The Commentariat -- April 5, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and take additional steps to stimulate economic growth, his latest attempt to put the traditionally independent central bank under his thumb. Speaking to reporters before traveling to the southern border, Mr. Trump once again criticized the Fed's interest rate increases in 2018, saying 'they really slowed us down.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is Trump asking the supposedly nonpartisan Fed to help his 2020 campaign.

Priscilla Alvarez, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump is pulling the nomination of Ron Vitiello to lead ICE, saying he wants to go in a 'tougher direction.' 'We're going in a little different direction. Ron's a good man but we're going in a tougher direction....,' Trump told reporters Friday at the White House." Mrs. McC: What? Smaller cages? See related AP story linked below.

Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: "For the third straight year, President Donald Trump says he will skip the White House Correspondents' Dinner. In a pool spray outside the White House Friday ahead of his trip to the U.S.-Mexico border, the President ... [said,] 'I'm going to hold a rally,' Trump said. 'Yeah, because the dinner is so boring and so negative that we're going to hold a very positive rally.'"

Manipulating Trump. Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer in Politico Magazine, in an excerpt from their book: "The lawmakers around Trump who wanted a shutdown knew exactly how to bring the president around to their side: threaten that others might perceive him as weak and push that threat around Capitol Hill and, eventually, all the way to Fox News. It helped to have a man on the inside, too -- in this case, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. As [confederate crackpot Rep. Mark] Meadows was about to find out, following this playbook was enough to get inside the head of the most powerful man in Washington, and use him to get what Meadows and his allies wanted."

Kevin Granville of the New York Times: "The German carmakers BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen colluded for years to restrict the development of clean-emissions technology, the European Commission said on Friday, a finding that could cost the companies billions of dollars in fines. The collusion occurred from 2006 to 2014 during regular technical meetings at which the carmakers agreed to limit the development and production of emissions technology for cars sold in Europe, the commission said."

~~~~~~~~~~

** Paul Krugman: "Even if he's a one-term president, Trump will have caused, directly or indirectly, the premature deaths of a large number of Americans. Some of those deaths will come at the hands of right-wing, white nationalist extremists.... Some will come from failures of governance, like the inadequate response to Hurricane Maria.... Some will come from the administration's continuing efforts to sabotage Obamacare.... But the biggest death toll is likely to come from Trump's agenda of deregulation.... So if you eat meat -- or, for that matter, drink water or breathe air -- there's a real sense in which Donald Trump is trying to kill you. And even if he's turned out of office next year, for many Americans it will be too late." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump doesn't have to go to Fifth Avenue in broad daylight to shoot someone; he does it every day in the comfort of his taxpayer-provided perch at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Trump Scandals, Ctd.

The Woes of Trump (Are Self-Inflicted). Anita Kumar & Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "It was just last week that ... Donald Trump and his allies euphorically celebrated what they called Trump's exoneration after special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. The apparent absence of proof that Trump's 2016 campaign conspired with the Kremlin produced talk of a fresh start for Trump's presidency ahead of the 2020 election. But misfortune and mayhem almost immediately began piling up. Trump unleashed two new political crises -- one on health care, one on the Mexican border -- and then retreated on both of them. A brief lull in House Democratic oversight action ended abruptly when House investigators demanded his tax returns. And news reports revealed that Mueller's soon-to-be-released findings may be far more damaging than Attorney General William Barr has publicly indicated, suggesting that the Russia scandal is hardly in the president's rear view window.... Meanwhile..., on Thursday, the House approved a Senate measure cutting off U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's military campaign in Yemen, a plan the White House opposed. (Trump has vowed to veto the measure.) A day before, the House released information that showed Jared Kushner ... was denied a security clearance last year ... [Mrs. McC: but Trump arranged to get him a clearance anyway]. The weekend arrest of a Chinese woman carrying a malware-laced device into Trump's Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, only added to the growing questions about presidential information security."

Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "... Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out [in a tweet] at a New York Times story [linked here yesterday] revealing that several members on ... Robert Mueller's team are apparently dissatisfied with the attorney general's portrayal of their findings.... Trump, without evidence, accused the paper of fabricating its sources. He then repeated his false claim that the Times had previously issued an apology to him for inaccurate and 'very bad' reporting on him. 'The New York Times had no legitimate sources, which would be totally illegal, concerning the Mueller Report. In fact, they probably had no sources at all! They are a Fake News paper who have already been forced to apologize for their incorrect and very bad reporting on me!' In his tweet, the president did not mention the two additional stories -- from the Washington Post [also linked here yesterday] and NBC News [linked below] -- that backed the Times' initial reporting. Those subsequent reports went even further...." ...

... Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "Three government officials have told NBC News that a dispute within the special counsel's office on the facts and the law was one factor behind Mueller's decision not to make a call on the obstruction question. The lawyers and FBI agents on Mueller's team could not reach an agreement about whether Trump's conduct amounted to a corrupt -- and therefore illegal -- effort to impede the probe, the three officials said.... The official who has spoken to members of Mueller's team says they described the evidence on obstruction as compelling and said it includes more information than has been made public.... At least one faction within the office says their intent was to leave the legal question open for Congress and the public to examine the evidence, the U.S. official who has spoken to them said. It's not clear how Mueller himself feels about the matter.... While Mueller found no coordination or criminal conspiracy, [a senior law enforcement] official said, some on the special counsel's team say his findings paint a picture of a campaign whose members were manipulated by a sophisticated Russian intelligence operation. Some of that information may be classified, the official said, so it's not clear whether it will be released in a few weeks when Barr makes public a redacted version of the Mueller report."

