The Commentariat -- March 16, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Aaron Davis & Marina Lopes of the Washington Post: "The FAA's publication of pilot training requirements for the Max 8 in the fall of 2017 [--which did not mention the new anti-stall software --] was among the final steps in a multiyear approval process carried out under the agency's now 10-year-old policy of entrusting Boeing and other aviation manufacturers to certify that their own systems comply with U.S. air safety regulations. In practice, one Boeing engineer would conduct a test of a particular system on the Max 8, while another Boeing engineer would act as the FAA's representative, signing on behalf of the U.S. government that the technology complied with federal safety regulations, people familiar with the process said.... The process was occurring during a period when the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General was warning the FAA that its oversight of manufacturers' work was insufficient. In the years between the time Boeing launched the Max 8 design in 2011 and the first plane rolled out of production in 2016, the inspector general criticized the FAA's handling of the 'self-certification' system in three successive reports."

Emanuel Stoakes & Gerry Shih of the Washington Post: "The primary suspect in Friday's deadly shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, appeared in court on Saturday. Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, did not enter a plea on one count of murder and made a white power gesture from the dock. Authorities have two more suspects in custody. New Zealand's [Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern] vowed its 'gun laws will change.' Suspect had license to carry the types of guns used in deadly attacks.... Ardern said Tarrant had modified guns used in the killing that left at least 49 dead, and Attorney General David Parker says the government will ban semiautomatic rifles."

