past several days prove, Trump's impenetrable belief that he's a genius surrounded by morons will be his undoing. He's tweeting himself -- to say nothing of his family and co-conspirators -- into a legal dead end. A meeting with Mueller is the big leagues, where the stakes are existential, the opposing team is merciless and the downside risks are the size of the White House. This impulsive, stubborn man can't resist trying to pull off this stunt. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Toxic Shock." Sydney Franklin of ArchNews: "One of the most dangerous construction-related carcinogens is now legally allowed back into U.S. manufacturing under a new rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On June 1, the EPA authorized a 'SNUR' (Significant New Use Rule) which allows new products containing asbestos to be created on a case-by-case basis. According to environmental advocates, this new rule gives chemical companies the upper hand in creating new uses for harmful products in the United States. In May, the EPA released a report detailing its new framework for evaluating the risk of its top prioritized substances. The report states that the agency will no longer consider the effect or presence of substances in the air, ground, or water in its risk assessments. This news comes after the EPA reviewed its first batch of 10 chemicals under the 2016 amendment to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which required the agency to continually reevaluate hundreds of potentially toxic chemicals to see whether they should face new restrictions or be removed from the market. The SNUR greenlights companies to use toxic chemicals like asbestos without consideration about how they will endanger people who are indirectly in contact with them." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: Pruitt or not, I find this unbelievable.

Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "The Trump administration is expected to issue a proposal in coming weeks that would make it harder for legal immigrants to become citizens or get green cards if they have ever used a range of popular public welfare programs, including Obamacare, four sources with knowledge of the plan told NBC News. The move, which would not need congressional approval, is part of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller's plan to limit the number of migrants who obtain legal status in the U.S. each year.... Immigration lawyers and advocates and public health researchers say it would be the biggest change to the legal immigration system in decades and estimate that more than 20 million immigrants could be affected." Mrs. McC: I don't have to tell you this is senseless cruelty. Many who suffer will be the American children of these legal immigrants. One reason to vote Democratic: so Congress can haul Miller up before some committee & ask "What the fuck is the matter with you?" ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Under the forthcoming plan, any legal immigrants who have ever used (or whose household contains people who have ever used) children's health insurance (CHIP), Obamacare, supplemental nutrition assistance, or other social benefits could be denied legal status. Since the 19th century, immigration policy has discriminated against migrants who might become a 'public charge.' But Trump plans to expand the definition of the term to include basic benefits for the working class.... Almost nobody in the United States actually pays for their own insurance in a completely self-sufficient fashion. People who get insurance through their job are benefitting from a massive, costly tax deduction for employer-sponsored insurance. Those who get it through Medicare likewise enjoy a taxpayer-financed social benefit. Programs like Obamacare and CHIP simply extend the same regimen of subsidies and risk pooling to the low-income population that have already been granted to the middle class.... Trump's contribution to the party creed will be to infuse the top-down class war with a racial tinge. That this all proceeds from some fastidiousness about following the rules is a pretense nobody need bother entertaining anymore." ...

... Thank You for Your Service. Dana Milbank: "Sgt. Temo Juarez was a Trump guy. An Iraq combat veteran who served as a Marine infantryman and then an Army National Guardsman, his friends called him a 'super conservative.' With his wife, he brought up their two daughters in Central Florida. He supported Trump in 2016, eager for a change. But now, 'I am eating my words,' he told the military newspaper Stars and Stripes in an interview published last week. On Friday..., his wife, Alejandra, left the country under a deportation order. She had come to the United States from Mexico illegally as a teenager two decades ago and had until now being living undisturbed with Temo, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and daughters, both natural-born Americans.... The advocacy group American Families United, extrapolating from census figures, estimates there are as many as 11,800 active-duty military service members with a spouse or family member vulnerable to deportation. And that doesn't include veterans' families."

All the Best People, Ctd. "Wilbur the Grifter" Edition. Dan Alexander of Forbes: "Over several months, in speaking with 21 people who know Ross, Forbes uncovered a pattern: Many of those who worked directly with him claim that [Commerce Secretary Wilbur] Ross wrongly siphoned or outright stole a few million here and a few million there, huge amounts for most but not necessarily for the commerce secretary. At least if you consider them individually. But all told, these allegations -- which sparked lawsuits, reimbursements and an SEC fine -- come to more than $120 million. If even half of the accusations are legitimate, the current United States secretary of commerce could rank among the biggest grifters in American history.... Those who've done business with Ross generally tell a consistent story, of a man obsessed with money and untethered to facts." Plus, he steals Sweet'N Low from the local restaurant & doesn't pay his household help.

*****

Today is primary election day in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri & Washington State. There is also a special Congressional election in Ohio. More on that below. ...

... Maggie Astor of the New York Times looks at the most important races in today's primaries.

Sharon LaFraniere & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Rick Gates, Paul Manafort's right-hand man for years, began testifying against his former boss on Monday in federal court in Alexandria, Va. He is considered the most important witness in Mr. Manafort's trial on tax and bank fraud charges. Asked by prosecutors whether he was involved in any criminal activity with Mr. Manafort, Mr. Gates responded, 'Yes.' Mr. Gates also testified that he and Mr. Manafort held 15 foreign bank accounts that were not disclosed to the federal government. Mr. Gates said the required financial filings were not submitted 'at Mr. Manafort's direction.' Mr. Gates admitted to a wide variety of crimes, including bank fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, lying to federal authorities, lying in a court deposition and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mr. Manafort's accounts by falsely claiming expenses.... Mr. Gates ... remained on the campaign as a liaison to the Republican National Committee through the election. Mr. Gates was named deputy chairman of Mr. Trump's inaugural campaign, raising huge sums for the event." ...

... Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: "In his first hour on the witness stand, Gates catalogued years of crimes, saying most of his wrongdoing was committed on behalf of his former boss, Paul Manafort, while other crimes were for his own benefit, including the theft of hundreds thousands of dollars. Gates also made clear he was testifying against Manafort in the hopes of receiving a lesser prison sentence, having pleaded guilty in February as part of a deal with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III."

Team Trump Preparing Weenie Whiney Letter to Mueller. Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Rudolph W. Giuliani ... said Monday that Trump's legal team is planning to send a letter to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III this week that will largely rebuff Mueller's latest offer of a presidential interview that would include questions about possible obstruction of justice. 'We have a real reluctance about allowing any questions about obstruction,' Giuliani said in an interview with The Washington Post.... He said he and other Trump lawyers have been discussing the details of a draft version of the letter in recent days and hope to send it to Mueller 'sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday.' Giuliani said he expects the letter to 'continue the negotiations' rather than formally decline Mueller's request. 'The president still hasn't made a decision, and we're not going to make a final decision just yet,' he said."

David Graham of the Atlantic: "In an attempt to defend his son Donald Trump Jr. on Sunday..., Donald Trump may instead have incriminated him -- and himself.... The president packed a great deal of potential trouble into less than 280 characters. First, he seems to proceed from the assumption that by declaring the purpose legal, that makes it so, when in fact the acknowledgement points to the ways the meeting may have broken federal laws. Second, by contradicting his earlier claims, the president again underscores his prior dishonesty.... The changing accounts ... get at accusations that the president obstructed justice. Finally, the tweet is riddled with internal contradictions. If the president is unconcerned about his son, why is he tweeting angrily about [a WashPo] story? And if what happened was entirely legal, why is he so quick to deny that he knew about the meeting?" ...

... Mike Allen of Axios: "Bob Bauer, a former White House counsel to President Obama who's now a law professor at NYU, said the new tweet weakens an argument for Trump's lawyers 'that he shouldn't have to interview with Mueller because he doesn't know anything.'" ...

... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "Even though Trump's tweet isn't as new or revelatory as many are portraying it, it has revived questions about the meeting itself.... Most important of all in my view, is the question of whether there's still more to the story of what actually happened during and after the meeting. The story from the meeting's participants has been more or less consistent since last July. They claim the meeting was a bit of a mess and a disappointment, that no useful dirt was offered, and that there was no follow-up afterward. No one has yet claimed otherwise...." ...

... It's Not a Crime if Trump Does It. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Last week, President Trump and his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani argued that collusion isn't a crime. But on Monday, Trump suggested [in tweets] that Hillary Clinton should be investigated for this supposed non-crime. 'Collusion is very real with Russia,' Trump quoted conservative commentator Dan Bongino as saying on Trump's favorite Fox News morning show, 'but only with Hillary and the Democrats, and we should demand a full investigation.'... Investigations, it bears emphasizing, are generally launched to find illegal activity. Trump's call to investigate Clinton's alleged collusion with Russia -- a complex and strained theory having to do with the Steele dossier -- would seem to belie his true opinion about whether collusion is, in fact, a crime. But it's hardly the first time.... Over and over, mostly through his allegations of Democratic collusion, he's acknowledged the criminal nature of collusion in ways that would seem to make it much more difficult for his lawyers to press the case that collusion by Donald Trump Jr. or anybody else wasn't criminal." Blake provides five examples. ...

... Dana Bash of CNN: "... Donald Trump has been urged [by 'associates'? -- passive voice, Dana!] to stop tweeting about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump's top advisers and several Russians, a source familiar with discussions tells CNN. The President was advised that his tweeting only gives oxygen to the topic, even if those around Trump do not believe there is any truly new development." ...

... Like Akhilleus, in yesterday's commentary, Aaron Blake is unimpressed with the Trump administration's newest "explanation" that "facts develop": "... the spokespeople and advisers tasked with squaring Trump's version of reality with actual reality must often contort themselves accordingly. Early in the administration, this meant Kellyanne Conway talking about how the administration had 'alternative facts.' Later, it was Sean Spicer explaining that he didn't 'knowingly' lie to the American people. On Sunday, they tried a couple of new tacks: asserting that 'facts develop' and saying that the president 'misspoke' -- while saying something he has said dozens of times.... Facts might have 'developed' from [Trump attorney Jay] Sekulow's perspective, but the actual events never changed.... national security adviser John Bolton offered another extremely hard-to-stomach explanation for Trump's soft stance toward Vladimir Putin on Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election, saying Trump merely 'misspoke.'... As the video clip [Chris] Wallace played shows, [the would-wouldn't claim] was hardly the only moment in the joint news conference with Putin in which Trump played down the idea that Russia interfered." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: "Misspeaking" means saying something you don't mean, often because you garbled what you intended to say. But politicians use "I misspoke" to explain away things they've said that they do mean but wish they hadn't admitted. Saying "would" for "wouldn't" would be a good example of misspeaking, would that it were not another Trump lie-excuse. One cannot repeatedly "misspeak" the same thing. "What a waste it is to lose one';s mind" is misspeaking; making approving remarks about Putin again & again is not. ...

... Calm Down, Breathless Pundits! Matt Ford of the New Republic: "Ultimately, the frenzied search for a single piece of evidence that proves Trump illegally colluded with Russia works in his favor. It creates a public expectation that will be difficult for Mueller to meet, thereby setting the stage for disappointment when the inquiry concludes. In doing so, it minimizes the considerable amount of evidence that's already public: Trump's supine performance at last month's Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin, the constant outreach efforts between the Trump campaign and Russian intermediaries throughout the 2016 election, the sudden dismissal of FBI Director James Comey last May, the persistent efforts to discredit and shut down investigations into what really happened, and so much more.... By holding out for a smoking gun, Trump's critics may be downplaying the gunpowder residue that's already coating his hands."

Anna Schectar of NBC News: "Kristin Davis, the 'Manhattan Madam' who says she provided prostitutes to New York's rich and famous, is scheduled to testify before special counsel Robert Mueller's grand jury in Washington this week, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Last week an investigator on Mueller's team questioned Davis about Russian collusion, said the source.... Davis, 41, told NBC News in July that someone in Mueller's office called her attorney to ask her to speak to investigators, and that she believed it was because of her ties to former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone."

Greg Sargent: "One of [Trump's campaign] promises, of course, was to return prosperity to what he called the 'forgotten men and women,' the victims of self-enriching economic elites who subjected them, via either stupid or corrupt trade and immigration policies, to debilitating labor competition at the hands of slave-wage labor in China and migrant invaders 'pouring' across the southern border. But the Associated Press looked at the last year's worth of employment data and made an interesting discovery. Most of its benefits are accruing to counties carried by Hillary Clinton in 2016[.]... 'Job growth in Trump's economy is still concentrated in the same general places as it was toward the end of Barack Obama's presidency -- when roughly 58.7 percent of the average annual job gains were in Democratic counties.'... If that continues, it may mean that Trump's combination of embracing GOP plutocracy and sticking only with the residual xenophobic aspects of Trumpian populist nationalism may not end up delivering huge economic gains to Trump country, after all."

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said it would restore sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear accord at midnight on Monday, ratcheting up pressure on Tehran while worsening a divide with Europe. The new sanctions are a consequence of President Trump's decision in May to withdraw from the nuclear deal with world powers. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that the goal was to get Iran to change its ways -- namely, ending its support of brutal governments or uprisings in the Middle East. European officials have said that the Iran nuclear agreement is crucial to their national security. International inspectors have concluded that Iran is complying with the accord." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated. -- Donald Trump, Nevada presidential primary victory speech, February 2016 ...

... NEW. The Poor-Education President. Feliciz Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Former education secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday sharply criticized the Trump administration's policies on education and said he doubts the president wants an educated workforce because 'it doesn't play to his authoritarian tendencies.'... Duncan argued that a highly educated workforce would mean more people challenging Trump on his policies as well as his false or misleading claims. 'I'm not sure if that's in his self-interest,' he said." Mrs. McC: Arne is a tool, but he gets this right.

Nearly Everything Trump Says Is a Lie. Hope Yen & Calvin Woodward of the AP run down a series of false & delusional remarks Trump has made in the past week. "... Donald Trump is imagining steel mill openings that aren't happening and in denial about Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... To wit: Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "In his first remarks on the vast California wildfires that have killed at least seven people and forced thousands to flee, President Trump blamed the blazes on the state's environmental policies and inaccurately claimed that water that could be used to fight the fires was 'foolishly being diverted into the Pacific Ocean.' State officials and firefighting experts dismissed the president's comments, which he posted on Twitter. 'We have plenty of water to fight these wildfires, but let's be clear: It's our changing climate that is leading to more severe and destructive fires,' said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director of Cal Fire, the state's fire agency.... California does not lack water to fight the Carr Fire and others burning across the state, officials said.... William Stewart, a forestry specialist at the University of California, Berkeley, said he believed Mr. Trump was referring to the battle over allocating water to irrigation versus providing river habitat for fish. That debate has no bearing on the availability of water for firefighting." ...

... OR, as Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times puts it: "In a strikingly ignorant tweet, Trump gets almost everything about California wildfires wrong. No one would mistake President Trump for an expert on climate change or water policy, but a tweet he issued late Sunday about California's wildfires deserves some sort of award for most glaring misstatements about those two issues in the smallest number of words." Hiltzik debunks Trump's politically-motivated nonsense claims. "The sole nugget of fact in Trump's tweet may be found in its final line, which states, 'Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!' This isn't exactly placed in cogent or coherent thought, so it's possible it's a truth nugget of the blind squirrel variety. If Trump means 'tree clear' to mean more logging, then he's merely putting his oar in for more commercial exploitation of the forests. If he means the construction of fire breaks to contain fires, that's correct but it's a well understood technique and is exactly the technique being applied as a matter of course."

