The Commentariat -- May 16, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Marisa Endicott of Mother Jones: "So far in 2019, seven states have passed laws to limit abortion well before fetal viability, which is somewhere around 24 weeks, though all of the laws have yet to take effect or are held up by the courts.... The Missouri Senate, meanwhile, is currently debating an omnibus abortion bill that already passed the House and includes a 'fetal heartbeat' ban, while Louisiana's own six-week abortion bill is about to pass its second legislative chamber. Mother Jones looked at the gender breakdown in these nine state legislatures and found a common thread: All have striking gender imbalances. Each legislature -- with the exception of Georgia -- has a lower than average percentage of women serving in its chambers. The national average is about 29 percent, but in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, women make up just 16 percent or less of the states' legislators."

Jeffery Mays & William Neuman of the New York Times: "Bill de Blasio, the Democratic mayor of New York City, announced on Thursday that he was running for president, seeking to show that his brand of urban progressive leadership can be a model for the rest of the nation. It will be a steep challenge: He becomes the 23rd Democrat to enter the presidential race, and he does so against the counsel of many of his trusted advisers, and in the face of two centuries of history. No sitting mayor has been elected to the presidency, and if Mr. de Blasio, 58, is to be the first, he must overcome daunting deficits in polls and und-raising."

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Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump will unveil on Thursday a plan to overhaul parts of the nation's immigration system that would impose new security measures at the border and significantly increase the educational and skills requirements for people who are allowed to migrate to the United States, senior White House officials said Wednesday. The proposal would vastly scale back the system of family-based immigration that has for decades allowed immigrants to bring their spouses and children to live with them, the officials said. In its place, it would provide new opportunities for immigrants who have specific skills or job offers to work in the United States, provided that they can demonstrate English proficiency, educational attainment and pass a civics exam. But the plan is expected to be deeply unpopular with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Currently, about 12 percent of immigrants qualify based on their skills, while more than half are given permission to enter the United State because of a family connection. Under Mr. Trump's proposal, those numbers would be reversed.... The president will reveal some details about the proposal, which was developed by Jared Kushner.... The plan calls for construction of some of the president's border wall.... And it contains no provision for providing legal status to people brought to the United States as children, known as Dreamers, or other undocumented immigrants." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Sounds more like a Stephen Miller pipe-dream than a plan. ...

Hypothetical Kushner Power Point slide. (Actually, I got this from a tweet @RealDonaldTrump, in which the writer warned Trump not to break his campaign promises.)... Alison Durkee of Vanity Fair: "... Jared Kushner headed to Capitol Hill Tuesday, where he met with Republican senators to answer questions about his new immigration plan. And, unsurprisingly, the man who's been trying to frame his political inexperience as an 'asset' didn't do a great job. Per a report in The Washington Post, G.O.P. senators present at the staff luncheon said Kushner had trouble answering questions about the proposal, and was frequently interrupted by fellow adviser Stephen Miller to fill in the gaps.... Though Kushner has been toting the plan around town — reportedly with the help of a PowerPoint slideshow that's been described as 'laughably simplistic' -- he apparently doesn't fare so well when he has to go off-script, even among a friendly G.O.P. crowd.... While Kushner and the more hard-line Miller's joint appearance at the luncheon was supposed to signify 'unity' between the various White House factions, senators present also noted that they didn't exactly see the duo as a united front. 'Miller interrupted him a lot,' one source said.... Kushner [has] set a low bar for himself that aims not so much for success as just failing in an original way. 'If we are going to fail, we don't want to fail doing it the same way it's been done in the past, Kushner [said] ... at a recent event." Thanks to safari for the link. ...

... Thank You for Your Service. Now ... Get Out! Tara Copp of McClatchy News: "Immigrants serving in the U.S. military are being denied citizenship at a higher rate than foreign-born civilians, according to new government data that has revealed the impact of stricter Trump administration immigration policies on service members. According to the same data, the actual number of service members even applying for U.S. citizenship has also plummeted since ... Donald Trump took office, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported in its quarterly naturalization statistics. 'The U.S. has had a long-standing tradition of immigrants come to the U.S. and have military service provide a path to citizenship,' said retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, a senior adviser to the liberal veterans advocacy group VoteVets.org. 'To have this turnaround, where they are actually taking a back seat to the civilian population strikes me as a bizarre turn of events.'" Thanks to safari for the link.

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "The intelligence that caused the White House to escalate its warnings about a threat from Iran came from photographs of missiles on small boats in the Persian Gulf that were put on board by Iranian paramilitary forces, three American officials said. Overhead imagery showed fully assembled missiles, stoking fears that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps would fire them at United States naval ships. Additional pieces of intelligence picked up threats against commercial shipping and potential attacks by Arab militias with Iran ties on American troops in Iraq. But just how alarmed the Trump administration should be over the new intelligence is a subject of fierce debate among the White House, the Pentagon, the C.I.A. and America's allies." Mrs. McC: AND, as the reporters point out, we cannot help but be reminded of this "slam dunk":

... Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle warned ... Donald Trump on Wednesday to avoid plunging the United States into another Iraq-like war in the Middle East, demanding more information about vague warnings that Iran might be planning attacks on U.S. personnel and facilities in the region. Congressional leaders will get more information about the situation on Thursday during a confidential briefing with Trump officials, according to two Democratic sources. On Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail, politicians fretted that the situation felt eerily similar to the run-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq." ...

... Edward Wong of the New York Times: "The State Department ordered a partial evacuation of the United States Embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday, responding to what the Trump administration said was a threat linked to Iran, one that has led to an accelerated movement of American ships and bombers into the Persian Gulf. The department ordered 'nonemergency U.S. government employees,' at both the embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Erbil, to leave the country. The order applies primarily to full-time diplomats posted to Iraq by State Department headquarters in Washington, and an embassy statement said that visa services in Iraq would be suspended as a result. Contractors who provide security, food and other such services will remain in place for now." ...

... Josh Marshall: "... John Bolton is a unique and uniquely dangerous character. To give some perspective, back during George W. Bush's second term, Bush nominated Bolton to serve as UN Ambassador. That was in 2006 and with a GOP majority in the Senate. Bolton was seen as so manifestly ill-suited to the position that he couldn't get confirmed. He had to settle for a pity recess appointment.... Bolton is a caricature of a militarist and warmonger.... He's no fool. He's a very bright guy. And -- critically important -- he's a master of bureaucratic politics.... Bolton ... is precisely the kind of person ... to goad the President into issuing [intemperate] orders.... What seems to have been happening over the last year is that Bolton has been trying to push Iran into a corner and force a military confrontation. That hasn't worked. So now they appear to be cooking up 'threats' from Iran to force the confrontation they've been unable to force to date."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

** "Starrs & Barrs." Jonathan Chait: "Trump's official position is that Congress has no business looking into whether the president has broken the law. When you combine this position with the long-standing Department of Justice policy that it cannot indict a sitting president, and Attorney General William Barr's position that the president is entitled to shut down any investigation he considers unfair, you have built a wall of legal impunity for the president.... Republicans don't merely swing back and forth on executive power like a pendulum, they race from one extreme position to the other.... Trump, like his party, simply refuses to recognize the legitimacy of sharing power. Power in their minds is unitary: unquestionable when in their hands, illegitimate when wielded by the opposition. Trump grew naturally out of, and fit comfortably within, the party of Starr's and Barr's."

Get Real, Democrats! Walter Dellinger, in a Washington Post op-ed: "I have become increasingly concerned about how the country has received the Mueller report. The Republican talking point is that it exonerated the president. The message from the Democratic House, meanwhile, is that the report is inconclusive. Those responses, one mendacious, one tepid and both erroneous, have shaped public understanding.... The more I review the report, the more absurd and misleading the we-need-to-know-more response seems to be.... How different would it have been if a unified chorus of Democratic leaders in Congress and on the campaign trail had promptly proclaimed the actual truth: This report makes the unquestionable case that the president regularly and audaciously violated his oath and committed th most serious high crimes and misdemeanors. Mueller's extraordinary 2,800-subpoena, 500-search-warrant, two-year investigation fully established not merely crimes but also the betrayal of the president's office: a failure to defend the country's electoral system from foreign attack and acts of interference with justice that shred the rule of law.... The House's focus on process -- such as requesting redacted material -- constitutes a strong, implicit suggestion that what we have seen from Mueller is not enough to assess the president. That is just false."

John Bresnahan & Heather Caygle of Politico: "House Democrats will not hold floor votes on contempt resolutions against Attorney General William Barr or any other Trump administration officials until at least June, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Wednesday. Hoyer's comments made official what has already been clear inside the House Democratic Caucus -- Hoyer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders are still wrestling with how to respond to ... Donald Trump's broad refusal to cooperate with subpoenas for documents and testimony related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, as well as his own personal finances."

