The Commentariat -- October 20, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Mrs. McCrabbie: I did catch Trump's saying last week that he supported Turkey's "cleaning out" the Kurds from Northern Syria, but I missed this: Mark Sumner of Crooks & Liars: In a tweet on Friday, Trump wrote, "that Erdoğan wants this plan to work and 'the Kurds want it, and the ultimate solution, to happen.'" These barely-disguised euphemisms for ethnic cleansing & the "Final Solution" are not accidents, IMO. This is what Erdoğan wants, so it's what Trump wants, too. He has a mindset that makes "ultimate solution" roll off his tongue & allows him to placidly watch Turkish & Arab fighters roll over ethnic Kurds.

Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi has traveled to Jordan [as head of a bipartisan congressional delegation] to meet with the Jordanian king for 'vital' discussions about the Turkish incursion into Syria and other regional challenges, amid uncertainty about whether an American-brokered cease-fire with Turkey in northern Syria was holding. The visit by senior United States officials came as sporadic clashes continued on Sunday morning along the Turkish-Syrian border, where, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry, a Turkish soldier was killed by Kurdish fighters in the Syrian border town of Tel Abyad. Confusion and continued shelling have marred the cease-fire deal announced by Vice President Mike Pence last week, with both Turkey and Kurdish leaders accusing each other of violating the truce."

Pompeo Has Worked Out His Cover Story. Adia Robinson of ABC News: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he never saw the kind of quid pro quo that acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney referred to on Thursday with regard to the decision-making process he was involved in. The conversation was always around what were the strategic implications," Pompeo said on ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday. 'Would that money get to the right place or would there be corruption in Ukraine and the money wouldn't flow to the mission that it was intended for.'"

Maya Parhasarathy of Politico: "... Donald Trump was 'surprised' by the harsh pushback over his initial decision to host the G-7 conference at his Trump National Doral Miami resort..., acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday.... 'He was honestly surprised by the level of pushback.'" Mrs. McC: Well, Trump doesn't do anything "honestly," but I'll bet he was surprised/pissed off that people said they were appalled he would so flagrantly violate the Constitution because as far as Trump understands it, the Constitution says he can do whatever he wants.

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The Cave. Katie Rogers & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Saturday that he would no longer hold next year's Group of 7 meeting at his luxury golf club near Miami, a swift reversal after two days of intense criticism over awarding his family company a major diplomatic event. 'I thought I was doing something very good for our country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami, for hosting the G-7 leaders,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, before again promoting the resort's amenities. 'But, as usual, the hostile media & Democrat partners went CRAZY!' Mr. Trump added: 'Therefore, based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020.'" [Mrs. McC Translation: "My lawyers kept screaming, 'You'll be impeached! You'll be booted out of the White House! You'll do jail time!'"] ...

... [Mick] Mulvaney said aides created a short list of about a dozen sites, and narrowed it down to three possibilities in Hawaii and Utah. Local officials in those states said they were never notified that the White House had been scouting for venues for a major event. A spokeswoman for David Ige, the Democratic governor of Hawaii, said officials determined that the White House had been looking for locations only after the fact.... Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut..., said the president's reversal was a sign that he himself saw that his standing in Washington was weakening. 'He backed down because of cracks in support from his own party, plain and simple,' Mr. Blumenthal said. 'The threat that his shattering Republican support on this issue and Syria potentially impacting the solid wall on impeachment -- that all is threatening him more deeply than he ever expected.'... ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Time to rewrite the THUG bill to make it more general-purpose. As the Times report notes, "Even without the Group of 7 at Trump Doral in Florida, the president has made visits to one of his resorts, golf clubs or hotels a total of 308 days since he was sworn in -- about a third of his tenure as president." In the meantime, we still need to know the specifics of the White House's "site selection process." Since the "selection process" likely involves criminality, let's get some of those "deep-state" FBI investigators on the case. ~~~

~~~ Anita Kumar & Evan Semones of Politico: "Trump made the change after members of Congress and government ethics experts accused him of violating the Constitution by holding the summit at his financially struggling Trump National Doral Miami resort. It was a rare about-face for Trump on his businesses. He has spent nearly three years in office insisting he is allowed to visit and promote his properties around the globe. But his decision to hold the G-7 at Doral brought him criticism from even pundits on Fox News, his favorite television network and a growing number of his own party -- the same lawmakers he needs to help him fight impeachment.... Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opened an impeachment inquiry that includes examining whether Trump is illegally making money off his presidency. The Oversight and Judiciary committees have demanded the administration and Trump's company provide details about the president suggesting the summit be held at one of his resorts.... Trump already faces lawsuits alleging he violated the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign officials at his resorts and hotels. His company donated nearly $200,000 to the U.S. Treasury in February that it said came from profits from foreign governments, but watchdog groups say the amount should be higher." ~~~

~~~ Philip Rucker & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Trump was buffeted by two straight days of allegations of self-dealing and exasperation from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including some Republican allies who said the selection of Doral as the venue for a gathering of world leaders was indefensible. The decision -- while it lasted -- was an unprecedented one in modern American politics: The president awarded a huge contract to himself."

~~~ Democrats Introduce THUG Act. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Democrats introduced legislation Friday that would block federal funding for next year's Group of Seven (G-7) summit at Trump National Doral Miami. Democratic Reps. Lois Frankel (Fla.), Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and Steve Cohen (Tenn.) introduced the Trump's Heist Undermines the G-7 (THUG) Act after acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters Thursday that the Trump resort near Miami will host the annual summit of world leaders June 10-12. A companion bill is being introduced in the Senate by Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.).... The legislation also would require Trump to provide Congress with any documents related to his decision to host the event at his property. The measure is unlikely to be taken up in the GOP-controlled Senate." (Also linked yesterday.)

The wheels are not off the car. The situation is way worse than that. The car has been impounded and we are now waiting to figure out what the fine is and to see whether or not we're going to get the car back....Mulvaney is a good Catholic and in fairness to him, that was a full-blown Catholic confessional on Thursday afternoon. -- Anthony Scaramucci, on the condition of the West wing ~~~

~~~ Daniel Lippman of Politico rounds up the usual anonymous suspects: "Former Trump White House officials and other Republicans close to the White House are increasingly worried about President Trump's erratic behavior and say there are no longer enough safeguards around him to prevent self-inflicted disasters large and small.... Under the strain of a metastasizing impeachment probe on Capitol Hill and helming an administration run by a diminishing number of heavyweight officials of independent stature, the president is displaying the kind of capricious behavior that once might have been contained or at least mitigated, former officials say.... 'It's just looking like everything is coming apart,' said a former White House official.... Some current White House officials say they are simply exhausted after all the constant fighting, and lack the energy to try to constrain a wilful president bent on having his own way.... A current White House official described a 'who cares' attitude creeping through the building under [Mick] Mulvaney's hands-off management style."

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump, whose paramount concern long has been showing strength, has entered the most challenging stretch of his term, weakened on virtually every front and in danger of being forced from office as the impeachment inquiry intensifies. Trump now finds himself mired in a season of weakness. Foreign leaders feel emboldened to reject his pleas or to contradict him. Officials inside his administration are openly defying his wishes by participating in the impeachment probe. Federal courts have ruled against him. Republican lawmakers are criticizing him. He has lost control over major conservative media organs. Polling shows that Americans increasingly disapprove of his job performance and support his impeachment. And in a rare concession to his critics, Trump announced late Saturday that he no longer plans to host the Group of Seven summit of world leaders at his Florida golf club.... Many of Trump's Republican allies revolted over his decision to withdraw U.S. troops in Syria, which triggered a bloody Turkish invasion that killed Kurdish fighters and civilians. Trump bragged about sending a 'very powerful letter' warning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to invade Syria. 'Don't be a fool!' Trump wrote. But Turkish officials leaked word that their leader had thrown the letter in the trash, and Erdogan then took Trump to task for his 'lack of respect.'" The Raw Story republishes more of Rucker's analysis. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Rucker is trolling Trump. Kudos to the headline writer: "Trump's Season of Weakness" -- should make Trump crazy even crazier. MEANWHILE, constitutional lawyers are suggesting the texts for Articles of Impeachment: ~~~

~~~ Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Saturday's edition of MSNBC's 'AM Joy,' former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said that ... Donald Trump's behavior in the Ukraine scandal is all but impossible to defend from articles of impeachment.... 'The president abused the nation's trust. He put his interests above those of the American people with respect to our foreign policy with the Ukraine. The Congress had appropriated this money for our nation's interest. He withheld it for his own personal benefit. That's Article I. Article II is called obstruction of justice and it involves the fact that this president is not turning over any information ... to the Congress and directing his ... [staff] and his ambassadors not to testify.... It's just those two articles.... It's an open and shut case and honestly, I think I'm a pretty good lawyer, but if I had to defend the president here, I have no idea what I would say because he's tried four different stories, all of them have fallen completely apart.'" ~~~

~~~ Ari Melber in a Washington Post op-ed: "Amid a series of House investigations, however, and several public, potentially incriminating admissions by Trump, Democrats haven't settled on a core legal rationale for impeachment, which is striking, considering the Constitution's answer is staring them in the face. Trump's statements and actions with regard to Ukraine appear to fit one of the few offenses the Constitution specifically lists as impeachable: Bribery. Along with treason, it's the only impeachable offense expressly listed in Article II, Section 4 before the catchall category, 'high Crimes and Misdemeanors,' as a reason to impeach federal officials.... As it stands, the case appears straightforward, and, unlike most legal or political issues, several key underlying facts aren't even in dispute. A focus on bribery would distinguish this case from the two presidential impeachments in history, neither of which resulted in conviction in the Senate and removal from office. The [Andrew] Johnson and [Bill] Clinton cases were bogged down by a difficult question: What defines a high crime or misdemeanor in the Constitution?"

