The Commentariat -- June 9, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Trump Claims Mexico "Deal" Has Secret Parts, Also Critics Are Mean. David Cohen of Politico: "As critics continued to suggest the U.S. deal with Mexico didn't accomplish much..., Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning there is more to the agreement than meets the eye. 'Importantly, some things..... .....not mentioned in yesterday press release, one in particular, were agreed upon. That will be announced at the appropriate time,' the president wrote in a string of four tweets. Trump was defending his newly announced agreement with Mexico in the face of reporting that much of what was in the deal was not new. In his tweets, he directly attacked the New York Times and CNN, calling them 'the Enemy of the People.'... Appearing on 'Fox News Sunday' soon after Trump's tweetstorm, acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan was asked about the president’s tweets, but offered few specific details.... Forty minutes after his string of tweets, Trump ... [tweeted,] 'If President Obama made the deals that I have made, both at the Border and for the Economy, the Corrupt Media would be hailing them as Incredible, & a National Holiday would be immediately declared. With me, despite our record setting Economy and all that I have done, no credit!'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Good idea, Donnie. Let's have a national holiday for the Paris Climate Agreement (oops, you pulled the U.S. out of that); the Iran Nuclear Agreement (oops, you backed out of that, too) & the Affordable Care Act (oops, you tried to repeal that & you're undermining it now).

The Cheese Stands Alone. David Choi of Business Insider: "Fifteen world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, signed [a D-Day proclamation] in blue ink near the bottom of the text. Trump, however, signed the document in the upper, left-hand corner[.] In her column today (linked below), MoDo equated the signature to this incident: "When he went with classmates at the New York Military Academy to march down Fifth Avenue in a Columbus Day parade, he found out that some Catholic schoolgirls were lined up ahead of the boys. Trump went to complain and pull strings and got the girls bumped so they marched behind the boys. When European leaders joined together to endorse a D-Day commemoration, they all put their John Hancocks at the bottom, as expected, while Trump scrawled his signature alone at the top."

Thank You for Your Service, Now Get Out, Ctd. Richard Sisk of the Military Times: "The Government Accountability Office has a recommendation for Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Check to see whether the people it picks up are military veterans before kicking them out of the country. 'We recommended that ICE collect and maintain data on veterans' in accordance with long-established rules at the agency to avoid deporting individuals who may be eligible to stay, the 40-page GAO report states. From 2013 to 2018, ICE failed to follow its own policies requiring agents to consider a veteran's military record before beginning the process of removal from the country, according to the report. Time in service, awards and deployments are all among factors that are supposed to be weighed when making a deportment decision. The policies also call for deportation cases that might involve veterans to be referred to higher headquarters for a decision. Those policies also were not followed, the report states. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE, said they didn't consider the veteran and non-veteran status in removal proceedings and were unaware of policies to the contrary."

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The Phoniest American President* Ever. Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The deal to avert tariffs that President Trump announced with great fanfare on Friday night consists largely of actions that Mexico had already promised to take in prior discussions with the United States over the past several months, according to officials from both countries who are familiar with the negotiations. Friday's joint declaration says Mexico agreed to the 'deployment of its National Guard throughout Mexico, giving priority to its southern border.' But the Mexican government had already pledged to do that in March during secret talks in Miami between Kirstjen Nielsen, then the secretary of homeland security, and Olga Sanchez, the Mexican secretary of the interior, the officials said. The centerpiece of Mr. Trump's deal was an expansion of a program to allow asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while their legal cases proceed. But that arrangement was first reached in December.... Ms. Nielsen announced the Migrant Protection Protocols during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee five days before Christmas. And over the past week, negotiators failed to persuade Mexico to accept a 'safe third country' treaty that would have given the United States the legal ability to reject asylum seekers if they had not sought refuge in Mexico first." Thanks to unwashed Ken W. for the link. ...

The president manufactures a crisis, galvanizes his base around the challenge, leaves the definition of success undefined, pretends to play hardball and, lo and behold, finds a solution that entails little more than window-dressing, if that. For Trump, it's a win-win.... The loser tends to be the American people, oftentimes Trump's base first and foremost. -- Ned Price, former Obama NSC staffer

... Another Trump Lie about the Mexico Tariff "Deal." Nacha Cattan & Eric Martin of Bloomberg News: "Mexico never agreed to buy more U.S. farm products as part of a deal reached late Friday on border security and illegal immigration that averted the threat of U.S. tariffs, said three Mexican officials, contradicting a claim made by ... Donald Trump. Trump on Saturday told his 61 million Twitter followers in an all-caps message that Mexico had agreed to 'immediately begin buying large quantities of agricultural product from our great patriot farmers.'... But the communique issued late Friday by the State Department -- the U.S.-Mexico Joint Declaration -- made no mention of agricultural trade as part of the agreement. Three Mexican officials said they were not aware of any side deal in the works." ...

... Kate Riga of TPM: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) mocked ... Donald Trump for 'backing off' his tariff threat against Mexico, adding that the deal will likely little affect illegal immigration. '‪Just as I predicted, the president backed off,' he said in a statement. 'He says that Mexico will take action to "greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States", but if past is prologue, this is likely to be one of the president's typical, bogus solutions to justify backing off things like the tariffs, which he precipitously proposed, much to the consternation of the business community nationwide and Republicans in the House and Senate.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So "The New Art of the Deal" goes like this: threaten economic war with an ally; settle for terms negotiated months ago (by a Cabinet Secretary you fired); then claim a big win. Yes, Donnie, we all are tired of so much winning.

... Ana Swanson & Paul Mozur of the New York Times: "President Trump is increasingly blurring the line between America's national and economic security, enabling him to harness powerful tools meant to punish the world's worst global actors and redirect them at nearly every trading partner, including Mexico, Japan, China and Europe. Over a few weeks, Mr. Trump has declared European and Japanese cars, Chinese telecom equipment and Mexican immigrants national security threats. Those declarations have given the president authority to use Cold War powers to inflict economic pain on countries through tariffs, government blacklists and other restrictions.... His approach has grown more aggressive over the past two years, culminating in an expansive view of national security that has plunged the United States into an economic war with nearly every trading partner, including longtime allies."

Trump's Amerika. Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report Thursday detailing the horrific conditions at immigration detention centers across the United States. Inspectors found 'immediate risks or egregious violations of detention standards' including nooses in detainee cells, overuse of solitary confinement, and spoiled food, among other issues.... The findings confirm what most immigration activist groups and some progressive members of Congress have been clamoring about for months: ICE is routinely violating the human rights of the individuals in its custody." --s

Martin Chulov & Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The Trump administration has given the cold shoulder to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, less than two months after Trump appeared to show support for him& in a surprise phone call, and is now rethinking its policy towards the country's civil war, according to multiple sources in the US and the region.... For now, US officials insist that Trump's phone call to Haftar was a personal favour to the Egyptian president, Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, who was visiting Washington a few days earlier, and did not signify a shift in US policy.... Ahmed Omar Maiteeg, the deputy prime minister of the Tripoli government, told NBC News on Thursday the Trump-Haftar call was confusing, 'because we see the US government as a our [sic] main ally'." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Just another typical episode in the Trump presidency. Trump, who has no idea what he's doing but is fond of strongmen like al-Sisi & Haftar, messes things up, and members of the administration try to clean up the mess.