Sad! Ryan Parker & Abid Rahman of the Hollywood Reporter: "West Hollywood City Council has voted 'unanimously' to approve a resolution urging Los Angeles City Council and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to permanently remove Donald Trump's Walk of Fame star. The star, which was unveiled in 2007, has been vandalized numerous times and completely destroyed twice.... The staff report for the resolution lists numerous reasons for the matter, including the separation of children from their parents at the border, the denial of the impacts from climate change on the word, Trump's treatment of transgendered individuals and the denial of findings from the intelligence community of Russian interference in the 2016 election, among others. The approval of a resolution urging the removal of Trump's star, however, does not necessarily mean that L.A. City Council and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce will follow through."

Franklin Foer, in the Atlantic, writes a long, deep piece on ICE. It's one of the worst federal agencies to work for, populated by employees who couldn't get jobs in more prestigious agencies like the FBI. Then Trump, Sessions, Miller & Co. came along & weaponized these jamokes (who endorsed Trump in the general election), who didn't have enough to do when President Obama established enforcement priorities that ICE officers viewed as "handcuffs." "Even in a time when GOP policy on immigration had swung far to the right, these staffers -- Stephen Miller, now a White House senior adviser, is the most famous of the bunch -- existed far outside the party's mainstream."

But will they wear long pants?Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul, who has supported ... Donald Trump's effort to improve relations with Russia, announced Monday that Russian lawmakers have agreed to visit the U.S. Capitol. 'Engagement is vital to our national security and peace around the world,' Paul (R-Ky.) said in a statement. He is currently in Moscow meeting with Russian officials...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Congressional Races

Margaret Hartmann: "Republicans have held Ohio's 12th Congressional District for decades, but recent polling shows Tuesday's special election is now a toss up. Though the GOP has little room for error, that did not prevent President Trump from initially tweeting his endorsement for the wrong candidate, and then picking a fight with NBA superstar LeBron James, Ohio's favorite native son, hours before a rally in support of GOP candidate Troy Balderson. But Balderson might have found a way to outdo the president. During his final campaign stop on Monday night, Balderson told a crowd in Zanesville, Ohio that they need to get out and vote tomorrow because 'we don't want someone from Franklin County representing us.' Balderson's opponent, Democrat Danny O'Connor, is from Franklin County -- but so are about a third of the district's voters." Harry Enten tweeted, "To put Balderson's comments ... in some perspective, imagine an NYC mayoral candidate saying 'we don't want someone from Brooklyn!' Brooklyn makes up a similar share of NYC vote as Franklin does of OH-12 vote." Mrs. McC: Also, Balderson was wearing shorts when he said it. Must take his sartorial cues from Little Randy.

So Much Winning -- in GOP Primary Races. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Since the beginning of June, President Trump's been on a remarkable political run. There have been 11 contests in which he's made an endorsement, and in each of those 11 races his preferred candidate has won.... They were all Republican primary contests. In other words, Trump's batting 11-for-11 since June in races where only members of his party can vote.... The problem for Trump is that his track record in non-primaries is much worse. He has endorsed in four Democrat-vs.-Republican matchups as president -- and lost three of the four. The only one in which his endorsed candidate won was Rep. Karen Handel's special election victory in Georgia in June of last year. His endorsed candidates for Virginia governor, Alabama Senate and a special House race in Pennsylvania all lost.... before his endorsement of Roy Moore in Alabama turned into a debacle for the ages, Trump would regularly tout how well Republicans were doing in special elections."

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "President Trump turned aside the advice of party officials and intervened in the Kansas Republican primary for governor Monday, throwing his support behind the polarizing secretary of state, Kris Kobach, one day before voters go to the polls there. In a tweet that Republican governors and some of his own aides had sought to avert, Mr. Trump called Mr. Kobach 'a fantastic guy' and offered his 'full & total endorsement.' Mr. Kobach is running against Gov. Jeff Colyer, who succeeded Sam Brownback, and a handful of other Republicans in a contest that had been highly competitive. But Mr. Trump's blessing is now likely to lift Mr. Kobach, who is best known for his hard-line views on immigration and voting rights. The Republican Governors Association and a number of high-level party operatives counseled Mr. Trump against siding with Mr. Kobach, because polls show he is unpopular with the general electorate.... But Mr. Trump has grown fond of his king-making abilities.... Further, Mr. Kobach was an early and loyal supporter of Mr. Trump...."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Brian Feldman of New York: "On Sunday, dedicated conspiracy theorists with iPhones searching for podcasts from ... Alex Jones and his media empire Infowars were stymied: Apple had removed five Infowars podcasts from iTunes and its Podcasts app. Within hours..., Facebook and YouTube both removed the official Infowars pages from their platforms.... Facebook and YouTube have acted as megaphones for Infowars (and reaped the benefits in the process) -- choosing to cut ties with the site and the millions of subscribers those accounts held, after months of pressure from consumers, employees, and victims of Jones's conspiracy-mongering.... The reason that every other platform booted Jones is because Apple did it first.... What the Infowars decisions represent is a capitulation -- not to censors, not to the public, not to the deep state, but to the only entity left that has any real power over Facebook and YouTube: Apple." ...

... Elijah Cone of Crooked: "Facebook has become a media outlet -- and, through the manipulative efforts of conservative activists, a grossly irresponsible, right-wing media outlet.... Facebook's efforts to appease right-wing critics have distorted the outlet's political influence in many obvious ways.... Facebook has the capacity to distinguish between fact and falsehood, journalism and disinformation, reason and incitement, peace and violence, and turn down the volume on the latter. It can distinguish between people who use the word 'fuck,' and people who engage in slander. It chooses not to because those distinctions ... would disfavor a right-wing media culture that embraces conspiracy theories and lies. The result is an output that places content creators who care about truth at a disadvantage, and makes Facebook a useful tool for propagandists." ...

... Tribe GOP. Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "These men, named James T. Alicie and Richard M. Birchfield, are a perfect encapsulation of the way Donald Trump has transformed the Republican Party in his image -- abandoning its traditional positions on issues ranging from Russia to trade in favor of Trump's positions on these issues. The photo is also an extremely clear way of understanding how deep hatred of Democrats is warping the Republican Party, part of a phenomenon political scientists call 'negative partisanship.'... The crucial feature about negative partisanship is that it isn't really about policy; it's about identity.... Hence why, over the course of four years, you go from Republican voters enthusiastically backing Mitt Romney -- who called Russia America's 'No. 1 geopolitical enemy' -- to the vast majority of them supporting Donald Trump through the Russia scandal.... The partisan stars have aligned such that Republicans are dismissing what's shaping up to be the biggest political scandal since Watergate -- and embracing Vladimir Putin even as he's already begun to meddle in the 2018 midterm elections." ...

... Ryan Broderick of BuzzFeed News: "It's Looking Extremely Likely That QAnon Is A Leftist Prank On Trump Supporters." Broderick posts some of the circumstantial evidence for this theory. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Way Beyond the Beltway

Steven Chase of the (Canadian) Globe & Mail: "Saudi Arabia has expelled Canada's ambassador and frozen new trade deals with [Canada] in a growing dispute over the Canadian government's criticism of human-rights violations in the Islamic kingdom. This comes in the wake of statements by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and her department last week where Ottawa called on the Saudis to release arrested civil-rights activists and signalled concern at a new crackdown in the Mideast country. In public statements on Sunday, Riyadh gave Canadian ambassador Dennis Horak 24 hours to leave the country and recalled its own envoy." (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

Los Angeles Times: "Firefighters in Northern California were beginning to gain ground Tuesday against a record-breaking wildfire in Lake County, as firefighters across the state continued their battles with 18 blazes that have scorched nearly 600,000 acres. The Mendocino Complex fire, which became the largest wildfire in California history on Monday night, had burned more than 290,000 acres as of Tuesday morning, officials said. The sprawling blaze, which is actually a combination of the Ranch and River fires in Lake County, has frustrated firefighters as it continues to leap natural and man-made barriers. The Thomas fire, which scorched 281,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties last year, had been the largest wildfire in state history before Monday night -- a dubious distinction it held for just eight months. Prolonged drought and extreme heat have made California ripe for dangerous fire conditions in recent months and years. Of the five largest wildfires in state history, four have occurred since 2012."

