The Commentariat -- November 13, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said Monday that Roy S. Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, 'should step aside' and that he believes the women who have accused Mr. Moore of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers. 'I believe the women, yes,' Mr. McConnell said at a news conference in Louisville. Mr. McConnell also said that encouraging a write-in candidate to run in the Dec. 12 special election is 'an option we're looking at.' Mr. Moore, a judge who was twice removed from the state's high court, first for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from the Supreme Court grounds, then for refusing to accept gay marriage, responded defiantly. He showed no sign of leaving the race ahead of Alabama's Dec. 12 special election date.... At 2:30 p.m. Monday, New York lawyer Gloria Allred, who has made her name by championing victims of sexual harassment, will publicly introduce a new woman accusing Mr. Moore of sexual impropriety."

Jessica Contrera of the Washington Post: "The photos of teenage girls began appearing on Twitter Thursday night. First, a smiling, ponytailed 14-year-old looking into the camera. Then, another 14-year-old, this one posing for a school-style photo. Soon, there were photos from Katie Couric, Alyssa Milano and Sarah Silverman -- all showing what they looked like when they were 14. 'Can't consent at 14. Not in Alabama. Not anywhere,' wrote attorney Catherine Lawson, the first woman to tweet a photo of her 14-year-old self with the hashtag #MeAt14. Lawson and the others on Twitter were responding to allegations against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama, first reported in The Washington Post." See the pix & commentary at #Me@14."

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday challenged congressional Republicans to use tax reform to repeal Obamacare's individual mandate and slash the top tax rate for the wealthiest Americans to 35 percent, potentially throwing up new hurdles for legislation moving in Congress. Neither the House bill nor the Senate version under consideration repeals the individual mandate or proposes a top rate that is as low as Trump suggested on Monday." ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "For months, the White House has pledged that its tax plan will not benefit the rich -- or, at least, that it won't do so intentionally. Then, the House and Senate unveiled tax bills that deliver the lion's share of their benefits to the idle superrich, while raising taxes on a broad swath of middle-class households. The bills would also eliminate deductions that benefit veterans, indebted students, and people who suffer from rare diseases -- while preserving loopholes that enrich hedge-fund managers and owners of golf courses.... So: The populist president looked at legislation that increases the tax burden of half of all families with children -- even as it allows the heirs of multimillion-dollar estates to avoid paying all capital gains taxes on their inherited assets -- and concluded: This bill really needs to do more to increase the post-tax income of millionaires, and reduce the number of Americans with health insurance.... Here he is, bucking the congressional leadership ... by calling for an even more regressive tax-cut plan." Emphasis added.

Eileen Sullivan & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump nominated a pharmaceutical executive to be the next secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. The nominee, Alex M. Azar II, served as a deputy at the department under former President George W. Bush. Until January, he was the head of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly's United States division. Mr. Trump made his announcement in a Twitter post while traveling in Asia. Mr. Trump said Mr. Azar would be 'a star and lower drug prices!'" Mrs. McC: Because there's nothing a drug company exec wants to do more than lower drug prices. Donald Trump thinks you're stupider than he is.

*****

Click on photo for larger view.... David Nakamura of the Washington Post calls the photo the revenge of NYT photographer Doug Mills. "On Friday, Mills was part of the small group of traveling 'press pool' members shadowing Trump in Danang, Vietnam, when he tweeted a 'photo' of a black box to protest the White House's decision to shut out the pool from any coverage of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meetings." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: No way to know for sure why Trump is grimacing, but I would guess is that the crossed-arm handshake is painful, either because he never exercises the muscles the gesture requires or his arthritis is acting up. Or maybe it was something he ate. Notice, BTW, that Russian PM Dmitri Medvedev isn't playing along. Sure looks like the Russians were the "real winners" in the Asia confabs. It sure as hell wasn't Trump, who embarrassed & diminished his country in multiple ways. ...

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Monday that he had a 'great relationship' with President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, making little mention of human rights at his first face-to-face meeting with an authoritarian leader accused of carrying out a campaign of extrajudicial killings in his nation's war on drugs.... 'Human rights briefly came up in the context of the Philippines' fight against illegal drugs,' said Sarah Huckabee Sanders.... But Mr. Duterte's spokesman denied that the subject of rights was ever broached, even as the Philippine president spoke about the 'drug menace' in his country." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's see, whom to believe? Sarah Sanders or a spokesman for a mass killer? It's a toss-up, at best. But wait, wait, it gets worse: "Among those at the private session was Jose E. B. Antonio, a developer who is Mr. Trump's partner on a $150-million, 57-story luxury tower in Manila's financial district and also serves as Mr. Duterte's trade envoy to the United States." So of course Trump is promoting his "great relationship with Duterte. ...

     ... AND This: "The two presidents declined to answer questions during brief remarks to reporters at the start of the meeting. As journalists shouted questions about whether Mr. Trump would press Mr. Duterte on human rights, the Philippine president quickly silenced them. 'Whoa, whoa -- this is not the press statement,' Mr. Duterte said.... 'You are the spies,' he told the reporters, as Philippine security personnel jostled some of them roughly. The remarks elicited a hearty laugh from Mr. Trump before the journalists were led out of the room." Because roughing up the press is hilarious.

     ... It might be worth noting that Trump has much more incentive to be nice to dictators than to democratically-elected world leaders. The dictators are likely the ones who decide whether or not a Trump-branded real-estate development can go up in their country, whereas in democracies, lower-level bureaucrats and/or local politicians usually make those decisions. In addition, voters don't keep their leaders around forever, whereas dictators, in general, have a longer shelf-life. And, as we know, this whole presidency gig is all about Trump & nothing at all about the welfare of oppressed peoples.

Olivier Laughland of the Guardian: "Two former US intelligence chiefs [Former director of national intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director John Brennan] have said Donald Trump poses 'a peril' to the US because he is vulnerable to being 'played' by Russia, after the president said on Saturday he believed Vladimir Putin's denials of Russian interference in the 2016 election.... Speaking to reporters in Vietnam on Sunday, the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, attempted to downplay the president's online outbursts by claiming he did not read Trump's tweets. 'They are what they are,' Kelly said.... Brennan said the remarks were 'reprehensible' but added: 'Considering the source of the criticism, I consider that criticism a badge of honour.'" --safari ...

... Troll-in-Chief. Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "A common strategy for dealing with trolls on Twitter, since they can't be reasoned with, is to simply ignore them. It's the same strategy White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has taken with the President of the United States. Speaking to reporters on Sunday in Vietnam, Kelly said he doesn't pay attention to what Trump is tweeting. 'Believe it or not, I do not follow the tweets,' Kelly said. Kelly also said that he prohibits his staff from reacting to Trump's tweets and does not take them into account when developing policy." --safari: A new first: the Chief-of-Staff admits to completely ignoring our president*'s deepest thoughts, because he's a fucking moron.

E.J. Dionne: "The focus on President Trump's political strength among white working-class voters distracts from a truth that may be more important: His rise depended on support from rich conservatives, and his program serves the interests of those who have accumulated enormous wealth. This explains why so few congressional Republicans denounce him, no matter how close he edges toward autocracy, how much bigotry he spreads -- or how often he panders to Vladimir Putin and denounces our own intelligence officials, as he did again this weekend.... To borrow from the president, he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and still not lose House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) as long as they have a reactionary tax bill to push into law."