Trump Vows to Ruin National Holiday. Maureen Dowd: "Trump tweeted in February that he was going to hijack the Lincoln Memorial on Independence Day for 'Major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!' Like no one had ever thought of fireworks on the Mall before.... On a whim, he has decided to bollix up one of the better days in the nation's capital. Trump is going to turn a holiday that had somehow managed to remain nonpartisan and playful into a MAGA rally, dragging his perpetual resting bitch face and American carnage onto the Mall.... Narcissistic, infantile and heedless of tradition, Trump is now yanking away the one day devoted to celebrating all Americans and rebranding it in his own image."

"Twilight Zone," Ctd. Frank Dale of ThinkPrgoress: "A day after the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, Attorney General William Barr claimed that his return to the Justice Department bears similarities to the 1944 Battle of Normandy. During a speech at the FBI academy on Friday, Barr compared the scrutiny that he has received since becoming President Donald Trump's attorney general to the Allies' invasion of Europe[.]" --s

Natahsa Lennard of The Intercept: "Instead of being a legal category, 'domestic terrorism' is used by federal law enforcement as a framework to organize and describe cases and investigations.... Over the last decade, the FBI classified domestic terrorism cases using 11 categories, including a specific grouping for white supremacists. At the end of April, the FBI and Justice Department revealed to Senate Judiciary Committee staffers that a new classification system was now in place, employing only four categories: racially motivated violent extremism; anti-government and anti-authority extremism; animal rights and environmental extremism; and abortion extremism.... [T]he distinct and deadly threat of white supremacist violence is now unnamed and merely folded into the too-broad 'racially motivated extremism' category.... The new nomenclature reflects the Trump administration's ideological commitment to enabling white supremacists. But the new classifications are more than semantic: They render it impossible for the public, or even elected officials, to know whether the FBI is dedicating resources to investigating the very real threat of white supremacist terror[.]" --s

Nathalie Baptiste of Mother Jones: "The White House prevented State Department officials from submitting testimony to Congress that warns of climate change catastrophe. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that after reviewing the written testimony, White House officials tried to remove references to the government's own scientific findings on global warming. The prepared statement included references to catastrophic damage due climate change. 'Absent extensive mitigating factors or events, we see few plausible future scenarios where significant -- possibly catastrophic -- harm does not arise from the compounded effects of climate change,' the testimony warned. Several anonymous Trump administration officials told the Post that the State Department testimony strayed too far from the White House's official stance on climate change." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Update. Kate Riga: "Though the State Department has rejected some embassy requests to fly rainbow flags in celebration of Pride month, diplomats are finding creative ways to circumvent the decision. According to the Washington Post, diplomats in Seoul and Chennai, India still flew the flags, while the building in New Delhi is awash with rainbow lights. Santiago and Vienna went digital, promoting the rainbow colors on their embassy websites. Diplomats in Jerusalem hit the streets to march in a Pride parade, while representatives stationed all over the globe posted pictures of themselves in rainbow gear or holding up signs in front of their embassies."

Alex Shephard of the New Republic points to the obvious flaw in Nancy Pelosi's "reasoning": "Despite growing pressure from her caucus -- now including members of party leadership, most notably Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler -- Pelosi once again parried demands that House Democrats move forward with impeachment proceedings. 'I don't want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,' she said.... Pelosi is acknowledging that the president has committed prosecutable crimes. If he has (and he has!), then Democrats have a constitutional responsibility to begin impeachment proceedings."

Hahahahaha. Karoli Kuns of Crooks & Liars: "The Republicans, those champions of free speech, have fired off a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler demanding that there be no talk of lying, or obstruction of justice, or any other mean things that people might otherwise say about Dear Leader. Politico Congress reporter Kyle Cheney tweeted a copy of the rule book Rep. Doug Collins is demanding Nadler use." Kuns reproduces Collins' demands here, and they are hilarious. Mrs. McC: Collins' demands would be like conducting a murder trial in which the defense ordered the prosecution to never utter any of a long list of words like "accused," "victim," "dead," "deceased," "body" "killed" "murder," "wound," "motive," "opportunity," etc. Another funny part is that some of the words Collins bans are ones that Trump himself regularly uses, without evidence, against his perceived political enemies. I'm not sure how Collins came up with "a little bugger" as a verboten phrase, but maybe it's a nod to Trump's recent visit to the land of merry old buggers. Many thanks to unwashed for the link. ...

     ... These efforts to control language are typical of authoritarian administrations.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The anonymous foreign-government-owned company that fought a subpoena in the special counsel investigation for months appears to be off the hook, while prosecutors continue to put significant resources into investigating what Robert Mueller pursued related to the company, according to newly unsealed court records. Federal judge Beryl Howell of the DC District Court stopped fining the company in February, when it turned almost 1,000 pages of documents over to Mueller. The court fight dragged on from February into April, however, because Mueller's team and other prosecutors believed the company had kept records from them, according to the newly unsealed information. She finally deciding the company was no longer in contempt on April 17. Howell previously ordered that the company should be fined $50,000 a day beginning January 15 for refusing to comply with Mueller's subpoena from last year. It's unclear from the newly released court record how much, if anything at all, the company paid in fines. Much of the mystery around the case remains." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A raft of legislation intended to better secure United States election systems after what the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, called a 'sweeping and systematic' Russian attack in 2016 is running into a one-man roadblock in the form of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky." Mrs. McC: Since some of these bills are bipartisan, one can only assume that Mitch is betting that foreign intervention will favor Trump & incumbent Republicans. (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2020. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Mitt Romney may not endorse Donald Trump for re-election in 2020, partly because the 2012 Republican nominee thinks political endorsements are not 'worth a thimble of spit'. That said, the Utah senator remains happy to endorse his choice for president in 2016. Then, having called his party's nominee 'a phoney, a fraud', he voted for his wife, Ann." Mrs. McC: Right. Mitt will likely put on a (well-fitting) penguin suit & tango with Trump in 2020.

Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Stef Kight & Dan Primack of Axios: "A handful of American businesses have their fingers in almost every aspect of prison life, raking in billions of dollars every year for products and services -- often with little oversight. The big picture: Taxpayers, incarcerated people and their families spend around $85 billion a year on public and private correction facilities, bail and prison services, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.... Here's how they make money[.]" --s

Lee Fang & Nick Surgey of The Intercept: "Conservative activist Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas [the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas] is launching yet another project to wage war on multiple fronts of America's most heated cultural and political debates [unveiled ... in a closed meeting of GOP lawmakers, donors, and Christian-right leaders last month]. This time, however, her plan will include a project to 'protect President Trump' using at least two new campaign-related political entities, according to a presentation obtained by The Intercept and Documented.... The Washington Post noted that, in recent years, Thomas has made her Facebook page a forum for increasingly conspiratorial and inflammatory content.... Her private presentations to conservatives take a similar tone." --s

The Deplorables. Barbie Latza Nadeau of The Daily Beast: "Just months before he was bludgeoned to death in a West Virginia prison, notorious Boston mobster James 'Whitey' Bulger poured his heart out in a series of letters praising President Trump (he had his vote) and criticizing Robert Mueller, whom he said should be nicer." --s ...