Frances Robles, et al., of the New York Times explore Li "Cindy" Yang's endeavors in her pay-for-play shenanigans at Mar-a-Lago. It certainly appears she has engineered illegal contributions to Trump's re-election committee. "Over the weeks leading up to the event, at least nine people in Ms. Yang's orbit, some of them with modest incomes, made donations at exactly $5,400. She ended up at the dinner.... One of the $5,400 political donations came from a 25-year old woman who gives facials at a beauty school, in a strip mall in nearby Palm Beach Gardens that is owned by Ms. Yang's family. Another $5,400 came from a woman who says she worked as a receptionist at a massage parlor owned by Ms. Yang's husband. A third gift of $5,400 came from an associate of Ms. Yang's who had been charged in 2014 after a prostitution sting with practicing health care without a license, police records show."

~~~~~~~~~~

You know what I am? I'm a nationalist, O.K.? I'm a nationalist. Nationalist! Use that word! Use that word! -- Donald Trump, at a rally in October 2018

In Wake of Mass Murder, Trump Fails to Condemn White Nationalism. Shannon Vavra of Axios: "Following the fatal mosque shootings in New Zealand, President Trump said Friday he thinks white nationalists make up just 'a small group of people,' when asked if he believes white nationalism is a 'rising threat.' 'I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess. If you look what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that's the case. I don't know enough about it yet ... But it's certainly a terrible thing.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Once again, when it was especially necessary, Trump was unwilling to condemn white nationalism. And why would he? He is a white nationalist. ...

     ... Nick Confessore of the NYT, appearing on MSNBC, noted that Trump uses the same language avowed white nationalists do; for instance, both speak of the "invasion" of non-whites. ...

     ... Update: Alex Ward of Vox: "... Donald Trump just used similar language to describe immigrants coming into the United States that the alleged mass shooter did to justify killing nearly 50 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand.... During a veto signing ceremony [more on that farce below], Trump explained why he felt a national emergency was warranted to stop migrants from entering the US. 'People hate the word "invasion," but that's what it is,' he said.... In the rambling 74-page manifesto the 28-year-old suspected shooter posted online shortly before the attack, he writes that he was committing the killings 'to show the invaders that our lands will never be their lands.' It's also the same language the man who killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last October used: In that case, the perpetrator blamed Jews for helping what he called 'invaders' in the Central American migrant caravans who were trying to enter the US.... [Trump's] rhetoric around both Muslims and immigrants echos some of the same exact tropes that white nationalist extremists frequently traffic in -- and it has for a long time." ...

... David Jackson of USA Today: "... Donald Trump appeared to use Twitter around midnight Thursday to promote a website with an interview in which he explained how 'tough' his supporters could get -- but the tweet had disappeared as of Friday morning. In his chat with the Breitbart News Network, Trump said: 'I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump -- I have the tough people, but they don't play it tough -- until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.'... 'I think it sounds very much to me like he's encouraging them to engage in something that's probably illegal such as assaulting people, you know behave in a dangerous way,' said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, speaking on MSNBC. 'That sounds like a threat to me. I think it's appalling.' Social media users criticized Trump for posting the article as news was breaking about the shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 49 people dead. On Friday morning, Trump tweeted a condemnation of the the attacks." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It appears to me that Trump -- or a staff member -- realized it was "bad optics" to favoriably tweet about violence against "the left" right after one of his admirers murdered dozens of Muslim worshippers & posted the killing spree on social media. Bad timing, sure, but I doubt Trump's sentiment has changed. ...

... Brian Klaas, in a Washington Post op-ed, writes "a short history of President Trump's anti-Muslim bigotry.... Trump is an Islamophobic bigot.... Upon taking office, Trump surrounded himself with anti-Muslim bigots.... Hollow statements of condolence are meaningless if you are willing to turn around and support an Islamophobic bigot in the White House who makes those condolences more necessary.... If we want to stop such massacres, we need to work much harder to stamp out hate and bigotry in society -- and part of that is to stop electing or supporting hateful bigots." ...

... Nicole Lafond of TPM: "In response to the massacre in New Zealand on Friday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) -- one of two Muslim women in Congress -- condemned 'white supremacists' in the U.S. who influence attacks around the world." --s ...

... Wajahat Ali in the New York Times: "All those who have helped to spread the worldwide myth that Muslims are a threat have blood on their hands." Ali calls out Donald Trump, Steve King & other white nationalists for their anti-Muslim rhetoric that stokes fear & hatred. ...

... Zack Ford of ThinkProgress: "In the wake of the deadly New Zealand shootings targeting two mosques, Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) issued a statement condemning the violence. He also suggested that the alleged shooter's apparent motivations were valid concerns that could have been addressed through either the courts or the legislature.... Gohmert did not specifically offer condolences to the victims or their families.... Gohmert was one of 24 House Republicans who refused to vote for last week's resolution condemning bigotry." --s ...

... Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Right from the twisted start, those who plotted to kill worshipers at two New Zealand mosques depended on the passive incompetence of Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms. They depended on the longtime priorities of the tech giants who, for years, have concentrated on maximizing revenue, not protecting safety or decency.... Many hours after the massacre, a horrific 17-minute video -- showing a man in black shooting with a semiautomatic rifle at those running from mosques and shooting into piles of bodies -- could still be easily accessed on YouTube.... As violence goes more and more viral, tech companies need to deal with the crisis that they have helped create." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

The attackers' civilized, European response to living among people not like them is barbarism. -- Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo ...

... C.J. Werleman of the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald: The New Zealand mosque murderer "represents the dangerous convergence between broken white men and extreme right-wing media, bearing in mind that 100 per cent of all terrorist attacks carried out on US soil in 2018 were carried out by right-wing extremists, with the Southern Poverty Law Centre crediting a' toxic combination of political polarisation, anti-immigrant sentiment and modern technologies that help spread propaganda online'. These kind of attacks are being carried out in increased frequency and ferocity in mosques, synagogues, and black churches throughout the Western world, with a notable common denominator: the gunmen are always white, male and fuelled by consumption of right-wing media.... Whereas anti-Semitism, anti-black and anti-Asian racism are rightfully and routinely condemned, Islamophobia remains the only form of racism that remains within socially acceptable limits. Last week, for instance, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro suggested America's first elected black Muslim congresswoman would not be loyal to the US constitution because she wears a hijab...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Amanda Meade of the Guardian: "Sky New Zealand has pulled fellow broadcaster Sky News Australia off air until the channel stops broadcasting clips from the Christchurch mosque shooter's Facebook live stream. In a tweet posted on Saturday morning, Sky New Zealand, an independently-owned broadcaster, said it had decided to remove the Australian 24-hour news channel from its platform because of the distressing footage.... Despite a plea from New Zealand police, Rupert Murdoch's Australian pay-TV channel was among the broadcasters that chose to screen [the video.]... Sky News Australia has been broadcasting the footage repeatedly, sparking anger on social media." --s ...

... It's Never Wingers' Fault. Caleb Ecarma of Mediaite: "Rush Limbaugh promoted a fringe conspiracy that suggests the Christchurch, New Zealand Mosque massacre may have been a false flag attack carried out by a 'leftist' to 'to smear' right-wingers.... Limbaugh was repeating a conspiracy promoted on online, fringe cesspools, like 4chan's /pol/ and the /r/The_Donald subreddit, during the immediate aftermath of the shooting." ...

... Guardian: "Mosques in New Zealand and around the world have been inundated with floral tributes and messages of support after a massacre in Christchurch that killed 49 Muslims. The strongest response from the public was in New Zealand, which is reeling in the wake of the worst peacetime mass killing in the nation's history. Unable to reach the mosques that were targeted by the shooter because of a cordon, people left piles of flowers and cards as close as they were allowed to go." --s ...

... Spencer Ackerman, et al. of The Daily Beast: "[F]ewer than a fifth of the FBI's open terrorism investigations focus on people without connections to international extremist organizations. It's a proxy figure that highlights what former counterterrorism officials consider an insufficient focus on far-right violence.... Out of about 5,000 open terrorism investigations, 900 probe domestic terrorism, according to FBI data.... 'Domestic terrorism' is an umbrella category that includes far more than just far-right terrorism, but functions as the most granular data available to indicate how federal law enforcement targets white supremacist violence." --s

Look! Trump signed something.Bill Barr Overtly Politicized the DOJ. Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday issued the first veto of his presidency, rejecting legislation that opposed his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall along the southern border. The bill blocking Mr. Trump's emergency declaration had attracted significant Republican support in Congress.... The president called the resolution 'dangerous' and 'reckless.' The president was flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William P. Barr and Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary. Mr. Barr said that the president's emergency order was 'clearly authorized under the law' and 'solidly grounded in law.' The president's veto, which was expected, will send the legislation back to Congress, which most likely does not have enough votes for an override, meaning that Mr. Trump's declaration will remain in effect." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: In yesterday's Comments, Akhilleus made fun of Trump for this ceremonial show veto: "It seems like every time Trump signs some bill in the Oval Office, surrounded by selected members of the press and a passel of obsequious toadies, he holds up the document, freshly scribbled gigantic John Hancock down below, to show it off to the assembled group. As if he's a five year old showing mom and dad that he can too write his name. I cannot, for the life of me, recall any other president going through this same embarrassing ritual whereat they sign a bill then hold it up and waggle it around in this fashion." You should read the whole comment. But it's even worse than Akhilleus lets on. Real presidents don't "sign vetoes." Rather, they return the bills to Congress, unsigned. As Brian Williams put it on MSNBC, "Somebody gave Trump some kind of document to sign & pass around the room."

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump put in another plug Friday for a group that seeks to lure Jews from the Democratic Party, writing that 'Republicans are waiting with open arms' in a tweet sent shortly after he used Twitter to condemn deadly attacks on New Zealand mosques.... 'The "Jexodus" movement encourages Jewish people to leave the Democrat Party,' Trump wrote. 'Total disrespect! Republicans are waiting with open arms. Remember Jerusalem (U.S. Embassy) and the horrible Iran Nuclear Deal!'... The timing of Trump's latest tweet was panned by many pundits on Twitter.... 'Trump is now stoking religious division immediately after tweeting out a post-#ChristchurchMosqueAttack condolence message. Add it to the pile,' wrote Kevin Baron, executive editor of Defense One, a publication devoted to national security." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe it's just me, but I do find the term "Jexodus" to be anti-Semitic. ...

... Matthew Yglesias of Vox explains the origins behind the fake "Jexodus" peddled by Trump. --s

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday insisted there should be no report from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, denouncing the investigation as 'illegal.' 'So, if there was knowingly & acknowledged to be 'zero' crime when the Special Counsel was appointed, and if the appointment was made based on the Fake Dossier (paid for by Crooked Hillary) and now disgraced Andrew McCabe (he & all stated no crime), then the Special Counsel ... should never have been appointed and there should be no Mueller Report,' the president tweeted Friday.... The president on Friday also complained that the probe was only started as an excuse for Democrats losing the 2016 election. 'This was an illegal & conflicted investigation in search of a crime,; he tweeted, adding 'Russian Collusion was nothing more than an excuse by the Democrats for losing an Election that they thought they were going to win.' 'THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN TO A PRESIDENT AGAIN!' Trump concluded." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump doesn't seem to know what an "investigation" is. It's a search for facts; not a statement of fact. The whole "Waiting for Mueller" drama is a pause in which Congress & ordinary citizens are waiting to learn what facts Mueller has uncovered to determine whether or not crimes or other bad acts were committed. It's not "illegal" to conduct an investigation of a person if there is evidence s/he may have violated the law. It's how a justice system is supposed to work. Otherwise, we are left with Trump's system: if an official doesn't like somebody -- say "Crooked Hillary" -- you just accuse her of a crime and "lock her up." Trump's whine o' the day is yet another iteration of his authoritarianism.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Michael Flynn has finished cooperating with ... Robert Mueller's investigation, but the information he provided is still part of other ongoing criminal investigations, prosecutors said in court on Friday.Federal prosecutors in Virginia want to restrict sharing some special counsel memos of interviews with Flynn because of the 'ongoing investigation' into matters he shared with investigators. In court Friday, the prosecutor said the ongoing probes were unrelated to Flynn's Turkish lobbying case -- raising the possibility it touches on Flynn's ties to the Trump campaign, transition, administration or the Russian government. The prosecutor in court Friday stopped himself after he acknowledged other US attorneys may be looking at what Flynn shared with the special counsel."

Chad Day of the AP: "Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and key cooperator in the special counsel's Russia probe, is not ready to be sentenced because he continues to help with 'several ongoing investigations,' prosecutors said in a court filing Friday.... The [joint] filing [by prosecutors & Gates' attorneys] asks for another 60 days to update U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on whether Gates can proceed to sentencing." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ken Vogel & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, sued the United States government on Friday, demanding it lift sanctions that he claimed have cost him billions of dollars, made him 'radioactive' in international business circles and exposed him to criminal investigation and asset confiscation in Russia. In a lawsuit filed in United States District Court in Washington, Mr. Deripaska said that the sanctions, leveled in April by the Treasury Department, should be struck down because they deprived him of due process and relied on unproven smears that fell outside the sanctions program." Mrs. McC: Maybe Deripaska can get Trump & Manafort to testify as character witnesses. ...

Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The academic who helped Cambridge Analytica vacuum up private information from tens of millions of Facebook profiles sued the social media giant on Friday, arguing that the company defamed him when it claimed he had lied about how the data was going to be used. Since the full scope of Cambridge Analytica's data mining was revealed last year, Facebook has repeatedly tried to shift blame for the privacy breach onto the academic, Aleksandr Kogan. Facebook executives -- including the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg -- have said Mr. Kogan told Facebook that the data was for academic purposes when it was being collected for use in political campaigns."

** Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "[Cliff Zhonggang Li, the executive director of the National Committee of Asian American Republicans] said he can't 'rule out' the possibility that Chinese citizens illegally used American straw donors to funnel cash to the Trump campaign at events in which his group participated.... Li has been a political mentor to Cindy Yang, 45, the massage parlor entrepreneur who, through a separate company she set up in 2017 with her husband, offered access to President Donald Trump and his family at Mar-a-Lago and in Washington.... He said that he and Yang agreed last year -- in either March or April -- that she would be 'gradually dismissed' from a fundraising role with his organization due to differing views on fundraising.... Yang instead began fundraising for Republican politicians through a corporation, called the Women's Charity Foundation, that she created, according to Li." --s ...

... U.S. Foreign Policy for Sale at Mar-a-Lago. Caitlin Ostroff, et al., of the Miami Herald: "South Florida day spa entrepreneur Li 'Cindy' Yang -- now famous for her Super Bowl party selfie with the president -- used her burgeoning political access to bring Xianqin Qu, a leader from the foreign arm of the Communist Party of China, to an event where she met top Republicans and members of the Trump administration, including Kellyanne Conway, counselor to ... Donald Trump. Qu is the president of the Florida Chapter of the Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Unification -- a group 'directly subordinate' to the Communist Party of China, according to a 2018 U.S. government report. The group's stated purpose is to push for reunification of China and Taiwan, although in recent years members in chapters around the world actively promoted a wide range of policies in harmony with Beijing's agenda abroad.... Through Yang, Qu gained access to high-profile events featuring Trump aides and family members on at least two occasions.... Although liaisons with lobbyists from foreign governments are normal, Qu gained access to some of Trump's closest allies not through official channels but at political and social events."