Deb Riechmann of TPM: "Two former CIA employees are accusing the Trump administration's choice for CIA chief watchdog [Christopher Sharpley] of being less than candid when he told Congress he didn't know about any active whistleblower complaints against him.... Sens. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden say they find it hard to believe Sharpley didn't know about the complaints when he testified. They said one of the open cases is being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog. They say that inspector general's office, which is looking into the CIA matter to avoid a conflict of interest, asked Sharpley in January for documents. The office asked to interview Sharpley on Oct. 12. Sharpley's office said he wouldn't be available until after Oct. 17 -- the day he testified to senators." --safari

Scott Shane, et al., of the New York Times: The National Security Agency, "America's largest and most secretive intelligence agency, [has] been deeply infiltrated.... The agency regarded as the world's leader in breaking into adversaries' computer networks failed to protect its own.... Fifteen months into a wide-ranging investigation by the agency's counterintelligence arm ... and the F.B.I., officials still do not know whether the N.S.A. is the victim of a brilliantly executed hack, with Russia as the most likely perpetrator, an insider's leak, or both.... A mysterious group [calling itself the Shadow Brokers] ... [has] somehow obtained many of the hacking tools the United States used to spy on other countries.... There is broad agreement that the damage from the Shadow Brokers already far exceeds the harm to American intelligence done by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You can bet Trump is sure Putin had nothing to do with it.

** Adios Puerto Rico! Adrienne Masha Varkiani of ThinkProgress: "It's been nearly two months since Hurricane Maria first hit Puerto Rico, creating a humanitarian emergency. Today, only 44.5 percent of the population has electricity, and nearly 13 percent of the island still doesn't have access to clean drinking water.... Despite these ongoing challenges, emergency management director Abner Gomez resigned on Friday, and Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, who leads the military relief effort, will also be reassigned outside the island next week.../ Gov. Ricardo Rossello did not give a reason for Gomez's resignation. Last month, El Nuevo Dia newspaper reported that Gomez went on a two-week vacation less than one month after the hurricane first hit.... On Wednesday, Puerto Rican officials said 472 more people died this September compared to the same time last year. But last month, BuzzFeed reported that the Puerto Rican goverment is allowing funeral homes and crematorium homes to burn the bodies of those who were killed by the hurricane without including them in the official death toll." --safari ...

... Frances Robles of the New York Times: "The small energy outfit from Montana that won a $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico's tattered power grid had few employees of its own, so it did what the Puerto Rican authorities could have done: It turned to Florida for workers.... The six electrical workers from Kissimmee are earning $42 an hour, plus overtime. The senior power linemen from Lakeland are earning $63 an hour working in Puerto Rico, the Florida utility said. Their 40 co-workers from Jacksonville, also linemen, are making up to $100 earning double time, public records show. But the Montana company that hired the workers, Whitefish Energy Holdings, had a contract that allowed it to bill the Puerto Rican public power company, known as Prepa, $319 an hour for linemen, a rate that industry experts said was far above the norm even for emergency work -- and almost 17 times the average salary of their counterparts in Puerto Rico.... Questions are already being raised about a second contract that Prepa signed, this one with an Oklahoma company, Cobra, which was the highest bidder, required a $15 million down payment and -- like the doomed Whitefish agreement -- included a clause that said the deal could not be audited."

Benjamin Hart of New York: "If you strike Obamacare down, it will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. That, so far, is the lesson for the Trump administration, which has done just about everything in its power to weaken, undermine, and subvert the Affordable Care Act -- and now must contend with the reality that Americans are not only voting to expand the law, but are racing to sign up for it in record numbers. A government report from last week showed that 601,462 people had enrolled in the Affordable Care Act's individual marketplaces during the first four days of open enrollment, up 79 percent from the same period a year ago. 23 percent of those customers are new to the marketplace.... The numbers are remarkable considering the lengths to which the Trump administration has gone to try to dissuade Americans from President Obama's signature law." --safari

Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: "Global carbon dioxide emissions are projected to rise again in 2017, climate scientists reported Monday, a troubling development for the environment and a major disappointment for those who had hoped emissions of the climate change-causing gas had at last peaked. The emissions from fossil fuel burning and industrial uses are projected to rise by up to 2 percent in 2017, as well as to rise again in 2018, the scientists told a group of international officials gathered for a United Nations climate conference in Bonn, Germany. Despite global economic growth, total emissions held level from 2014 to 2016 at about 36 billion tons per year, stoking hope among many climate change advocates that emissions had reached an all-time high point and would subsequently begin to decline." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm sure this is of great concern to the three stooges who are running U.S. energy policy: Trump, Perry & Pruitt.

Rays of Sunshine? Jen Kirby of Vox: "Election Day 2017 was a women's march through the voting booths.... The 2017 elections are widely seen as a bellwether for the 2018 midterms, and the gains among women make next year's election even more intriguing. So could 2018 be another 'Year of the Woman' -- a term that arose in 1992.... Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, says it's too early to tell. What is obvious, she says, is the wave of interest among women, especially Democratic women, in running for office." Includes interview with Debbie Walsh. --safari...

... Ezra Klein: "The political press -- myself included -- underestimated both the depth and the durability of [Trump's] support, and has been trying to atone for that mistake, and ensure it's not made again, ever since. But in trying to take Trump's staunchest supporters seriously, we need to make sure we don't lose sight of his weaker supporters -- and his numerous opponents. They're the ones who decided the 2016 election and will decide the 2018 and 2020 elections.... Here's the thing: No one will win in 2018 or 2020 by trying to convert the most hardcore of Trump supporters.... A 4 percentage point swing toward the Democratic candidate in 2020 wouldn't require converting any hardcore Trump enthusiasts, but it would bury his reelection campaign." --safari

Senate Race

Lisa Mascaro of the Los Angeles Times: "Many politicians might seize on allegations that Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore pursued sexual relations with teenage girls. But Democrat Doug Jones isn't going there. The former prosecutor, who won convictions against Ku Klux Klan members for killing four young girls in the infamous 1963 Birmingham church bombing, has his own story to tell as his unlikely campaign gains sudden momentum. At a Friday night fish fry in this modest, working-class neighborhood outside Mobile, Jones spent more time talking about his own record and what he would do in Washington than about the scandal engulfing Moore.... 'Our message is the same.... Kitchen-table issues -- jobs, the economy,' he continued. 'Healthcare is such an important issue for the state...." ...

... Daniel Politi of Slate: "... after the explosive allegations that [Republican nominee Roy Moore] had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl decades ago, Democratic contender Doug Jones is rising in the polls. A poll by JMC Analytics and Polling published on Sunday shows Jones with 46 percent to Moore's 42 percent. The results are within the poll's margin of error of 4.1 percentage points -- and nine percent remain undecided -- but it still demonstrates just how much the Senate race in Alabama has changed since the Washington Post's story last week." ...

... Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Top Trump administration officials cautioned Sunday that Roy S. Moore ... should be allowed to defend himself against allegations that he pursued sexual and romantic relationships with teenage girls, even as Senate Republicans appeared to have largely abandoned his candidacy." ... Mrs. McC: Moore has already "defended himself" in a bizarre interview with supporter Sean Hannity in which he admitted to dating underaged girls, said he never plied one of the girls with wine because the county was dry (it wasn't), denied foreplay with a 14-year-old girl, was hesitant & conveniently couldn't remember much. Here's a true thing: it's much easier for a rapist to forget statutory rape than for his victim. ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "At a Christian Citizen Task Force forum in Huntsville, Alabama, on Sunday night, Moore said the Post had impugned his character and reputation because 'they are desperate to stop my political campaign,' adding, 'these attacks said I was with a minor child and are false and untrue -- and for which they will be sued.'... Moore offered no details about what kind of suit he planned to file, or when he planned to file it.... Moore also said he planned to reveal more information about the background of his accusers. 'We've still got investigations going on,' Moore said. 'We're still finding out a lot we didn't know.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As I suggested earlier in response to Jonathan Swan's post about Breitbart "journalists," linked below, the response to the allegations against Moore will be to smear the women who spoke to the Post. This is a well-worn pattern: sexually assault a women, and if she complains, attack her character. ...

... Conjob. Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress: "White House adviser Kellyanne Conway refused repeatedly to say whether Alabama Republican Roy Moore should step aside in his Senate race over allegations he is a serial child molester.... In the process of demurring on Moore's guilt or innocence, Conway said elected officials who are guilty of sexual assault or harassment should resign -- a call to action that would seem to implicate Conway's boss.... 'And if the allegations are true about a lot of people, they oughta step aside,' Conway continued. 'And some of them are probably holding office right now.'" --safari ...

... Judd Legum: "Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) appeared on Meet The Press and became the latest Republican Senator to withdraw support from Roy Moore.... Toomey said 'the accusations are more reliable than the denial.' The other Republican Senators who have withdrawn their support from Moore since his appearance on Hannity are Mike Lee (R-UT), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA).... Marc Short, Trump's Director of Legislative Affairs, tried to create some distance between Moore and the White House on Sunday morning. 'There's no Senate seat more important than the issue of child pedophilia,' Short said." ...

... ** David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "Moore's politics and his personal life are not separate, but rather deeply interconnected. Both are rooted in defense of a specific subculture of evangelical conservatism that privileges an extreme form of patriarchy, gerontocracy and arranged child marriage.... It is disturbingly commonplace in this culture to see 'understandings' in which older men from their late twenties on well into middle age are 'given permission' to date much younger women and girls.... It is no surprise that some of Moore's defenders have taken to using Biblical precedent to defend it.... When Roy Moore rails against the government and demands that the Bible be the basis for all law and culture, this is the culture he is defending.... Moore isn't a troubled abuser who has besmirched his political agenda. His political creed and his personal affronts are one and the same." ...

     ... David Atkins, in a follow-up: "... [Sunday's] polling shows that 37% of Alabama evangelicals are actually more likely to vote for Roy Moore after hearing the allegations against him, and 34 percent said it would make no difference.... These numbers cannot be attributed to pure political tribalism. It is ... a culture of explicitly sanctioned sexual abuse." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Kinda makes you see Republican "traditional family values" in a whole new light, doesn't it?

... Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Steve Bannon has sent two of Breitbart News' top reporters ... to Alabama. Their mission: to discredit the Washington Post's reporting on Roy Moore's alleged sexual misconduct with teenagers." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: My guess is that the way these two fine "journalists" intend to "discredit" the WashPo story is to dig up dirt on the women & needlessly embarrass them.

Scott Shane: "For eight years, the jihadist propaganda of Anwar al-Awlaki has helped shape a generation of American terrorists, including the Fort Hood gunman, the Boston Marathon bombers and the perpetrators of massacres in San Bernardino, Calif., and Orlando, Fla. And YouTube, the world's most popular video site, has allowed hundreds of hours of Mr. Awlaki's talks to be within easy reach of anyone with a phone or computer. Now, under growing pressure from governments and counterterrorism advocates, YouTube has drastically reduced its video archive of Mr. Awlaki, an American cleric who remains the leading English-language jihadist recruiter on the internet six years after he was killed by a United States drone strike. Using video fingerprinting technology, YouTube now flags his videos automatically and human reviewers block most of them before anyone sees them, company officials say."

Brett Samuels of The Hill: "No NFL players protested during the national anthem during Sunday's early games, according to multiple reports. The NFL Players Association unanimously passed a resolution earlier in the week calling for a moment of silence during Sunday's games in honor of Veterans Day. Players who previously knelt or raised their fists during the anthem stood this week.... Players had been spotted protesting each week since Trump's remarks, until Sunday." --safari ...

... AP Update: "Three players took a knee during the national anthem before the New York Giants game at the San Francisco 49ers, as the rest of the league stood during Veterans Day weekend. 49ers Eric Reid and Marquise Goodwin, both of whom have been protesting for most of the season, knelt, as did Giants defensive end Olivier Vernon, who was just activated. Vernon had been protesting while he was injured. Goodwin and his wife had lost their baby son earlier on Sunday due to complications during pregnancy. David Lombardi of The Athletic later tweeted a photo of Reid embracing an Air Force member. Reid has said his protest is not against the military." ...

... GQ has named Colin Kaepernick it's "Citizen of the Year" & put him on its cover. The story is here. Mrs. McC: And a big GQ-FU to non-citizen of the year Donald Trump.

Way Beyond

Build that Wall ... Sky-High? Jeremy Kryt of The Daily Beast: "The 3DR Solo Quadcopter carried a shrapnel-filled IED that was in turn rigged to detonate by remote control. It was the first time a weaponized Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) had been found in the hands of an organized crime group in Mexico. While contraband-laden drones operated by Mexican cartels have frequently penetrated U.S. airspace, none of them have been armed -- yet. But the drone's discovery comes at a time of widespread escalation o crime-related violence in Mexico, and could be a sign of things to come." --safari

Hamdi Alkshali & Ralph Ellis of CNN: "Mass graves containing the remains of civilians executed by ISIS have been found in the disputed Iraqi province of Kirkuk, Iraqi authorities told reporters on Saturday.... That area was an American base prior to 2011, Kirkuk Governor Rakan Saeed said. 'We are standing here, where ... at least 400 civilians were dragged, some in their red jumpsuits, and brutally executed by ISIS,' he said." --safari

Iona Craig of the Guardian: "Seven million people are on on the brink of famine in war-torn Yemen, which was already in the grip of the world's worst cholera outbreak when coalition forces led by Saudi Arabia tightened its blockade on the country last week, stemming vital aid flows." --safari

Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress: "Right-wing racists flew in from Slovakia, Hungary, and Spain to join tens of thousands of Poles at a white supremacist rally in Warsaw on Saturday where marchers bore signs with messages like 'Europe Will Be White' and 'Clean Blood.' Reporters on hand said the crowd numbered roughly 60,000, citing police estimates. A polish neo-nazi group called The Radical Camp, borrowing its name from a 1930s fascist movement in the country, organized the march.... Counterprotesters also showed up in far smaller numbers. One small group in the square held a sign reading 'We are Polish Jews' and stood encircled by police. Nearby, a group of 2,000 anti-fascists rallied in opposition to the massive hate march. Poland's resurgent fascist youth movement has embraced ... Donald Trump, whose campaign manager Steve Bannon worked for years to exploit white ethno-nationalist political energy in western Europe as well as the United States from his position leading Breitbart.com."