Carol Leonnig & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The White House’s top lawyer told the House Judiciary Committee chairman Wednesday that Congress has no right to a 'do-over' of the special counsel's investigation of President Trump and refused a broad demand for records and testimony from dozens of current and former White House staff. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone's letter to committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) constitutes a sweeping rejection -- not just of Nadler's request for White House records, but of Congress's standing to investigate Trump for possible obstruction of justice. In his letter, Cipollone repeated a claim the White House and Trump's business have begun making: that Congress is not a law enforcement body and does not have a legitimate purpose to investigate the questions it is pursuing. But Cipollone stopped short of asserting executive privilege. Instead, he told Nadler he would consider a narrowed request if the chairman spells out the legislative purpose and legal support for the information he is seeking." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... As Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote yesterday re: the administration's argument that Congress had no right to examine Trump's finances, "Forget about the Unitary Executive Theory. This one is closer to the Divine Right of Kings." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Update. Jeremy Herb, et al., of CNN: House Judiciary Chair Jerry "Nadler responded to the latest Trump administration rejection by accusing the White House of 'claiming that the President is a king.' 'No President, no person in the United States is above the law. This is preposterous,' Nadler told CNN. 'They are saying we should end the investigation. We are not ending the investigation. If we were to agree to that, then no president would ever be subject to any kind of investigation for misconduct of any type.'... Nadler told reporters Tuesday he was seriously considering the idea of fining officials. 'Very large,' Nadler said when asked how large of fines the House might consider. Asked if they would seek to impose such fines on the attorney general, Nadler said: 'It would be for anybody who is held in inherent contempt.'"

... BUT Stiffing Congress Is So Hilarious. Laurie Kellman of the AP: At the National Peace Officers Memorial Day service Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, Bill "Barr approached [Nancy] Pelosi, shook her hand and said loud enough to be overheard, 'Madam Speaker, did you bring your handcuffs?'... A smiling Pelosi let Barr know the House Sergeant at Arms was present at the ceremony, should any arrest be necessary, according to a person who witnessed the exchange.... Barr chuckled and walked away, this person said."

Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "Senior FBI officials were concerned then director James Comey would appear to be blackmailing then President-elect Trump -- using tactics notoriously associated with J.Edgar Hoover -- when he attended a fateful Jan. 6, 2017, meeting at which he informed the real estate magnate about allegations he had consorted with prostitutes in Moscow, according to Jim Baker, the bureau's chief counsel at the time. But he and Comey determined the bureau had an obligation to tell Trump of the uncorroborated allegations because 'the press has it; it's about to come out. You should be alerted to that fact. We were quite worried about the Hoover analogies, and we were determined not to have such a disaster happen on our watch,' said ... Baker ... in an interview with the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery.... In the podcast interview, Baker also pledged to cooperate with a new investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, emphasizing that he believes he and his FBI colleagues did nothing wrong."

Cecilia Kang & David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump moved on Wednesday to ban American telecommunications firms from installing foreign-made equipment that could pose a threat to national security, White House officials said, stepping up a battle against China by effectively barring sales by Huawei, the country's leading networking company. Mr. Trump issued an executive order instructing the commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, to ban transactions 'posing an unacceptable risk' but did not single out any nation or company."

Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned Conrad M. Black, a friend and former business associate who wrote a flattering book about the president last year. Black, a Canadian-born citizen of Britain, was found guilty of mail fraud and obstruction in 2007 in a ploy to swindle millions of dollars from investors in his media company. Black served more than three years in prison and was legally barred from re-entering the United States, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. In a statement, the White House praised Black as 'an entrepreneur and scholar,' citing his many published works. It also stated the Supreme Court overturned many of the charges against Black and that several people, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Elton John, Rush Limbaugh and William F. Buckley Jr. [Mrs. McC: who is dead] all vouched for Black. However, the statement did not mention Black's book 'Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other,' which praised the president and was published last year. Nor did it mention the many columns Black has written lauding Trump." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, anyone who writes a flattering book about Trump usually would be characterized as a "hack," not a "scholar." But it turns out it's a great get-out-of-jail card (okay, Black was already out of jail), so not a bad idea. ...

... More Fun Facts about Conrad Black. Sophie Weiner of Splinter: Black "is also known -- and we are not making this up -- as Lord Black of Crossharbour. Black formerly ran a company that included major newspapers like the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post. He was convicted in the U.S. of fraud for stealing millions of dollars from his own business, Hollinger International.... Two of Black's three fraud convictions were already voided, and he was released from prison after serving about half his sentence in May 2010. He was subsequently deported.... 'I was innocent,' he added. 'There was no substance to any of the charges. There never was. The whole thing gradually disintegrated.'" Mrs. McC: Say, aren't you supposed to take responsibility for your bad deeds as a condition of getting a pardon? ...

... Jared's Friend Gets a Pardon, Too! Eli Watkins & Allie Malloy of CNN: "The White House said Trump offered clemency to Patrick Nolan, a former Republican legislator who allied with ... Jared Kushner on prison revisions last year.... Nolan is the director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the American Conservative Union Foundation, and, according to his biography page from that group, he pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge after an FBI sting and spent 29 months in federal custody. The White House said the experience 'changed his life' and formed his later career as a conservative advocate for criminal justice revisions, including with the First Step Act, the criminal justice bill Trump signed into law last year." Mrs. McC: This is kind of sweet: just as in a regular crime family, the Trump family's friends are forgiven for past wrongdoing, as long as the crimes they've committed are not against Trump family members themselves.

Tony Romm & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "The United States on Wednesday broke with 18 governments and top American tech firms by declining to endorse a New Zealand-led response to the live-streamed shootings at two Christchurch mosques, saying free-speech concerns prevented the White House from formally endorsing the largest campaign to date targeting extremism online. The 'Christchurch Call,' unveiled at an international gathering in Paris, commits foreign countries and tech giants to be more vigilant about the spread of hate on social media. It reflects heightened global frustrations with the inability of Facebook, Google and Twitter to restrain hateful posts, photos and videos that have spawned real-world violence. Leaders from across the globe pledged to counter online extremism, including through new regulation, and to 'encourage media outlets to apply ethical standards when depicting terrorist events online.' Companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter, meanwhile, said they'd work more closely to ensure their sites don't become conduits for terrorism. They also committed to accelerated research and information sharing with governments in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.... White House officials raised concerns that the document might run afoul of the First Amendment." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... That's Rich. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "'Freedom of the press' is an eyebrow-raising reason for the White House to cite, considering ... Donald Trump's constant rants against' fake news' media and the fact that the White House recently slapped new restrictions on press access." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Sara Fischer of Axios: "The White House launched a tool on Wednesday that will allow any U.S. citizen to submit a complaint if they think they were unfairly censored on social media platforms.... Social media bias has become a major talking point for President Trump and conservatives who argue that Silicon Valley companies are biased against their viewpoints. Skeptics were quick to point out that the online form was not very sophisticated and could be easily gamed by anyone who wanted to troll the administration. For example, the 'captcha' response test used at the end of the survey to determine if the respondent is a bot asks users to type the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. 'I tried it with "1945," it cleared it. You just need to type four numbers,' tweeted Quentin Hardy, head of editorial at Google Cloud.... The online form where users can submit requests also appears to be an email collection mechanism. 'We want to keep you posted on President Trump's fight for free speech,' the form states after a few questions. 'Can we add you to our email newsletters so we can update you without relying on platforms like Facebook and Twitter?'... The White House launched the tool just hours after it broke with more than a dozen world leaders and top technology companies in an international call to action around the rise of online extremism on social platforms."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Especially with Help from Republicans. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "The U.S. aviation system needs urgently to restore the world's confidence after two crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets. Instead, the Trump administration's top aviation official, goaded by some Republican lawmakers, informed the world Wednesday that the problem isn't that Boeing put a faulty aircraft into the skies, nor that the Federal Aviation Administration's lax oversight kept it flying. The trouble, they argued, comes from lousy foreign pilots -- particularly the ones on Ethiopian Airlines and Indonesia's Lion Air who died struggling to pull the Max jets from death plunges.... The acting FAA administrator, Daniel Elwell, [told the House transportation committee] that the problem should have been 'immediately recognizable' to the pilots, but there was 'apparent lack of recognition.' He blamed the Indonesians for failing to disable the system and said the Ethiopian crew 'didn't adhere to the emergency [advisory] we put out' and 'never controlled their air speed.'... [Rep.] Sam Graves [(R-Mo.), the ranking member] rejoined the denunciation. 'I hate to disparage another country and what their pilot training is, but that is what scares me in all of this: climbing on an aircraft or airline that is outside U.S. jurisdiction,' he said. 'It just bothers me that we continue to tear down our system based on what has happened in another country.' Yep. Nothing makes foreigners want to buy Boeing jets like a little jingoism."

The Clueless Electorate. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "A majority of registered voters believes President Trump is a successful businessman despite recent news reports about significant losses, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday. About 54 percent of respondents said they believe Trump has been successful in his business ventures, while 36 percent say he's been unsuccessful. Another 10 percent have no opinion. The results are starkly divided along partisan lines, with 85 percent of Republicans saying Trump is a success while only 30 percent of Democrats agreed. Nearly half, 49 percent, of Independents said Trump is a successful businessman, while 34 percent say he's been unsuccessful. The poll was conducted after the release of a New York Times report showing that Trump reported over $1 billion in losses from 1985 to 1994, citing IRS documents. Trump responded, calling the article 'a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job....'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

In yesterday's commentary, Akhilleus summed up the current state of U.S affairs: "The mad advising the incompetent leading the stupids, all relying on the obsequious."

Presidential Race 2020. Alex Seitz-Wald of NBC News: "New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will declare his bid for the presidency on Thursday, a campaign spokesperson said Wednesday, joining the almost two dozen other candidates already competing for the Democratic nomination. De Blasio will make the formal announcement Thursday morning and then travel to Iowa and South Carolina for multiple stops over four days. His wife, Chirlane McCray, who has been a highly visible presence and close adviser during his six years at City Hall, will join him for part of the trip." Mrs. McC: Forgive me cynicism, but I'm guess that McCray, who is black, will "join him" on the South Carolina leg of the two-state trip.

