The Commentariat -- April 2, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Rebecca Shabad & Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "The House Oversight Committee voted Tuesday to issue subpoenas seeking information on both the White House security clearance process and on the process that led to the administration's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The panel, led by Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., voted along party lines 22-15 on a resolution to subpoena the testimony of former White House personnel security director Carl Kline to discuss the security clearance process at the White House."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted Tuesday to authorize subpoenas to compel Trump administration officials to provide documents related to the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 census. The committee voted 23-14 along mostly party lines to approve three separate subpoenas, ratcheting up the panel's legal fight with the administration. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) joined Democrats in authorizing the subpoenas, which will allow committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to seek testimony and unredacted information about the controversial change to the decennial survey. One subpoena is aimed at securing testimony from Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Gore. A second subpoena is to compel Attorney General William Barr to turn over a memo to Gore from James Uthmeier, general counsel to the Department of Commerce, in fall 2017. It also would demand any Department of Justice communications about the citizenship question with the White House, the Republican National Committee, the Trump campaign or members of Congress. The third subpoena is targeted toward Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and seeks unredacted copies of several documents and internal communications related to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census."

"The Party of Health Care"? Never Mind. Eileen Sullivan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump announced that Republicans would not present a health care overhaul proposal until after the 2020 election, punting on coming up with a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, which the administration is currently fighting in court to invalidate. The issue now will dominate presidential campaigns in the months leading up to the 2020 election.... It was not immediately clear on Tuesday what the Trump administration would do if courts ruled in favor of abolishing the health care system established by President Barack Obama. Last week, the Trump administration broadened its war on the health care law by arguing that the entire Affordable Care Act should be invalidated." ...

     ... Update: McConnell Burst a Trump Bubble. John Wagner & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "President Trump abandoned plans to press for a vote on a bill to replace the Affordable Care Act ahead of next year's elections following a conversation with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican said Tuesday. McConnell told reporters that he and Trump had 'a good conversation' Monday afternoon in which he said that Senate Republicans had no intention of trying to overhaul President Obama's signature health-care law during a campaign season -- a move many in the GOP saw as politically perilous, given that the issue helped Democrats in last year's midterm elections. 'I made it clear to him we were not going to be doing that in the Senate,' McConnell said, also pointing out the difficulty in crafting a bill that could pass the Democratic-led House. 'We don't have a misunderstanding about that.'"

Stupid Presidunce Tricks, Ctd. Chris Isidore of CNN: "The entire US auto industry would shut down within a week if ... Donald Trump goes through with his pledge to close the US-Mexican border, according to a leading expert on the industry. That's because every automaker operating an auto plant in the United States depends on parts imported from Mexico, said Kristin Dziczek ... of the Center for Automotive Research. About 16% of all auto parts used in the United States, both at assembly plants and sold at auto parts stores, originate in Mexico. Virtually all car models in America have Mexican parts, she said. Because of that reliance, she said the auto industry would stop producing vehicles relatively quickly."

Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before, & all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money. The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA.... -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning ...

The $91BB payout is a giant lie (see Tim Elfrink's article, linked below), & Puerto Rico is "USA"; ergo, it can't "take from USA." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie, writing for the real world ...

... Daily Beast: "In an explosive interview on MSNBC Tuesday morning, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley referred to Puerto Rico as 'that country' twice -- even though the island has been a U.S. territory for over 120 years. The mis-identification came while Gidley was defending Trump's Tuesday morning tweetstorm slamming Puerto Rico and its need for 'too much money' after the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017.... Trump 'says Puerto Ricans are taking from the USA,' [host Hallie] Jackson responded. 'Puerto Rico is part of the United States. People who live in Puerto Rico are U.S. Citizens. You're rolling your eyes and I don't know why you&'re rolling your eyes.'"

How to Give an Interview & Say Nothing. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner on Monday dismissed concerns raised by a whistleblower about the White House's security clearance process, saying President Trump's administration has faced 'a lot of crazy accusations' during the past two years.... Kushner, who Trump ultimately demanded be granted a permanent top-secret clearance despite concerns of intelligence officials, told Fox host Laura Ingraham that he 'can't comment for the White House's process.'... During the Fox News interview, Ingraham noted that [long-time White House security advisor Tricia] Newbold had said she has 'grave concerns' about the security-clearance process and asked Kushner if he poses a 'grave national security concern to the country.' Kushner laughed and said: 'Look, I can say that in the White House I work with some phenomenal people and I think over the last two years the president's done a phenomenal job of identifying what are our national security priorities. He's had a great team in place that are helping implement it, and I hope I've played a good part in pushing those objectives forward.'"

Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC: "April 2 marks Equal Pay Day, our annual reminder that women's pay is not in fact equal to men's. Not nearly: Women make about 80 cents to a man's dollar. That's a wage gap of nearly 20 percent, and unfortunately, at the rate we're going, it will take nearly 41 years -- until 2059 -- to achieve parity. For Hispanic women it won't happen until 2224, and for black women, it's 2119." Mrs. McC: That is, women, on average, have worked three months into 2019 to receive the same pay men, on average, made in 2018. ...

... Jean Chatzky of NBC News: "Black women earn 63 cents for every dollar that men do, Native American women earn 58 cents and Hispanic women make just 54 cents." ...

... Anna North of Vox: "But matters are actually worse than any of these numbers would suggest, according to a 2018 report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), a think tank that looks at public policy through the lens of gender. Measures of the pay gap typically compare the wages of men and women working full time in a given year, as Emily Peck notes at HuffPost. But women are more likely to drop out of full-time work to take care of children or other family members. To account for this, the report's authors looked at women's earnings across a 15-year period, and compared those with men's. What they found was a pay gap nearly twice as big as what's traditionally reported: averaged out over 15 years, women made just 49 cents for every dollar men made."

Zachary Basu of Axios: "2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders announced Tuesday that he has raised $18.2 million from more than 900,000 individual donations since launching his campaign on Feb. 19.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

[Hillary Clinton's] server was easily hacked by foreign governments, perhaps even by her financial backers in communist China. Sure they have it. Putting all of America and our citizens in danger, great danger. -- Donald Trump, "foreign policy" speech at NYU, June 2016 ...

(The FBI said Wednesday that it has no evidence Hillary Clinton's private email server was compromised even though President Donald Trump tweeted a news report that alleged the Chinese had hacked it. -- AP, August 2016)

Maggie Haberman: Did you tell General Kelly or anyone else in the White House to overrule security officials? The career veterans --

Trump: No. I don't think I have the authority to do that. I'm not sure I do.

Haberman: You do have the authority to do it.

Trump: But I wouldn't. I wouldn't do it. ... I was never involved with the security. I know that he -- you know, just from reading -- I know that there was issues back and forth about security for numerous people, actually. But I don't want to get involved in that stuff.

... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is only part of the exchange in which Trump denies he was involved in deciding any security clearance issues. The transcript (pub. February 1) of the whole interview is here. ...

... ** Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "A White House whistleblower told lawmakers that more than two-dozen denials for security clearances have been overturned during the Trump administration, calling Congress her 'last hope' for addressing what she considers improper conduct that has left the nation&'s secrets exposed. Tricia Newbold, a longtime White House security adviser, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee that she and her colleagues issued 'dozens' of denials for security clearance applications that were later approved despite their concerns about blackmail, foreign influence, or other red flags, according to panel documents released Monday. Newbold, an 18-year veteran of the security clearance process who has served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, said she warned her superiors that clearances 'were not always adjudicated in the best interest of national security' -- and was retaliated against for doing so.... White House officials whose security clearances are being scrutinized by the House Oversight Committee include ... Ivanka Trump..., Jared Kushner and national security adviser John Bolton...."(Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is another example of Trump tricks that are both legal & impeachable offenses. And yeah, all the best people. ...

