The Commentariat -- August 18, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Bad news for Old MacDonald.Heigh-ho the Derry-o, McGahn Spills the Beans. Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, has cooperated extensively in the special counsel investigation, sharing detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry into whether President Trump obstructed justice, including some that investigators would not have learned of otherwise, according to a dozen current and former White House officials and others briefed on the matter. In at least three voluntary interviews with investigators that totaled 30 hours over the past nine months, Mr. McGahn described the president's furor toward the Russia investigation and the ways in which he urged Mr. McGahn to respond to it. He provided the investigators examining whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice a clear view of the president's most intimate moments with his lawyer.... Mr. McGahn laid out how Mr. Trump tried to ensure control of the investigation.... It is not clear that Mr. Trump appreciates the extent to which Mr. McGahn has cooperated with the special counsel. The president wrongly believed that Mr. McGahn would act as a personal lawyer...."

Jeremy Schulman of Mother Jones: "On Saturday, Trump tweeted that [John] Brennan would 'go down as easily the WORST [CIA director] in history & since getting out, he has become nothing less than a loudmouth, partisan, political hack.' Trump -- who last year revealed what the Washington Post described as 'highly classified information' to Russian officials during an Oval Office meeting -- added that Brennan 'cannot be trusted with the secrets to our country!'"

Space Farce! David Cloud & Noah Bierman of the Los Angeles Times: "When President Trump spoke to Marines at the Miramar Air Station in San Diego on March 13, he threw out an idea that he suggested had just come to him. 'You know, I was saying it the other day, because we're doing a tremendou amount of work in space -- I said maybe we need a new force. We'll call it the "space force,"' he told the crowd. 'And I was not really serious. And then I said what a great idea -- maybe we'll have to do that.'... The concept had been pushed unsuccessfully since 2016 by a small group of current and former government officials, some with deep financial ties to the aerospace industry, who see creation of the sixth military service as a surefire way to hike Pentagon spending on satellite and other space systems.... When Trump abruptly embraced the idea at Miramar -- and began promoting it to wild applause at other rallies -- a moribund notion opposed by much of the Pentagon hierarchy and senior members of the Senate became a real possibility.... The story of how that happened is a window into the chaotic way Trump sometimes makes key decisions, often by bypassing traditional bureaucracy to tout ideas that work well as applause lines but aren't fully thought-out."

Betsy Woodruff & Pervaiz Shallwani of the Daily Beast: "Maria Butina, the Russian national accused of acting as a Kremlin agent in the United States, was abruptly moved from a jail in Washington to a lockup in Alexandria, Virginia, according to her lawyer.... The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused American officials of mistreating Butina in jail." Mrs. McC: Oh, good. Maybe she can fraternize with Paul Manafort during rec time.

AND Georgia Cops Taze 87-Year-Old Woman Collecting Dandelions. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "When Martha Al-Bishara went on a walk near her home in northern Georgia last week, she was on a quest for dandelions. The stroll would end in her getting stunned by a Taser and arrested by police officers. The 87-year-old woman often ventured outside -- with a kitchen knife and a plastic bag in hand -- to cut and collect the plants for cooking, her family said. She was doing just that last Friday afternoon when she crossed the street from her home in Chatsworth, Ga., and arrived at a partially fenced lot belonging to a branch of the Boys and Girls Club. There, she began gathering the plants she needed." Al-Bishara doesn't speak English & family members say she suffers from dementia. She made no threatening motions but did not put her steak knife down when officers ordered her to do so. So naturally, the three officers were skeert & one of them Tazed her. Then they carted her off to jail. Mrs. McC: Did I mention Al-Bishara is (probably) Muslim?

*****

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration next week plans to formally propose a vast overhaul of climate change regulations that would allow individual states to decide how, or even whether, to curb carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants, according to a summary of the plan and details provided by three people who have seen the full proposal. The plan would also relax pollution rules for power plants that need upgrades. That, combined with allowing states to set their own rules, creates a serious risk that emissions, which had been falling, could start to rise again, according to environmentalists.... President Trump is expected to highlight ... the proposal ... Tuesday at a rally in West Virginia.... It would considerably weaken what is known as the Clean Power Plan former President Barack Obama's signature regulation for cutting planet-warming emissions at coal-fired plants." Mrs. McC: If Trump were the most dignified, considerate & moderate of people in every respect except in his environmental policy, he would still be the worst president* ever.

Karen De Young & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The White House has drafted documents revoking the security clearances of current and former officials whom President Trump has demanded be punished for criticizing him or playing a role in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to senior administration officials. Trump wants to sign 'most, if not all' of them, said one senior White House official, who indicated that communications aides, including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Bill Shine, the newly named deputy chief of staff, have discussed the optimum times to release them as a distraction during unfavorable news cycles. Some presidential aides echoed concerns raised by outside critics that the threatened revocations smack of a Nixonian enemies list, with little or no substantive national security justification. Particular worry has been expressed inside the White House about Trump's statement Friday that he intends 'very quickly' to strip the clearance of current Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... In his Friday comments, Trump said he had gotten a 'tremendous response' for his action against [former CIA Director John] Brennan. 'If anything, I'm giving him a bigger voice,' he said. 'Many people don't even know who he is ... I've never respected him.'" ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday attacked Bruce Ohr, a little-known Justice Department official, calling him 'a disgrace' and threatening to revoke his security clearance 'very soon.' Mr. Ohr, a career official who has worked on antidrug and anti-gang initiatives at the department, has been targeted by conservative conspiracy theorists who say he helped start the investigation into Russian election interference. Mr. Ohr's wife was at one time a contractor for Fusion GPS, which participated in compiling a dossier about Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign. Mr. Trump has embraced the conspiracy theory, casting Mr. Ohr and his wife, Nellie, as central players in what he calls the 'rigged witch hunt' and accusing the couple of having what he claims are indirect contacts with Russians -- apparently a reference to Christopher Steele, the British spy who compiled the dossier with the help of Russian sources." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... ** "Trump Is Turning the Department of Justice into His Own Private Goon Squad." Jonathan Chait: "The slowly unfolding purge, one of the most vivid expressions of Trump's governing ethos, has served several purposes for the president. First, it has removed from direct authority a number of figures Trump suspects would fail to provide him the personal loyalty he demanded from Comey and expects from all officials in the federal government. Second, it supplies evidence for Trump's claim that he is being hounded by trumped-up charges -- just look at all the crooked officials who have been fired! Third, it intimidates remaining officials with the threat of firing and public humiliation if they take any actions contrary to Trump's interests. Simply carrying out the law now requires a measure of personal bravery." ...

... Axios: "Dr. Robert Gates has added his name to a stunning list of former intelligence officials who signed a letter criticizing President Trump's decision to revoke former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance..... Gates has served eight presidents, including stints as CIA director, and later as Defense Secretary for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Update: Sixty former intelligence officials have signed onto the letter, according to MSNBC. No link. (DeYoung & Dawsey cover this is their WashPo report, linked above.) ...

... Michael Shear & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "For more than a year, law enforcement officials have repeatedly rebuffed President Trump's efforts to use the power of his office to derail the Russia investigation. Stymied, Mr. Trump is lashing out in other ways against an investigation that he clearly hates or fears. The president said Thursday that he revoked the security clearance of John O. Brennan ... because Mr. Brennan had been part of what Mr. Trump has called the 'sham' Russia investigation. That move, and the threats of more revocations, were the latest signs that the president seems determined to punish anyone connected to the Russia inquiry." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Presidents generally have broad authority to grant and revoke security clearances at their will (kind of like pardon powers).... Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York..., suggested Trump's revocation of security clearances could be construed as retaliation against witnesses. 'It's a federal crime -- §1513 if anyone wants to look it up -- to retaliate against someone for providing truthful information to law enforcement,' he said. 'So he's getting closer and closer to really dangerous ground here.'"

Linda Qiu of the New York Times writes a fact-check overview of Trump's remarks about the special investigation of Russian hacking & related matters. Almost all of Trump's statements were false, misleading or "required context." Plus, he repeated many of these false assertions again & again. He made a few true or "true but" remarks.

Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Paul Manafort's trial will stretch into a fourth week, as jurors headed home Friday without reaching a verdict for the second straight day and the judge overseeing the case alluded to 'threats' the jury may be receiving. 'I had no idea this case would incite this emotion,' U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III said in an open court hearing, responding to a motion from seven news organizations, including Politico, seeking access to sealed materials related to the trial that would have publicly identified the jurors. Ellis denied the motion, telling the courtroom that jurors were 'scared' and 'afraid.' As a result, Ellis said, he didn't 'feel right' releasing the names of the 12-person jury." ...

... Time for Some Jury Tampering. Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump weighed in with a public defense of Paul Manafort on Friday, as a jury concluded its second day of deliberations to decide if the president's former campaign chairman is guilty of tax and bank fraud. Jurors signaled Friday afternoon that they were unlikely to reach a verdict before the day ended and asked if they could leave the courthouse at 5 p.m. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III agreed, and the panel is scheduled to resume deliberations Monday morning. At the White House, Trump declined to answer a question about a possible pardon for Manafort, but spoke out against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whose office brought the charges against the 69-year-old Manafort. 'I think the whole Manafort trial is very sad. When you look at what's going on, I think it's a very sad day for our country,' Trump said, adding that Manafort 'happens to be a very good person, I think it's very sad what they've done to Paul Manafort.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein: "Jurors began their second day of deliberations in Paul Manafort’s trial Friday morning as the presiding federal judge outlined his ground rules for how the media should cover the verdict without disrupting the courtroom.... After the jurors exited for a nearby conference room, [Judge T.S.] Ellis acknowledged the trial 'might end soon' and turned to several media-related matters, including the decorum for reporters who plan to be in the Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse when the verdict gets read." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Nancy Gertner, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The performance of U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III in the trial of Paul Manafort on bank fraud and tax evasion charges has been decidedly unusual. During the trial, Ellis intervened regularly, and mainly against one side: the prosecution. The judge's interruptions occurred in the presence of the jury and on matters of substance, not courtroom conduct.... Clearly worried about its outcome, prosecutors went so far as to urge Ellis to tell the jury, in his instructions before they began deliberating, not to let his commentary affect their decision-making. Ellis essentially did just that on Wednesday. It may well have been too little too late." (Also linked yesterday.)

Spencer Hsu & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors on Friday said a sentence of up to six months in prison would be appropriate for George Papadopoulos, a former adviser to President Trump's 2016 campaign and the first charged defendant to cooperate in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation of Russian interference in the U.S. election. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about Russian contacts during the campaign.... In a court filing Friday in advance of a sentencing hearing set for Sept. 7, Mueller prosecutors declined to recommend a specific sentence for Papadopoulos, but cited a nonbinding federal sentencing guideline based on what both sides agreed was his conduct.... The filing came after an unusual public campaign in conservative media this week by Papadopoulos's wife in which she asked for new attorneys and suggested he tear up his plea deal and face trial." ...

... The "Government's Sentencing Memorandum" is here, via the New York Times. ...