Mike Cason of al.com: "Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed the bill to make abortion a felony in Alabama, the governor’s office announced." Mrs. McC: Ivey looks like a sweet little ole grandma. Appearances are deceiving. ...

... Kate Riga of TPM: “The Alabama abortion ban sent to the governor's desk Tuesday is even too severe for televangelist Pat Robertson, who called it an 'extreme law.' 'I think Alabama has gone too far, they've passed a law that would give a 99-year prison sentence to those who commit abortions,' he said Wednesday on 'The 700 Club.' 'There's no exception for rape or incest. It's an extreme law and they want to challenge Roe v. Wade, but my humble view is that this is not the case we want to bring to the Supreme Court because I think this one'll lose.'" ...

... BUT. Chip, Chip, Chipping Away. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Abortion rights are at risk at the Supreme Court, but the short-term threat may not come from extreme measures like the one passed by Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday. The court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is more likely to chip away at the constitutional right to abortion established in 1973 in Roe v. Wade than to overturn it outright. It will have plenty of opportunities to do so. As soon as Monday, the court could announce whether it will hear challenges to three provisions of Indiana abortion laws on issues like the disposal of fetal remains and an 18-hour waiting period after state-mandated ultrasound examinations. The court will in the coming months almost certainly agree to hear a challenge to a Louisiana law that could reduce the number of abortion clinics in the state to one.... Lower courts will almost certainly strike down the Alabama statute and other direct bans on abortion.... The Supreme Court ... can simply deny review after lower courts strike down laws squarely at odds with Roe." ...

... A Modern Horror Story. Julian Borger & Liz Ford of the Guardian: “C-Fam has emerged from the extreme right fringe on the issue of abortion, sexual orientation and gender identity to become a powerful player behind the scenes at the UN. With a modest budget and a six-strong staff led by the president Austin Ruse, it has leveraged connections inside the Trump administration to enforce a rigid orthodoxy on social issues, and helped build a new US coalition with mostly autocratic regimes that share a similar outlook. And that coalition has already significantly shifted the terms of the UN debate on women's and LGBT rights." The details in this story are flabbergasting. This is a hate group. Fer instance, "In 2015, a Catholic priest on the organization's board resigned in protest at Ruse's comment that 'the hard-left human hating people that run modern universities should be taken out and shot.'" Nikki Haley, whom Republicans imagine as the first U.S. female president, seemed to be in lock-step with the group when she was U.N. ambassador. Thanks to safari for the link.

News Lede

New York Times: "I. M. Pei, the Chinese-born American architect who began his long career working for a New York real-estate developer and ended it as one of the most revered architects in the world, has died. He was 102."

The Commentariat -- May 15, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Carol Leonnig & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The White House's top lawyer told the House Judiciary Committee chairman Wednesday that Congress has no right to a 'do-over' of the special counsel's investigation of President Trump and refused a broad demand for records and testimony from dozens of current and former White House staff. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone's letter to committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) constitutes a sweeping rejection -- not just of Nadler's request for White House records, but of Congress's standing to investigate Trump for possible obstruction of justice. In his letter, Cipollone repeated a claim the White House and Trump's business have begun making: that Congress is not a law enforcement body and does not have a legitimate purpose to investigate the questions it is pursuing. But Cipollone stopped short of asserting executive privilege. Instead, he told Nadler he would consider a narrowed request if the chairman spells out the legislative purpose and legal support for the information he is seeking." ...

... As Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote yesterday re: the administration's argument that Congress had no right to examine Trump's finances, "Forget about the Unitary Executive Theory. This one is closer to the Divine Right of Kings."

Tony Romm & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "The United States on Wednesday broke with 18 governments and top American tech firms by declining to endorse a New Zealand-led response to the live-streamed shootings at two Christchurch mosques, saying free-speech concerns prevented the White House from formally endorsing the largest campaign to date targeting extremism online. The 'Christchurch Call,' unveiled at an international gathering in Paris, commits foreign countries and tech giants to be more vigilant about the spread of hate on social media. It reflects heightened global frustrations with the inability of Facebook, Google and Twitter to restrain hateful posts, photos and videos that have spawned real-world violence. Leaders from across the globe pledged to counter online extremism, including through new regulation, and to 'encourage media outlets to apply ethical standards when depicting terrorist events online.' Companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter, meanwhile, said they'd work more closely to ensure their sites don't become conduits for terrorism. They also committed to accelerated research and information sharing with governments in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.... White House officials raised concerns that the document might run afoul of the First Amendment." ...

... That's Rich. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "'Freedom of the press' is an eyebrow-raising reason for the White House to cite, considering ... Donald Trump's constant rants against' fake news' media and the fact that the White House recently slapped new restrictions on press access."

The Clueless Electorate. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "A majority of registered voters believes President Trump is a successful businessman despite recent news reports about significant losses, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday. About 54 percent of respondents said they believe Trump has been successful in his business ventures, while 36 percent say he's been unsuccessful. Another 10 percent have no opinion. The results are starkly divided along partisan lines, with 85 percent of Republicans saying Trump is a success while only 30 percent of Democrats agreed. Nearly half, 49 percent, of Independents said Trump is a successful businessman, while 34 percent say he's been unsuccessful. The poll was conducted after the release of a New York Times report showing that Trump reported over $1 billion in losses from 1985 to 1994, citing IRS documents. Trump responded, calling the article 'a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job....'"