** Dana Milbank: "This is what happens when corporations run the government. As the world was grounding 737 Max airliners this week, following the second crash involving the new jet in five months, the Trump administration, serving as a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing, declared 'no basis to order grounding.' This from an administration and president that claim climate change is a hoax, radiation and pesticides are healthy, and that 'raking' prevents forest fires. When President Trump finally buckled to pressure and grounded the 737 Max on Wednesday, he said he 'maybe didn't have to' but thought it important 'psychologically.' And why shouldn't everybody trust the judgment of a guy who didn't know the difference between HIV and HPV, proposed that exercise is bad for you and claimed that vaccines cause autism?" Read on.

The "Power" of the Purse. Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "Created during the Cold War, OCO ['overseas contingency operations'] has become popular in recent years as a convenient place to stash funding that exceeds the budget restrictions instituted by Congress in 2011. [It's] ... a quirky funding tool lawmakers from both parties have long despised, seeing it as a usurpation of the power of Congress in determining budgets.... The Pentagon is open about the fact that this account is set up this way to avoid being limited by budget caps.... But during the Trump administration, its use far has exceeded historical norms. Last year, the Pentagon requested $69 billion in OCO funding on top of their base budget of $616 billion and projected it would need only $20 billion from OCO in this year's budget cycle. Because the 2011 caps restrict the Pentagon this year to a $545 billion base budget, officials requested roughly $165 billion in uncapped OCO funding, a 140 percent increase from the prior year and a 725 percent difference from the Pentagon's earlier projection." --s

Weak Presidunce* Overruled, Again. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan says the Trump administration will not ask allies who host U.S. troops to pay the full cost of hosting plus an extra 50 percent for the privilege of having American soldiers on their soil.... Democrats and Republicans in both chambers were alarmed when Bloomberg reported last week that 'under White House direction, the administration is drawing up demands that Germany, Japan and eventually any other country hosting U.S. troops pay the full price of American soldiers deployed on their soil -- plus 50 percent or more for the privilege of hosting them.'" --s

Matthew Lee of the AP: "The United States will revoke or deny visas to International Criminal Court personnel who attempt to investigate or prosecute alleged abuses committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan or elsewhere and may do the same with those who try to take action against Israel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday. Pompeo, making good on a threat delivered last September by national security adviser John Bolton, said the U.S had already moved against some employees of The Hague-based court, but declined to say how many or what cases they may have been investigating." (Also linked yesterday.)

A "Charity" in Name Only. Kim Barker of the New York Times: Southwest Key is best known for its substandard migrant shelters, but "the operations of ... charter schools, serving about 1,000 students, show how Southwest Key profits off public money, boosting compensation for charity leaders and stockpiling tens of millions of dollars.... The charity has been awarded almost $1.8 billion to run migrant shelters over the last decade, but is now under federal investigation for possible financial improprieties, prompted by an article last December in The New York Times. Two top officials, including the founder, Juan Sanchez, have stepped down. And a complaint about mismanagement at the schools, which have received more than $65 million in government money over the last decade, is under review by the Texas Education Agency." (Also linked yesterday.)

Bess Levin of Vanity Fair: "Republicans have reacted to the [Green New Deal policy proposal] in the same evenhanded, reasonable manner with which they've responded to other Democratic ideas like affordable health care and higher taxes on the wealthy. By which we mean they've lost their f--king minds.... Speaking at a news conference in Washington on Thursday night, Congressman Rob Bishop, who worked as a history teacher before going on to represent Utah's 1st Congressional District, told reporters, 'For many people who live in the West, but also in rural and urban areas, the ideas behind the Green New Deal are tantamount to genocide. That may be an overstatement, but not by a whole lot.'" --s

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The Equality Act, which would ensure legal protections for members of the LGBTQ community, was reintroduced in Congress on Wednesday. Shortly thereafter, the Human Rights Campaign announced a 167-member corporate coalition in support of the legislation. But a ThinkProgress review of campaign finance data reveals that, through their corporate PACs, members of that coalition have recently given more than $750,000 combined to the two biggest congressional obstacles to the Equality Act's passage: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC)." --s

Natalie Kitroeff, et al., of the New York Times: "Weeks after a deadly crash involving a Boeing plane last October, company officials met separately with the pilot unions at Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. The officials said they planned to update the software for their 737 Max jets, the plane involved in the disaster, by around the end of 2018. It was the last time the Southwest pilots union heard from Boeing.... After a second 737 Max crashed, on Sunday in Ethiopia, United States regulators said the software update would be ready by April. This delay is now part of the intense scrutiny over Boeing's response after the first air disaster, a Lion Air accident that killed 189 people in Indonesia." (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Moon of the Alabama Political Reporter: "The Southern Poverty Law Center on Thursday announced that it had fired Morris Dees, the center's co-founder and long-time public face of the civil rights organization, amid undisclosed allegations that Dees failed to meet the standards of the SPLC.... Internal emails obtained by APR related to Dees' firing appear to show that the problems -- which employees said spanned from sexual harassment to gender- and race-based discrimination — were more systemic and widespread, creating an atmosphere over several years in which female and minority employees felt mistreated. The employees also said that they felt their complaints were either not heard or resulted in retaliation from senior staff." The story cites specific e-mails.

Samantha Michaels of Mother Jones: "Since the 1970s, [Gary] DeLand has written or helped develop jail standards in at least 19 states, striking agreements with counties and sheriffs' groups to keep his model guidelines private. When lawyers requested to see the DeLand-inspired standards for Oregon's Deschutes County Jail as part of a wrongful death lawsuit in 2015, the sheriffs' association there claimed they were a 'trade secret' like 'the formula for Coca-Cola or the recipe for KFC.' Making them public 'would destroy their value,' the association's executive director said. A federal district court ruled that the documents must remain confidential.... Jails are keeping more than their rules out of the public eye. When the Utah State Records Committee sided with DeLand, it also found that Davis County had no obligation to release its jail's audit reports, which would reveal whether employees were complying with the operational standards.... Jails in more than a dozen states, from Alabama to Pennsylvania, use the company's auditing system. According to DeLand, ensuring that all these records stay private improves jails' accountability." --s

Bee Wilson of the Guardian: "For most people across the world, life is getting better but diets are getting worse. This is the bittersweet dilemma of eating in our times. Unhealthy food, eaten in a hurry, seems to be the price we pay for living in liberated modern societies.... You can measure this life improvement in many ways, whether by the growth of literacy and smartphone ownership, or the rising number of countries where gay couples have the right to marry. Yet our free and comfortable lifestyles are undermined by the fact that our food is killing us, not through lack of it but through its abundance -- a hollow kind of abundance." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times: "When a white newspaper editor in Alabama drew widespread condemnation for an editorial that called for the Ku Klux Klan to ride again, only to be replaced by a black woman who hoped to take the newspaper in a new direction, it seemed like a symbolic moment. The new editor and publisher, Elecia R. Dexter, said she wanted to make the newspaper, The Democrat-Reporter, more reflective of the community it serves in Linden, a small town in western Alabama that is about 59 percent white and 41 percent black. But now, after only a few weeks, Ms. Dexter has stepped down. Her departure this week, which she attributed to continuing interference from the editor she was meant to replace [he still owns the paper], complicates the future of the weekly newspaper, which was once hailed for its journalism, and reflects the thorny reality that healing from racially hurtful acts is rarely a once-and-done process."

West Virginia. Herald-Dispatch: "Former Massey Energy CEO and U.S. Senate candidate Don Blankenship on Thursday filed a lawsuit seeking at least $12 billion in damages from a variety of national news and political organizations, claiming they set out on a 'search and destroy' mission against his 2018 candidacy for the Senate. The lawsuit, filed in Mingo County Circuit Court, claimed the 'DC establishment "swamp" and the establishment media united ... to take out Mr. Blankenship' in his bid for election. He argued in the suit that repeated references about him in the media as a 'convicted felon' as damaging his bid, even though he was not convicted of any felonies in relation to the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in Raleigh County in 2010 that killed 29 miners. Among those named in the lawsuit were news organizations Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Boston Globe Media Partners, Breitbart News Network, Clarity Media Group, The Washington Times, Tribune Publishing Co., Los Angeles Times Communications, The Washington Post and The Associated Press. Also named were the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a variety of individuals.... Blankenship ... was sentenced in 2016 for a misdemeanor conviction of conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch. He was acquitted of felonies that could have stretched his sentence to 30 years."

News Lede

New York Times: "W. S. Merwin, a formidable American poet who for more than 60 years labored under a formidable poetic yoke: the imperative of using language -- an inescapably concrete presence on the printed page -- to conjure absence, silence and nothingness, died on Friday at his home near Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii. He was 91."

Ides of March 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

You know what I am? I'm a nationalist, O.K.? I'm a nationalist. Nationalist! Use that word! Use that word! -- Donald Trump, at a rally in October 2018

In Wake of Mass Murder, Trump Fails to Condemn White Nationalism. Shannon Vavra of Axios: "Following the fatal mosque shootings in New Zealand, President Trump said Friday he thinks white nationalists make up just 'a small group of people,' when asked if he believes white nationalism is a 'rising threat.' 'I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess. If you look what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that's the case. I don't know enough about it yet ... But it's certainly a terrible thing.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Once again, when it was especially necessary, Trump was unwilling to condemn white nationalism. And why would he? He is one. ...

     ... Nick Confessore of the NYT, appearing on MSNBC, noted that Trump uses the same language avowed white nationalists do; for instance, both speak of the "invasion" of non-whites.

Bill Barr Overtly Politicized the DOJ. Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday issued first veto of his presidency, rejecting legislation that opposed his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall along the southern border. The bill blocking Mr. Trump's emergency declaration had attracted significant Republican support in Congress.... The president called the resolution 'dangerous' and 'reckless.' The president was flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William P. Barr and Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary. Mr. Barr said that the president's emergency order was 'clearly authorized under the law' and 'solidly grounded in law.' The president's veto, which was expected, will send the legislation back to Congress, which most likely does not have enough votes for an override, meaning that Mr. Trump's declaration will remain in effect."

David Jackson of USA Today: "... Donald Trump appeared to use Twitter around midnight Thursday to promote a website with an interview in which he explained how 'tough' his supporters could get -- but the tweet had disappeared as of Friday morning. In his chat with the Breitbart News Network, Trump said: 'I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump -- I have the tough people, but they don't play it tough -- until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.'... 'I think it sounds very much to me like he's encouraging them to engage in something that's probably illegal such as assaulting people, you know behave in a dangerous way,' said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, speaking on MSNBC. 'That sounds like a threat to me. I think it's appalling.' Social media users criticized Trump for posting the article as news was breaking about the shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 49 people dead. On Friday morning, Trump tweeted a condemnation of the the attacks."

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It appears to me that Trump -- or a staff member -- realized it was "bad optics" to favoriably tweet about violence against "the left" right after one of his admirers murdered dozens of Muslim worshippers & posted the killing spree on social media. Bad timing, sure, but I doubt Trump's sentiment has changed. ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump put in another plug Friday for a group that seeks to lure Jews from the Democratic Party, writing that 'Republicans are waiting with open arms' in a tweet sent shortly after he used Twitter to condemn deadly attacks on New Zealand mosques.... 'The "Jexodus" movement encourages Jewish people to leave the Democrat Party,' Trump wrote. 'Total disrespect! Republicans are waiting with open arms. Remember Jerusalem (U.S. Embassy) and the horrible Iran Nuclear Deal!'... The timing of Trump's latest tweet was panned by many pundits on Twitter.... 'Trump is now stoking religious division immediately after tweeting out a post-#ChristchurchMosqueAttack condolence message. Add it to the pile,' wrote Kevin Baron, executive editor of Defense One, a publication devoted to national security." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe it's just me, but I do find the term "Jexodus" to be anti-Semitic.

... Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Right from the twisted start, those who plotted to kill worshipers at two New Zealand mosques depended on the passive incompetence of Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms. They depended on the longtime priorities of the tech giants who, for years, have concentrated on maximizing revenue, not protecting safety or decency.... Many hours after the massacre, a horrific 17-minute video -- showing a man in black shooting with a semiautomatic rifle at those running from mosques and shooting into piles of bodies -- could still be easily accessed on YouTube.... As violence goes more and more viral, tech companies need to deal with the crisis that they have helped create." ...

The attackers' civilized, European response to living among people not like them is barbarism. -- Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo

... C.J. Werleman of the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald: The New Zealand mosque murderer "represents the dangerous convergence between broken white men and extreme right-wing media, bearing in mind that 100 per cent of all terrorist attacks carried out on US soil in 2018 were carried out by right-wing extremists, with the Southern Poverty Law Centre crediting a' toxic combination of political polarisation, anti-immigrant sentiment and modern technologies that help spread propaganda online'. These kind of attacks are being carried out in increased frequency and ferocity in mosques, synagogues, and black churches throughout the Western world, with a notable common denominator: the gunmen are always white, male and fuelled by consumption of right-wing media.... Whereas anti-Semitism, anti-black and anti-Asian racism are rightfully and routinely condemned, Islamophobia remains the only form of racism that remains within socially acceptable limits. Last week, for instance, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro suggested America's first elected black Muslim congresswoman would not be loyal to the US constitution because she wears a hijab...."

Matthew Lee of the AP: "The United States will revoke or deny visas to International Criminal Court personnel who attempt to investigate or prosecute alleged abuses committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan or elsewhere and may do the same with those who try to take action against Israel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday. Pompeo, making good on a threat delivered last September by national security adviser John Bolton, said the U.S. had already moved against some employees of The Hague-based court, but declined to say how many or what cases they may have been investigating."

A "Charity" in Name Only. Kim Barker of the New York Times: Southwest Key is best known for its substandard migrant shelters, but "the operations of ... charter schools, serving about 1,000 students, show how Southwest Key profits off public money, boosting compensation for charity leaders and stockpiling tens of millions of dollars.... The charity has been awarded almost $1.8 billion to run migrant shelters over the last decade, but is now under federal investigation for possible financial improprieties, prompted by an article last December in The New York Times. Two top officials, including the founder, Juan Sanchez, have stepped down. And a complaint about mismanagement at the schools, which have received more than $65 million in government money over the last decade, is under review by the Texas Education Agency."

Natalie Kitroeff, et al., of the New York Times: "Weeks after a deadly crash involving a Boeing plane last October, company officials met separately with the pilot unions at Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. The officials said they planned to update the software for their 737 Max jets, the plane involved in the disaster, by around the end of 2018. It was the last time the Southwest pilots union heard from Boeing.... After a second 737 Max crashed, on Sunday in Ethiopia, United States regulators said the software update would be ready by April. This delay is now part of the intense scrutiny over Boeing's response after the first air disaster, a Lion Air accident that killed 189 people in Indonesia."

Chad Day of the AP: "Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and key cooperator in the special counsel's Russia probe, is not ready to be sentenced because he continues to help with 'several ongoing investigations,' prosecutors said in a court filing Friday.... The [joint] filing [by prosecutors & Gates' attorneys] asks for another 60 days to update U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on whether Gates can proceed to sentencing."