... Mark Mazzetti & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has told a judge that a former adviser to the Trump campaign [George Papadopoulos] repeatedly lied about his contacts with Russian operatives and 'caused damage' to the government's inquiry.... In particular, the document said that during a January 2017 interview with the F.B.I., Mr. Papadopoulos misled agents about his conversations with Joseph Mifsud, a London-based professor who investigators believe reached out to Mr. Papadopoulos on behalf of the Russian government. 'The defendant's lies undermined investigators' ability to challenge the professor or potentially detain or arrest him while he was still in the United States,' the memo said. 'The government understands that the professor left the United States on Feb. 11, 2017, and he has not returned to the United States since then.'"

Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "A source has told the Wall Street Journal that President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen initially refused to pay Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. According to this account, Cohen changed his mind after the release of the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape in which Trump is heard describing sexually assaulting women. According to the Journal, Cohen reportedly reached out to one of Daniels' representatives the day after the tape became public. Cohen would go on to pay Daniels $130,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement forbidding her from speaking publicly about the alleged affair. Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti has also said that the conversation changed after the 'Access Hollywood' tape surfaced." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Oops! Richard Hasen in Slate: "The new revelation about Cohen refusing to pay Daniels in September 2016 is big, circumstantial evidence that could further open up Cohen to facing criminal campaign finance charges. This could also reach all the way to Trump himself.... Cohen's payment to Daniels, if motivated to help the campaign, would be a likely campaign finance violation.... The Journal reports federal prosecutors view the release of the 'Access Hollywood' tape as the 'trigger' for Cohen's payments to Daniels. That's a big deal.... Daniels' former lawyer Keith Davidson had approached Cohen in September 2016 about securing a payment from Trump to buy Daniels' silence. 'Mr. Cohen was dismissive, saying the story was bogus,' according to a source.... Why should Cohen not care a whit about protecting Trump's reputation ... in September 2016, but be anxious to close the deal -- and shut Daniels up -- right as the campaign faced a crisis involving allegations of Trump's treatment of women?... But for the campaign, it seems that Cohen would not hav paid." (Also linked yesterday.)

More Tales from the Kleptocracy. Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is investigating whether longtime Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy sought to sell his influence with the Trump administration by offering to deliver U.S. government actions for foreign officials in exchange for tens of millions of dollars, according to three people familiar with the probe.... Prosecutors are scrutinizing a plan that Broidy allegedly developed to try to persuade the Trump government to extradite a Chinese dissident back to his home country, a move sought by Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to two of the people. They also are investigating claims that Broidy sought $75 million from a Malaysian business official if the Justice Department ended its investigation of a development fund run by the Malaysian government. The Malaysian probe has examined the role of the former prime minister in the embezzlement of billions of dollars from the fund."

The Horse He Rode in on. Craig Unger writes a long piece in the New Republic about Donald Trump's decades-long ties to Russian oligarchs -- and Russian intelligence. P.D. Pepe highlighted the story, which I -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie -- have not had time to read, in yesterday's Comments. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Shane Harris of the Washington Post likes the Unger story, too. "As the theory goes, Putin wanted to keep tabs on the billionaires -- some of them former mobsters -- who had made their post-Cold War fortunes on the backs of industries once owned by the state. The oligarchs, as well as other new-moneyed elites, were stashing their money in foreign real estate, including Trump properties, presumably beyond Putin's reach. Trump knowingly or otherwise, may have struck a side deal with the Kremlin, Unger argues: He would secretly rat out his customers to Putin, who would allow them to keep buying Trump properties. Trump got rich. Putin got eyes on where the oligarchs had hidden their wealth. Everybody won.... As Unger tells it, Trump can't be totally unaware of the criminality surrounding him, and even if he were, that ignorance is no defense. Trump allowed himself to become compromised by Russia, years before he seriously entertained running for public office." (Also linked yesterday.)

Luppe Luppen & Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News: "A Manhattan judge issued a ruling on Thursday that thwarted the Trump campaign’s attempts to keep a lawsuit out of open court, with potential implications for the looming battle over fired Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman's slow-motion revelations of her experiences in the Trump campaign and White House. The decision came in a lawsuit filed by Jessica Denson, a former campaign staffer who filed a complaint last November that alleged she was subjected to 'harassment and sexual discrimination' while she worked on Trump's White House bid in 2016. Lawyers for the Trump campaign tried to force the case into private arbitration based on an agreement signed by staffers that included nondisclosure and nondisparagement provisions. In her decision, Judge Arlene Bluth of New York State Supreme Court disclosed flaws in the wording of the agreement that she said limited its scope. The ruling exposes potential weaknesses in the non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreements that staff at Trump's White House, his campaign, and the Trump Organization have been made to sign." The Wall Street Journal story, which is subscriber-firewalled, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge to halt proceedings in a lawsuit involving President Trump's private business, arguing that allowing the case to go forward would 'be a distraction to the President's performance of his constitutional duties.' The lawsuit, filed by Maryland and the District of Columbia, centers on whether Trump is violating the Constitution by continuing to do business with foreign and state governments while serving as president. Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte ruled that the historic case could proceed, opening the door for the plaintiffs to seek internal records from Trump's hotel in downtown Washington."

Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday took to Twitter to allege social media companies are discriminating against prominent conservatives. 'Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won't let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others......." the president tweeted. '.....Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police. If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don't watch at all.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: "I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed." Really, Mr. P*? What about that time you suggested NBC affiliates' broadcast licenses should be revoked? Not exactly "a grain of salt."

Another funny post from Jonathan Chait highlights Trump's remarkable duplicity, enhanced by his failure, it seems, to pay any attention to the implications of what he's tweeting. Title: "Trump Admits He Was Underfunding Military Budget to Make Room for Parade." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm not sure about Trump & Chait's premise. According to the Trumpentweeter, scrapping the November 2018 military parade means, "Now we can buy some more jet fighters!" But the highest cost estimate published for the parade was $92 million, and that is less than the price of the cheapest U.S. fighter plane, the F/A-18 Hornet.

That time (March 2017) Cadet Bonespurs got into a fight with actual Vietnam veterans over whether the film "Apocalypse Now" was about Agent Orange or napalm. Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Trump refused to accept that he was mistaken.... 'It was really fucking weird,' one attendee bluntly assessed to The Daily Beast." ...

... Eric Levitz: "In the many months since this encounter, the president has matched his failure to do right by Vietnam veterans on the minor matter of respecting their superior recall of Apocalypse Now, with betrayals on issues of greater import. On the controversy over privatization of the VA, Trump has allowed three of his golf buddies to override the preferences of most veterans organizations -- going so far as to force the ouster of a VA chief who refused to prioritize the wishes of Mar-a-Lago members over those of American servicemen and women. Meanwhile, the administration is finalizing plans to weaken enforcement of the Military Lending Act, which bars predatory lenders from duping financially desperate veterans into usurious loans.

She Has the Meats. Darlene Superville of the AP: "Omarosa Manigault Newman has a stash of video, emails, text messages and other documentation supporting the claims in her tell-all book about her time in the Trump White House, a person with direct knowledge of the records told The Associated Press Friday. Manigault Newman has made clear that she plans to continue selectively releasing the pieces of evidence if ... Donald Trump and his associates continue to attack her credibility and challenge the claims in her book, 'Unhinged.'" ...

Trump's Private War. Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump is increasingly venting frustration to his national security team about the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and showing renewed interest in a proposal by Blackwater founder Erik Prince [and brother of Ditsy DeVos] to privatize the war, current and former senior administration officials said. Prince's idea, which first surfaced last year during the president's Afghanistan strategy review, envisions replacing troops with private military contractors who would work for a special U.S. envoy for the war who would report directly to the president.... A year after Trump's strategy announcement, his advisers are worried his impatience with the Afghanistan conflict will cause him to seriously consider proposals like Prince's or abruptly order a complete U.S. withdrawal, officials said." Emphasis added.

Matthew Lee of the AP: "The Trump administration is ending funding for Syria stabilization projects as it moves to extricate the U.S. from the conflict, citing increased contributions from anti-Islamic State coalition partners. U.S. officials said the administration notified Congress on Friday that it would not spend some $200 million that had been planned for Syria programs and would instead shift that money to other areas. Nearly all of that money, initially pledged by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in February, had been on hold and under review since he was fired in March. A small fraction of that amount was released in June.... [Anonymous officials] said the cut will be more than offset by an additional $300 million pledged by coalition partners, including $100 million that Saudi Arabia announced it had contributed late Thursday. The State Department immediately welcomed the Saudi contribution, which is intended to help revitalize communities liberated from the Islamic State group like Raqqa." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nima Elbagir, et al., of CNN: "The bomb used by the Saudi-led coalition in a devastating attack on a school bus in Yemen was sold as part of a US State Department-sanctioned arms deal with Saudi Arabia, munitions experts told CNN.Working with local Yemeni journalists and munitions experts, CNN has established that the weapon that left dozens of children dead on August 9 was a 500-pound (227 kilogram) laser-guided MK 82 bomb made by Lockheed Martin, one of the top US defense contractors. The bomb is very similar to the one that wreaked devastation in an attack on a funeral hall in Yemen in October 2016 in which 155 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. The Saudi coalition blamed 'incorrect information' for that strike, admitted it was a mistake and took responsibility.... In the aftermath of the funeral hall attack, former US President Barack Obama banned the sale of precision-guided military technology to Saudi Arabia over 'human rights concerns.' The ban was overturned by the Trump administration's then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March 2017.... The US says it does not make targeting decisions for the coalition, which is fighting a Houthi rebel insurgency in Yemen. But it does support its operations through billions of dollars in arms sales, the refueling of Saudi combat aircraft and some sharing of intelligence."

Julie Watson of the AP: "A federal judge on Friday called on the U.S. government and the American Civil Liberties Union to come up with a plan to address the rights of parents and children separated at the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum. The request was made during a hearing a day after U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw extended a freeze on deportations of recently reunified families, giving a reprieve to hundreds of children and their parents who want to remain in the United States." ...

... Rebekah Entralgo of Think Progress: "The White House is set to host an event on August 20, honoring agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agencies, an official confirmed to Politico this week. The event, 'Salute to the Heroes of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs [and] Border Protection,' comes ... as [the administration] struggles to reunite hundreds of separated immigrant families and faces criticism over mounting allegations of abuse within ICE-contracted detention facilities.... According to recent government figures, however, 565 children, including 24 children under the age of 5, still remain separated from their families.... Politico noted Thursday evening that the [White House] event was further proof of the administration's anti-immigration strategy running up to the 2018 elections." ...

... ICE Agents to Add to Trump's "Heroes" Honorees. CBS-TV Los Angeles: "A newborn is without his father Friday after immigration agents detained the man as he was taking his wife to deliver the baby.... "[The pregnant woman, who was scheduled to undergo a C-section,] ended up having to drive herself to the hospital to deliver the baby."