In commentary below, Akhilleus sums up the current state of U.S affairs: "The mad advising the incompetent leading the stupids, all relying on the obsequious."

~~~~~~~~~~

Courtney Kube & Adam Edelman of NBC News: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday denied a report that his administration was considering sending up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East to respond to Iran -- but added that if the United States were to go with such a plan, 'we'd send a hell of a lot more.' Trump told reporters outside the White House that a New York Times story Monday night claiming his administration was reviewing military plans against Iran was 'fake news.'... U.S. officials told NBC News that the plan to send up to 120,000 troops to the region was one of a range of options that Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented to Trump's national security team during a recent meeting about Iran. The option involving as many as 120,000 troops represented a worst-case scenario contingency in the event that the U.S. and Iran were to go to war, the officials said.... According to The Times, which first reported the story, the revised plans presented by Shanahan -- which the newspaper said did not call for an invasion of Iran -- were ordered by Trump's national security adviser John Bolton, known for his hawkish stance on the country, according to the report." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Get that? There are no plans, but if there were plans, they would be a lot more spectacular than the plans that don't exist. Also, too, Trump doesn't seem to have any idea of what's going on. Is that because Bolton & Shanahan are hiding their plans from Trump or because Trump wasn't paying attention when they briefed him? Either case is plausible. In any event, we can now see -- as if we couldn't predict it -- how Trump would act in a military crisis. Be afraid. Be very afraid. ...

... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The top British general in the US-led coalition against Isis has said there is no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq or Syria, directly contradicting US assertions used to justify a military buildup in the region. Hours later however, his assessment was disowned by US Central Command in an extraordinary rebuke of an allied senior officer." --s ...

... Helene Cooper & Edward Wong of the New York Times: "The rare public dispute highlights a central problem for the Trump administration as it seeks to rally allies and global opinion against Iran.... Intelligence and military officials in Europe as well as in the United States said that over the past year, most aggressive moves have originated not in Tehran, but in Washington -- where John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, has prodded President Trump into backing Iran into a corner. One American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential internal planning, said the new intelligence of an increased Iranian threat was 'small stuff' and did not merit the military planning being driven by Mr. Bolton. The official also said the ultimate goal of the yearlong economic sanctions campaign by the Trump administration was to draw Iran into an armed conflict with the United States.... The anti-Iran push has proved difficult even among the allies, which remember a similar campaign against Iraq that was led in part by Mr. Bolton and was fueled by false claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction." ...

... ** Fred Kaplan of Slate: "One week ago, National Security Adviser John Bolton seemed to be laying a trap for the leaders of Iran, squeezing them into a corner where they would have no choice but to lash out. Now he seems to be setting the stage to strike back -- to topple the regime by force -- if and when they take the bait. [Kaplan lists numerous instances in which Trump attempted to provoke Iran into attacking the U.S.] If all this rings a discordant bell -- echoes of Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam, WMD in Iraq, the Maine in the Caribbean, and other contrived provocations that have pushed the country to war -- well, there may be a good reason for that.... It is not yet clear what Trump himself wants.... Trump is playing escalation games with Iran -- games that could lead to war, whether Trump wants that or not -- while doing nothing to seek diplomatic alternatives or to make a case that war is justified, in fact alienating U.S. allies whose support would be useful (if not vital) in a war and, at the same time, ginning up a trade war with China, which, in its early phases, is already wreaking havoc with markets and threatening to damage an otherwise-healthy American economy. Trump isn't fiddling while the world is in turmoil; he's fanning the flames without realizing that's what he's doing."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Bart Jansen of USA Today: "Lawyers for ... Donald Trump and the House clashed Tuesday in federal court over the extent of Congress' power to investigate him in the first legal test of Trump's effort to block sprawling probes of his finances and private business.... It is the first court test of how much information the half-dozen committees conducting investigations of Trump and his businesses might be able to obtain. Trump and his namesake businesses filed a lawsuit last month asking U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta to revoke a subpoena issued by the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Trump's lawyers accused the Democratic-controlled committee of abusing their power and said there was no legislative purpose for the request.... Mehta ... suggested history might not be on the president's side, saying courts had not found that Congress overstepped its subpoena authority since 1880 and questioning Trump's lawyers about the basis for previous investigations of presidents. Trump's personal lawyer, William Consovoy, argued repeatedly that Congress was seeking the president's financial information for what is essentially a law-enforcement purpose -- which was outside its authority -- rather than to work on legislation. The subpoena sought Trump's financial records to look for inconsistencies in his financial disclosure forms, and whether he misstated his holdings for loans that could leave him beholden to foreigners.... At one point, Mehta asked whether Congress could investigate if the president was engaged in corrupt behavior in office. 'I don't think that's the proper subject of investigation as to the president,' Consovoy said, although executive agencies could be investigated. Mehta sounded incredulous, asking whether Congress could have investigated Watergate, which led to President Richard Nixon's resignation, and Whitewater, which led to President Bill Clinton's impeachment. Consovoy initially said he'd have to look at the basis for those investigations.... Douglas Letter, the general counsel for the House..., said Trump's lawsuit is so far outside the bounds of past Supreme Court decisions that he has 'no chance for success' and urged a quick decision in the case because of Congress's limited term." ...

... Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A federal judge raised pointed doubts Tuesday about arguments by ... Donald Trump's legal team that a Democratic effort to subpoena Trump's financial records was an invalid exercise of congressional power. Amit Mehta, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, indicated that he would have trouble ruling that Congress' goal in accessing the president's records was unconstitutional -- as Trump's lawyers have argued -- and he underscored that he believes Congress has a significant 'informing function' that doesn't necessarily require an explicit legislative purpose to justify an investigation involving the president.... Mehta ... suggest[ed] at one point that investigations of such financial violations are 'strictly' under Congress' purview and that the courts have 'very little, if any' discretion over Congress' asks."

Maggie Haberman & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Donald Trump Jr. and the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee reached a deal on Tuesday for the president's eldest son to sit for a private interview with senators in the coming weeks that will be limited in time, an accord that should cool a heated intraparty standoff. The deal came after an aggressive push by the younger Trump's allies, who accused the Intelligence Committee's chairman, Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, of caving to Democrats by issuing a subpoena for the president's son's testimony. They called the effort a political hit job against the White House, using the president's son as fodder. Mr. Burr told fellow Republican senators last week that the president's son had twice agreed to voluntary interviews but had not shown up, forcing the subpoena." ...

... Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "Calls for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to resign began trending on Twitter Tuesday morning after the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman encouraged President Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., to plead the Fifth. Graham on Monday said Trump Jr. should refuse to answer questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee, which subpoenaed Trump Jr. to testify about his communication with Russian officials. 'You just show up and plead the Fifth and it's over with,' Graham told reporters, referring to the amendment that protects citizens from self-incrimination, according to The Washington Post."

Nicholas Fandos & Maggie Haberman: "The House Intelligence Committee is investigating whether lawyers tied to President Trump and his family helped obstruct the panel's inquiry into Russian election interference by shaping false testimony, a series of previously undisclosed letters from its chairman show. The line of inquiry stems from claims made by the president's former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who told Congress earlier this year that the lawyers in question helped edit false testimony that he provided to Congress in 2017 about a Trump Tower project in Moscow. Mr. Cohen said they also dangled a potential pardon to try to ensure his loyalty. In recent weeks, the committee sent lengthy document requests to four lawyers -- Jay Sekulow, who represents the president; Alan S. Futerfas, who represents Donald Trump Jr.; Alan Garten, the top lawyer at the Trump Organization; and Abbe D. Lowell, who represents Ivanka Trump. The lawyers all took part in a joint defense agreement by the president's allies to coordinate responses to inquiries by Congress and the Justice Department."

The Oranges of the Mueller Probe, Ctd. Laura Jarrett of CNN: "Attorney General William Barr is working closely with the CIA to review the origins of the Russia investigation and surveillance issues surrounding Donald Trump's presidential campaign, according to a source familiar with the matter, broadening an effort that the President has long demanded to involve all major national security agencies. Barr is working in close collaboration with CIA Director Gina Haspel, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and FBI Director Christopher Wray, the source said.... As CNN previously reported, US attorney John Durham in Connecticut is heading up the effort with Barr. The source said Durham and Barr are doing a comprehensive review, and Durham is with working with the Justice Department's Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, as well." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: IOW, Durham & Horowitz will come up with a report or reports in which they find that the DOJ, FBI, the FISA judges did everything by the book. Durham & Horowitz will submit their reports to Barr, and Barr will write a four-page summary concluding that "spying did occur" against the innocents on the Trump campaign, and everybody in the DOJ, FBI & FISA court behaved very, very badly. Barr must know a very effective cosmetic procedure for wiping der Trumpenkacke off his nose. ...

     ... As Jonathan Chait points out in a post linked below, "Barr is meanwhile authorizing the fourth counter-investigation of the Russia probe. This will probably fail to yield any charges, but will succeed in making anybody in the Department of Justice think very carefully before looking into any crimes by Trump or his friends, with the full understanding that Republicans will harass them for years if they try." Mrs. McC: I'm not sure what fake investigations Chait is counting; maybe he's including the Devin Nunes/Jim Jordan fiascos of the last Congress. ...

... Barbara McQuade in the Daily Beast: "If you come at the king, you best not miss. That's the message Attorney General William Barr is sending to FBI agents, whether intentionally or not. Barr has authorized yet another investigation into the FBI's conduct probing links between Russian election interference and the Trump campaign.... In [appointing John Durham], Barr is playing into the hands of President Donald Trump, who has already characterized Durham's assignment as an investigation into 'how that whole hoax got started.... The current outcry about the use of FISA surveillance and informants to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election is not sufficient predication for a criminal investigation.... It is unclear why Barr does not simply await ... results [of two probes already in progress] rather than appoint a new prosecutor to undertake another investigation.... In addition to harming the effectiveness of the FBI, Barr's complicity in Trump's tactics may also have a chilling effect. By advancing the 'investigate the investigators' mantra, Barr may cause the FBI to flinch next time it perceives a threat from powerful people within the government. He is incentivizing the FBI to sit idly by in the face of national security threats." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suspect that's the message Barr wants to send: that the president is above the law; ergo, all investigations of his activities are illegitimate. In fact, that's exactly what the administration's attorney said in court, as the USA Today story, linked above, indicates.

