The Commentariat -- October 20, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Washington Post Editors: "Saudi Arabia now has acknowledged that it lied to the world for 17 days about what happened to journalist Jamal Khashoggi when he entered its consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. But the new account offered by the regime of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is utterly devoid of credibility.... That President Trump would pronounce this fable credible only underlines his shameful intent to assist in the attempt of the regime -- and, in particular, the crown prince -- to escape meaningful accountability. As Mr. Trump surely knows, the new Saudi cover story is contradicted not just by evidence collected by Turkish authorities and by journalists but also by the reporting of the U.S. intelligence community. All point to Mohammed bin Salman as the instigator of a premeditated, cold-blooded and brutal murder, followed by the dismemberment of Mr. Khashoggi's body." ...

... Nicholas Kristof: "After lying for more than two weeks about the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi government has now announced a series of new lies about his murder in ways that insult both Jamal's memory and our intelligence.... These lies are so blatant and implausible that they underscore how out of touch M.B.S. is, and also suggest M.B.S. believes that he will have the backing of the United States in this cover-up. That's a good bet, since Trump has lately celebrated the assault on a journalist by a Montana congressman and previously suggested that maybe a rogue killer was responsible for killing Jamal.... So what we really have now is a test of Trump and of America itself." Kristof has several suggestions on how the U.S. should go forward.

... Ben Hubbard & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia is facing perhaps its greatest international crisis since the revelation that its citizens planned and carried out the attacks on September 11, 2001. Members of the ruling family are increasingly worried about the direction of the country under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 33-year-old favorite son of King Salman and the kingdom's day-to-day ruler.... The one person who could intervene is the king himself, but senior princes have found it nearly impossible to bring their concerns to the 82-year-old monarch, and some doubt he is fully aware of what is happening or willing to change course."

Ivanka's Felony Fraud. Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "Ivanka Trump misrepresented the sales figures of various Trump-branded properties around the world on multiple occasions over the past decade, according to a lengthy exposé released late Wednesday by public interest news organization ProPublica in conjunction with Manhattan public radio station WNYC. Those real estate-related misrepresentations were almost certainly criminal according to legal experts surveyed by Law&Crime.... The report [linked yesterday] notes, 'The Manhattan district attorney's office [under Cyrus Vance, Jr.] considered charging the Trumps but backed off after a visit from a donor -- Trump's attorney Marc Kasowitz.'... And there's also an apparent coda here: The Manhattan District Attorney's office is now under investigation by the FBI over those corruption and pay-to-play allegations, according to the New York Daily News. In light of the FBI's investigation into Vance's office, it's possible that Ivanka Trump could be facing criminal charges herself over the fraudulent real estate schemes." --s

"Capitalism is Awesome," Ctd. Jennifer Dlouhy of Bloomberg: "White House officials pushed the EPA to maximize savings for the oil industry despite the agency's concern that weakening regulations would allow more methane to escape into the atmosphere, according to newly released documents. The White House pressure campaign came as the Environmental Protection Agency honed a proposal to relax Obama-era requirements governing how frequently oil companies have to check for and repair leaks of methane, an intense greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere 84 times more than carbon dioxide. Every move to dial back required inspections and reduce industry costs triggered a corresponding climb in projected methane emissions, a jump that appeared to trouble some EPA officials, according to internal documents filed in a government docket Tuesday.... The entire process was driven by an attempt to maximize corporate profits at the expense of public health and the environment, said Amit Narang, a regulatory policy expert with Public Citizen." [Open in private window] --s

Naked Racism. Sam Fulwood III of ThinkProgress: "...[M]ounting evidence brings into clear focus that racial animus was -- and remains -- the foundation for the president's political support.... [A] recent study by the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, a research collaboration of more than two dozen analysts and scholars spanning the political spectrum, offers insights into the GOP's refurbished reliance on racism to win at the ballot box. And, in the process, the study provides another set of data points to rebuke the white working class economy anxiety argument.... [V]oters appear to understand, correctly, that while Wall Street has greatly benefited from the Trump and Republican-controlled Congress' tax cuts, life on Main Street has improved very little. Hence, there's no room for the GOP to tout any real economic success.... This is a welcome harbinger for next month's midterm elections. Yet, the crucial fact remains that race -- not worries over the economy -- matters more to trigger voters to turn out and vote." --s...

Asleep at the Wheel. Li Zhou of Vox: "Latino voters could make the difference in some of this year's most competitive congressional races -- particularly in places like Arizona, California, and Texas where they make up more than 20 percent of the electorate. Given high anti-Trump sentiment among Latino voters -- and a strong preference for Democratic candidates — these voters could help spur a 'blue wave' in November. But Democrats have to reach them and turn them out to vote first.... In an October 16 poll, the groups found that 55 percent of Latino voters haven&'t experienced any form of election outreach from Democrats or Republicans.... At the same time in the 2016 election, almost the exact same proportion of Latino voters also said that they hadn't received any outreach." --s

Tim Johnson of McClatchy DC: "In three states, the referee for the midterm elections is also on the field as a player. Elected secretaries of state in Georgia and Kansas -- who in their official capacities oversee the elections in their states -- are running for governor. Ohio's secretary of state is running for lieutenant governor. All are Republicans. They have faced scattered calls to resign but have refused to do so." -- safari: Democrats could never get away with this, nor should they. But IOKIYAR.

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "A shockingly racist radio ad from a super PAC calling itself Black Americans for the President's Agenda went viral on Thursday evening. The spots, running on radio stations popular with black voters in Arkansas and Missouri, urge black women to back Republican Rep. French Hill in Arkansas' 2nd congressional district, Republican Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley in his U.S. Senate campaign, and GOP candidates in general. Their factually inaccurate argument: if Democrats accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual predation without evidence, black 'men and boys' will be subject to 'race verdicts, life sentences, and lynchings when a white girl screams "rape!"' The donors bankrolling this committee, however, appear to be rich [white], conservative ideologues, not the actual 'Black Americans' they claim to be.... [To his credit] Hill tweeted that he condemned the 'appalling' and 'outrageous ad in the strongest terms.'" --s...

Missouri. Bryan Lowry & Brian Murphy of McClatchy DC: "A new radio ad seeks to frighten black voters away from Sen. Claire McCaskill's campaign by suggesting the Democrat supports lynchings.... Another of the group's Missouri ads accuses McCaskill, the Democratic incumbent who supports abortion rights, of not caring 'that black babies that are aborted three times more likely than white babies....'" --s

Alabama. Kim Chandler of TPM: "Congressional [Democratic] candidate Mallory Hagan said Thursday that a worrisome number of Alabama voters have been removed from active voter lists, prompting her to create a committee to assist people who encounter problems before and on Election Day. Hagan's campaign said more than 55,000 voters in the 3rd Congressional District have been disqualified or labeled inactive since February 2017, according to numbers they obtained.... She announced the creation of a committee of lawyers who will volunteer their assistance to voters. In addition, her campaign will staff a hotline for voters to report any concerns. People can also check their voting information at the secretary of state's web site myinfo.alabamavotes.gov." --s

Michigan. John Bowden of the Hill: "A Michigan Republican women's PAC is backing two Democratic candidates in November over their Trump-supporting opponents, pointing to Trump's rhetoric and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings as key reasons for the move. The Metro Times reported Wednesday that the political action committee Republican Women for Progress will take out ad buys for two Democratic House candidates facing Trump-aligned GOP challengers as the group seeks a Congress willing to serve as a 'check' on the president."

Iowa. Christopher Mathias & Nick Robins-Early of the Huffington Post: "Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) visited Austria in August and gave an extensive interview to a far-right publication there in which he spelled out, in clearer and more shocking terms than he ever has before, his white nationalist worldview. The eight-term congressman, up for re-election next month, talked to Caroline Sommerfeld of the Austrian far-right propaganda site Unzensuriert (which means 'uncensored' in English).... King discussed his belief in the superiority of European culture over others. He talked fearfully of falling fertility rates in the West and spoke at length about his belief that Europe and America are threatened by Muslim and Latino immigration. 'If we don't defend Western civilization, then we will become subjugated by the people who are the enemies of faith, the enemies of justice,' King said. The interview is remarkable, capturing a sitting U.S. congressman completely fluent in modern white nationalist talking points just weeks before an election he is favored to win." Mrs. McC: If Steve King is the "master race," I sure don't want to be in it.

Colorado. Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "[A] Colorado ballot initiative would expand the buffer zones between homes and industrial oil and gas facilities. As with other ballot initiative attempts in the past, Colorado's anti-fracking activists are sending the oil and industry into a frenzy, despite the relatively modest nature of the proposition.... The industry has so far raised $30 million to defeat the measure, about 40 times the money that environmental groups have raised. But Proposition 112 is far from radical. It doesn't call for banning fracking in Colorado. The measure would simply keep new wells farther away from homes and schools.... The industry's spending of million of dollars appears to be working. Polls show the final vote on the proposition is going to be extremely close, according to supporters of the proposition." --safari: Who in their right mind would vote against this?

Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "A disturbing new study finds that global warming helped drive as much as a 60-fold decline in insect population in Puerto Rico's tropical rainforest between 1976 and 2013. 'Our results suggest that the effects of climate warming in tropical forests may be even greater than anticipated,' said lead author, biologist Brad Lister, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). And that's a potentially catastrophic problem given that the forest saw 3.6°F (2°C) warming during that time -- yet warming this century is on track to be far greater.... These new findings follow several studies in recent years that found collapsing insect populations around the world.... So these findings are 'a real wake-up call -- a clarion call -- that the phenomenon could be much, much bigger, and across many more ecosystems,' invertebrate expert David Wagner (who was not involved in the study) told the Washington Post. He added, 'This is one of the most disturbing articles I have ever read.'" --s

*****

** After 17 Days, the Saudis Come up with a Cover Story. Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia announced on Saturday that Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident Saudi journalist who disappeared more than two weeks ago, died after an argument and fistfight with unidentified men inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Eighteen men have been arrested and are being investigated in the case, according to statements released through state-run media. None were identified. State media also reported that Gen. Ahmed Al Asiri, the deputy director of Saudi intelligence, and other high-ranking intelligence officials had been dismissed. They did not say whether the men's firing had any connection to the Khashoggi case or whether they were being investigated for playing a role in it." ...

... Mark Landler & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "President Trump broke with his own intelligence agencies on Friday, appearing to accept Saudi Arabia's explanation that the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by accident during a fistfight, while the United States' spy agencies are increasingly convinced that he was assassinated on high-level orders from the Saudi royal court. Mr. Trump, who has cultivated Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and made Saudi Arabia the linchpin of his Middle East strategy, has been deeply reluctant to point a finger at the prince, despite evidence linking him to Saudi operatives who entered the country's consulate in Istanbul the same day that Mr. Khashoggi disappeared there. Asked during a visit to an Air Force base in Arizona whether he viewed the Saudi explanation as credible, Mr. Trump said, 'I do.'... 'I think we're getting close to solving a big problem,' Mr. Trump told reporters at the Luke Air Force Base.... Mr. Trump's response sets up a clash with Congress, where Republicans and Democrats both tarred the Saudi explanation as lacking credibility." ...