Making the Best of a Trump Situation?? Lolita Baldor of the AP:"Defense Secretary Mark Esper says that under current plans all U.S. troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq and the military will continue to conduct operations against the Islamic State group to prevent its resurgence. Speaking to reporters traveling with him to the Middle East, Esper did not rule out the idea that U.S. forces would conduct counterterrorism missions from Iraq into Syria. But he said those details will be worked out over time. His comments were the first to specifically lay out where American troops will go as they leave Syria and what the counter-IS fight could look like. Esper said he has spoken to his Iraqi counterpart about the plan to shift the more than 700 troops leaving Syria into western Iraq. The developments made clear that one of ... Donald Trump's rationales for withdrawing troops from Syria was not going to come to pass any time soon. 'It's time to bring our soldiers back home,' he said Wednesday. But they are not coming home.... Reports of sporadic clashes continued between Turkish-backed fighters and the U.S.-allied Syria Kurdish forces despite a five-day cease-fire agreement hammered out on Friday between U.S. and Turkish leaders." ~~~

~~~ Juan Cole: "Trump claimed that 'we've taken control of the oil in the Middle East' as a result of his greenlight to Turkey to invade Syria. As usual, no one could understand what he was talking about.... [G]iven that the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad is an economic basket case, getting back those oil and gas fields would be, over time, a godsend. Or in this case Trumpsend. The Kurds have thrown in the towel and invited Bashar al-Assad's Syrian Arab Army and its Russian ally back into the northeast, which has 90% of Syria's oil and 45% of its natural gas.... The Russian press is speculating that Russian companies will be the ones to develop and benefit from these recovered fields." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump is so inept that his excuses for his screw-ups are completely unbelievable bald-faced lies. Bringing the troops home? Nope. Taking control of the oil? Ha ha ha.

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been a Witch? Adam Goldman & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors reviewing the origins of the Russia investigation have asked witnesses pointed questions about any anti-Trump bias among former F.B.I. officials who are frequent targets of President Trump and about the earliest steps they took in the Russia inquiry, according to former officials and other people familiar with the review. The prosecutors, led by John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, have interviewed about two dozen former and current F.B.I. officials, the people said. Two former senior F.B.I. agents are assisting with the review, the people said.... Closely overseen by [Attorney General Willaim] Barr, Mr. Durham and his investigators have sought help from governments in countries that figure into right-wing attacks and unfounded conspiracy theories about the Russia investigation, stirring criticism that they are trying to deliver Mr. Trump a political victory rather than conducting an independent review. And on Thursday, Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, tied Mr. Durham's investigation to the Ukraine scandal, infuriating people inside the Justice Department." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Seriously, isn't asking nonpartisan officials to disclose their political preferences the definition of a witch hunt? I wonder if Barr had agents ask the interviewees if they were "real Christians" or "militant secularists" aiming to "destroy the traditional moral order." ~~~

~~~ Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "A review launched by Attorney General William Barr into the origins of the Russia investigation has expanded significantly amid concerns about whether the probe has any legal or factual basis, multiple current and former officials told NBC News. The prosecutor conducting the review, Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, has expressed his intent to interview a number of current and former intelligence officials involved in examining Russia's effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, including former CIA Director John Brennan and former director of national intelligence James Clapper, Brennan told NBC News. Durham has also requested to talk to CIA analysts involved in the intelligence assessment of Russia's activities, prompting some of them to hire lawyers.... With Barr's approval, Durham has expanded his staff and the timeframe under scrutiny.... And he is now looking into conduct past Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2017, a Trump administration official said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Look for Trump to repeatedly claim, a la his fake birther "investigation," "You wouldn't believe what they're finding! Such corruption like you wouldn't believe! We're getting to the bottom of it, believe me. Democrat deep state!" and so forth.

Biance Bruno of Courthouse News Service: "The federal government likely separated an additional 1,250 immigrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border before formally announcing its 'zero tolerance' immigration policy, a Health and Human Services official told a federal judge Friday.... The additional separations will likely be confirmed before an Oct. 25 deadline ... in the expanded family separation class action he's presiding over in the Southern District of California." --s

Helena Evich of Politico [Oct. 15]: "[T]he Agriculture Department is doing little to help farmers adapt to what experts predict is the new norm: increasingly extreme weather across much of the U.S. The department, which has a hand in just about every aspect of the industry, from doling out loans to subsidizing crop insurance, spends just 0.3 percent of its $144 billion budget helping farmers adapt to climate change.... Even these limited efforts, however, have been severely hampered by the Trump administration's hostility to even discussing climate change, according to interviews with dozens of current and former officials, farmers and scientists." --s

CREW: "Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway has surpassed 50 violations of the Hatch Act on Twitter alone this past year and consequently violated the website's Terms of Service, according to a report released today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). As a result of Conway's past and apparently ongoing violations of the law using Twitter, the company could suspend Conway's use of its platform.... Twitter's Terms of Service require users to use the platform in compliance with all applicable laws." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, well, CREW will have about as much luck getting Twitter to enforce its rules against Conway as they've had getting Trump to enforce the law against Conway.

Ted Lieu [D-CA] press release: "Today, former prosecutors Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) and Congresswoman Kathleen Rice (D-NY) sent letters to the FBI, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission calling for an investigation following a Vanity Fair report of the suspicious timing around sales of e-mini futures contracts immediately prior to major geopolitical events or statements from Donald Trump." --s (Vanity Fair report also linked here October 17.)

Presidential Race 2020

"I Am Back." Holly Otterbein of Politico: "In his first rally since he suffered a heart attack, [Bernie Sanders] delivered a speech Saturday to a crowd [in Long Island City, N.Y.] his campaign estimated at 26,000 people, the largest number any Democratic presidential candidate has drawn this year. And he was joined by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the star liberal congresswoman who made her endorsement official onstage.... Against the backdrop of the Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing development in the nation, Sanders railed against ... Donald Trump, income inequality, racial disparities, status quo politics and the economic elite.... Ocasio-Cortez's nod has sent the unmistakable message that the battle for the left wing of the Democratic Party is not over. Both Sanders and [Elizabeth] Warren had been courting Ocasio-Cortez for months, meaning that his gain is indisputably her loss."

Congressional Race 2020. Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "Republican Rep. Francis Rooney (Fla.), who this week refused to rule out impeaching President Trump, announced Saturday that he won't seek reelection." (Also linked yesterday.)

Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post: "At 95, [President Jimmy Carter] is the longest-living president, has had the longest post-presidency period of any commander in chief and is one of just four U.S. presidents to have won the Nobel Peace Prize. This week, he reached another milestone: the longest presidential marriage. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, have been married for more than 73 years -- 26,766 days to be exact. That's more than the previous record holders, George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, who were married for 73 years and 102 days until Barbara's 2018 death.... They have been married for longer than more than half of all the U.S. presidents were alive. Twenty-five presidents had shorter life spans; plus, two living presidents -- Barack Obama and Bill Clinton -- have yet to reach that mile marker. (George W. Bush was born the day before the Carters married.) The Carters ... have known each other for as long as Rosalynn has been alive; she lived down the road in their hometown of Plains, Ga., and was a frequent playmate of Carter's little sister Ruth."

Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Former 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein slammed Hillary Clinton's accusations that she and 2020 Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard are Russian assets, calling Clinton's comments a 'wild and insulting theory.... I am not a Russian spy,' Stein said Saturday on CNN's 'Smerconish.'... Stein's campaign, which earned nearly 1.5 million votes in the 2016 election, was part of Russia's meddling efforts, according to a host of congressional reports, including a Senate Intelligence Committee report that indicated Russian social media efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election included messaging in support of Stein. She has compared Russian interference in the 2016 election with US overseas intelligence efforts and also praised WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2016 after WikiLeaks posted a trove of hacked Democratic National Committee emails, saying there was 'no question' he was a hero. In 2015, Stein traveled to Moscow to attend a dinner that was hosted by RT, the Russian television network, and was photographed seated at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Stein's "I am not a spy" assertion is a non-denial denial. Clinton said she was an asset -- an assertion backed up by the facts -- and an asset is different from a spy. At the very least, Stein is a "useful idiot," but her praise of Assange & tolerance of Russian election interference (on her behalf) makes her a willingly complicit asset, IMO.

Will Sommer of The Daily Beast: "After trying to launch his own cryptocurrency and failing to turn an Italian monastery into a training camp for Europe's far right, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has a new plan: teaming up with a Chinese spiritual movement that reportedly believes Trump will bring about Judgment Day." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Bannon's joint project is a ripped-from-the-headlines political "thriller" titled "Claws of the Red Dragon" airing on Trump's favorite cable channel One America featuring a fictional "intrepid reporter investigating Huawei stand-in 'Huaxing'" and proves "Chinese executives and officials are intent on undermining other countries, and Western institutions have been too cowardly or greedy to stand up to them." I'd rather watch "Claws Scratching a Blackboard."

Mrs. McCrabbie: I've avoided linking any articles about Mark Zuckerberg sharing Deep Thoughts By And About the Importance of Mark Zuckerberg, but Andrew Marantz of the New Yorker does a credible job of putting that phony, obnoxious twerp in his place.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hong Kong. Anne Marie Roantree & Marius Zaharia of Reuters: "Hong Kong police and protesters exchanged tear gas and petrol bombs as an illegal anti-government march that attracted tens of thousands descended into chaos, with hundreds of shops trashed and Chinese banks and metro stations targeted."

Mexico. The Mexican Wall. Reuters: "Mexico has deported over 300 Indian nationals to New Delhi, the National Migration Institute (INM) said late on Wednesday, calling it an unprecedented transatlantic deportation. The move follows a deal Mexico struck with the United States in June, vowing to significantly curb U.S.-bound migration in exchange for averting U.S. tariffs on Mexican exports.... INM said the deportees had been scattered in eight states around Mexico, including in southern Mexico from where many Indian migrants enter the country, hoping to transit to the U.S. border." --s

U.K. BBC: "Boris Johnson has sent a request to the EU for a delay to Brexit - but without his signature. The request was accompanied by a second letter, signed by Mr Johnson, which says he believes that a delay would be a mistake. The PM was required by law to ask the EU for an extension to the 31 October deadline after losing a Commons vote. EU Council President Donald Tusk tweeted that he had received the extension request. He added he would now consult EU leaders 'on how to react'. Hours after losing a crunch vote in a historic Saturday session in the House of Commons, the prime minister ordered a senior diplomat to send an unsigned photocopy of the request for a delay, which was forced on him by MPs last month.... The prime minister previously said he would 'rather be dead in a ditch' than ask the EU to delay Brexit." ~~~

~~~ Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Just as Britain appeared on the cusp of a history-making, up-or-down vote on its long-delayed departure from the European Union, the British Parliament struck an impasse on Saturday as lawmakers adopted a measure that delayed a vote on Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal with Brussels. The turbulent events left Mr. Johnson's agreement in limbo, legally obliging him to seek yet another extension for Britain's departure, which he had once vowed never to do. It was the latest twist in a debate that has convulsed the country ever since the British public voted in 2016 for a divorce from the European Union." See also the Guardian's liveblog. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ BBC: "Protesters are outside Parliament as MPs sit on a Saturday for the first time in 37 years. There were jubilant scenes as an amendment to the PM's deal was passed.... The measure ... withholds approval of Mr Johnson's deal and forces him to seek a delay...." With photos & videos. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marc Santora & Anna Schaverien of the New York Times: "As lawmakers huddled inside the House of Commons on Saturday to debate Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered outside the Palace of Westminster to demand that voters be given the final say on Brexit. Organizers said the protests drew about a million people, which would make it one of the largest demonstrations in British history. The stated desire of the marchers was to call for a second referendum on any Brexit deal that lawmakers approve, but most had a more basic goal. 'No Brexit' was the chant that echoed through the stately streets and grand avenues of the city on a crisp and sunny autumn afternoon."

News Ledes

Baltimore Sun: "Thomas D'Alesandro III, a former Baltimore mayor affectionately known as 'Young Tommy' and member of a storied political family, died at his North Baltimore home Sunday of stroke complications. He was 90 years old. The oldest brother of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mr. D'Alesandro was mayor for one tumultuous term, from 1967 to 1971, that was marked by the 1968 riots, racial strife and strikes by city laborers, bus drivers and symphony musicians."

New York Times: "Bill Macy, an actor best known for his role as Walter Findlay, Bea Arthur's harried husband, on the popular 1970s sitcom 'Maude,' died on Thursday night at his home in Los Angeles. He was 97."

The Commentariat -- October 19, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "Republican Rep. Francis Rooney (Fla.), who this week refused to rule out impeaching President Trump, announced Saturday that he won't seek reelection."

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been a Witch? Adam Goldman & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors reviewing the origins of the Russia investigation have asked witnesses pointed questions about any anti-Trump bias among former F.B.I. officials who are frequent targets of President Trump and about the earliest steps they took in the Russia inquiry, according to former officials and other people familiar with the review. The prosecutors, led by John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, have interviewed about two dozen former and current F.B.I. officials, the people said. Two former senior F.B.I. agents are assisting with the review, the people said.... Closely overseen by [Attorney General Willaim] Barr, Mr. Durham and his investigators have sought help from governments in countries that figure into right-wing attacks and unfounded conspiracy theories..., stirring criticism that they are trying to deliver Mr. Trump a political victory rather than conducting an independent review. And on Thursday, Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, tied Mr. Durham's investigation to the Ukraine scandal, infuriating people inside the Justice Department." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Seriously, isn't asking officials to disclose their political preferences the definition of a witch hunt?

Democrats Introduce THUG Act. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Democrats introduced legislation Friday that would block federal funding for next year's Group of Seven (G-7) summit at Trump National Doral Miami. Democratic Reps. Lois Frankel (Fla.), Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and Steve Cohen (Tenn.) introduced the Trump's Heist Undermines the G-7 (THUG) Act after acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters Thursday that the Trump resort near Miami will host the annual summit of world leaders June 10-12. A companion bill is being introduced in the Senate by Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.).... The legislation also would require Trump to provide Congress with any documents related to his decision to host the event at his property. The measure is unlikely to be taken up in the GOP-controlled Senate."

Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Just as Britain appeared on the cusp of a history-making, up-or-down vote on its long-delayed departure from the European Union, the British Parliament struck an impasse on Saturday as lawmakers adopted a measure that delayed a vote on Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal with Brussels. The turbulent events left Mr. Johnson's agreement in limbo, legally obliging him to seek yet another extension for Britain's departure, which he had once vowed never to do. It was the latest twist in a debate that has convulsed the country ever since the British public voted in 2016 for a divorce from the European Union." See also the Guardian's liveblog. ~~~

~~~ BBC: "Protesters are outside Parliament as MPs sit on a Saturday for the first time in 37 years. There were jubilant scenes as an amendment to the PM's deal was passed.... The measure ... withholds approval of Mr Johnson's deal and forces him to seek a delay...." With photos & videos.