The Commentariat -- August 6, 2018

Late Morning Update:

Hope Yen & Calvin Woodward of the AP run down a series of false & delusional remarks Trump has made in the past week. "... Donald Trump is imagining steel mill openings that aren't happening and in denial about Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election."

Like Akhilleus, in yesterday's commentary, Aaron Blake of the Washington Post is unimpressed with the Trump administration's newest "explanation" that "facts develop": "... the spokespeople and advisers tasked with squaring Trump's version of reality with actual reality must often contort themselves accordingly. Early in the administration, this meant Kellyanne Conway talking about how the administration had 'alternative facts.' Later, it was Sean Spicer explaining that he didn't 'knowingly' lie to the American people. On Sunday, they tried a couple of new tacks: asserting that 'facts develop' and saying that the president 'misspoke' -- while saying something he has said dozens of times.... Facts might have 'developed' from [Trump attorney Jay] Sekulow's perspective, but the actual events never changed.... national security adviser John Bolton offered another extremely hard-to-stomach explanation for Trump's soft stance toward Vladimir Putin on Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election, saying Trump merely 'misspoke.'... As the video clip [Chris] Wallace played shows, [the would-wouldn't claim] was hardly the only moment in the joint news conference with Putin in which Trump played down the idea that Russia interfered." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: "Misspeaking" means saying something you don't mean, often because you garbled what you intended to say. But politicians use "I misspoke" to explain away things they've said that they do mean but wish they hadn't admitted. Saying "would" for "wouldn't" would be a good example of misspeaking, would that it were not another Trump lie-excuse. One cannot repeatedly "misspeak" the same thing. "What a waste it is to lose one's mind" is misspeaking; making approving remarks about Putin over & over again is not.

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said it would restore sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear accord at midnight on Monday, ratcheting up pressure on Tehran while worsening a divide with Europe. The new sanctions are a consequence of President Trump's decision in May to withdraw from the nuclear deal with world powers. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that the goal was to get Iran to change its ways -- namely, ending its support of brutal governments or uprisings in the Middle East. European officials have said that the Iran nuclear agreement is crucial to their national security. International inspectors have concluded that Iran is complying with the accord."

But will they wear long pants?Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul, who has supported ... Donald Trump's effort to improve relations with Russia, announced Monday that Russian lawmakers have agreed to visit the U.S. Capitol.... He is currently in Moscow meeting with Russian officials...."

Steven Chase of the (Canadian) Globe & Mail: "Saudi Arabia has expelled Canada's ambassador and frozen new trade deals with [Canada] in a growing dispute over the Canadian government's criticism of human-rights violations in the Islamic kingdom. This comes in the wake of statements by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and her department last week where Ottawa called on the Saudis to release arrested civil-rights activists and signalled concern at a new crackdown in the Mideast country. In public statements on Sunday, Riyadh gave Canadian ambassador Dennis Horak 24 hours to leave the country and recalled its own envoy."

Ryan Broderick of BuzzFeed News: "It's Looking Extremely Likely That QAnon Is A Leftist Prank On Trump Supporters." Broderick posts some of the circumstantial evidence for this theory.

*****

Ashley Parker & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Sunday offered his most definitive and clear public acknowledgment that his oldest son met with a Kremlin-aligned lawyer at Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign to 'get information on an opponent.'... It is ... against the law for U.S. campaigns to receive donations or items of value from foreigners, and that June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya is now a subject of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia probe.... 'Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower,' the president wrote in one of several early morning tweets Sunday, many of which took aim at the media. 'This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics -- and it went nowhere.' He concluded by further distancing himself from the meeting his son arranged, writing: 'I did not know about it!'... ... In one tweet, [Trump] declared the media the 'Enemy of the People' and accused them of sowing division and distrust. 'They can also cause War!' Trump wrote. 'They are very dangerous & sick!' In another, he expressed frustration with both the media and Mueller's probe. 'Too bad a large portion of the Media refuses to report the lies and corruption having to do with the Rigged Witch Hunt -- but that is why we call them FAKE NEWS!'... On Sunday, one of the president's attorneys [Jay Sekulow] defended the 2016 meeting as something that would not have been illegal under any federal statute.... Sekulow on Sunday also noted that he himself had given a misleading statement a year ago when, on 'This Week' and other media appearances, he said that Trump had nothing to do with the misleading statement given to the New York Times." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... OR, as Marcy Wheeler put it, "Trump tweets a confession, then Sekulow admits his client has been lying about his involvement.... Amid a series of batshit tweets just now, in an attempt to rebut reporting in this [WashPo] story, Trump admitted that his spawn took a meeting with people described as 'part of Russia and its government's support' for his father to obtain dirt on his opponent." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Michael Shear & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "It is illegal for a campaign to accept help from a foreign individual or government. The president and his son have maintained that the campaign did not ultimately receive any damaging materials about Mrs. Clinton as a result of the meeting. But some legal experts contend that by simply sitting for the meeting, Donald Trump Jr. broke the law.... Mr. Trump's tweet on Sunday was one in a series in which he renewed his attacks on Mr. Mueller, saying his inquiry was riddled with 'lies and corruption.'" Mrs. McC: And here we are again, with Trump accusing of others of bad behavior that accurately characterizes is own.

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Trump appears to have broken some new ground here when it comes to admitting the true purpose of the Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-aligned lawyer -- and even further contradicted the initial statement he helped draft about it.... The second issue here are the final words of the tweet. 'I did not know about it!'... If you've got no real concern about legal exposure from the meeting, why distance yourself from it?... [This suggests] he isn't as convinced as he'd like us to believe that there's nothing to see here." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Adam Davidson of the New Yorker: "August 5, 1974, was the day the Nixon Presidency ended. On that day, Nixon heeded a Supreme Court ruling and released the so-called smoking-gun tape, a recording of a meeting, held two years earlier, with his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman.... On August 5, 2018, precisely forty-four years after the collapse of the Nixon Presidency, another President, Donald Trump, made his own public admission.... The President's Sunday-morning tweet should be seen as a turning point.... It ends any possibility of an alternative explanation.... What do we do when a President has openly admitted to attempted collusion, lying, and a coverup?" Mrs. McC: If you're a GOP MoC, you place your fat ass firmly on your dirty hands, turns your eyes to the heavens & whistle "Dixie." ...

     ... If you're Rudy, you make faces. J.M. Rieger of the Washington Post: "Over the past three months, President Trump has sent his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani on a public-relations campaign to undermine the investigations surrounding Trump before they even conclude. Part of Giuliani's rhetorical tactics ... include dramatic facial expressions, laughs, sighs and over-the-top reactions, which he employs liberally and are meant to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the questions or topics in interviews...." ...