... Christopher Cadelago & Brent Griffiths of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday evening praised Saudi Arabia's statement acknowledging the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate, adding that he would prefer 'some form' of sanctions on the kingdom while stressing that arms sales should remain untouched. 'I think it's a great first step,' Trump said in Arizona, where he will be holding a rally later, according to a pool report." ...

... Aziz El Yaakoubi of Reuters: "Speaking to reporters in Scottsdale, Arizona, Trump said it was too early to say what the consequences for the incident might be, but that the U.S. Congress would be involved in determining the American response. Asked whether Saudi sanctions were one of the measures he was considering, Trump said, 'Could be, could be,' though he provided no details. 'We're going to find out who knew what when and where. And we'll figure it out,' Trump added." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So a 60-year-old chubby guy walks into a consulate to pick up some paperwork he was told was ready. Oh, maybe the paperwork isn't ready after all, so he raises his voice & to everyone's surprise, he starts punching people. Totally believable. The next thing you know, 15 security guys who happened to have just arrived from Saudi Arabia pile on -- all innocently of course -- one wielding a bone saw. They accidentally cut off the man's fingers, strangle him, chop up his body, shove the parts into some cases they happen to have handy, & off they go with the body parts to Saudi Arabia in a plane that just happens to be waiting. Sure, coulda happened that way. Then again, if you gave the dumbest Hollywood screenwriter 17 days to come up with a story about how a guy who walked into a consulate died, he could have come up with 17 more plausible scenarios, most of which still would be too ridiculous to make it into production. Nevertheless, an old fat boy who's so suspicious of others that he thinks Democrats are paying Hondurans to invade the U.S. (which is an incredible insult to the desperate refugees, but never mind that), that very suspicious guy, says the guy-walks-into-a-consulate-and-starts-a-fistfight is plausible. ...

... Kareem Fahim & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "... no individual had put more pressure on [Saudi Arabia] ... than Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the weeks after Khashoggi disappeared at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Erdogan and his aides ... narrated the crisis, focusing the world's attention on what they said was a brazen, state-sponsored assassination on its soil. Grisly details of the alleged killing were released to the Turkish and international news media.... Turkey's revelations may have helped push the Saudi government to reverse its repeated denials of wrongdoing and announce early Saturday that it had arrested 18 people and fired several top officials in the case.... For Erdogan, the benefits of turning up the heat on Saudi Arabia and its young crown prince ... were apparent.... The two countries have competed for influence in the Middle East and clashed over Turkey's support for Qatar in a feud that divided the region. Erdogan has little personal affection for Mohammed, who referred to Turkey this year as part of a regional 'triangle of evil,' along with Iran and regional Islamist groups." ...

... Mnuchin to Schmooze with Assassination, Inc. Damian Paletta & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has decided to take part in an anti-terror finance meeting with Saudi security officials and their Middle Eastern counterparts in Riyadh later this month, opting to attend despite growing global outrage over the suspected murder of a U.S.-based journalist at the hands of Saudi operatives, according to three people familiar with his travel plans. The security gathering next week is separate from a Riyadh financial summit that Mnuchin announced on Thursday he would not attend."

Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department announced Friday it had charged a Russian woman who prosecutors say conspired to interfere wit the 2018 U.S. election, marking the first criminal case that accuses a foreign national of interfering in the upcoming midterms. Elena Khusyaynova, 44, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Prosecutors said she managed the finances of 'Project Lakhta,' a foreign influence operation they said was designed 'to sow discord in the U.S. political system' by pushing arguments and misinformation online about a host of divisive political issues, including immigration, the Confederate flag, gun control and National Football League protests during the national anthem. The charges against Khusyaynova came just as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence warned that it was concerned about 'ongoing campaigns' by Russia, China and Iran to interfere with the upcoming midterm elections and the 2020 race.... Court papers say Khusyaynova's operation was funded by Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is known as 'Putin's chef,' and two companies he controls: Concord Management and Consulting, and Concord Catering." ...

... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "This is the same Russian 'troll farm' that was the focus of charges filed by special counsel Robert Mueller's office back in February, and accused of crimes related to interfering with the 2016 election. But the DOJ says this interference is still continuing as the 2018 midterms approach -- and gives new details of what the Russian trolls have been up to while Donald Trump has been president. The operation, budgeted at $1 million or more per month, involved creating false online personas.... The charging document described how this activity would play out on Twitter. Phony liberal accounts -- @wokeluisa, @KaniJJackson, @JemiSHaaaZzz -- would attack Republicans, including Trump. Meanwhile, phony conservative accounts — @Amconvoice, @JohnCopper16, and @CovfefeNationUS (really) -- would attack Democrats.... 'Information warfare' sounds frightening, but sometimes trolls are just that: trolls." ...

     ... Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "CNN's Jake Tapper noticed ... Donald Trump's strange disinterest and denial in the arrest of a Russian woman accused of attempting to hack the 2018 election. 'Nothing to do with my campaign,' Trump said while at a campaign stop in Arizona Friday. 'All of the hackers and all of the -- everybody that you see, nothing to do with my campaign. If they're hackers, a lot of them probably like Hillary Clinton better than me.'... '... one would think this is going to be like, "This is going to stop. My Justice Department is on it. I want to protect the integrity of the vote." No -- "I had nothing to do with it!"' Tapper said, reiterating Trump's response. CNN's Sara Murray note[d] this has been the concern, the president doesn't seem to be interested in protecting the vote." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I thought Trump's response was just weird. He didn't seem to know that 2016 & 2018 are different years. It's 2018 now, Donald, & neither you nor Hillary Clinton is on the ballot. He's the POTUS* & he's very confused.

Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "Special counsel Robert Mueller continues to examine the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee and whether various individuals had knowledge of it before documents were dumped on WikiLeaks. These individuals include Jerome Corsi..., former Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone and the associates of the deceased Peter W. Smith. According to Byron Tau of the Wall Street Journal, 'Mueller has Stone's telephone records and evidence Smith had foreknowledge of hacks' by the fictitious persona known as Guccifer 2.0."

Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort appeared in federal court in a wheelchair on Friday and his lawyer said he's dealing with 'significant issues' tied to his health because of his confinement at a Northern Virginia jail. The attorney, Kevin Downing, didn't specify what the problem was in open court but a source familiar with the situation later explained the longtime GOP operative who has been confined since mid-June is dealing with an issue related to his diet and has inflammation in his foot. Manafort, 69, was wearing a green prison jumpsuit labeled on the back 'ALEXANDRIA INMATE' and no shoe on his right foot during the proceedings.... The hearing, called to address Manafort's ongoing cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller tied to his subsequent guilty plea in Washington D.C., concluded with U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis setting a Feb. 8 sentencing date for Manafort. Ellis also formally dismissed 10 counts against Manafort where the jury had failed to reach a verdict."

Darren Samuelsohn: "... Donald Trump's critics have spent the past 17 months anticipating what some expect will be among the most thrilling events of their lives: special counsel Robert Mueller's final report on Russian 2016 election interference. They may be in for a disappointment. That's the word Politico got from defense lawyers working on the Russia probe and more than 15 former government officials with investigation experience.... The public, they say, shouldn't expect a comprehensive and presidency-wrecking account of Kremlin meddling and alleged obstruction of justice by Trump — not to mention an explanation of the myriad subplots that have bedeviled lawmakers, journalists and amateur Mueller sleuths. Perhaps most unsatisfying: Mueller's findings may never even see the light of day." (Also linked yesterday.)

David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's struggles to curtail illegal immigration have exposed a deep rift among the president and his top advisers, one that could lead to changes in the Cabinet and undermine the government's response to a record surge of migrant families at the southern border. Even as President Trump continues to consider immigration to be a political winner..., tensions in the West Wing have reached a boiling point. A profane shouting match over immigration this week among top aides prompted Chief of Staff John F. Kelly to storm out of the White House.... Trump's own escalating frustration has led him to excoriate aides for not taking more aggressive actions.... He has ruminated this week over the possibility of sending more soldiers to the border, even though thousands of National Guard troops have been deployed there since April with no evidence of a deterrent effect.... 'Close the whole thing!' Trump demanded at one point during an Oval Office meeting, the officials said. He was talked out of it by advisers who highlighted the effect such a measure would have on more than $600 billion in U.S.-Mexico annual trade, as well as the potential damage to bilateral relations, according to the officials." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Kudos to the migrants whose persistence Trump has not been able to completely frustrate. These desperate people seeking safety have got under Trump's skin in a way Democrats have failed to do. I hope the old fat boy blows a gasket, & his last word is "Mexico."

Matthew Choi of Politico: "The White House Correspondents' Association condemned ... Donald Trump Friday after he lauded a lawmaker from Montana a day earlier for body slamming a Guardian reporter. 'All Americans should recoil from the president's praise for a violent assault on a reporter doing his Constitutionally protected job,' White House Correspondents' Association president Olivier Knox said in a statement. 'This amounts to the celebration of a crime by someone sworn to uphold our laws and an attack on the First Amendment by someone who has solemnly pledged to defend it. We should never shrug at the president cheerleading for a violent act targeting a free and independent news media.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jamiles Lartey of the Guardian: "Journalists expressed disgust with Donald Trump's remarks at a rally Thursday night in Montana, where he praised and joked about the unprovoked assault on a Guardian US journalist by the state's congressman, Greg Gianforte. 'Gianforte is a criminal. He pled guilty to [assault]. The president is congratulating a criminal on committing a crime,' said New York Times correspondent Binyamin Appelbaum.... Axios national political reporter Jonathan Swan replied: 'Nothing tough about jumping a reporter for asking you a substantive question. Just unhinged,' before also pointing out that Gianforte and his staff lied about the assault to police and the public. 'Only reason Gianforte got caught is because there was a tape,' Swan said. A spokeswoman for the British prime minister Theresa May said on Friday: 'Any violence or intimidation against a journalist is completely unacceptable.'... CNN reporter Jim Acosta, who was at the rally in Montana, observed: 'The disturbing part of Trump's jokes about Gianforte was the effect on the crowd. I saw one young man in the crowd making body-slam gestures. He looked at me and ran his thumb across his throat. I talked to him after the rally was over. He couldn't stop laughing. A number of journalists pointed out how Trump's comments are especially troubling this week, coming as evidence mounts that Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is directly linked to the presumed murder of journalist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi.... 'Tonight [Trump] celebrates an assault on a reporter in Montana at the same time as his Administration tries to minimize the murder of a reporter in Turkey. His words matter, and they reveal his character, said New Yorker and CNN contributor Jeffrey Toobin." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "One can hardly fathom the twisted psyche of a president who, after acknowledging that Jamal Khashoggi, a contributing columnist for The Post's Global Opinions, had likely been murdered, would go before a cheering mob to lavish praise on a U.S. congressman who physically attacked a journalist.... Trump won't apologize, of course, nor will his devoted base hold his remarks against him.... This is what they love about him -- the contempt for a free press, the celebration of male thuggishness, the mindless emotional outbursts. Somehow it empowers them, to side wit brutes and bullies, to revel in the silencing of a free press." ...