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Mrs. McCrabbie: The other day I wrote, in the context of an unrelated absurd Trump stunt, "Next up: photos of Kurds on the run, yet happily giving the thumbs-up to the Turkish invasion." That was supposed to be a sick joke. Donald Trump not only didn't get the joke, he claimed it was reality: ~~~

     ~~~ ** Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "President Trump insisted Friday that Kurdish allies who were being forced from northern Syria to avoid slaughter are 'very happy about the way things are going,' describing the already breached ceasefire brokered with Turkey like a business deal. Mr. Trump made the comments at the White House a day after Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a ceasefire agreement from Turkey and hours after fighting in the region reportedly resumed." ~~~

     ~~~ It Was Worse Than That: Trump Endorsed Turkey's Ethnic Cleansing of the Kurds. Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump lavished praise Thursday on his 'friend' and 'hell of a leader' Recep Tayyip Erdogan.... Trump said the Turks needed to have a swath of Syria 'cleaned out' after battling with Syrian Kurds there.... 'For many, many years, Turkey, in all fairness, they've had a legitimate problem' with northeast Syria, where the Kurds are settled, Trump said.... 'They had terrorists, they had a lot of people in there they couldn't have ... and they had to have it cleaned out.'" Mrs. McC: What Trump means by "cleaned out" is what Erdogan has wanted all along: ethnically cleanse the region of Kurds. Erdogan is not "cleaning out" "terrorists"; he's "cleaning out" Kurds -- men, women & children. ~~~

~~~ Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Shelling and gunfire continued in northern Syria on Friday morning, casting further doubt on the feasibility of a cease-fire announced a day before by Vice President Mike Pence between Turkish and Kurdish forces and raising questions about whether the Americans can even enforce it. The Kurdish leadership in northern Syria accused the Turkish military and its proxies of violating the terms of the truce. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied that any fighting was continuing." (Also linked yesterday.)

He Was Not Amused. Mitch McConnell, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria is a grave strategic mistake. It will leave the American people and homeland less safe, embolden our enemies, and weaken important alliances. Sadly, the recently announced pullout risks repeating the Obama administration's reckless withdrawal from Iraq, which facilitated the rise of the Islamic State in the first place.... The threat [of terrorism] is real and cannot be wished away.... There is no substitute for American leadership.... We are not in this fight alone. In recent years, the campaigns against the Islamic State and the Taliban, in Iraq or Syria or Afghanistan, have been waged primarily by local forces. The United States has mainly contributed limited, specialized capabilities that enable our local partners to succeed. Ironically, Syria had been a model for this increasingly successful approach.... Unfortunately, the administration's recent steps in Syria do not reflect these crucial lessons. The combination of a U.S. pullback and the escalating Turkish-Kurdish hostilities is creating a strategic nightmare for our country." Update: The Hill has a summary of McConnell's op-ed. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I guess we are supposed to give Mitch credit for at long last standing up to Trump. But, um, the word "Trump" never appears in the op-ed linked above. Mitch does manage to criticize President Obama, by name, twice. Even though Trump alone gave Erdogan the greenlight to invade Northern Syria -- over the objections of every expert in his administration -- Mitch criticizes "the administration" for the "strategic mistake" ... when he's not using the passive voice.

AND He Was Not Amused. Borzou Daragahi of the U.K. Independent: "Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Donald Trump's recent letter ... 'was not in line with diplomatic and political courtesy. We will not forget this lack of respect. This is not a priority for us. But when the time comes we would like it to be known that we will take the necessary steps.' The extraordinary missive warned the Turkish leader not to be a 'fool' over Turkish plans to start a military campaign in northern Syria.... It emerged on Thursday that Mr Erdogan reacted angrily to the letter, throwing it in the bin and commencing the military offensive, which has left dozens of civilians dead and displaced hundreds of thousands." (Also linked yesterday.)

One Big Honking Conspiracy, Starring Rudy & the Don, with an International Cast of Other Shady Characters

Chris Hayes drew a through line between Trump's Turkey "policy" and his Ukraine "policy." The main guy pulling that line is Rudy Giuliani. It's kinda fascinating, and if Hayes' suppositions pan out, as I think they may, quite horrifying. Even if the one part of Hayes' analysis -- a line from Trump's dumb-schoolyard-bully letter to Erdogan -- is never fully exposed, the level of corruption that is already in evidence is staggering:

~~~ Here's another thread in the throughline that Hayes doesn't mention, but is certainly an element of the scheme: ~~~

     ~~~ Stephanie Baker & Irina Reznik of Bloomberg: "Associates of a Ukrainian oligarch fighting extradition to the U.S. were working to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden last summer in an effort to get Rudy Giuliani's help in the oligarch's legal case, according to three people familiar with the exchanges. Dmitry Firtash, charged with conspiracy by the U.S. and living in Vienna, shuffled lawyers in July to add Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, vocal supporters of ... Donald Trump who had worked with Giuliani. Around that time, some of Firtash's associates began to use his broad network of Ukraine contacts to get damaging information on Biden, the people said. DiGenova and Toensing have billed Firtash about $1 million for their work, one of the people said. That includes costs for Lev Parnas, a Giuliani associate, as a translator and important contact.... Parnas was arrested last week along with several associates and accused of conspiring to violate campaign-finance laws." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: (This is my "last free [Bloomberg] article"; since I think it's the only Bloomberg story I've clicked on this month, it might be your one & only free Bloomberg article, too.) Josh Kovensky of TPM covers the same ground & incorporates content from the linked Bloomberg story. Josh Marshall of TPM, calling out "the Big Dirty," writes, "And there it is, the other quid pro quo. Notorious Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash would help Rudy and DiGenova and Toensing cook up dirt on Joe Biden. In return, they'd work with Trump to get US corruption charges against Firtash tossed." ~~~

~~~ The Element of Truth. Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "Career diplomat George Kent told congressional investigators in his closed-door testimony this week that Rudy Giuliani asked the State Department and the White House to grant a visa to the former Ukrainian official who Joe Biden had pushed to have removed when he was vice president, according to four people familiar with Kent's testimony. Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, testified that around January 2019 Giuliani requested a visa for former Ukrainian prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin to travel to the United States. Shokin had been pushed out of his position as Ukraine's top prosecutor in 2016 after pressure from Western leaders, including Biden, over concerns that he was not pursuing corruption cases. Giuliani has previously told CNN he wanted to interview Shokin in person because the Ukrainian promised to reveal dirt on Democrats. Kent told congressional investigators the State Department had objected to the request, and State did not grant the visa. Giuliani, Kent said, then appealed to the White House to have State reverse its decision. The incident reveals how Giuliani's work to dig up dirt on Democrats went much further than previously understood -- and included an attempt to directly influence the actions of the federal government." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "A career State Department official overseeing Ukraine policy told congressional investigators this week that he had raised concerns in early 2015 about then-Vice President Joe Biden's son serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company but was turned away by a Biden staffer, according to three people familiar with the testimony. George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state, testified Tuesday that he worried that Hunter Biden's position at the firm Burisma Holdings would complicate efforts by U.S. diplomats to convey to Ukrainian officials the importance of avoiding conflicts of interest, said the people.... But when Kent raised the issue with Biden's office, he was told the then-vice president didn't have the 'bandwidth' to deal with the issue involving his son as his other son, Beau, was battling cancer, said the people familiar with his testimony. The testimony by Kent offers a reminder that as Democrats probe President Trump's alleged actions in pressuring Ukraine to dig up compromising information on Biden, the impeachment inquiry also threatens to keep alive questions about the former vice president's handling of his son's foreign work at a precarious moment for his 2020 presidential campaign." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Expect to hear a lot from Right Wing World about this bit of testimony. ~~~