... The Stationery Defense. Zachary Basu of Axios: "In a new statement, Department of Justice spokesperson Kerri Kupec defended Attorney General Bill Barr's letter to Congress summarizing his 'principal conclusions' from the Mueller report, reiterating that it was not an attempt to summarize the report itself. 'Every page of the "confidential report" provided to Attorney General Barr on March 22, 2019 was marked "May Contain Material Protected Under Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)" - a law that protects confidential grand jury information - and therefore could not be publicly released.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: That's hilarious. Because the report did contain confidential information, Mueller printed it on what I imagine was stationery (or used a typist's macro) that contains the warning. No doubt all of the DOJ & other federal departments use the same or similar stationery out of an abundance of caution even when there may not be any protected content. Mueller works for Barr; they are reportedly old friends. So in a normal environment (i.e., non-Trumpian), Boss Bill would call Employee Bob & say, "Bob, great report. Say, I want to get out a summary for public consumption ASAP; could you knock one out? ... Oh, it's right here on pages 4, 102, 243 & 389? Excellent. I'll get that right out." ...

Barr's handling of this started out weird; it is now absurd. -- Rachel Maddow, Thursday

... Grace Segers of CBS News: "Rep. Jerry Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr Thursday requesting the public release of summaries of ... Robert Mueller's report prepared by his investigators, as well as all communications between the Justice Department and Mueller's office about the document. The demands come after news reports saying some members of Mueller's team were frustrated with Barr's portrayal of the key findings of the Mueller investigation. 'You have already provided an interpretation of the Special Counsel's conclusions in a fashion that appears to minimize the implications of the report as to the President,' Nadler wrote, referring to Barr's March 24 letter to Congress summarizing Mueller's conclusions. 'Releasing the summaries -- without delay -- would begin to allow the American people to judge the facts for themselves.' Nadler said releasing the summaries is 'no substitute for providing to Congress the complete and unredacted report and underlying evidence,' which he and other Democrats had requested in an earlier letter." ...

     ... ** A pdf of Nadler's letter is here, via his office. It's well-worth reading. ...

... We Spent $30MM & All We Got Was 4 Lousy Pages of Bull. Jack Shafer of Politico: "... we all knew that Mueller's people would wave the flag if Barr's interpretation of their report contradicted their intent. Obviously it has, and all of the players are now scrambling to hit their marks.... By releasing the information in a way that placed it on Page 1, the Muellerites have now signaled that they intend to pressure Barr until he coughs up a more comprehensive account of the report on which they spent 22 months and an estimated $30 million." ...

... Matt Miller in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "Ever since ... Bill Clinton stepped onto Attorney General Loretta Lynch's plane in June 2016, the Justice Department has found itself in the worst position possible for a nonpolitical law enforcement agency -- that of leading actor in the nation's most hotly contested political dramas.... William Barr's confirmation as [Jeff] Sessions' successor was supposed to provide a reset to those turbulent times.... Instead, Barr's handling of the conclusion of the 22-month long investigation by ... Robert Mueller Russian interference in the 2016 election has thrust a new cloud over the Justice Department and his leadership, one that has grown darker with the reports that some members of the special counsel's team believe he has mischaracterized their findings and needlessly inserted himself into the process.... Barr is now in open warfare with the special counsel's office.... The attorney general's actions raise suspicions about whether he is acting primarily to benefit the president because they don't make sense when viewed through any other lens." ...

... Mimi Rocah of the Daily Beast: "At this point, whatever Barr's intentions -- and I am no longer inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt -- in order to salvage what is left if the integrity of the process, he must immediately release the Mueller-prepared summaries and work with Congress to ensure that the whole report is turned over to Congress, and as much as legally and safely possible to the American public. This is Barr's final chance to salvage his reputation and, more importantly, the integrity of the Justice Department he claims to hold so dear." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "[Wednesday] evening, the Wall Street Journal editorialized that reporters and House Democrats were smearing Attorney General William Barr by implying that his summary of the Mueller report was anything other than completely faithful and representative.... The editorial was published at 7:24 p.m. Minutes before..., the New York Times broke the news that Barr was in fact contradicted.'... The Times, apparently relying on Justice Department sources, reports that Mueller's summaries could not be published, because they 'contain sensitive information....' But the special counsel flatly contradicts this in its leak to the Post. The summaries, says a special counsel source, were deliberately written 'so that the front matter from each section could have been released immediately -- or very quickly ... It was done in a way that minimum redactions, if any, would have been necessary, and the work would have spoken for itself.'... Republican messaging in recent days has made it blindingly obvious the Mueller report is not a document Trump fans would enjoy reading around the fireplace.... Devin Nunes, who has largely directed Trump's defense in Congress and the right-wing media, appeared on Fox News last night and introduced a new term: 'Mueller dossier.'... Nunes nonetheless used the term 'dossier' three times in the span of a minute to describe Mueller's conclusion. He is obviously priming the Trump fan base to disregard adverse findings." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "William Barr was invited to meet justice department officials last summer, on the same day he submitted an 'unsolicited' memo that heavily criticized special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into obstruction of justice by Donald Trump. Barr, who was a private attorney at the time, met the officials for lunch three weeks later and was then nominated to serve as Trump's attorney general about six months later. The revelation about the meeting, which was arranged by Steve Engel, the head of the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, and which has not previously been publicly disclosed, raises new questions about whether the White House's decision to hire Barr was influenced by private discussions he had about his legal views on Mueller's investigation." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: See story below on the appointment of Michael Desmond as IRS chief counsel. The fix was in by February. See also safari's comment at the top of today's Comments thread.

But the Dossier! Jordain Carney of the Hill: Conspiracy theorist "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked a resolution calling for special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia probe be made public, marking the fifth time Republicans have blocked the House-passed measure. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked for unanimous consent on Thursday to pass the resolution, which cleared the House in a 420-0 vote earlier this year.... Paul objected because Warner wouldn't agree to amend the nonbinding House-passed resolution to include provisions calling for the public release of communications between several Obama-era officials including former President Obama, former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan. Paul argued that Congress still needs to figure out the 'entire story' including the origins of the investigation into President Trump's campaign and a controversial research dossier compiled against then-candidate Trump." ...

... digby: "All these principled libertarians, supposedly suspicious of government power, backing the President of the most powerful nation on earth's self-serving corruption, betrayal and abuse of power either out of hatred for Democrats or blindly clinging to the idea that 'deep state' intelligence and law enforcement are, by definition, evil players in all circumstances. It's ridiculous. Trump has massive power and he's using in ways that are just a[s] threatening to individual freedom as the IC [intelligence community]."

Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House could attempt to block the release of President Trump's tax returns to Democrats, senior officials signaled on Thursday, an unprecedented step that might lead to a constitutional challenge and catapult the issue into federal court. In an indication of how the standoff might escalate, Trump himself suggested that the Justice Department could become involved -- even though Democrats directed their request to the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. 'They'll speak to my lawyers and they'll speak to the attorney general,' Trump said during an unrelated event in the Oval Office when asked about the Democrats' request for six years of his personal and business tax returns.... The 1924 law [on which House Ways & Means Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) based his request to the IRS] does not appear to give the White House any input into whether the IRS furnishes an individual's tax returns.... Congressional Republicans have unified in opposition to Neal's request, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who also has the legal right to request Trump's tax returns." ...

... Oh, Looky Here. Maggie Haberman & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "President Trump earlier this year asked Senator Mitch McConnell ... to prioritize a confirmation vote for his nominee to be the chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, indicating that it was a higher priority than voting on the nomination of William P. Barr as attorney general, a person familiar with the conversation said. White House aides insisted for months that the confirmation of the nominee, Michael J. Desmond, a tax lawyer from Santa Barbara, Calif., was a top priority after passage of the tax bill in 2017. But the request by Mr. Trump, made to Mr. McConnell on Feb. 5, raised questions about whether the president had other motivations. For months, the president has seethed over vows by congressional Democrats that they would move to obtain his tax returns from the I.R.S.... In private practice, Mr. Desmond worked for a time alongside William Nelson and Sheri Dillon, who currently serve as tax counsels to the Trump Organization.... Mr. Desmond was confirmed ... on Feb. 27." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Gosh, I wonder if Desmond will advise IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig -- also a Trump appointee -- not to follow the law & release Trump's returns to Neal. ...

... Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Three powerful House committee chairs asked Capital One for documents last month related to ... Donald Trump's business empire -- and the financial giant said it was already preserving documents but needs a subpoena in order to comply, according to letters obtained by Politico. The March 11 request from House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) comes amid intensifying congressional scrutiny of the president's financial records and tax returns.... In a March 21 response to the committee leaders, Capital One executive Brent M. Timberlake said the corporation is 'preserving the documents and materials,' but could only turn over the information if the committees issue a subpoena."

But the E-Mails! Kurt Bardella in a USA Today op-ed: "Every single person who lives in this country and claims to care about our national security should be terrified by the idea that people who are trusted with our nation's most sensitive secrets were initially rejected to receive a security clearance. This concern with keeping our secrets safe was one of the primary justifications for the House Republicans' prolonged multiyear investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and the creation of the Benghazi Select Committee. As someone who spent five years working for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee during the Obama presidency, I can tell you that what Trump has done with these security clearances is a far bigger scandal than 'Hillary's emails,' Benghazi, Fast & Furious, IRS 'targeting' of conservative groups or any of the other so-called scandals Republicans obsessed over under the guise of transparency and security." (Also linked yesterday.)

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: "The arrest of a Chinese woman who carried a malware-laced device into Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's Florida resort, has exposed porous security at the private club and escalating tensions between Secret Service agents and the resort's staff members, who vet guest lists and allow people onto the sprawling grounds. At times neither side has had full clarity on who was entering Mar-a-Lago. Secret Service agents must rely on club receptionists and other employees to crosscheck visitors, former officials said. Communication breakdowns allow for security breaches.... Some of the Chinese promoters of [Mar-a-Lago] events flaunt their connections to China's ruling Communist Party and the department that promotes its foreign policy abroad, the United Front Work Department.... A former employee who worked at Mar-a-Lago from 2016 to 2018 said that ... people have been caught on the property previously. In one notable example, a woman gained access to the Mar-a-Lago computer system and changed the automatic screen saver to the name of the president, preceded by an expletive, according to the employee.... The president has personally instructed members to pack fund-raisers beyond the ticket limit at Mar-a-Lago, according to one event organizer...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jeremy Herb of CNN: "... Michael Cohen is offering Democrats new information in a bid to stay out of jail while he cooperates with Congress. Cohen's attorneys Lanny Davis and Michael Monico told lawmakers in a letter Thursday that Cohen has discovered substantial files on a hard drive that might be helpful to investigators. Cohen is asking for additional time -- and congressional help -- to persuade the Southern District of New York to allow him to postpone reporting to jail in order to review the files. Cohen's lawyers wrote in the letter, obtained by CNN, they hoped Cohen would receive a reduced term, and that the May 6 date Cohen is scheduled to report to prison 'will be substantially postponed while he is fully cooperating with prosecutors and Congress.'" ...

... Emma Loop, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Attorneys for Michael Cohen ... submitted documents to lawmakers Thursday night accusing Trump and his team of lawyers of instructing Cohen to lie to Congress about when negotiations ended to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. In a 12-page memo sent to top House Democrats, Cohen's attorneys said Trump 'encouraged Cohen to lie and say all Moscow Tower project contacts ended as of January 31, 2016 using "code" language -- telling Cohen during various conversations that there was "no collusion, no Russian contacts, nothing about Russia" after the start of the campaign.'... The more than 100 pages of documents included with Cohen's memo claim to lay bare a 'conspiracy to collude' with the Russian government during the campaign, along with an array of other crimes by the president. Cohen's memo supports BuzzFeed News's earlier reporting that Cohen told investigators Trump had directed him to lie about the timing of real estate negotiations in Moscow."

Avocados! Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian & agencies: "Donald Trump has scrapped his stated plan to close the border with Mexico, saying instead he would give the country a 'one-year warning' and threatening tariffs on cars. Six days ago Trump said he would close the border this week, unless Mexico 'immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our southern border'. But, speaking to reporters [Thursday] afternoon, Trump backtracked on his border closure threat, which had been criticized by advisers and business leaders. 'We're going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don't stop or largely stop, we're going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, particularly cars,' Trump said. 'And if that doesn't stop the drugs, we close the border.... Mexico understands that we're going to close the border or I'm going to tariff the cars. I'll do one or the other. And probably start off with the tariffs,' Trump said. He added later: 'I don't think we'll ever have to close the border because the penalty of tariffs on cars coming into the United States from Mexico, at 25%, will be massive.' It was the latest, seemingly sudden attempt at new leverage by a president struggling to solve what his administration has called a border 'crisis'." ...

     ... Rafi Schwartz of Splinter transcribes more of what Trump had to say on the border "crisis" in a post titled, "Trump Brain Status Update: Cheesy Mashed Potatoes." Mrs. McC: No, Rafi, Gaucamole! ...

... "Insulting Our Allies", Ctd. Alex Daugherty of McClatchy DC: "Florida lawmakers went into damage control mode after President Donald Trump attacked Colombian President Ivan Duque during an off-the-cuff comment about closing the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday. Trump said Duque, the U.S.'s most important ally in the ongoing effort to oust Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, 'has done nothing for us' in combating the flow of illicit drugs.... Duque, who ... has held office for less than a year, was 'quite upset' with Trump's remarks, according to two sources.... Colombia has taken in at least 1.5 million Venezuelan refugees who fled Maduro's regime, and the country is a key staging area for humanitarian aid waiting to enter the country." --s ...

... Marines to Trump: F#ck You. Kate Riga of TPM: "Gen. Robert Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps, let internal Defense Department memos leak recently to show the damage President Donald Trump's wall obsession is doing to military families and combat readiness. According to a Newsweek report, the unexpected influx of troops and costs at the U.S.-Mexico border, a direct result of Trump's fixation on building a wall, have caused languishing repairs on hurricane-damaged bases and a decline in training exercises. Neller reportedly gave the green light on leaks to NBC News and The LA Times." --s ...

... BUT Trump's Muslim travel ban is working out way better. Thanks, Supremes! ...

Muslims Banned. Yeganeh Torbati of Reuters: "The U.S. government granted waivers to just 6 percent of visa applicants subject to its travel ban on a handful of countries during the first 11 months of the ban, new data reviewed by Reuters shows." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This really is shocking. It's impossible to believe that 94 percent of people applying to visit the U.S. from Muslim-dominant countries are terrorism threats or even that such a high percentage are like to accidentally forever overstay their visa limits. The Trump administration has proved Trump's critics' worst suspicions.

Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "President Trump, despite his own history of buying a porn star's silence and bragging about sexual misconduct, on Thursday leveled another broadside at Joseph R. Biden Jr., tweeting a meme that mocked the former vice president for putting his hands on women's shoulders. The 15-second meme, accompanied by the text 'WELCOME BACK JOE!,' doctored a video that Mr Biden released on Wednesday in which the former vice president explained his history of physical contact with women, some of whom say his behavior made them uncomfortable. Mr. Biden has said he tried to comfort people with hugs, kisses and other physical contact when they appeared nervous." ...

... All the Best People, Ctd.

... Speaking of Serial Sexual Misconduct. Alan Rappaport & Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Thursday that he planned to nominate Herman Cain, who abandoned his 2012 presidential bid in the face of escalating accusations of sexual misconduct, for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Trump, speaking from the Oval Office, called Mr. Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza, 'a truly outstanding individual' and said, 'I've told my folks that's the man.' The decision to consider Mr. Cain is the second time in weeks that the president has floated candidates with deeply held political views and past ethical issues to fill a seat on the Fed, signaling his intent to put allies on a traditionally independent body. It comes as Mr. Trump has continued to attack the Fed and his handpicked chairman, Jerome H. Powell, for raising interest rates in 2018, saying those moves slowed economic growth. Last month, Mr. Trump said he planned to nominate Stephen Moore, a conservative economist who advised his presidential campaign and has become a vocal critic of the central bank's recent rate increases, as a Fed governor." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Moore's ex-wife accused him of 'emotional and psychological abuse" & said she fled their home to escape the abuse. Moore admitted to her allegations. Moore is deeply in arrears on money owed under the terms of the couple's divorce settlement. Aside from being rotten human beings, both Cain & Moore are massively ignorant of responsible fiscal policy. ...

... The Gold Standard. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Cain dropped out of the 2012 Republican presidential primary after at least four women accused him of sexual misconduct.... If true, such actions alone would be disqualifying for any major government position.... But they're also hardly the only reasons to object to placing Cain in one of the most important economic jobs in the world. To put it bluntly: When it comes to understanding pretty basic policy issues, Cain isn't able. Most people who remember anything about Cain's brief political career might know him for the '9-9-9' tax rate plan. Unfortunately, neither did that plan have rates that were actually 9 percent nor did it turn out to be particularly strong in its arithmetic.... His documented views on [monetary policy & financial regulation] are just as quack-tastic.... Cain has said -- repeatedly -- that the United States should return to the gold standard. This stance is one [Stephen] Moore has also intermittently espoused, and it has been roundly rejected by actual economic experts. That includes, for instance, every single economist surveyed by the University of Chicago's IGM Economic Experts Panel."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "A 2017 invoice indicates that David Bernhardt, President Trump's choice to lead the Interior Department, continued to lobby for a major client several months after he filed official papers saying that he had ended his lobbying activities. The bill for Mr. Bernhardt's services, dated March 2017 and labeled 'Federal Lobbying,' shows, along with other documents, Mr. Bernhardt working closely with the Westlands Water District as late as April 2017, the month Mr. Trump nominated him to his current job, deputy interior secretary. In November 2016, Mr. Bernhardt had filed legal notice with the federal government formally ending his status as lobbyist. Westlands, a powerful California agribusiness group, was one of Mr. Bernhardt's main lobbying and legal clients between 2011 and 2016. During that time, Westlands paid Mr. Bernhardt's firm $1.3 million for lobbying services. A New York Times investigation this year revealed how Mr. Bernhardt made it a priority at the Interior Department to promote policies long sought by Westlands...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds a lot like a certain person who continued to lobby for Trump Moscow Tower months after he said, "I have nothing to do with Russia." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... So Naturally... Ellen Knickmeyer of the AP: "A Senate panel voted Thursday to put a veteran former lobbyist in charge of the Interior Department, despite a last-minute round of intense debate on allegations that he was using his federal position to benefit former industry clients. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 14-6 to approve David Bernhardt's appointment to oversee the country's public lands and resources. Two Democrats and one independent joined Republicans in voting yes.... Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico voted with Republicans in approving Bernhardt, as did independent Angus King of Maine.... The vote sends ... Donald Trump's nomination to an as yet unscheduled final vote by the full Senate." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "Barry Lee Myers..., Donald Trump's controversial nominee to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), moved one step closer to confirmation Wednesday after a Senate committee voted swiftly, with no debate, to advance his nomination.... Should he be confirmed to lead NOAA, his role will involve oversight of the National Weather Service, a conflict of interest ... due to Myers' prior role as chief executive of AccuWeather.... AccuWeather sought to restrict public access to data funded by taxpayers and instead make it available exclusively to private companies that would then use the data in products sold to the public. As a result, people would pay twice for the information, once through taxes and a second time to access it through companies." --s

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yet another of many instances of Trump's appointing the Fox to guard the chickenhouse.