... Jonathan Chait has a good take on Trump's praise of violence against journalists. "Trump is telling Republicans everywhere that they can help gain power and esteem through violence against journalists. His crowd's enthusiasm vindicates him." The one thing Chait omits as that even as Trump praises Gianforte & helps MBS craft a cover story, Trump is regaling the same crowd with poetry like, "Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs." That is, he is (falsely) accusing Democrats of exactly the same behavior he is advocating in Republicans. (Also linked yesterday.)

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "John Bolton is pushing for the US to withdraw from a cold war-era arms control treaty with Russia, in the face of resistance from others in the Trump administration and US allies, according to sources briefed on the initiative. Bolton, Donald Trump's third national security adviser, has issued a recommendation for withdrawal from the 1987 intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty (INF), which the US says Russia has been violating with the development of a new cruise missile.... The US has briefed its European allies this week about the proposal.... The briefing alarmed UK officials who see the INF as an important arms control pillar. The treaty marked the end of a dangerous nuclear standoff in 1980s Europe... Bolton, who has spent his career opposing arms control treaties, is seeking to shrug off the traditional role of national security adviser as a policy broker between the agencies, and become a driver of radical change from within the White House. Former US officials say Bolton is blocking talks on extending the 2010 New Start treaty with Russia limiting deployed strategic nuclear warheads and their delivery systems." ...

     ... ** Update. David Sanger & William Broad of the New York Times: "The Trump administration is preparing to tell Russian leaders next week that it is planning to exit the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, in part to enable the United States to counter a Chinese arms buildup in the Pacific, according to American officials and foreign diplomats. President Trump has been moving toward scrapping the three-decade-old treaty, which grew out of President Ronald Reagan's historic meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986. While the treaty was seen as effective for years, Russia has been violating it at least since 2014 in an effort to menace other nations. But the pact has also constrained the United States from deploying new weapons to respond to China's efforts to cement a dominant position in the Western Pacific and to keep American naval forces at bay. Because China was not a signatory to the treaty, it has faced no limits on developing intermediate-range nuclear missiles, which can travel thousands of miles."

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "During his 20 months in office, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has swept in perhaps the most dramatic political shift in memory at the Justice Department, from the civil rights-centered agenda of the Obama era to one that favors his hard-line conservative views on immigration, civil rights and social issues. Now, discontent and infighting have taken hold at the Justice Department, in part because Mr. Sessions was so determined to carry out that transformation that he ignored dissent, at times putting the Trump administration on track to lose in court and prompting high-level departures, according to interviews over several months with two dozen current and former career department lawyers who worked under Mr. Sessions.... President Trump has exacerbated the dynamic, they said, by repeatedly attacking Mr. Sessions and the Justice Department in baldly political and personal terms. And he has castigated rank-and-file employees, which career lawyers said further chilled dissent and debate within the department." (Also linked yesterday.)

So Much for That Promotion. Grace Segers of CBS News: "Suzanne Israel Tufts has resigned her post at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD Secretary Ben Carson sent an email to staff last week congratulating Tufts, whom he said would be leaving to take the job as acting inspector general at the Interior Department. However, the current acting IG, Mary Kendall, had not been informed that she was apparently being replaced, which the Interior Department says could only be done at the president's request. A spokesperson for Kendall told CBS News on Wednesday that she was still on the job and has not received any indication from the White House or the department that she is being replaced.... In a statement, Raffi Williams, deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at HUD, confirmed Tufts' departure. 'Secretary Carson thanks her for her service to the Administration and the country. We wish her all the best,' he said." Mrs. McC: Kinda sounds as if Tufts had served her purpose -- letting Carson off the hook for buying that pricey dining set -- and now he can hardly wait to get her out the door. ...

     ... Odder Than I Thought. Lisa Rein, et al., of the Washington Post: "Suzanne Israel Tufts was scheduled to be interviewed Friday morning for another inspector general position elsewhere in the government.... But she did not show up for the appointment.... In recent days, Tufts was referred by the White House to interview with a group of inspectors general who vet potential candidates for permanent, Senate-confirmed watchdog positions. As with the acting job her candidacy for a permanent position at another agency was highly unusual because inspectors general, while Senate confirmed, are not supposed to be partisan.... She had not been at work for at least two months..., but was still on the payroll." Anyway, Tufts seems to be off the government payroll. But everything is going very smoothly.

Election 2018

David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "The end of Robert Mueller's investigation. The loss of health insurance for several million people. New laws that make it harder to vote. More tax cuts for the rich. More damage to the environment. A Republican Party molded even more in the image of President Trump. These are among the plausible consequences if the Republicans sweep the midterm elections and keep control of both the House and Senate. And don't fool yourself. That outcome, although not the most likely one, remains possible. The last couple of weeks of polling have shown how it could happen. Voters who lean Republican -- including whites across the South -- could set aside their disappointment with Trump and vote for Republican congressional candidates. Voters who lean left -- including Latinos and younger adults -- could turn out in low numbers, as they usually do in midterm elections."

** Alaska. Tegan Hanlon & Annie Zak of the Anchorage Daily News: "Alaska Gov. Bill Walker announced Friday he is dropping his bid for re-election and endorsing Democrat Mark Begich against Republican Mike Dunleavy. Walker, elected as an independent, made the announcement Friday afternoon at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, three days after former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott stepped down from both his office and the re-election campaign over unspecified 'inappropriate comments' he made to a woman. 'Every decision I have made as your governor, I have made on the basis of what I believe is best for Alaska,' Walker told the crowd. 'With that said, effective today, I am suspending my campaign for re-election as governor.' There were gasps from the audience.... Walker, a Republican-turned-independent, was elected in 2014 on a so-called unity ticket with Mallott, a Democrat, and defeated incumben Republican Sean Parnell."

** Texas. Houston Chronicle Editors: "... we enthusiastically endorse Beto O'Rourke for U.S. Senate. The West Texas congressman's command of issues that matter to this state, his unaffected eloquence and his eagerness to reach out to all Texans make him one of the most impressive candidates this editorial board has encountered in many years. Despite the long odds he faces -- pollster nonpareil Nate Silver gives O'Rourke a 20 percent chance of winning -- a 'Beto' victory would be good for Texas, not only because of his skills, both personal and political, but also because of the manifest inadequacies of the man he would replace. Ted Cruz -- a candidate the Chronicle endorsed in 2012, by the way -- is the junior senator from Texas in name only. Exhibiting little interest in addressing the needs of his fellow Texans during his six years in office, he has kept his eyes on a higher prize. He's been running for president since he took the oath of office .... For Cruz, public office is a private quest; the needs of his constituents are secondary." Read on. Mrs. McC: This is a rousing endorsement of O'Rourke & a hearty condemnation of Cruz. ...

... So here's an an Akhilleus likes, but it was not cut by a candidate. It is kinda perfect. "C'mon, Ted":

Florida. A list of the Miami Herald's endorsements for statewide & local offices, as well as state constitutional amendments, is here. The editors have endorsed Sen. Bill Nelson (D) for re-election & will endorse Andrew Gillum (D) for governor.

Indiana. Justin Mack & Holly Hays of the Indianapolis Star: "Many Hoosiers who saw the latest Joe Donnelly ad entitled 'Ax' may have viewed it and thought, 'well, there's a fella who likes to chop his own wood!' But fans of HBO's 'Veep' looked at it and said, 'boy, this sure looks familiar.' That's because the Donnelly ad posted to his YouTube page Wednesday is very similar to a commercial called 'Chopping' that aired on the Julia Louis-Dreyfus led comedy for fictional congressional candidate Jonah Ryan. The similarities, from the location to the close-up shots of wood being chopped on a stump, were pointed out on Twitter by Jerry Dunleavy.... In August, Mike Braun's campaign pulled its campaign ad known as 'Doers' after it was pointed out that shared similarities with a Chevron ad, according to the Indiana Democratic Party. The two shared the tagline 'doers,' as well as similar graphic design elements." Braun is Donnelly's GOP opponent. Mrs. Mc.C: You'd think Sen. Donnelly would be smart enough not to duplicate his opponent's goof. But no. (Also linked yesterday, along with a couple of "Veep" videos, which I did not bring forward.)

Minnesota. Andrew Kaczynski & Jamie Ehrlich of CNN: "Republican Rep. Jason Lewis [Minnesota] once mocked women who were traumatized by unwanted sexual advances.... The Minnesota congressman made his comment during a November 2011 broadcast of 'The Jason Lewis Show,' a syndicated radio program that aired from 2009 until 2014 before he was elected to the House in 2016. Lewis was discussing sexual harassment allegations leveled against then-Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.... '... how traumatizing was it?' Lewis said. 'How many women at some point in their life have a man come on to them, place their hand on their shoulder or maybe even their thigh, kiss them, and they would rather not have it happen, but is that really something that's going to be seared in your memory that you'll need therapy for? You'll never get over?... Come on! She wasn't raped,' Lewis added, using a voice mocking an emotionally distraught woman.... After CNN's KFile contacted Lewis' campaign for comment, a law firm representing ... the radio network that produced Lewis' show, sent a letter demanding that CNN 'cease and desist' from using the copyrighted radio show.... CNN is using the audio under the 'fair use' doctrine...."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "Europe's top court ordered Poland's government on Friday to immediately halt implementation of a controversial law designed to force more than a dozen of the nation's Supreme Court justices into early retirement. The surprise decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) sets up a potential clash between European authorities and the right-wing Polish government, which has been accused of subverting the rule of law with a bid to pack Supreme Court with sympathetic judges. The Polish government had no immediate reaction to the ruling. But Polish officials have earlier suggested they might defy the ECJ's will if the court sought to intervene in what the government sees as a purely domestic matter." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- October 19, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Mnuchin to Schmooze with Assassination, Inc. Damian Paletta & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has decided to take part in an anti-terror finance meeting with Saudi security officials and their Middle Eastern counterparts in Riyadh later this month, opting to attend despite growing global outrage over the suspected murder of a U.S.-based journalist at the hands of Saudi operatives, according to three people familiar with his travel plans. The security gathering next week is separate from a Riyadh financial summit that Mnuchin announced on Thursday he would not attend."

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "... Donald Trump's critics have spent the past 17 months anticipating what some expect will be among the most thrilling events of their lives: special counsel Robert Mueller's final report on Russian 2016 election interference. They may be in for a disappointment. That's the word Politico got from defense lawyers working on the Russia probe and more than 15 former government officials with investigation experience.... The public, they say, shouldn't expect a comprehensive and presidency-wrecking account of Kremlin meddling and alleged obstruction of justice by Trump -- not to mention an explanation of the myriad subplots that have bedeviled lawmakers, journalists and amateur Mueller sleuths. Perhaps most unsatisfying: Mueller's findings may never even see the light of day."

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "During his 20 months in office, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has swept in perhaps the most dramatic political shift in memory at the Justice Department, from the civil rights-centered agenda of the Obama era to one that favors his hard-line conservative views on immigration, civil rights and social issues. Now, discontent and infighting have taken hold at the Justice Department, in part because Mr. Sessions was so determined to carry out that transformation that he ignored dissent, at times putting the Trump administration on track to lose in court and prompting high-level departures, according to interviews over several months with two dozen current and former career department lawyers who worked under Mr. Sessions.... President Trump has exacerbated the dynamic, they said, by repeatedly attacking Mr. Sessions and the Justice Department in baldly political and personal terms. And he has castigated rank-and-file employees, which career lawyers said further chilled dissent and debate within the department."