     ... Update. The New York Times story, by Nicholas Fandos & Maggie Haberman, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... the argument that Trump could be either a witting or unwitting asset of the Russians is missing the much less speculative potential national security threat. And we shouldn't underestimate the importance of a named whistleblower stepping forward in this manner."

Newbold also raised concerns about new White House security clearance policies that she says put the nation at risk. For example, the White House security office no longer checks the credits of applicants, which she said keeps reviewers from knowing whether applicants could be susceptible to blackmail because of their debts. -- Washington Post, linked above

The lady who makes you put your shoes in a plastic bucket at the airport? She had to have a credit check to get that job. Ditto the dude in the toll booth on the turnpike. It's almost like these Trump assholes aren't serious about national security. -- Betty Cracker, Balloon Juice

** Jerry Nadler in a New York Times op-ed: "The entire reason for appointing the special counsel was to protect the investigation from political influence. By offering us his version of events in lieu of the report, the attorney general, a recent political appointee, undermines the work and the integrity of his department. He also denies the public the transparency it deserves. We require the full report -- the special counsel's words, not the attorney general's summary or a redacted version. We require the report, first, because Congress, not the attorney general, has a duty under the Constitution to determine whether wrongdoing has occurred.... The attorney general's recent proposal to redact the special counsel's report before we receive it is unprecedented.... We have every reason to suspect that the unedited obstruction section of the Mueller report resembles the report that Congress received from the Watergate grand jury in 1974. That evidence showed that President Richard Nixon had attempted to obstruct justice. It did not recommend that the president should be prosecuted. It did not say the president should be impeached. It simply stated the evidence so that Congress could do its job.... If President Trump's behavior wasn't criminal, then perhaps it should have been." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, maybe the House should impeach Bill Barr for obstruction. ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A group advocating for journalists and First Amendment rights is asking a judge to clear away one of the key obstacles the Justice Department is citing as grounds for withholding portions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report: the presence of information gathered through the secret actions of a grand jury. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a petition Monday with Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court in Washington, asking her to rule that officials need not withhold from the Congress -- or the public -- any grand jury material in Mueller's report on his probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The move comes as Attorney General William Barr has pledged to prepare a version of the report for public release ... that the department would have to excise grand jury-related testimony and evidence." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Heidi Przybyla & Josh Lederman of NBC News: "A coalition of the nation's biggest progressive grassroots organizations is activating a nationwide protest plan in response to Attorney General William Barr's expected failure to meet an April 2 deadline set by House Democrats to release Special Counsel Robert Mueller's full Russia report to Congress. With hundreds of locations set across the country, Stand Up America, MoveOn.org, Indivisible and Public Citizen are among the groups orchestrating the April 4 'Nationwide Day of Action,' according to a release provided to NBC News."

Rod Rosenstein's Mysterious Charm. Mike Levine of ABC News: "Four months ago, shortly after ... Donald Trump's Twitter account sent out an image suggesting Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be prosecuted and imprisoned for appointing special counsel Robert Mueller, the president took the rare step of telling Rosenstein it was a mistake, according to a former Justice Department official informed of the conversation. As described by the former official, the mea culpa came in a private phone call, within days of Trump retweeting the meme that showed Rosenstein, Mueller and several Obama-era officials behind bars. '[W]hen do the trials for treason begin?' the Trump-endorsed image asked. But on the private phone call afterward, Trump insisted to Rosenstein that he didn't notice the veteran prosecutor in the image's background before it was retweeted, according to the former official. Publicly, Trump stood by the controversial post."

Here's what happens when a white supremacist sits in the Oval Office & terrified lackeys hold the Senate:

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Senate on Monday blocked billions of dollars in disaster aid for states across the country as Republicans and Democrats clashed over President Trump's opposition to sending more food and infrastructure help to Puerto Rico. Most Senate Republicans refused to endorse a recovery bill passed this year by the House, citing Mr. Trump's opposition to the bill's Puerto Rico funding and their own concerns that the bill lacks money for Midwestern states that have since been devastated by flooding and tornadoes. (An amendment that would have added the funds was blocked earlier in the day.) And for their part, a majority of Senate Democrats balked at a measure drafted by Senate Republicans that included the money for the Midwestern states, arguing that about $600 million in nutritional assistance for Puerto Rico was not enough for the island.... With the defeat of both procedural votes, it was unclear how lawmakers would overcome the impasse and end the indefinite delay in disbursing funds." ...

... The White Supremacist Weighs in. Michael Burke of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday evening criticized Democrats for voting against a GOP disaster aid bill, which Democrats said didn't go far enough to help Puerto Rico.... 'The Democrats today killed a Bill that would have provided great relief to Farmers and yet more money to Puerto Rico despite the fact that Puerto Rico has already been scheduled to receive more hurricane relief funding than any 'place' in history,' Trump tweeted. 'The people of Puerto Rico are GREAT, but the politicians are incompetent or corrupt. Puerto Rico got far more money than Texas & Florida combined, yet their government can't do anything right, the place is a mess - nothing works,' he added." ...

... There's More. Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "Trump, who has reportedly said in private that he doesn't want 'another single dollar' going to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria, again complained about funding for the island and called San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, a frequent critic, 'crazed and incompetent.'... In his tweets, Trump raised a familiar, contested figure for disaster relief in Puerto Rico. Although the president has repeatedly claimed that $91 billion has been spent there, that figure actually reflects a high-end, long-term estimate for recovery costs; a fraction of that has so far been budgeted, and even less has been spent.... While disaster relief is traditionally bipartisan, Trump's reluctance to pay more toward Puerto Rico's recovery has opened a gulf between the parties."

Trump as Sick Humorist. Jill Colvin & Colleen Long of the AP: "As he threatens to shut down the southern border..., Donald Trump is considering bringing on a border' or 'immigration czar' to coordinate immigration policy across various federal agencies, according to four people familiar with the discussions...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: While I was waiting for the AP page to load, I amused myself thinking about what totally inappropriate person Trump could appoint to such a job. The name that came to mind was Kris Kobach. Wouldn't that be hilarious? The page loaded, & I read the second paragraph of the report:

Trump is weighing at least two potential candidates for the post: former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, according to the people, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. ...

     ... Trump writes his own punchlines. And we thought he didn't have a sense of humor. He must be trying to put satirists out of work. ...

     ... Update. As forrest m. points out in today's thread, Kobach is not Trump's best pick ever. That honor may go to Sen. Rick Scott (RCrook-Fla.), whom Trump has named his top TrumpCare guru. Scott & his senatorial sidekicks are "going to come up with something really spectacular," Trump sez. Charles Pierce: "Apparently, the grift du jour is pretending that the administration*, and the Republican Party behind it, actually has a replacement plan ready to go if and when the Supreme Court scuttles the Affordable Care Act, which the Department of Justice last week announced it would no longer defend. There is no plan. There is no plan to create a plan.... The way I know this is because of the person the administration* has chosen to lead the fight for the 'plan' which will never exist. It is the equivalent of hiring Bernie Madoff as Fed chair. From the Orlando Sentinel: '... [Rick] Scott's new role is a long way from his political origins in 2009 and 2010, when as one of the earliest critics of Obamacare, he launched ads arguing that pre-existing condition protections would cause premiums to skyrocket.... Scott also was the CEO of the hospital company Columbia/HCA in the 1990s, who resigned four months after a federal inquiry into the company was made public. The company was later fined $1.7 billion in 2000 and 2007 for what was then the largest case of Medicare fraud in history." ...