Jon Henley & Rajeev Syal of the Guardian: "The EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said the bloc is drawing up contingency plans for the possible collapse of Britain's departure talks.... The remarks came as Theresa May faces increasing pressure at home, with Tory and Labour MPs warning she risks a Commons defeat over Brexit within weeks if she continues to deny parliament a meaningful vote on the final deal with the EU." --safari

Barbie Latza Nadeau of The Daily Beast: "Americans may have a lot to learn from the fact that Italians have just welcomed Silvio Berlusconi, an 81-year-old cad tried for sex crimes and convicted of tax crimes, back to mainstream politics. Berlusconi, Italy's thrice-elected prime minister, known as the grand master of 'bunga bunga' sex parties and leering licentiousness, arrived at his political homecoming party on the posh island of Ischia last month aboard a fancy yacht alongside his 30-year-old live-in girlfriend ... and his closest advisors.... Berlusconi's comeback might also serve as a warning to those Americans who find it hard to swallow the notion that vile behavior, even on such a grand scale as Berlusconi's, can be forgiven in pursuit of agendas like tax breaks." --safari

News Lede

Washington Post: "More than 300 people have been killed and nearly 6,000 wounded in a powerful earthquake that jolted the Iran-Iraq border late Sunday, Iranian state media reported. The death toll was expected to rise even further, officials said. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said Monday that 341 people had been killed and 5,953 injured mainly in Iran's western provinces after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Iraqi side of the border, sending seismic shock waves as far as Lebanon, Israel, and Turkey. Seven people were killed in Iraq...."

The Commentariat -- November 12, 2017

David Lawler of Axios: "Rep. Kevin Brady, chairman of the Ways and Means committee, was unequivocal when asked on 'Fox News Sunday' whether he could guarantee that deductions for state and local taxes would not be eliminated in the final tax plan: 'I can,' he said."

*****

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "In a stream of tweets on Sunday, the president said those who wanted to investigate his ties to Russia were 'haters and fools,' ridiculed 'crooked' Hillary Clinton's ill-fated effort to reset relations with Russia and fired back at North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, for calling him old, saying that he could call Mr. Kim 'short and fat' -- but had restrained himself. That followed a freewheeling session with reporters on Air Force One on Saturday, in which Mr. Trump dismissed the Russia investigation as a Democratic 'hit job' and derided as 'political hacks' three former chiefs of the nation's intelligence agencies, all three of which concluded that Russia had meddled in the 2016 presidential election.... Pressed again on Sunday about whether he believed President Vladimir V. Putin's denials that Russia had intervened, Mr. Trump seemed to walk back his earlier comments somewhat.... 'As to whether I believe it or not, I'm with our agencies, especially as currently constituted, with their leadership,' Mr. Trump said at a news conference with Vietnam's president, Tran Dai Quang. 'I believe in our agencies. I've worked with them very strongly.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Landler is perplexed about what caused Trump to start mean-tweeting. But it seems obvious: somebody in the administration told him a POTUS had to put the U.S. before the leader of an adversarial government. So he came up with that weird "very strongly" line, but he wasn't happy about it. ...

... Karen DeYoung, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump said that President Vladimir Putin had assured him again Saturday that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 presidential campaign, and indicated that he believed Putin's sincerity, drawing immediate criticism from lawmakers and former intelligence officials who assessed that the meddling took place.... Former CIA director Michael V. Hayden said he was so concerned by Trump's statement that he contacted the agency to confirm that it stood by the January assessment. He described Trump's remarks as 'egregious comments on the character of folks who have been public servants ... [and] the public should know that these guys are thoroughgoing professionals, and what the president left unsaid is that the people he put into these jobs agree with the so-called hacks.'... Michael Morell, a former acting director and deputy director of the CIA, said Trump was 'biting hook, line and sinker' the word of Putin, a former intelligence officer who is a 'trained liar and manipulator.' Although progress had been made in the intelligence community's initial raw relationship with Trump, Morell said in an email, 'this will most definitely be a step backward.' Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of the panels investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, said he was left 'completely speechless' by Trump's willingness to take Putin's word 'over the conclusions of our own combined intelligence community.'... Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a statement that 'there's nothing "America First" about taking the word of a KGB colonel over that of the American intelligence community ... Vladimir Putin does not have America's interests at heart. To believe otherwise is not only naive but also places our national security at risk.'" ...

... Daniella Diaz of CNN: "CIA Director Mike Pompeo stands by US intelligence assessments that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, the agency said Saturday, despite ... Donald Trump saying he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin when he says his country didn't interfere." Mrs. McC: That's not exactly what Trump said: rather, he said he believed Putin was sincere in his denials of Russian interference. That's stupid, but it's not quite saying he believes Putin, although of course he implied it by running down our own intelligence assessments & the men who directed them. ...

... The Washington Post story on the Trump-Putin chats, by Ashley Parker & David Nakamura, also linked yesterday, has been updated several times. Here are a few additions: "On Saturday, Trump described former FBI director James Comey, who testified to Congress that Trump asked him to drop an investigation into his campaign's ties to Russian officials, as a proven 'liar' and 'leaker.' Trump called the former U.S. intelligence officials who concluded the Russians tampered -- including former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and former CIA director John Brennan -- 'political hacks.'... Of Putin, he added: 'He says that very strongly, he really seems to be insulted by it, and he says he didn't do it. He is very, very strong in the fact that he didn't do it. You have President Putin very strongly, vehemently, says he has nothing to do with that....'... Trump did not answer when asked during the flight to Hanoi whether he believed Putin's denial of the tampering.... Yet a Kremlin spokesman denied that the two leaders discussed election meddling, according to CNN." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump said that Putin spoke so strongly -- 'He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did" -- and that our own intelligence agencies were run by liars and hacks. This implies, IMO, that the head of government of an adversarial nation is more believable & trustworthy than is U.S. intelligence. Whatever your political leanings, this is an alarming, anti-American statement. And it's coming from the President of the United States. ...

... Amber Phillips of the Washington Post has Trump's full remarks aboard AF1 to the press, annotated, here. Here's another comment Trump made about Putin: "And there are those that say, if he did do it, he wouldn't have gotten caught, all right? Which is a very interesting statement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Dan Merica of CNN: "... Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin informally met on the sidelines of a regional economic summit in Vietnam Saturday and agreed to an extensive statement on the conflict in Syria. The statement, which reaffirms the leaders' commitment to defeat ISIS in the country, stresses the need to keep existing military communications open and agrees that the bloody conflict does not have a military solution. 'President Trump and President Putin today, meeting on the margins of the APEC conference in Da Nang, Vietnam, confirmed their determination to defeat ISIS in Syria,' the statement reads, adding later that Trump felt he had a 'good meeting with President Putin.'... The statement mostly addresses long-accepted areas of agreement between the United States and Russia...." ...

... Mark Landler: "President Trump has issued two starkly contradictory calls on his trip to Asia this past week: The nations of the world must rally behind the United States to confront the nuclear threat from North Korea, but they should expect America to go its own way on trade. Reconciling those messages will be hard.... The contradictions also reflect a more fundamental disarray in the presidency's policy toward Asia. It seems caught between the geopolitical realism of Mr. Trump's diplomats and the economic nationalism of his political aides. These competing impulses have left allies and adversaries alike confused about America's motives and staying power. Over time, several experts said, the balancing act will be impossible to maintain." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Nakamura & Ashley Parker: "On his third day in office, President Trump signed an executive memorandum withdrawing the United States from a 12-nation Asia-Pacific trade accord that had been painstakingly negotiated over a decade by two of his White House predecessors.... But on the 295th day of his presidency -- during a trip to the region where the trade pact was most vital -- a competing narrative emerged. Trump's 'America first' slogan has, in many ways, begun to translate into something more akin to 'America alone.'"