~~~ Ken Vogel, et al., of the New York Times: Rudy "Giuliani has continued to represent clients, broker deals and take on consulting contracts in Washington and around the world in ways that leave him subject to criticism that he is using his role as President Trump's personal lawyer to open doors to the government and influence policy despite the questions about his own conduct. A few weeks ago, Mr. Giuliani secured a meeting, along with some other defense lawyers, with the head of the Justice Department's criminal division and attorneys in the fraud section. They were there to discuss a foreign bribery case for a client that Mr. Giuliani described as 'very, very sensitive.'... [Giuliani's growing client list] coincided with a heightened demand for back channels to Mr. Trump.... Business and political leaders -- particularly in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union -- were willing to pay handsomely for relationships with Trump intimates that could give them access in Washington or additional credibility and stature at home." ~~~

~~~ Ben Schreckinger & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico have been looking into Rudy's friend Lev Parnas of Lev & Igor fame. Here's how they begin: "On Oct. 25, 2008, the owner of a property in Florida in which Lev Parnas had been living told Parnas to leave. When the men began to argue and the owner told Parnas he would call the police, Parnas told the man, 'If you call the cops, they are not going to find you ever,' according to a petition for a restraining order filed by the landlord in Miami-Dade county court.... Three days later, the men met to discuss the matter again. According to the petition, Parnas held a gun to the man's head and said, 'This is my last warning to you,' then got into his car, a dark blue Porsche Cayenne, and drove off. Three days after that, on Halloween, the police seized from Parnas a .38 revolver, a 9mm pistol, an automatic pistol, and a .40-caliber Glock pistol, according to a court motion filed later by Parnas seeking return of the firearms. The condo at the heart of the dispute was on the 42nd floor of Trump Palace in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe this scene with Lev & the landlord at the "Trump Palace" should be the opening scene of the Trump impeachment movie. It's as if the American experience has been in search of this tawdry epic ever since Richard Nixon hired the Plumbers in 1971 and engaged "ratfuckers" to play dirty tricks on Democratic candidates. Trump's ratfuckers are so much sleazier than Nixon's.

Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "After a week of depositions from key figures in the impeachment inquiry, Democrats are coalescing around a push to prove that [Donald] Trump committed impeachable offenses at least partly by showing that Trump had intimate knowledge of and directed [Rudy] Giuliani's plans, goals and tactics. Buttressing their strategy is a modest but intensifying public outcry among Republicans over Giuliani's shadow diplomacy, in which the former New York City mayor sought to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and revive a debunked conspiracy theory about the 2016 election. And it's not just Democrats ... who represent safe liberal districts. Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.), a moderate freshman whose Orange County seat Republicans are targeting, said it is clear that Trump had a deep understanding of the details of Giuliani's Ukraine crusade. '... it's ... very clear from the evidence that President Trump directed members of the State Department to work directly with Giuliani in their efforts in Ukraine. So the nexus is there. There is no debating the facts.'"

Paul Brandus of USA Today: "... Donald Trump falls into every single sleazy category, squarely and shamelessly.... Meantime, finger-pointing at Hunter Biden diverts media attention -- a time-honored Trump tactic -- from his own children's brazen exploitation of their father's office. As Bloomberg's Stephanie Baker notes, they 'have continued working with foreign business partners from Dubai to Indonesia and India while their father sits in the White House.' First daughter Ivanka and hubby Jared Kushner raked in an estimated $82 million in 2017 alone, records show. 'Time and again,' notes the Los Angeles Times, 'Trump's children have blurred the lines of family, nation and business -- essentially the charge the president makes against the Bidens.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Stephanie Ebbs of ABC News: Energy Secretary Rick "Perry, who said he plans to step down by the end of the year..., and Energy Department lawyers told Congress they would not comply with a Friday deadline to respond to a congressional subpoena to provide information related to his work in [Ukraine].... Perry responded Friday in a letter to the committees that, in accordance with a previous White House letter rejecting other subpoenas, he would not comply until the House votes to authorize the impeachment inquiry Department lawyers also argue some of the documents requested are covered by executive privilege."

Jake Sherman of Politico: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fiercely criticized the House impeachment inquiry, saying his department is being treated unfairly as Democrats seek to remove ... Donald Trump from office.... Pompeo curtly declined to discuss [Rudy] Giuliani -- 'I have nothing to add,' he said -- or Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who testified in the impeachment inquiry after receiving a congressional subpoena. But America's top diplomat took aim at the Democrats for what he sees as an unfair process, where state secrets are being put at risk and the department is being afforded little visibility into what its current and former employees are saying. 'They're not letting State Department lawyers in the room .. they have not let State Department lawyers be part of these hearings,' Pompeo said. 'That's unheard of ... I haven't seen you all report that.'... Pompeo.s criticisms echo the House Republicans' strategy in dealing with the inquiry: He is rapping Democrats for the manner in which they are conducting their investigations, but not directly addressing the substance of the probe."

Michelle Goldman of the New York Times wants to know how Gordon Sondland thought this was going to end. "... people sell their souls all the time -- but why for something as small as a chance to serve a man whose depravity Sondland himself once recognized?... Sondland is desperately spinning to distance himself from this whole debacle, suggesting he knows he's at the center of something reprehensible. What I can't comprehend is how anyone could think that working for Trump would end up any other way.... While it may be a mistake to overestimate the acuity of Trump appointees, it's probably safe to say that Sondland knew exactly what he was involved with.... That's the thing about deals with the devil. You get what you want, and then it ruins you." (Also linked yesterday.)

Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) pushed back on the idea endorsed by the Trump administration this week that withholding foreign aid to other countries for political purposes is a routine and appropriate way of doing business. 'You don't hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative,' Murkowski, a senior appropriator, told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon. 'Period.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) said Friday that he has been increasingly concerned by revelations that have emerged regarding the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine and did not rule out the possibility of voting to impeach the president. The two-term congressman from a heavily Republican district told reporters he was 'shocked' by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's on-camera admission Thursday that Trump withheld military aid to secure a personal political priority, an investigation into possible Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election." Mediaite has a story here. ~~~

~~~ Alexandra Jaffe of the AP: "Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who ran against ... Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, said Friday that he supports impeaching the president -- but isn't ready to call for his removal from office. Kasich said he decided to back impeachment after hearing acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledge Thursday that Trump's decision to hold up military aid to Ukraine was linked to his demand that Ukraine investigate the Democratic National Committee and the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Mulvaney later claimed his remarks were misconstrued.... It marked a reversal for Kasich, who previously said he hadn't seen evidence of a quid pro quo on Trump's part."

HILLARY'S E-MAILS!!! BREAKING NEWS! STOP THE PRESSES! ... Uh, Nevermind. Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "A multiyear State Department probe of emails that were sent to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's private computer server concluded there was no systemic or deliberate mishandling of classified information by department employees, according to a report submitted to Congress this month. The report appears to represent a final and anticlimactic chapter in a controversy that overshadowed the 2016 presidential campaign and exposed Clinton to fierce criticism that she later cited as a major factor in her loss to President Trump. In the end, State Department investigators found 38 current or former employees 'culpable' of violating security procedures -- none involving material that had been marked classified -- in a review of roughly 33,000 emails that had been sent to or from the personal computer system Clinton used." Mrs. McC: Thankfully, Rudy Giuliani, Mick Mulvaney, Donald Trump, Lev & Igor, and a host of like-minded conspiracy theorists are still on the case.

Feel-Good Story. But for a Medium-Sized Spacesuit.... Hannah Devlin of the Guardian: "Two Nasa astronauts have embarked on the first all-female space walk in a historic first. Christina Koch and Jessica Meir floated feet-first out of the International Space Station's Quest airlock on Friday lunchtime UK time, tasked with replacing a failed power control unit. The spacewalk, known as an extra-vehicular activity (EVA) in astronaut jargon, took place seven months after the original planned date for an all-female outing, which had to be scrapped because the ISS had only one medium-sized spacesuit on board. The agency sent up a second medium spacesuit in October." Mrs. McC: Ah, well. At long last, some good news. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Feel-Good Story Ruined. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday spoke to two female astronauts participating in the first all-female space walk, cheering them as 'very brave, brilliant women' and praising their work on a call at the White House." Mrs. McC: I'm surprised he didn't tell them they looked hot in those tight-fitting spacesuits. (Also linked yesterday.)

Worst Judges Ever. Jennifer Bendery of The Huffington Post: "Senate Republicans voted Thursday to advance another of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees, Justin Walker, who earned a rare and embarrassing 'not qualified' rating from the American Bar Association. Every Republican on the Judiciary Committee voted to advance Walker ... to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote. Every Democrat voted no.... 'Mr. Walker's experience to date has a very substantial gap, namely the absence of any significant trial experience,' the ABA concluded. 'Mr. Walker has never tried a case as lead or co-counsel, whether civil or criminal.... In addition, based on review of his biographical information and conversations with Mr. Walker, it was challenging to determine how much of his ten years since graduation from law school has been spent in the practice of law.'" --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Scott Wong of the Hill: "The late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who died this week after a lengthy illness, will lie in state on Thursday in Statuary Hall, the old House chamber in the Capitol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced. A memorial service in the Capitol will be held Thursday morning for members of Congress, the Cummings family and special guests." ~~~

~~~ Nancy Pelosi pays tribute to Elijah Cummings in a Washington Post op-ed.

Presidential Race 2020

Dareh Gregorian & Monica Alba of NBC News: "In a recent interview, [Hillary] Clinton didn't mention Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii by name, but said she believes one candidate is 'the favorite of the Russians.... And that's assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she's also a Russian asset. She's a Russian asset! I mean totally. They know they can't win without a third-party candidate,' Clinton said. Asked if the former secretary of state was referring to Gabbard, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said, 'If the nesting doll fits...' Gabbard responded with a furious tweetstorm Friday afternoon, where she blasted Clinton as 'the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that sickened the Democratic Party for so long.'... Gabbard, who has defended Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said she has no plans for a third-party run.... An NBC News analysis in February showed Russian news sites and social media linked to the Kremlin were promoting Gabbard's candidacy in the run-up to her campaign announcement. That activity has continued in the months since, The New York Times reported this week." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This headline in the Babylon Bee -- "Hillary Clinton Asked To Leave Costco After Repeatedly Accusing Sample Lady Of Being A Russian Asset" -- is a spoof, of course. So when I saw this headline -- "Trump Writes Unhinged 'Legal' Letter Demanding That CNN Pay Him Money" -- I thought it was a spoof, too. ~~~