... Charlie Savage, et al., of the New York Times: "The federal prosecutor tapped to scrutinize the origins of the Russia investigation is conducting only a review for now and has not opened any criminal inquiry, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The prosecutor, John H. Durham, the United States attorney for Connecticut, is broadly examining the government's collection of intelligence involving the Trump campaign's interactions with Russians.... The distinction means that Mr. Durham for now will not wield the sort of law enforcement powers that come with an open criminal investigation, such as the ability to subpoena documents and compel witnesses to testify. Instead, he will have the authority only to read documents the government has already gathered and to request voluntary witness interviews. That distinction could have political consequences. Earlier on Tuesday, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters he would 'pull back' a proposed inquiry by his committee into what Mr. Trump's allies have portrayed as surveillance abuse because he did not want to get in the way of a criminal investigation by Mr. Durham. But later on Tuesday, told by a Times reporter that Mr. Durham was for now conducting only a review, Mr. Graham said, 'That is completely different.' He said he wanted the inquiry to be run by a prosecutor with the same power as Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel who scrutinized Trump-Russia links." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Thanks, Lindsey! What this country needs is yet another "investigation" of the investigators. But keep on keeping on, Lindsey. Your brilliant career is so much more important than annoying stuff like integrity, and we all appreciate what a Trump kiss-up you need to be to ensure those Palmetto Trumpbots will vote for you. ...

... New York Times Editors: "One of President Trump's enduring beliefs about the Russia investigation is that the Obama administration illegally spied on him, his associates and his campaign.... In Attorney General William Barr, the president has found an ally willing to legitimize his theories.... Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, said on Tuesday that the F.B.I. confirmed with him that Russian hackers had managed in 2016 to infiltrate two county voter databases in the state. They used techniques similar to those used by Kremlin operatives.... The F.B.I. has well-founded concerns that Russia will continue to meddle in American elections. So once the Trump administration is done investigating the investigators, it should turn its attention to ensuring the sanctity and security of the nation's ballot boxes."

** Jonathan Chait: "President Trump's progress in corrupting the Department of Justice -- and, to some extent, the entire federal government -- into a weapon of his autocratic aspirations relies on the acquiescence of figures like Rod Rosenstein. It is the Rosensteins who translate the president's lizard-brain impulses into practical directives and create a patina of normalcy around them. (Or, in some increasingly rare cases, refuse to do so.) And so Rosenstein's spate of valedictory remarks attempting to cleanse and justify his service to Trump give us real insight into the worldview of the compliant bureaucratic functionary.... Somehow, Rosenstein is able to look upon the situation he has left with pride. Mueller was never fired. More importantly, neither was Rosenstein himself. It is easy for the inside man to confuse a system that is intact with a system that is working."

Quinta Jurecic of Lawfare in the Atlantic: "For Congress today to look at the conduct described in the Mueller report and decide that it does not merit impeachment is for it to acquiesce to Trump's effort to establish his own corruption not only as the new norm, but as the way things have always been. To put it another way, given Congress's inaction, can you really blame Rudy Giuliani for trying his luck in Ukraine?"

Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "[Rudy] Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, has worked in Ukraine since Trump's inauguration, nominally as a security adviser to the city of Kharkiv with his firm Giuliani Partners. However, one of his local clients claimed last week that Giuliani provided far more than technical advice and a handful of photo-ops. According to Ukrainian developer Pavel Fuks, Giuliani had been hired to work as a 'lobbyist' for the government of Ukraine, as well as for the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. 'This is stated in the contract,' Fuks told the Times.... Giuliani denied Fuks' claim, saying that Trump remains his 'only client.'... Fuks' claim adds significant fuel to longstanding concerns about Giuliani's decision not to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department -- even as the agency goes to unprecedented lengths to enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act." --s

Damian Paletta, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday rushed to placate furious farmers and Senate Republicans about his escalating trade war with China, with lawmakers now considering a package of fresh bailout funds to quell a rebellion in agricultural states.... On Monday, Trump suggested the standoff could last years and lead to structural changes in the global economy. On Tuesday, Trump offered conflicting forecasts, musing that a deal could come in the next month but also predicting a furious economic battle with Beijing.... The mounting concern from farmers and business groups showed signs of bleeding into the 2020 presidential campaign. Trump has attacked former vice president Joe Biden ... and alleged that Democrats didn't act forcefully enough to counter China in past decades. But Biden on Monday told the radio station WMUR that Trump was creating collateral damage with his blunt trade agenda, which has relied on costly tariffs that U.S. companies must pay to bring in Chinese products. 'The American worker is getting killed by this,' Biden said. 'The American farmers are getting killed.'"

Ha Ha. Shahien Nasiripour of Bloomberg News: "Trump Tower, once the crown jewel in Donald Trump's property empire, now ranks as one of the least desirable luxury properties in Manhattan. The 36-year-old building has been turned into a fortress since Trump won the presidency, ringed with concrete barriers and the two main entrances partially blocked off. It hasn't been substantially updated in years. And Trump's name has been a huge turnoff in liberal New York City. For anyone who owns a unit in the tower, the past two years have been brutal. Most condo sales have led to a loss after adjusting for inflation, property records show. Several sold at more than a 20% loss. By contrast, across Manhattan, just 0.23% of homes over the past two years sold at a loss, according to real-estate data provider PropertyShark, although the firm doesn't adjust for inflation.... While some corners of Trump's business empire have thrived, such as his Washington D.C. hotel, others have suffered from his high unpopularity. Rounds of golf are down at his public course in New York, a clutch of once Trump-branded buildings have torn his name off their fronts, and an ambitious plan to launch a new mid-tier hotel chain across the country fizzled." ...

... Ho Ho. David Fahrenthold & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "Late last year, in a Miami conference room, a consultant for President Trump's company said business at his prized 643-room Doral resort was in sharp decline. At Doral, which Trump has listed in federal disclosures as his biggest moneymaker hotel, room rates, banquets, golf and overall revenue were all down since 2015. In two years, the resort's net operating income -- a key figure, representing the amount left over after expenses are paid -- had fallen by 69 percent.... 'They are severely underperforming' other resorts in the area, tax consultant Jessica Vachiratevanurak told a Miami-Dade County official in a bid to lower the property's tax bill. The reason, she said: 'There is some negative connotation that is associated with the brand.'... The troubles at Trump Doral -- detailed here for the first time, based on documents and video obtained under Florida's public-records law -- suggest the Trump Organization's problems are bigger than previously known. This is also the first known case in which a Trump Organization representative has publicly acknowledged the president's name has hurt business."

Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that he told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the United States would not tolerate future Russian interference in American elections. Speaking to reporters at a news conference in Sochi, Pompeo said he told Lavrov that 'interference in American elections is unacceptable and if the Russians were engaged in that in 2020 it would put our relationship in an even worse place than it has been.' 'We would not tolerate that,' Pompeo said.... Pompeo spoke to reporters after meeting with Lavrov in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The two said they discussed a variety of bilateral and global issues, including arms control, the political upheaval in Venezuela, North Korean denuclearization and Iran. The secretary of State later described the discussion as 'frank' and said the two discussed a variety of areas of disagreement, including Russia's support for embattled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro." Mrs. McC: I wonder if Pompeo delivered the Russian interference memo deadpan or if he was chuckling.

Alexander Narzayan of Yahoo! news: "Charles C. Johnson [is] a Holocaust denier whom the Boston Globe has deemed 'one of the country's most notorious Internet trolls' ... who had been informally involved with the Trump campaign. Even so, he retained untrammeled access to the highest reaches of the Trump administration.... That much is clear from his surprising exchange [via email] with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on June 25, 2018.... Ross and Johnson did meet that summer.... [The Department of Commerce would not confirm that a meeting between Ross and Johnson took place.]...It is not known what they discussed[.] ... Ross's email address is redacted in the documents reviewed by Yahoo News. However, Democracy Forward had specified in its Freedom of Information request that it sought 'all communications sent to or from any nongovernmental email address established, controlled, or used by the Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.' The back-and-forth with Johnson, therefore, had to have been conducted at least in part via an email address affiliated with Ross but not issued by the federal government." --s

Burgess Everett of Politico: "Mitt Romney was the only Republican senator to vote against one of ... Donald Trump's judicial nominees on Tuesday. And he did so in part to defend former President Barack Obama. Romney cast the lone GOP 'no' vote against Michael Truncale, who was confirmed 49-46 on Tuesday morning to the Eastern District of Texas. Truncale called Obama an 'un-American imposter' in June 2011, and explained to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he was 'merely expressing frustration by what I perceived as a lack of overt patriotism on behalf of President Obama.'... 'He made particularly disparaging comments about President Obama. And as the Republican nominee for president, I just couldn't subscribe to that in a federal judge,' Romney said in a brief interview. 'This was not a matter of qualifications or politics. This was something specifically to that issue as a former nominee of our party.'" Mrs. McC: How nice to know all other Republican senators were good with this guy.

Congressional Race 2019. Laura Barron-Lopez of Politico: "Dan Bishop, a state senator and author of North Carolina's controversial 'bathroom bill,' beat back nine other Republican candidates Tuesday to clinch the GOP nomination for this year's redo election in the state's 9th Congressional District. Bishop secured 48 percent of the vote, easily defeating Stony Rushing, the second-place candidate -- and clearing the threshold needed to avoid a nasty runoff that would have further hurt the GOP's chances of keeping a seat the party has held for decades. With Bishop's outright victory on Tuesday, he will face Democrat Dan McCready in the general election on Sept. 10." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: One reason -- but definitely not the primary reason -- that Neanderthals like Bishop win elections is evident in the way stories about them are reported. All the major national outlets led with Bishop's notorious bathroom bill; the Raleigh News & Observer, which is not a horrible paper, didn't mention the bill till the sixth graf -- and then left it up to a citation from Democrats -- to bring up Bishop's cruel, disastrous bill.

Presidential Race 2020