The New York Times Editors urge Trump to read the Constitution: "... throughout his candidacy and presidency, Mr. Trump has treated the Constitution less as a guiding light than as an inconvenient hindrance. 'His idea of the presidency is, he was elected and he can do whatever he wants,' said Corey Brettschneider, a professor of political science at Brown University and author of 'The Oath and the Office: A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents.'... 'Presidents usually regard the oath as a set of legally binding principles that they abide by,' Mr. Brettschneider said. 'Trump tends to think of things in terms of real estate law -- ways to get around legal requirements rather than enforcing and promoting them. That's scary, because we rely on a president to espouse the norms of the Constitution.'" The editors provide "a small sampling of Mr. Trump's depredations of those foundational amendments -- via tweet, speech or interview -- over the past two and a half years." We've hit most if not all of them here.

Mark Hosenball & John Walcott of Reuters: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has questioned Sam Clovis, co-chairman of ... Donald Trump's election campaign, to determine if Trump or top aides knew of the extent of the campaign team's contacts with Russia, two sources familiar with the investigation said on Friday.... 'The ultimate question Mueller is after is whether candidate Trump and then President-elect Trump knew of the discussions going on with Russia, and who approved or even directed them,' said one source. 'That is still just a question.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... it certainly appears that Cambridge Analytica was heavily involved with trying to get Clinton's stolen emails, and was aware that Russia had engineered their theft, and played an important role facilitating cooperation between Russia and the Trump campaign." Chait connects the known dots. There are quite a few of them. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... in [Mike] Flynn's case, if the allegations [about his $15MM deal with Turkey] are proved to be true, the scandal would ... resemble ... Teapot Dome (the 1920's scandal that took down former Interior Secretary Albert Fall for selling public oil leases), but with a dash of treason. That a presidential National Security Advisor would sell his influence to a foreign government so quickly and cheaply is a very big deal, which we need to linger over before returning to the rest of the issues Mueller is investigating." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Trump Team Begins Drafting Middle East Peace Plan" seems like an Andy Borowitz headline, but it actually heads a story by Peter Baker & is the New York Times' top story this morning. "President Trump and his advisers have begun developing their own concrete blueprint to end the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, a plan intended to go beyond previous frameworks offered by the American government in pursuit of what the president calls 'the ultimate deal.'" Mrs. Mc.C: Also, that's as far as I could read.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times has the most depressing story of the day, especially for younger people who will bear the brunt of it: Trump is reshaping the federal courts with young, ultra-conservative judges.

** Trumpian Values. Adam Davidson of the New Yorker: "[T]he Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. E.I.T.I., formed in 2003, is an international organization through which governments, private citizens, and corporations seek to reduce the rampant pilfering of wealth in the oil, gas, mineral, and other extractive industries.... The membership roll has been growing rapidly and now includes dozens of nations.... As of last spring, the Trump Administration seemed to be moving away from years of enthusiastic, bipartisan American support of E.I.T.I.... Now we learn that the Trump Administration is abandoning the global pact...[T]he U.S. pulling out of E.I.T.I. ... does show that the Trump Administration is actively implementing, in real policy, its avowed distrust -- even contempt -- for international compacts designed to improve the lives of people around the world. That is terrifying." --safari

Senate Race

Everybody Thought Roy Was Weird. Max Greenwood of the Hill: "A former colleague of GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore said Saturday that it was 'common knowledge' that the Alabama Republican dated high school girls when he worked in the Etowah County District Attorney's Office in the 1980s. In a statement to CNN, Teresa Jones, who served as deputy district attorney for Etowah County, Ala., from 1982 until 1985, said that multiple people thought it was unusual that Moore dated high school girls, but that no one ever raised the matter with him. 'It was common knowledge that Roy Moore dated high school girls, everyone we knew thought it was weird,' Jones told CNN. 'We wondered why someone his age would hang out at high school football games and the mall ... but you really wouldn't say anything to someone like that.'"

News Lede

New York Times: "Liz Smith, the longtime queen of New York's tabloid gossip columns, who for more than three decades chronicled little triumphs and trespasses in the soap-opera lives of the rich, the famous and the merely beautiful, died on Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She was 94."

The Commentariat -- November 11, 2017

Afternoon Update:

The Washington Post story by Ashley Parker & David Nakamura, also linked below, has been updated several times. Here are a few additions: "On Saturday, Trump described former FBI director James Comey, who testified to Congress that Trump asked him to drop an investigation into his campaign's ties to Russian officials, as a proven 'liar' and 'leaker.' Trump called the former U.S. intelligence officials who concluded the Russians tampered -- including former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and former CIA director John Brennan -- 'political hacks.'... Of Putin, he added: 'He says that very strongly, he really seems to be insulted by it, and he says he didn't do it. He is very, very strong in the fact that he didn't do it. You have President Putin very strongly, vehemently, says he has nothing to do with that....'... Trump did not answer when asked during the flight to Hanoi whether he believed Putin's denial of the tampering.... Yet a Kremlin spokesman denied that the two leaders discussed election meddling, according to CNN." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump said that Putin spoke so strongly -- "He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did" -- and that our own intelligence agencies were run by liars and hacks. This implies, IMO, that the head of government of an adversarial nation is more believable & trustworthy than is U.S. intelligence. Whatever your political leanings, this is an alarming, anti-American statement. And it's coming from the President of the United States. ...

... Amber Phillips of the Washington Post has Trump's full remarks aboard AF1 to the press, annotated, here. Here's another comment Trump made about Putin: "And there are those that say, if he did do it, he wouldn't have gotten caught, all right? Which is a very interesting statement." ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump has issued two starkly contradictory calls on his trip to Asia this past week: The nations of the world must rally behind the United States to confront the nuclear threat from North Korea, but they should expect America to go its own way on trade. Reconciling those messages will be hard.... The contradictions also reflect a more fundamental disarray in the presidency's policy toward Asia. It seems caught between the geopolitical realism of Mr. Trump's diplomats and the economic nationalism of his political aides. These competing impulses have left allies and adversaries alike confused about America's motives and staying power. Over time, several experts said, the balancing act will be impossible to maintain."

Mark Hosenball & John Walcott of Reuters: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has questioned Sam Clovis, co-chairman of ... Donald Trump's election campaign, to determine if Trump or top aides knew of the extent of the campaign team's contacts with Russia, two sources familiar with the investigation said on Friday.... 'The ultimate question Mueller is after is whether candidate Trump and then President-elect Trump knew of the discussions going on with Russia, and who approved or even directed them,' said one source. 'That is still just a question.'" ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... it certainly appears that Cambridge Analytica was heavily involved with trying to get Clinton's stolen emails, and was aware that Russia had engineered their theft, and played an important role facilitating cooperation between Russia and the Trump campaign." Chait connects the known dots. There are quite a few of them. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... in [Mike] Flynn's case, if the allegations [about his $15MM deal with Turkey] are proved to be true, the scandal would ... resemble ... Teapot Dome (the 1920's scandal that took down former Interior Secretary Albert Fall for selling public oil leases), but with a dash of treason. That a presidential National Security Advisor would sell his influence to a foreign government so quickly and cheaply is a very big deal, which we need to linger over before returning to the rest of the issues Mueller is investigating."