~~~~~~~~~~

Emily Cochrane & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "A dozen Republicans joined Senate Democrats on Thursday to overturn President Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the southwestern border, arguing that the president had exceeded his powers in trying to build a border wall over Congress's objections. The 59-to-41 vote on a measure already approved by the House set up the first veto of Mr. Trump's presidency. It was not a big enough margin to override his promised veto, but Congress has now voted for the first time to block a presidential emergency declaration -- and on one of the core promises that animated Mr. Trump's political rise.... The president tweeted that he was looking 'forward to VETOING the just passed Democrat inspired Resolution which would OPEN BORDERS while increasing Crime, Drugs, and Trafficking in our Country.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The vote shows the weakness of both Trump & 3/4ths of Republican senators. Those who voted against the bill voted didn't have the guts to stand up for their own Constitutional powers. It should be obvious to the dimmest bulb that if these lily-livered senators won't stand up for themselves, they sure as hell aren't going to stand up for their constituents. ...

     ... To-wit. Steven Shepard of Politico: "On the eve of Congress’ unprecedented rebuke of ... Donald Trump, a majority of voters continue to oppose his declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll.... [Eighty] percent [of Republicans] support the declaration and only 13 percent oppos[e] it."

... James Arkin & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Two weeks ago, Sen. Thom Tillis said ... Donald Trump's national emergency declaration violated the separation of powers and created a dangerous precedent, stating in an op-ed that he would vote to reverse it. On Thursday, the North Carolina Republican flipped and sided with Trump on the border vote. Tillis [R-N.C.] and all but one other Republican up for reelection in 2020 -- Sen. Susan Collins of Maine -- stuck with the president.... The vote underscores how little Republicans on the ballot in 2020 want to break with the president, even on an issue that divided the party and in states where Trump's approval rating is low.... 'Beware the fury of Trump,' said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor, who added he thought Republican senators could have faced primary challenges for opposing Trump on the issue. 'Trump's grip on the party is strong.'" ...

... Tillis Dances the Trumpy Chicken Walk-back. Jonathan Chait: A few weeks ago, "North Carolina senator Thom Tillis wrote an op-ed calling for Congress to deny Trump's authority. 'Conservatives rightfully cried foul when President Barack Obama used executive action to completely bypass Congress and unilaterally provide deferred action to undocumented adults who had knowingly violated the nation's immigration laws...,' he wrote, 'There is no intellectual honesty in now turning around and arguing that there's an imaginary asterisk attached to executive overreach -- that it's acceptable for my party but not thy party.' But then Trump started looking into supporting a primary challenger against Tillis. And lo and behold, Tillis abandoned the sacred principle. Republicans could have mustered a veto-proof majority to join with Democrats and block Trump, but failed. If Republicans are too frightened to defend what they themselves regard as a vital principle of the Constitution, what confidence should we have that they'll stand in the way of Trump's continued assaults on the Republic?" Mrs. McC: That would be a rhetorical question. ...

... Denver Post Editors Admit to Making Stupid Mistake: "We endorsed Sen. Cory Gardner in 2014 because we believed he'd be a statesman. We knew he'd be a conservative voice in Congress, to be certain, but we thought his voice would bring 'fresh leadership, energy and ideas.' We see now that was a mistake -- consider this our resolution of disapproval. Gardner has been too busy walking a political tight rope to be a leader.... Gardner was not among the 12 Republicans who joined Democrats in rejecting President Donald Trump's use of a national emergency declaration to allocate funds to a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.... This is a constitutional crisis and one of Colorado's two senators has failed the test.... We no longer know what principles guide the senator and regret giving him our support in a close race against Mark Udall." ...

... True to Form, Trump Made the Vote All about Himself. Seung Min Kim & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "In numerous calls with Republican senators in recent days, the president spoke of the battle [over his fake emergency] almost exclusively in personal terms -- telling them they would be voting against him while brushing aside constitutional concerns over his attempt to reroute billions of federal dollars for a border wall. He argued that a vote against the emergency would be seen by GOP supporters as being against border security and the wall and would hurt their own political fortunes, according to a person with direct knowledge of some of the calls.... And White House aides made it clear to undecided Republicans that was noticing those who chose to oppose him -- particularly if they were up for reelection in 2020."

... Stupid Republican Tricks. Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "A trio of GOP senators crashed the White House to plead with President Trump to compromise with congressional critics of his border emergency declaration, but the president rejected their entreaties as the Senate headed toward a showdown vote Thursday.... Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he showed up at the White House on Wednesday night with Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), interrupting Trump as he dined with first lady Melania Trump. They discussed how to satisfy GOP concerns on the emergency declaration but reached no agreement.... 'With Trump everything is possible,' Graham said. 'Rabbits being pulled out of a hat are just everyday business.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on the Justice Department to make special counsel Robert Mueller's findings and full report public and available to Congress. The 420-0 vote came after a fiery debate on the House floor, during which some Democratic lawmakers were admonished for their criticisms of ... Donald Trump.... Four Republicans -- Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky — voted 'present.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Matt Stieb of New York: "On Thursday, Lindsey Graham made clear another roadblock to the public's access to the report: the Republican-controlled Senate. In the morning, Democrats passed a House resolution 420 to zero support of releasing the probe to the public.... In the afternoon, Graham promptly shut down the symbolic gesture, blocking Chuck Schumer's request to pass the House resolution. Graham, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, went a step further, requesting that AG William Barr should appoint a second special counsel to investigate 'misconduct' in the Department of Justice over the handling of Hillary Clinton's emails, and the government surveillance of Trump campaign staffer Carter Page."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Dear Bob (Mueller): It's Friday. It's the Ides of March. So today would be a good day to drop some major indictments in your secret Russia probe. And make sure they finger Individual 1. Regards, Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Michael Sisak of the AP: "Insider testimony, emails and other evidence show ... Donald Trump turned his charitable foundation into a wing of his White House campaign, New York's attorney general said in a new court filing Thursday. State Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, detailed her case against the foundation in a 37-page court filing in a lawsuit that seeks $2.8 million in restitution and an order banning Trump and his three eldest children from running any New York charities for 10 years."

Brent Griffiths of Politico: "The House Oversight Committee on Thursday formally requested documents from Diana Falzone, a former Fox News correspondent who reportedly was working on a story about a possible affair involving Donald Trump before the 2016 presidential election but allegedly was told to lay off because the network wanted Trump to win. Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), is asking that Falzone turn over to his panel any documents 'relating to women alleging extramarital affairs with Donald Trump, payments by the President or anyone on his behalf to silence them, or any potential campaign finance violation.'... Nancy Erika Smith, Falzone's attorney, told Politico on Thursday night that her client would comply with Cummings' request. 'A government inquiry also trumps an NDA [non-disclosure agreement],' Erika Smith said, going further than her comments on MSNBC earlier this wee when she told Ari Melber that a subpoena would be necessary for Falzone to share what she knows."

Felicia Sonmez & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "A New York appellate court ruled Thursday that President Trump must face a defamation lawsuit filed by former' Apprentice' contestant Summer Zervos, one of about a dozen women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct shortly before the 2016 election. The ruling, which Trump's lawyers plan to appeal, means that attorneys for Zervos may have the opportunity to question Trump under oath in the coming months..... Trump called Zervos and the other women who made accusations against him 'liars,' prompting Zervos to file the lawsuit in 2017. Trump's attorneys have tried unsuccessfully to block the suit, arguing that the president is immune from such lawsuits in state court."

Another Aspect of the Steele Dossier Is Partially Confirmed. Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Aleksej Gubarev is a Russian technology entrepreneur who ... is best known for his appearance in 2016 A report by a former F.B.I. cyberexpert unsealed in a federal court in Miami found evidence that suggests Russian agents used networks operated by Mr. Gubarev to start their hacking operation during the 2016 presidential campaign.... The report stops short of directly linking Mr. Gubarev or his executives to the hacking, as asserted in the dossier.... Th report unsealed Thursday was commissioned by BuzzFeed to fend off Mr. Gubarev's [defamation] suit [against the news site], which was dismissed in December...."

Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "The federal judge presiding over Roger Stone&'s criminal case has scheduled his trial to begin on Nov. 5.