Matt Stevens & Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said Tuesday that she would not participate in a Fox News town hall as some other Democratic candidates have, calling the media outlet 'a hate-for-profit racket' that seeks to turn Americans against one another. In a series of messages posted on Twitter, Ms. Warren, who is one of 22 people seeking the Democratic nomination for president, accused the network of giving 'a megaphone to racists and conspiracists' and providing cover for corruption. She also returned to one of her campaign's central themes in her attack on Fox News, framing the network as the sort of corporate 'profit machine' she has railed against.... Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont took part in a town hall on the network in April and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota did the same last week. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., is expected to participate in one on Sunday."

Charles Pierce, in his ever-patient & soothing way, tries to explain to Joe Biden that Donald Trump is not the only little problem with the GOP. Mrs. McC: Biden fondly remembers the good old days when he was a senator & cut deals with Republicans in the mens' locker room. Anita Hill all over again? Yeah. Biden is Hillary redux. And we know how that turned out.

** Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "The greatest restraint on judges is that they are bound by a written text -- or, at least, that they are supposed to be.... Which is why Justice Clarence Thomas' opinion for the Supreme Court in Franchise Tax Board v. Hyatt is troubling. Hyatt does not simply overrule a longstanding precedent, it does so while admitting that nothing in the text of the Constitution supports such an outcome. Loyalty to constitutional text and loyalty to written precedents are the twin pillars that stabilize our system of law. The Supreme Court just abandoned both of them." --s

Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "The concentration of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere reached an unprecedented level this month. Researchers at the fossil fuel giant Exxon saw it coming decades ago.... According to an internal 1982 document from Exxon Research and Engineering Company ... the company expected that, by 2020, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would reach roughly 400 to 420 ppm. This month's measurement of 415 ppm is right within the expected curve Exxon projected under its '21st Century Study-High Growth scenario.'... Not only did Exxon predict the rise in emissions, it also understood how severe the consequences would be.... Despite this knowledge, the company chose not to change or adapt its business model. Instead, it chose to invest heavily in disinformation campaigns that promoted climate science denial, failing to disclose its knowledge that the majority of the world's fossil fuel reserves must remain untapped in order to avert catastrophic climate change." --s

Elaine Povich of the Washington Post: "Alice M. Rivlin, a master of budgetary policy who held senior positions in the executive and legislative branches of government -- notably as founding director of the Congressional Budget Office -- and whose stewardship of the D.C. Financial Control Board guided the once-insolvent city to solid financial footing, died May 14 at her home in Washington."

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Timothy Williams & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "The Alabama Senate approved a measure on Tuesday that would outlaw almost all abortions in the state, setting up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the case that recognized a woman's constitutional right to end a pregnancy. The legislation bans abortions at every stage of pregnancy and criminalizes the procedure for doctors, who could be charged with felonies and face up to 99 years in prison. It includes an exception for cases when the mother's life is at serious risk, but not for cases of rape or incest -- a subject of fierce debate among lawmakers in recent days. The House approved the measure -- the most far-reaching effort in the nation this year to curb abortion rights -- last month. It now moves to the desk of Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican. Although the governor has not publicly committed to signing the legislation, many Republican lawmakers expect her support." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Another manifestation of white male power in the Land Left Behind. Update: Think I'm kidding? Every single Alabama state senate Republican is a white man. Every one. Apparently Alabama's little ladies are staying home drinking sweet tea. No wonder Alabama sucks. Not fair, you say? Well, looky here ...

... The Best States Are Blue. Ed Kilgore of New York: U.S. News & World Report just published its ranking of states by livability. According to the report, "The Best States ranking ... draws on thousands of data points to measure how well states are performing for their citizens. In addition to health care and education, the metrics take into account a state's economy, its roads, bridges, internet and other infrastructure, its public safety, the fiscal stability of state government, and the opportunity it affords its residents." Kilgore: "When you look at the states' political complexions, the patterns are quite clear. The No. 1 state is Washington, and eight of the top ten are states Donald Trump lost (the exceptions being Utah and Nebraska). Twelve of the bottom 13 are states Trump carried (New Mexico is the exception).... History buffs won't be surprised to learn that former states of the Confederacy, particularly the more conservative of them, don't do well in these rankings: Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana are at the very bottom, while Arkansas (45th) and South Carolina (42nd) also do poorly. It's an interesting commentary on the ancient reactionary idea that a low-tax, low-regulation, anti-union environment guarantees growth." ...

     ... The U.S. News report on its rankings is here.

Florida. Trump Radio. Really. Justin Wise of the Hill: "A media company that operates multiple radio stations in Florida has vowed to broadcast portions of President Trump's speeches every hour of every day until the 2020 election. Gulf Coast Media Inc., the owner of the stations 'Classic Rock WRBA-FM 95.9, 'Country WKNK-FM "Hank FM"' and 'Adult Hits WASJ-FM 'BOB FM,"' announced in a press release that it would air Trump's speeches for the next 18 months." Mrs. McC: Whither the Fairness Doctrine?

Oklahoma, Where Sexual Assault Is a Laughing Matter. Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Two Oklahoma state lawmakers were caught on a live mic Monday joking about sexual predation. According to Oklahoma City CBS affiliate KWTV, which captured the exchange, the conversation took place minutes before a press conference by Gov. Kevin Stitt (R). In the video, Rep. Mark McBride (R) can be overheard asking Rep. Scott Fetgatter (R) whether he molested a female former state lawmaker. 'You molested this girl after Kannady did?' McBride asks, apparently referencing allegations against two other colleagues, Reps. Chris Kannady (R) and Kevin McDugle (R), who are under investigation for sexual assault.... In response to McBride's question, Fetgatter jokingly responds, 'No, I was at the table and I allowed it.'" --s

Way Beyond

Congo. Sarah Boseley of the Guardian: "An Ebola epidemic in a conflict-riven region of Democratic Republic of Congo is out of control and could become as serious as the outbreak that devastated three countries in west Africa between 2013 and 2016, experts and aid chiefs have warned.... More than 1,600 people have been infected with the Ebola virus in the North Kivu region of DRC and more than 1,000 have died so far -- the great majority women and children. At least 10 months since the outbreak began, the numbers are rising steadily and the fatality rate is higher than in previous outbreaks, at about 67%." --s

Europe. Arthur Nelsen of the Guardian: "Industry lobbies are mounting a push to roll back EU clean water regulations, even though less than half of the continent's rivers, wetlands and lakes are in a healthy state. The lobby offensive is aimed at weakening the bloc's floods and water framework directives, which require all states to ensure their waterways are in 'good ecological condition' by 2027.... The campaign by mining, agriculture, hydropower and chemical lobbyists has bee backed by five EU states: Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Finland." --s

The Commentariat -- May 14, 2019

Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Investors are dealing with a painful new reality: The trade war between the United States and China could last indefinitely. The anxiety caused by that realization rippled through the stock markets on Monday, and the S&P 500 suffered its steepest daily drop in months after China said it would increase tariffs on nearly $60 billion of American-made goods in response to a similar move last week by the Trump administration. The American stock benchmark fell 2.4 percent, pushing its losses for the month above 4.5 percent. Shares in trade-sensitive sectors like agriculture, semiconductors and industrials were particularly hard hit. Bonds and commodities, too, flashed warnings of a slowdown." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... "Trade Wars Are Good, and Easy to Win." Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States and China escalated their trade fight on Monday as Beijing moved to raise tariffs on nearly $60 billion worth of American goods in retaliation for President Trump's decision to punish China with higher tariffs on a slew of imports. China's finance ministry announced that it was raising tariffs on a wide range of American goods to 20 percent or 25 percent from 10 percent in response to Mr. Trump's decision to raise tariffs to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. China's increase will impact the roughly $60 billion in American imports already being taxed as retaliation for Mr. Trump's previous round of levies, including beer, wine, swimsuits, shirts and liquefied natural gas. The S&P 500 fell more than 2 percent soon after trading began in New York, and shares of companies particularly dependent on trade with China, including Apple and Boeing, fared poorly." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Trump Tries to Protect His Base from ... Himself. Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump is seeking an additional $15 billion in U.S. subsidies in an effort to protect farmers from the devastating impact of his trade war with China. That's on top of $12 billion already earmarked for the farmers to help them weather the fallout. That would be an additional bill for U.S. taxpayers already shouldering the cost of increased tariffs in the form of higher costs for products and parts from China. Trump revealed the subsidy figure in a tweet Friday. He suggested the government use the funds to buy agricultural products to ship to other nations for humanitarian aid, though setting up such a system would be extremely complicated. In his most recent budget proposal, Trump proposed eliminating three food aid programs, Politico noted. The president appeared to dismiss the impact of the cost as he falsely claimed -- again -- that 'massive' tariff payments are being paid by China 'directly' to the U.S. Treasury, which would presumably be used to cover the cost of the subsidy. There is 'absolutely no need to rush' to negotiate a deal with China, he tweeted. In fact, the tariffs are paid by U.S. importers, who pass on the extra costs to the American consumer in the form of higher prices for products...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Having lost more than a billion dollars of other people's money as a private businessman, Trump is digging in to lose many billions of all Americans' money. He was an incompetent ignoramus then; he's an incompetent ignoramus now. ...

... Zack Ford of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump kicked Monday morning off with a series of tweets defending his new tariffs against China. His latest tactic is to urge Americans not to buy products from American companies if they manufacture in China.... Trump said there is 'no reason' for U.S. consumers to pay the tariffs, before claiming that companies inside China would soon move to other countries. In the meantime, Trump said people should just buy products from inside the United States. Tariffs can still have an impact on the cost of a product, even if you buy it from inside the United States." --s ...

... No, No, Everything Is Going as Planned. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "President Trump has spent the past 24 hours tweeting manically about trade, repeating the absurd falsehood that China is paying us billions in tariffs. We keep hearing that this shows Trump 'doesn't understand' how tariffs work. But this is better seen as a straight-up, deliberate lie -- a lie upon which Trump is staking his reelection.... If Trump agrees to a deal that does not win real concessions, that will reveal his agenda of 'toughness' as hollow -- particularly if those concessions do not appear worth the pain that the tariff wars have already imposed on farmers, in the very region that's crucial to his reelection. So the New York Times reports that Trump is now hoping to flip the political calculus: No deal, followed by still more tariffs, will allow Trump to proclaim he's still being tough on China.... Central to this whole tale has always been the idea that Trump will take back for U.S. workers what this alliance of elites and foreign workers is stealing from them -- he will take back what is rightfully theirs.... Failure on China could be catastrophic for Trump. So he's just swapping in a new story: He's making China pay restitution to Americans it has ripped off for so long by forcing it to 'pay' us in tariffs."