NOT the Best Person? Colleen Long of the AP: "The White House on Thursday withdrew the nomination of a longtime border official to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement..., according to people with knowledge of the move. The paperwork on Ron Vitiello was sent to members of Congress Thursday, the people said, and the decision was unexpected and met with confusion. Vitiello had been scheduled to travel with ... Donald Trump to the border on Friday, but was no longer going, one official said. He will still remain acting director, they said.... He had been acting head since June 2018, nominated in August, had a Senate confirmation hearing in November and his nomination had passed one Senate panel, the people said. But because Homeland Security touches on so many topics, a second committee also had jurisdiction and his nomination was still under discussion there. Some Democrats had concerns, and a union representing some ICE agents had opposed his nomination."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The top federal ethics watchdog said on Thursday that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's sale of his stake in a film production business to his wife did not comply with federal ethics rules, and it would not certify his 2018 financial disclosure report as a result. Although Mr. Mnuchin will not face penalties for failing to comply, he has been required to rewrite his federal ethics agreement and to promise to recuse himself from government matters that could affect his wife's business."

Guardian: "China has announced it will crack down on all fentanyl-like substances, following US pleas for Beijing to control a drug fuelling a deadly opioid crisis.... China is suspected of being the main source of a powerful painkiller 50 times stronger than heroin that has caused record overdose deaths in the United States. Fentanyl has been tied to already tense bilateral relations, with the US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, saying he hopes to include China's commitments to curb the drug in any agreement to end the two countries' bitter trade war." --s

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday gave final passage to a bipartisan resolution forcing an end to United States military involvement in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, sending President Trump a pointed rebuke over his continued defense of the kingdom after the killing of a dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. The 247-176 vote, with 16 Republicans joining united Democrats, invoked the rarely used War Powers Act to curb the president's executive power to wage war without congressional approval. It likely sets up the second veto of his presidency, this time to publicly defend a four-year conflict that has killed thousands of civilians and inflicted a devastating famine. The Senate passed a parallel resolution in March, 54 to 46." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Stalker Caucus. Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "The House passed legislation Thursday to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, despite the vast majority of Republicans opposing it amid pressure from the National Rifle Association. The bill, which reauthorizes the landmark 1994 domestic violence law for another five years, easily passed. But 157 Republicans voted against it, along with one Democrat, Rep. Collin Peterson (Minn.). For many of them, it was because the NRA was pushing them to oppose it over its gun safety provisions and warning that a vote in favor of the bill would be reflected in their NRA rating. Under current federal law, only people convicted of domestic violence offenses against spouses or family members can lose their gun rights. The VAWA would add people convicted of abusing their dating partners, closing the so-called 'boyfriend loophole.' It would also prohibit people convicted of misdemeanor stalking offenses from owning or buying firearms, as well as abusers subject to temporary protective orders."

Russell Berman of The Atlantic: "Democrats on Capitol Hill say that ... a small army of whistle-blowers from across the government has been working in secret with the House Oversight Committee to report alleged malfeasance inside the Trump administration.... Committee veterans told me ... that the number of whistle-blowers who've come forward since Trump became president is far higher than the number who cooperated with the panel during previous administrations." --s

Matt Shuham of TPM: "Rep. Don Young (R-AK) on Thursday called reporter Melanie Zanona of Politico to apologize for shoving her earlier in the day, Zanona said on Twitter.... Zanona's update came about two hours after she tweeted that Young 'just physically shoved me and told me to get out of his way "damnit" as I was trying to interview another lawmaker outside the door of the House chamber.'... It's not the first time Young has gotten physical in the halls of Congress. In 2014, he apologized to a congressional staffer after a television producer caught him on tape twisting the staffer's arm.... He also once held a closed knife to the throat of former House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)." --s

Presidential Race 2020
Congressmen Look in Mirror, See President ...

... Axios: "Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who unsuccessfully tried to knock House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi from her leadership post in 2016, announced his bid for a 2020 presidency online during an appearance on ABC's 'The View.'... As a moderate, midwestern Democrat, Ryan has flipped on several high-pressure partisan issues. He switched from pro-life to pro-choice in 2015, and in 2017, decided to drop NRA funding in response to the organization's refusal to support universal background checks after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Edward-Isaac Dovere of the Atlantic: "... Eric Swalwell..., the California congressman and frequent cable-news guest on all things related to ... Donald Trump and Russia, will announce his presidential plans in an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." (Also linked yesterday.)

Senate Race 2020. Alabamy-Bound? Scott Wong of the Hill: "Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of President Trump's most devoted [Mrs. McC: make that "rabid"] loyalists on Capitol Hill who represents the Florida Panhandle, has told GOP colleagues he is considering moving across the state line to run for the Senate in Alabama in 2020, several House lawmakers told The Hill. Some of those discussions took place as recently as Thursday. The rumor had been bouncing around the Capitol for weeks but took a more serious turn in recent days when Gaetz began privately discussing the idea with fellow lawmakers. 'He's talking about running for Senate in Alabama. They have a one-day residency requirement there,' said a GOP lawmaker who knows Gaetz well. 'POTUS [President of the United States] would probably endorse him.'"

Natalie Kitroeff, et al., of the New York Times: "Boeing dismissed concerns about a powerful new anti-stall system on the 737 Max for months, insisting that pilots could deal with any problems by following a checklist of emergency procedures. Now, the preliminary findings from the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 have cast doubt on whether those instructions were sufficient, adding to the scrutiny over Boeing's and federal regulators' response to two deadly crashes involving the same jet model. The findings, released Thursday in Ethiopia, suggest that the pilots on the Ethiopian Airlines flight initially followed the prescribed procedures after the anti-stall system malfunctioned.... But they could not regain control. About four minutes after the system initially activated, the plane hit the ground at colossal speed, killing all 157 people on board." ...

... Hadra Ahmed, et al., of the New York Times: "... an initial report by Ethiopian investigators..., released Thursday, laid out a timeline of the [doomed Boeing 747 Max 8] flight based on analysis from 18 Ethiopian and international investigators and information from the jet's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder."

Mrs. McCrabbie: The next two stories, each of which shows how a huge private media empire delivers biased information, are disturbing. In a way the Facebook story is worse. We know Rupert's ring-wing outlets & his sleaze tabloids are crap, but we have no way of knowing whether minorities & women are getting equal access to job opportunities. At least back in the day when all newspapers posted two gender-specific help-wanted sections, & employers posted "No Coloreds/Irish/Whoever Need Apply" signs, we knew what was what. (And no, I'm not longing for those good old days.)

"Annals of Journalism", Ctd. Steve M.: "The best [thing] about this long, three-part New York Times Magazine story [linked yesterday] about Rupert Murdoch is that it takes Murdoch seriously as a force in politics -- not as a kingmaker but as a de facto dictator of sorts, and as the man most responsible for the spread of toxic nationalism and white supremacism.... [H]is critics, at least in the U.S. media, have tended to stress his impact on our political discourse.... But Murdoch hasn't just poisoned the news -- he's poisoned nations.... More important is how Murdoch manipulates politics at the highest levels, and to what ends. (Lachlan Murdoch, the son who is now the heir apparent, seems to be Kim Jong Un to Rupert's Kim Jong Il -- as politically extreme as his father if not more so, and at least as ruthless.).... [Rupert]'s been the de facto emperor of most of the English-speaking world for a couple of decades now. I don't know if we'll ever manage to take our countries back." --s

Sam Biddle of The Intercept: "[N]ew research focuses on the second step of advertising on Facebook, the process of ad delivery, rather than on ad targeting. Essentially, the researchers created ads without any demographic target at all and watched where Facebook placed them. The results, said the researchers, were disturbing.... For one portion of the study, researchers ran ads for a wide variety of job listings in North Carolina, from janitors to nurses to lawyers, without any further demographic targeting options. With all other things being equal, the study found that 'Facebook delivered our ads for jobs in the lumber industry to an audience that was 72% white and 90% men, supermarket cashier positions to an audience of 85% women, and jobs with taxi companies to a 75% black audience even though the target audience we specified was identical for all ads.'.... [T]he researchers ... were able to confidently infer these numbers by cross-referencing the indicators Facebook does provide ... which in some states can be cross-referenced with race data held in voter registration records." --s

Craig Timberg & Greg Bensinger of the Washington Post: "Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife, MacKenzie Bezos, announced a divorce settlement Thursday that will leave him with 75 percent of their Amazon stock and voting power over all of the Amazon voting shares the couple own together. The announcement from the Bezoses -- coming in a tweet from MacKenzie that was retweeted by Jeff -- settled a closely watched matter of corporate governance affecting one of the world's richest companies, with a market capitalization of $890 billion, and the world's wealthiest person. The record divorce settlement, which also awards Jeff Bezos all of the couple's joint holdings in The Washington Post and a space flight company, Blue Origin, is likely to remove uncertainty around the extent of his continued control over Amazon -- a company he founded in 1994 and for which he remains chief executive and its largest shareholder. He will have sole voting power over the shares the two once jointly controlled, which together amount to 16 percent of Amazon&r's total shares. They were married 25 years and have four children."

Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a remarkable reversal to its policies on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on Thursday. The decision rolls back a 2015 policy that barred children living with same-sex couples from important religious practices like baby-naming ceremonies and baptisms. That policy also declared that church members in same-sex marriages were apostates and subject to excommunication." Mrs. McC: Progress??? (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

U.K. Heather Stewart & Daniel Boffey of the Guardian: PM "Theresa May has written to [European Council President] Donald Tusk to ask for Brexit to be delayed until 30 June while she battles to win cross-party agreement on a way forward. Rather than the year-long flexible extension to article 50 recommended by the European council president, the prime minister suggested 30 June as the new departure date, but with an option to leave earlier if the necessary legislation has been passed. That is the same date requested by the government last month but rejected by EU leaders in Brussels. Unless a new date is signed off at an emergency EU summit on Wednesday, Britain is due to leave without a deal on 12 April." ...

... David Herszenhorn of Politico: "Britain can have another year to think on Brexit -- provided it joins the European Parliament election next month, a senior EU official said. European Council President Donald Tusk raised the idea after hours of meetings and consultations Thursday to plan for next week's summit of EU leaders.... It is still unclear whether all EU27 leaders will go along with Tusk's 'flextension' proposal without resistance, though it's unlikely he would float the idea without some confidence." Mrs. McC: This development is covered way down the page in the Guardian story linked above. ...

... Robert Mackey of The Intercept: "Tensions over Brexit, and warnings of a backlash from nationalists if it does not happen soon, have rekindled fears of political violence in Britain. The threat seemed acute on Wednesday, as video of British soldiers using a photograph of opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn for target practice appeared on Snapchat, and the trial of a neo-Nazi who planned to assassinate a pro-European member of Parliament ended.... Th primary stumbling block over Brexit has been concern that it could reignite violence in Northern Ireland by effectively repartitioning Ireland with customs and immigration checks along the British-imposed border that divides the island in two." --s

News Lede

New York Times: "After a lackluster performance in February, the job market bounced back in March. February's number of new jobs was also revised upward, to 33,000 from 20,000.... 196,000 jobs were added last month, a rebound from the February report. Economic analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected a gain of about 170,000 jobs in March. It was the 102nd straight month of job gains. The Labor Department also revised the jobs numbers for January and February. February's weak report of 20,000 jobs was revised upward to 33,000. January's number was raised by 1,000 jobs, to 312,000."

Comments

[safari]

I'm still somewhat hopeful this whitewash will get flushed out, because 2019 is not 1973. The media is a whole new 24/7 animal, social media's organizing capacity will keep the concerned public in the streets, Dems have grown a backbone (although their still twiddling their fingers too much for my taste), and, most importantly, Agent Orange is a much more destructive and potentially dangerous element to our nation than the self-serving crook Nixon. The stakes and pressure have never been higher, and even if Mueller stays silent to not undercut his best bud Barr (even though Barr is pulling Mueller through the mud), there were a lot of serious investigators on the case who aren't beholden to Drumpf's wicked spell and could leak out key nuggets of the coverup.

Stepping back and looking at where we're at as Barr shows his true partisan colors, it appears that in our Constitutional system all it takes to transform a presidency into a de facto monarchy is just install a radical fundamentalist like Barr as the AG who will refuse to hold any president accountable. The president can then undermine, fire and obstruct any investigations into his conduct or those of his associates, while hiding behind his AG legal shield. The fact that the Supreme Court hasn't even been tested on any of these issues, two+ years into the investigation, leaves that institution as a theoretical last resort, true, but sidelined by the quicksand traps set by murky, undefined policy and procedural hurdles.

As soon as the DOJ is corrupted at the head, the whole system of justice grinds to a halt.

[Marie Burns]

@safari: A lawyer once told me that a will is only as good as its executor. The same seems to be true of the Constitution: it's only as good as the people who swear to uphold it. Right now we are seeing confederates in all three branches running roughshod over their Constitutional responsibilities, and the results are near-catastrophic, bordering on catastrophic.

[PD Pepe]

YOUR PAST CAN BITE YOU IN THE ASS:

Once upon a time in the 1980's when Jerry Nadler was a NY state assemblyman, Trump wanted to build a skyscraper in Nadler's district: 150 stories–-tallest building in the world (natch!). Nadler said NO! He had plans to use that site for much needed affordable housing. Trump was furious! called Nadler "fat Jerry" and I imagine some other overweight adjectives.

Today "fat Jerry" has lost a lot of weight but has gained a prominent role in Congress and is building up his own tower of influence which will reveal the faulty architecture of the man in question or as Norman Ornstein puts it in his piece linked below:
"He [Nadler] has been preparing for this moment for decades."

https://newrepublic.com/article/153455/jerry-nadler-born-battle-trump

Tim Ryan running for president? Not a chance in hell.
Swalwell running for president? Good man, but not now.

And reading that Don Young took a knife (closed) to John Boehner's throat was enough to make me yelp out loud–-my mister thought I had been bitten by some bug.

And from yesterday: @Marie: Yes, I watched "Mrs.Wilson"––fascinated at how Mr. Wilson managed it all––and doing it all for love of country or so we are to believe. Ha! The actress who plays the main Mrs. Wilson played the "other woman" in the terrific series, "The Affair" which had almost as many twists and turns.

[Patrick]

Last night I heard on an NBC news piece that Bezos "limited his losses" in the settlement with Mrs. B.

I guess the assumption was that everything was "his" as opposed to the concept of shared marital assets which actually applies in this case.

The idea of coverture dies hard in the brains of anyone born before, say, 1970.

[Marie Burns]

@Patrick: My thoughts exactly. And I love the way Jeff took "control" of all the businesses. He probably exercised control all along, but the formalization of it sticks in my craw. Not that MacKenzie is likely to run thru her $36BB anytime soon.

[Patrick]

I linked the Wiki on coverture, but did not read it until a few hours later. Down at the bottom is a cultural paragraph:

"Cultural references
The phrase "the law is an ass" was popularized by Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, when the character Mr. Bumble is informed that "the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction". Mr. Bumble replies, "if the law supposes that ... the law is a [sic] ass—a idiot. ..."

When my brother was in law school, he told of one lecturer whose theme was that "the law is seamless," addressing and covering all matters.

My brother the lawyer likes to note that, by combination, "The Law is a seamless ass." And that that explains a lot.

[Ken Winkes]

"Politico" headline:

"Barr's legacy on the line as Mueller team fumes"

Who give a s**t about Barr's legacy?

How about the d**m country?