... Jeet Heer: "... an intriguing timeline of events: 1) On June 9, 2016, Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump campaign officials meet with a Russian group led by Natalia Veselnitskaya to get opposition research on Hillary Clinton. 2) On July 8, 2017, the president dictates a statement giving a false account of that meeting. His lawyer Jay Sikulow subsequently make the false statement that Trump had no role in dictating that false statement. 3) On August 5, 2018, Trump admits the meeting was about collecting opposition research and Sikulow admits Trump had a role in crafting the false statement. If Robert Mueller wants to pursue an obstruction of justice charge against Trump and others in his White House, he has a lot of material to work with." Mrs. McC: Nonethless, it's not against the law to lie to the news media. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Lurie of Slate: "On Sunday, Donald Trump's lawyer Jay Sekulow admitted that ... Trump ghostwrote, and instructed his son Donald Trump Jr. to issue, a false statement to the press about an active criminal investigation. Then, after the falsity of Trump Jr.'s statement was uncovered, the president seemingly lied to Sekulow, telling his lawyer that he had played no role in drafting it, and thereby induced Sekulow to repeat that falsehood to the nation. While Sekulow argues that there was nothing illegal about the president's conduct here, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has argued the opposite.... Kavanaugh drafted the section of the Starr Report that set out the legal theories supporting the independent counsel's claim that Bill Clinton had committed offenses that could merit impeachment. Central to that argument was a claim that Clinton had obstructed justice by attempting to encourage a witness to lie, as well as by lying to the nation himself.... The Starr Report's obstruction theory ... is far more compelling when applied to President Trump's role in the Trump Jr. statement." ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I've been seeing some hoohah recently -- a column by the WashPo's Mark Thiessen last week, for instance -- that "Hillary did the same thing," except that she used cutouts -- a lawyer & an oppo research team -- to get dirt on Trump from foreign national Christopher Steele. This is a false equivalency, as conservative columnist Eli Lake wrote in Bloomberg last October: "'There is a real meaningful distinction,' said [Adav] Noti, [a former FEC lawyer,].... 'The Clinton campaign based on what has been reported, paid for opposition research, which included paying people to dig up dirt in foreign countries.'... Noti said that if the Trump officials solicited the information, 'the act itself was unlawful.'" An organization Noti heads up is suing the Clinton campaign for hiding the payments, not for collecting the info in the dossier. It is not against U.S. law for foreign nationals to work for a contractor (or in this case, a subcontractor), at least as long as they're not "decision-makers." As Lake (or his headline writer) put it, "Both Campaigns Sought Russian Dirt. Clinton's Way Was Legal."

Roey Hadar of ABC News: "A member of President Trump's legal team said that if special counsel Robert Mueller subpoenas Trump to testify in the Russia investigation, it would spark a legal battle that would go to the Supreme Court. Lawyer Jay Sekulow told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on 'This Week' Sunday that the president's legal team's inclination at this point is not to have the president meet with Mueller. If Mueller were to try to compel the president's testimony, there would be a legal fight over the constitutionality of requiring such an act of a sitting president, Sekulow said."

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "... President Trump likes to watch replays of his debate and rally performances. But instead of looking for weaknesses in technique or for places to improve, Trump luxuriates in the moments he believes are evidence of his brilliance.... >Trump commentates as he watches, according to sources who've sat with him and viewed replays on his TiVo, which is pre-loaded with his favorites on the large TV in the private dining room adjoining the Oval Office. When watching replays, Trump will interject commentary, reveling in his most controversial lines. 'Wait for it. ... See what I did there?' he'll say."

Melanie Resists. Sort of. Jonathan Lemire & Darlene Superville of the AP: "First lady Melania Trump's move to distance herself from ... Donald Trump's criticism of NBA superstar LeBron James was the latest instance of her quiet but seemingly concerted effort to subtly create space between herself and her husband, careful not to criticize him directly while making clear she does not agree with him." ...

... BUT Melanie Was Following an Old GOP Playbook. Christina Cauterucci of Slate: "In the past week, both Melania and Ivanka Trump have burnished their reputations as the smarter, better Trumps by contradicting the president's views in public.... These statements from the women closest to Donald Trump are deliberate decoys meant to soften the president's image, conferring him humanity by association.... By making public statements that gently criticize her father, and by leaking through anonymous sources that she disagrees with him, all while continuing to stand by him in every way that matters, Ivanka has helped clear the way for her father's agenda.... Melania's statement in support of LeBron James on Saturday ... feign[ed] ignorance of the reason why anyone was talking about James' intelligence in the first place.... The strategy of dispatching a female family member to stage a public disagreement has historically been popular with Republican politicians.... A Trump family member who publicly criticizes the president does far more to ease the consciences of people who will always support Donald Trump than to nudge voters or the GOP toward any policy change." ...

... Racist-in-Chief. Annie Karni of Politico: "The content of ... Donald Trump's dig at basketball superstar LeBron James might have been standard Trump fare -- questioning the intelligence of a prominent African-American who has been critical of him -- but the timing of the tweet made it stand out on Friday night. The post landed almost exactly a year after the deadly clash between white nationalists and Black Lives Matter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, when the president refused to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis outright.... Trump ... is less constrained than he was after Charlottesville.... The advisers who tried to serve as a check on his rash impulses have since left the administration and have been replaced with people more likely to let Trump set his own agenda. And, as he did on Friday, the president has continued to inflame racial tensions -- something Democrats and Republicans alike see as fundamental to his power.... The experience of Charlottesville, as well as his ability to recover from any short-term crisis, has been empowering for Trump and his allies." ...

... Plus Misogynist-in-Chief. Charles Blow: "A review of the many insults Trump has spouted since he declared his candidacy finds that although he has called many people dumb, or dummies or low I.Q., the targeting of that particular insult at women, including minority women, occurs with curious frequency and is often a singular line of attack against them, rather than one of many.... I read in these comments an overt misogyny that has long existed in this country and the world, one that seeks to undercut the seriousness and cerebral capacity of women, to render them as emotionally unsuitable for deep deliberative analysis. It would be laughable, if so many people didn't vehemently insist that the myth has meaning."

How the Kleptocracy Works. Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Two of America's biggest steel manufacturers -- both with deep ties to administration officials -- have successfully objected to hundreds of requests by American companies that buy foreign steel to exempt themselves from President Trump's stiff metal tariffs.... Charlotte-based Nucor, which financed a documentary film made by a top trade adviser to Mr. Trump, and Pittsburgh-based United States Steel, which has previously employed several top administration officials, have objected to 1,600 exemption requests filed with the Commerce Department over the past several months. To date, their efforts have never failed, resulting in denials for companies that are based in the United States but rely on imported pipes, screws, wire and other foreign steel products for their supply chains." Mrs. McC: Trump's trade war isn't as stupid as it is opportunistic.

"The Trump Slump." David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "For most Americans, [the economy] is downright mediocre, and it has deteriorated somewhat since President Trump took office, despite the healthy G.D.P. and unemployment statistics.... Hourly wages are suffering through a Trump slump.... [Trump] hourly wages are suffering through a Trump slump.... [Combine two factors] -- faster inflation plus mediocre nominal-wage growth -- and you get a stagnation in real wages. Welcome to the Trump wage slump." ...

... ** Frank Rich: "The mood in America is arguably as dark as it has ever been in the modern era. The birthrate is at a record low, and the suicide rate is at a 30-year high; mass shootings and opioid overdoses are ubiquitous.... Today's America is ... marked by fear and despair more akin to what followed the crash of 1929, when unprecedented millions of Americans lost their jobs and homes after the implosion of businesses ranging in scale from big banks to family farms.... The one conviction that still unites all Americans: Everything in the country is broken. Not just Washington, which failed to prevent the financial catastrophe and has done little to protect us from the next, but also race relations, health care, education, institutional religion, law enforcement, the physical infrastructure, the news media, the bedrock virtues of civility and community.... Perhaps the sole upside to the 2008 crash was that it discredited the Establishment of both parties by exposing its decades-long collusion with a kleptocratic economic order." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Rich is as tough on President Obama as he is on Trump, & IMO Rich's critique is right on. I recall then-Sen. Byron Dorgan's (D-ND) plaint to Obama, who was then choosing his DINO insider Cabinet: "You've picked the wrong people. I don't understand how you could do this. You've picked the wrong people!" ...