** Eric Schmitt & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "At a meeting of President Trump's top national security aides last Thursday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, administration officials said. The revisions were ordered by hard-liners led by John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump's national security adviser. They do not call for a land invasion of Iran, which would require vastly more troops, officials said. The development reflects the influence of Mr. Bolton, one of the administration's most virulent Iran hawks, whose push for confrontation with Tehran was ignored more than a decade ago by President George W. Bush.... On Monday, asked about if he was seeking regime change in Iran, Mr. Trump said: 'We'll see what happens with Iran. If they do anything, it would be a very bad mistake.'" ...

... Chris Cillizza of CNN: "'We'll see what happens' is Trump's go-to phrase for saying absolutely nothing while simultaneously ruling absolutely nothing out. On virtually every major issue which he has been asked to address over his first two-plus years in office, he has, at one time or another, pledged to 'see what happens.'" Cillizza lists nine other matters of which Trump has said, "We'll see what happens."

... Michael Birnbaum & Liz Sly of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo crashed a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday to push for a united transatlantic front against Tehran and its nuclear program. But he failed to bend attitudes among leaders who fear the United States and Iran are inching toward war. Pompeo's last-minute decision to visit the European Union capital, announced as he boarded a plane from the United States, set up a confrontation between the top U.S. diplomat and his European counterparts, who have been scrambling to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal last year. At least one, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, said he feared that unintentional escalation from the United States and Iran could spark a conflict -- an unusually bold statement that appeared to assign equal culpability to Washington and Tehran." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Zachary Basu of Axios: At a press spray, "President Trump on Monday praised far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for his immigration policies, telling reporters: 'Probably like me a little bit controversial, but that's OK. You've done a good job and you've kept your country safe.' [When a reporter asked,] 'Mr. President, are you concerned about democratic backsliding in Hungary under this prime minister?' [Trump answered,] 'Well, people have a lot of respect for this prime minister. He's a respected man, and I know he's a tough man, but he's a respected man, and he's done the right thing according to many people on immigration. And you look at some of the problems they have in Europe that are tremendous, because they've done it a different way than the prime minister.'" ...

... Asawin Suebsaeng & Sam Brodey of The Daily Beast: "On Monday afternoon, Donald Trump hosted Hungary's far-right leader Viktor Orban.... The Oval Office feting was a diplomatic coup for Orban and a culmination of a two-year effort to get the two nationalist, anti-immigration world leaders in the same room, glad-handing for the cameras." --s ...

... Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "Hungary is now the premier example of an emergent political model I've called 'soft fascism': a system that aims to stamp out dissent and seize control of every major aspect of a country's political and social life without needing to resort to 'hard' measures like banning elections and building up a police state. Orbán has also been explicit that his goal is the defeat of liberal democracy. Trump hasn't gone that far, but he has flashed some authoritarian instincts, and his party has shown it's willing to go along. David Cornstein, a longtime Trump associate currently serving as US ambassador to Hungary, told the Atlantic that the president 'would love to have the [political] situation that Viktor Orbán has.'... Orbán is one of the leading faces of the far-right backlash to democracy in the Western world today. In normal times, he would be condemned by the occupant of the White House, not treated as an honored guest. The fact that he isn't shows just how serious the threat to democracy in the West is -- and how worried Americans should be about the health of their own institutions." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In a system of supposed checks & balances, the real threat to democracy in the U.S. isn't Donald Trump; it's Congressional Republicans who refuse to check his excesses as long as he goes along with their other plans . We'll find out soon enough if the Trump Supremes join the open conspiracy. As for the GOP base, they're absolutely stupid enough to bring up the rear, their pitchforks points at their own rights -- and ours. That, BTW, is what they mean by a "Christian nation."

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: “... Donald Trump tried to take credit on Monday for a sudden turnaround in the Boston Red Sox' season, pointing out that the reigning World Series champions have gone undefeated since their fraught visit to the White House last week. 'Has anyone noticed that all the Boston @RedSox have done is WIN since coming to the White House!' Trump wrote in a tweet. 'Others also have done very well. The White House visit is becoming the opposite of being on the cover of Sports Illustrated! By the way, the Boston players were GREAT guys!' The Red Sox, who visited the White House last Thursday, swept all three of their home games over the weekend against the Seattle Mariners, scoring 34 runs across the three games. Boston has won eight of its last 10 games, a stretch that predates the team's reception with the president." Mrs. McC: I'm too lazy to check the stats, but I wonder if the Sox (Socks) players who boycotted the White House trip contributed to the wins. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Investigating the Investigators, Ctd. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut to examine the origins of the Russia investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter, a move that President Trump has long called for but that could anger law enforcement officials who insist that scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful. John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, has a history of serving as a special prosecutor investigating potential wrongdoing among national security officials, including the F.B.I.'s ties to a crime boss in Boston and accusations of C.I.A. abuses of detainees. His inquiry is the third known investigation focused on the opening of an F.B.I. counterintelligence investigation during the 2016 presidential campaign into possible ties between Russia's election interference and Trump associates. The department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is separately examining investigators' use of wiretap applications and informants and whether any political bias against Mr. Trump influenced investigative decisions. And John W. Huber, the United States attorney in Utah, has been reviewing aspects of the Russia investigation. His findings have not been announced." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There is nothing wrong with investigating a series of FISA court proceedings once to make certain that authorities have not overstepped Constitutional limitations. But three times? (And this of course doesn't count Rudy's aborted trip to Ukraine, where he planned to ask the incoming president to "investigate the origins" of the Russia probe.) This is a solution in search of a problem.

Betsy Woodruff & Adam Rawnsley of The Daily Beast: "Rod Rosenstein was a #Resistance hero -- and one of Donald Trump's favorite whipping boys -- for overseeing the Russia investigation. But Rosenstein's legacy at the Justice Department shows he was ... spearheading the president's war on leakers and whistleblowers.... In just two years, the Trump administration has come close to prosecuting the same number of cases as Team Obama, which prosecuted 10 government employees and contractors with similar offenses over the course of two terms.... Under the Trump administration, agencies' referrals of alleged leaks of classified information for consideration by the Justice Department have skyrocketed. The Justice Department fielded an annual average of 104 referrals in the first two years of Trump's presidency, compared to an annual average of 39 under Obama." --s ...

... Rosenstein's First Rewrite of History ... Casts Rosenstein as Faultless. Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Former deputy attorney general Rod J. Rosenstein on Monday defended his role in the firing of James B. Comey from the FBI and criticized the bureau's former director as a 'partisan pundit' -- offering one of his most detailed public accounts of the hectic events that led to the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel.... Rosenstein said he 'did not dislike' Comey but that Comey took steps that were 'not within the range of reasonable decisions' during the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. Rosenstein suggested that if he -- rather than Trump -- had been in charge, 'the removal would have been handled very differently, with fa more respect and far less drama.'"

Impeach Trump. Jamelle Bouie: "Democrats have the upper hand, but they aren't acting like it.... The logic of their arguments and accusations leads to impeachment, and there, they have flinched, worried that the public -- or at least Republican voters -- will rally to his side. Instead of a direct confrontation using everything at their disposal, Democrats want to maneuver around the president as if there's another path to victory. But there isn't. The next election will be about Trump. His base, as well as most Republican voters, will almost certainly be with him. What Democrats need is the confidence of their position. At this stage, when most Americans say they won't vote for Trump in 2020, they have the public. They have evidence of wrongdoing. They have all the tools they need to seize the initiative and center the next year of political conflict on the president's contempt for the Constitution and the welfare of the American people." ...

... Digby, in Salon: What all [the] failed impeachments [of the past] demonstrate is that as long as a president can hold one-third of the Senate plus one, he is immune from removal or legal punishment.... Our system has an extremely poor mechanism for removing a president who commits high crimes and misdemeanors. Donald Trump has decided to push that weakness to the limit. He isn't just exercising executive privilege. He's defying all congressional oversight.... If Republicans are able to demonstrate that Democrats won't move even against a president like Trump, I think we can be sure that further Republican presidents will no longer even bother to observe the law, much less the norms and rules that have governed our republic since the beginning. They've been heading this way for some time. Regardless of whether or not the Senate can protect the president from conviction, the risk of failing to impeach Trump is greater than the risk of doing it. If the Democrats refuse even to open an impeachment inquiry...[,] we will have shown that a president is literally unimpeachable...."

David Frum of the Atlantic: "Trump has tried to close [the] gap [between what the Mueller report says & what he wants it to say] by lying about it -- and by demanding that other people lie, too. When they don't and won't, Trump gets angry.... Trump got extra angry Sunday night ... [in] a sequence of rage tweets that included the line: 'The FBI has no leadership.'... Trump disjointedly tweeted over linked messages: 'The Director is protecting the same gang.....that tried to..... ...overthrow the President through an illegal coup...' Trump wants the FBI to endorse his own theory of victimhood --; and it won&'t.... Worse, the FBI ... received, and still holds, whatever information the investigation gathered about Russia's interference in the 2016 election.... [According to Mueller's report,] '... the evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal or political concerns.'... What Trump means by leadership is compliance." ...

... Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg: "If ... Donald Trump thinks he's been totally exonerated, as he says, why is he stonewalling Congress?... What worries me is that there';s another possible answer, and it's a lot worse. What if Trump is stonewalling Congress because the lesson he took from the Mueller report is that his behavior was perfectly okay? That is, what if Trump isn't pretending that he didn't do the misdeeds detailed in the report? What if instead he thinks that Attorney General William Barr, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other congressional Republicans are now willing to go along with a theory of presidential power so expansive and unrestricted that even John Yoo and other advocates of executive authority are alarmed? Unfortunately, that theory fits with Rudy Giuliani's perfectly open plan to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. It also fits with a series of tweets and statements and actions by the president that appear to be a continuation of a cover-up."

Nicholas Fandos & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Allies of Donald Trump Jr. may have stirred up a firestorm among Republicans over a subpoena to recall the president's eldest son to the Senate Intelligence Committee, but the panel's Republican chairman has suggested to colleagues that the standoff is of the younger Mr. Trump's making. Twice in recent months Donald Trump Jr. agreed to sit for voluntary interviews with the Intelligence Committee, only to later back out, Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the panel's chairman, told colleagues privately last week, according to two people.... The chairman said at a senators-only luncheon last Thursday that the evasions had left the committee no choice but to issue a subpoena on April 8 to give senators a chance to directly question the younger Mr. Trump as they seek to tie up loose ends on their investigation of Russian election interference."