     ... Update 2: So then Ken W. points out that Rick Scott said this weekend that he expects Trump to come up with his own damned plan. I can't get the link to the piece by LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik because the LA Times is very mean to me, but this is it. Maybe you'll have better luck. Meanwhile, here's a part of the transcript of Scott's remarks on CBS's "Face the Nation" this past Sunday: "... I ran the largest hospital company. I care about the cost of health care and that's what I've focused on.... I loo forward to, you know, to seeing what the president's going to put out." Luckily, Scott is very anxious to get everybody's views on health coverage. Uh, everybody except the millions of Americans who are not executives in the healthcare industry: "Look, I- I want to listen to everybody's ideas. I've sat down with the pharmaceutical companies, the PBMs, the insurance companies, the hospital industry, the pharmacies to ask them their ideas. I- I think the best way of doing this is discuss everybody's ideas and see what we can do."

Another Stupid Presidunce* Trick. Reuters: "... Donald Trump's threat to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border would hit American consumers -- in the gut. From avocado toast to margaritas, the United States is heavily reliant on Mexican imports of fruit, vegetables and alcohol to meet consumer demand. Nearly half of all imported U.S. vegetables and 40 percent of imported fruit are grown in Mexico, according to the latest data from the United States Department of Agriculture. Americans would run out of avocados in three weeks if imports from Mexico were stopped, said Steve Barnard, president and chief executive of Mission Produce, the largest distributor and grower of avocados in the world." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suppose this doesn't matter to a man whose favorite meals come from McDonalds. But I want my damned avocados.

Matt Stieb of New York: "According to a new book by sportswriter Rick Reilly, Trump’s impulse to cheat also applies to the golf course. In Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, Reilly claims that Trump 'cheats at the highest level. He cheats when people are watching and he cheats when they aren't. He cheats whether you like it or not. He cheats because that's how he plays golf ... if you're playing golf with him, he's going to cheat.'... Trump claims he has a 2.8 handicap.... As the [New York] Post notes, 'Jack Nicklaus, winner of a record 18 major golf titles and generally considered the greatest golfer in the history of the game, has a handicap of 3.4.'... LGPA pro Suzann Pettersen says that Trump must collude with his caddy ahead of time, for 'no matter how far into the woods he hits the ball, it's in the middle of the fairway when we get there.' The president also allegedly tampers with the game of others in his party: former ESPN football announcer Mike Tirico recalled that Trump's caddy told him that Trump took a ball Tirico hit onto the putting green and threw it 50 feet away into a bunker." Thanks to Jeanne for reminding me about this stupid story. (Also linked yesterday.)

In Case You Wondered if Trump Is a Heartless Ghoul. Jonathan Swan & Sam Baker of Axios: "As he was deliberating last year over replacing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, President Trump told confidants he had big plans for Judge Amy Coney Barrett. 'I'm saving her for Ginsburg,' Trump said of Barrett, according to three sources familiar with the president's private comments. Trump used that exact line with a number of people, including in a private conversation with an adviser two days before announcing Brett Kavanaugh's nomination. Barrett is a favorite among conservative activists, many of whom wanted her to take Kennedy's spot. She's young and proudly embraces her Catholic faith. Her past academic writings suggest an openness to overturning Roe v. Wade. Her nomination would throw gas on the culture-war fires, which Trump relishes." (Also linked yesterday.)

White Supremacist Administration Cuts White Supremacist Intel Ops. Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "The Department of Homeland Security has disbanded a group of intelligence analysts who focused on domestic terrorism, The Daily Beast has learned. Numerous current and former DHS officials say they find the development concerning, as the threat of homegrown terrorism -- including white supremacist terrorism -- is growing. In the wake of this move, officials said the number of analytic reports produced by DHS about domestic terrorism, including the threat from white supremacists, has dropped significantly. People in and close to the department said this has generated significant concern at headquarters."

Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "The Supreme Court's opinion in Bucklew v. Precythe, which it handed down Monday on a party-line vote, is at once the most significant Eighth Amendment decision of the last several decades and the cruelest in at least as much time. Neil Gorsuch's majority opinion tosses out a basic assumption that animated the Court's understanding of what constitutes a 'cruel and unusual' punishment for more than half a century. In the process, he writes that the state of Missouri may effectively torture a man to death -- so long as it does not gratuitously inflict pain for the sheer purpose of inflicting pain. And, on top of all of that, Gorsuch would conscript death penalty defense attorneys -- men and women who often gave up lucrative legal careers to protect the lives of their clients -- into the ghoulish task of laying out the method that will be used to kill those clients. It's a breathtaking sign of just how much the Supreme Court's new majority is willing to change -- and how quickly they are willing to impose that change on the rest of us." Read on for the part about Brett Kavanaugh: next -- firing squads! (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mark Stern of Slate: "On Monday, five justices of the Supreme Court authorized Missouri to torture a man to death. In the process, they appear to have overruled decades of Eighth Amendment precedents in a quest to let states impose barbaric punishments, including excruciating executions, on prisoners. The court's conservative majority has converted a once-fringe view into the law of the land, imperiling dozens of decisions protecting the rights of death row inmates, as well as juvenile offenders. Its ruling signals the end of an Eighth Amendment jurisprudence governed by 'civilized standards' -- and the beginning of a new, brutal era in American capital punishment." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The ruling is a reflection of conservatives' lack of imagination & empathy. The likelihood of any of the Supremes becoming death row inmates is close to nil, so they can't imagine themselves (or their friends) having to suffer an excruciating death by lethal injection (or firing squad!). Every time the conservative Supremes decide in favor of human decency is an instance in which they (or their friends) are or might be affected by a no vote. So Anthony Kennedy has voted for gay rights & reproductive rights.

Presidential Race 2020

Neil Vigdor of the Hartford Courant: "A Connecticut woman says Joe Biden touched her inappropriately and rubbed noses with her during a 2009 political fundraiser in Greenwich when he was vice president, drawing further scrutiny to the Democrat and his history of unwanted contact with women as he ponders a presidential run[.] 'It wasn't sexual, but he did grab me by the head,' Amy Lappos told The Courant Monday. 'He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth.' Lappos posted about the alleged incident on the Facebook page of Connecticut Women in Politics Sunday in response to a similar account by former Nevada legislator Lucy Flores. Lappos, 43, who is now a freelance worker with nonprofit agencies, said she felt extremely uncomfortable when Biden approached her at the 2009 fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th, where she was volunteering. At the time, Lappos was a congressional aide to Himes, who she said was not in the room when the incident took place." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Al Weaver of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday that a pair of allegations of inappropriate kissing and touching against former Vice President Joe Biden should 'not at all' disqualify him from the 2020 race. 'No. No, I do not,' Pelosi told reporters when asked if she thinks the allegations from two women are disqualifying. 'I don't think that this disqualifies him from being president,' she said while walking to the House chamber. 'Not at all.'" ...

... Michelle Goldberg: "Flores, Lappos and Biden are probably all telling the truth. There are countless photos of Biden behaving in the ways that Flores and Lappos describe: squeezing women, rubbing their shoulders, leaning in too close. All this was open, not furtive, presumably because it never occurred to Biden that he was doing anything untoward.... But if Biden was more oblivious than predatory, his history still puts him out of step with the mores of an increasingly progressive Democratic Party.... Biden's issues with gender, after all, go far beyond chronic handsiness.... Beyond gender, on issue after issue, if Biden runs for president he will have to run away from his own record.... The widespread assumption that Biden would pose the strongest challenge to Donald Trump is unwarranted.... He is a product of his time, but that time is up." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: For all of his flaws, I really like Joe Biden. And I think Goldberg is right.

Zachary Basu of Axios: "Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris announced Monday that she raised $12 million from more than 218,000 individual contributions in the first quarter of 2019."

Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Pete Buttigieg announced Monday that his presidential campaign had raised more than $7 million in the first quarter of 2019, a significant sum for a mayor who was little known outside of South Bend, Ind., only a few months ago." (Also linked yesterday.)

Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "Beto O'Rourke isn't known for his wonkish heft. But in his formal announcement for president on Sunday, the former Texas congressman offered one of the most important policy proposals of the nascent presidential campaign: He argued that to solve America's problems at the border, America's leaders must 'help people in Central America where they are.' In so doing, he began laying a foundation to effectively rebut Donald Trump on his signature issue: immigration." ...

... Yeah, That Could Work. Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "Until last week, U.S. officials held up El Salvador as proof that foreign aid could help curb migration. The partnership between the two countries drew praise from diplomats, members of Congress and even America's top border enforcement official. Then President Trump announced that he was withdrawing economic assistance to the Central American country and its neighbors Guatemala and Honduras. 'They haven't done a thing for us,' the president said Friday. The claim baffled development officials and Salvadorans, who saw the country's cooperation with the United States on security, civil society and economic development as a success story, inasmuch as it achieved the Trump administration's goal of slowing the flow of migrants heading north to the United States. In the past three years, both El Salvador's homicide rate and migration flows have declined sharply. More than 72,000 Salvadorans were apprehended crossing the U.S. border in 2016. By 2018, the number had plummeted by more than half, to fewer than 32,000." Mrs. McC: Everything Trump does is stupid.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Fox News host Tucker Carlson began his highly rated primetime show Monday night by taking potshots at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and MSNBC host Chris Hayes, labeling the progressive lawmaker a 'moron' while mocking his cable news competitor's masculinity. Last week, Hayes hosted an MSNBC town hall event on the proposed Green New Deal, featuring Ocasio-Cortez.... 'Chris Hayes is what every man would be if feminists ever achieved absolute power in this country: apologetic, bespectacled, and deeply, deeply concerned about global warming and the patriarchal systems that cause it,' Carlson said.... He added: 'So it's official. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a moron and nasty and more self-righteous than any televangelist who ever preached a sermon on cable access. She's not impressive, she's awful.'"

Huh. Apparently Tucker himself is "bespectacled." But I can see where he would want to kick sand in the face of a wuss wearing glasses -- as long as storms caused by global warming don't wash all the sand away. As for feminism & the patriarchal system, Tucker is a manly man who keeps his wife at home, barefoot & frequently pregnant. Perhaps that's her choice; perhaps it is Tucker's command.

Beyond the Beltway

Maryland. Ian Duncan & Yvonne Wenger of the Baltimore Sun: "Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, facing a call by Gov. Larry Hogan for a criminal investigation into the book deal that paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars, announced Monday that she will take an indefinite leave of absence because of her health. The Democratic mayor's office issued a statement Monday saying she had been advised by her doctors to take time to recover from a bout of pneumonia that hospitalized her for five days last week. With the mayor's health deteriorating, she feels as though she is unable to fulfill her obligations as mayor of Baltimore city,' the statement read in part.... The statement did not address the scandal over the books - a series she authored featuring a young girl named Healthy Holly aimed at promoting exercise and good diet -- that has quickly overtaken the mayor. A no-bid deal with the University of Maryland Medical System was first reported by The Baltimore Sun last month.... Council President Bernard C. 'Jack' Young, also a Democrat, will take over temporarily as mayor.... Under the deal with the medical system, UMMS paid Pugh $500,000 for copies of the books while she served on its board.... Pugh was among nine members of the 30-person UMMS board that had contracts or other business deals with the medical system. Pugh and two other board members have resigned. Several others were placed on leave. On Monday, The Sun reported that health insurer Kaiser Permanente also paid Pugh more than $100,000 to purchase copies of her books from 2015 to 2018. In September 2017, the city's spending board, which Pugh sits on and controls, awarded Kaiser a $48 million contract to provide health insurance to city employees from 2018 through 2020, with options to renew."

The Commentariat -- April 1, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A group advocating for journalists and First Amendment rights is asking a judge to clear away one of the key obstacles the Justice Department is citing as grounds for withholding portions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report: the presence of information gathered through the secret actions of a grand jury. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a petition Monday with Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court in Washington, asking her to rule that officials need not withhold from the Congress -- or the public -- any grand jury material in Mueller's report on his probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The move comes as Attorney General William Barr has pledged to prepare a version of the report for public release ... that the department would have to excise grand jury-related testimony and evidence."

Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "The Supreme Court's opinion in Bucklew v. Precythe, which it handed down Monday on a party-line vote, is at once the most significant Eighth Amendment decision of the last several decades and the cruelest in at least as much time. Neil Gorsuch's majority opinion tosses out a basic assumption that animated the Court's understanding of what constitutes a 'cruel and unusual' punishment for more than half a century. In the process, he writes that the state of Missouri may effectively torture a man to death -- so long as it does not gratuitously inflict pain for the sheer purpose of inflicting pain. And, on top of all of that, Gorsuch would conscript death penalty defense attorneys -- men and women who often gave up lucrative legal careers to protect the lives of their clients -- into the ghoulish task of laying out the method that will be used to kill those clients. It's a breathtaking sign of just how much the Supreme Court's new majority is willing to change -- and how quickly they are willing to impose that change on the rest of us." Read on for the part about Brett Kavanaugh: next: firing squads!

Stupid Presidunce* Tricks. Reuters: "... Donald Trump's threat to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border would hit American consumers -- in the gut. From avocado toast to margaritas, the United States is heavily reliant on Mexican imports of fruit, vegetables and alcohol to meet consumer demand. Nearly half of all imported U.S. vegetables and 40 percent of imported fruit are grown in Mexico, according to the latest data from the United States Department of Agriculture. Americans would run out of avocados in three weeks if imports from Mexico were stopped, said Steve Barnard, president and chief executive of Mission Produce, the largest distributor and grower of avocados in the world." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suppose this doesn't matter to a man whose favorite meals come from McDonalds. But I want my damned avocados.

Neil Vigdor of the Hartford Courant: "A Connecticut woman says Joe Biden touched her inappropriately and rubbed noses with her during a 2009 political fundraiser in Greenwich when he was vice president, drawing further scrutiny to the Democrat and his history of unwanted contact with women as he ponders a presidential run[.] 'It wasn't sexual, but he did grab me by the head,' Amy Lappos told The Courant Monday. 'He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth.'Lappos posted about the alleged incident on the Facebook page of Connecticut Women in Politics Sunday in response to a similar account by former Nevada legislator Lucy Flores. Lappos, 43, who is now a freelance worker with nonprofit agencies, said she felt extremely uncomfortable when Biden approached her at the 2009 fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th, where she was volunteering. At the time, Lappos was a congressional aide to Himes, who she said was not in the room when the incident took place."

** Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "A White House whistleblower told lawmakers that more than two-dozen denials for security clearances have been overturned during the Trump administration, calling Congress her 'last hope' for addressing what she considers improper conduct that has left the nation's secrets exposed. Tricia Newbold, a longtime White House security adviser, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee that she and her colleagues issued 'dozens' of denials for security clearance applications that were later approved despite their concerns about blackmail, foreign influence, or other red flags according to panel documents released Monday. Newbold, an 18-year veteran of the security clearance process who has served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, said she warned her superiors that clearances 'were not always adjudicated in the best interest of national security' -- and was retaliated against for doing so.... White House officials whose security clearances are being scrutinized by the House Oversight Committee include ... Ivanka Trump..., Jared Kushner and national security adviser John Bolton...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is another example of Trump tricks that are both legal & impeachable offenses. And yeah, all the best people. ...

     ... Update. The New York Times story, by Nicholas Fandos & Maggie Haberman, is here. ...