~~~ But No. Jonathan Chait: "This week, right-wing hoaxster James O'Keefe launched the latest of his series of secretly recorded videos, which purport to prove various conservative conspiracy theories but fail. The new version involves a CNN contractor recording employees grumbling about various complaints about the network, none of which establish the plot O'Keefe set out to prove, and some of which suggest the opposite (an employee complains that CNN covers Trump rallies but not Biden ones, which are too boring).... The project nonetheless seems to have left an impression on Donald Trump.... Trump has directed his lawyer to threaten a lawsuit against CNN on the basis of O'Keefe's flimsy video. The letter claims that O'Keefe has personally disproven CNN's claim to be a news network dedicated to reporting facts.... Continuing from this extremely shaky factual foundation..., Trump plans to 'seek compensatory damages, treble damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, reimbursement of legal costs, and all other available legal and equitable remedies.'... Trump's impulse here should not be merely dismissed as another ineffectual tantrum from the toddler president.... Trump has used his powers as president to punish independent media...."

Capitalism Is Deadly. David Gelles & Natalie Kitroeff of the New York Times: "For months, Boeing has said it had no idea that a new automated system in the 737 Max jet, which played a role in two fatal crashes, was unsafe. But on Friday, the company gave lawmakers a transcript revealing that a top pilot working on the plane had raised concerns about the system in messages to a colleague in 2016, more than two years before the Max was grounded because of the accidents, which left 346 people dead. In the messages, the pilot, Mark Forkner, who played a central role in the development of the plane, complained that the system ... was acting unpredictably in a flight simulator: 'It's running rampant.' The messages are from November 2016, months before the Max was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.... The company's chief executive, Dennis A. Muilenburg, is scheduled to testify before two congressional committees, on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30, the first time a Boeing executive has appeared at a hearing related to the crashes." The Chicago Tribune story is here.p>

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Gary Fineout of Politico: "A federal judge on Friday blocked a Florida law that puts restrictions on ex-felons seeking to have their voting rights restored, but only as it applies to the 17 people who challenged the law in federal court. The decision means that the legal battle will churn on.... U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle said there are sharp questions about whether or not the new law is unconstitutional, but said some questions will be resolved by the Florida Supreme Court or in a future federal trial.... Hinkle, however, did assert that the state can't deny someone's right to vote if they cannot afford to pay the fines, fees and restitution. A study presented by groups suing the state estimated that as many as 80 percent of felons eligible to vote under Amendment 4 still owed money."

Way Beyond

** U.K. Today is Brexit's "Super Saturday"; MPs are meeting on a Saturday for the first time since the Falkland Islands crisis in 1982 to argue & vote on a make-or-break Brexit deal. The Guardian has a guide to what to expect, and is liveblogging what actually happens. The New York Times' liveblog is here and has more explanatory text, which is written more in American-speak than the Guardian's so is pretty easy to understand.

The Commentariat -- October 18, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Jennifer Bendery of The Huffington Post: "Senate Republicans voted Thursday to advance another of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, Justin Walker, who earned a rare and embarrassing 'not qualified' rating from the American Bar Association. Every Republican on the Judiciary Committee voted to advance Walker ... to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote. Every Democrat voted no.... 'Mr. Walker’s experience to date has a very substantial gap, namely the absence of any significant trial experience,' the ABA concluded. 'Mr. Walker has never tried a case as lead or co-counsel, whether civil or criminal.... In addition, based on review of his biographical information and conversations with Mr. Walker, it was challenging to determine how much of his ten years since graduation from law school has been spent in the practice of law.'" --s

Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Shelling and gunfire continued in northern Syria on Friday morning, casting further doubt on the feasibility of a cease-fire announced a day before by Vice President Mike Pence between Turkish and Kurdish forces and raising questions about whether the Americans can even enforce it. The Kurdish leadership in northern Syria accused the Turkish military and its proxies of violating the terms of the truce. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied that any fighting was continuing."

He Was Not Amused. Borzou Daragahi of the U.K. Independent: "Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Donald Trump's recent letter ... 'was not in line with diplomatic and political courtesy. We will not forget this lack of respect. This is not a priority for us. But when the time comes we would like it to be known that we will take the necessary steps.' The extraordinary missive warned the Turkish leader not to be a 'fool' over Turkish plans to start a military campaign in northern Syria.... It emerged on Thursday that Mr Erdogan reacted angrily to the letter, throwing it in the bin and commencing the military offensive, which has left dozens of civilians dead and displaced hundreds of thousands."

John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: “A career State Department official overseeing Ukraine policy told congressional investigators this week that he had raised concerns in early 2015 about then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company but was turned away by a Biden staffer, according to three people familiar with the testimony. George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state, testified Tuesday that he worried that Hunter Biden’s position at the firm Burisma Holdings would complicate efforts by U.S. diplomats to convey to Ukrainian officials the importance of avoiding conflicts of interest, said the people.... But when Kent raised the issue with Biden’s office, he was told the then-vice president didn’t have the 'bandwidth' to deal with the issue involving his son as his other son, Beau, was battling cancer, said the people familiar with his testimony. The testimony by Kent offers a reminder that as Democrats probe President Trump’s alleged actions in pressuring Ukraine to dig up compromising information on Biden, the impeachment inquiry also threatens to keep alive questions about the former vice president’s handling of his son’s foreign work at a precarious moment for his 2020 presidential campaign.”

Paul Brandus of USA Today: “... Donald Trump falls into every single sleazy category, squarely and shamelessly.... Meantime, finger-pointing at Hunter Biden diverts media attention — a time-honored Trump tactic — from his own children's brazen exploitation of their father’s office. As Bloomberg's Stephanie Baker notes, they 'have continued working with foreign business partners from Dubai to Indonesia and India while their father sits in the White House.' First daughter Ivanka and hubby Jared Kushner raked in an estimated $82 million in 2017 alone, records show. 'Time and again,' notes the Los Angeles Times, 'Trump’s children have blurred the lines of family, nation and business — essentially the charge the president makes against the Bidens.'”

Michelle Goldman of the New York Times wants to know how Gordon Sondland thought this was going to end. "... people sell their souls all the time — but why for something as small as a chance to serve a man whose depravity Sondland himself once recognized?... Sondland is desperately spinning to distance himself from this whole debacle, suggesting he knows he’s at the center of something reprehensible. What I can’t comprehend is how anyone could think that working for Trump would end up any other way.... While it may be a mistake to overestimate the acuity of Trump appointees, it’s probably safe to say that Sondland knew exactly what he was involved with.... That’s the thing about deals with the devil. You get what you want, and then it ruins you."

Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: “Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) pushed back on the idea endorsed by the Trump administration this week that withholding foreign aid to other countries for political purposes is a routine and appropriate way of doing business. 'You don’t hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative,' Murkowski, a senior appropriator, told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon. 'Period.'”

But for a Medium-Sized Spacesuit.... Hannah Devlin of the Guardian: "Two Nasa astronauts have embarked on the first all-female space walk in a historic first. Christina Koch and Jessica Meir floated feet-first out of the International Space Station’s Quest airlock on Friday lunchtime UK time, tasked with replacing a failed power control unit. The spacewalk, known as an extra-vehicular activity (EVA) in astronaut jargon, took place seven months after the original planned date for an all-female outing, which had to be scrapped because the ISS had only one medium-sized spacesuit on board. The agency sent up a second medium spacesuit in October." Mrs. McC: Ah, well. At long last, some good news. ~~~

     ~~~ Feel-Good Story Ruined. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: “President Trump on Friday spoke to two female astronauts participating in the first all-female space walk, cheering them as 'very brave, brilliant women' and praising their work on a call at the White House.” Mrs. McC: I'm surprised he didn't tell them they looked hot in those tight-fitting spacesuits.

~~~~~~~~~~

Trump, Inc. -- The Corruption Confession

Did he also mention to me in the past the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely, no question about that. But that’s it, and that’s why we held up the money. -- Mick Mulvaney, on Trump's Ukraine quid pro quo

We have a confession. -- Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) ~~~