Matthew Choi of Politico: "The White House Correspondents' Association condemned ... Donald Trump Friday after he lauded a lawmaker from Montana a day earlier for body slamming a Guardian reporter. 'All Americans should recoil from the president's praise for a violent assault on a reporter doing his Constitutionally protected job,' White House Correspondents' Association president Olivier Knox said in a statement. 'This amounts to the celebration of a crime by someone sworn to uphold our laws and an attack on the First Amendment by someone who has solemnly pledged to defend it. We should never shrug at the president cheerleading for a violent act targeting a free and independent news media.'" ...

... Jamiles Lartey of the Guardian: "Journalists expressed disgust with Donald Trump's remarks at a rally Thursday night in Montana, where he praised and joked about the unprovoked assault on a Guardian US journalist by the state's congressman, Greg Gianforte. 'Gianforte is a criminal. He pled guilty to [assault]. The president is congratulating a criminal on committing a crime,' said New York Times correspondent Binyamin Appelbaum.... Axios national political reporter Jonathan Swan replied: 'Nothing tough about jumping a reporter for asking you a substantive question. Just unhinged,' before also pointing out that Gianforte and his staff lied about the assault to police and the public. 'Only reason Gianforte got caught is because there was a tape,' Swan said. A spokeswoman for the British prime minister Theresa May said on Friday: 'Any violence or intimidation against a journalist is completely unacceptable.'... CNN reporter Jim Acosta, who was at the rally in Montana, observed: 'The disturbing part of Trump's jokes about Gianforte was the effect on the crowd. I saw one young man in the crowd making body-slam gestures. He looked at me and ran his thumb across his throat. I talked to him after the rally was over. He couldn't stop laughing.' A number of journalists pointed out how Trump's comments are especially troubling this week, coming as evidence mounts that Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is directly linked to the presumed murder of ... Jamal Khashoggi.... 'Tonight [Trump] celebrates an assault on a reporter in Montana at the same time as his Administration tries to minimize the murder of a reporter in Turkey. His words matter, and they reveal his character, said New Yorker and CNN contributor Jeffrey Toobin." ...

... Jonathan Chait has a good take on Trump's praise of violence against journalists. "Trump is telling Republicans everywhere that they can help gain power and esteem through violence against journalists. His crowd's enthusiasm vindicates him." The one thing Chait omits as that even as Trump praises Gianforte & helps MBS craft a cover story, Trump is regaling the same crowd with poetry like, "Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs." That is, he is (falsely) accusing Democrats of exactly the same behavior he is advocating in Republicans.

Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "Europe's top court ordered Poland's government on Friday to immediately halt implementation of a controversial law designed to force more than a dozen of the nation's Supreme Court justices into early retirement. The surprise decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) sets up a potential clash between European authorities and the right-wing Polish government, which has been accused of subverting the rule of law with a bid to pack Supreme Court with sympathetic judges. The Polish government had no immediate reaction to the ruling. But Polish officials have earlier suggested they might defy the ECJ's will if the court sought to intervene in what the government sees as a purely domestic matter."

Justin Mack & Holly Hays of the Indianapolis Star: "Many Hoosiers who saw the latest Joe Donnelly ad entitled 'Ax' may have viewed it and thought, 'well, there's a fella who likes to chop his own wood!' But fans of HBO's 'Veep' looked at it and said, 'boy, this sure looks familiar.' That's because the Donnelly ad posted to his YouTube page Wednesday is very similar to a commercial called 'Chopping' that aired on the Julia Louis-Dreyfus led comedy for fictional congressional candidate Jonah Ryan. The similarities, from the location to the close-up shots of wood being chopped on a stump, were pointed out on Twitter by Jerry Dunleavy.... In August, Mike Braun's campaign pulled its campaign ad known as 'Doers' after it was pointed out that shared similarities with a Chevron ad, according to the Indiana Democratic Party. The two shared the tagline 'doers,' as well as similar graphic design elements." Braun is Donnelly's GOP opponent. Mrs. Mc.C: You'd think Sen. Donnelly would be smart enough not to duplicate his opponent's goof. But no. ...

     ... The Indy Star story includes the ad but not these "Veep" "outtakes," which Chris Hayes aired last night:

... Also pretty funny: a focus group's reaction to the "Veep" campaign ad:

*****

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Thursday that he believes the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, and he expressed confidence in intelligence reports from multiple sources that strongly suggest a high-level Saudi role in Mr. Khashoggi's assassination. Mr. Trump stopped short of saying the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was responsible for Mr. Khashoggi's death. But the president acknowledged that the allegations that the prince ordered the killing raised deep questions about the American alliance with Saudi Arabia and had ignited one of the most serious foreign policy crises of his presidency.... 'Unless the miracle of all miracles happens, I would acknowledge that he's dead,' Mr. Trump said. 'That's based on everything -- intelligence coming from every side.' A short time later, Mr. Trump reiterated to reporters at Joint Base Andrews that he believed Mr. Khashoggi is dead, and said 'this is bad, bad stuff and the consequences should be severe.' The Times interview occurred after the president was briefed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who had returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia and Turkey." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Wait. I thought Haberman was "a third rate reporter" whom Trump doesn't speak to & has "nothing to do with." Of course, that would be back when Haberman wrote that Michael Cohen might flip & Trump said that was unpossible. Ah, but perhaps Trump -- uncharacteristically -- has decided to let bygones be bygones. So this should help. ...

     ... Maggie Haberman: Over the course of 21 months, President Trump has loudly and repeatedly refused to accept a number of seemingly agreed-upon facts, while insisting on the veracity of a variety of demonstrably false claims that happen to suit his political needs. In the process, he has untethered the White House from the burden of objective proof, creating a rich trove for professional fact-checkers, and raising questions about the basis for many of his decisions.... Mr. Trump's refusal to accept some established facts is hardly new. From his belief in the guilt of five young men of color in connection with a savage attack on a white woman in Central Park in the 1980s, to his conviction that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya, he has carried on what amount to personal crusades in the face of established facts for much of his career. The most noticeable new variation of that tendency that Mr. Trump has adopted as president is his penchant for giving the benefit of the doubt to authoritarian leaders with whom he has tried to develop personal or political relationships." Haberman provides many examples. ...

... David Kirkpatrick & Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "The rulers of Saudi Arabia are considering blaming a top intelligence official close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, three people with knowledge of the Saudi plans said Thursday. The plan to assign blame to Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a high-ranking adviser to the crown prince, would be an extraordinary recognition of the magnitude of international backlash to hit the kingdom since the death of Mr. Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi dissident.... Blaming General Assiri could also provide a plausible explanation for the killing and help deflect blame from the crown prince, who American intelligence agencies are increasingly convinced was behind Mr. Khashoggi's disappearance.... Jared Kushner ... has been urging the president to stand by Prince Mohammed, according to a person close to the White House and a former official with knowledge of the discussions." ...

... Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "A frequent companion of Saudi Arabia's crown prince entered the country's consulate in Istanbul just hours before Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident writer, disappeared inside, according to a time-stamped photograph published on Thursday by a pro-government Turkish newspaper. The photograph of the companion, who has been previously identified as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, is one of the most striking pieces of evidence to date linking Mr. Khashoggi's Oct. 2 disappearance and possible death to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.... The Turkish newspaper, Sabah, also showed photographs of Mr. Mutreb outside the Saudi consul general's home, leaving a Turkish hotel with a large suitcase, and leaving the country from Istanbul's international airport -- all later that day." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Ian Pannell & Engin Bas of ABC News: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has heard an alleged audio recording of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi's murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, according to a senior Turkish official.... Separately, ABC News has also learned that Turkish officials believe that Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate following a struggle that lasted eight minutes and that they believe he died of strangulation. The White House referred questions to the State Department which denied Pompeo had heard the recording.... President Trump has been publicly asking to hear the recording. Pompeo met with the president at the White House on Thursday morning to brief him on his visit to Turkey and Saudi Arabia...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If the recording, the existence of which has been widely reported, does exist, why didn't Pompeo demand to hear it, & examine other evidence, when he was in Istanbul? Pompeo's trip seems to have been much more a PR excursion for the Saudi regime than a fact-finding mission. He must have been a great CIA director.

... Alan Rappeport & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has withdrawn from the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh next week after facing bipartisan backlash over his plans to attend despite the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.... It was uncertain as of Thursday morning whether he would still travel to Riyadh, where he was also planning to visit the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center, a joint initiative between the United States, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations unveiled a year ago.... Mr. Mnuchin's withdrawal was announced less than an hour after [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo told journalists that he had made clear to Saudi Arabia's royal leaders ... that the United States was taking the circumstances surrounding Mr. Khashoggi seriously. Mr. Pompeo, the former C.I.A. director, described the matter as 'the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi' -- a striking contrast to a growing assessment among American intelligence agencies that the Washington Post columnist was killed, and that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia was culpable in the death." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: These guys really know how to stand up to murderous thugs, don't they? ...

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker warned the Trump administration on Thursday that its information 'clampdown' on the alleged killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi can't go on.... The Trump administration's decision to withhold its most recent intelligence from Corker, an occasional Trump critic, underscores the president's desire to keep close information that could harm the Saudis' position among members of Congress." ...

... David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "... the Senate and House intelligence committees should begin an urgent oversight investigation of what U.S. spy agencies knew about threats against Khashoggi -- and also into their broader reporting and analysis on Saudi Arabia and its headstrong crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. This congressional inquiry should focus first on the intelligence agencies' 'duty to warn' Khashoggi about any lethal threat, because his U.S. residency qualified him as a 'U.S. person' for whom such a warning was required. It should look, too, for any hint that U.S. intelligence about MBS ... has been skewed by the Trump White House for political reasons. And the investigation should examine the larger problem of U.S. visibility into the kingdom, which has too often been a black hole for our spy agencies." ...

... BUT. Robert Costa & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Hard-line Republicans and conservative commentators are mounting a dark whisper campaign against Jamal Khashoggi that is designed to protect President Trump from criticism of his handling of the dissident journalist's alleged murder by Saudi Arabian operatives -- and support Trump's continued aversion to a forceful response to the oil-rich desert kingdom. In recent days, a cadre of conservative House Republicans allied with Trump has been privately exchanging articles from right-wing outlets that fuel suspicion of Khashoggi, highlighting his association with the Muslim Brotherhood during his youth and raising conspiratorial questions about his work decades ago as an embedded reporter covering Osama bin Laden, according to four GOP officials.... The smears have escalated. Donald Trump Jr. ... shared a tweet last week with his millions of followers that included a line that Khashoggi was 'tooling around Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden' in the 1980s, even though the context was a feature story on bin Laden's activities." ...