John Amato of Crooks & Liars: "During a visit to the White House Thursday, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar openly disagreed with Trump's views on Brexit saying, 'we've a different opinion at present - I regret that Brexit's happening.' During their presser, Trump said he only predicted Brexit would pass, 'and I was right,' and brought up his wacky Turnberry presser from 2016 [during which he expressed his support for Brexit]. Trump lied, of course. Trump then blamed Teresa May for not listening to the worst negotiator on the planet. All of her deals with the EU have failed in Parliament. 'I'm surprised at how badly it has all gone from the standpoint of a negotiation. But I gave the prime minister my ideas how to negotiate it and I think you would have been successful. She didn't listen to that and that's fine. She gotta do what she's gotta do,' Trump said. Then Trump continued his support of the Brexit vote saying, 'I don't think another vote would be possible because it would be very unfair to the people who voted in that one.'... After the Irish PM spoke out against Brexit, Trump then attacked the EU, threatening severe stuff economically against them." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Since Ireland is an EU member, Trump was threatening his guest, though in Trump's defense, it's possible Trump has no idea Ireland is even in Europe, much less in the EU. Happy St. Patrick's Day & all that. ...

... Wait, Wait. The Taoiseach Wasn't Through. Luke O'Neil of the Guardian: "The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, who is gay, brought his partner to a meeting on Thursday with the US vice-president, Mike Pence, a conservative Christian once dubbed 'the face of anti-LGBTQ hate in America'. Varadkar, who is in Washington this week to reaffirm the longstanding shared history between the two countries, brought his partner, Matt Barrett, to a St Patrick's Day breakfast at the vice-presidential residence at the Naval Observatory. Varadkar tweeted that he and Barrett had received a 'warm reception' at Pence's home, but in pointed remarks..., he also called out various forms of discrimination. 'I lived in a country where if I'd tried to be myself at the time, it would have ended up breaking laws,' he said. 'But today, that is all changed. I stand here, leader of my country, flawed and human, but judged by my political actions, and not by my sexual orientation, my skin tone, gender or religious beliefs.'" Mrs. McC: Varadkar is one cool guy.

I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump -- I have the tough people, but they don't play it tough -- until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad. -- Donald Trump, to Breitbart "News," Monday ...

... So It Begins. Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star: "... Donald Trump has issued what seems to be a warning of armed pushback against his political opponents, telling a right-wing website on Monday that 'it would be very bad, very bad' if his supporters in the military, police and a motorcycle group were provoked into getting 'tough.' Trump uttered the remark in an interview with Breitbart News, a right-wing website that supports him. It came, according to Breitbart, as Trump was arguing that 'the left' plays politics in a 'tougher' and more 'vicious' manner than the pro-Trump right even though 'the tough people' are on Trump's side." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Rafi Schwartz of Splinter: "It says a lot about the state of the country when the President of the United States can make a laudatory, if oblique, reference to having fascist goon squads commit violence on his behalf, and it’s not the biggest headline of the day. Nevertheless, that’s evidently where we are...." ...

... Greg Sargent of the Washington Post writes about the plausible deniability inherent in Trump's remark. This is not specifically a call to arms; Trump doesn't say the military, police & bikers should rise up & defend him but that they might, if Democrats provoke them. Mrs. McC: At this point, Trump isn't stupid enough to openly call for revolution. As Michael Cohen testified, Trump knows he doesn't have to do so. Just as his paid henchmen understand Trump's coded instructions, so some of Trump's most violent supporters get it, too. Remember that QAnon adherents think they're hearing from Trump via radio signals coming through their teeth. Trump made this remark to Breitbart. You can bet many Breitbart mouthbreathers are among those who will get the secret message. Trump knows what he's doing. ...

... ** Juan Cole: "One of the tactics of the so-called 'Islamic State group' or ISIL had been to put out calls on the internet and social media for people to engage in random acts of violence.... Some have called this random, one-off violence, which is almost impossible to forestall, 'stochastic' terrorism.... The good news is that the military defeat of the ISIL's phony 'caliphate' in eastern Syria and western and northern Iraq appears to have reduced the amount of stochastic terrorism associated with that group.... The bad news is that Trump's promotion of key themes of white supremacism, in conjunction with the billionaire Mercers and bizarre ideologues like Steve Bannon, have clearly produced a new wave of stochastic white nationalist terrorism.... A whole series of acts of terrorism have now demonstrated significant links to Donald J. Trump's resurgent white nationalism, a key component of which is hatred for Muslims.... Today, almost all terrorism in the United States has a white nationalist character, and the person promoting stochastic terrorism by the Far Right is the president of the United States." --s

Where's the Love? Joyce Lee & Josh Smith of Reuters: "North Korea is considering suspending talks with the United States and may rethink a ban on missile and nuclear tests unless Washington makes concessions, news reports from the North's capital on Friday quoted a senior diplomat as saying." --s

Luke Barnes of ThinkProgress: "The deputy director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) has launched a broadside against President Donald Trump's 2020 budget proposal, saying it would severely diminish the agency's ability to help investigate and combat gun violence. The proposal, rolled out earlier this week, would cut the Department of Justice budget, which oversees the ATF, by 2 percent, to $29.2 billion.... Despite its important role, the ATF remains one of the smallest federal law enforcement agencies, currently employing roughly 5,000 people." --s

Jason Lange of Reuters: "U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that he would shield ... Donald Trump's tax returns from Congress, during remarks that could signal the administration's approach to an expected request from congressional Democrats. During testimony in the House of Representatives, Mnuchin told the House tax committee that he would follow the law upon receiving a request for tax returns but would also protect Trump's privacy rights.... Committee Chairman Richard Neal, the only member of the House authorized by law to request the president's returns, is expected to ask Mnuchin for the documents." ...

... Alan Rappeport & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "'Wonder Woman,' the 2017 film that Steven Mnuchin helped produce before becoming Treasury secretary, hauled in about $90 million at the box office in China.... But because of China's strict laws for foreign films, the studio behind the movie, Warner Bros., received just a small fraction of those revenues. Now, as Treasury secretary and one of the lead negotiators in trade talks with China, Mr. Mnuchin has been personally pushing Beijing to give the American film industry greater access to its markets.... While Mr. Mnuchin divested from his Hollywood film production company after joining the Trump administration..., in 2017 Mr. Mnuchin sold his interest in the company StormChaser ... to [Louise] Linton, who at the time was his fiancée. In his 2018 disclosure..., StormChaser is listed as one of Ms. Linton's assets. Since they are now married, government ethics rules consider the asset to be owned by Mr. Mnuchin. Mr. Mnuchin's remaining ties to the film industry are raising questions among ethics officials and lawmakers about whether a conflict of interest exists. At a congressional hearing on Thursday, Mr. Mnuchin was questioned by a top Senate Democrat about those continuing financial ties. The Office of Government Ethics still has not certified his 2018 financial disclosure, which is the first since his marriage to Ms. Linton.

Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross faced tough questioning Thursday from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee about whether he lied to Congress about his decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.... Ross' highly anticipated appearance before the committee on Thursday comes just days after a second federal judge said he had violated federal law and the Constitution by hastily adding the question to the survey.... Ross testified before the House Ways and Means Committee last March that the question was added at his direction after he received the DOJ request. But documents released as a part of a multistate lawsuit against Ross showed that the secretary had inquired about adding the question much earlier."

Eric Lipton & Julie Turkewitz of the New York Times: "Facing billions of dollars in cleanup costs, the Pentagon is pushing the Trump administration to adopt a weaker standard for groundwater pollution caused by chemicals that have commonly been used at military bases and that contaminate drinking water consumed by millions of Americans. The Pentagon's position pits it against the Environmental Protection Agency, which is seeking White House signoff for standards that would most likely require expensive cleanup programs at scores of military bases, as well as at NASA launch sites, airports and some manufacturing facilities. Despite its deregulatory record under President Trump, the E.P.A. has been seeking to stick with a tougher standard for the presence of the chemicals in question in the face of the pressure from the military to adopt a far looser framework. How the administration resolves the fight has potentially enormous consequences for how the United States is going to confront what a top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called' one of the most seminal public health challenges' of the coming decades."

The Great Tax Con. Maria Caspani of Reuters: "Only one in five U.S. taxpayers expect [Mrs. McC: expects!] to pay less income tax this year as a result of the tax reform law passed in 2017 by Republicans who promised big savings for everyday Americans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday." --safari: This abject failure is the only major legislative "achievement" of Trump's entire presidency. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Not sure how much good an opinion poll does, since taxpayers' "opinions" about their tax bills are not consistent with reality. Indeed, the poll shows that more Republican voters than Democrats believe their incomes taxes have decreased. The poll shows perceptions of income taxes, which I guess will help politicians' messaging.

Adam Peck of ThinkProgress: "Republicans are trying to lure Jewish voters from the Democratic Party by using Israel and anti-Semitism as wedge issues and by creating a campaign -- that turns the story of Jewish slavery into something of a quip -- to target millennials.... The 'Jexodus' that Trump promoted to his 59 million followers?... [T]he entire 'Jexodus' operation is the brainchild of Jeff Ballabon, a far-right Trump campaign adviser in his mid 50s.... [T]he Republican fixation on Omar [Ilhan]'s comments appear to have little to do with combating anti-Semitism. If anything, the party has spent the last three years demonstrating a willingness to tolerate or even openly embrace anti-Semites and engage in anti-Semitism themselves when politically expedient." --s

Presidential Race 2020

David Siders of Politico: "In the first and earliest test of ... [Beto O'Rourke]'s appeal outside his home state, O'Rourke chewed through the news cycle, attracting crowds and a deluge of media attention that followed him from coffee shops to town halls to sidewalks in southeastern Iowa.... The celebrity splash that marked his first day as a presidential candidate -- his visit was preceded the evening before by a Vanity Fair cover story -- generated a backlash among some Democrats frustrated by the fanfare surrounding his launch, and by what they viewed as a double standard applied to O'Rourke in a field flush with women and candidates of color.