... Rich Schapiro, et al., of NBC News: "In several handwritten letters shared with NBC News, Bulger expressed gushing praise for Trump, offering rave reviews of the president's foreign policy and combative relationship with the media.... The legendary gangster, who was beaten to death inside a West Virginia prison cell last fall, was an ardent Trump supporter and fan of conservative media figures such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, according to the letters shared with NBC News.... Bulger also railed against ... Robert Mueller. An assistant U.S. attorney in Boston in the 1980s, Mueller went on to lead the FBI at a time when it was grappling with a sensational scandal involving agents protecting mob leaders like Bulger."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Britain. Meghan Markle Leaves the House as Soon as Trump Left Town. Barbie Nadeau of the Daily Beast: "Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle made her second post-baby appearance at the Trooping the Color ceremony in London on Saturday to honor Queen Elizabeth II on her 93rd birthday. Markle is still on maternity leave...." ...

... As Andy Borowitz points out, the Duchess is not the only woman whose life was affected by Trump's visit to the UK: "A British woman quit her job, on Friday, after being forced to spend the better part of a week with Donald J. Trump, the woman has confirmed." Borowitz gallantly does not reveal the woman's name, but there's an accompanying photo which gives a hint.

Mexico. Jeremy Kryt of The Daily Beast has a harrowing piece on how indigenous communities in Mexico's Guerrero state are battling for their livelihoods, alongside child soldiers, against encroaching drug cartels and rampant corruption, all with links to immigration to the US. --s

New Zealand. Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "New Zealand's proposed 'well-being budget' could change the way that countries measure strength. Instead of focusing on financial growth, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's government released a budget at the end of May that prioritizes the happiness of citizens. The 'well-being budget' lists five priorities: mental health, family violence, clean energy, digital innovation, and supporting indigenous peoples.... To measure the success of these initiatives, New Zealand's government will track 61 metrics, ranging from 'loneliness to trust in government institutions, alongside more traditional issues like water quality.'" --s

Sudan. Jason Burke & Zeinab Mohammed Salih of the Guardian: "The military regime in Sudan has launched a new wave of arrests and violent intimidation in an effort to undermine opposition plans for a widespread campaign of civil disobedience [set for Sunday].... More than 120 people died and hundreds were injured when paramilitaries attacked a protest camp in the centre of Khartoum on Monday.... The deaths on Monday have been blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is largely made up of militias accused of systematic human rights abuses during the war in Darfur.... Many [bodies found in the Nile] had been attached to heavy concrete blocks in an apparent effort to sink them.... The internet remains cut off in Khartoum with other communications also significantly restricted.... Experts fear that divisions among the military rulers could lead to violent clashes and a spiral into anarchy." --s

The Commentariat -- June 8, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Hahahahaha. Karoli Kuns of Crooks & Liars: "The Republicans, those champions of free speech, have fired off a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler demanding that there be no talk of lying, or obstruction of justice, or any other mean things that people might otherwise say about Dear Leader. Politico Congress reporter Kyle Cheney tweeted a copy of the rule book Rep. Doug Collins is demanding Nadler use." Kuns reproduces Collins' demands here, and they are hilarious. Mrs. McC: Collins' demands would be like conducting a murder trial in which the defense ordered the prosecution to never utter any of a long list of words like "accused," "victim," "dead," "deceased," "body" "killed" "murder," "wound," "motive," "opportunity," etc. Another funny part is that some of the words Collins bans are ones that Trump himself regularly uses, without evidence, against his perceived political enemies. I'm not sure how Collins came up with "a little bugger" as a verboten phrase, but maybe it's a nod to Trump's recent visit to the land of merry old buggers. Many thanks to unwashed for the link. ...

... More Banned Words. Nathalie Baptiste of Mother Jones: "The White House prevented State Department officials from submitting testimony to Congress that warns of climate change catastrophe. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that after reviewing the written testimony, White House officials tried to remove references to the government's own scientific findings on global warming. The prepared statement included references to catastrophic damage due climate change. 'Absent extensive mitigating factors or events, we see few plausible future scenarios where significant -- possibly catastrophic -- harm does not arise from the compounded effects of climate change,' the testimony warned. Several anonymous Trump administration officials told the Post that the State Department testimony strayed too far from the White House's official stance on climate change."

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The anonymous foreign-government-owned company that fought a subpoena in the special counsel investigation for months appears to be off the hook, while prosecutors continue to put significant resources into investigating what Robert Mueller pursued related to the company, according to newly unsealed court records. Federal judge Beryl Howell of the DC District Court stopped fining the company in February, when it turned almost 1,000 pages of documents over to Mueller. The court fight dragged on from February into April, however, because Mueller's team and other prosecutors believed the company had kept records from them, according to the newly unsealed information. She finally deciding the company was no longer in contempt on April 17. Howell previously ordered that the company should be fined $50,000 a day beginning January 15 for refusing to comply with Mueller's subpoena from last year. It's unclear from the newly released court record how much, if anything at all, the company paid in fines. Much of the mystery around the case remains."

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A raft of legislation intended to better secure United States election systems after what the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, called a 'sweeping and systematic' Russian attack in 2016 is running into a one-man roadblock in the form of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky." Mrs. McC: Since some of these bills are bipartisan, one can only assume that Mitch is betting that foreign intervention will favor Trump & incumbent Republicans.

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Michael Shear & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump backed off his plan to impose tariffs on all Mexican goods and announced via Twitter on Friday night that the United States had reached an agreement with Mexico to reduce the flow of migrants to the southwestern border. Mr. Trump tweeted the announcement only hours after returning from Europe and following several days of intense and sometimes difficult negotiations between American and Mexican officials in Washington.... The cease-fire will forestall that economic reckoning and prevent an intraparty war that Mr. Trump had created by threatening tariffs to leverage the immigration changes he demanded." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Gee, Donnie, I guess that creep Chuck Schumer was right -- the tariffs were a bluff.

Tim Egan of the New York Times: Trump's debasement of "the foundations of a great democracy ... started on Day 2, when the hapless liar, newly subsidized by taxpayers, tried to conscript the National Park Service into the fantasy that his crowd was the largest ever.... After the inauguration debacle, Trump moved on to bigger targets -- the judiciary, the military, the press, and the professional class of bureaucrats who have made the United States a model for competence and incorruptibility in the Civil Service. With William Barr, Trump now has an attorney general who doesn't care how much lasting damage he does to truth, justice and the American way. His mandate as the nation's top prosecutor is to carry out Trump's private vendettas.... The most disgusting of the recent corruptions is the attempt to make the military another extension of presidential vanity.... Any day now, the Supreme Court will rule on [Commerce Secretary Wilbur] Ross's effort to insert, into the census form ..., a citizenship question, something that hasn't been asked since 1950. It could mean that about 6.5 million people would go uncounted -- citizens and noncitizens."

Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Top congressional Democrats are actively discussing opening a probe into Rudy Giuliani for his overseas political and consulting work, including a recent attempt to uncover dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, a source with direct knowledge tells The Daily Beast. The contours of a potential probe are still under consideration. But it would likely look at whether Giuliani's relationships with foreign politicos interfered or intersected with American foreign-policy efforts." Upon hearing the news, Rudy said a lot of stuff -- trashing the Constitution, Joe McCarthy, blah-blah. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: “The White House tried to block former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach from testifying to the House Oversight and Reform Committee about his conversations with ... Donald Trump about adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, according to a new letter released Friday. 'Mr. Kobach's conversations with the president and with senior White House advisers who advise the president are confidential, and [Kobach] would not be permitted to discuss those conversations during a transcribed interview,' Deputy White House Counsel Michael Purpura wrote to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the committee's chairman, on May 21.... Kobach appeared before the committee on Monday, the panel's Democrats said, but he largely adhered to the White House's directives.... Kobach refused 15 times to answer questions about his discussions with Trump or White House officials.... The committee will soon go to court over the issue...."

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe you think the White House is being reasonable. Actually, no. "In a memo released Friday, the Democratic side of the committee said ... claims of executive privilege cannot apply to individuals who never worked in the executive branch.... In seeking to block Kobach's testimony, the White House lawyers repeatedly cited 2007 Justice Department guidance that determined advice from outsiders could still be subject to executive privilege.... But in the case that the 2007 guidance relies upon -- a 1997 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals' D.C. Circuit -- the judges explicitly concluded that their ruling would have no bearing on congressional demands for information."

Collusion by Any Other Name ... Quinta Jurecic in a New York Times op-ed on a few damning things buried in the Mueller report. Here are two of them: 1. "Rick Gates, a top adviser, said that the campaign was 'planning a press strategy, a communications campaign, and messaging based on the possible release' of Hillary Clinton emails by WikiLeaks. After receiving a call during a drive to La Guardia Airport, Mr. Trump 'told Gates that more releases of damaging information would be coming.'... This section suggests that Mr. Trump may have been in the loop on the campaign's efforts to get a heads-up about what WikiLeaks had planned. And that is a very long way from 'no collusion.' [2].... After his July 27 ['Russia, if you're listening'] comment, the report states, Mr. Trump 'asked individuals affiliated with his campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails' -- including Michael Flynn. 'Mr. Flynn, in turn, reached out to a Republican Senate staffer.... The operative raised money to support the project, which he marketed as 'coordinated with the Trump campaign,' and told others that he was in communication with Russian hackers who had access to emails he believed were Mrs. Clinton's.... If ['collusion'] mean working behind the scenes with Russian actors..., then this section of the report describes just that -- collusion that took place at Mr. Trump's request." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Seems to be it would not be a stretch to work Trump's efforts outlined here into an Article of Impeachment. Getting Trump on "collusion" would be great. Let the final meltdown be televised.

Aaron Rupar of Vox: “Fox News host Sean Hannity, who has done more than anybody (except perhaps Donald Trump himself) to push the narrative that Hillary Clinton should be locked up, now thinks such calls are something that only happens in 'banana republics' -- at least when they're directed toward Trump." Rupar goes into detail about Hannity's amazing double standard. (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael LaForgia & Walt Bogdanich of the New York Times: An emergency authorization Donald Trump signed last month "allows Raytheon Company, a top American defense firm, to team with the Saudis to build high-tech bomb parts in Saudi Arabia. That provision, which has not been previously reported, is part of a broad package of information the administration released this week to Congress. The move grants Raytheon and the Saudis sweeping permission to begin assembling the control systems, guidance electronics and circuit cards that are essential to the company's Paveway smart bombs. [Previously,] the United States has closely guarded such technology for national security reasons. Multiple reports by human rights groups over the past four years have singled out the weapons as being used in airstrikes on civilians. One attack, on a Sana funeral home in October 2016, led the Obama administration to suspend bomb sales to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen."

For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Friday evening

As JFK famously said, 'We choose to go to the Moon not because it is easy, but because it is Mars' -- Jason Gilbert, in a tweet ...

... Brianna Sacks of BuzzFeed News: "President Trump declared that the moon is part of Mars.... Trump's assertion was made in a very confusing tweet lambasting NASA for wasting money on another lunar mission (even though he promised them this funding and supported the exploration in a declaration in 2017...) ... In December 2017, Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, which directed NASA to create a major, sustainable presence on and around the moon and then use that knowledge to get a crew to Mars. And last month, the White House requested an extra $1.6 billion in next year's budget to accelerate the moon mission and get astronauts back on its rocky surface by 2024, including the first woman. The president was clearly stoked about it at the time, tweeting May 13, 'we are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars.'" ...

     ... Brian Williams of MSNBC suggests that what prompted Trump's Mars Moon tweet was a remark by Fox Business host Neil Cavuto questioning the moon mission.

Brad Lendon, et al., of CNN: "The United States and Russian navies are at odds over an apparent near collision in the Pacific Friday with each side blaming the other. The US and Russian warships came somewhere between 50 feet and 165 feet of each other, according to the two opposing reports, with both sides alleging their ships were forced to perform emergency maneuvers to avoid a collision, which can be seen in video and a picture of the event obtained by CNN."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trump Bigotry Program, Ctd. Josh Lederman of NBC News: "The Trump administration is rejecting requests from U.S. embassies to fly the rainbow pride flag on embassy flagpoles during June, LGBTQ Pride Month, three American diplomats told NBC News. The U.S. embassies in Israel, Germany, Brazil and Latvia are among those that have requested permission from Trump's State Department to fly the pride flag on their flagpoles and have been denied, diplomats said.... The denials to U.S. embassies have come from the office of the State Department's undersecretary for management, Brian Bulatao, a longtime associate of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who also worked for him at the CIA. Under State Department policy, embassies that want to fly the flag on their flagpoles are expected to obtain permission from Washington. During the Obama administration, the government granted blanket permission to embassies overseas to fly the pride flag during June."

Presidential Race 2020. Edward-Isaac Dovere of the Atlantic recounts the internal deliberations that took place within Joe Biden's campaign re: his four-decade support for the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding of abortions.

Beyond the Beltway

Bill Chappell of NPR: "The University of Alabama's board of trustees has voted to return a $21.5 million gift from Hugh Culverhouse Jr. -- the school's biggest donor -- and take his name off its law school. The move comes after Culverhouse urged businesses and prospective students to boycott the university and the state over Alabama's new abortion law. The school says the transaction to return the funds was processed Friday morning and that it will also return any accrued interest. Last fall, Culverhouse pledged to donate a total of $26.5 million over four years. 'The action taken by the Board today was a direct result of Mr. Culverhouse's ongoing attempts to interfere in the operations of the Law School,' the university's vice chancellor for communication, Kellee Reinhart, said Friday. 'That was the only reason the Board voted to remove his name and return his money.'" Mrs. McC: I'm thinking most of the trustees look like Colonel Sanders.

Way Beyond

BBC: "Theresa May has officially stepped down as the leader of the Conservative Party, but will remain as prime minister until her successor is chosen. She has handed in her private resignation letter to the backbench 1922 Committee, two weeks after announcing her intention to leave. Eleven Conservative MPs are vying to replace her as party leader and, ultimately, prime minister. The winner of the contest is expected to be announced in the week of 22 July." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- June 7, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Top congressional Democrats are actively discussing opening a probe into Rudy Giuliani for his overseas political and consulting work, including a recent attempt to uncover dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, a source with direct knowledge tells The Daily Beast. The contours of a potential probe are still under consideration. But it would likely look at whether Giuliani's relationships with foreign politicos interfered or intersected with American foreign-policy efforts." Upon hearing the news, Rudy said a lot of stuff -- trashing the Constitution, Joe McCarthy, blah-blah.

BBC: "Theresa May has officially stepped down as the leader of the Conservative Party, but will remain as prime minister until her successor is chosen. She has handed in her private resignation letter to the backbench 1922 Committee, two weeks after announcing her intention to leave. Eleven Conservative MPs are vying to replace her as party leader and, ultimately, prime minister. The winner of the contest is expected to be announced in the week of 22 July."

Brad Lendon, et al., of CNN: "The United States and Russian navies are at odds over an apparent near collision in the Pacific Friday with each side blaming the other. The US and Russian warships came somewhere between 50 feet and 165 feet of each other, according to the two opposing reports, with both sides alleging their ships were forced to perform emergency maneuvers to avoid a collision, which can be seen in video and a picture of the event obtained by CNN."

Aaron Rupar of Vox: "Fox News host Sean Hannity, who has done more than anybody (except perhaps Donald Trump himself) to push the narrative that Hillary Clinton should be locked up, now thinks such calls are something that only happens in 'banana republics' -- at least when they're directed toward Trump." Rupar goes into detail about Hannity's amazing double standard.

~~~~~~~~~~

"American Carnage," Redux

The Last Hurrah of an Idiot Abroad. Mark Landler & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Seventy-five years after the D-Day invasion, [President* Trump], who has called into question America's allies around the world -- including those whom Americans fought alongside in Normandy -- pledged fidelity to friendships 'forged in the heat of battle, tested in the trials of war, and proven in the blessings of peace.' It was Mr. Trump's only reference to the importance of the Atlantic alliance, in a speech that dwelled on the service of D-Day's American veterans.... In its graphic depiction of the horror on the beaches, Mr. Trump's speech evoked the ominous tone of his Inaugural Address. And when he declared, 'Today, America is stronger than ever before,' it was the kind of dependable applause line that could have been taken from one of his rallies.... There was a lingering incongruity to Mr. Trump's words: a president who has denigrated the European Union and accused NATO of exploiting American taxpayers was extolling an allied military campaign that was perhaps the greatest demonstration of America's commitment to a free and peaceful Europe. It fell to President Emmanuel Macron of France to defend the postwar international order. Speaking before Mr. Trump, he offered thanks to the United States for its wartime sacrifice and conferred the French Legion of Honor on several veterans. Then he paid tribute to the institutions the United States helped create." ...

... Heather Hurlburt of New York: "Trump, his falsehoods, and his transactional, zero-sum view of the U.S.-European relationship are now fully normalized. He has found a crop of partners in right-wing European parties; and he has understood very keenly that Europe's centrist leaders are too beleaguered themselves to lead a stand against him. Perhaps the saddest realization of the D-Day commemoration is that its sacrifices and heroism are no longer enough of an anchor The great-grandchildren of GIs and Resistance fighters and Nazis will have to find new inspiration and build new touchstones -- and a mere distaste for Donald Trump is far, far too weak a reed."

What's Wrong with This Picture? ...

... Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "Just before his speech honoring military veterans at a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, President Trump gave an interview marked by insults directed toward the speaker of the House and former special counsel Robert Mueller. Speaking to Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Trump called the former special counsel a 'fool' and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a 'disaster.' 'Let me tell you, he made such a fool out of himself,' Trump said of Mueller, speaking at a cemetery where more than 9,300 American soldiers who died in World War II are buried. Mueller is a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, in which President Trump did not serve, and which he described in an interview on British television as a 'terrible war' and 'very far away.'... 'Nancy Pelosi, I call her "Nervous Nancy," Nancy Pelosi doesn't talk about it,' the president said. 'Nancy Pelosi is a disaster, OK? She's a disaster. And let her do what she wants. You know what? I think they're in big trouble.' Pelosi, who was also in Normandy for the D-Day commemoration, declined to respond. 'I don't talk about the president while I'm out of the country,' she told CNN's Jim Acosta." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In the video that accompanies the Yahoo! News story, Trump says, "He [Mueller] made such a fool out of himself because what people don't report is the letter he had to do to straighten out his testimony because his testimony was wrong." What testimony? Trump seems to have made up testimony that never happened. (Why is it that "people don't report" that?) It's well-known that Mueller has resisted testifying. I couldn't figure out what "letter" Trump was talking about, but Jordan Fabian of the Hill took a stab at & guessed, "The president was referring to a joint statement later issued by the Justice Department and the special counsel';s office saying that Mueller's account did not conflict with Attorney General William Barr's previous comments, in which Barr said the decision not to charge Trump with obstruction did not hinge solely on the DOJ policy." But good idea to use the graves of dead American soldiers as a backdrop for an attack on a wounded war veteran. ...

     ... BTW, Stableford's report is a good example of the kind of journalism I complained about yesterday. Instead of pointing out that Trump made a statement at odds with the facts, Stableford writes, "The president took issue with Mueller's public statement on his investigation into Russian election interference." But Trump "took issue with" "testimony" Mueller never gave, not with a public statement. That is, Stableford radically "corrected" Trump's nonsensical remarks without indicating he had done so. ...

     ... ** Update. Fox "News" has released an expanded version of Laura Ingraham's interview of Donald Trump. Clearly Trump, his communications staff, Ingraham & Fox "News" all thought it entirely appropriate to have a POTUS* lambaste American leaders while sitting in France in front of a sea of graves of American soldiers. This says a lot more about their regard for men who fought & died for American values than does a speech someone else wrote & Trump deigned to deliver. ...

     ... Jessica Campisi of the Hill: "President Trump tore into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during a Thursday night interview on Fox News, calling her a 'nasty, vindictive, horrible person' after she said Thursday that she wanted to see him 'in prison' instead of getting impeached." Mrs. McC: Too bad he forgot to knock John McCain & Dwight Eisenhower; maybe that's in an upcoming clip.

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's adult sons enjoyed an Irish pub the night before marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day at a ceremony in Normandy. Eric and Donald Trump Jr. poured pints of Guinness -- with a higher head-to-ale ratio than is commonly accepted -- and posed for selfies with cheering crowds at pubs in Doonberg, where their father owns a golf course, reported the Daily Mail. The pair visited five pubs in an hour.... A BBC reporter managed to get in a question to Eric Trump outside one pub, asking if his trip was a good use of taxpayer money. 'We're just trying to have a good time,' Eric Trump said...."

Asawin Suebsaeng & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "After facing a torrent of pushback and harsh criticism from military veterans, Donald Trump has backed off plans to potentially pardon convicted and alleged U.S. war criminals -- at least for now. The president was personally taken aback by the nearly across-the-board resistance to his administration's consideration of pardons for several U.S. servicemen accused of grisly crimes in war zones, two people familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast.... The decision marks another instance of President Trump reconsidering his plans to dive head-first into a divisive debate at the egging of his media boosters." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Who can be surprised Trump was surprised that veterans weren't gleeful about his pardoning war criminals? As he demonstrated in his interview using an American military cemetery as a prop, Trump has no understanding whatsoever of American values.

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "At a frank meeting this week, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler again lobbied to win Speaker Nancy Pelosi's support for an impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump.Nadler, who appealed to the speaker that the House's court cases against the Trump administration would be bolstered by launching an impeachment inquiry, also offered two new arguments in the hopes of convincing Pelosi from moving off her steadfast opposition, according to a source with knowledge of the meeting. First, Nadler argued opening an impeachment probe would centralize the House' sprawling investigations now spread across various panels into just one.... Secondly, Nadler made a technical argument that it would be easier for lawmakers to discuss the President's alleged offenses on the House floor and in committees during a formal impeachment inquiry because House rules forbid members from disparaging individuals." Both Pelosi & Rep. Adam Schiff resisted Nadler's arguments. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As I suggested some time back, this is a turf war, and Pelosi is managing the factions. Nadler would have a better chance of winning his argument if he magnanimously suggested he would farm out parts of the inquiry to appropriate committees. Sharing the hoohah also could yield more evidence.

Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "House Democratic leaders are preparing to grant sweeping authority to committee chairs to sue the Trump administration over its refusal to comply with congressional demands for information -- from ... Donald Trump's tax returns to ... Robert Mueller's underlying files. The draft resolution, which the House will consider on Tuesday, formally holds Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in contempt of Congress for defying House Judiciary Committee subpoenas seeking Mueller's unredacted report, its underlying evidence, and additional witness testimony. But the most dramatic proposal will empower the chairs of all House committees to initiate legal action each time a witness or administration official defies a committee subpoena, a move to streamline and speed up the House's ability to respond to a mounting list of confrontations with the White House." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Democrats' constant fiddling and fist shaking is making me sick. They have the brightest brains & specialists rooting for them and offering advice, and are getting rolled by a group of smash & grab day traders. -- safari, in today's Comments thread

I think safari wrote this even before Nicholas Fandos of the NYT reported on House Democrats' latest retreat. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Update. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "After weeks of pledging to hold Attorney General William P. Barr and the former White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II in contempt for defying subpoenas, House Democrats appear poised to pursue an alternative path to try to force them into sharing information. A resolution that the House Rules Committee unveiled on Thursday would authorize the House to petition a federal court to enforce its requests for information and testimony related to the report of the special counsel..., but without mentioning contempt. The committee is expected to consider the proposal on Monday, followed by a full House vote on Tuesday. The resolution appears to be something of a tactical reversal by Democrats...." ...

... BUT. Update Update. Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Friday indicated that he would formally move forward with contempt votes for Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, after they missed a Thursday deadline to hand over documents related to his committee's investigation on the census citizenship question. 'We gave Attorney General Barr and Secretary Ross every opportunity to produce the documents the Committee needs for our investigation, but rather than cooperate, they have decided that they would rather be held in contempt of Congress,' Cummings said in a statement." Mrs. McC: Thomsen is still reporting that the House also will vote to hold Barr in contempt for failing to turn over to them an unredacted Mueller report. Reporters could be forgiven for obsolete reporting inasmuch as House Democrats can't seem to make up their minds from moment to moment.

I don't want to see him [Trump] impeached. I want to see him in prison. -- Nancy Pelosi, in a closed-door meeting with House Democratic leaders, Tuesday ...

... Jonathan Chait: "The idea that Trump might face criminal charges has felt impossible since Robert Mueller declined to bring additional charges in his final report. But Trump faces several other investigations for crimes that are easier to prove than criminal conspiracy with Russia.... Should he lose reelection, Trump is facing at least five reasonably serious criminal cases: 1. Obstruction of justice.... 2. Campaign finance violations.... 3. Inauguration overcharges.... 4. New York tax fraud.... 5. Trump Foundation fraud." ...

... The Twilight Zone. Justin Baragona of The Daily Beast: "Reacting to reports that ... Nancy Pelosi said she doesn't want to see President Trump impeached because she would rather 'see him in prison,' Fox News host Sean Hannity lashed out at the Democratic leader Thursday night.... 'Speaker Nancy Pelosi telling senior Democrats she would like to see Trump behind bars,' Hannity exclaimed. 'Based on no actual crimes, she wants a political opponent locked up in prison. Umm, that happens in banana republics. Beyond despicable behavior.' Pelosi's statement, he said, was proof Democrats want to turn the United States into a country that we 'no longer recognize.'" --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Absolutely jaw-dropping. Pelosi made the remark in private, among colleagues. Trump screamed "Lock her up!" in public and made many unfounded public accusations of criminal wrongdoing (including death-penalty offenses) against people from Barack Obama to various FBI officials. One would not be surprised to learn that Hannity himself has made similar baseless claims. ...

... Renato Mariotti in Politico Magazine: "There is ... an overwhelming case that the president engaged in obstruction of justice -- his effort to stop the special counsel's office from probing his campaign's ties to Russia.... It's already possible to project some paths a likely prosecution would take.... The strongest count would be his attempt to fire Mueller, the man appointed to investigate the Russian government's interference in the 2016 election and the possibility that the Trump campaign conspired with it.... At least two others would almost certainly also be charged[: one in which Trump dictated a message for Corey Lewandowski to deliver to Jeff Sessions, telling Sessions to order Mueller to limit his investigation to "future election meddling"; the other is Trump's telling Don McGahn to create a false record claiming Trump had never ordered him to fire Mueller].... For Trump, much more is riding on the next election than remaining in office. The five-year federal statute of limitations applies to obstruction of justice, and obstructing a federal investigation is not a state crime, which means that a reelected President Trump could not be prosecuted for his obstruction in 2017 until he left office in January 2025, which is over two years after the statute of limitations would run."

David Enrich of the New York Times: "A group of Democratic senators wants top officials at the Federal Reserve to examine whether Deutsche Bank complied with anti-money-laundering and other laws after bank employees flagged transactions tied to President Trump as potentially suspicious. The request, in a letter sent Thursday, was in response to a New York Times report that specialists at Deutsche Bank recommend that transactions by legal entities controlled by Mr. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crime regulator. Managers at the bank rejected their employees' advice and did not alert the government." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn has fired his legal team as he awaits sentencing for lying to the FBI about his conversations with a top Russian official, according to a new filing Thursday from his long-time attorneys. The lawyers, Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony, offered no explanation for their abrupt dismissal in a two-page motion delivered to the federal judge who will mete out Flynn's punishment stemming from his 2017 guilty plea to Robert Mueller's prosecutors.... Flynn's decision to change attorneys at this late stage is unusual and has triggered speculation in legal and political circles he's considering backing out of his plea deal with the government in a play for a presidential pardon.... But the move also comes amid a yawning disconnect between the approach adopted by the well-respected legal team Flynn has used since the start of the Russia probe and the combative rhetoric from many of his friends and family members...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic: "Democrats debating whether to impeach Donald Trump may be misreading the evidence from the last time the House tried to remove a president.... While Republicans did lose House seats in both 1998 and 2000, Democrats did not gain enough to capture control of the chamber either time. And in 2000, lingering unease about [President Bill] Clinton's behavior provided a crucial backdrop for George W. Bush's winning presidential campaign -- particularly his defining promise 'to restore honor and dignity' to the Oval Office.... Even if the Senate doesn't convict Trump..., impeachment in the House could offer Democrats a similar chance to highlight the aspects of Trump's volatile behavior that most alienate swing voters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Shear & Azam Ahmed of the New York Times: "Mexico and the United States have made significant progress in discussions that could forestall President Trump from following through on his threat of imposing tariffs on all Mexican imports, senior officials from both countries said Thursday. Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly demanded that Mexico end all illegal immigration into the United States, has not yet given his approval of the direction of the talks and no deal has been reached, the officials said. But they said Mexico and Guatemala have agreed to consider significant changes in asylum laws across the region that would allow the United States to reject requests for protection from many people fleeing persecution. The arrangement being discussed would require migrants to seek asylum in the first safe country they enter. It would mean that people from Guatemala who want refuge in the United States could be quickly sent to Mexico instead, while those fleeing El Salvador and Honduras who try to enter the United States could be turned away and sent instead to Guatemala." ...

... Rafael Bernal & Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump is planning to declare a new national emergency in order to implement sweeping tariffs on Mexico over the flow of Central American migrants to the U.S., according to a draft document of the declaration reviewed by The Hill. According to the document, the new emergency is necessary due to 'the failure of the Government of Mexico to take effective action to reduce the mass migration of aliens illegally crossing into the United States through Mexico.'" ...

... Dara Lind of Vox: "President Trump's constant temper tantrums about the US-Mexico border have become the background noise of his administration.... But as Trump has raged, something genuinely unprecedented has started happening at the border The past several months have seen a huge spike in unauthorized migration, especially of families, into the US.... What's happening at the border is the result of a regional crisis in which -- if current rates continue -- close to 1 percent of the entire population of Guatemala and Honduras will attempt to immigrate to the US this year." --safari: A very informative article on the immigration issue. ...

... Garance Burke of the AP: "The federal government is opening a new mass facility to hold migrant children in Texas and considering detaining hundreds more youths on three military bases around the country, adding up to 3,000 new beds to the already overtaxed system. The new emergency facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, will hold as many as 1,600 teens in a complex that once housed oil field workers on government-leased land near the border, said Mark Weber, a spokesman for Office of Refugee Resettlement. The agency is also weighing using Army and Air Force bases in Georgia, Montana and Oklahoma to house an additional 1,400 kids in the coming weeks, amid the influx of children traveling to the U.S. alone. Most of the children crossed the border without their parents, escaping violence and corruption in Central America, and are held in government custody while authorities determine if they can be released to relatives or family friends." ...

... BBC: "US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) says the 'dramatic rise' in migrants from African countries arriving [at the Texas-Mexico border] is a 'humanitarian crisis'. More than 500 African migrants have arrived at Del Rio border patrol sector in the past week, since 30 May. Most of these people are families that have travelled from Angola, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, CBP said.... Local news reporter Jaleesa Irizarry also tweeted that the city was 'in desperate need for French-speaking volunteers', and that local centres expected up to 300 more migrants to arrive in the next few days." --s

Caitlin Emma of Politico: "... Donald Trump Thursday signed a package that would deliver $19.1 billion in disaster relief to communities across the country that are still recovering from a spate of catastrophic hurricanes, wildfires and flooding. The House passed the bill on Monday after Republicans successfully thwarted three attempts to fast-track the package. The Senate passed the bill before the Memorial Day recess, removing Trump's request for billions in emergency border aid in a last-minute scramble because it was holding up the deal. The legislation was delayed for months prior to that amid partisan infighting."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The world's largest automakers warned President Trump on Thursday that one of his most sweeping deregulatory efforts -- his plan to weaken tailpipe pollution standards -- threatens to cut their profits and produce 'untenable' instability in a crucial manufacturing sector. In a letter signed by 17 companies including Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Volvo, the automakers asked Mr. Trump to go back to the negotiating table on the planned rollback. It represents the most forceful statement to date by the auto industry against Mr. Trump's effort to weaken the pollution rules, which were one of President Barack Obama's signature policies to fight climate change. The carmakers are addressing a crisis that is partly of their own making. They had sought some changes to the pollution standards early in the Trump presidency, but have since grown alarmed at the expanding scope of the administration's plan."