... Michael Tomasky in the New York Times: "... the kind of capitalism that has been practiced in this country over the last few decades has made socialism look far more appealing, especially to young people." Thanks to Patrick for the link.

"The Trump Slump," Ctd. Elizabeth Drew in the Daily Beast: "Despite a world-wide boom in travel, ever since our forty-fift president was elected, tourism to the United States from foreign countries has steadily dropped.... Trump's rhetoric and new policies and rules and regulations regarding travel have combined to blot America's long-standing image as a welcoming nation. And of course his travel ban.... While some attribute the recent drop in tourism to the U.S. to a strong dollar, in fact, the dollar was strong in 2015, when our tourism growth was at its apex, and it was strong in 2016. Yet when it declined in 2017, which should have helped tourism, foreign tourism to the U.S. dropped steeply that year.... The Pew Research Center Reserve found earlier this year that a survey of ten nations showed that a favorable opinion of the US occurred in only one country: Russia...." (Also linked yesterday.)

I Always Figured Steve Seagal Was Dumb as a Rock. Melissa Gomez of the New York Times: "On Saturday, Russian officials tapped ... action-movie star Steven Seagal ... [as] special representative to improve relations between the United States and Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the appointment on Facebook, saying his mission will include promoting 'relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges.'... 'I've always had a very strong desire to do all I can to help improve Russian-American relations,' he told the Kremlin-backed television station RT.... Mr. Seagal's grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, according to a biography on IMDB." Mrs. McC: I'm sure -- after escaping Russian persecution -- they're rolling over in their graves. Anyway, I'll bet Steve is looking forward to his White House tour.

Elana Schor of Politico: "Senate Democrats are gearing up to press Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on his decades-long relationship with former Judge Alex Kozinski, who was forced into retirement last year by a mounting sexual harassment scandal. It’s not just what, if anything, Kavanaugh saw during his time as a Kozinski clerk in the early 1990s that's on Democratic minds. They also want to know how ... Donald Trump's high court pick would address the judiciary's ongoing internal reckoning with sexual misconduct that was sparked by Kozinski -- one of Kavanaugh's early mentors who introduced the younger appellate court judge at his Senate confirmation hearing in 2006.... Whether Kavanaugh should have known about Kozinski's behavior and was indirectly 'complicit' has been much discussed in prominent legal circles. No evidence has come out to disprove the broad denial on behalf of Kavanaugh...."

Congressional Race. Margaret Hartmann: "An August special election for a congressional seat Republicans have held for decades isn't the kind of thing that would usually draw any interest from GOP leaders.... But with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Vice President Mike Pence, and even President Trump showing up in Ohio's 12th Congressional District in recent days, it's obvious that Republicans are very concerned about losing Tuesday's special election, the last before voters head to the polls in November.... President Trump won the district in the Columbus suburbs by 11 points in 2016, but Tuesday's election is a toss up. A month ago, a Monmouth University poll had Troy Balderson, a 56-year-old Republican state senator, leading his opponent by 10 points. But a Monmouth poll released Wednesday showed Danny O'Connor, the 31-year-old Democratic candidate, trailing Balderson by only one point."

Senate Races

Virginia. The White Supremacists' Party. Danny Hakim & Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: Corey Stewart, Virginia's Republican nominee for Democrat Tim Kaine's Senate seat, "has styled himself as a champion of the Confederacy and its statues, and, as he puts it, 'taking back our heritage' [which is odd, since like Kaine, Stewart is from Minnesota.] This has made him a popular figure with white nationalists, much to the horror of many Virginia Republicans. While Mr. Stewart has disavowed some on the extreme right, interviews with dozens of his friends, colleagues, supporters and fellow Republicans yielded a portrait of a political opportunist eager to engage the coarsest racial fringes of his party to advance his Trumpian appeal. Some white nationalists volunteer for Mr. Stewart's campaign, and several of his aides and advisers have used racist or anti-Muslim language, or maintained links to outspoken racists like Jason Kessler, the organizer of last year's violent rally in Charlottesville, Va. Mr. Stewart has not distanced himself from those aides."

Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "Faced with a formidable challenge by the wealthy governor [Rick Scott (R)], [Sen. Bill] Nelson, a three-term incumbent, has been pushed into the unexpected position of underdog in one of the most closely watched Senate races of the midterms. After 18 years in office, Mr. Nelson remains less known than his opponent, and he is at risk of losing his seat in a battleground state where Democrats, fueled by anti-Trump energy, have notched four recent bellwether election victories.... Panicked Democrats started appealing to Mr. Nelson's team earlier in the summer to ratchet up the campaign.... Mr. Nelson is a low-key, gentlemanly product of an earlier Florida and a different Democratic Party." Mrs. McC: I was so alarmed by the race I sent Nelson money last week, & I'm a cheapskate.

State Races. Julie Turkewitz & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Almost a year into an antiharassment movement that has prompted a coast-to-coast cultural reckoning..., more than a dozen politicians who have been accused of misconduct ... are running for state legislatures again anyway.... Some candidates hope that voters will accept their apologies. Others believe constituents will dismiss the allegations as untrue -- or deem them unimportant.... [For example,] investigators [into allegations about Arizona State Rep. Don Shooter (R)] found many of the allegations to be credible, and in February, Mr. Shooter's colleagues voted by 56-3 to expel him. Mr. Shooter, who had apologized for any demeaning comments, then dropped his microphone in a defiant clatter. Security guards escorted him off the Capitol grounds. 'I've been thrown out of better places than this,' he told a reporter. Now Mr. Shooter is running for office again, hoping to jump from the State House to the State Senate...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Shooter thinks himself quite the wag. "... the publisher of The Arizona Republic, Mi-Ai Parrish, who is Korean-American, met with Mr. Shooter to discuss a bill affecting newspapers. In the meeting, Mr. Shooter ... [said he] had done most everything on his bucket list. When Ms. Parrish asked what he had not done, he responded: 'Those Asian twins in Mexico.'"

Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Apple has wiped iTunes and its podcasting app virtually clean of content by Alex Jones, in one of the most aggressive moves by technology companies and streaming services against the conspiracy theorist and owner of the right-wing media platform Infowars. As of early Monday, just one of the six Infowars programs once listed by Apple remained, RealNews with David Knight. The decision to completel pull the other shows, including 'The Alex Jones Show' and 'War Room,' represents a broader effort than those made by other companies in recent days to stop disseminating material associated with Jones, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center calls 'the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America.'... 'Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users,' a spokesperson [for Apple] said."

AND Andy Borowitz is back: "Asserting that 'heroic measures' were needed to save the National Rifle Association from financial catastrophe, the N.R.A.'s president, Oliver North, announced plans to sell arms to Iran." (Satire.)

Beyond the Beltway

Hannah Leone, et al., of the Chicago Tribune: "Starting about midnight Saturday, at least 40 people were shot citywide [in Chicago], four fatally, in a period of less than seven hours as gunmen targeted groups at a block party, after a funeral, on a front porch and in other gatherings, according to authorities."

Two Views of the Same Parade

     ... Corey Pein of the Daily Beast: "Hundreds of armed supporters of ... Donald Trump, led by a fringe Republican congressional candidate, marched on [Portland, Oregon] Saturday, leaving blood from scattered street fights in their wake. Ostensibly a campaign event for long-shot U.S. Senate hopeful Joey Gibson, members of his group Patriot Prayer urged the president to lock up his political opponents, including Hillary Clinton, and promised violent retribution for anyone who threatened their right to 'free speech' or armed self-defense. Groups of Trump supporters swarmed through the streets, singling out people of color to fight, some of whom appeared to belong to small vigilante squads of local anti-fascists, as well as others who appeared to be mere passersby. Police announced four arrests, but gave no estimate of injuries." ...