Graph Massara of Politico: "Sen. Kamala Harris on Thursday called out Vice President Mike Pence for limiting his one-on-one meetings with women, saying the practice is' outrageous.' Pence told The Hill in 2002 that he 'never eats alone with a woman other than his wife,' according to a profile of his wife Karen Pence in The Washington Post.... 'I disagree with most of what the vice president stands for, when he makes decisions about our LGBTQ community in a way that doesn't understand that they should be entitled to full equality and all rights under the law as any other American,' Harris said.... Harris' comments came on the heels of a condemnation of Pence by fellow 2020 Democratic contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), which was itself a response to possible candidate and former vice president Joe Biden calling Pence 'a decent guy.'... Biden has since walked back his 'decent' comment, clarifying that 'there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights.'"

Sergeant Schultz Is Still Running for President. Rebecca Morin of Politico: “Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO who is exploring a run for the presidency as an independent, apologized to two Democratic candidates after claiming he had spent more time with the military than anyone else in the 2020 field. 'I apologize to @PeteButtigieg and @TulsiGabbard who served our country honorably,' Schultz tweeted. 'In that moment I made something that should unite us all, about me. I made a mistake and I apologize.'" Both Buttigieg & Gabbard have served in combat zones, & Buttigieg is still in the Naval Reserve. "Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and a veteran of the Afghanistan War, called out Schultz on Twitter, saying he did not see a Starbucks when he was deployed in Afghanistan." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: On the other hand, Schultz had a great excuse: “Schultz noted during his interview that 'Starbucks has built 50 stores that are adjacent and close to military installations.'” Also too, Schultz said he had become "great friends" with some military brass. (To be fair, "In 2013, when Schultz was still CEO, Starbucks pledged to hire a total of 10,000 veterans and military spouses by 2018. The company has hired over 21,000 veterans and military spouses since the pledge." Hiring vets as baristas, IMO, is not "spending time with the military.") As far as I can tell, Schultz has not served in the military at all.

Rick Rojas & Kristin Hussey of the New York Times: "The Connecticut Supreme Court dealt a major blow to the firearms industry on Thursday, clearing the way for a lawsuit against the companies that manufactured and sold the semiautomatic rifle used by the gunman in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The lawsuit mounted a direct challenge to the immunity that Congress granted gun companies to shield them from litigation when their weapons are used in a crime. The ruling allows the case, brought by victims' families, to maneuver around the federal shield, creating a potential opening to bring claims to trial and hold the companies, including Remington, which made the rifle, liable for the attack. The decision represents a significant development in the long-running battle between gun control advocates and the gun lobby."

SPLC Fires Dees for ... Something. Melissa Brown & Brian Edwards of the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser: "The Southern Poverty Law Center fired Morris Dees, the nonprofit civil rights organization's co-founder and former chief litigator. SPLC President Richard Cohen said in a statement Dees' dismissal over his misconduct was effective on Wednesday, March 13. When pressed for details on what led to the termination, the organization declined to elaborate.... Dees, 82, co-founded the Montgomery-based organization in 1971.... Dees' biography appeared scrubbed from the SPLC's website as news broke of his termination on Thursday afternoon."

The Guardian is live blogging the global students strike for action on climate change. --s

Adam Clymer of the New York Times: "Birch Bayh, the liberal former senator from Indiana whose work in Congress had an enduring impact on American life -- in protecting women from sex discrimination in education, guaranteeing 18-year-olds the right to vote and providing for the removal of a sitting president -- died on Thursday at his home in Easton, Md. He was 91.... Mr. Bayh, a Democrat who served in the Senate from 1963 to 1981, drove some of the most historic legislation of his era. He was the principal architect of two constitutional amendments: the 25th, which dealt with presidential disability and vice-presidential vacancies, and the 26th, which gave 18-year-olds the vote in both state and federal elections. He was a chief Senate sponsor of the failed Equal Rights Amendment, which would enshrine in the Constitution protections against discrimination on the basis of sex.... And he championed Title IX, drafting the language for that landmark federal legislation, which barred sex discrimination at schools and colleges and greatly expanded sports programs for women."

Sam Roberts of the New York Times: "Harry R. Hughes, a Democrat whose landslide victory in the 1978 election for governor of Maryland delivered a decisive rebuke to the culture of corruption epitomized by two of his predecessors, Spiro T. Agnew and Marvin Mandel, died on Wednesday at his home in Denton, Md. He was 92."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Britain. Heather Stewart, et al., of the Guardian: "Brexit is set to be delayed by at least three months, after parliament opted overwhelmingly to request an extension to article 50 on another day of divisive votes that exposed the split in Theresa May's fractured cabinet. The prime minister is now expected to bring her twice-defeated Brexit deal back to parliament on Tuesday, after she narrowly retained control of the next steps of the process. The votes, the last in a series of vital parliamentary decisions on Brexit over several days, mean that Britain's departure from the EU should not now take place before 30 June and gave the prime minister a window to resuscitate her plan."

New Zealand. Charlotte Graham-McLay, et al., of the New York Times: "A gunman opened fire on two mosques in central Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday, killing multiple people in what the country's prime minister called 'an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence.' The police said one person was in custody, but they were unsure if there were other people involved. The country's police commissioner, Mike Bush, warned residents of central Christchurch to stay indoors and the police asked mosques to close." ...

     ... New Lede: "Forty-nine people were killed in shootings at two mosques in central Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday, in a terrorist attack that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described as 'an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence.'" Also: "Before the shooting, someone appearing to be the gunman posted links to a white-nationalist manifesto on Twitter and 8chan, an online forum known for extremist right-wing discussions. The 8chan post included a link to what appeared to be the gunman's Facebook page, where he said he would also broadcast live video of the attack.... In his manifesto, he identified himself as a 28-year-old man born in Australia and listed his white nationalist heroes. Writing that he had purposely used guns to stir discord in the United States over the Second Amendment's provision on the right to bear arms, he also declared himself a fascist. Writing that he had purposely used guns to stir discord in the United States over the Second Amendment's provision on the right to bear arms, he also declared himself a fascist.&"

... The New York Times is posting updates here. ...

... Al Jazeera: "The Australian-born suspect who shot dead dozens of Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand, has published a manifesto citing ... Donald Trump and Anders Breivik, the Norwegian white supremacist who murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011. The 74-page dossier by Brenton Tarrant, which has been described by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a 'work of hate', praised Trump as 'a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose'."

The Commentariat -- March 14, 2019

Afternoon Update:

I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump -- I have the tough people, but they don[t play it tough -- until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad. -- Donald Trump, to Breitbart "News," Monday ...

... So It Begins. Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star: "... Donald Trump has issued what seems to be a warning of armed pushback against his political opponents, telling a right-wing website on Monday that 'it would be very bad, very bad' if his supporters in the military, police and a motorcycle group were provoked into getting 'tough.' Trump uttered the remark in an interview with Breitbart News, a right-wing website that supports him. It came, according to Breitbart, as Trump was arguing that 'the left' plays politics in a 'tougher' and more 'vicious' manner than the pro-Trump right even though 'the tough people' are on Trump's side."

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on the Justice Department to make special counsel Robert Mueller's findings and full report public and available to Congress. The 420-0 vote came after a fiery debate on the House floor, during which some Democratic lawmakers were admonished for their criticisms of ... Donald Trump.... Four Republicans -- Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky — voted 'present.'"

Stupid Republican Tricks. Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "A trio of GOP senators crashed the White House to plead with President Trump to compromise with congressional critics of his border emergency declaration, but the president rejected their entreaties as the Senate headed toward a showdown vote Thursday.... Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he showed up at the White House on Wednesday night with Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), interrupting Trump as he dined with first lady Melania Trump. They discussed how to satisfy GOP concerns on the emergency declaration but reached no agreement.... 'With Trump everything is possible,' Graham said. 'Rabbits being pulled out of a hat are just everyday business.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

... Thanks to forrest m. for the reminder.

The Great National Farce, Ctd.

Michael, Since you jumped off the phone rather abruptly, I did not get a chance to tell you that my friend has communicated to tell me that he is meeting with his client this evening and he added that if there was anything you wanted to convey you should tell me and my friend will bring it up for discussion this evening. I would suggest that you give this invitation some real thought. -- Robert Costello, in an e-mail to his client Michael Cohen

Decryption: "my friend" = Rudy Giuliani; "his client" = Donald Trump; "anything you wanted to convey" = pardon ...

... "Sleep Well Tonight, You Have Friends in High Places." Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "... federal prosecutors have requested the emails and documents from [attorney Robert J.] Costello [-- who represented Michael Cohen regarding a presidential pardon --] according to a copy of the request, which cited an investigation into 'possible violations of federal criminal law' but offered no further detail. The request, sent last week, was for any documents related to Mr. Cohen as well as any bills Mr. Costello had sent him.... Before he pleaded guilty and began assisting federal prosecutors last summer..., Cohen ... spoke with [Costello,] who agreed to reach out to the president's legal team on his behalf.... Costello had about a dozen conversations with Mr. Trump's lead lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, according to emails and documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with people involved in the matter. In one email, the discussions were characterized as a 'back channel of communication.' During one of the conversations last April, Mr. Costello ... asked whether Mr. Trump might put a pardon 'on the table' for Mr. Cohen.... Mr. Giuliani told Mr. Costello that the president was unwilling to discuss pardons at that time, Mr. Costello said..., and they did not discuss it again.... In one of the emails, sent by Mr. Costello in April 2018 after a conversation with Mr. Giuliani, he assured Mr. Cohen, 'Sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places.' He added, in a postscript: 'Some very positive comments about you from the White House. Rudy noted how that followed my chat with him last night.'&" ...

... digby: "Why would a joint defense agreement require a 'back channel' I wonder?" ...