Katie Mettler of the Washington Post: "... the version of Veterans Day we know now wasn't always so. It wasn't always a holiday, it wasn't always on Nov. 11 and, at first, it wasn't even called Veterans Day. The original intent, established in the wake of World War I, was to celebrate world peace. Then the wars never ended, so Veterans Day changed." ...

... Sudarsan Raghavan of the Washington Post: "The body of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four U.S. soldiers killed in an ambush by Islamist militants in Niger last month, was found with his arms tied and a gaping wound at the back of his head, according to two villagers, suggesting that he may have been captured and then executed. Adamou Boubacar, a 23-year-old farmer and trader, said some children tending cattle found the remains of the soldier Oct. 6, two days after the attack outside the remote Niger village of Tongo Tongo, which also left five Nigerien soldiers dead. The children notified him."

Ashley Parker & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin again denied his nation tampered in the U.S. presidential election last year, during brief conversations on the sidelines of an international summit. Trump told reporters that he and Putin had more than one informal discussion after crossing paths at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Danang, Vietnam, before Trump flew to Hanoi for a bilateral meeting Sunday with Vietnamese leaders. The conversations mostly centered on the war in Syria, Trump said, but he added that he pressed Putin on Moscow's role in attempting to tamper in the elections. 'He said he didn't meddle,' Trump said. 'I asked him again. You can only ask so many times.... He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did.'" Mrs. McC: Okay then, that's settled. When two autocrats agree that something didn't happen, then it didn't happen, no matter what "they are saying." Or what a mountain of evidence reveals. ...

     ... Read on. The story has been expanded since first published. Trump says "people will die" because Putin is so put out by the Russia investigations....

...Poor Vlady! BBC: "President Vladimir Putin felt insulted by allegations of Russian interference in the US election, Donald Trump has said after meeting him briefly at an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam.... Mr Putin later dismissed the allegations as 'political infighting'.... The US intelligence community has already concluded that Russia tried to sway the poll in favour of Mr Trump." --safari ...

... Guardian: "Vladimir Putin and Donald Trumphave said they see no military solution to the conflict in Syria and a political resolution was needed, according to a joint statement issued by Russia on Saturday.... 'We spoke intermittently during that roundtable. We seem to have a very good feeling for each other and a good relationship considering we don't know each other well,' Trump said, adding that he and Putin had two or three very short conversations." --safari ...

...Suspicious. Alec Luhn of the Telegraph: "The US embassy in Moscow is to be guarded by a company owned by a former head of KGB counter-intelligence who worked with British double agent Kim Philby and young Vladimir Putin, after cuts to US staff demanded by Russia. Elite Security, a private company ... was founded in 1997 by Viktor Budanov and his son Dmitry.... A 2002 article posted on the site of Russia's foreign intelligence service identified Mr Budanov as a major general in the agency who became a Soviet spy in 1966 and retired a year after the collapse of the USSR. His long work in Soviet and Russian intelligence could raise questions about whether the guard services contract poses a security or intelligence risk to the US mission.... Before his work in foreign intelligence Mr Budanov was the director of the KGB's counter-intelligence division, he has told Russian media." --safari

Ashley Parker: "President Trump delivered a fiery speech on trade [in Da Nang, Vietnam] Friday, declaring that he would not allow the United States to be 'taken advantage of anymore' and planned to place 'America first.' And then, less than 24 hours later, 11 Pacific Rim countries collectively shrugged and moved on without the U.S. On Saturday, the countries announced they had reached a deal to move ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact that Trump threw into question when he withdrew from it earlier this year. The agreement represents something of a rebuke of Trump, coming near the end of his five-country, 12-day swing through Asia, and reflects the willingness of other nations to proceed without the buy-in of the United States.... The decision to move ahead with the TPP agreement, minus the United States, reflects how Trump's decision to withdraw from the deal created a vacuum other nations are now moving to fill, with or without the president." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yes, but remember, Trump really showed President Obama.

How Cruel Is the Trump Administration? Liz Robbins of the New York Times: "Dozens of young immigrants mailed [DACA] renewal forms weeks before they were due. But their paperwork was delayed in the mail and [their applications were] denied for being late.... On Thursday, in a rare admission from a federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service took the blame..... But the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency said nothing more could be done; the decisions were final. Because DACA is an executive order, signed by President Barack Obama in 2012, and not a statute, applicants cannot appeal the decision.... Still, immigrants and their advocates viewed the agency's unwillingness to revisit their applications as harsh and unfair.... On Sept. 5..., Jeff Sessions announced after months of speculation that the Trump administration was canceling the program. Recipients were allowed to keep their permits until they expired at the end of the current two-year term. The administration also offered a brief renewal window for recipients whose permits were expiring before March 5, which set off a scramble across the country from legal service providers to assist applicants." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wherein Bob Mueller Moves from the Trump Campaign into the White House & Congress:

Sharon LaFraniere, et al., of the New York Times: Robert "Mueller's investigators are seeking to determine who -- if anyone -- in the Trump campaign [George] Papadopoulos told about the stolen [Clinton campaign] emails. Although there is no evidence that Mr. Papadopoulos emailed that information to the campaign, Mr. Papadopoulos was in regular contact that spring with top campaign officials, including Stephen Miller, now a senior adviser to President Trump.... The day before he learned about the hacked emails, Mr. Papadopoulos emailed Mr. Miller, then a senior policy adviser to the campaign, saying Mr. Trump had an 'open invitation' from Mr. Putin to visit Russia. The day after, he wrote Mr. Miller that he had 'some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right.' Those emails were described in court papers unsealed Oct. 30.... But the documents did not identify Mr. Miller by name, citing only a 'senior policy adviser.' During interviews with Mr. Mueller's investigators, former campaign officials now working at the White House have denied having advance knowledge of the stolen emails, according to an official familiar with those discussions. Mr. Miller was among those recently interviewed."...

     ... Josh Marshall: "Miller's hands are all over the Comey firing. Now that we know he was in the loop for the Russia contacts, we know that in seeking to fire Comey he was at least in part seeking to kill an investigation into himself.... Miller came to Trump via Jeff Sessions.... We still don't have a terribly good explanation of how Jeff Sessions ... ended up having as multiple private conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak over the course of 2016, including one private meeting in Sessions' senate office in September. Miller seems like at least one likely conduit. At a minimum, Miller getting updated on Papadopoulos' adventures makes it much less credible that Sessions knew nothing about the channels opening up between the campaign and Russia." ...

... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The chief executive of Cambridge Analytica has confirmed that the UK data research firm contacted Julian Assange to ask WikiLeaks to share hacked emails related to Hillary Clinton at about the time it started working for the Trump campaign in summer 2016. Speaking at a digital conference in Lisbon, Alexander Nix said he had read a newspaper report about WikiLeaks' threat to publish a trove of hacked Democratic party emails, and said he asked his aides to approach Assange in early June 2016 to ask 'if he might share that information with us', according to remarks published by the Wall Street Journal. Assange, WikiLeaks's founder, has already acknowledged the approach by Cambridge Analytica and said WikiLeaks rejected the request. In Lisbon, Nix reportedly agreed that the overture had been rebuffed.... Robert Mercer, a Trump mega-donor, and his daughter, Rebekah, are major investors in Cambridge Analytica and Steve Bannon was a vice-president of the company before joining the Trump campaign...." ...

... Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Investigators for Special Counsel Robert Mueller are questioning witnesses about an alleged September 2016 meeting between Mike Flynn, who later briefly served as ... Donald Trump's national security adviser, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a staunch advocate of policies that would help Russia, two sources with knowledge of the investigation told NBC News. The meeting allegedly took place in Washington the evening of Sept. 20, while Flynn was working as an adviser to Trump's presidential campaign. It was arranged by his lobbying firm, the Flynn Intel Group. Also in attendance were Flynn's business partners, Bijan Kian and Brian McCauley, and Flynn's son, Michael G. Flynn, who worked closely with his father, the sources said. ...

... Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Mike Flynn and his son's alleged plot to kidnap a Muslim cleric living in the U.S. and hand him over to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars. The former national security adviser to ... Donald Trump and his son, Mike Flynn Jr., would have been paid up to $15 million for delivering Fethullah Gulen to the Turkish government, according to sources familiar with the investigation who spoke to the Wall Street Journal." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: So congratulations, folks! You are residents of a country in which the top national security advisor to the president is being investigated for kidnapping & rendition to a harsh foreign government. Unless, that is, your DACA renewal app was lost in the mail. In which case, you can't be a resident any more. ...

... Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, attended a breakfast meeting in January that Michael Flynn, then the incoming national security adviser, and Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, also attended.... Nunes' attendance at the event is newly relevant amid revelations that ... Robert Mueller is investigating a meeting that another congressman, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, took with Flynn in September 2016. Flynn had begun lobbying on behalf of Turkish government interests one month earlier. That lobbying work continued into the presidential transition and through December, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Friday. Mueller is scrutinizing an alleged plot involving Flynn to return an exiled Turkish cleric to the country, the report said.... On January 10, Flynn reportedly met with the national security adviser at the time, Susan Rice, and asked her to hold off on implementing an anti-ISIS plan that involved arming the Syrian Kurds. The Turkish government vehemently opposes any plan that would empower the Kurds...."

Noor Al-Sibai of the Raw Story: "In February..., Jared Kushner told an executive at CNN's parent company Time Warner that they should fire 20 percent of the cable news agency's staff. According to the Wall Street Journal, Kushner told Gary Ginsburg, Time Warner's executive vice president of corporate marketing and a former lawyer for the Clinton White House that 'CNN should fire [20] percent of its staff because they were so wrong in their analysis of the election and how it would turn out, people familiar with the matter say.' The White House now claims Kushner made the comments in jest -- but at 'Time Warner, it wasn't taken lightly.' The revelation of those comments came days after reports that the Department of Justice was pressuring Time Warner to sell CNN before approving the telecom giant's merger with AT&T."

Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "On pesticides, chemical solvents and air pollutants, [EPA Administrator Scott] Pruitt and his deputies are using industry figures to challenge past findings and recommendations of the agency's own scientists.... During his confirmation hearing before Congress in January, Pruitt testified at length about the need for credible science to guide the EPA's decision-making. 'If confirmed, it will be my privilege to work with EPA scientists,' he wrote in response to questions from Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Independent peer review 'is critical to ensuring the integrity of scientific research,' and 'sound, objective science must serve as 'the backbone' of EPA actions.' Detractors say his actions tell a different story." Mrs. McC: Obviously, "detractors" are right. ...

... Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "William Wehrum, an industry lawyer and lobbyist, has represented companies who regularly filed legal challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency's clean air regulations. Nonetheless, President Donald Trump nominated him to head the office at the EPA responsible for ensuring Americans have clean air. Senate Republicans agreed with the Trump administration that Wehrum was the right person for the job. On a party-line vote of 49 to 47, the Senate approved Wehrum on Thursday to lead the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation.... Wehrum 'has an astounding number of conflicts of interest given that he has regularly represented industry in their efforts to undermine clean air standards,' the Sierra Club said in response to his nomination ... Wehrum has spent his career ... working to roll back the EPA's clean air protections." --safari

Devin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The FBI's background-check system is missing millions of records of criminal convictions, mental illness diagnoses and other flags that would keep guns out of potentially dangerous hands, a gap that contributed to the shooting deaths of 26 people in a Texas church this week. Experts who study the data say government agencies responsible for maintaining such records have long failed to forward them into federal databases used for gun background checks -- systemic breakdowns that have lingered for decades as officials decided they were too costly and time-consuming to fix."

Jim Tankersley & Bel Casselman of the New York Times: "Mitch McConnell ... acknowledged on Friday that the Republican tax plan might result in a tax hike for some working Americans, saying he 'misspoke' days earlier when he said that 'nobody in the middle class is going to get a tax increase' under the Senate bill.... The Senate bill unveiled on Thursday would raise taxes on millions of middle-class families, according to a preliminary New York Times analysis. The plan would also disproportionately benefit high earners and corporations. Still, middle-class earners would fare better under the Senate proposal than its counterpart in the House, the analysis found.... The Times analysis, using the open-source software TaxBrain, found that roughly one-quarter of families in the middle class would see their taxes increase in 2018, by about $1,000 on average. By 2026, the share seeing an increase would rise slightly, to about one-third, and the average increase would rise to about $1,600."...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "Typically, the majority party in Congress will take pains to shield their most vulnerable members from difficult votes.... But the Trump-era GOP has done the opposite.... Now, with their tax bill, Republicans have found a way to hammer their at-risk House members even harder. Twenty-three House Republicans represent districts that went for Clinton. The bulk of these are heavily upper-middle-class suburbs in high-income states.... Republicans are constantly saying that they need to pass their tax plan in order to retain control of Congress next year. But when one looks at what their plan would actually do, it's hard not to reach the opposite conclusion." --safari

David Savage of the Los Angeles Times: "Brett J. Talley, President Trump's nominee to be a federal judge in Alabama, has never tried a case, was unanimously rated 'not qualified' by the American Bar Assn.'s judicial rating committee, has practiced law for only three years and, as a blogger last year, displayed a degree of partisanship unusual for a judicial nominee, denouncing 'Hillary Rotten Clinton' and pledging support for the National Rifle Assn. On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee, on a party-line vote, approved him for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. Talley, 36, is part of what Trump has called the 'untold story' of his success in filling the courts with young conservatives.... Civil rights groups and liberal advocates ... denounced Thursday's vote, calling it 'laughable' that none of the committee Republicans objected to confirming a lawyer with as little experience as Talley to preside over federal trials." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Always look on the bright side. I see this as a great opportunity for young Reality Chex readers. Take some community college class on business law or whatever, say something bad about Clinton or Obama & get a prestigious lifetime job. (I think you have to buy the robe, but then you can get away with wearing cheap outfits under it.) BTW, if the plan doesn't work out, try for Chief Justice of the Alabama State Supreme Court. They'll take anybody. ...