... Frank Rich: "When the music stopped with Khashoggi's murder and embarrassed CEOs started bailing from the crown prince's 'Davos in the Desert' jamboree, the revelations of American deference to a criminal despot were a searing indictment of our own elites. The indictment found its meme when the current secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, shuttled off to Riyadh on a supposed fact-finding mission that yielded no facts but plenty of images of him toadying and yukking it up before the Saudi royals. Don't underestimate the ability of the Saudis to use its economic and political power to make this story go away, as it has with so many others in the course of its oil-greased relationship with America." Rich adds nice zingers on Tom Friedman, the Clintons & Elizabeth Warren, too. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: A NYT opinion editor with any guts would have fired Tom Friedman a long time ago. He usually writes on subjects most Americans don't know much about -- the details of Middle East politics -- so Times readers, trusting the paper, often are willing to assume he's right. Usually, he is not. ...

... Christopher Dickey of The Daily Beast: "The notion of a creepy, creeping Islamist takeover of America was a histrionic refrain from Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and others throughout the 2016 elections, but it started before, and has continued since. The Sharia 'threat' was a great distraction. At the same time that Republican-controlled state legislatures were gerrymandering and vote suppressing, they were scrambling to pass legislation banning 'foreign laws,' meaning 'Sharia.' By the beginning of this year, 201 such bills had been introduced in 43 states, and 14 legislatures actually passed them [according to the SPLC].... To be sure, in the aberrant Age of Trump, irony has just about died.... But to watch the frantic efforts of the administration to cover for a murderous Saudi prince -- this from a president who came to power Muslim-baiting and harping on the 'threat' of Sharia -- adds a particularly gruesome note to the narrative, and an irony that should not be ignored." --s ...

... Jonathan Chait: "The saga of Khashoggi's apparent murder touches on the U.S.'s relationship with a gulf kingdom whose value has gone unscrutinized for a long time, and on Trump's evident lack of any public ethics whatsoever. But it is also a story about the Republican Congress's refusal to conduct oversight -- a refusal embedded so deeply in the party's mind that it is impossible to find Republicans even mulling an alternative.... The most benign explanation [for the U.S. part in the cover-up] at this point is that Trump's administration is simply too dedicated to preserving the alliance to allow its valued partner to suffer the public-relations debacle of blame for the murder; the worst-case scenario is that Trump is accepting bribes from the Saudis.... Only a wave large enough to flip at least one chamber of Congress will create some mechanism of accountability and oversight to ensure American foreign policy is not being grotesquely corrupted." ...

... Springtime for Dictators. Max Boot of the Washington Post: "If the Saudis carried out this grisly crime with high-level authorization, as the evidence would indicate, they did so at least in part because they anticipated that the American president wouldn't care about the disappearance of another 'enemy of the people.' Trump has given every despot on the planet a license to kill without worrying about the U.S. reaction. Because, in all likelihood, there will be none." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mark Moore of the New York Post: "One of the 15 Saudis who arrived in Turkey the same day Jamal Khashoggi disappeared has died in a 'suspicious traffic accident' and the Saudi consul in Istanbul could be the 'next execution,' according to Turkish media reports. Mashal Saad al-Bostani, 31, a lieutenant in the Saudi Royal Air Forces, was among the 15-member 'hit team' that landed in Istanbul in two private jets from Riyadh on Oct. 2 and headed to the Saudi consulate. He died in a car crash in Riyadh, but few details have emerged, the newspaper Yeni Safak reported, adding that his role in the 'murder' was not clear." Mrs. McC: Don't know if this is true, but I've posted it for what it's worth. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

John Wagner & Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "President Trump threatened Thursday to summon the military to close the U.S.-Mexico border and upend a trade deal, expressing mounting frustration with a large caravan of migrants from Honduras making its way toward the United States. In morning tweets, Trump repeated vows to stop U.S. aid to Central American countries that do not disband the caravan and issued a fresh threat to the Mexican government, which said Wednesday that it would treat those in the caravan no differently than it does other migrants." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is why no country should enter into an agreement with Trump. His word means less than nothing. ...

... Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump's chief of staff and his national security adviser engaged in a heated argument outside the Oval Office on Thursday, according to three people.... The chief of staff, John Kelly, and the national security adviser, John Bolton, fought over immigration and border crossings, including the performance of the Homeland Security Department under Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, one person familiar with the matter said.... Bolton criticized DHS, and Kelly defended Nielsen, a former deputy whom he supported to replace him at the department.... The shouting match was so intense that other White House aides worried one of the two men might immediately resign.... Kelly then stormed away, so upset that he uttered some profanities." ...

... Arelis Hernández of the Washington Post: "Nearly four months after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reunite families separated at the border, 245 children remain in government custody, according to a new analysis of government data by the American Civil Liberties Union. The parents of 175 of the children have been deported, the report says, and 125 of them so far have decided to remain in the United States and pursue asylum on their own. The report was released this week, as President Trump is promising a renewed crackdown on the record number of migrant families entering the United States and weighing whether to launch a modified version of the family separation effort to deter migrants from crossing the border."

Lauren Fox of CNN: "... Donald Trump was more instrumental than previously known in scrapping plans to move the FBI headquarters out of Washington to the DC suburbs, according to newly released internal government emails. The decision could have financial benefits for the President, whose own hotel is located a block away, critics say. The documents were released Thursday by House Democrats in a letter to General Services Administrator Emily Murphy that suggests she misled Congress about the President's involvement. 'New documents provided to the Oversight Committee indicate that President Trump met personally with you, the FBI, and White House officials on January 24, 2018, where he was directly involved with the decision to abandon the long-term relocation plan and instead move ahead with the more expensive proposal to construct a new building on the same site, and thereby prevent Trump Hotel competitors from acquiring the land,' states the letter by Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings.... White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that ... 'The President wanted to save the government money and also the FBI leadership did not want to move its headquarters,' she told CNN in a statement. A financial analysis conducted by the GSA's inspector general, however, concluded that constructing a new FBI building in downtown DC 'would actually be more costly' than relocating the bureau." The story outlines the content of e-mails that implicate Trump & is accompanied by a photo of Murphy's meeting with Trump, John Kelly, Rod Rosenstein & others. ...

... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: tells the same story in greater detail. "... the degree to which [Donald] Trump influenced decisions about the [Washington, D.C.,] F.B.I. building has emerged as another flashpoint in the running debate over whether his business holdings create conflicts of interest with his duties as president." Mrs. McCrabbie: The lies & deceit around the FBI project are perfectly consistent with the conclusion that ...

... Trump's Business Model Is Fraud. Adam Davidson of the New Yorker: "What, exactly, is Donald Trump's business? The Trump Organization is unusual in that it doesn't appear to do the same thing for very long. It was a builder of apartments for the lower middle class, then a builder of luxury buildings and hotels, then a casino company, and, most recently, a brand-licensing firm, selling its name to anybody who wanted 'TRUMP' emblazoned on a building, bottled water, or whatever else. These are wildly different businesses.... It is becoming increasingly clear that, in the language of business schools, the Trump Organization's core competency is in profiting from misrepresentation and deceit and, potentially, fraud.... The Times published a remarkable report, on October 2nd, that showed that much of the profit the Trump Organization made came not from successful real-estate investment but from defrauding state and federal governments through tax fraud. This week, ProPublica and WNYC co-published a stunning story and a 'Trump, Inc.' podcast that can be seen as the international companion to the Times piece. They show that many of the Trump Organization's international deals also bore the hallmarks of financial fraud, including money laundering, deceptive borrowing, outright lying to investors, and other potential crimes."

Free Speech for Me but Not for Thee. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Early this week, the writers' coalition, PEN America, sued President Trump in federal court.... [The suit] recalled Trump's view 'that it is "frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write" and that "people should look into that."' PEN wants the court to block the president from using his office to retaliate against media criticism. The suit cites Trump's reported meddling in the proposed merger of AT&T and CNN and his reported pressuring of the U.S. postmaster general to double Amazon's postal rates. (Amazon founder Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.) But the same president who calls the media disgusting -- and thinks it would be a good idea 'loosen up' libel laws so plaintiffs can win lots of money -- would be lost without free-speech protections." Sullivan cites Trump's attacks on Stormy Daniels & Trump's First Amendment defense in a suit over his procurement of stolen DNC emails. "As he blasts, daily, far beyond civility into the ugly territory of insult and threat, he is well aware that the laws he disses are very likely to protect him."

Bloody Battle in Affghanistan," Ctd. Taimoor Shah & Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "One of the most devastating Taliban assassination strikes of the long Afghan war killed top leaders of Kandahar Province on Thursday, in an attack that missed the top American commander in the country, Gen. Austin S. Miller. In the provincial governor's compound in Kandahar City, at least one attacker fatally shot the region's powerful police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, as well as the provincial governor and the intelligence chief, and wounded three Americans, Afghan officials said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke violated the department's policy on travel, the agency's watchdog concluded. The Interior Department's watchdog found that Zinke violated department policy by allowing his wife to travel in government vehicles and instructing his security detail to drive an associate to the airport. The decision to take an unarmed security detail on his overseas vacation cost taxpayers $25,000, the report found. This is a developing story. It will be updated. Interior Department officials said Thursday that they did not approve the hiring of a political appointee as the agency's acting watchdog, calling the announcement of her move by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson '100 percent false information.' The backtracking on Suzanne Israel Tufts's move two days after it drew widespread scrutiny deepened questions about how and why she was supposedly chosen to lead Interior's inspector general's office, which is currently conducting at least four investigations into Secretary Ryan Zinke." ...

... Ari Natter of Bloomberg News: "The Interior Department's longtime acting inspector general, whose aggressive investigations have been a thorn in the side of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, will keep her job. Mary Kendall, the Interior Department's deputy inspector general, has overseen a record number of investigations of Zinke, including one that concluded the secretary could have avoided spending $12,375 on a charter flight to a hockey team owned by a former campaign contributor. Ben Carson, Secretary for Housing and Urban Development, told staff in an Oct. 12 email that Suzanne Israel Tufts, a political appointee who serves as assistant secretary of HUD's Office of Administration, would be leaving the agency to become the acting inspector general at the Interior Department.... Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota, top Democrat on the subcommittee that oversees the Interior Department's funding, complained about the reported move in a letter to Zinke. 'There is no precedent for putting a political appointee in the position of Acting Inspector General,' McCollum said. 'This appointment has every appearance of a blatant attempt to stifle the Office of the Inspector General's investigations that could determine actions you have taken as Secretary are unethical.'... Heather Swift, a senior adviser to Zinke, said in a statement Thursday that Kendall remains in her post and there'd never been a decision to move Tufts into the job." ...

... Emily Atkin of the New Republic: "Contradicting Carson's email, Swift said Tufts was merely considered 'as a potential candidate for a position' in the Inspector General's office, not offered the top job.... Swift's attempt at a clarification has not quieted the outrage. 'This administration can't stop embarrassing itself or keep its story straight for five minutes,' Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, told Politico. 'Nobody is buying this explanation and we're not going to stop pressing for answers.' What this latest scandal has done, however, is shine a much-needed light on the messy state of agency Inspector General offices -- particularly the Interior Department's.... The Interior Department has not had a confirmed inspector general for almost a decade. If it had, there never would have been a question about whether Zinke fired her, because he wouldn't have had that power[, one that is reserved for the White House & requires Senate confirmation].... Fourteen other agencies ... don't have Senate-confirmed inspectors general."