~~~ ** A Shakedown Is Legal if Trump Does It. Michael Shear & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, threw the Trump’s administration defense against impeachment into disarray on Thursday when he said that the White House withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine to further President Trump’s political interests. Mr. Mulvaney told a room full of journalists in a White House briefing that was televised live that the aid was withheld in part until Ukraine investigated an unsubstantiated theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for hacking Democratic Party emails in 2016 — a theory that would show that Mr. Trump was elected without Russian help.... Mr. Mulvaney pointed to 'three issues' that explained why officials withheld the aid: corruption in Ukraine, frustration that European governments were not providing more money to Ukraine and the president’s demand that Kiev officials investigate the issue of the Democratic National Committee server.... Asked whether he had admitted to a quid pro quo, Mr. Mulvaney said, 'We do that all the time with foreign policy.'... The declaration by Mr. Mulvaney, which he took back later in the day, undercut Mr. Trump’s repeated denials of a quid pro quo that linked American military aid for Ukraine to an investigation that could help Mr. Trump politically.... Jay Sekulow, one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers, said Thursday, 'The president’s legal counsel was not involved in acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s press briefing.'... By day’s end, after Mr. Trump told aides to clean up the mess, Mr. Mulvaney issued a statement flatly denying what he had earlier said.... Democrats ridiculed the reversal.... Mr. Mulvaney blasted the current and former administration officials who have testified in the impeachment inquiry....” (This is a substantial update to a story linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Lie Falls Apart. John Hudson & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters Thursday that President Trump blocked nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine in part to force the government in Kyiv to investigate his political rivals, a startling acknowledgment after the president’s repeated denials of a quid pro quo." CNN's story (which has been updated) is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Allan Smith of NBC News: "Mulvaney's admission angered and confused allies of Trump inside and outside the administration, according to two people familiar with the matter. One of them called Mulvaney’s comments in the White House briefing room 'an unmitigated disaster.'" Mulvaney claimed in the briefing that another reason for blocking Ukraine military aid was to make certain Ukrainians "'were cooperating in an ongoing investigation with our Department of Justice.' A senior Justice Department official said in response: 'If the White House was withholding aid from Ukraine with regard to any investigation by the Justice Department, that’s news to us.'"

     ~~~ The Times reprises the Q&A at the press briefing re: Ukraine & contrasts those remarks with Mulvaney's attempt to walk back his confession. Mrs. McC: Say, Mick, if you're going to confess to crimes & implicate your boss, maybe don't do it on national teevee.  ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Chait: "A few weeks ago, Republicans were still insisting that Donald Trump’s diplomatic posture toward Ukraine did not involve any quid pro quo — and if such a thing had happened, it would be bad. “There was no quid pro quo, you’d have to have that if there was going to be anything wrong,” said Senator Charles Grassley on September 25.... Mulvaney’s matter-of-fact manner [of endorsing Trump's abuse of the presidency] is merely a tonal shift announcing to his fellow partisans that they can stop denying Trump uses foreign policy to gin up overseas investigations of his domestic rivals and start defending it."

     ~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM provides a good explanation of Mulvaney's assertion that Trump wanted Ukraine to get to the bottom of the “'corruption related to the DNC server.'... It is ... a reference to the Seth Rich/DNC Server conspiracy theory[:]... Not only did Donald Trump not collude with Russia during the 2016 campaign. Russia didn’t even interfere in the election at all. Both were framed by a conspiracy between Ukraine and the DNC. The server is the DNC server that the Russians hacked. It’s ‘missing’, so the conspiracy theory goes, because a cybersecurity firm called Crowdstrike was part of the conspiracy and they made it look like the Russians had hacked the servers when in fact it was an inside job by a disgruntled DNC employee. And which employee? Seth Rich.... That was why the White House held up military aid. And if there’s any question that this was an offhand remark by Mulvaney, remember: Trump explicitly invoked the “Crowdstrike server” in his call with Zelensky.” ~~~

     ~~~ Fortunately for Trump, Mulvaney, Giuliani & sundry conspiracy theorists, Devin Nunes is still around. Betsy Swan & Sam Brodey of the Daily Beast: During Sondland's hearing, “Nunes (R-CA) brought up ... the Steele dossier. The context, according to three sources familiar with the episode, was his effort to explain why President Trump might be 'upset' about Ukraine. Nunes ... said some of the dossier’s contents dealt with Ukraine, and that the Clintons paid for it. Some attendees said it seemed oddly divorced from the topic at hand -- namely, whether Trump pressured the Ukrainian government to investigate one of his political opponents. 'It was nutso,' said one person familiar with the exchange. 'It was awkward.'” Mrs. McC: Hey, it was Devin.

Nicholas Fandos & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: “Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, will tell House impeachment investigators on Thursday that President Trump essentially delegated American foreign policy on Ukraine to his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, a directive that he will say he disagreed with but nonetheless followed. Mr. Sondland, a Trump campaign donor who has emerged as a central figure in the Ukraine scandal, will testify that he did not understand until later that Mr. Giuliani’s goal may have been an effort 'to involve Ukrainians, directly or indirectly in the president’s 2020 re-election campaign.' According to a copy of his opening statement obtained by the New York Times, Mr. Sondland will say that Mr. Trump refused to take the counsel of his top diplomats, who recommended to him that he meet with the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, without any preconditions. The president said that the diplomats needed to satisfy concerns both he and Mr. Giuliani had related corruption in Ukraine, Mr. Sondland will say.... Mr. Sondland arrived on Capitol Hill on Thursday morning to take his turn in the secure rooms of the House Intelligence Committee....” The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Sondland's opening statement is here, via NBC News. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Mulvaney's confession -- stories linked above -- was Mulvaney's idea of how to mop up after Sondland's opening statement, released this morning. ~~~

~~~ “Gordon Sondland’s Ukraine Alibi: I Was the Dumbest Diplomat Ever.” Jonathan Chait: “In his testimony, Sondland claims he 'did not understand, until much later, that Mr. Giuliani’s agenda might have also included an effort to prompt the Ukrainians to investigate Vice President Biden or his son,' and that such an investigation 'would be wrong.' To grasp how utterly absurd this excuse is, consider a few facts. On May 1, the New York Times ran a lengthy front-page story about Biden and Ukraine, describing and detailing Trump’s agenda of ginning up charges against his likely opponent. The word Burisma appears 36 times in that story. The Times also ran follow-ups on May 9 and May 11.... Generally speaking, professional diplomats tend to be aware of front-page New York Times stories about the president’s deep, personal interest in the country they are negotiating with.... If Sondland had boycotted all the mainstream news coverage..., he definitely caught the right-wing media’s even more thorough coverage, all of which made the connection with the Bidens extremely clear.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Maggie Haberman & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Rick Perry, the energy secretary who has drawn scrutiny for his role in the controversy surrounding President Trump’s efforts to push Ukraine officials to investigate the son of a political rival, on Thursday told the president he would resign from the cabinet.... It is not known exactly when Mr. Perry will leave his post, but it is expected soon." The CNBC story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ An occasion to give this old favorite one last whirl:

~~~~~~~~~~~

Mrs. McCrabbie: Last week, Akhilleus laid out the steps of a Trump Scandal Cycle. Akhilleus applied the steps to a scandal that is in progress (the Lev & Igor sideshow). Allow me to fill in the particulars re: the Trump-Zelensky shakedown, a cycle which now is complete:

Step One: Deny. It was a perfect phone call.

Step Two: Attack. The whistleblower is practically a traitor, and what he says is all second-hand lies.

Step Three: Tacit admission but accept no responsibility. Here's the transcript of the call. Ukraine corruption is terrible.

Step Four: Admission with CYA qualifications. There was no quid pro quo.

Step Five: Conspiracy time. Everyone's out to get me because I'm so great. Those wonderful gentlemen were just trying to help me against the deep state.... (by Akhilleus) Nancy Pelosi & Adam Schiff are traitors and should be impeached.

Step Six: Find someone else to blame. Deep state infiltrating White House (so cut down NSC staff & "investigate" to find scapegoat).