... Gloria Borger & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Cohen, in his closed-door congressional testimony, has provided these emails in an effort to corroborate his claim that a pardon was dangled before he decided to cooperate with federal prosecutors, according to sources familiar with his testimony. But the attorney who wrote those emails, Robert Costello, told CNN that Cohen's interpretation of events is 'utter nonsense.' Costello said that Cohen asked him to raise the issue of a pardon with Giuliani.... A source with knowledge of Cohen's thinking at the time disputes Costello's version of events and insists it was Costello who was pushing his relationship with Giuliani. Another source familiar with the emails said that Trump's legal team was trying to keep Cohen in the fold as a way to keep him quiet, hinting that a pardon could be in the mix at some point.... 'There was never a doubt and they are in our corner,' Costello wrote [to Cohen]. 'Rudy said this communication channel must be maintained. He called it crucial and noted how reassured they were that they had someone like me whom Rudy has known for so many years in this role.'... The morning after Costello's first email was sent, Trump tweeted about Cohen. 'Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if ... it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don't see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!' the President tweeted."

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman who was sentenced last week to nearly four years in prison, was ordered on Wednesday to serve an additional three and a half years for conspiracy, closing out the special counsel's highest-profile prosecution. Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Federal District Court in Washington sentenced Mr. Manafort, 69, on two conspiracy counts that encompassed a host of crimes, including money-laundering, obstruction of justice and failing to disclose lobbying work that earned him tens of millions of dollars over more than a decade. 'It is hard to overstate the number of lies and the amount of fraud and the amount of money involved,' Judge Jackson said of Mr. Manafort's case. She added, 'A significant portion of his career has been spent gaming the system.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

... Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Paul Manafort's prison sentence was upped to seven-and-a-half years on Wednesday morning, bringing an end to Robert Mueller's most public legal battle and capping a spectacular fall for the globetrotting GOP consultant and former chairman of the Trump campaign. It's the longest sentence by far for anyone ensnared in Mueller's nearly two-year-old probe. Manafort's punishment reached its final length after U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Wednesday gave Manafort an additional roughly three-and-a-half years in prison for a series of lobbying and witness tampering crimes he pleaded guilty to last fall. Manafort also must serve nearly four years for his conviction in a jury trial for financial fraud crimes in Virginia.... Manafort issued a full-throated and blunt apology on Wednesday shortly before his second -- and final -- prison sentence was set to be handed out. But it appeared his appeals were falling on deaf ears.... Judge Amy Berman Jackson swiftly upbraided Manafort's penitence, though, insinuating that it was insincere and hinting that she believed Manafort had previously calibrated his statements to appeal to ... Donald Trump for a pardon -- the only way out of a multi-year prison sentence at this point for the former Trump campaign chairman.... 'Saying I'm sorry I got caught is not an inspiring plea for leniency,' Jackson said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Judge Amy Berman Jackson made a series of strong statements before sentencing President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, on Wednesday. But one in particular struck at the core of Trump's personal defense in the Russia investigation. She said the no collusion' mantra is bunk. Manafort's legal team had suggested repeatedly in its sentencing memo that the fact that Manafort hadn't been found to have colluded with Russia should be a mitigating factor when it came to how much time he would serve in prison. But Jackson not only rejected that argument in sentencing him to 43 additional months in prison; she rejected the entire argument behind it. 'The "no collusion" refrain that runs through the entire defense memorandum is unrelated to matters at hand,' she said. 'The "no collusion' mantra is simply a non sequitur.'... The "no collusion" mantra is also not accurate, because the investigation is still ongoing.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So then Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing walked out of the courtroom & said on the courthouse steps that "Judge Jackson conceded that there was absolutely no evidence of any collusion in this case." I guess its okay if an "officer of the court" flat-out lies about a judge's remarks if your message is not to her but to a corrupt President*. But protesters, who shout-checked Downing, didn't agree. ...

... Dana Milbank: "President Trump and Manafort have been using their public statements to coordinate with each other with the rhythm of synchronized swimmers. Trump praises Manafort for not flipping on him, and Manafort's lawyers dutifully repeat Trump's mantras -- that there was 'no collusion' between the campaign and Russia.... The judge was wise to the signaling. After [Kevin] Downing suggested Wednesday that Manafort's manifold crimes wouldn't have been prosecuted 'but for a short stint as a campaign manager in a presidential election,' [Judge Amy] Jackson unloaded on him.... 'The elements of remorse and personal responsibility were completely absent,' Jackson said, describing [Manafort's] continued 'dissembling at every turn' and his 'willingness to win at all costs.' Manafort ... then was wheeled away -- to await relief from another man who dissembles at every turn, exercises no personal responsibility, shows contempt for the law and seeks to win at all costs." ...

... Darturnorro Clark, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump picked up the refrain in remarks to reporters at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, saying, 'today, again, no collusion. The other day, no collusion. There was no collusion.' Both judges, however, did not say there was no collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia, but rather that the issue had nothing to do with the charges against Manafort. Asked whether he would pardon Manafort, Trump told reporters, 'I have not even given it a thought, as of this moment.' But the president also said he feels 'very badly' for his former campaign chairman." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** Franklin Foer of the Atlantic: Felicity "Huffman and [Paul] Manafort are spiritually connected, and the fact they are packed together above the fold today is more than an accident of timing. They are twin avatars of an elite that acts with impunity." Read on. Special shoutout to Anthony Kennedy.

... ** William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Paul J. Manafort ... has been charged in New York with mortgage fraud and more than a dozen other state felonies, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., said Wednesday, an effort to ensure he will still face prison time if Mr. Trump pardons him for his federal crimes. News of the indictment came shortly after Mr. Manafort was sentenced to his second federal prison term in two weeks; he now faces a combined sentence of more than seven years for tax and bank fraud and conspiracy in two related cases brought by the special counsel, strong> Robert S. Mueller III. The president has broad power to issue pardons for federal crimes, but has no such authority in state cases." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** A Clear-cut Case of Attempted Obstruction of Justice. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said Wednesday that former acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker 'did not deny' that President Trump 'called him to discuss the case' against his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, as well as personnel decisions regarding the personnel at the federal prosecutor's office bringing the case against him. Speaking to reporters after a two-hour meeting with Whitaker, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) presented Whitaker's closed-door comments as a contradiction with his public testimony from February, during which Whitaker said Trump never expressed his dissatisfaction with Cohen for pleading guilty to various financial crimes and lying to Congress. When asked at that hearing whether he had ever discussed the Cohen case with Trump, Whitaker refused to answer the question. But Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), who was also present for the interview, strongly disagreed with Nadler, calling it an 'interpretation' -- and insisting that Whitaker 'said he did not talk with the president about Mr. Cohen at all, and had no conversations with the Southern District of New York.'... According to Nadler, Whitaker did not refute the assertion that he was 'directly involved in conversations about whether to fire one or more U.S. attorneys.' Nadler also said that Whitaker did not deny having been 'involved in conversations about the scope' of the recusal of the SDNY's lead prosecutor, U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman, from Cohen's case -- and whether the prosecutors 'went too far in pursuing the campaign finance case in which Trump is Individual-1.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Inasmuch as the New York Times reported on February 19 that "several American officials" had "direct knowledge of call" between Trump & Whitaker about Berman's "unrecusing" himself, it's obvious there are witnesses to the call. Whitaker had previously denied such a conversation in his public House testimony. And "On Tuesday, after The Times article published, Mr. Trump denied that he had asked Mr. Whitaker if Mr. Berman could be put in charge of the investigation. 'No, I don't know who gave you that, that's more fake news,' Mr. Trump said. 'There's a lot of fake news out there. No, I didn't.'" ...

... Jonathan Chait: "This is a really, really big deal.... As Alex Whiting explained, the argument for why a president can pardon his own subordinates is that it's a public act, and the voters can examine the facts and look at whether the president acted corruptly in issuing the pardon. 'As long as it remained secret,' he notes, 'it could be done without incurring any of the political downstream consequences that come with actually pardoning someone.'" ...

... BUT, But, What about the Garth Brooks Defense? "Friends in Low Places." Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "In an email to The Daily Beast, Costello said that he was not hinting at a Trump pardon when he talked about sleeping well at night. Instead, he was referencing a song by music star Garth Brooks.... And, he added, there were documents that could confirm as much. 'This statement: "Sleep Well tonight, you have friends in high places" was a tongue-in-cheek reference to a Garth Brooks song, to a client whose state of mind was highly disturbed and had suggested to us that he was suicidal. We were simply trying to be decent human beings. There is no hidden message.' In fact, the popular 1990 single that Brooks recorded is titled, 'Friends in Low Places.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I listened to as much of "Friends in Low Places" as I could stand (before it dawned on me I could search the lyrics), and there's nothing in it about "sleeping well tonight." It's one of those sad country and Western songs where a guy crashes his ex-girlfriend's classy party & makes an ass of himself. The song most definitely would not cheer up a "suicidal" person.

Martin Longman of the Booman Tribune: "On days like this, it's hard to believe that anyone will remember what Nancy Pelosi had to say about impeachment. But I do wonder how much evidence of criminality the American people can absorb at one time."

Tiptoeing around Ivanka. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "The president's eldest daughter and top White House adviser was notably absent from a blitz of document requests that the House Judiciary Committee sent earlier this month to 81 individuals and organizations linked to the president. House Democrats have been cautious about targeting Ms. Trump and the other Trump children as they investigate the president, worried about triggering a backlash. But a close read of the document requests suggests they aren't exactly tiptoeing around the first daughter, either. Of the 81 document requests sent, 52 individuals and organizations were asked to turn over documents related to Ms. Trump or her business interests.... The inquiries related to Ms. Trump follow a side track: They ask for documents related to any financial benefit that Ms. Trump or her businesses reaped from foreign and domestic governments after the 2016 election. 'She'd be in violation of the Constitution if she was getting any business deals from foreign governments,' said Richard W. Painter, who served as chief ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush."

Carrie Johnson of NPR: "One of the most prominent members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating Russia's attack on the 2016 presidential election will soon leave the office and the Justice Department, two sources close to the matter tell NPR. Andrew Weissmann, the architect of the case against ... Paul Manafort, will study and teach at New York University and work on a variety of public service projects.... The departure is the strongest sign yet that Mueller and his team have all but concluded their work."

Ian Austen & Selam Gebrekidan of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Wednesday that the United States was grounding Boeing&'s 737 Max aircraft, reversing an earlier decision by American regulators to keep the jets flying after a second deadly crash in Ethiopia. The Federal Aviation Administration had for days resisted calls to ground the plane even as safety regulators in some 42 countries had banned flights by the jets. As recently as Tuesday, the agency said it had seen 'no systemic performance issues' that would prompt it to halt flights of the jet." (Also linked yesterday in an earlier draft.)