     ... Kale Williams of the Oregonian: "The concussive crack of stun grenades echoed through the streets of downtown Portland Saturday as groups on opposing sides of the political spectrum took to the streets. But despite weeks of heated rhetoric, the protest -- which was organized by right-wing Patriot Prayer and countered by groups on the left -- resulted in little violence between the two groups. Past clashes have quickly devolved to open fistfights and mayhem. The protest, billed ostensibly as a rally for free speech and campaign event for Joey Gibson, the leader of Patriot Prayer and Republican U.S. Senatorial candidate from Vancouver, saw hundreds of his supporters, many of whom came from out of state, bussed in from across the border decked out in helmets, crash pads and shields festooned with the Confederate battle flag.... The biggest dust-up came when police in riot gear ordered a group of counter-protesters to disperse around 2 p.m. The group, which was tightly clustered near the intersection of Southwest Naito Parkway and Southwest Columbia Street, did not immediately leave and officers quickly began firing dozens of flash-bang grenades and rushing toward the crowd, shoving some protesters out of the street." ...

     ... Update: Andrew Selsky of the AP: "Portland police were accused Sunday of being heavy-handed against people protesting a rally by extreme-right demonstrators, reportedly injuring some counter-protesters and prompting the city's new police chief to order a review of officers' use of force. Police in riot gear tried to keep the two groups apart, many of whom had come on Saturday dressed for battle in helmets and protective clothing. Dozens of the extreme-right protesters were bussed to Portland, one of America's most liberal cities, from nearby Vancouver, Washington.... But on Saturday, some said police seemed to act mostly against those protesting the presence of the extreme-right demonstrators, using stun grenades and what appeared to be rubber bullets against them.... Police Chief Danielle Outlaw, who assumed command less than a year ago as Portland's first African-American female police chief, said in a statement Sunday she [had] ...directed the professional standards division to begin gathering evidence to determine if the force used was within policy and training guidelines."

Way Beyond

Kit Gillet of the New York Times: "The graffiti in a northwestern town in Romania -- ugly, obscene and anti-Semitic -- was clearly meant to shock. It was scrawled late Friday evening on the outside wall of the childhood home of a man who had been imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp an spent the rest of his life preaching against hate: the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. The building in Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania, is now a protected historical monument and museum. The graffiti read in part, 'Nazi Jew lying in hell with Hitler' and 'Public toilet, anti-Semite pedophile.'"

News Ledes

NBC News: "The death toll from an earthquake that struck the Indonesian resort islands of Lombok and Bali was expected to rise above 91 on Monday as new information came in from areas where thousands of buildings collapsed or were badly damaged, authorities said. Rescue workers found chaos and destruction across Lombok on Monday and the quake prompted an exodus of tourists rattled by the second powerful temblor in a week. The tremor was so powerful it was felt on neighboring Bali, where two people died."

USA Today: "Charlotte Rae, the redheaded comedian beloved as the good-natured housemother Mrs. Garrett on TV's 'Facts of Life' and 'Diff'rent Strokes,' has died at 92."

The Commentariat -- August 5, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Ashley Parker & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Sunday offered his most definitive and clear public acknowledgment that his oldest son met with a Kremlin-aligned lawyer at Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign to 'get information on an opponent.'... It is ... against the law for U.S. campaigns to receive donation or items of value from foreigners, and that June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya is now a subject of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia probe.... 'Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower,' the president wrote in one of several early morning tweets Sunday, many of which took aim at the media. 'This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics -- and it went nowhere.' He concluded by further distancing himself from the meeting his son arranged, writing: 'I did not know about it!'... ... In one tweet, [Trump] declared the media the 'Enemy of the People' and accused them of sowing division and distrust. 'They can also cause War!' Trump wrote. 'They are very dangerous & sick!' In another, he expressed frustration with both the media and Mueller's probe. 'Too bad a large portion of the Media refuses to report the lies and corruption having to do with the Rigged Witch Hunt -- but that is why we call them FAKE NEWS!'... On Sunday, one of the president's attorneys [Jay Sekulow] defended the 2016 meeting as something that would not have been illegal.... Sekulow on Sunday also noted that he himself had given a misleading statement a year ago when, on 'This Week' and other media appearances, he said that Trump had nothing to do with the misleading statement given to the New York Times." ...

... OR, as Marcy Wheeler put it, "Trump tweets a confession, then Sekulow admits his client has been lying about his involvement.... Amid a series of batshit tweets just now, in an attempt to rebut reporting in this [WashPo] story, Trump admitted that his spawn took a meeting with people described as 'part of Russia and its government's support' for his father to obtain dirt on his opponent." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Trump appears to have broken some new ground here when it comes t admitting the true purpose of the Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-aligned lawyer -- and even further contradicted the initial statement he helped draft about it.... The second issue here are the final words of the tweet. 'I did not know about it!'... If you've got no real concern about legal exposure from the meeting, why distance yourself from it?... [This suggests] he isn't as convinced as he'd like us to believe that there's nothing to see here." ...

... Jeet Heer: "... an intriguing timeline of events: 1) On June 9, 2016, Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump campaign officials meet with a Russian group led by Natalia Veselnitskaya to get opposition research on Hillary Clinton. 2) On July 8, 2017, the president dictates a statement giving a false account of that meeting. His lawyer Jay Sikulow subsequently make the false statement that Trump had no role in dictating that false statement. 3) On August 5, 2018, Trump admits the meeting was about collecting opposition research and Sikulow admits Trump had a role in crafting the false statement. If Robert Mueller wants to pursue an obstruction of justice charge against Trump and others in his White House, he has a lot of material to work with." Mrs. McC: Nonetheless, it's not against the law to lie to the news media.

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I've been seeing some hoohah recently -- a column by the WashPo's Mark Thiessen last week, for instance -- that "Hillary did the same thing," except that she used cutouts -- a lawyer & an oppo research team -- to get dirt on Trump from foreign national Christopher Steele. This is a false equivalency, as conservative columnist Eli Lake wrote in Bloomberg last October: "'There is a real meaningful distinction,' said [Adav] Noti, [a former FEC lawyer,].... 'The Clinton campaign, based on what has been reported, paid for opposition research, which included paying people to dig up dirt in foreign countries.'... Noti said that if the Trump officials solicited the information, 'the act itself was unlawful.'" An organization Noti heads up is suing the Clinton campaign for hiding the payments, not for collecting the info in the dossier. It is not against U.S. law for foreign nationals to work for a contractor (or in this case, a subcontractor), at least as long as they're not "decision-makers." As Lake (or his headline writer) put it, "Both Campaigns Sought Russian Dirt. Clinton's Way Was Legal."

"The Trump Slump." Elizabeth Drew in the Daily Beast: "Despite a world-wide boom in travel, ever since our forty-fifth president was elected, tourism to the United States from foreign countries has steadily dropped.... Trump's rhetoric and new policies and rules and regulations regarding travel have combined to blot America's long-standing image as a welcoming nation. And of course his travel ban.... While some attribute the recent drop in tourism to the U.S. to a strong dollar, in fact, the dollar was strong in 2015, when our tourism growth was at its apex, and it was strong in 2016. Yet when it declined in 2017, which should have helped tourism, foreign tourism to the U.S. dropped steeply that year.... The Pew Research Center Reserve found earlier this year that a survey of ten nations showed that a favorable opinion of the US occurred in only one country: Russia...."