Step Seven: New scandal. Doral G-7 (see next linked stories).

~~~~~~~~~~~

Earlier in Mulvaney's confessional/press briefing ~~~

~~~ Self-Dealing Is Okay if Trump Does It. President* Trump Awards Businessman* Trump a Huge Government Contract. Toluse Olorunnipa & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: “President Trump has awarded the 2020 G-7 Summit of world leaders to his own private company, scheduling the summit for June at his Trump Doral golf resort outside Miami, the White House announced on Thursday. That decision is without precedent in modern American history: the president used his public office to direct a massive contract to himself.... Trump’s Doral resort — set among office parks near Miami International Airport — has been in sharp decline in recent years, according to the Trump Organization’s own records. Its net operating income fell 69 percent from 2015 to 2017; a Trump Organization representative testified last year that the reason was Trump’s damaged brand. Now, the G-7 summit will draw hundreds of diplomats, journalists and security personnel to the resort during one of its slowest months of the year, when Miami is hot and the hotel is often less than 40 percent full. It will also provide a worldwide spotlight for the club.... The administration examined 10 sites before choosing this one, according to Mulvaney, who then quoted an anonymous site selection official who he said told him, 'It’s almost like they built this facility to host this type of event.' Mulvaney did not say what other sites were vetted — just that they were all worse.... Mulvaney said the White House was not going to release information about the selection process. 'If you want to see our paper on how we did this, the answer is absolutely not,' he said.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Apparently, President Donald Trump no longer sees fit even to pretend that he is constrained by the law or the Constitution. He doesn’t care to disguise his contempt for the rule of law. -- Robert Weissman of Public Citizen

~~~ Katie Rogers & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: “Legal experts said hosting the Group of 7 summit at the Doral might violate the Constitution in two ways. First, the Constitution prohibits the president from accepting a gift or payment from a foreign government source, technically called a foreign emolument. And second, the president is prohibited from taking any kind of payment from the federal government that is beyond his salary.” ~~~

~~~ Toluse  Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: “In admitting that Trump had personally intervened to award a multimillion-dollar summit to his own company, and that the president had also used taxpayer money as leverage to push a Ukrainian investigation into Democrats, Mulvaney embraced a classic Trumpian tactic: saying the quiet — and potentially illegal — part out loud.... Mulvaney did not say what other sites were vetted. But he did say how Trump’s property got on the list of properties under consideration: Trump suggested it. 'We had the list, and he goes, “What about Doral?” Mulvaney said, recounting the president’s comments in the White House dining room. 'And it was like that’s — that’s not the craziest idea.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: They chose the Doral in the White House dining room? What was the selection process? A drinking game? ~~~

~~~ Should you still be confused by any of this in-your-face corruption, Paul Campos, in LG&$ puts it simply: "This is the most unambiguous possible violation of the emoluments clause, short of sending the leaders of the G7 certified letters informing them that the president will consider their requests on a cash-only basis[.]... The point is to steal everything that isn’t nailed down, and to do it right out in the open, with total impunity, because this is basically a banana republic now.. . . All this is either a pure political smash & grab, or we’re not having real elections next year. Either interpretation seems fairly plausible right now."

Create a Crisis, Retreat, Declare Victory and Move On *

Bethan McKernan of the Guardian: "Fighting is continuing on the border between Syria and Turkey, according to witnesses, despite an announcement from the US vice-president, Mike Pence, that Ankara had agreed to a five-day ceasefire to allow the US supervision of the withdrawal of Kurdish forces from the area." ~~~

~~~ pence Displaces Kurdish People, Bows to Erdogan. Annie Karni, et al., of the New York Times: “Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday said Turkey had agreed to suspend its military operations in northeast Syria for five days while Syrian Kurdish fighters left the area, immediately raising questions about whether the agreement was a diplomatic breakthrough or a capitulation to the Turkish government. Emerging from close to five hours of deliberations with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mr. Pence said that the American delegation had achieved the cease-fire it had hoped to broker in the hastily organized trip to Ankara, the Turkish capital. Hailing the agreement as a diplomatic victory for President Trump, he called it a ‘solution we believe will save lives.'... But Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, immediately countered that the agreement was not a cease-fire at all, but merely a 'pause for our operation.' He added that 'as a result of our president’s skillful leadership, we got what we wanted.' Mr. Cavusoglu also directly contradicted Mr. Pence’s announcement that Turkey had agreed to engage in no military action in Kobani, Syria. 'We did not make any promises about Kobani,' Mr. Cavusoglu said, adding that they would discuss Kobani with Russia going forward.... [The agreement] was in practice less of a cease-fire deal than an acknowledgement of the United States’ rapid loss of influence in Syria since the Turkish invasion began last Wednesday.” ~~~

     ~~~ USA Today has a story here. Chuck Todd says the U.S. is beating such a hasty retreat that we're bombing our bases so the Turks don't get 'em. Mrs. McC: Not only did Trumpence give the Kurds' region to Turkey, I haven't seen where we're not knocking ourselves out helping the displaced Kurds relocate. ~~~

I’m happy to report tremendous success with respect to Turkey. This is an amazing outcome. -- Donald Trump, Thursday afternoon ~~~

~~~ David Sanger & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The cease-fire agreement reached with Turkey by Vice President Mike Pence amounts to a near-total victory for Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who gains territory, pays little in penalties and appears to have outmaneuvered President Trump.... The cost for Kurds, longtime American allies in the fight against the Islamic State, is severe: Even Pentagon officials were mystified about where tens of thousands of displaced Kurds would go, as they moved south from the Turkey-Syria border as required by the deal — if they agree to go at all. And the cost to American influence, while hard to quantify, could be frightfully high." Pence also said the Trump administration would lift sanctions against Turkey. Trump's cave to Turkey is also a win for Russia, Iran & Syria. "Several civilian and military officials complained that the broadly worded deal left large policy and logistical gaps to fill, with many questions about how to carry out commitments by the two sides that appeared to contradict the fast-moving situation on the ground." ~~~

~~~ Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The deal agreed between the US and Turkey immediately achieved the priority objective of vice-president Mike Pence’s peace mission to Ankara: Donald Trump was able to claim victory on Twitter.... The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, also scored a quick win. The threat of US administration sanctions was suspended and his occupation of the Turkish-Syrian border zone was given an extra layer of respectability. Otherwise it was hard to pinpoint what the 13-point document produced in Ankara actually meant.... Washington had been in touch with the actual combatants on the ground, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but appears to have sold them a completely different deal....[According to] Charles Lister, a Syria expert at the Middle East Institute[:] 'So everyone seems to be talking a different language, which can only spell more trouble.'" --s ~~~

~~~ Zeke Miller of the AP: “... Donald Trump framed the U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal with Turkey as 'a great day for civilization' but its effect was largely to mitigate a foreign policy crisis widely seen to be of his own making.... The cease-fire [agreement between pence & Erdogan] codifies nearly all of Turkey’s stated goals in the conflict.... In the negotiations, a senior U.S. official said, Pence and national security adviser Robert O’Brien expressed condolences to Erdogan and his military commanders over their dead and injured in the week-long campaign.... A senior U.S. official insisted that the agreement was negotiated in consultation with Kurdish forces and Pence said the U.S. would 'facilitate' the Kurds’ pullout, but he did not say if that would include the use of American troops.... Before the talks, the Kurds indicated they would object to any agreement along the lines of what was announced by Pence.” ~~~

I earned my spurs on the battlefield … and Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor. -- Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, in response to Trump's calling him “the world’s most overrated general”

David Nexon, in the Atlantic, explains why Trump is incapable of handling: “... Trump’s primary interest lies in his own advancement. His information environment is dominated by Fox News and fever-swamp, right-wing conspiracy theories. He’s also all short-term tactics and no long-term strategy. Trump seems to be simply incapable of the kind of strategic thought required for foreign policy. In a devastating Atlantic article, Mark Bowden interviewed numerous U.S. generals who attest that Trump refuses to work through how other countries might respond to his actions. He just wants to make 'gut' decisions, which means that he neither anticipates nor plans for contingencies. This makes him fundamentally reactive.”

Now We Can Feel Safe & Secure. Vladimir Soldatkin of Reuters: "Russia and the United States are gradually starting to resume cooperation on cyber security, TASS news agency cited the head of Russia’s FSB Federal Security Service as saying on Thursday."

Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: “William P. Barr just gave the worst speech by an Attorney General of the United States in modern history. Speaking at the University of Notre Dame last Friday, Barr took “religious liberty” as his subject, and he portrayed his fellow-believers as a beleaguered and oppressed minority. He was addressing, he said, 'the force, fervor, and comprehensiveness of the assault on religion we are experiencing today. This is not decay; this is organized destruction.' Historically illiterate, morally obtuse, and willfully misleading, the speech portrays religious people in the United States as beset by a hostile band of 'secularists.'... Barr claims the mantle of victimhood in order to press for a right-wing political agenda.”

* Mrs. McCrabbie: I borrow the "Create a Crisis/Declare Victory" headline from a July 2019 Japan Times article. The article had expired, so I don't know what it was about, but the author, whoever s/he may be, described it as "the Trump pattern" and cited an earlier instance in which Trump had used the same template. IOW, it is the Trump playbook.