The Company She Keeps. Ben Schreckinger of Politico Magazine: "The Justice Department is suing a friend and former business partner of Ivanka Trump for his alleged role in schemes to defraud the federal government out of millions of dollars in tax liabilities on his father's estate. Filed last month and reported here for the first time, the lawsuit follows an August 2017 Politico investigation of alleged financial wrongdoing by New York businessman Moshe Lax and glaring irregularities in the Internal Revenue Service's handling of a $27 million lien on his father's estate. The suit, which seeks more than $60 million in unpaid tax liabilities, was brought in the Southern District of New York.... It alleges that Lax, his sister Zlaty Schwartz, and his late father, Chaim Lax, engaged in a series of complex 'sham transactions' designed to fraudulently evade tax liability. The government alleges the family members undertook 10 separate schemes 'designed to hide the Lax family assets from the IRS and other creditors and make it appear as though the Estate was insolvent.' At a time when Democrats are working to make corruption a midterm campaign issue and a jury deliberates over whether to convict ... Donald Trump's former campaign manager for tax fraud, the suit threatens to further the perception that the Trump family and their closest associates operate in a corrupt milieu." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... MEANWHILE. Charles Bagli of the New York Times: "When the Kushner Companies bought the building at 184 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn in 2015, there were 316 rent-stabilized tenants, seemingly protected from eviction and large rent increases. By June of this year, there were 71 left, according to documents filed with the state attorney general.... The exodus of 245 rent-regulated tenants in a building in less than three years allowed the Kushners to promote those apartments as condominiums and to sell, so far, roughly 130 units for tens of millions of dollars. Last month, a group of 20 current and former tenants at the building filed a $10 million lawsuit, claiming that their apartments were made nearly uninhabitable during two years of renovations, when an army of workers trooped through the seven-story building on the Brooklyn waterfront. The tenants say the sound of drilling reverberated through the hallways. A fine layer of dust covered their furniture and clothing at the end of each day." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kind of Surprising. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department threw its support on Friday behind housing advocates who accuse Facebook of violating fair-housing laws. In a so-called statement of interest, the department suggested that Facebook could be held liable if housing providers like real estate developers and landlords used the site's targeting tools to discriminate against prospective renters and buyers in advertising their properties. Such tools limit who can see ads based on factors like sex, religion and nationality, and advertising restricted along those lines violates the Fair Housing Act."

"Bill Nelson Wasn't Making Things up." Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, has reaped the political whirlwind in the 10 days since he proclaimed that Russian hackers had 'penetrated' some of his state's county voting systems. The governor of Florida, Rick Scott, a Republican who is running against Nelson for his U.S. Senate seat this fall, has blasted his claim as irresponsible. The top Florida elections official, also a Republican, said he had seen no indication it's true. And The Washington Post weighed in Friday with a 2,717-word fact check that all but accused Nelson -- without evidence -- of making it up. However, three people familiar with the intelligence tell NBC News that there is a classified basis for Nelson's assertion, which he made at a public event after being given information from the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The extent and seriousness of the threat remains unclear, shrouded for reasons of national security. The episode illustrates the extent to which secrecy, politics and state-federal rivalries can stand in the way of a unified response to the threat from Russian attacks on a diffuse U.S. election system run by state and local officials." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I sort of read the WashPo "fact check" yesterday, and decided it was uninformed nonsense inasmuch as the writer, Salvador Rizzo, doesn't have a security clearance, as far as I know, & the responses from officials were vague and/or partisan. Ergo, I didn't link the report then. ...

     ... digby: "The government is legitimately worried that if they talk about penetration of he actual voting systems that nobody will ever accept [t]he outcome of an election again. But what if it's true and the party that is benefiting from the penetration refuses to do anything about it?" ...

... Congressional Races. Joel Schectman & Christopher Bing of Reuters: "The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a cyber attack on the congressional campaign of a Democratic candidate in California, according to three people close to the campaign. The hackers successfully infiltrated the election campaign computer of David Min, a Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives who was later defeated in the June primary for California's 45th Congressional district. The incident, which has not been previously reported, follows an article in Rolling Stone earlier this week that the FBI has also been investigating a cyber attack against Hans Keirstead, a California Democrat. He was defeated in a primary in the 48th Congressional district, neighboring Min's.... While both Min and Keirstead later lost to other primary challengers from their own party, the two closely-watched races are considered critical, competitive battlegrounds as the Democrats seek to win back Congress from Republicans in November. It is unclear who was behind the attack against Min's campaign, why it was carried out, and what the hackers did with any information they obtained.... It also illustrates how small political campaigns do not have the resources to protect themselves from cyber attacks. Few can hire computer security personnel."

Jericka Duncan of CBS News: "Rep. Keith Ellison -- deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a candidate for Minnesota attorney general -- has denied allegations that he abused his ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan. On Thursday, Monahan, 44, spoke on camera for the first time about an incident she said happened nearly two years ago. Monahan said she has video of what happened but that it's too traumatic for her, so she has chosen not to share it with anyone. CBS News has not seen the video." Mrs. McC: Nonetheless, she was willing to talk about the alleged incident. I don't see why it would be so traumatic to let others see the video; Monahan would not have to watch along with them. Not sayin the abuse didn't happen; just saying her justification for withholding the video is fishy. An abuser's denial, BTW, is not compelling, either. (Also linked yesterday.)

Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: "Lawyers for the families of two Sandy Hook shooting victims are accusing the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars media business of intentionally destroying evidence relevant to the defamation cases against him, according to a motion filed on Friday in a Texas court. Mr. Jones is being sued by the families of nine Sandy Hook victims for spreading false claims that the 2012 shooting at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 first graders and six adults was a government-backed hoax, and that the families of the dead were actors. Mr. Jones said on his broadcast last week that he had told his staff to delete material after CNN cited Infowars content that violated Twitter's policies, according to the motion filed on Friday.... At least some of the deleted content was considered evidence in the Sandy Hook cases, and Mr. Jones had been informed in writing in April that he was obligated by law to preserve all relevant material, according to the court filing in District Court in Travis County in Austin."

Beyond the Beltway

Louisiana Fights Back against Sensible Gun Control Advocacy. Mark Ballard of the (Baton Rouge) Advocate: "The [Louisiana] State Bond Commission barred two of the largest banks in the world from participating in efforts to fund some highway projects in Louisiana because of firearms policies instituted after recent mass shootings. On 7-6 vote, the commission excluded Citigroup Inc., the nation's third largest bank, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the second largest, from participating in a $600 million plan to widen Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge and improve access into the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, along with a project in Shreveport. State Treasurer John Schroder made the motion saying the banks' restrictions infringed on Louisiana residents' constitutional right to buy guns.... A few weeks after a gunman killed 17 people at Parkland, Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, Citigroup announced it would no longer do business with retailers peddling high capacity magazines or selling guns to anyone who hasn't passed a background check; or is under the age of 21, except those who have passed firearm hunter safety courses or are involved in the military or law enforcement."

Ohio State's Athletic Program Remains Excellent. Brett McMurphy of Stadium*: Documents and receipts Stadium has obtained show [fired Ohio State assistant football coach] Zach Smith ordered more than $2,200 in sex toys, male apparel and photography equipment and had the items delivered to him at Ohio State's Woody Hayes Athletic Center [at Ohio State] in 2015.... Courtney Smith [Zach's ex-wife] said Zach Smith took multiple photos of his penis inside the Ohio State coaches' offices, inside the White House when the Buckeyes visited in 2015 and also photographed himself in the coaches' offices receiving oral sex and having sex with a OSU staffer."

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I can't quite figure out what kind of publication Stadium is, & McMurphy is not the best writer, but several well-known publications (like USA Today) have picked up this story, so I guess it's okay.

Violet Ikonomova of the Detroit Metro Times: "More than a dozen community groups have called on Rep. Bettie Cook Scott (D-Detroit) to apologize for a series of racial slurs sources say she used to describe her primary election opponent, Rep. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit). Scott is alleged to have referred to Chang as 'ching-chang' and 'the ching-chong' to multiple voters outside polling precincts during last Tuesday's election. She's also said to have called one of Chang's campaign volunteers an 'immigrant,' saying 'you don't belong here' and 'I want you out of my country.'" DMT Update: "Rep. Bettie Cook Scott has issued an apology for her remarks. Find her statement here." (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Kofi Annan, a soft-spoken and patrician diplomat from Ghana, who became the seventh secretary general of the United Nations, projecting himself and his organization as the world's conscience and moral arbiter despite bloody debacles that left indelible stains on his record as a peacekeeper, died on Saturday. He was 80."

The Commentariat -- August 17, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump weighed in with a public defense of Paul Manafort on Friday, as a jury concluded its second day of deliberations to decide if the president's former campaign chairman is guilty of tax and bank fraud. Jurors signaled Friday afternoon that they were unlikely to reach a verdict before the day ended and asked if they could leave the courthouse at 5 p.m. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III agreed, and the panel is scheduled to resume deliberations Monday morning. At the White House, Trump declined to answer a question about a possible pardon for Manafort, but spoke out against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whose office brought the charges against the 69-year-old Manafort. 'I think the whole Manafort trial is very sad. When you look at what's going on, I think it's a very sad day for our country,' Trump said, adding that Manafort 'happens to be a very good person, I think it's very sad what they've done to Paul Manafort.'" The jury has gone home for the weekend.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday attacked Bruce Ohr, a little-known Justice Department official, calling him 'a disgrace' and threatening to revoke his security clearance 'very soon.' Mr. Ohr, a career official who has worked on antidrug and anti-gang initiatives at the department, has been targeted by conservative conspiracy theorists who say he helped start the investigation into Russian election interference. Mr. Ohr's wife was at one time a contractor for Fusion GPS, which participated in compiling a dossier about Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign. Mr. Trump has embraced the conspiracy theory, casting Mr. Ohr and his wife, Nellie, as central players in what he calls the 'rigged witch hunt' and accusing the couple of having what he claims are indirect contacts with Russians -- apparently a reference to Christopher Steele, the British spy who compiled the dossier with the help of Russian sources."

Axios: "Dr. Robert Gates has added his name to a stunning list of former intelligence officials who signed a letter criticizing President Trump's decision to revoke former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance..... Gates has served eight presidents, including stints as CIA director, and later as Defense Secretary for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama." ...

     ... Update: Sixty former intelligence officials have signed onto the letter, according to MSNBC. No link. Mrs. McC: As I was driving home, I heard NPR audio of Trump's saying he had heard from "many people" who supported his revocation of Brennan's security clearance.

Michael Shear & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "For more than a year, law enforcement officials have repeatedly rebuffed President Trump's efforts to use the power of his office to derail the Russia investigation. Stymied, Mr. Trump is lashing out in other ways against an investigation that he clearly hates or fears. The president said Thursday that he revoked the security clearance of John O. Brennan ... because Mr. Brennan had been part of what Mr. Trump has called the 'sham' Russia investigation. That move, and the threats of more revocations, were the latest signs that the president seems determined to punish anyone connected to the Russia inquiry."

Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Jurors began their second day of deliberations in Paul Manafort's trial Friday morning as the presiding federal judge outlined his ground rules for how the media should cover the verdict without disrupting the courtroom.... After the jurors exited for a nearby conference room, [Judge T.S.] Ellis acknowledged the trial 'might end soon' and turned to several media-related matters, including the decorum for reporters who plan to be in the Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse when the verdict gets read." ...

... Nancy Gertner, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The performance of U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III in the trial of Paul Manafort on bank fraud and tax evasion charges has been decidedly unusual. During the trial, Ellis intervened regularly, and mainly against one side: the prosecution. The judge's interruptions occurred in the presence of the jury and on matters of substance, not courtroom conduct.... Clearly worried about its outcome, prosecutors went so far as to urge Ellis to tell the jury, in his instructions before they began deliberating, not to let his commentary affect their decision-making. Ellis essentially did just that on Wednesday. It may well have been too little too late."