** Laura Davison of Bloomberg News: "... Donald Trump's trade wars have already wiped out all but $100 of the average American household's windfall from Trump's 2017 tax law. And that's just the beginning. That last $100 in tax-cut gains could soon completely disappear -- and then some -- because of additional tariffs Trump has announced. If the president makes good on his threats to impose levies on virtually all imports from China and Mexico, those middle-earning households could pay nearly $4,000 more. Subtract the tax cut, and the average household will effectively be paying about $3,000 more in taxes through additional levies on the products they consume." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. Mrs. McC: As numerous observers (including some Republicans in Congress) have pointed out, Trump's tariffs amount to a tax on American consumers. If you don't need to buy anything that has at least a part manufactured abroad or anything from U.S. manufacturers whose competitors are foreign or use some foreign parts, then you've got no problem. Trump's trade wars are the ingredients in a recipe for a recession.

Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "On April 15, Trump called Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, a military commander and alleged war criminal, whose Libyan National Army controls eastern Libya.... [R]eports quickly emerged that Trump -- and national security adviser John Bolton in a separate phone call with the warlord -- had encouraged Haftar's armed assault, launched a few weeks earlier, on Tripoli and militias supporting the government there.... With one phone call..., Trump undercut years of American diplomacy in Libya, leaving US policy toward the war-torn state uncertain. Now a colorful cast of lobbyists and would-be profiteers are cashing in on the confusion, as they sign up with assorted Libyan factions ... to help them influence policymakers in Washington. In short, Trump threw US policy toward Libya into chaos and created a money-making opportunity for K Street." --s

Samantha Grasso of Splinter: "Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits federal employees from using their positions to promote partisan politics when he tweeted a photo of himself in MAGA socks last June, according to a December letter from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel which was leaked to the Washington Post and published on Thursday. The letter said that the Special Counsel, which investigates people for Hatch Act violations found that Zinke, in wearing these dumbass socks, had indeed broken the rules. Zinke, who resigned in December five days before the Special Counsel notified him of his violation, only received a warning. Specifically, he avoided punishment because he deleted the tweet and apologized." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "At a time when no one is really sure anymore just what constitutes Republican ideology, you could do worse than to call it the Except-When-Trump-Does-It Party."

Igor Derysh in Salon: "Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of just two Republican senators who claim to be pro-choice, has voted for at least 32 of President Trump's anti-abortion judicial nominees."

Presidential Race 2020

Uh, Is This What You Mean by "Moderate," Joe? Jonathan Kozol in the Nation: Joe Biden "said nothing to disown his long history as a fierce opponent of school busing and a scathing critic of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. 'We've lost our bearings since the 1954 Brown v. School Board desegregation case,' Biden said in 1975, in an interview that he gave to a newspaper in Delaware that was recently unearthed by The Washington Post. 'To "desegregate" is different than to "integrate."'... 'The real problem with busing,' he said [in the 1975 interview], 'is that you take [white] people who aren't racist, people who are good citizens, who believe in equal education and opportunity, and you stunt their children's growth by busing them to an inferior [black] school.'... As The Washington Post candidly surmised, his 'decision to stand by his views on the issue illustrates what some of his supporters think would be his advantage in the 2020 field: his ability to appeal beyond his Democratic base to some white working-class voters who voted for Donald Trump in 2016.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

A Reluctant Follower, Not a Leader. Bill Barrow of the AP: "After two days of intense criticism, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden reversed course Thursday and declared that he no longer supports a long-standing congressional ban on using federal health care money to pay for abortions. 'If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment' that makes it harder for some women to access care, Biden said at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Atlanta. The former vice president's reversal on the Hyde Amendment came after rivals and women's rights groups blasted him for affirming through campaign aides that he still supported the decades-old budget provision." Mrs. McC: Reminds me of Trump's reversing his position on criminally "punishing" women who have abortions. ...

... He Was For It Before He Was Against It Before He Was For It Before He Was Against It. Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "One day after he was torn to shreds by a righteous Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden decided that maybe he does support repealing the Hyde Amendment after all.... In the recent past, Biden said he still supported upholding the amendment. Last month, he briefly changed his mind, telling the ACLU that the law 'can't stay,' but his campaign later backtracked. Now, Biden has changed his mind about the long-standing law AGAIN."

Natasha Korecki & Marc Caputo of Politico: "Twenty-four hours after Joe Biden's campaign was taken to task for lifting portions of a climate change plan without citation, it's clear that the former vice president has plenty of company. A sampling of policy proposals from Biden's leading rivals suggests the lifting of direct text from academic papers, think tanks or policy institutes -- and the cribbing of facts without attribution -- is fairly widespread on 2020 campaign websites. A Politico review found previously published material on the official campaign websites of Sens. Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, as well as frequent use of facts and data without citation on a number of others." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There's nothing at all wrong with politicians using other people's statistics & policy analyses. Advocates are glad to have prominent politicians back their policies. But conducting studies & developing policies is time-consuming, difficult & expensive. We wouldn't expect candidates to do this kind of detail work themselves, but they must give credit to the organizations or individuals who did the work.

Mark Stern of Slate: "The latest bombshell from the formerly secret files of the GOP's top gerrymandering guru emerged on Thursday, and it's astounding: Voting rights advocates claim to have evidence that North Carolina Republican lawmakers repeatedly lied to a federal court, and to the public, in a successful effort to delay a special election that threatened their legislative supermajority.... The newest discovery from the files pertains to Covington v. North Carolina, a challenge to Republicans' racial gerrymander of state legislative districts. In 2016, a federal district court ordered the legislature to draw new maps and hold a special election after finding the map had been illegally gerrymandered along racial lines. The Supreme Court agreed that the maps were unlawful, but sent the case back to district court to resolve how quickly Republican lawmakers could draw new maps.... GOP legislators insisted that they had not yet prepared any maps and would need ample time to do so.... According to Common Cause, these representations to the district court were a lie." ...

... ** Russ Choma of Mother Jones: Last week brought a "bombshell revelation in the fight over a controversial question about citizenship status on the 2020 census.... Key wording in its legal rationale matches memos written by Tom Hofeller, a Republican gerrymandering expert.... Republican Party financial filings with federal regulators add a twist to this backstory: The party's main political apparatus paid Hofeller more than $2 million for his work. That suggests that Hofeller's memos weren't simply independent advocacy for a pet issue, but that he and his work were deeply embedded in the heart of the GOP's strategic operations." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That is, the Republican party has been paying serious money to curb the foundational democratic exercise of voting. ...

... Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "[T]he story of this [Supreme Court] term is likely to be a story about democracy -- and the Supreme Court's role in thwarting it. The court is likely to hold that federal judges are powerless to stop partisan gerrymandering.... And it is even more likely to hold that the Trump administration may effectively& rig the Census to discourage immigrants from participating and shift power to white communities.... Below the surface, however, are two far more subtle attacks on democracy. These two cases, Kisor v. Wilkie and Gundy v. United States, are early stages of a much broader effort to transfer power from the executive branch -- whose leader is elected, at least most of the time -- to a judiciary that is unaccountable to voters and that is now controlled by the Republican Party." --s

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Matt Novak of Gizmodo: "Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals announced today that the company expects to pay $15.4 million in a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department after allegations that Questcor Pharmaceuticals, which Mallinckrodt acquired in 2014, had bribed doctors and their staff to prescribe an incredibly expensive drug.... Questcor raised the price of the medication by almost 100,000 percent (not a typo) from just $40 in 2000 to $38,892 today, despite the fact that Acthar has been on the market since 1952. Mallinckrodt currently rakes in about $1 billion per year from Acthar, according to CNN." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Ivana Hrynkiw of AL.com: "Former Senate candidate Roy Moore's attorney was arrested Wednesday night for charges of driving under the influence and for possessing drugs. Trenton Roger Garmon, 39, was booked into the Etowah County Jail around 8 p.m., according to jail records. He was arrested by Gadsden police and charged with driving under the influence of controlled substances, second-degree possession of marijuana, and drug paraphernalia." This isn't Garmon's first arrest for impaired driving. It isn't clear from the story, but he may have been driving on a suspended license when stopped Wednesday. Anyhow, he's in the jailhouse now. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

Politico: "U.S. hiring slowed in May as employers added just 75,000 jobs, a sign that businesses may have become more cautious in the face of slowing global growth and widening trade conflicts. The tepid job growth, along with the rising pressures on the economy, make it likelier that the Federal Reserve will cut rates in the coming months."