They don't look like Indians to me. -- Donald Trump, in 1993, urging a House committee to investigate the heritage of members of a tribe that operates a Connecticut resort & casino ...

... Marc Fisher of the Washington Post explores a topic Akhilleus discussed last week: "... President Trump last week found time to tweet about an obscure House bill that would assure a Massachusetts Indian tribe control of 321 acres of land it wants to use for a gambling casino. The president was against the bill, he wrote, because it was 'unfair and doesn't treat Native Americans equally!'... Even though this president has a four-decade-long record of slamming American Indian casinos as scams that pose unfair competition to other gambling enterprises, notably his own, Trump's decision to weigh in on a measure that had strong bipartisan support seemed unusual for a chief executive who doesn't like to be bothered with the little stuff. But a closer look at House Resolution 312 and the favor it would do for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe reveals a sprawling network of Trump-related interests, from the National Enquirer to a Rhode Island casino company -- a small but strikingly intricate example of the ways this president's business dealings, personal bonds and political alliances can complicate and color the ordinary doings of government.... The tribe's site is about 18 miles from Rhode Island, and that state's politicians aren't keen to have a new competitor go up against their two casinos, both of which are run by Twin River Worldwide Holdings, a public company with strong Trump ties."

Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "In the weeks before they were ousted last month, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and top immigration enforcement official Ronald Vitiello challenged a secret White House plan to arrest thousands of parents and children in a blitz operation against migrants in 10 major U.S. cities. According to seven current and former Department of Homeland Security officials, the administration wanted to target the crush of families that had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border after the president's failed 'zero tolerance' prosecution push in early 2018. The ultimate purpose, the officials said, was a show of force to send the message that the United States was going to get tough by swiftly moving to detain and deport recent immigrants -- including families with children.... But Vitiello and Nielsen halted it, concerned about a lack of preparation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the risk of public outrage and worries that it would divert resources from the border. Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller and ICE Deputy Director Matthew Albence [whom Trump then tapped to replace Vitiello] were especially supportive of the plan, officials said, eager to execute dramatic, highly visible mass arrests that they argued would help deter the soaring influx of families.&"

Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "A growth in the undocumented immigrant population is not associated with an increase in local crime, according to a new study from The Marshall Project. The findings directly contradict one of the president's favorite talking points about immigrants and crime." --s

Lee Fang of The Intercept: "At a luxury resort [held the weekend of April 5-7] just outside of the nation's capital last month [in Middleburg, Virginia], around four dozen senior congressional staffers decamped for a weekend of relaxation and discussion at Salamander Resort & Spa. It was an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to come together and ... hear from health care lobbyists focused on defeating Medicare for All. The event was hosted by a group called Center Forward and featured a lecture from industry lobbyists leading the charge on undermining progressive health care proposals." --s

... Congressional Race 2019. Nothing Could Be Finer. Ed Kilgore of New York: "Republican voters in the south-central North Carolina Ninth Congressional District go to the polls Tuesday to choose a nominee for their star-crossed House seat, which has been vacant since January owing to election-fraud allegations against the campaign of Republican Mark Harris.... The front-runner in limited public polling and the best-financed Republican in the race is State Senator Dan Bishop, a staunch conservative who gained some unsavory national attention as the author of North Carolina's so-called bathroom bill, a law designed to force transgender folk to use restroom facilities denoted for the gender on their birth certificates. It was partially repealed in 2017 after Bishop's bill earned the state terrible publicity and the loss of convention, tourism, and other business, with cost estimates reaching $3.7 billion.... Believe it or not, though, Bishop is the more sedate of the top two Republicans in the race. Running second in the polls is County Commissioner Stoney Rushing, a gun-range owner whose trademark is to dress up like Boss Hogg, the corrupt southern pol in the old TV series The Dukes of Hazzard."

Presidential Race 2020

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, who was twice elected to lead a state that President Trump carried by more than 20 points, entered the Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday, vowing to elevate the issue of campaign finance and, more implicitly, to make Democrats competitive again across the country's interior. 'We need to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 and defeat the corrupt system that lets campaign money drown out the people's voice so we can finally make good on the promise of a fair shot for everyone,' Mr. Bullock said in a video centered on his record in Republican-leaning Montana."

Clio Chang of The Intercept: "Beto O'Rourke's Thursday hiring of Jeff Berman, a Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton veteran, is the latest step his presidential campaign has ... toward a more centrist and corporate strategic direction.... Berman ... is joining O'Rourke's campaign as senior adviser for delegate strategy.... An often overlooked part of his record, though, is his stint at law and lobbying firm Bryan Cave, a position for which he was hired immediately after Obama's presidential campaign.... According to the federal lobbying registry, between 2009 and 2011 Berman's clients on behalf of Bryan Cave included the private prison company GEO Group; TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline; and SeaWorld, which was then owned by massive private equity firm Blackstone." --s

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court's conservative majority overturned a 40-year-old precedent Monday, prompting a pointed warning from liberal justices about 'which cases the court will overrule next.' The issue in Monday's 5-to-4 ruling was one of limited impact: whether states have sovereign immunity from private lawsuits in the courts of other states. In 1979, the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to such immunity, although states are free to extend it to one another and often do. But the court's conservative majority overruled that decision, saying there was an implied right in the Constitution that means states 'could not be haled involuntarily before each other's courts,' in the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote Monday's decision. Thomas acknowledged the departure from the legal doctrine of stare decisis, in which courts are to abide by settled law without a compelling reason to overrule the decision." Mrs. McC: So long, Roe v. Wade. ...

... Irin Carmon of New York: "On Monday, the normally plodding and passionless Justice Stephen Breyer issued a Cassandra-like warning in a dissent joined by the other liberal justices, calling the majority's overruling of a states' rights precedent 'dangerous' and adding ominously, 'Today's decision can only cause one to wonder which cases the Court will overrule next.' If that wasn't clear enough, he twice mentioned the court's major abortion precedent when he didn't have to. Only running down the court steps shrieking would have been less subtle.... Brett Kavanaugh has already made it clear in a Louisiana procedural vote that he's willing to throw out abortion precedent in radical fashion as long as he can sound slightly calmer than he did in his confirmation hearings. Chief Justice John Roberts, the court's new swing vote, is no one's idea of a moderate and, despite voting to keep Louisiana's clinics temporarily open in a procedural move, has upheld every single abortion law that the court has considered in full."

Devin Dwyer of ABC News: "A divided Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for iPhone owners to sue Apple for alleged 'higher-than-competitive prices' for apps sold in App Store. 'A claim that a monopolistic retailer (here, Apple) has used its monopoly to overcharge consumers is a classic antitrust claim,' wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the majority opinion, joined by the court's liberal justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.... The opinion does not resolve the merits of the consumers' allegations against Apple, rather simply allows them to proceed in court." Mrs. McC: Looks as if Brett thinks Apple ripped him off. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lynh Bui of the Washington Post: "A federal judge ordered a U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant accused of plotting a widespread terrorist attack to remain in jail pending trial, overturning an earlier magistrate judge's decision to release Christopher Paul Hasson on home arrest. The decision Monday came in a hearing in U.S. District Court in Maryland, where prosecutors and Hasson's public defender clashed for the fourth time over whether Hasson should stay in jail if he faces drug and weapons charges but no terrorism-related offenses. Although the charges Hasson faces are 'unremarkable,' U.S. District Court Judge George J. Hazel said, Hasson's 'history and characteristics' and potential danger to the community weighed in favor of blocking release. The evidence the government brought showed specific alleged actions toward a plan, Hazel said. Hasson's alleged actions of amassing weapons, creating a target list of enemies and researching their locations ramped up after he started studying the manifesto of a Norwegian terrorist who killed 77, Hazel said."

Kate Taylor & Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "The actress Felicity Huffman ... pleaded guilty on Monday to a single count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, acknowledging that she paid $15,000 to arrange for cheating on her daughter's SAT test.... Prosecutors have said that they would recommend four months behind bars for Ms. Huffman. They also have said that they would recommend a fine of $20,000 and 12 months of supervised release."

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "The third-largest coal company in the United States has declared bankruptcy, leaving the future of its more than 1,000 workers uncertain.... Officials said the company's mines will continue to operate throughout the bankruptcy process; Cloud Peak operates two mines in Wyoming and one in Montana.... The company's workers lack union protections. But even coal miners backed by unions are at risk -- a ruling earlier this year allowed a coal company to abandon union contracts. And broader threats to federal funding for miner benefits are jeopardizing pensions for tens of thousands of workers." --s

Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "'One hundred thousand dollars a day? That's just off the charts.' That's how Deborah Rhode, a legal ethics expert from Stanford Law School, put it after reviewing a memo from ex-NRA president Oliver North.... Meanwhile, the NRA's latest financial disclosures forms show its revenue has slumped under the gun-friendly Trump administration. North's memo --; which NRA top brass dispute -- raises new questions about the association's finances at an extraordinarily fraught moment for the grassroots gun-rights powerhouse.... Meanwhile, numerous legal ethics experts who reviewed the memo told The Daily Beast they found it astonishing, especially for a nonprofit -- and the kind of thing that could draw attention from the IRS." --s ...

... Wayne's World. He Shopped Till He Dropped ... $39K in One Day. Ashley Reese of Jezebel: "The National Rifle Association, it brings me no pleasure to report, is fully in the shit: The Wall Street Journal reports that leaked internal NRA documents reveal, among other things, that NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre billed more than $542,000 worth of clothing, travel, and other expenses to its longtime ad agency, Ackerman McQueen Inc. (It's worth noting that the NRA and Ackerman McQueen are in the middle of a lawsuit over, you guessed it, money.) One of the more amusing aspects of the leak revealed that LaPierre once spent $39,000 in one day at Beverly Hills designer boutique called Ermenegildo Zegna." With illustrations!

News Lede

New York Times: "Tim Conway, whose gallery of innocent goofballs, stammering bystanders, transparent connivers, oblivious knuckleheads and hapless bumblers populated television comedy and variety shows for more than half a century, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 85."