Luppe Luppen & Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News: "A Manhattan judge issued a ruling on Thursday that thwarted the Trump campaign's attempts to keep a lawsuit out of open court, with potential implications for the looming battle over fired Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman's slow-motion revelations of her experiences in the Trump campaign and White House. The decision came in a lawsuit filed by Jessica Denson, a former campaign staffer who filed a complaint last November that alleged she was subjected to 'harassment and sexual discrimination' while she worked on Trump's White House bid in 2016. Lawyers for the Trump campaign tried to force the case into private arbitration based on an agreement signed by staffers that included nondisclosure and nondisparagement provisions. In her decision, Judge Arlene Bluth of New York State Supreme Court disclosed flaws in the wording of the agreement that she said limited its scope. The ruling exposes potential weaknesses in the non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreements that staff at Trump's White House, his campaign, and the Trump Organization have been made to sign." The Wall Street Journal story, which is subscriber-firewalled, is here.

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm sure at one of Colbert's comedy writers reads Reality Chex.

Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "A source has told the Wall Street Journal that President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen initially refused to pay Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. According to this account, Cohen changed his mind after the release of the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape in which Trump is heard describing sexually assaulting women. According to the Journal, Cohen reportedly reached out to one of Daniels' representatives the day after the tape became public. Cohen would go on to pay Daniels $130,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement forbidding her from speaking publicly about the alleged affair. Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti has also said that the conversation changed after the 'Access Hollywood' tape surfaced." ...

     ... Oops! Richard Hasen in Slate: "The new revelation about Cohen refusing to pay Daniels in September 2016 is big, circumstantial evidence that could further open up Cohen to facing criminal campaign finance charges. This could also reach all the way to Trump himself.... Cohen's payment to Daniels, if motivated to help the campaign, would be a likely campaign finance violation.... The Journal reports federal prosecutors view the release of the 'Access Hollywood' tape as the 'trigger' for Cohen's payments to Daniels. That's a big deal.... Daniels' former lawyer Keith Davidson had approached Cohen in September 2016 about securing a payment from Trump to buy Daniels' silence. 'Mr. Cohen was dismissive, saying the story was bogus,' according to a source.... Why should Cohen not care a whit about protecting Trump's reputation ... in September 2016, but be anxious to close the deal -- and shut Daniels up -- right as the campaign faced a crisis involving allegations of Trump's treatment of women?... But for the campaign, it seems that Cohen would not have paid."

The Horse He Rode in on. Craig Unger writes a long piece in the New Republic about Donald Trump's decades-long ties to Russian oligarchs -- and Russian intelligence. P.D. Pepe highlighted the story, which I -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie -- have not had time to read, in today's Comments. ...

... Shane Harris of the Washington Post likes the Unger story, too. "As the theory goes, Putin wanted to keep tabs on the billionaires -- some of them former mobsters -- who had made their post-Cold War fortunes on the backs of industries once owned by the state. The oligarchs, as well as other new-moneyed elites, were stashing their money in foreign real estate, including Trump properties, presumably beyond Putin's reach. Trump, knowingly or otherwise, may have struck a side deal with the Kremlin, Unger argues: He would secretly rat out his customers to Putin, who would allow them to keep buying Trump properties. Trump got rich. Putin got eyes on where the oligarchs had hidden their wealth. Everybody won.... As Unger tells it, Trump can't be totally unaware of the criminality surrounding him, and even if he were, that ignorance is no defense. Trump allowed himself to become compromised by Russia, years before he seriously entertained running for public office."

Another funny post from Jonathan Chait highlights Trump's remarkable duplicity, enhanced by his failure, it seems, to pay any attention to the implications of what he's tweeting. Title: "Trump Admits He Was Underfunding Military Budget to Make Room for Parade." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I'm not sure about Trump & Chait's premise. According to the Trumpentweeter, scrapping the November 2018 military parade means, "Now we can buy some more jet fighters!" But the highest cost estimate published for the parade was $92 million, and that is less than the price of the cheapest U.S. fighter plane, the F/A-18 Hornet.

Matthew Lee of the AP: "The Trump administration is ending funding for Syria stabilization projects as it moves to extricate the U.S. from the conflict, citing increased contributions from anti-Islamic State coalition partners. U.S. officials said the administration notified Congress on Friday that it would not spend some $200 million that had been planned for Syria programs and would instead shift that money to other areas. Nearly all of that money, initially pledged by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in February, had been on hold and under review since he was fired in March. A small fraction of that amount was released in June.... [Anonymous officials] said the cut will be more than offset by an additional $300 million pledged by coalition partners, including $100 million that Saudi Arabia announced it had contributed late Thursday. The State Department immediately welcomed the Saudi contribution, which is intended to help revitalize communities liberated from the Islamic State group like Raqqa."

The Company She Keeps. Ben Schreckinger of Politico Magazine: "The Justice Department is suing a friend and former business partner of Ivanka Trump for his alleged role in schemes to defraud the federal government out of millions of dollars in tax liabilities on his father's estate. Filed last month and reported here for the first time, the lawsuit follows an August 2017 Politico investigation of alleged financial wrongdoing by New York businessman Moshe Lax and glaring irregularities in the Internal Revenue Service's handling of a $27 million lien on his father's estate. The suit, which seeks more than $60 million in unpaid tax liabilities, was brought in the Southern District of New York.... It alleges that Lax, his sister Zlaty Schwartz, and his late father, Chaim Lax, engaged in a series of complex 'sham transactions' designed to fraudulently evade tax liability. The government alleges the family members undertook 10 separate schemes 'designed to hide the Lax family assets from the IRS and other creditors and make it appear as though the Estate was insolvent.' At a time when Democrats are working to make corruption a midterm campaign issue and a jury deliberates over whether to convict ... Donald Trump's former campaign manager for tax fraud, the suit threatens to further the perception that the Trump family and their closest associates operate in a corrupt milieu." ...

... MEANWHILE. Charles Bagli of the New York Times: "When the Kushner Companies bought the building at 184 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn in 2015, there were 316 rent-stabilized tenants, seemingly protected from eviction and large rent increases. By June of this year, there were 71 left, according to documents filed with the state attorney general.... The exodus of 245 rent-regulated tenants in a building in less than three years allowed the Kushners to promote those apartments as condominiums and to sell, so far, roughly 130 units for tens of millions of dollars. Last month, a group of 20 current and former tenants at the building filed a $10 million lawsuit, claiming that their apartments were made nearly uninhabitable during two years of renovations, when an army of workers trooped through the seven-story building on the Brooklyn waterfront. The tenants say the sound of drilling reverberated through the hallways. A fine layer of dust covered their furniture and clothing at the end of each day.... In a statement, the Kushner companies insisted that they took all the appropriate precautions to protect existing tenants...."

Jericka Duncan of CBS News: "Rep. Keith Ellison -- deputy chairman of the Democratic NationalCommittee and a candidate for Minnesota attorney general -- has denied allegations that he abused his ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan. On Thursday, Monahan, 44, spoke on camera for the first time about an incident she said happened nearly two years ago. Monahan said she has video of what happened but that it's too traumatic for her, so she has chosen not to share it with anyone. CBS News has not seen the video." Mrs. McC: Nonetheless, she was willing to talk about the alleged incident. I don't see why it would be so traumatic to let others see the video; Monahan would not have to watch along with them. Not saying the abuse didn't happen; just saying her justification for withholding the video is fishy. An abuser's denial, BTW, is not compelling, either.

Violet Ikonomova of the Detroit Metro Times: "More than a dozen community groups have called on Rep. Bettie Cook Scott (D-Detroit) to apologize for a series of racial slurs sources say she used to describe her primary election opponent, Rep. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit). Scott is alleged to have referred to Chang as 'ching-chang' and 'the ching-chong' to multiple voters outside polling precincts during last Tuesday's election. She's also said to have called one of Chang's campaign volunteers an 'immigrant,' saying 'you don't belong here' and 'I want you out of my country.'" DMT Update: "Rep. Bettie Cook Scott has issued an apology for her remarks. Find her statement here."

*****

Breaking! Black Robbers Hold up POTUS*! Trump Avenges Them. Details linked below under "He Loves a Parade."

... Wow! Looks as if there were millions of people on the Mall!

... DeNeen Brown of the Washington Post: "The president [Barack Obama] would later write in an email to the New Yorker: 'Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R. & B., rock and roll -- the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope. American history wells up when Aretha sings. That's why, when she sits down at a piano and sings "A Natural Woman," she can move me to tears.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade -- our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. May the Queen of Soul rest in eternal peace. -- Barack Obama, yesterday in a tweet ...

... BUT Donald Trump Remembers Aretha Franklin as the Help:

     ... and he had to read that off note cards. More extemporaneously, he sent "best wishes" to Aretha's family. Who offers "best wishes" to the bereaved? Besides Trump. ...

... MEANWHILE, Trump's favorite teevee network, Fox "News," remembered Franklin with ... a photo of Patti LaBelle. As "Bad Fox Graphics" noted on Twitter, "It's understandable that FoxNews would use a photo of Labelle to announce Aretha Franklin's death. It sure is confusing, because they're both...uhh...excellent singers." Mrs. McC: Yeah, and for all we know, they both worked for Trump, too.

That's LaBelle in the background photo, taken during a 2014 Performance at the White House.

Could He Be More Stupid? Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday assailed the media for editorials in newspapers across the country that championed the freedom of the press, a unified response in the face of the president's relentless attacks.In a series of morning Twitter posts, Mr. Trump said The Boston Globe was 'in collusion' with other newspapers for leading the editorial effort, choosing a word that has become synonymous with the special counsel's investigation into Russian election interference.... Trump also added 'PROVE IT!' in one of the messages, though it was not clear what he meant[:] '... Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!'... [Then there was this:] 'There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Nakamura & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump has told advisers that he is eager to strip more security clearances as part of an escalating attack against people who have criticized him or played a role in the investigation of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, two White House officials said.... Trump ... could act soon, according to the White House officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... Trump believes he has emerged looking strong and decisive in his escalating feud with [John] Brennan, the aides said.... As the Russia investigation tightens around the president -- Mueller is pressing Trump's legal team over a potential interview with him -- the president remains impulsive and unpredictable, aides said. 'The [standard] process [of revoking clearances] is essentially meaningless,' one White House aide said. 'If Trump wants to do it, he'll just do it.'... White House aides confirmed that Trump made his decision weeks ago about Brennan.... Senior advisers, including [Sarah] Sanders, recommended to the president that they announce the action Wednesday amid an onslaught of news coverage from former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman's new book...." ...