Senate Race

Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans scrambled on Friday to find a way to block Roy S. Moore's path to the Senate, exploring extraordinary measures to rid themselves of their own nominee in Alabama after accusations emerged that he had made sexual advances on four teenage girls when he was in his 30s.... Republican senators and their advisers, in a flurry of phone calls, emails and text messages, discussed fielding a write-in candidate, pushing Alabama's governor to delay the Dec. 12 special election or even not seating Mr. Moore at all should he be elected. In an interview, Senator Mitch McConnell ... declined to say whether he would agree to seat Mr. Moore should he win.... The Senate Republican campaign arm, which Mr. McConnell effectively oversees, withdrew Friday from a joint fund-raising agreement with Mr. Moore's campaign. And Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Steve Daines of Montana rescinded their endorsements of the candidate."

Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has requested to be removed from Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore's fundraising pitches after a Thursday investigative report from the Washington Post detailed accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct between a 32-year-old Moore and a minor.... The fundraising pitch attempted to discredit the allegations and included pictures of Lee, as well as Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.)." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's funny, because back when Lee already knew all the stuff that Alex Shephard mentions in the post linked below, Lee wrote, "Judge Moore's tested reputation of integrity is exactly what we need in Washington, D.C., in order to pass conservative legislation and protect the liberty of all Americans." So, um, kicking Muslims out of Congress would be "conservative legislation"; dating girls half your age is creepy? Making homosexuality illegal is "protecting the liberty of all Americans," but molesting a 14-year-old is over the line? Why don't you tell us where your line is, Mike? ...

     ... Update: Late yesterday, Lee unendorsed Moore. ...

... Gail Collins: "... as a politician [Mitt] Romney would pander to a guppy. But this week he was a veritable profile in courage by Republican standards. He told his party to drop the 'if true' hedge when they were talking about charges that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore once sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl. 'Innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections,' Romney said. 'I believe Leigh Corfman. Her account is too serious to ignore. Moore is unfit for office and should step aside.' Simple and straightforward. Election to high office is an honor, not a right.... (John McCain was one of the first to demand that Moore drop out; Jeff Flake was telling the world what a terrible person Moore was even before the sex accusations came up.)" ...

... Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "...Roy Moore (R) pushed back on reports that he pursued sexual relationships with teenagers in a Friday interview on Sean Hannity's radio show, telling the host that he did 'not generally' date women in their teens.... 'I don't know [Leigh] Corfman from anybody,' Moore told Hannity. 'I've never talked to her, never had any contact with her. Allegations of sexual misconduct with her are completely false. I believe they're politically motivated....' He acknowledged knowing and being friendly with the parents of two of the other accusers, Debbie Wesson Gibson and Gloria Thacker Deason. Moore used the phrase 'good girl' to describe both women, who said that he kissed them and took them on dates when they were in their late teens and he was in his early 30s. Moore denied any sort of misconduct and said he didn't 'remember dating any girl without the permission of her mother.'" ...

... Allan Smith of Business Insider: "Moore began the interview by saying the allegations were 'completely false and misleading.' But he seemed to waver throughout the interview.... Moore ... said [dating teenagers] 'would be out of my customary behavior' and that he 'never' would have dated a teen without her mother's permission." Mrs. McC: In case you didn't notice, Moore is admitting here that he did date teenaged girls, but he claims that then 14-year-old Leigh Corfman was not one of them. Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out last night that at one point in the interview, Moore uses two of the girls cited in the WashPo story as character witnesses -- he noted that they both said he did not go beyond kissing them. ...

... Michael Scherer & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "When asked about [Gloria Thacker] Deason's claim that he provided her wine on dates when she was 18, Moore said: 'In this county, it's a dry county. We never would have had liquor.' Alcohol sales began in Etowah County in 1972, years before the alleged encounter, and The Post confirmed that wine was for sale at the time at the pizzeria where Deason remembered Moore taking her when she was under the legal drinking age of 19.... After a Friday event with military veterans, Gov. Kay Ivey (R) told reporters that 'the people of Alabama deserve to know the truth,' but she didn't hint at any particular actions she could take. One reporter followed up, asking if the word of the women could be trusted. 'Why wouldn't it be?' she asked." ...

...Ed Kilgore: "Moore is clearly digging in, and only time will tell if he's digging his own political grave. At this point it's mostly a question of whether you believe Leigh Corfman made the whole thing up, or that Moore is hiding something. He's clearly hoping Alabama voters trust him enough to believe he may be a fanatic and a hate-monger but not a sexual predator. But his evasiveness and the creepy habits he's not denying very convincingly make him vulnerable, particularly with so many national Republicans giving him a wide berth." --safari." --safari ...

... Luckily, Some Alabama Lawmakers Are Sensitive & Sensible. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Republican Alabama State Representative Ed Henry said on Friday that he wanted someone to bring charges against the women who accused GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore of making sexual advances on them when they were teenagers.... 'If they believe this man is predatory, they are guilty of allowing him to exist for 40 years,' Henry fumed. 'I think someone should prosecute and go after them. You can't be a victim 40 years later, in my opinion.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe we should mention here that Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress, under pressure from Democrats -- including Nancy Pelosi & Barack Obama -- and he is now in jail, serving time for doing virtually what Roy Moore (allegedly) did person-to-person. ...

... Here's a lesson from Steve M. that we all know by heart: "Don't believe Republicans when they sound reasonable. They inevitably defer to those on their side who aren't. That's how we got our president." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times: "The comedian Louis C.K. admitted on Friday that he had engaged in sexual misconduct with several women. His acknowledgment came as a film distributor canceled the release of his forthcoming comedy and as media companies cut ties with him in response to a New York Times report in which the women detailed his behavior toward them. In a statement on Friday, Louis C.K. said, 'I want to address the stories told to The New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not.... These stories are true.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Even tho Louis waited till after his career started to tank, at least he has more guts than Trump, Weinstein, Ailes, O'Reilly, Spacey, Moore, et al., who variously lied, "forgot," threatened, intimidated, hushed up, paid off, demeaned or implicitly blamed the gay for sexually abusing women & young men. The POTUS doesn't have the decency of a crude comedian.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Sebastian Rotella of ProPublica in the Atlantic: "At a time when Russian intelligence and criminal activities have become an urgent concern in the United States and Europe, the Spanish investigations of [Gennady] Petrov and other Russians offer a remarkable view of the way that some of the most powerful mafia bosses have operated, both in Russia and abroad.... But the blurring lines between state and criminal activities have taken on new significance as Russia has worked more aggressively to undermine its adversaries in Europe and the United States.... Interviews with more than 20 Western law-enforcement and intelligence officials -- including Spanish investigators who spoke publicly and in detail about the Russian cases for the first time -- as well as a review of thousands of pages of court files and investigative documents, show the interplay of gangsters, spies, magnates, and politicians in Russian power networks at home and abroad. The mafias' ties to the Russian government, and particularly to the security services, have led Spanish officials to fear for their national security as well as law and order." A long read. --safari

Peter Beaumont of the Guardian: "Israel[s political and military leadership appears to have concluded that a conflict with Lebanon's Hezbollah is becoming increasingly likely, despite months of growing warnings that a third Lebanese war would be more dangerous and deadly than the last war in 2006.... Amid threats by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that Israel would intervene rather than allow Iran or Iranian-backed groups to establish themselves on Israel's border, the sense of growing risk of conflict has been given added impetus in the recent convergence of Israeli, Saudi Arabian and US rhetoric against Iran." --safari