Head in Sand. Tarpley Hitt of The Daily Beast: "On Oct. 6, United Nations policy makers approved a report presenting a 'dire' picture of the coming changes to the planet.... But in the nearly two weeks since the report's release, the federal government has avoided the subject or declined to discuss it at length.... A spokesperson from the New York headquarters of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told The Daily Beast that she was unaware of the recent report.... 'What report?' she asked. 'I haven't heard of it.'... Representatives from the other nine regional offices either declined to comment, did not respond to requests for comment, or deferred to the D.C. office. In an email to The Daily Beast, a spokesperson for the national office wrote that the agency would not endorse the report's findings.... The EPA declined to discuss the findings by phone. The White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, meanwhile, did not respond to requests for comment on the IPCC report." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is remarkable. The EPA spokesperson in New York City has access to, um, the New York Times, where the U.N. report was front-page, top o' the page, news. On her way to work, she no doubt passes kiosks & vending machines where the NYT headline blared. But I suppose she's a Trump appointee, who doesn't deign to read the "fake news" in "the failing New York Times." ...

... Marlowe Hood & Catherine Hours of the AFP: "Energy sector carbon emissions will rise in 2018 after hitting record levels the year before, dimming prospects for meeting Paris climate treaty goals, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday. The energy sector accounts for 80 percent of global CO2 emissions, with most of the rest caused by deforestation and agriculture, so its performance is key to efforts to rein in rising world temperatures." --s

Election 2018

Trump Praises Candidate for Assaulting Journalist. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Trump praised a Republican candidate's assault last year on a reporter ... in a freewheeling rally [In Missoula, Montana,] meant to mobilize his base's support in the coming midterm elections. In urging the crowd to vote for Representative Greg Gianforte, who is running for re-election and who was sentenced to anger management classes and community service for assaulting a reporter last spring, Mr. Trump jokingly warned the crowd to 'never wrestle him.' 'I had heard he body-slammed a reporter,' Mr. Trump said, noting that he was initially concerned that Mr. Gianforte would lose in a special election last May. 'I said, "Wait a minute. I know Montana pretty well; I think it might help him." And it did.' 'Anybody that can do a body-slam,' the president added, 'that's my kind of guy.' Mr. Trump made no mention at the rally of Jamal Khashoggi...." ...

Rachel Bade of Politico: "... House Republicans -- and privately, even a few Democrats -- say the GOP could still hang on, if only by a few seats. The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court has given GOP voters a badly needed enthusiasm boost, they argue, and several races seen as unwinnable just weeks ago are suddenly back within reach for Republicans. Democrats, meanwhile, have retreated from several battlegrounds once considered prime targets. They've also deserted a Democratic-controlled open seat in Minnesota, creating a new, rare pickup opportunity for Republicans in a cycle where they've consistently been on defense."

Paul Krugman writes about what the news media should have concencrated on instead of Trump's Outrage(s) of the Day & Elizabeth Warren's genetics: Mitch's plans for the future: "... this week Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, after declaring the [soaring budget deficit] 'very disturbing,' called for, you guessed it, cuts in 'Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.' He also suggested that Republicans might repeal the Affordable Care Act -- taking away health care from tens of millions -- if they do well in the midterm elections.... Even I have been surprised by a couple of things about the G.O.P.'s budget bait-and-switch. One is the timing: I would have expected McConnell to hold his tongue until after the midterms. The other is the lying: I knew Donald Trump and his allies would be dishonest, but I didn't expect the lies to be as baldfaced as they are.... They claim [the deficit] is the result of higher spending, not lost revenue. Mick Mulvaney, Trump's budget director, even tried to claim that the deficit is up because of the costs of hurricane relief.... [And] Republicans like Dean Heller, Josh Hawley and even Ted Cruz who voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which protects Americans with pre-existing medical conditions, or supported a lawsuit trying to strip that protection out of the act, and are now running on the claim that they want to ... protect people with pre-existing conditions."

Wisconsin. Molly Beck & Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "A fourth former official in Gov. Scott Walker's administration has publicly denounced the governor as he seeks a third term.... Paul Jadin, the first CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., resigned from his $208,000 position as president of the Madison Region Economic Partnership just before he and two other former Walker officials released a letter to the Wisconsin State Journal blasting the governor [and endorsing the democratic candidate Tony Evers].... 'It's hard to think of another instance like this where even one or two cabinet secretaries would come and speak out against a sitting governor. To have four is unprecedented,' said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison." --s

Kansas. Roxana Hegemen of TPM: "Access to the ballot box in November will be more difficult for some people in Dodge City, where Hispanics now make up 60 percent of its population.... [T]he city ... has only one polling site for its 27,000 residents. Since 2002, the lone site was at the civic center just blocks from the local country club -- in the wealthy, white part of town. For this November's election, local officials have moved it outside the city limits to a facility more than a mile from the nearest bus stop, citing road construction that blocked the previous site.... Polling places across the country have also been shuttered since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act. A 2016 research report from the civil rights coalition Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights found local officials had shuttered 868 polling places in the three years after the court's ruling." --s

California. Meg Cunningham of ABC News: "Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, who's running to unseat Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter in California, responded Wednesday to a Hunter ad calling him a 'security risk' because of his Palestinian family connections.... 'The first thought that came to mind ... is that Republican John McCain would be rolling in his grave today if he saw this ad,' Campa-Najjar said. 'More than any poll..., that ad shows you that I'm not a threat to national security, but I sure as heck am a threat to Duncan Hunter's seat.' Hunter is fighting to keep his job after being indicted over the summer for charges related to misuse of campaign funds.... Campa-Najjar's grandfather, who died 16 years before he was born, was involved in the 1972 terror plot at the Munich Olympics." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Campa-Najjar, who worked in the Labor Department during the Obama administration, has a security clearance & pointed out on Chris Hayes' show Thursday night that Hunter himself could not get a security clearance because of the indictment & other matters. Campa-Najjar seems very sharp. He's running neck-and-neck with Hunter in a what was a "safe" Republican district. I sent Campa-Najjar's campaign a small donation.

Election 1988. Jim Fallows of the Atlantic on how Lee Atwater may have changed the course of U.S. history by causing Gary Hart's downfall. Turns out Atwater (partner to Roger Stone & Paul Manafort, BTW) set up Hart in the "Monkey Business" misadventure.

Campbell Rogers & Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has opened an investigation into Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania accused of covering up sex abuse for decades, a significant escalation in scrutiny of the church. The inquiry is believed to be the first statewide investigation by the federal government of the church's sex abuse problems. And it comes two months after the Pennsylvania attorney general's office released an explosive grand jury report charging that bishops and other church leaders had covered up the abuse of more than 1,000 people over a period of more than 70 years."

Bloomberg: "Stock-market turbulence and a sharper-than-expected economic slowdown are ratcheting up pressure on China's leaders, just as Donald Trump does the same. A day after the Shanghai Composite Index plunged to a four-year low and Trump took new steps to escalate his trade war with Beijing, third-quarter growth figures showed China's economy expanding at the weakest pace since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009. Faced with a growing panic in the stock market, the chiefs of China's market regulator, central bank and financial watchdog all issued statements calling for investor calm.... China's stock market is still the world's worst performer since January -- losing nearly enough value to wipe out the combined market capitalization of Brazil, India and Russia." --s

Luke Barnes of ThinkProgress: "The American far-right is falling in line behind Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian presidential candidate who previously praised the country's military dictatorship and who once described a congresswoman as too ugly to rape. Over the weekend, the BBC World Service reported David Duke, former KKK Grand Wizard and a longstanding fixture among white supremacists, had endorsed Bolsonaro.... Bolsonaro, for his part, swiftly rebuked the endorsement, tweeting that he 'refuse[s] any kind of support coming from supremacists groups' and suggested 'they support my adversary, the candidate of the left party, who loves to segregate the society.'... Fringe conservative commentator and film producer Dinesh D'Souza tweeted his support for Bolsonaro Wednesday.... Bolsonaro's son Eduardo, meanwhile, recently met with President Trump's former chief strategist and Breitbart executive Steve Bannon, a meeting which the Bolsonaro campaign was later forced to then downplay.... Bolsonaro has promised to shutter the country's Ministry of Environment, withdraw from the Paris climate accord, and open up much of the Amazon for mining." --s

The Commentariat -- October 18, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "A frequent companion of Saudi Arabia's crown prince entered the country's consulate in Istanbul just hours before Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident writer, disappeared inside, according to a time-stamped photograph published on Thursday by a pro-government Turkish newspaper. The photograph of the companion, who has been previously identified as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, is one of the most striking pieces of evidence to date linking Mr. Khashoggi's Oct. 2 disappearance and possible death to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.... The Turkish newspaper, Sabah, also showed photographs of Mr. Mutreb outside the Saudi consul general's home, leaving a Turkish hotel with a large suitcase, and leaving the country from Istanbul's international airport -- all later that day." ...

... Alan Rappeport & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has withdrawn from the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh next week after facing bipartisan backlash over his plans to attend despite the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.... It was uncertain as of Thursday morning whether he would still travel to Riyadh, where he was also planning to visit the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center, a joint initiative between the United States, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations unveiled a year ago.... Mr. Mnuchin's withdrawal was announced less than an hour after [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo told journalists that he had made clear to Saudi Arabia's royal leaders ... that the United States was taking the circumstances surrounding Mr. Khashoggi seriously. Mr. Pompeo, the former C.I.A. director, described the matter as 'the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi' -- a striking contrast to a growing assessment among American intelligence agencies that the Washington Post columnist was killed, and that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia was culpable in the death." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: These guys really know how to stand up to murderous thugs, don't they? ...

... Mark Moore of the New York Post: "One of the 15 Saudis who arrived in Turkey the same day Jamal Khashoggi disappeared has died in a 'suspicious traffic accident' and the Saudi consul in Istanbul could be the 'next execution,' according to Turkish media reports. Mashal Saad al-Bostani, 31, a lieutenant in the Saudi Royal Air Forces, was among the 15-member 'hit team' that landed in Istanbul in two private jets from Riyadh on Oct. 2 and headed to the Saudi consulate. He died in a car crash in Riyadh, but few details have emerged, the newspaper Yeni Safak reported, adding that his role in the 'murder' was not clear." Mrs. McC: Don't know if this is true, but I've posted it for what it's worth. ...

... Springtime for Dictators. Max Boot of the Washington Post: "If the Saudis carried out this grisly crime with high-level authorization, as the evidence would indicate, they did so at least in part because they anticipated that the American president wouldn't care about the disappearance of another 'enemy of the people.' Trump has given every despot on the planet a license to kill without worrying about the U.S. reaction. Because, in all likelihood, there will be none."

John Wagner & Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "President Trump threatened Thursday to summon the military to close the U.S.-Mexico border and upend a trade deal, expressing mounting frustration with a large caravan of migrants from Honduras making its way toward the United States. In morning tweets, Trump repeated vows to stop U.S. aid to Central American countries that do not disband the caravan and issued a fresh threat to the Mexican government, which said Wednesday that it would treat those in the caravan no differently than it does other migrants." ...

     ... Mrs. Crabbie: This is why no country should enter into an agreement with Trump. His word means less than nothing.

"Bloody Battle in Affghanistan," Ctd. Taimoor Shah & Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "One of the most devastating Taliban assassination strikes of the long Afghan war killed top leaders of Kandahar Province on Thursday, in an attack that missed the top American commander in the country, Gen. Austin S. Miller. In the provincial governor's compound in Kandahar City, at least one attacker fatally shot the region's powerful police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, as well as the provincial governor and the intelligence chief, and wounded three Americans, Afghan officials said."

*****

Jamal Khashoggi of the Washington Post: "... Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate. There was a time when journalists believed the Internet would liberate information from the censorship and control associated with print media. But these governments, whose very existence relies on the control of information, have aggressively blocked the Internet. They have also arrested local reporters and pressured advertisers to harm the revenue of specific publications." ...

     ... This was Khashoggi's last column, which his translator delivered to his editor the day after his disappearance. ...

... Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "American intelligence officials are increasingly convinced that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is culpable in the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an appraisal that poses challenges to a White House intent on maintaining a close relationship with the kingdom. Intelligence agencies have not yet been able to collect direct evidence of the prince's involvement, American and European officials said. They also have not been able to conclude whether Prince Mohammed directly ordered the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, or whether his intention was to have Mr. Khashoggi captured and taken back to Saudi Arabia, according to one official. But intelligence agencies have growing circumstantial evidence of the prince's involvement -- including the presence of members of his security detail and intercepts of Saudi officials discussing a possible plan to detain Mr. Khashoggi, according to American officials." ...

... Covering up a Brutal Murder. Robert Costa, et al., of the Washington Post: "As gruesome details of Jamal Khashoggi's alleged killing and dismemberment at the hands of Saudi operatives trickled into the public domain this week, calls sounded in capitals around the globe for immediate retaliation to the apparent human rights atrocity.... [But President] Trump has repeatedly reached for reasons to protect the U.S.-Saudi relationship, according to administration officials and presidential advisers. Trump has stressed Saudi Arabia's huge investment in U.S. weaponry and worries it could instead purchase arms from China or Russia. He has fretted about the oil-rich desert kingdom cutting off its supply of petroleum to the United States. He has warned against losing a key partner countering Iran's influence in the Middle East. He has argued that even if the United States tried to isolate the Saudis, the kingdom is too wealthy to ever be truly isolated. And he has emphasized that although Khashoggi had been living in Virginia and wrote for The Washington Post, the dissident journalist is a Saudi citizen -- the implication being that the disappearance is not necessarily the United States' problem....

... Meanwhile, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said the administration had 'clamped down' on sharing intelligence about the Khashoggi case. He said an intelligence briefing scheduled for Tuesday was canceled and he was told no additional intelligence would be shared with the Senate for now, a move he called 'disappointing.' 'I can only surmise that probably the intel is not painting a pretty picture as it relates to Saudi Arabia,' Corker said. Based on the earlier intelligence he had reviewed, he added, 'everything points not to just Saudi Arabia, but to MBS,' referring to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 'This could not have happened without his approval.'" ...

... Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration and the Saudi royal family are searching for a mutually agreeable explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi -- one that will avoid implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is among the president's closest foreign allies, according to analysts and officials in multiple countries. But it will be difficult for the young ruler to escape scrutiny, as mounting evidence points not only to the Saudi government's knowledge of Khashoggi's fate, but to a connection by Mohammed to his disappearance. U.S. intelligence reports, accounts from Khashoggi's friends, passport records and social media profiles paint a picture of a brutal killing that at least had its roots in Mohammed's desire to silence Khashoggi...." Mrs. McC: It's not an "explanation," Shane; it's a fake cover story.

... Carlotta Gall & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "His killers were waiting when Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago. They severed his fingers and later beheaded and dismembered him, according to details from audio recordings described by a senior Turkish official on Wednesday. Mr. Khashoggi was dead within minutes, and within two hours the killers were gone, the recordings suggested. The leaking of such details, on the same day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was visiting Turkey, reflected an escalation of pressure by the Turkish government on Saudi Arabia and the United States for answers on the fate of Mr. Khashoggi, a prominent dissident journalist who wrote for The Washington Post. Fifteen days after he entered the consulate in Istanbul and was never seen coming out, the Saudis have yet to give an explanation." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND our President* is covering for the men responsible for this atrocity. He says they're just as innocent as Bart O'Kavanaugh. (Well, that's probably true.) What are our children to think? What are we to think? ...

... Trump's $100MM Prize. Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "This summer, Saudi Arabia promised the Trump administration $100 million for American efforts to stabilize areas in Syria liberated from the Islamic State. That money landed in American accounts on Tuesday, the same day that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for discussions with the kingdom's leaders about the fate of a missing Saudi dissident.... Brett McGurk, the United States envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, dismissed the idea that Mr. Pompeo's visit and the disbursement of funds were connected. The Saudis had committed the money in August, he said, and the United States had expected to receive it in the fall.... But [an] official involved in Syria policy said the payment process had been unpredictable." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Gardiner Harris & Edward Wong of the New York Times: "As he was leaving Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on Wednesday, [Mike] Pompeo was asked if Saudi officials had told him whether the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was alive or dead. 'I don't want to talk about any of the facts,' Mr. Pompeo said dismissively. 'They didn't want to either.' That set off an immediate maelstrom of criticism against the Trump administration's chief diplomat. 'The pictures of Pompeo grinning, smiling and laughing with the crown prince -- as if a journalist wasn't just murdered -- are remarkable,' Shadi Hamid, a scholar of Middle East policy at the Brookings Institution, wrote on Twitter.... 'Secretary Pompeo was put in an almost impossible situation from the outset: traveling to meet with people suspected of having ordered a political assassination at the request of a president determined to sweep the affair under the rug, said Rob Malley..., a senior National Security Council adviser ... during the Obama administration. But, Mr. Malley said, Mr. Pompeo 'made the situation even worse by taking on the task with apparent bonhomie and good humor, which hardly seems the optimal way to convey seriousness or demand genuine accountability.'" ...

... Where's Jared? Kaitlan Collins, et al., of CNN: "Facing scrutiny for cultivating close ties with Saudi Arabia's powerful and domineering crown prince, Jared Kushner has remained intentionally in the background this week as West Wing officials feared a more public role would prompt backlash, multiple people familiar with the matter say. Kushner instead has been operating behind-the-scenes to mitigate the fallout but leaving public explanations to others...." ...

... Trump & the Barbarians. Nicholas Kristof: "American presidents have periodically engaged in cover-ups of their own corruption or licentiousness, but President Trump is breaking new ground. He is using the United States government to cover up a foreign despot's barbarism.... Even as Saudi officials lie low, Trump has become the kingdom's puppet and apologist.... Trumprepeatedly denounced President Barack Obama for having bowed to a Saudi king. But today Trump is not just bowing to a king; he's kowtowing to a mad prince.... For decades, we have enabled Saudi Arabian misconduct, including the extremist education and terrorist financing that contributed to the 9/11 attacks." ...

... Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker: "... , if there is any lesson to be learned from this terrible affair, it's how blind so much of official Washington and the American press were to M.B.S.'s true nature.... [Jared] Kushner threw the Administration's support behind him. Not long after, and not least because of the White House's boost, M.B.S.'s chief rivals, including his cousin, the crown prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, were dispatched. It was ugly, but no one seemed to mind. President Trump's visit to the Saudi kingdom -- his first trip abroad -- was an orgy of mutual admiration and monarchical excess. The truth is that M.B.S.'s violent, impulsive character was visible early on.... The most widely publicized display of M.B.S.'s autocratic streak came in November, 2017, when M.B.S. ordered the roundup of as many as five hundred members of the Saudi royal family. Imprisoned in a five-star hotel, princes and other royals were held captive until they signed over substantial shares of their fortunes.... I heard credible reports that at least some of the men held in the Ritz-Carlton were tortured." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Chris Strohm, et al., of Bloomberg: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller is expected to issue findings on core aspects of his Russia probe soon after the November midterm elections as he faces intensifying pressure [from Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein] to produce more indictments or shut down his investigation, according to two U.S. officials. Specifically, Mueller is close to rendering judgment on two of the most explosive aspects of his inquiry: whether there were clear incidents of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, and whether the president took any actions that constitute obstruction of justice, according to one of the officials, who asked not to be identified speaking about the investigation.... There's no indication, though, that Mueller is ready to close up shop, even if he does make some findings, according to former federal prosecutors. Several matters could keep the probe going, such as another significant prosecution or new lines of inquiry." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Mueller wraps up the Trumpy questions soon, I have a feeling his report will be so nebulous that Trump will skate. ...

... Matt Shuham of TPM: "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended his oversight of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Wednesday, saying that 'people are entitled to be frustrated,' but that, 'at the end of the day, the public will have confidence that the cases we brought were warranted by the evidence and that it was an appropriate use of resources.' 'I have a solemn responsibility to make sure that cases like that [Russian election interference] are pursued and prosecuted, and I'm pleased the president has been supportive of that,' Rosenstein told the Journal [Mrs. McC: with a straight face]." ...

     ... Matt Naham of Law & Crime couldn't help noting, "The [WSJ] interview drops on the same day Bloomberg reported that Rosenstein was 'pressing' Mueller to wrap up the investigation as 'expeditiously as possible.'" ...

... John Santucci, et al., of ABC News: "Prosecutors from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office have been asking former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort -- their newest cooperating witness -- about his friend and former business associate Roger Stone, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.... Nearly a dozen individuals close to Stone have been brought in for interviews with the Mueller team, and many of those same individuals have also appeared before a federal grand jury. Mueller's interest in Stone appears to be focused on whether Stone or his associates communicated with Julian Assange or WikiLeaks about the release of damaging emails allegedly hacked from Hillary Clinton's campaign by Russian intelligence officers masquerading as hacker persona 'Guccifer 2.0.'" ...

... Erica Orden of CNN: "Michael Cohen and his attorney met Wednesday with a group of state and federal law enforcement officials investigating various aspects of ... Donald Trump's family business and charitable organization, according to people familiar with the meeting. The group, which included the federal prosecutors from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York who charged Cohen in August and officials from the New York Attorney General's office, met at the Midtown New York City office of Cohen's attorney, Guy Petrillo, these people said."

"A Natural Instinct for Science." Get Ready to Guffaw. Jonathan Chait: "In yet another of his current spate of lunatic ramblings he has decided to share with various media, this time the Associated Press, Trump was asked about the report [by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change].... Trump asserted that, contrary to the scientific conclusion that pumping heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere has caused an upward ratcheting of temperatures, he sees it as random unexplainable variation: 'I agree the climate changes, but it goes back and forth, back and forth.' When the interviewer noted that scientists have concluded otherwise, Trump asserted his own scientific credentials. 'My uncle was a great professor at MIT for many years. Dr. John Trump,' he said. 'And I didn't talk to him about this particular subject, but I have a natural instinct for science, and I will say that you have scientists on both sides of the picture.' So Trump's claim to scientific competence rests on his belief that science is a matter of instinct, and this instinct is passed on genetically, , as evidenced by his uncle. Those lucky few possessed of this gift can look at two competing hypotheses and know which one is correct, without needing to study the evidence, or even having a clear understanding of what 'evidence' means." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Donald Trump Was Always a Crook. Heather Vogell & Peter Elkind of ProPublica & Andrea Bernstein & Meg Cramer of WNYC: "Since Donald Trump's fortunes came surging back with the success of 'The Apprentice' 14 years ago, his deals have often been scrutinized for the large number of his partners who have ventured to the very edges of the law, and sometimes beyond. Those associates have included accused money launderers, alleged funders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and a felon who slashed someone in the face with a broken margarita glass. Trump and his company have typically countered by saying they were merely licensing his name on these real estate projects in exchange for a fee. They weren't the developers or in any way responsible. But ... the Trumps were typically way more than mere licensors or bystanders in their often-troubled deals. They were deeply involved in these projects. They helped mislead investors and buyers -- and they profited handsomely from it. Patterns of deceptive practices occurred in a dozen deals across the globe, as the business expanded into international projects, and the Trumps often participated." Ivanka, too, is an unusually facile liar. Read on. Thanks to unwashed for the link.

Donald Trump Is Still a Liar. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Trump was in rare form on Tuesday. With no official events, he spent much of the day tweeting, including calling Stormy Daniels 'horseface' and continuing to cast doubt on the idea that he would hold Saudi Arabia's leaders responsible for Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance.... Trump was also interviewing with the Associated Press. And arguably more than in his '60 Minutes' interview this weekend, the falsehoods and fanciful claims were flying. Trump downplayed his relationship with Michael Cohen, suggested separating kids from their parents at the border hadn't been that big a deal, and doubled down on the idea that the Saudis may escape blame for Khashoggi. [Following] is the transcript, with our annotations and analysis." (Also linked yesterday.)

Buh-Bye. Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald F. McGahn II departed as White House counsel on Wednesday, ending a tumultuous 21-month tenure where he spearheaded some of President Trump's most significant political accomplishments, including two appointments to the Supreme Court, but also became a chief witness against him in the special counsel investigation. Mr. McGahn's departure was confirmed by two people close to him. Mr. McGahn and the president sat for a farewell chat on Wednesday, one said. Mr. Trump said this week that he will install as Mr. McGahn's replacement the longtime Washington lawyer Pat Cipollone, calling him 'a very fine man, highly respected by a lot of people.'"

Wes Siler of Outside Online: "At last count, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was the subject of 14 separate government investigations. (A new record!) But that number could soon be zero. That's because Zinke just fired the Department of the Interior's acting inspector general.... Not only did Mary Kendall, the acting inspector general, not learn she was being replaced until The Hill broke the news [Wednesday] morning, but her replacement will likely be able to fill the role without needing to go through Senate confirmation. Kendall -- who's served as acting inspector general at the DOI for ten years, and previously spent a decade as deputy inspector general -- is being replaced by Suzanne Israel Tufts, a Republican lawyer who worked on the Trump campaign, and then was appointed to the role of assistant secretary of administration at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, Tufts will not need to undergo Senate confirmation to fill the new role.... Tufts, who will now handle oversight of the investigations into Zinke, was appointed to HUD to replace an official who blew the whistle on Ben Carson's taxpayer-funded $31,000 dining set." ...

     ... digby: "This is a primary reason why the Democrats need to take back the house. We have seen what happens when you have corrupt extremists in the executive branch with enablers and accomplices running the congress."

Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The number of migrant parents entering the United States with children has surged to record levels in the three months since President Trump ended family separations at the border, dealing the administration a deepening crisis three weeks before the midterm elections. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 16,658 family members in September, the highest one-month total on record and an 80 percent increase from July, according to unpublished Homeland Security statistics obtained by The Washington Post. Large groups of 100 or more Central American parents and children have been crossing the Rio Grande and the deserts of Arizona to turn themselves in, and by citing a fear of return, the families are typically assigned a court date and released from custody.... Trump has been receiving regular updates on the border numbers, telling senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and Chief of Staff John F. Kelly that something has to change, according to senior administration officials." (Also linked yesterday.)

Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "A senior Treasury Department employee was charged Wednesday with leaking to a reporter confidential government reports about the financial transactions of Trump associates and others under scrutiny in the special counsel's probe of Russian election interference. The charges reflect the latest move in the Trump administration's effort to punish leakers within the government. Earlier this week, a former senior Senate staffer pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents in a separate leak investigation. The Treasury case centers on a dozen stories published by BuzzFeed News that described suspicious activity reports, or SARs, which are generated by banks when a financial transaction may involve illegal activity. Prosecutors charged Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards with the unauthorized disclosure of suspicious activity reports and conspiracy."

David Morgan of Reuters: "Republicans could try again to repeal Obamacare if they win enough seats in U.S. elections next month, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday, calling a failed 2017 push to repeal the healthcare law a 'disappointment.'... 'If Republicans retain the Senate they will do everything they can to take away families' health care and raise their costs,' [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer said in a statement. 'Americans should take Senator McConnell at his word.'"

Election 2018

How to Get a Trump Endorsement -- Spend Money at One of His Hotels or Resorts. Zach Everson of Fast Company: A PAC run by House Leader Kevin McCarthy & mike pence spent more than $200,000 on Trump facilities; McCarthy got Trump's endorsement for speaker -- at a pricey Trump International Hotel gala. McCarthy's main competitor for the speakership -- mad dog Jim Jordan -- lost out. Maybe because Jordan spent only $3,000 at a Trump facility. "The campaigns or affiliated PACs of at least eight candidates for federal or state office have spent funds at a Trump property soon before the president tapped out his coveted tweet of endorsement.... A much higher percentage of candidates who've patronized the hotel have been endorsed by Trump compared to the candidates who haven't spent money at his properties. Additionally, President Trump endorsed many candidates whose campaigns didn't patronize his properties but who were supported by unaffiliated PACs that did." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's all legal unless someone records Trump & Candidate Goober cutting an endorsement-for-cash deal. AND a special shout-out to Anthony Kennedy!

Florida. Rick Scott Is Still a Crook. Kevin Sack & Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: Early in his tenure as Florida's governor, Rick Scott (R) got caught making policy that "would have created vast potential markets for the chain of 32 urgent-care clinics that Mr. Scott had co-founded.... To shield himself from future conflict charges, Mr. Scott, who is now running to unseat the incumbent senator Bill Nelson, created a $73.8 million investment account that he called a blind trust. But ... his trust has been blind in name only. There have been numerous ways for him to have knowledge about his holdings: Among other things, he transferred many assets to his wife and neither 'blinded' nor disclosed them. And their investments have included corporations, partnerships and funds that stood to benefit from his administration's actions. Only in late July, when compelled by ethics rules for Senate candidates, did Mr. Scott disclose his wife's holdings. That report revealed that his wife, Ann Scott, an interior decorator by trade, controlled accounts that might exceed the value of her husband's. Their equity investments largely mirrored each other, meaning that Mr. Scott could, if he wanted, track his own holdings by following his wife's." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

There's Some Kinda Karma Here. AP: "Hillary Clinton was seemingly unharmed when the Secret Service vehicle she was riding in was involved in a crash. The former secretary of state and first lady was headed to a fundraiser for Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) in Jersey City on Tuesday night. The vehicle pulled into a parking garage, made a left turn and hit a concrete column. Clinton emerged from the van and walked to the fundraiser, where she was the featured guest."

Election 2020/Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

An Ominous Note from Steve M. "No other 2020 Democrat has a potential vulnerability quite like [Elizabeth Warren's], but they're all going to have missteps, and when they do, Trump will pounce -- and the 'liberal media' theater critics will be right behind, putting the boot in. Just about every Democratic hopeful is destined to get terrible media coverage, primary because there's no bro-ish New Kennedy in the field (i.e., no 2008 Obama or 1992 Bill Clinton). That's the only kind of candidate who's likely to get good press, except perhaps an anti-progressive corporatist like Mike Bloomberg or Howard Schultz. That's why I think Donald Trump is the odds-on favorite to win the 2020 election. He's not right when he says that many mainstream outlets will endorse him because he's good for the ratings, but it's simply the case that he's the daddy much of the media wants, even if most journalists won't admit it. They admire his media skills and his cocky certitude. We might beat him, but we'll have to beat them too, because they'll effectively be on his side." ...

... AND, as Jonathan Chait writes, the media are congratulating Trump for spreading a lie about Elizabeth Warren. Also too, Chait writes that Trump did not invent the insult "Pocahontas"; when Warren ran for Senate in 2012, "'The term Pocahontas' was 'near ubiquitous in conservative media,' complained one critic. The far more common term of abuse at the time was 'Fauxcahontas,' which at least involves some wordplay. So to the extent Trump can claim any contribution here, it is nudging Republicans away from a somewhat clever bullying nickname and toward the adoption of a dumber version." ...

... Eric Alterman of the Nation: "The publishing of obvious, destructive lies by Trump and his courtiers is standard operating procedure almost everywhere in the mainstream media.... The day after it allowed Trump to lie on its op-ed page [repeatedly, about Medicare for All], USA Today happily passed along another Trump whopper. This one ended up in the headline -- 'I've lost billions of dollars' since becoming president, Trump says' -- and was lifted from a Fox & Friends transcript, thereby completing the circle of lies that begins with Trump, continues through Fox News, and ends up in the mainstream media, with little or no pushback.... Don't expect the men and women of the media to save us. Their job, as they define it, is to be lied to and then to repeat those lies in quotation marks."

Election 2016. Lee Ferran of ABC News: "Twitter has released data on more than 10 million tweets from nearly 4,000 accounts it said were linked to Russia and Iran, which paint a more nuanced portrait of the nations' purported online influence operations. The social media giant previously disclosed the operations and lawmakers released hundreds of suspected account names that Twitter said were linked to the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based 'troll farm' that worked day and night to spread propaganda and stoke division online ahead of the 2016 election. But this is the first time the public and independent researchers have been given access to what data analyst Ben Nimmo described as the full 'motherlode' of information. Nimmo, an information defense fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab..., said that ... the data showed clearly that the 'first targets and the first victims' were, in fact, Russian users. 'Particularly in the Russian dataset a lot more of the content was in Russian than in English,' said Nimmo. '... the Russian troll farm started out as a tool of domestic repression. It then became a weapon abroad.... They adapted it to the U.S. audience.'"

Claudia Koerner of BuzzFeed News (Oct. 16): "After four days on the job, former US representative Mary Bono is stepping down as interim president of USA Gymnastics over a tweet speaking out against Nike and its support of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Bono was brought into USA Gymnastic's leadership as the organization works to rebuild after the widespread and long-running sexual abuse by its former doctor Larry Nassar. Bono's hiring was immediately met with opposition because she previously worked for the law firm that helped provide cover for Nassar as allegations were mounting. As survivors, gymnasts, and fans discussed whether Bono was right for the job, they noticed a tweet of hers from September. Bono posted a photo coloring in the Nike logo on her golf shoes, part of the viral outrage against Nike over its ad featuring Kaepernick."