... Julie Davis & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's decision to revoke [John Brennan's] security clearance drew rebukes Thursday from national security officials and members of both political parties, who called it an extraordinary act of retaliation that reflected authoritarian tactics.... Step by step, from the moment 10 days into his administration that he fired the acting attorney general, Sally Q. Yates, Mr. Trump has overseen the removal of top national security officials who have defied him or worked at senior levels of the Russia investigation. They include James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director; Andrew G. McCabe, the former F.B.I. deputy director; and Peter Strzok, the former F.B.I. counterintelligence agent who helped oversee the Hillary Clinton email inquiry and the Russia investigation and disparaged Mr. Trump in a series of inflammatory texts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... William McRaven in a Washington Post op-ed: "Dear Mr. President: Former CIA director John Brennan ... is one of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don't know him. Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency."... William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden." ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "Disconnected from any allegation, let alone evidence, that [John] Brennan abused his clearance, Trump's maneuver struck many intelligence observers and former officials as a naked power play: a message to the intelligence community that the president expects their personal loyalty. But CIA Director Gina Haspel, whose nomination Brennan very publicly supported and whose integrity Brennan vouched for, is remaining silent, even as the White House suggests that the same fate may await other intelligence veterans who consider Trump a danger to the country." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... BUT. Olivia Gazis of CBS News: "Twelve former senior intelligence officials, including 11 former CIA directors and deputy directors and one former director of national intelligence, have signed a letter of support for former CIA director John Brennan, calling the signal sent by the White House's decision to strip him of his security clearance 'inappropriate' and 'deeply regrettable.' 'We feel compelled to respond in the wake of the ill-considered and unprecedented remarks and actions by the White House,' the senior officials wrote. 'We know John to be an enormously talented, capable and patriotic individual who devoted his entire adult life to the service of this nation.... We have never before seen the approval or removal of security clearances used as a political tool,' they wrote.... The letter's signees include former Directors of Central Intelligence William Webster, George Tenet and Porter Goss; former CIA directors Gen. Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta and Gen. David Petraeus; former director of national intelligence James Clapper; and former deputy CIA directors John McLaughlin, Stephen Kappes, Avril Haines, David Cohen and Michael Morell, who is also a CBS News senior national security contributor." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Trump says that although he has never obstructed justice in the Russia investigation, he does 'fight back.' And, as of Wednesday, he had 'fought back' against a majority of top officials involved in leading, overseeing or making administration decisions about that probe. According to an analysis by The Washington Post, of the more than a dozen officials with what could be construed as leadership roles in the investigation, more than half have been fired and/or threatened with official recourse. The most recent examples were the White House's revocation of former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance Wednesday and the threats to do the same for nine other current and former officials who have run afoul of Trump. In one fell swoop, the White House effectively more than doubled its enemies list -- and served notice that ex-officials who were involved in the probe will not be permitted to criticize Trump willy-nilly." Blake lists the officials Trump has targeted." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Rachel Maddow made the point last night that Trump's plans to revoke security clearances for his "enemies list" is an effort not to silence critics but to silence witnesses -- witnesses who may be required to testify in criminal and/or impeachment proceedings. If these potential witnesses can't review the classified info they gathered against Trump & Trump Inc., their testimony will be compromised. As John Brennan noted in an earlier interview, the only times he has sought to review classified information since he left government was to refresh his memory in preparation to testify. Brennan & most of the people on Trump's list held high-level intelligence, investigative or DOJ positions while the Russia investigation was ongoing.

Little Dictator Comes "Unhinged." Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "... Trump told advisers that he wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions to have Manigault Newman arrested, according to one Republican briefed on the conversations. (It's unclear what law Trump believes she broke.) Another Republican recounted how over the weekend Trump derailed a midterm-election strategy session to rant about Manigault Newman's betrayal." ...

     ... Jeet Heer: "The story of Trump demanding that Manigault Newman arrested is consistent with the fact that Trump has repeatedly made public requests that the Department of Justice investigate his political enemies."

... Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Omarosa Manigault Newman ... on Thursday released exclusively to MSNBC a secret tape of campaign official Lara Trump offering her a $15,000-a-month job after she was fired from the administration. The tape -- which, according to Manigault Newma was made on Dec. 16, 2017, just days after she had left the White House -- appears to corroborate claims she made in her new book about receiving an offer from the president's re-election campaign. Manigault Newman wrote in her book that the job offer came with the condition of signing a nondisclosure agreement; she said she did not accept it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Maggie Haberman & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "On Thursday, officials at Simon & Schuster, the publisher of 'Unhinged,' said they had received a legal warning letter against publication from Charles Harder, the libel lawyer whom Mr. Trump has retained in other matters. The publisher's lawyer responded in kind, saying the president was using the highest platform in the land to censor someone.... Mr. Trump's aides have been concerned that they will make appearances on other tapes, of which [Omarosa] Manigault Newman is believed to have as many as 200.... 'All the money that we raise and that pays salaries is directly from donors, small-dollar donors for the most part,' [Lara] Trump said [on the tape Manigault Newman gave to MSNBC]. 'So I know you, you were making 179 at the White House, and I think we can work something out where we keep you right along those lines.' In a statement, Ms. Trump said..., 'I hope it's all worth it for you, Omarosa, because some things you just can't put a price on.'..." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND apparently there are some things you can put a price on -- like silence, which would go for "along the lines" of $179K, by Lara Trump's reckoning.

Darren Samuelsohn, et al., of Politico: "Jurors in Paul Manafort's trial ended their first day of deliberations Thursday without reaching a verdict." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... The story has been updated: "Jurors in Paul Manafort's bank- and tax-fraud trial ended their first day of deliberations without a verdict, but posed a set of questions to the judge overseeing the case that could indicate trouble for the prosecution. A note from the jury read aloud in court Thursday afternoon asked about the legal requirements behind four of the felony charges facing the former Trump campaign chairman: allegations that he failed to file reports on bank accounts located overseas. Jurors also asked U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III to provide clarification on what constitutes reasonable doubt. The queries could alarm special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors because they suggest the jurors were not immediately convinced that the case against Manafort is a slam dunk. But it could also mean that jurors have not bought the defense's central argument: that [Rick] Gates was the one actually responsible for Manafort's alleged wrongdoing." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Jurors are considering 18 counts. I think the question could also mean they were having trouble deciding one or a few counts, not all 18. Update: Former federal prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg may more-or-less the same point on MSNBC last night.

Trump Accidentally Gifts the "Fake News." Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump's decision to declassify competing congressional memos about the validity of the so-called Steele dossie means the FBI has lost its authority to rebuff Freedom of Information Act requests about the bureau's efforts to verify the report's intelligence linking Trump to Russia during the 2016 campaign, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta previously blessed the FBI's decision to refuse such FOIA requests by declining to confirm whether any records exist about aspects of its handling of the hotly contested dossier, prepared by the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.... Mehta said Trump's actions in February to greenlight the release of one memo from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and a separate memo from the panel's ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, left untenable the FBI's position of resisting disclosure.... The ruling will not take immediate effect, because the case was on appeal to the D.C. Circuit when Trump approved release of the House memos. The appeals court is now likely to remand the case to Mehta...."

Adam Raymond of New York: "President Trump made it easier for the United States military to launch cyberattacks this week by reversing an Obama-era rule that required 'an elaborate interagency process' prior to any such attacks, The Wall Street Journal reports. Trump signed the order Wednesday reversing what is known as Presidential Policy Directive 20 (PPD-20), which President Obama signed in 2012. The directive required several layers of interagency sign-off, from parties such as the State Department and the intelligence community, before the military could launch a cyberattack.... As Politico describes, [the Obama rule] could ... prevent agencies from stepping on each other's toes. 'The intelligence community has also balked at some military operations, especially ones that risk exposing the eavesdropping software that U.S. spies spend years developing and planting in enemy networks.'"

He Loves a Parade

Amanda Macias of CNBC: "... Donald Trump's military parade this fall is shaping up to cost $80 million more than initially estimated. The Department of Defense and its interagency partners have updated their perspective cost estimates for the parade, according to a U.S. defense official with firsthand knowledge of the assessment. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity. The parade, slated for Nov. 10, is estimated to cost $92 million, the official said.... The U.S. has not held a major military parade in Washington since 1991 to mark the end of Operation Desert Storm. That parade reportedly cost approximately $8 million and was paid for with about $3 million in government funds and the rest with private donations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     So Then. Barbara Starr, et al., of CNN: "The Department of Defense says the military parade originally scheduled for Veterans Day will be postponed. 'The Department of Defense and White House have been planning a parade to honor America's military veterans and commemorate the centennial of World War I,' Defense Department spokesman Col. Rob Manning said in a statement Thursday. 'We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019.'" ...

     ... Missy Ryan & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The decision to announce a possible postponement appeared to come together in the space of hours Thursday afternoon and evening. It was not clear who made the decision to explore delaying the event, which had been a priority for Trump.... Planning for the parade comes at a time when Trump has boasted of saving money by suspending joint military exercises with South Korea, part of his outreach to North Korea. The affected exercise would have cost about $14 million, far less than the parade's current expected cost."

     AND Then. Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday canceled plans for a military parade this fall in Washington, blaming local officials for inflating the estimated costs, saying they 'know a windfall when they see it.'... 'The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead... ....attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th. Maybe we will do something next year in D.C when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Translation: D.C. Officials = corrupt, scary black stick-up men (and women!). They tried to hold up Trump on the streets of D.C. because they hate America. He was too tough to let them get away with it. ...

     ... John Wagner & Peter Jamison of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday blamed local officials for his decision to postpone a grand military parade in Washington this fall, alleging without evidence that they had unreasonably inflated the price.... About an hour after the president's tweet, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) delivered her own caustic response on Twitter...[:] 'Yup, I’m Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington DC, the local politician who finally got thru to the reality star in the White House with the realities ($21.6M) of parades/events/demonstrations in Trump America (sad).'... A city official said the planning process for the parade had been difficult to coordinate with White House officials, who had been slow to communicate details of the event, including plans for a specific date. Trump's tweets were aimed at a government run by Democrats." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: As noted above, I don't think party affiliation was the point.

Adam Raymond: "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has spent the last week telling anyone who's asked that the wildfires ripping their way through California have nothing to do with climate change. On Thursday, he changed his tune. 'Of course,' he told reporters when asked if climate change is one of the reasons for the proliferation of the fires. The tepid acknowledgement of the obvious comes days after Zinke told a California TV station that the wildfires have 'nothing to do with climate change.'... He [also] blamed 'frivolous litigation from radical environmentalists' for preventing the removal of dead timber, which can serve as a fuel to raging wildfires, from California's forests.... It's hard to know what to make of Zinke's admission Thursday morning. Especially since it came only hours after he went on Fox Business and questioned the very idea that humans are playing a role in climate change."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said his caucus is preparing to sue the National Archives if it is unable to meet the party's Freedom of Information Act request for hundreds of thousands of pages of Kavanaugh documents that have not yet been disclosed publicly. If the Archives has not met Democrats' request in 20 days, Schumer and his members say they will go to court.... The minority leader also said he would meet with Kavanaugh next week, breaking a long standoff between Schumer and the White House over the documents.... Schumer said he would ask Kavanaugh about the documents 'and what he intends to do about it. He can't duck.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Department of Education is investigating Ohio State University's response to allegations of sexual abuse against former athletic doctor Richard Strauss. The probe by the department's Office for Civil Rights will examine whether Ohio State responded 'promptly nd equitably' to allegations by former students that Strauss touched athletes inappropriately during appointments and ogled them in a campus locker room, as well as claims that school officials knew or should have known about the alleged abuse, the school said. Strauss, who killed himself in 2005, was employed by Ohio State from 1978 to 1998. He has been accused of sexually abusing student athletes in 14 sports, as well as patients at the campus health center." Mrs. McC: Let's hope Ditsy DeVos isn't in charge of the probe. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Commentariat -- August 16, 2018

Late Afternoon Update:

... DeNeen Brown of the Washington Post: "The president [Barack Obama] would later write in an email to the New Yorker: 'Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R. & B., rock and roll -- the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope. American history wells up when Aretha sings. That's why, when she sits down at a piano and sings "A Natural Woman," she can move me to tears.'"