Elham Khatami of ThinkProgress: "For the third consecutive year, President Donald Trump's fiscal 2020 budget proposal, released Monday, would eliminate the federal agency tasked with leading service and volunteering programs like AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. Trump is the first president who has sought to get rid of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) since the agency's inception in 1993.... CNCS, which operates on a $1.08 billion budget, mobilizes millions of volunteers and delivers grants to nonprofit organizations to address critical community needs, such as tutoring and mentoring, disaster relief, and opioid addiction support." --s

Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Coal production will drop nearly 8 percent in 2019, and then another 4.5 percent in 2020, according to a new Trump administration analysis. But over the same two years, total renewable power generation will rise 30 percent, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected on Tuesday. So despite campaigning on a pledge to save the dirtiest of fossil fuels, President Donald Trump is overseeing a collapse in both domestic coal production and coal generation." --s

Trump's Latest Screw-the-Workers Plan. Terri Gerstein in Slate: "... a new rule proposed by the Trump administration last week ... would leave millions of workers unprotected, compared with a far better Obama-era rule that ... Donald Trump's Labor Department has helped undo.... The proposal ... would leave millions of people unprotected, well over half of those who would have been covered under the Obama proposal."

Oliver Holmes of the Guardian: "The US has dropped its description of the Golan Heights from 'Israeli-occupied' to 'Israeli-controlled' in a state department report, the latest sign of approval towards Israel's disputed claim to land it captured from Syria. World powers have long called on Israel to rescind its authority of the strategic region and labelled the occupation as illegal under international law." --s

Karoun Demirjian: "The Senate voted Wednesday to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, its latest rebuke of the Trump administration's continued embrace of the Saudi monarchy despite growing frustration among lawmakers with its actions on the world stage. The 54-to-46 vote marks the second time in recent months that the Senate has rejected the United States' continued participation in Saudi Arabia's bombing campaign against Yemen's Houthi rebels, waged in the name of holding back Iran's expansion in the region. But the Saudi-led effort, which has at times targeted civilian facilities and prevented aid shipments from getting to Yemenis, has been faulted by human rights organizations for exacerbating what the United Nations has deemed the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe.... The resolution must still be taken up in the House, where members passed a nearly identical resolution to end U.S. participation in the Yemen war earlier this year. It is unlikely, however, that either chamber would have the votes necessary to resuscitate the measure if President Trump vetoes it."

Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Senate prepared Wednesday to rebuke President Trump over his national emergency declaration at the U.S.-Mexico border, after Trump rejected a GOP compromise aimed at curtailing presidential emergency powers in the future. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who was leading the compromise efforts, announced plans to defect and vote for a resolution to nullify Trump's emergency declaration when it comes to the floor on Thursday. Lee made the announcement shortly after hearing directly from Trump that his legislation was not acceptable."

Jay Michaelson of The Daily Beast: "A dramatic congressional hearing [Wednesday] revealed proof that Donald Trump's controversial 2017 decision to dramatically shrink two national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. was a gift to the energy and mining industries.... [N]ow we know that the government official tasked with drawing the final map was told to exclude certain coal-rich areas from the monuments, that secret meetings were held between the Department of Interior and uranium mining interests before the sham public process even began, and that now-EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler was among the lobbyists involved in the secret deals.... [In] March 2017, then Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) had provided the Trump administration with a revised map of Bears Ears, in an email -- obtained by The New York Times ... saying that it would 'resolve all known mineral conflicts.' The final map, adopted in December 2017, was almost identical to Hatch's map.... Remarkably, it's possible that none of this is illegal." --s

Carol Anderson in a New York Times op-ed: "The Republicans would have the nation believe that the threat to our democracy is from voter fraud, where someone impersonates someone else to cast an illegal ballot or multiple ballots to 'steal elections. But the chance of voter fraud occurring is, at best, 0.0000044 percent. The real theft of American democracy happens through election fraud and voter suppression. And Republicans are the thieves.... The only thing that will save us is a restored Voting Rights Act." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Restoring the VRA is an excellent first step, but it's past time for this country to make voting rights a Constitutional guarantee.

Presidential Race 2020

... Matt Flegenheimer & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Beto O'Rourke, the 46-year-old former Texas congressman whose near-miss Senate run last year propelled him to Democratic stardom, announced his candidacy for president on Thursday, betting that voters will prize his message of national unity and generational change in a 2020 primary teeming with committed progressives. His decision jolts an early election season already stuffed with contenders, adding to the mix a relentless campaigner with a small-dollar fund-raising army, the performative instincts of a former punk rocker and a pro-immigrant vision to counteract President Trump's. Yet Mr. O'Rourke also comes to the 2020 race with few notable legislative accomplishments after three terms in the House representing El Paso. And in a primary so far defined by big-ticket policy ideas, like the economic agendas of Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Mr. O'Rourke enters without a signature proposal that might serve as the ideological anchor of his bid."

... KTSM El Paso: "Beto O'Rourke is running for President of the United States. The former El Paso Congressman will make the announcement on Thursday morning, but he confirmed via text to KTSM Wednesday afternoon that he is seeking the Democratic nomination."

Michael LaForgia, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of th world's largest technology companies, intensifying scrutiny of the social media giant's business practices as it seeks to rebound from a year of scandal and setbacks. A grand jury in New York has subpoenaed records from at least two prominent makers of smartphones and other devices, according to two people who were familiar with the requests.... Both companies had entered into partnerships with Facebook, gaining broad access to the personal information of hundreds of millions of its users. The companies were among more than 150, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Sony, that had cut sharing deals with the world's dominant social media platform. The agreements, previously reported in The New York Times, let the companies see users’ friends, contact information and other data, sometimes without consent. Facebook has phased out most of the partnerships over the past two years."

Isn't This Chummy? TMZ: "As Lori Loughlin traveled from Vancouver to L.A. Tuesday night to surrender to federal authorities in the college bribery scandal -- which got her daughter, Olivia Jade, into USC -- Olivia spent the night on the yacht of the Chairman of USC's Board of Trustees ... but she's off the boat now, TMZ has learned. We've learned 19-year-old Olivia was on Rick Caruso's yacht in the Bahamas. Caruso's daughter, Gianna, Olivia and several other friends were spending spring break in the area." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: On the other hand, look how the rich kids turn out when their parents don't cheat to get them into a nice college. (The Daily Intelligencer call the headline of the story "the platonic idea of a New York Post headline.")

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha

"Rupert's Bitch." Aida Chávez of The Intercept: "Tucker Carlson, who recently branded himself as a leading anti-elitist, had previously labeled himself as an 'out-of-the-closet elitist,' and separately said that he is '100 percent [Rupert Murdoch's] bitch.' The two quips are part of a trove of newly unearthed recordings from 2008 to 2011 that haven't previously been reported." --s ...

Meet the Powerful Media Mogul Who Would Silence Tucker. Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "Madeline Peltz works the night shift at the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America. Given the timing of that particular shift, one of her main responsibilities is watching Tucker Carlson's 8 p.m. show on Fox News.... After many Carlson-watching hours, the 24-year-old researcher developed a working theory, which she outlined on the nonprofit's website: that Carlson is using his platform on Fox News to introduce white-nationalist ideas to the mainstream, making him a uniquely prominent 'mouthpiece for white supremacy.' Peltz dug into his recent past and discovered a trove of ... misogynistic, racist and homophobic remarks Carlson made, the audio of which Media Matters published this week. In response, Carlson ... cast himself as the victim of 'the great American outrage machine'a mob of power-seeking organizations and people he says are waging a political war to censor him. In reality, credit for the tapes' publication is due to Peltz: a 20-something in her first adult job who lives in the basement of a D.C. house she rents with five other people, a few cats and a dog named Noodles."

Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "Sharp and potentially devastating temperature rises of 3C to 5C in the Arctic are now inevitable even if the world succeeds in cutting greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris agreement, research has found. Winter temperatures at the north pole are likely to rise by at least 3C above pre-industrial levels by mid-century.... Such changes would result in rapidly melting ice and permafrost, leading to sea level rises and potentially to even more destructive levels of warming." --s

Rick Rojas & Liam Stack of the New York Times: "Allegations of sexual abuse trailed John Capparelli, a former priest, for decades, resurfacing in the years after the Archdiocese of Newark removed him from ministry. There were the lawsuits from accusers, and last month his name was included on a list published by the Roman Catholic Church in New Jersey that identified priests who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse. On Saturday, Mr. Capparelli was found fatally shot in his home in Nevada, and the authorities there said that his death was being investigated as a homicide." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Ali Winston, et al., of the New York Times: "Francesco Cali, the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, was fatally shot outside his home on Staten Island on Wednesday night, a senior police official said. Mr. Cali, 53, was shot six times, the official said." Mrs. McC: This is what happens to real Mafiosi, Donald. Lucky for you, you're just a cheap copy.

Way Beyond

Britain. Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Having twice thrown out Prime Minister Theresa May's plan for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, the fractious British Parliament defied her again on Wednesday, worsening the power vacuum atop British politics just 16 days before the exit is scheduled to take place. Parliament voted to oppose the prospect of a disorderly 'no-deal' exit from the bloc, doing it in a dramatic and unexpected fashion that undercut the already-battered Mrs. May's dwindling authority and negotiating leverage. And the breakdown of discipline in her own Conservative Party renewed speculation that her own cabinet could try to force her from power. No other prime minister in recent British history has been so unable, repeatedly, to work her will in Parliament."

Iran. Iliana Magra of the New York Times: "Iran has faced international condemnation after one of the country's most prominent human rights lawyers, detained for eight months, said she had been sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes, according to her husband. Security agents arrested the lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, at her home in June last year. The government offered no explanation, but at the time Ms. Sotoudeh was defending women who had been arrested after removing their hijabs, or head scarves, in public protests. She received the European Union's most prestigious human rights award, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, in 2012, while serving a previous prison sentence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)