... ** Jerry Nadler in a New York Times op-ed: "The entire reason for appointing the special counsel was to protect the investigation from political influence. By offering us his version of events in lieu of the report, the attorney general, a recent political appointee, undermines the work and the integrity of his department. He also denies the public the transparency it deserves. We require the full report -- the special counsel's words, not the attorney general's summary or a redacted version. We require the report, first, because Congress, not the attorney general, has a duty under the Constitution to determine whether wrongdoing has occurred.... The attorney general's recent proposal to redact the special counsel's report before we receive it is unprecedented.... We have every reason to suspect that the unedited obstruction section of the Mueller report resembles the report that Congress received from the Watergate grand jury in 1974. That evidence showed that President Richard Nixon had attempted to obstruct justice. It did not recommend that the president should be prosecuted. It did not say the president should be impeached. It simply stated the evidence so that Congress could do its job.... If President Trump's behavior wasn't criminal, then perhaps it should have been." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, maybe the House should impeach Bill Barr for obstruction.

In Case You Wondered if Trump Is a Heartless Ghoul. Jonathan Swan & Sam Baker of Axios: "As he was deliberating last year over replacing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, President Trump told confidants he had big plans for Judge Amy Coney Barrett. 'I'm saving her for Ginsburg,' Trump said of Barrett, according to three sources familiar with the president's private comments. Trump used that exact line with a number of people, including in a private conversation with an adviser two days before announcing Brett Kavanaugh's nomination. Barrett is a favorite among conservative activists, many of whom wanted her to take Kennedy's spot. She's young and proudly embraces her Catholic faith. Her past academic writings suggest an openness to overturning Roe v. Wade. Her nomination would throw gas on the culture-war fires, which Trump relishes."

Matt Stieb of New York: "According to a new book by sportswriter Rick Reilly, Trump's impulse to cheat also applies to the golf course. In Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, Reilly claims that Trump 'cheats at the highest level. He cheats when people are watching and he cheats when they aren't. He cheats whether you like it or not. He cheats because that.s how he plays golf ... if you're playing golf with him, he.s going to cheat.'... Trump claims he has a 2.8 handicap.... As the [New York] Post notes, 'Jack Nicklaus, winner of a record 18 major golf titles and generally considered the greatest golfer in the history of the game, has a handicap of 3.4.'... LGPA pro Suzann Pettersen says that Trump must collude with his caddy ahead of time, for 'no matter how far into the woods he hits the ball, it's in the middle of the fairway when we get there.' The president also allegedly tampers with the game of others in his party: former ESPN football announcer Mike Tirico recalled that Trump's caddy told him that Trump took a ball Tirico hit onto the putting green and threw it 50 feet away into a bunker." Thanks to Jeanne for reminding me about this stupid story.

Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Pete Buttigieg announced Monday that his presidential campaign had raised more than $7 million in the first quarter of 2019, a significant sum for a mayor who was little known outside of South Bend, Ind., only a few months ago."

~~~~~~~~~~

David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House doubled down Sunday on President Trump's threat to close the U.S. border with Mexico, despite warnings that the move would inflict immediate economic damage on American consumers and businesses while doing little to stem a tide of migrants clamoring to enter the United States. Sealing the border with Mexico, America's third-largest trading partner, would disrupt supply chains for major U.S. automakers, trigger swift price increases for grocery shoppers and invite lawsuits against the federal government, according to trade specialists and business executives.... Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on ABC News's 'This Week' that it would take 'something dramatic' to persuade the president to abandon his border-closing plans. And Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway insisted on 'Fox News Sunday' that the president's threat 'certainly isn't a bluff.'"

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's white supremacist policies are not only immoral & despicable, they're also incredibly stupid. ...

... Simon Romero of the New York Times: "Federal immigration officials appear to have cleared out an enclosure under a bridge in El Paso where they were detaining hundreds of families of asylum seekers, following an outcry over the conditions at the site. But authorities appeared to have shifted some processing of migrants to another site on the other side of the bridge, using a military-style tent near an existing processing facility operated by Customs and Border Protection. A smaller number of migrants could be seen at that site late Sunday afternoon. Separately, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection said on Sunday that the agency was 'in the process of transferring all of the illegal aliens being held temporarily' at the original enclosure under the bridge to a processing station in northeast El Paso." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Note that CBP produces no evidence that the detainees are "illegal aliens." Many are likely asylum seekers, and there's nothing "illegal" about their request for asylum.

... Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "In an interview with the Spanish outlet La Sexta, Pope Francis called out the president's plans [to build a border wall], saying that the U.S. would end up as a 'prisoner' itself.... Pope Francis's new comments on Trump's proposed wall are the latest in a volley of criticism aimed at White House policies. From presenting Trump with a treatise on climate change to calling on the White House to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, to even questioning Trump's professed Christianity, Pope Francis has made a habit of criticizing what he sees as the president's ignorance and nativism over the past two years." ...

... ** Will Bunch of Philly.com: "The cruelty of American policy on the southern border feels intentional -- the kind of thing that fires up Trump's angry base.... And it feeds a xenophobic synergy with his state-run media known as Fox News, which on Sunday showed its colors with a laughable-if-it-weren't-so-racist chyron saying Trump is cutting aid to 'three Mexican countries.'... Trump is rewriting our political playbook in the blood and misery of authoritarianism.... The crisis of Central American migration is a complicated issue, but you don't need a Ph.D in international relations to see that the American president is hellbent on making things worse."

Trump's Katrina. Sam Brodey & Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "[A] year and a half after hurricanes Irma and María ravaged Puerto Rico, the island is grappling with a whole new round of crises, Trump has been telling his GOP allies that Puerto Rico is receiving too much assistance from the federal government, and lawmakers leading an investigation into what happened after the storms are being stalled.... Of course, none of that stopped the president from insisting to White House reporters on Thursday, 'I've taken better care of Puerto Rico than any man ever.'... Trump has shown he feels he 'has nothing to apologize' for and is far more likely to insult Democratic politicians for, in his view, trying to use the disaster and high death toll to make him look bad, than to to talk about ways to ameliorate suffering on the U.S. territory. 'He's still clearly very bitter and sensitive about it,' [a] senior official noted.... According to those close to him, the president has long feared that Puerto Rico's devastation, and his response and reactions to it, would become known as his Hurricane Katrina[.]" --s

Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm going to quit calling Trump a racist; that term seems too anodyne. There are run-of-the-mill, troglodyte racists, and then there's Trump: a cruel, vengeful racist . Instead, I'll call Trump what I think he is: a white supremacist. I wish Democratic politicians would do the same. The worst thing that can happen is that eventually Trump will be forced to deny he's a white supremacist, and that will bum out half his base.

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Acting White House chief of staffMick Mulvaney claimed Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller intended for Attorney General William Barr to determine whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice in the FBI's investigation into Russian election interference. 'What you saw here is simply Mueller saying, "You know what? I'm going to let Barr call this one,"' Mulvaney said, discussing the final report on Mueller's 22-month probe with host Jonathan Karl on ABC's 'This Week.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McC: Thanks for your input there, Mick. Never mind that it makes very little sense. Mueller's job was to impartially follow the facts. Why would Mueller leave it to a political appointee of the President*, only a month on the job, to race through a 400-page report and thousands of pages of appendices to make a snap determination that the President* was not guilty? Either Mueller is a fool or a stooge, or Mick is dead wrong.

Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "Last year, the Times and the Washington Post shared a Pulitzer Prize for 'deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage' of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. None of the stories established that Donald Trump or members of his campaign had conspired illegally with Russians, though some of the reporting raised that possibility.... President Trump ... tweeted that the media had 'pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion' while knowing that it was false, and reprised his incitements against journalists, saying, 'They truly are the Enemy of the People.'... It does not follow that American journalism failed because the best-resourced newsrooms in the nation chose to report assiduously on the Mueller investigation and its subjects, only to learn that Mueller did not prove that Trump had conspired with Russia.... Voters will benefit most from legions of reporters working without fear or favor."

Daniel Politi of Slate: "... only 29 percent of Americans say they believe the president has been cleared of wrongdoing, while 40 percent say they don't think he was cleared, and 31 percent just aren't sure, according to a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll. Along the same lines, a Washington Post-Schar School poll found that only 32 percent believe Trump was exonerated on obstruction. The NBC-WSJ poll seems to demonstrate that more than anything, the conclusion of Mueller's report hasn't really moved public opinion one way or the other."

Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "An intelligence report [financed by the federal government] produced for law enforcement agencies in the months before the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, in which a neo-Nazi killed one protester by driving a car into a crowd, appeared to endorse a view that leftist demonstrators were 'terrorists' and at least equally as responsible for street violence as white nationalists, the Guardian can reveal.... The report blames the two sides equally for the violence.... The report also extensively sources information from conservative media and rightwing advocacy groups. It quotes a report from Glenn Beck's the Blaze, which cites the Washington Times, and Laura Ingraham's conservative lifestyle website LifeZette alongside more reputable sources, including the Guardian." --s

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "He changed the rules to make it easier to confirm ... Donald Trump's Supreme Court picks. He tossed out Senate traditions to make it easier to confirm Trump's circuit judges. So, naturally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants to adjust the rules again to make it easier to confirm the rest of Trump's nominees to lifetime seats on federal courts. The Senate will vote this week to reduce its debate time for most nominees ― district court judges and lower-level executive nominees ― from 30 hours to two hours. This will not apply to Cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court nominees or circuit court nominees. Without a whiff of irony, McConnell, whose greatest legacy is denying a Supreme Court seat and dozens of other federal court seats to President Barack Obama, said Thursday that the rule change is necessary because of Democrats" 'unprecedented obstruction' of Trump's nominees." ...

... Here's Mitch's Manifesto, published in Politico.

Presidential Race 2020

AP: "Former Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday he doesn't believe he ever acted inappropriately toward women but will 'listen respectfully' to suggestions he did. Biden, who is deciding whether to join the 2020 presidential race, released a new statement in response to allegations from a Nevada politician that he kissed her on the back of the head in 2014 and made her uncomfortable. 'In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort. And not once -- never -- did I believe I acted inappropriately,' he said. 'If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Sydney Ember & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. scrambled on Sunday to contain a quickly growing crisis for his likely presidential bid, putting forward several former female aides and allies to praise his treatment of women after Lucy Flores, a former Nevada legislator, accused Mr. Biden of kissing and touching her. Mr. Biden also issued a sweeping statement acknowledging that he had shown 'expressions of affection' to people during his years on the campaign trail, but said, 'not once -- never -- did I believe I acted inappropriately.' It was the second damage-control statement to come from his team since Ms. Flores made her allegation on Friday, and it was released minutes before she appeared on CNN and argued that Mr. Biden's behavior with her at a 2014 campaign event was 'disqualifying' for a presidential candidate." ...

... Biden Rivals Pile on. Marc Caputo & Martin Matishak of Politico: "Several Democrats vying to be their party's presidential nominee are expressing concern about former Vice President Joe Biden after a female politician accused him of inappropriate contact during a 2014 campaign event." ...

... Quint Forgey: "Stephanie Carter, the wife of former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, sought Sunday to 'reclaim' a 'misleadingly extracted' yet oft-mocked picture of her and Joe Biden that has resurfaced amid accusations that the former vice president acted inappropriately toward a female Nevada state assemblywoman in 2014.... In a blog post published Sunday on Medium<, Carter wrote that Biden's display of affection toward her in 2015 was appreciated, as she was 'uncharacteristically nervous' after slipping on some ice ... earlier in the day.... '... The Joe Biden in my picture is a close friend helping someone get through a big day, for which I will always be grateful,' Carter wrote."