Bill Maher has a credible theory on why Republicans like Russia:

*****

One More Rally Just Like the Other Ones. Ashley Parker & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "President Trump used his third campaign rally this past week to relive his 2016 election-night victory, press his hard-line immigration policies and take aim at his favorite villains -- everyone from the Democrats and the 'Russian witch hunt' to the coastal elites and the 'fake news media.' The 70-minute rally Saturday night was ostensibly to boost the candidacy of Ohio state Sen. Troy Balderson, who faces a special election for a House seat on Tuesday, but Trump placed himself center stage -- physically and figuratively -- as he touted what he said were his achievements and pressed his personal grudges. He praised the enthusiastic if sweaty crowd in the sweltering gymnasium -- 'You are the elite,' he told them, adding that they were 'smarter' and earned 'bigger incomes' than the self-proclaimed elite in the swamp of Washington -- before turning the topic back to himself." More on the rally linked below under Congressional Race. ...

... Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "In private, President Trump spent much of the past week brooding.... He has been anxious about the Russia ­investigation’s widening fallout, with his former campaign chairman standing trial. And he has fretted that he is failing to accrue enough political credit for what he claims as triumphs.... Yet in public..., The president, more than ever, is channeling his internal frustration and fear into a ravenous maw of grievance and invective. He is churning out false statements with greater frequency and attacking his perceived enemies with intensifying fury. A fresh broadside came on Twitter at 11:37 p.m. Friday, mocking basketball superstar LeBron James and calling CNN's Don Lemon 'the dumbest man on television.'... Trump ... has decamped to his New Jersey golf estate for an 11-day working vacation...." Mrs. McC: The headline might as well have been, "The POTUS* Is Nuts." ...

... Christina Caron of the New York Times: "President Trump lashed out at the basketball star LeBron James in a scathing attack on Twitter on Friday night after Mr. James criticized the president in an interview on CNN. In a wide-ranging interview with Don Lemon, an anchor on CNN, Mr. James spoke about a school for at-risk children that he recently helped open in his hometown, Akron, Ohio, in a partnership between his philanthropic foundation and the city's public schools. During the interview on Monday, he also said Mr. Trump was using sports to divide the country. 'Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'He made Lebron look smart, which isn't easy to do. I like Mike!'... The reference to 'Mike' appeared to be Mr. Trump's way of taking sides in the debate over who is the greatest basketball player of all time: Mr. James or Michael Jordan. Through a representative, Mr. Jordan told reporters: 'I support L.J. He's doing an amazing job for his community.'... His tweet about Mr. James and Mr. Lemon came days after he declared at a campaign rally that Representative Maxine Waters of California, a Democrat who is black, had a 'very low I.Q.' The latest attacks, directed at prominent black people, appeared to widen the racial divide that Mr. James spoke about on CNN.... Mr. Lemon came to Mr. James's defense on Saturday morning, tweeting: 'Who's the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages?' He added the hashtag #BeBest, a reference to an initiative by the first lady, Melania Trump, that aims to help children." ...

... Melanie Strikes Back. Alex Horton & T.J. Ortenzi of the Washington Post: "First lady Melania Trump issued a statement Saturday in support of LeBron James, after President Trump posted a late-night tweet attacking the basketball star.... 'It looks like LeBron James is working to do good things on behalf of our next generation,' said Melania Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham. 'And just as she always has, the First Lady encourages everyone to have an open dialogue about issues facing children today.' Grisham went on to say that the first lady supports 'responsible online behavior' as part of her Be Best initiative, and said that Melania Trump would be open to visiting James's new school." ...

... Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "NBA legend Bill Russell praised LeBron James and CNN host Don Lemon after President Trump attacked the two men.... Russell also cited Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and (D-Ga.), as well as NFL players attacked by Trump, saying that at 'this time & place for any African American ... to be criticised by @realdonaldtrump means you must be doing something right!' 'As I have said before- Its the biggest compliment you can get,' he added." ...

Ok, I'll take the bait.

LeBron: Born poor. Homeless as a kid. Marries high school sweetheart. Become rich. Donates $41M to build a school.

Donald: Born rich. Dad gives him millions. Files for bankruptcy. Divorced twice. Scandals! Sad! Fined $25M for defrauding students.#MAGA https://t.co/oL3FfDpa4M

-- Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) August 4, 2018

Michael Weiss, in the New York Review of Books, examines how the Russians "handle" Trump.

Matthew Rosenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "While the charging documents [against Maria Butina] focus on her alleged efforts to infiltrate the National Rifle Association, interviews with more than two dozen people in Russia and the United States show that her attempts at connecting with prominent American conservatives extended beyond making inroads with the gun-rights group." The article details many of Butina's connections. ...

... Sara Murray of CNN: "As far as spy craft goes, Maria Butina's skills didn't seem particularly impressive. The alleged covert Russian agent liked to communicate via Twitter messages and WhatsApp. Her overly flirtatious approach left men wondering what she was truly after. She tended to brag about her ties to Russian intelligence when she was intoxicated, according to people familiar with the situation.... On at least two separate occasions she got drunk and spoke openly about her contacts within the Russian government, even acknowledging that Russian intelligence services were involved with the gun rights group she ran in Moscow. Twice, classmates [at American University] reported her actions to law enforcement because they found her comments so alarming, sources said."

Brent Griffiths of Politico: "A U.S. District Court judge on Friday issued a ruling invalidating a Federal Election Commission regulation that has allowed donors to so-called dark-money groups to remain anonymous, the latest development in a years-long legal battle that could have major implications for campaign finance. Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled the FEC's current regulation of such groups, including 501(c) 4 non-profits, fails to uphold the standard Congress intended when it required the disclosure of politically related spending.... The decision is likely to be appealed.... Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group that brought the suit against the FEC, hailed the decision as a 'major game changer' for political spending." Howell is an Obama appointee.

Congressional Race. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday implored his supporters to turn out for Republican congressional candidate Troy Balderson, as the party raced to fend off an embarrassing special election loss that could portend a November wave. During an hour-long rally in a sweltering high school auditorium, the president repeatedly lavished praise on Balderson, a state legislator who suddenly finds himself in a neck-and-neck contest for a House seat that Republicans have held for over three decades. ...

... Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "President Trump bragged about his prowess in defeating the Republicans who oppose him, saying at an Ohio rally that he 'destroys' the careers of GOP politicians who dare defy him. 'How do you get 100 percent of anything? We always have somebody who says "I don't like Trump, I don't like our president, he destroyed my career,"' Trump said. 'I only destroy their career because they said bad things about me and you fight back and they go down the tubes and that's OK,' he added."

Bad Taste News

Jamie Ducharme of Time: "The Newseum has removed controversial 'fake news' T-shirts from its gift shop after they set off a wave of criticism from journalists. The Washington, D.C. museum, which is dedicated to all things media and the First Amendment, was as of Saturday morning selling shirts that said 'You Are Very Fake News' in its store.... 'The Newseum has removed the "You Are Very Fake News" t-shirts from the gift shop and online. We made a mistake and we apologize,' [Newseum spokesperson Sonya] Gavankar said by email [to Time]. 'A free press is an essential part of our democracy and journalists are not the enemy of the people.'... The museum sells a range of political gear..., including 'Make America Great Again' hats, American flag paraphernalia and a Constitution tie. In her second statement, Gavankar suggested that these items will not be removed." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: So what about selling Paul Manafort paper dolls? If they have MAGA cap buyers, surely they have Manafort fans. I mean, Justin Trudeau has his own paper doll. Isn't the U.S. as good as Canada? Okay, no, probably not. But still.

... Question: Did Manafort think "money laundering" meant turning money into things that can be laundered?

Way Beyond the Beltway

Scott Smith & Christine Armario of the AP: "Drones armed with explosives detonated near Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Saturday in an apparent assassination attempt that took place while he was delivering a speech to hundreds of soldiers being broadcast live on television, officials said. Caught by surprise mid-speech, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up at the sky and winced after hearing the sound of an explosion pierce the air. 'This was an attempt to kill me,' he said later in an impassioned retelling of the events. 'Today they attempted to assassinate me.'"