Could He Be More Stupid? Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday assailed the media for editorials in newspapers across the country that championed the freedom of the press, a unified response in the face of the president's relentless attacks.In a series of morning Twitter posts, Mr. Trump said The Boston Globe was 'in collusion' with other newspapers for leading the editorial effort, choosing a word that has become synonymous with the special counsel's investigation into Russian election interference.... Trump also added 'PROVE IT!' in one of the messages, though it was not clear what he meant[:] '... Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!'... [Then there was this:] 'There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!'"

Julie Davis & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's decision to revoke [John Brennan's] security clearance drew rebukes Thursday from national security officials and members of both political parties, who called it an extraordinary act of retaliation that reflected authoritarian tactics.... Step by step, from the moment 10 days into his administration that he fired the acting attorney general, Sally Q. Yates, Mr. Trump has overseen the removal of top national security officials who have defied him or worked at senior levels of the Russia investigation. They include James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director; Andrew G. McCabe, the former F.B.I. deputy director; and Peter Strzok, the former F.B.I. counterintelligence agent who helped oversee the Hillary Clinton email inquiry and the Russia investigation and disparaged Mr. Trump in a series of inflammatory texts." ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "Disconnected from any allegation, let alone evidence, that [John] Brennan abused his clearance, Trump's maneuver struck many intelligence observers and former officials as a naked power play: a message to the intelligence community that the president expects their personal loyalty. But CIA Director Gina Haspel, whose nomination Brennan very publicly supported and whose integrity Brennan vouched for, is remaining silent, even as the White House suggests that the same fate may await other intelligence veterans who consider Trump a danger to the country."

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Trump says that although he has never obstructed justice in the Russia investigation, he does 'fight back.' And, as of Wednesday, he had 'fought back' against a majority of top officials involved in leading, overseeing or making administration decisions about that probe. According to an analysis by The Washington Post, of the more than a dozen officials with what could be construed as leadership roles in the investigation, more than half have been fired and/or threatened with official recourse. The most recent examples were the White House's revocation of former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance Wednesday and the threats to do the same for nine other current and former officials who have run afoul of Trump. In one fell swoop, the White House effectively more than doubled its enemies list -- and served notice that ex-officials who were involved in the probe will not be permitted to criticize Trump willy-nilly." Blake lists the officials Trump has targeted."

Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Omarosa Manigault Newman ... on Thursday released exclusively to MSNBC a secret tape of campaign official Lara Trump offering her a $15,000-a-month job after she was fired from the administration. The tape -- which, according to Manigault Newman was made on Dec. 16, 2017, just days after she had left the White House -- appears to corroborate claims she made in her new book about receiving an offer from the president's re-election campaign. Manigault Newman wrote in her book that the job offer came with the condition of signing a nondisclosure agreement; she said she did not accept it."

Darren Samuelsohn, et al., of Politico: "Jurors in Paul Manafort's trial ended their first day of deliberations Thursday without reaching a verdict."

Amanda Macias of CNBC: "... Donald Trump's military parade this fall is shaping up to cost $80 million more than initially estimated. The Department of Defense and its interagency partners have updated their perspective cost estimates for the parade, according to a U.S. defense official with firsthand knowledge of the assessment. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity. The parade, slated for Nov. 10, is estimated to cost $92 million, the official said.... The U.S. has not held a major military parade in Washington since 1991 to mark the end of Operation Desert Storm. That parade reportedly cost approximately $8 million and was paid for with about $3 million in government funds and the rest with private donations."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said his caucus is preparing to sue the National Archives if it is unable to meet the party's Freedom of Information Act request for hundreds of thousands of pages of Kavanaugh documents that have not yet been disclosed publicly. If the Archives has not met Democrats' request in 20 days, Schumer and his members say they will go to court.... The minority leader also said he would meet with Kavanaugh next week, breaking a long standoff between Schumer and the White House over the documents.... Schumer said he would ask Kavanaugh about the documents 'and what he intends to do about it. He can't duck.'"

Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Department of Education is investigating Ohio State University's response to allegations of sexual abuse against former athletic doctor Richard Strauss. The probe by the department's Office for Civil Rights will examine whether Ohio State responded 'promptly and equitably' to allegations by former students that Strauss touched athletes inappropriately during appointments and ogled them in a campus locker room, as well as claims that school officials knew or should have known about the alleged abuse, the school said. Strauss, who killed himself in 2005, was employed by Ohio State from 1978 to 1998. He has been accused of sexually abusing student athletes in 14 sports, as well as patients at the campus health center." Mrs. McC: Let's hope Ditsy DeVos isn't in charge of the probe.

*****

Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "For the three-month period of May to July, the entire contiguous United States (CONUS) 'ranked hottest on record,' as the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, California tweeted out Wednesday, adding that 'records go back to 1895.'"--safari

Perfect Projection from President Petty-Pouter. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "In a remarkable attack on a political opponent, President Trump on Wednesday revoked the security clearance of John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director under President Barack Obama, citing what he called Mr. Brennan's 'erratic' behavior. The White House had threatened last month to strip Mr. Brennan and other Obama administration officials -- including Susan E. Rice, the former national security adviser; and James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence -- of their security clearances.... In a tweet this week, Mr. Brennan criticized Mr. Trump for the language that the president used to attack Omarosa Manigault Newman, his former top aide, who he called a 'dog.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... You can read Trump's full statement here. ...

... John Brennan, in a New York Times op-ed: "The already challenging work of the American intelligence and law enforcement communities [to thwart Russian incursions into the 2016 U.S. elections] was made more difficult in late July 2016..., when Mr. Trump ... publicly called upon Russia to find the missing emails of Mrs. Clinton. By issuing such a statement, Mr. Trump was not only encouraging a foreign nation to collect intelligence against a United States citizen, but also openly authorizing his followers to work with our primary global adversary against his political opponent.... Mr. Trump's claims of no collusion are, in a word, hogwash. The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy, whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy, and how many members of 'Trump Incorporated' attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets."

... David Nakamura & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Wednesday followed through on threats to strip the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, igniting a firestorm of criticism that the president was recklessly attempting to distract from his own political problems and silence high-profile critics.... Trump added that he is reviewing the security clearances of nine other former officials, including former FBI director James B. Comey, all of whom have criticized the president or been targeted by congressional Republicans seeking to discredit the Russia probe.... Trump appeared to make a direct link in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. 'I call it the rigged witch hunt,' Trump said of the Russia probe. 'And these people led it. So I think it's something that had to be done.'... [Brennan's] former colleagues rallied to his defense, hailing his service to the nation, including a key role in the 2011 operation that killed Osama bin Laden.... Security experts have described [Trump's] move as unprecedented and warned that words and actions protected by the First Amendment are not grounds to take a clearance away.... After Sanders's briefing Wednesday, the White House released the written statement from Trump bearing the date July 26 -- before quickly releasing an identical statement with the date removed." ...

... An Omarosa Distraction. Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "But many questioned the timing of Trump's decision, which comes amid claims made by former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman that appear to substantiate previous rumors of a secret tape of Trump saying the N-word. A follow-up email to reporters from the White House is fueling speculation that Trump is hoping to distract from those very rumors. Note the timestamp: '... July 26, 2018.'...

... Gail Collins: "One of the worst things about this moment in our national lives is the fear that if Trump gets into trouble for doing something dumb and obnoxious, he'll respond by doing something huge and maybe dangerous.... Trump's response [to Omarosa's book tour] has been somewhere between hysterical and totally nuts.... The tweets tell us a lot about the president's own miserable insecurities.... When he calls someone a 'dog,' he's just reacting to a pathological fear that he's unlovable. Just as when he calls someone 'dumb,' he's trying to get past the fact that he's not all that bright.... Back when I worked for New York Newsday, he sent me a copy of a column I'd written, scrawled with objections, along with an announcement that I was 'a dog and a liar' and that my picture was 'the face of a pig.'... Whenever I tell the 'dog' story, I always enjoy pointing out that Trump misspelled the word 'too.'" ...

... Mrs. McC: Brennan spoke by phone to Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC and said the White House has never notified him the POTUS* had stripped his clearance. He heard it on the news. ...

... Jonathan Chait: Trump himself has of course behaved erratically throughout the course of his presidency, posing innumerable risks to American security, up to and including the potential for triggering a nuclear war, which he has threatened to do on his Twitter feed. In one documented instance, Trump literally handed over classified, highly sensitive national security secrets to Russia.... [Last month, when Trump threatened to revoke John Brennan's security clearance,] "a reporter asked Paul Ryan if he believed it was 'dangerous' for the president to use this tool to punish critics. 'I think he's trolling people, honestly,' replied the House Speaker, with a forced laugh. Get it?.... The White House also announced that it is reviewing clearances for James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page -- all former security officials who have criticized or otherwise offended Trump." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: For some reason, Chait doesn't name Bruce Ohr, who also made Trump's Enemies List. Ohr is important because he still works for the DOJ, so obviously if he lost his clearance he couldn't do his job. He made Trump's list because his wife works for Fusion GPS, so he's part of Trump's "deep-state" conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton is running a plot to destroy Trump. She's doing very well, I'd say, because Trump himself is self-destructing. I'd bet Bob Mueller updated his "Instances of POTUS* Obstructing Justice" file to include today's stunt. ...

     ... Katie Benner of the New York Times profiles Bruce Ohr here; Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post profiles him here. ...

... Greg Sargent: "... this move is all about striking a political blow against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation.... The revocation of his security clearance will have no practical impact on [John] Brennan's ability to make public statements along the lines that Trump is objecting to on such disingenuous grounds.... The CIA was reportedly caught off guard by this decision..., which suggests Trump knows the agency would probably not find legitimate grounds for doing this.... The White House statement -- its suggestion that Brennan is using his access to classified info to 'validate' his 'political attacks' -- strongly suggests Trump doesn't want Brennan's criticism to have the aura of authority that comes with having security clearance. By revoking it, Trump is trying to take Brennan's legitimacy as a critic of him down a peg...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So Trump just had somebody type up these security clearance revocations when he was pissed off & he never went through the normal revocation protocol. I guess he'll dole out new revocations every time stuff hits the proverbial fan. But Brennan is "erratic." ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "The Brennan incident showed Trump might be able to get away with using the same attack on Mueller. The president's legal authority in this area is untested, but the response on Wednesday suggests the political blowback may be manageable. Senator Rand Paul saw Trump use his authority to punish a political enemy and cheered.... House Speaker Paul Ryan, who previously laughed off the idea of such a gross abuse of power, suddenly went silent." Mrs. McC: Hey, what about Rosenstein & Guildensessions? Might as well strip their clearances while he's at it.

Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "Prosecutors urged jurors in the trial of Paul Manafort to focus on financial records and Manafort's 'lies' -- and to set aside personal feelings about a tainted star witness -- as the government offered its closing argument on Wednesday. Pushing back, lawyers for the former Trump campaign chairman argued that the case brought by special counsel Robert Mueller is a mishmash of 'selective' evidence that doesn't amount to any crime at all.... In the late afternoon, [Judge] Ellis -- whose routine interjections have irked prosecutors throughout the trial -- spent nearly two hours delivering instructions to the jury.... Ellis dismissed the four alternate jurors and told the 12 primary jurors to return to court at 9:30 a.m. to be greeted briefly and then commence deliberations."

.... Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "The evidence against Paul Manafort is 'overwhelming,' a prosecutor told jurors during closing arguments in his fraud trial on Wednesday, saying that he hid more than $16 million in income and fraudulently obtained $20 million in bank loans even though, as a trained lawyer, 'Mr. Manafort knew the law.' The lead prosecutor, Greg D. Andres, described Mr. Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, as a bright and highly capable political consultant who was well versed in tax law and financial matters and fluent in terms like 'write-offs' and 'distribution' income. Mr. Manafort deliberately deceived his bookkeeper and tax accountants, Mr. Andres argued, so he could keep more of his income tax-free and then trick banks into loaning him millions when 'he was going broke and he couldn't pay his bills.' In a dispassionate summation that lasted nearly two hours, Mr. Andres insisted that Mr. Manafort's crimes could not be dismissed as mere oversights. He repeatedly showed the jury emails, tax returns or other financial documents that Mr. Manafort either personally wrote or signed. 'It wasn't a clerical decision. It wasn't "forgot to check a box,"' Mr. Andres said. 'When you follow the trail of Mr. Manafort's finances, it is littered with lies.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post report on closing arguments in the Paul Manafort trial. (Also linked yesterday.)

Rudy's Mob Lawyer Impersonation, Ctd. Michael Burke of the Hill: "President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani signaled Wednesday that his team is losing patience with special counsel Robert Mueller, urging the former FBI director to finish his Russia investigation ahead of the November midterm elections. Giuliani tweeted that the Department of Justice (DOJ) 'should require Mueller to submit his report before September 7.'... Giuliani also told Bloomberg that Mueller should 'write the damn report so we can see it and rebut it,' the website reported Wednesday. 'If he doesn't get it done in the next two or three weeks we will just unload on him like a ton of bricks,' he reportedly said." ...

... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Rudolph W. Giuliani ... said Wednesday that he is still awaiting a response from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to the Trump team's latest terms for a presidential interview, which were made last week in a letter that argued against Trump's having to answer questions about his possible obstruction of justice.... In the meantime, Trump's lawyers are preparing to oppose a potential subpoena from Mueller for a Trump sit-down.... 'We would move to quash the subpoena,' Giuliani said in an interview. 'And we're pretty much finished with our memorandum opposing a subpoena.' Giuliani added that Trump's attorneys are ready to 'argue it before the Supreme Court, if it ever got there.'... Mueller told Trump's lawyers in March that he could issue a subpoena for Trump to appear before a grand jury if Trump declined an interview, according to four people familiar with the encounter."

Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "In the time since the election, a little-known Trump campaign staffer named Daniel Gelbinovich reached out to a number of Washington lobbyists with an eyebrow-raising ask: to shield a Putin ally from U.S. sanctions. Two lobbyists ... told The Daily Beast that Gelbinovich approached them and told them he was trying to help Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch worth more than $11 billion, find a lobbyist to help keep him from being added to the Treasury Department's sanctions list. Gelbinovich confirmed this reporting.... Gelbinovich's claims to have worked on behalf of Abramovich, if true, are another piece of the web of connections between Trump World and powerful Russians.... Ivanka Trump has been friends with Dasha Zhukova, who has two children with Abramovich, for more than a decade, according to Bloomberg. Zhukova and Abramovich announced they would split in August 2017."

Andy Kroll in Rolling Stone: "FBI agents in California and Washington, D.C., have investigated a series of cyberattacks over the past year that targeted a Democratic opponent of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). Rohrabacher is a 15-term incumbent who is widely seen as the most pro-Russia and pro-Putin member of Congress and is a staunch supporter of President Trump. The hacking attempts and the FBI's involvement are described in dozens of emails and forensic records obtained by Rolling Stone. The target of these attacks, Dr. Hans Keirstead, a stem-cell scientist and the CEO of a biomedical research company, finished third in California's nonpartisan 'top-two' primary on June 5th, falling 125 votes short of advancing to the general election in one of the narrowest margins of any congressional primary this year. He has since endorsed Harley Rouda, the Democrat who finished in second place and will face Rohrabacher in the November election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Space Force Russia. BBC News: A mysterious Russian satellite displaying 'very abnormal behaviour' has raised alarm in the US, according to a State Department official. '"We don't know for certain what it is and there is no way to verify it,' said assistant secretary Yleem Poblete at a conference in Switzerland on 14 August. She voiced fears that it was impossible to say if the object may be a weapon. Russia has dismissed the comments as 'unfounded, slanderous accusations based on suspicions'. The satellite in question was launched in October last year. '[The satellite's] behaviour on-orbit was inconsistent with anything seen before from on-orbit inspection or space situational awareness capabilities, including other Russian inspection satellite activities,' Ms Poblete told the conference on disarmament in Switzerland."

Max Fisher of the New York Times on how "populist" strongmen like Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey "are unusually prone to creating [economic crises], unusually inhibited from fixing it and unusually slow to recover." Mrs. McC: Fisher writes a cautionary tale for Erdogan, but each of the "lessons" seems to apply to Trump, too.

Zero Credibility. Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "On the heels of former Trump campaign and White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman saying she's heard tape of President Trump using the N-word, Trump's allies have taken to the cable news networks to defend his reputation. But there's one big problem -- because they've signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), even if they have heard Trump using a racial slur, they're legally prohibited from saying so." --safari

Mrs. McCrabbie: The photo from which this snip is taken accompanied the NYT story, linked below, on how Trump has embraced Hungary's authoritarian President Viktor Orban. The snip is part of the "class picture" of the July 2018 NATO summit. I was thinking less about Orban and the summit than I was about how Donald Trump looks now that Hope Hicks isn't there to iron his pants while he's wearing them. Sad! When I was a schoolgirl, we used to "perform" "The Farmer in the Dell," with children taking the parts of the characters in the song. Trump reminds me of the Cheese. Heigh ho the derry-o, the Cheese stands alone. ...

... So He Has Imaginary Friends. Toluse Olorunnipa of Bloomberg: "One of the biggest supporters of ... Donald Trump's trade policies, according to the president, is the unnamed chief executive officer of a mystery company. 'I was with one of the greatest companies in the world. The chief executive officer...,' Trump said at a July 31 campaign rally in Tampa.... 'He said "You know what, this does affect our company. But, Mr. President, keep going. You're doing the right thing."'... Trade groups ... have almost universally opposed Trump's disruptive approach to trade. But the person fits a model: an anonymous figure -- important and powerful -- who invariably supports the president's position, according to Trump himself. They are fixtures of Trump's speeches.... In some cases Trump's accounts are rebutted by the people he seems to describe. Key details change when he repeats the stories. 'Many of these anecdotes have either not been verified or they're unverifiable,' said Robert Rowland, who teaches presidential rhetoric at Kansas University.... 'When he doesn't have hard data to cite, he goes to these kinds of anecdotes. When he doesn't have real anecdotes, it appears that he finds his own.'"

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Erin Durkin of the Guardian: "Nearly 350 news organizations are set to publish editorials on Thursday pushing back against Donald Trump's attacks on the media and defending freedom of the press. The publications are participating in a push organized by the Boston Globe to run coordinated editorials denouncing what the paper called a 'dirty war against the free press'." ...

... The Boston Globe's editorial is here. (I had to sign in w/Facebook.) The New York Times' editorial is here. The Portland (Maine) Press Herald editorial is here. ...

... David Bauder of the AP: "In St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch called journalists 'the truest of patriots.' The Chicago Sun-Times said it believed most Americans know that Trump is talking nonsense. The Fayetteville, N.C. Observer said it hoped Trump would stop, 'but we're not holding our breath.... Rather, we hope all the president's supporters will recognize what he's doing -- manipulating reality to get what he wants,' the North Carolina newspaper said.... 'While we agree that labeling journalists the "enemy of the American people" and journalism "fake news" is not only damaging to our industry but destructive to our democracy, a coordinated response from independent -- dare we say "mainstream" -- news organizations feeds a narrative that we're somehow aligned against this Republican president,' the Baltimore Sun wrote. Still, the Sun supported the effort and also noted the deaths of five Capital Gazette staff members at the hands of a gunman in nearby Annapolis, Maryland." ...

... David Remnick of the New Yorker: "It would be easy to dismiss Trump's behavior as farcical, a subplot in his reality-TV Presidency. And yet it is essential to recognize what damage the President is doing, and how intent he is on eroding inviolable rights. What the Russian experience makes plain is the fragility of press freedom. This week's editorials on this topic, here and elsewhere, aim to maintain American vigilance in defense of that freedom. This is not a matter of the press seeking to protect itself as an interest group. The interest group in question is the United States."

Make America White Again. Sarah Aziza of The Intercept: "[Immigration] advocates describe ... an apparently concerted effort by the Trump White House to systematically dismantle the nation's refugee resettlement program.... The FBI is one of the agencies that runs background checks on refugees, and as the Daily Beast recently reported, its turnover for those cases has dropped from hundreds a week to the single digits.... Other sources close to the issue estimate that the backlog of applications includes over 200,000 refugees abroad who are awaiting interviews by U.S. officials, with about only 30 refugee officers available to conduct these assessments worldwide.... The result has been the reduction of the overall refugee flow to a bare trickle.... The drastic decrease in refugee admissions has led to the weakening of decades-old systems that help refugees transition to life in their new home, making it likely that the program will have to be rebuilt if a future U.S. administration moves toward welcoming more refugees." --safari ...

... On the Other Hand... Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News: "The Trump administration has requested the restarting of thousands of deportation cases that immigration judges previously had suspended, according to statistics provided Wednesday by the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts. So far this fiscal year, attorneys for Immigration and Customs Enforcement have sought the reactivation of nearly 8,000 deportation cases that had been administratively closed -- meaning pushed off the court's docket. The previous fiscal year, which included nearly four months of the Obama administration, there were nearly 8,400 such requests. The pace of such requests is nearly double that of the last two years of the Obama administration, when there were 3,551 and 4,847 such requests, respectively. Judges generally grant requests to restart cases, experts say." ...

... AND They're All Despicable. Pilar Menendez of The Daily Beast: "The head of the federal agency overseeing the U.S. immigration system spoke at an event hosted by an anti-immigrant organization that has routinely published false information about immigration and has been deemed a 'hate group' [by the Southern Poverty Law Center].... U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Francis Cissna appeared Wednesday at the anti-immigration think tank Center for Immigration Studies. (CIS).... Cissna, the son of a Peruvian immigrant..., was named USCIS chief in October.... Cissna is the third Trump administration official to take part in the Center for Immigration Studies' 'Immigration Newsmaker' event." --safari

Fuck Future Generations. Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "The No. 2 official at the Department of the Interior wants to ease provisions of the Endangered Species Act that the Trump administration sees as obstacles to its goal of expanding resource extraction and making land management policies more industry friendly.... David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for energy companies and large agribusiness, presented the Trump administration's case for weakening the Endangered Species Act. He claimed the way the nation protects species has become an 'unnecessary regulatory burden' on industry and U.S. taxpayers.... In July, the Trump administration released a proposal that would strip the act of key provisions.... His administration has now set its sights on the Endangered Species Act as one more law at which it can chip away." --safari

Margot Williams, et al. of The Intercept, "The unusual strategy of tracing monetary flows to stop explosions is one of many significant disclosures contained in a batch of 328 internal NSA documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden and released by The Intercept today after research and redaction. Also included in the material ... is the untold story of how intelligence related to Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was finally acquired; an assessment that a 'vast … network of Iranian agents' operated in Iraq and influenced its government; a major push to hone the agency's voice identification technology; details on how NSA staff deployed abroad viewed, and sometimes stereotyped, their host countries; and grumbling about having to comply with public-records laws.... Those stories and others are detailed in the highlights [in the post]." --safari

One of the Best People Is Resigning. Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "A political appointee overseeing a small foreign assistance agency that has been used by the White House as a source of jobs for Trump administration supporters is resigning.... Robert Blau, a retired Foreign Service officer and speechwriter for Trump's presidential campaign, was named vice president of operations at the Millennium Challenge Corporation in May 2017. He assumed the duties of the chief executive in May of this year, after the Senate failed to move on Trump's nominee to lead the agency.... Blau's announcement followed a July 28 Washington Post story that detailed how the White House had assumed control over hiring at the headquarters of Millennium Challenge Corporation, or MCC, a small independent agency that promotes economic growth in poor countries.... Soon after arriving at MCC, he filled his office with Trump campaign memorabilia. During a staff meeting last year, he urged employees to watch Fox News and read Breitbart News and characterized The Washington Post and CNN as 'very biased.'..." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Michael Tomasky of The Daily Beast: "Republicans don't fail to object to Trump because they're afraid of his base. They refuse to stand up to Trump because they like what Trump is doing.... [T]hey don't complain ... because they're with him on the most fundamental commodity in politics: power, and its use. Trump's anti-democratic instincts, which are so dangerous to so many of us, do not trouble Republicans in the least.... [F]or a generation now ... Republicans have been trying ... to change the rules of the game so that they will win every election.... And then came the mother of all rule changes...: the blocking of Merrick Garland.... They wanted to make that public demonstration to establish a precedent -- to show, to return to my phrase from above, that they could exercise public contempt for the democratic allocation of power. And win.... Under Trump, it's open season on the rules. And this, not fear of the base, is why they don't criticize him. On this most fundamental question, they're with him all the way." --safari

Talk about "Rigged." Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "The tens of thousands of pages that have emerged from [Brett Kavanaugh's] tenure in the George W. Bush White House reveal little about his judicial philosophy and qualifications, much less any damning detail that could sink his bid to replace retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Yet those papers are being disclosed to the public ... [by] a lawyer working for Bush and his legal team.... The National Archives is doing its own nonpartisan review, but that won't be finished for weeks -- long after Kavanaugh is likely to be confirmed.... The National Archives, which has played a central role for previous nominees in vetting their White House papers and sending them to the Senate, has effectively been sidelined. In its place is a team led by attorney Bill Burck, who also served in the Bush White House as Kavanaugh's deputy when the nominee was staff secretary." Mrs. McC: Yup, they know Kavanaugh has something -- if not plenty -- to hide. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

2018 Elections

Maggie Haberman & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Stephen K. Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, is forming a group to try to sell voters on a midterm message that they should support Republicans to defend the Trump agenda and save the president from impeachment. The group, Citizens of the American Republic, is Mr. Bannon's new vehicle after he was pushed out of the White House last summer and then parted ways with the conservative website Breitbart. Mr. Bannon declined to describe his donors or how much money the group has raised.... Most of Mr. Trump's advisers in the White House consider Mr. Bannon's foray into the midterms to be quixotic -- they say the House is almost certainly lost to the Democrats -- and see his efforts as another way to promote himself. They point to Mr. Bannon's paltry record in backing Republican candidates, particularly Roy S. Moore.... In addition to Mr. Bannon, the group includes Sam Nunberg, one of Mr. Trump's earliest political advisers; Michael Caputo, a New York-based strategist who worked on the Trump campaign; and Pat Caddell, a pollster who worked in Jimmy Carter's White House and who has remained close to Mr. Bannon over the years."

Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "In perhaps the most serious test of her 15-year grip on the House Democratic caucus, [Nancy] Pelosi is facing unrest from older lawmakers critical of her style, younger Democrats demanding generational change and candidates across the party who have sought to inoculate themselves against Republican attacks by distancing themselves from her. While she remains intent on reclaiming the speakership, Ms. Pelosi, 78, has also begun to acknowledge more candidly that a transfer of power is coming at some point. And in an interview on Wednesday, Ms. Pelosi sent a message of reassurance to anxious Democrats, speaking with specificity about building a 'bridge' to new leaders in the party."

Ryan Cooper of the Week: "Tom Perez is chair of the Democratic National Committee because wealthy centrist liberals -- above all then-President Barack Obama -- needed a convenient stooge to keep the party machinery out of the left's hands. He's serving his big donor masters loyally, and in the process failing his party, the United States of America, and humanity as a whole." Cooper goes on to count the ways. Worth a read.

Making Capitalism Great Again. Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Elizabeth Warren has a big idea that challenges how the Democratic Party thinks about solving the problem of inequality.... She's introducing a bill Wednesday, the Accountable Capitalism Act, that would redistribute trillions of dollars from rich executives and shareholders to the middle class -- without costing a dime. Warren's plan starts from the premise that corporations that claim the legal rights of personhood should be legally required to accept the moral obligations of personhood. Traditionally, she writes in a companion op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, 'corporations sought to succeed in the marketplace, but they also recognized their obligations to employees, customers and the community.' In recent decades they stopped, in favor of a singular devotion to enriching shareholders.... Warren wants to eliminate the huge financial incentives that entice CEOs to flush cash out to shareholders rather than reinvest in businesses. She wants to curb corporations' political activities."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Matthew Goldstein, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal securities regulators have served Tesla with a subpoena..., increasing pressure on the electric car company as it deals with the fallout from several recent actions by its chief executive, Elon Musk. The subpoena, from the Securities and Exchange Commission, comes days after regulators began inquiring about an Aug. 7 Twitter post by Mr. Musk, in which he said he was considering converting Tesla to a private company. In the post, he said that the financing for such a transaction, which would probably run into the tens of billions of dollars, had been 'secured.' Tesla shares, a popular target for so-called short sellers who bet on certain stocks losing value, soared about 11 percent on the day Mr. Musk posted the message. It has become clear since then that neither Mr. Musk nor Tesla had actually lined up the necessary financing aside from having preliminary conversations with some investors."

Michelle Lou of the Huffington Post: "Months after winning a Supreme Court case over his refusal to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, Colorado baker Jack Phillips is setting up for another legal showdown. Phillips, ordered by the state Civil Rights Commission into mediation with a trans customer of his Masterpiece Cakeshop for whom he had refused to bake a cake, sued Colorado officials in federal court on Tuesday, claiming they violated his rights to freedom of speech and religion.... The lawsuit cites Phillips' narrow Supreme Court victory in June that said the state Civil Rights Commission displayed anti-religious attitudes toward the baker, violating his rights, in a case involving his refusal to bake a cake for a same-sex couple."

Amerikan Hate. Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "Earlier this month, the white supremacist League of the South organization formally launched a series of Russian language pages, hoping to attract the support of Russian speakers across the world. ThinkProgress reported on the impending Russian language material in July, noting that League of the South head Michael Hill had said he believes 'the Russian people and the Southern people are natural allies against the destructive and impersonal impulses of globalism.'...Prevention of 'brothers' war' may well be the cause of the League of the South's new Russian outreach, but they’ve simultaneously announced plans to launch Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish language pages." --safari

Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "... as pathetic as [the Unite the Right 2 event was], none of it was quite as hilariously humiliating to the alt-right as the video ... in which the rally's organizer, Jason Kessler, is yelled at by his father to get out of his parents' room in the middle of a live stream with a fellow alt-righter (the stream first aired some time ago, but recently resurfaced on Twitter).... 'Hey!' Kessler's father says, interrupting his conversation with the white nationalist and anti-Semitic former US Senate candidate Patrick Little. 'You get out of my room!'" Includes video. Mrs. McC: Little White Boy needs to put on his p.j.s & repair to the basement. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Travails of Alex Jones

AP: "The Federal Communications Commission has shut down a pirate radio station that served as the flagship outlet for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The Austin American-Statesman reports the FCC also has fined the station's operators $15,000 -- a fine the FCC says in a lawsuit the operators are refusing to pay. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin alleges Liberty Radio operated on a channel without a license since at least 2013. The lawsuit names as defendants Walter Olenick and M. Rae Nadler-Olenick. Court documents show the FCC had tracked the transmissions to a 50-foot tower at an Austin apartment complex owned by an entity linked to the Olenicks."

Grounded! AP: "Twitter says it is suspending the account of the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for one week after he violated the company's rules against inciting violence. The New York Times reports that Jones tweeted a link to a video calling for supporters to get their 'battle rifles' ready against media and others. Jones won't be able to tweet or retweet from his personal account for seven days, though he will be able to browse Twitter. The Twitter account for his 'Infowars' show was not affected." Mrs. McC: Ooooh, such a tough time-out. Wonder what Twitter would do if Jones urged his nutjob followers to get their battle rifles ready to take out Twitter execs. As a kid, I got harsher punishments for staying an hour too late at a friend's house. ...

... Jeet Heer: "Defending the suspension in an interview with NBC, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey argued the goal was to get Jones to transform his behavior.... The interview is alarming evidence that Dorsey doesn't actually understand who Alex Jones is (and, by extension, who many of the other bad actors who exploit social media are). To talk about Jones changing his behavior is to assume Jones is basically a rational person who is sometimes tactless. But conjuring up ludicrous conspiracy theories that lead to harassment isn't incidental to Jones, but integral to his entire public project."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Gaia Pianigiani, et al., of the New York Times: "Long before the bridge collapse that killed at least 39 people in Genoa on Tuesday, experts raised the alarm that the structure was deteriorating and possibly dangerous — warnings that, after the catastrophe, quickly led to a round of demands to determine who was to blame." See also yesterday's News Ledes. Mrs. McC: More than once I've traveled on that bridge, which is part of the autostrade. Glad I lived to tell about it & I'm sorry for those who did not. (Also linked yesterday.)

News Ledes

Chicago Tribune: "Aretha Franklin, who died Thursday at 76, was a once-in-a-generation singer. She was the Queen of Soul, but she also ventured into -- and mastered -- virtually every style of music, from jazz and classical to rhythm and blues. She passed away a her home in Detroit." ...

     ... Update: Franklin's New York Times obituary is here. ...

Washington Post: "Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Indian prime minister who oversaw nuclear tests that ushered in a new arms race in South Asia starting in the late 1990s, died Aug. 16 at a hospital in New Delhi. He was 93."