Scott Bixby of The Daily Beast: "Mayor Pete Buttigieg's message for fellow Democratic hopefuls is a straightforward one: It's not enough to just attack the president.... The vice president, on the other hand? It's a little more complicated.... [T]he frequency and intensity of Buttigieg's critiques of the vice president speaks to a long shared history, both political and personal -- as well as the young mayor's deep personal disdain for perceived hypocrisy. Pence's outspoken religiosity, the mayor said, is in direct and irreconcilable conflict with his position in the Trump administration, and with Buttigieg's belief in the importance of 'good faith.'... From a purely political perspective, Buttigieg's broadsides against Pence have been a tactical victory.... [His] polling (and fundraising) numbers skyrocketed after a ;breakout performance in a CNN town hall in early March, in which he blasted Pence as 'the cheerleader of the porn-star presidency.'" --s

Sam Fulwood of ThinkProgress: "In a decision that strikes a progressive blow toward gender equality in public education, a federal judge ruled last week a North Carolina charter school's requirement that female students wear skirts is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard in the Eastern District of North Carolina said Thursday that Charter Day School, a high-performing public charter in Leland, North Carolina, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution."

Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "Climate change garners most of the headlines, but the Trump administration is pushing a much larger and broader pro-pollution agenda whose latest manifestation is a push at the EPA to overturn a long-established scientific consensus that fine particulate pollution (colloquially 'soot') kills people. This is critically important for two main reasons." --s

White Supremacists Turn to Fox "News" for Tips on Talking Points. Tamar Auber of Mediaite: "The son of Stormfront founder Don Black revealed on CNN on Saturday that his family watches Fox News' Tucker Carlson for tips on white supremacist talking points.... '... they feel that he is making the white nationalist talking points better than they have and they're trying to get some tips on how to advance it,' [Derek Black told CNN's Van Jones." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Virginia. Victoria Albert of the Daily Beast: "Days before the two women accusing Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault will appear on CBS This Morning, he announced he's taken a polygraph test that he claims proves him innocent."

Way Beyond

Juan Cole: "As an unprecedented 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza marched for the right to return, marking the one-year anniversary of the beginning of weekly such marches, Israeli snipers shot into the Gaza Strip, killing 4 youth and wounding at least 207.... Shooting civilian protesters who pose no realistic danger to troops is a war crime. Systematically doing so, as Israeli snipers have been ordered to do in the past year by the fascist Likud government of Binyamin Netanyahu, amounts to 'crimes against humanity.'... The US Congress condemned Rep. Ilhan Omar for alleged racism because she criticized the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. Congress has had nothing to say about the sniping at civilian populations on the part of the Israeli army[.]" --s

The Commentariat -- March 31, 2019

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Last night, I started posting today's Commentariat, which I labelled, "The Commentariat -- April 1, 2019." Ken W. soon pointed out to me that actually, no, today is March 31, a day which I plumb forgot. That is to day, I thought March had 30 days, even tho I know that ditty, "30 days hath September...." So I fixed the heading. Now, to rub it in, Ken sends this along!

... I might be as dimwitted as Doonesbury Donald, but at least I admit -- and correct -- my mistakes. I think I need a vacation in one of those Mexican countries ...

Afternoon Update:

... Yeah, that's a real screenshot of a "Fox & Friends" segment that aired Sunday morning. Avery Anapol of the Hill: "The show later issued an on-air correction and apology, saying the graphic was 'inaccurate' and that the funding was being cut from 'three Central American countries.'" Mrs. McC: I guess since Trump uses Fox "News" as an audition spool to staff the White House, Fox no longer has all the best people. ...

... White Supremacists Turn to Fox "News" for Tips on Talking Points. Tamar Auber of Mediaite: "The son of Stormfront founder Don Black revealed on CNN on Saturday that his family watches Fox News' Tucker Carlson for tips on white supremacist talking points.... '... they feel that he is making the white nationalist talking points better than they have and they're trying to get some tips on how to advance it,' [Derek Black told CNN's Van Jones.]"

AP: "Former Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday he doesn't believe he ever acted inappropriately toward women but will 'listen respectfully' to suggestions he did. Biden, who is deciding whether to join the 2020 presidential race, released a new statement in response to allegations from a Nevada politician that he kissed her on the back of the head in 2014 and made her uncomfortable. 'In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort. And not once -- never -- did I believe I acted inappropriately,' he said. 'If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Elisabeth Malkin of the New York Times: "President Trump's plan to cut off aid to three Central American countries for failing to stop the flow of migrant toward the United States breaks with years of conventional wisdom in Washington that the best way to halt migration is to attack its root causes. The decision also runs counter to the approach advocated by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, among others.... The decision turns American policy in the region on its head. Not only will it cut development and humanitarian assistance, but it will also halt joint law enforcement efforts, such as anti-gang units vetted by the United States, that had been supported by Republicans and the Trump administration until now...." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yes, but past presidents never had vengeance & cruelty as goals.

Calvin Woodward of the AP: "... Donald Trump is misrepresenting the circumstances of a 7-year-old migrant girl's death as he seeks to steer any potential blame for it away from his administration. Trump, after mockingly painting asylum seekers as a 'con job' in a rally the previous night, asserted on Friday that Jakelin Caal Maquin was given no water by her father during their trek to a remote border area and that the dad acknowledged blame for his daughter's death on Dec. 8. Those assertions are not supported by the record. TRUMP: 'I think that it's been very well stated that we've done a fantastic job. ... The father gave the child no water for a long period of time - he actually admitted blame.' -- to reporters Friday. THE FACTS: An autopsy report released Friday found that Guatemalan girl died of a bacterial infection just more than a day after being apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol.... Neither the autopsy report, nor accounts at the time by Customs and Border Protection, spoke of dehydration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Maureen Dowd went on a field trip to Donald Trump's rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She writes that Trump started the rally "hot," but "For the last hour of the speech, Trump went flat, simply resorting to golden oldies.... It's not clear why, on a night when his aides promised high energy, he seemed to lose altitude.... Did he know in his heart that he was guilty of some of those sins? Is he tired of rallies even before the 2020 race gets well underway? Does he know that his No Collusion' headline will not change the minds of all those Americans who disdain him? Or is he being a sore winner again? Maybe Trump, like America, is just tired of winning." Mrs. McC: I read or heard elsewhere that Trump has told advisors he didn't want to do so many rallies this campaign season & that he's already begged off a few rallies his advisors have suggested. This is no country for old men.

** Tired of Winning, Ctd. Carol Davenport of the New York Times: "In a major legal blow to President Trump's push to expand offshore oil and gas development, a federal judge ruled that an executive order by Mr. Trump that lifted an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean and parts of the North Atlantic coast was unlawful. The decision, by Judge Sharon L. Gleason of the United States District Court for the District of Alaska, concluded late Friday that President Barack Obama's 2015 and 2016 withdrawal from drilling of about 120 million acres of Arctic Ocean and about 3.8 million acres in the Atlantic 'will remain in full force and effect unless and until revoked by Congress.' She wrote that an April 2017 executive order by Mr. Trump revoking the drilling ban 'is unlawful, as it exceeded the president's authority.' The decision, which is expected to be appealed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, immediately reinstates the drilling ban on most of the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Alaska.... The Arctic Ocean drilling case could give legal ammunition to opponents of Mr. Trump's efforts to roll back protections for two million acres of national monuments created by Mr. Obama and President Bill Clinton. The case adds to a growing roster of legal losses for Mr. Trump's efforts to undo Mr. Obama's environmental legacy."

Michael Paarlberg in the Guardian: "Were it not for this singular obsession [of the Trump/Russia investigation], we might have come to appreciate the full scope of graft, influence peddling and petty theft that has made this the most crooked administration in US history. One doesn't have to go to Moscow to see it; pick almost any country in the world.... For legal scholars, the question of what to make of these gross conflicts of interest is a technical one: do they violate the constitution's so-called emoluments clause, barring presidents from accepting 'any present, emolument....' But there's a simpler term for this: public corruption. It's broader than hacking, and it's well documented, if not nearly as breathlessly discussed on cable news." --s

Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Reacting to conservative commentators and opinion hosts pushing for an investigation of the investigators following the completion of the Mueller report, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace burst Fox viewers' bubble Friday, informing them that the Russia investigation did not begin with the infamous Steele dossier.... 'It [the investigation] started in June and July of 2016 when George Papadopoulos had spoken to a Russian agent and spoke to an Australian diplomat and said he had heard they had information on -- dirt on Hillary Clinton,' [Wallace told Fox 'News' host Bill Hemmer., who got all discombobulated by Wallace's insistance on relaying, you know, facts]." This was some six months before BuzzFeed News published the dossier. Mrs. McC: Trump & other wingers are now conflating Christopher Steele's so-called dossier with the Mueller report, calling Mueller's report "the dossier." Just a slip-of-the-tongue, I'm sure. Ha ha.

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump handed a victory to a major North American energy company on Friday afternoon with a new presidential permit allowing the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to go forward. Many say the move is an effort to sidestep judiciary and environmental review and is likely to face legal challenges.... The presidential permit revokes and replaces a previous presidential permit granted by Trump in March 2017. In November 2018, a Montana judge invalidated that permit and it is currently being appealed, while a December lawsuit and subsequent injunction largely halted pre-construction activities on the pipeline." --s See also related WashPo story, also linked yesterday.

Trumpish "Values"

** Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "The president's rhetoric about 'shithole countries' and 'invasion' by immigrants invites dismissal as crude talk, but behind it lie ideas whose power should not be underestimated. The seed of Nazism's ultimate objective -- the preservation of a pure white race, uncontaminated by foreign blood -- was in fact sown with striking success in the United States. What is judged extremist today was once the consensus of a powerful cadre of the American elite, well-connected men who eagerly seized on a false doctrine of 'race suicide' during the immigration scare of the early 20th century.... Perhaps the most important among them was ... Madison Grant. He was the author of a 1916 book called The Passing of the Great Race, which spread the doctrine of race purity all over the globe.... His book went on to become Adolf Hitler's 'bible,' as the führer wrote to tell him.... The president's stated preference for Scandinavian immigrants over those from Latin America or Africa, and his expressed disdain for the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of birthright citizenship, are Grantism paraphrased."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump announced Saturday that a Navy SEAL who is accused of fatally stabbing an Islamic State detainee during a 2017 deployment to Iraq will be 'moved to less restrictive confinement' ahead of his trial in May. 'In honor of his past service to our Country, Navy Seal #EddieGallagher will soon be moved to less restrictive confinement while he awaits his day in court,' the president tweeted. 'Process should move quickly!' Trump's message follows a request by 40 members of Congress to the Navy on Tuesday to 'analyze whether a less severe form of restraint would be appropriate...' 'We ask that you weigh this decision given the terrible message Chief Gallagher's confinement sends to our warfighters, that they can be confined behind bars away from their family, legal defense, and community for nine months before their day in court,' the lawmakers wrote.... 'To confine any service member for that duration of time, regardless of the authority to do so, sends a chilling message to those who fight for our freedoms,' the lawmakers added.... Apart from the accusation that he murdered a teenage ISIS fighter under his care, military prosecutors contend that he held his re-enlistment ceremony with the detainee's corpse. Gallagher is also accused of shooting two civilians in Iraq and firing inadvertently into crowds." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's odd. Trump & these 40 MoCs don't seem all bent out about the plight of Chelsea Manning, who is reportedly being held in solitary confinement for refusing to testify to a grand jury, a decidedly nonviolent crime. Nor were they all upset, as far as I can recall, when in 2011 Manning was held in solitary at Quantico & stripped to her underwear every night, again for a non-violent crime of which she was later convicted. Apparently, one has to allegedly commit a "macho" murder to be awarded "less restrictive confinement" in Trumpworld. There is something really, really wrong with Trumpian "values."

The Great Divide. Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: "... if a Democrat ever insulted the 'heartland,' there'd be hell to pay, while Republicans insult heavily Democratic places all the time. Ted Cruz could sneer at 'New York values' as a way of attacking Donald Trump in 2016, but what would happen to Kamala D. Harris if she told [Pete] Buttigieg that Democratic primary voters didn't want any part of his 'Indiana values'? One more vivid example from recent history: In 2004, the conservative Club For Growth ran an ad against Howard Dean, in which a couple told him to 'take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont where it belongs.' Everyone laughed. Now imagine the outcry if a liberal group told, say, Mike Huckabee to 'take his trailer park-living, tobacco-chewing, NASCAR-watching, squirrel-eating freak show back to Arkansas where it belongs.'... When Buttigieg says that he has to educate people in California on the fact that 'Trump voters actually exist...,' he means that liberals have no conception of who Trump voters are or what might motivate them. But that's also absurd. As Adam Serwer of the Atlantic points out, 'There are more Trump voters in New York than Wyoming, Alaska, and the Dakotas combined.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let us not forget the weeping & gnashing of teeth when, in 2008, a HuffPost stringer surreptitiously recorded Barack Obama "explaining" to California supporters that (white) working-class voters "get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." ...

... digby: "I would just remind Democratic candidates that this is playing into Donald Trump's hands: 'Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen. Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!' -- [Donald Trump, in a tweet January 9] And, by the way, the county most affected by the wildfires he was referencing voted for Donald Trump."

Jon Swaine & David Smith of the Guardian: "Stephen Moore, the economics commentator chosen by Donald Trump for a seat on the Federal Reserve board, was found in contempt of court after failing to pay his ex-wife hundreds of thousands of dollars in alimony, child support and other debts. Court records in Virginia obtained by the Guardian show Moore, 59, was reprimanded by a judge in November 2012 for failing to pay Allison Moore more than $300,000 in spousal support, child support and money owed under their divorce settlement. Moore continued failing to pay, according to the court filings, prompting the judge to order the sale of his house to satisfy the debt in 2013. But this process was halted by his ex-wife after Moore paid her about two-thirds of what he owed, the filings say.... The Guardian revealed this week that Moore owes the US government $75,000 according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Moore disputes the government's claim and blames confusion over tax deductions relating to his child support and alimony payments.... Unlike all current members of the Federal Reserve board of governors, Moore does not hold a doctoral degree." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So now I'll be Donald Trump: "It's a terrible thing the way the fake news attacks a good man. This is a sad day when socialist foreign agitators try to destroy our democracy."

Gavin De Becker, an investigator for Jeff Bezos, in a Daily Beast essay: "Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos' phone, and gained private information.... While both the Daily Beast and the Wall Street Journal reported that Michael Sanchez, the brother of Bezos' love interest Lauren Sanchez had provided material about Bezos' intimate relationship with Lauren to the National Enquirer, the Journal was "able to confirm a claim Michael Sanchez had been making: It was the Enquirer who first contacted Michael Sanchez about the affair, not the other way around.... Obviously..., the initial information came from other channels -- another source or method.... The Saudi government has been very intent on harming Jeff Bezos since last October, when the Post began its relentless coverage of [Jamal] Khashoggi's murder.... In October, the Saudi government unleashed its cyber army on Bezos (and later me).... [There is a] well-documented and close relationship between MBS and AMI chairman, David Pecker.... The tabloid and its chairman have evolved into secretly entangling with a nation-state that's using its enormous resources to harm American citizens and companies. And now they've evolved into trying to strong-arm an American citizen whom that country's leadership wanted harmed, compromised, and silenced." Italization original.

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If De Becker is right -- and he is confident enough of his research that he's turned it over to federal authorities, according to his account -- then this is yet another Trump scandal that has everything: a gruesome murder, sex, international intrigue, hacking, attempted bribery, betrayal, a sleazy tabloid & connections to Middle Eastern "royalty" and the POTUS*. For decades, we've seen lurid claims against politicians emblazoned on the tabloids that supermarkets urge us to buy. In the past, the politicians have been the targets of the tabs; today our top politician is benefiting from some of these stories.

Ashley Powers of the New York Times on how "sovereign citizen' crackpots help would-be taxpayers swindle at least $1 billion from the federal government. "A loose network of perhaps tens of thousands of far-right antigovernment extremists, sovereigns share certain conspiratorial beliefs and, sometimes, a desire to profit off a government whose legitimacy they deny.... One way sovereigns try to make the imaginary money real is by abusing legitimate I.R.S. forms. Law-abiding taxpayers use Form 1099-OID, for example, to report 'original issue discount' income. But some sovereigns write in fake OID income, and fake withholding, in order to claim illegitimate refunds.... From 2012 to 2014, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the I.R.S. received close to 7,000 sham OID filings. Chronically underfunded and understaffed, I.R.S. investigators refer only about two dozen sovereign-scam cases, on average, for prosecution each year. The agency sometimes misses returns that should raise suspicion. For example, in 2016, the I.R.S. discovered a sizable redemption scheme -- but only after processing 207 bogus returns and disbursing more than $43 million. That's another reason these strange theories persist, and have begun to leach out of the sovereign network and into the general population: Sometimes, improbably, they work." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The key words here are "chronically underfunded." Cuts by Congressional Republicans have made the IRS enforcement staff a bare-bones operation. Non-enforcement costs billions. In the 1970s, I got audited three years running for prosaic "suspicious" deductions: high childcare costs. (On the last audit notice, I told them to cut it out as their "suspicions" were the same every year, & during audits, I was always able to provide authentic documentation of my expenditures. So they quit.) Now, I have much more complicated -- and equally honest -- returns, & I never get audited. Knock on wood.

Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "The rapidly dropping cost of renewable energy has upended energy economics in recent years, with new solar and wind plants now significantly cheaper than coal power. But new research shows another major change is afoot: The cost of batteries has been declining so unexpectedly rapidly that renewables plus battery storage are now cheaper than even natural gas plants in many applications.... Costs for lithium-ion battery storage have dropped 76 percent since 2012 -- and plunged 35 percent in the past year alone.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Sleeping While Black. Sam Levin of the Guardian: "Vallejo police have released footage of the killing of Willie McCoy at a Taco Bell, showing six officers shooting the 20-year-old who was sleeping in his car. The disturbing body-camera videos show the young rapper had moved his hand to scratch his shoulder before officers opened fire. The footage is consistent with key claims of McCoy's family, who watched footage earlier this month and said the officers 'executed' him while he was not alert or awake."

Way Beyond

Britain. Carole Cadwalladr of the Guardian: "The all-consuming nature of Brexit left almost no space for us to contemplate the significance of the news from America even as it demonstrated how entwined our fates are and continue to be.... In Britain, the news from America should be a huge red flag.... Mueller's investigation has laid out how a foreign power had used America's own media organisations and technology platforms to subvert its own democracy.... But in Britain, we don't have the bandwidth or the resolve or the understanding of the bigger picture to want to even try to understand this web of interconnected relationships." --s

Saudi Arabia. Nick Hopkins et al. of the Guardian: "Political prisoners in Saudi Arabia are said to be suffering from malnutrition, cuts, bruises and burns, according to leaked medical reports that are understood to have been prepared for the country's ruler, King Salman. The reports seem to provide the first documented evidence from within the heart of the royal court that political prisoners are facing severe physical abuse, despite the government's denials that men and women in custody are being tortured.... A spokesman declined to discuss the issue, despite being given repeated opportunities to do so. Officials did not challenge the authenticity of the reports." --s

Slovakia. Siegfried Mortkowitz of Politico: "Political novice and activist Zuzana Čaputová is on course to became the first female president of Slovakia, swept into office by public outrage at the 2018 killings of an investigative journalist and his fiancée. With around 97 percent of the votes counted the 45-year old lawyer's tally stood at 58.3 percent of the vote in Saturday's runoff against European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič."