The Commentariat -- January 10, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Maggie Haberman & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's former personal lawyer who implicated him in a scheme to pay hush money to two women claiming to have had affairs with him, has agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee next month and give 'a full and credible account' of his work for Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen's decision to appear before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Feb. 7 sets the stage for a blockbuster public hearing that threatens to further damage the president's image and could clarify the depth of his legal woes."

Bill Barr Drops His Shutdown Excuse. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Attorney general nominee William P. Barr tried Thursday to assuage Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats' concerns that he might be too biased to oversee the special counsel's Russia probe, but the lawmakers said they would need to see public proof to back up his closed-door assurances before they could consider backing his nomination. 'The Mueller probe is the big issue for me ... he reassured to some extent. The hard questions have to get asked in the public and get on the record,' Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the panel's ranking Democrat, said of her Thursday morning meeting with Barr. 'These meetings are different; they really are just people to people ... what matters is what happens in the committee and what's said on the record.' Feinstein is one of five panel Democrats who were expected to meet with Barr on Thursday, after several complained that they were being iced out of his schedule and being told it was because of the partial government shutdown. Barr begins his public confirmation hearings ... on Tuesday."

Heather Long of the Washington Post: "Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell ... predicted the economy is not going to plunge into a deep downturn this year. 'I don't see a recession' in 2019, Powell said Thursday in an interview at The Economic Club of Washington D.C. 'The U.S. economy is solid and there's good momentum going into this year.' Several prominent economists and investors have said there's a heightened chance of a recession by 2020. Larry Summers, a Harvard professor and former Treasury Secretary under former President Bill Clinton, said earlier this week that he thinks there's 'better than a 50/50 chance' of a recession in 2020. Powell stressed the Fed is 'watching' the situation closely and monitoring potential cracks in the economy. His biggest concern is weakening growth in China and Europe, although he warned a prolonged U.S. government shutdown could become a drag on the economy.";

Marissa Lang of the Washington Post: "Hundreds of furloughed federal workers, contractors, union representatives and supporters gathered [near the White House] in the brisk wind and bitter cold Thursday to demand government leaders 'end this shutdown.' Leaders of the National Federation of Federal Employees said they hoped that bringing federal workers to the president's doorstep would show him whom the shutdown has hurt most. President Trump, though, wasn't there to see them, having left earlier in the day to visit the U.S.-Mexico border...."

Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump left Washington on Thursday on a trip to McAllen, Texas, that he did not want to take to discuss a crisis on the border that Democrats say does not exist. Their disagreement has led to a protracted shutdown affecting vast swaths of the federal government that have nothing to do with the construction of a wall between the United States and Mexico.... The president left Washington with no additional negotiations scheduled with congressional leaders. In remarks to reporters on Thursday, Mr. Trump left open the possibility of declaring a state of emergency, which could allow him to bypass Congress to fund the wall. Asked if he would make such a declaration, an action that would likely face legal challenges, Mr. Trump said: 'If this doesn't work out, probably I will do it. I would almost say definitely.'" Mrs. McC: McAllen? How about McAlamo? ...

Everything Is Going Very Smoothly:

Great Wall of Trump. Via NBC News.

... Jacob Soboroff & Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "... Donald Trump has repeatedly advocated for a steel slat design for his border wall, which he described as 'absolutely critical to border security' in his Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday. But Department of Homeland Security testing of a steel slat prototype proved it could be cut through with a saw, according to a report by DHS. A photo exclusively obtained by NBC News shows the results of the test after military and Border Patrol personnel were instructed to attempt to destroy the barriers with common tools. The Trump administration directed the construction of eight steel and concrete prototype walls that were built in Otay Mesa, California, just across the border from Tijuana, Mexico.... Testing by DHS in late 2017 showed all eight prototypes, including the steel slats, were vulnerable to breaching, according to an internal February 2018 U.S. Customs and Border Protection report." ...

... Todd Frankel of the Washington Post: "It would take an estimated 10,000 construction workers more than 10 years to build the kind of 1,000-mile wall President Trump has said he wants. Even the more modest $5.7 billion in wall funding Trump directly requested during a prime time Oval Office address Tuesday to address what he called 'a growing humanitarian and security crisis' would take an army of 10,000 workers more than two years to build and yield only 230 miles of barrier, according to estimates. And even at 1,000 miles long, the steel-slatted border wall would still be too small to be a boon for U.S. steelmakers. The full version of Trump's envisioned border wall featuring rarely tested heights cast over almost unimaginable distances -- would cost at least $25 billion.... [Trump's] steel tariffs add about $1 billion to the estimated $25 billion border-wall project price tag...." Frankel notes that not only the material, but also the length, of the Great Wall of Trump keeps changing: from 2,000 miles to 700 to 1,000. Mrs. McC: And that doesn't count the time it would take to condemn any lands along the route not already owned by the federal government. I don't think the figure cited includes the costs of property & litigation. ...

... Speaking of Which.... Nomaan Merchant of the AP: "Congress in March funded 33 miles ... of walls and fencing in Texas. The government has laid out plans that would cut across private land in the Rio Grande Valley. Those in the way include landowners who have lived in the valley for generations, environmental groups and a 19th century chapel. Many have hired lawyers who are preparing to fight the government if, as expected, it moves to seize their land through eminent domain. The opposition will intensify if Democrats accede to the Trump administration's demand to build more than 215 new miles of wall, including 104 miles in the Rio Grande Valley and 55 miles near Laredo. Even a compromise solution to build 'steel slats,' as Trump has suggested, or more fencing of the kind that Democrats have previously supported would likely trigger more court cases and pushback in Texas. Legal experts say Trump likely cannot waive eminent domain -- which requires the government to demonstrate a public use for the land and provide landowners with compensation -- by declaring a national emergency."

**Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "In 2016, then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a law whose main purpose appears to be trolling the libs. Just over two years later, this law could provide the Republican-controlled Supreme Court with the vehicle it needs to kill Roe v. Wade -- and the Court could decide to hear a challenge to this law as soon as Friday. The case is Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky.... It's an obviously unconstitutional law. It's the kind of law you get if you hand the legislative power over to the editors of Breitbart News. But then something unexpected happened.... Both of the men the serial-sexual-predator-turned-president placed on the Supreme Court took gratuitous swipes at abortion rights while they were lower court judges. There are almost certainly five men on the Supreme Court right now who believe that the Indiana law is constitutional." --s

UPDATE: Josh Marshall : "The New York Times issued a major correction early [Wednesday] afternoon. They now say that Paul Manafort had his Ukraine-based fixer Konstantin Kilimnik send polling data not to Oleg Deripaska but to Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov, two Ukrainian oligarchs who were major financial backers of deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Manafort's longtime client. This is a pretty big difference and a major error by the Times. But I'm not sure it really changes the big picture.... Why do these two need campaign data from the Trump campaign? Why is that a thing of value that will get them to pay up their alleged debts [to Manafort]? Akhmetov is a metals and mining magnate in Ukraine. The answer seems obvious." --s

*****

Time for Some Shutdown Entertainment. This is un-fucking-believable:

What the fresh hell. This is REAL. Filmed in 1958- about a conman who grifts a small town of suckers into building a wall. History not subtle enough for you? GUESS THE GRIFTER'S NAME
(And watch until the end) pic.twitter.com/6FA3p6KC00

— Alex Hirsch (@_AlexHirsch) January 9, 2019

... In case you think this is a hoax -- a recently-produced "old TV Western" designed to make fun of Trump -- Snopes says it's a real episode of a '50s Western series called "Trackdown."

Another Trumpertantrum Follows the March of the Lemmings. Nicholas Fandos & Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump slammed his hand on a table and stormed out of a White House meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday after Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said she would not fund a wall along the southern border, dramatically escalating the confrontation over the government shutdown. Stunned Democrats emerged from the White House meeting declaring that Mr. Trump had thrown a 'temper tantrum.' The president's allies accused of refusing to negotiate. Then he tweeted that the meeting was 'a total waste of time.'... The afternoon altercation came after President Trump appeared to rally nervous Senate Republicans around his strategy to keep parts of the government closed until Democrats accede to his demand for $5.7 billion for a border wall.... Moderate Republicans who entered the room confident that senators were coalescing around the idea that the government should be reopened while the border security debate continues left disappointed, convinced that for now, the party would follow Mr. Trump perilously further into a shutdown with an uncertain end." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Some semi-talented composer really should write these fools a Sousa-like march, maybe ending in a splashing or a splatting crescendo, & interrupted throughout by intermittent "meep-meep"s. ...

... Trump Says He Has the "Absolute Right to Do National Emergency if I Want." So There. Michael Tackett: "President Trump warned on Wednesday that he reserved the option of declaring a national emergency to build his border wall without congressional approval. The president, speaking ... [as he] headed to a luncheon meeting on Capitol Hill [with Senate Republicans]. Asked whether he was still considering declaring a national emergency, an extraordinary measure rarely used by presidents absent an urgent security threat, Mr. Trump said: 'I think we might work a deal, and if we don't, I may go that route. I have the absolute right to do national emergency if I want.'" ...

... Ed Kilgore: "The surrounding dynamics were pretty bad. Pelosi mocked Trump for failing to show any sympathy for the federal workers and contractors being hurt by the shutdown: 'He thinks maybe they could just ask their father for more money. But they can't,' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), an implicit dig at Trump's wealthy upbringing.'... As Politico reports, Trump maintained his my-way-or-the-highway posture in a meeting with his own congressional allies[.]... [SO] Having signally failed in his big speech to convince anyone other than his 'base' that there's any sort of real emergency on the southern border, the president will now simply declare one. It's quite a good fit for Trump's temperament." ...

... Steve M: "So why doesn't Trump just do the declaration? Because, in his gut, he's still the salesman trying to emotionally manipulate his counterparties into doing everything his way. He's also the lout at the end of the bar who'd rather pound his fist (or, in this case, slam his hand on the desk) than push the norms and limits of democratic government. But the deplorables relate to an angry, besieged Trump, possibly more than they'd relate to a dictatorial Trump. This was, in a way, a good day for Trump and his fans. He got to act like [a] bully in an exchange with ABC's Jonathan Karl, to the delight of the deplorables. And he got to have a temper tantrum in his meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.... That's not how a tyrant behaves. That's the behavior of an infantile asshole.... Instead of trying to end this crisis with raw power, he's trying to end it with emotional abuse." --s ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: You won't be surprised to learn Trump has always been an infantile asshole prone to employing just this same type of emotional abuse:

... Shannon Pettypiece & Margaret Talev of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump's decision to abruptly storm out of a meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday shocked some on Capitol Hill. But those who have done business with him recognized it as one of his trademark negotiating tactics. Long before he entered the White House -- where the latest turn on his heel occurred -- Trump was known to have done the same thing when a deal wasn't going his way. He even walked out of a judge's chambers during divorce proceedings." The Democrats he abandoned just made fun of him when he stomped off, but the crude technique seems to have worked for him in the past. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump is so out of his league. Besides, a "negotiation" depends upon the assumption that both sides want something out of the deal. Trump wants Congress to give him a $5.6BB campaign contribution, and in theory, Pelosi, et al., want Trump's signature on a series of funding bills. But in fact, the longer Trump fiddles while the nation burns, the better chance so many Republicans will come on board the bills many of them have already voted for that the Congress can override Trump's veto.

... Steve M.: Trump "won't rest until he sees this situation as a win. I don't know why he's been hesitant to declare a national emergency -- yes, it's a terrible idea and there's a very good chance he'll be blocked by the courts, but it could be the only face-saving out available to him. The shutdown is likely to continue until he's convinced that he looks like the alpha male again, either with regard to the wall or as a result of some distraction. He'll never just admit defeat and accept the loss."

... "A Wet Fart". Never-Trumper Rick Wilson in The Daily Beast: "From his spurious (see what I did there?) evasion of the Vietnam draft to his serial bankruptcies and business failures, his wrecked marriages, and his current reign of misrule, Donald Trump's ability to detonate a media IED to distract from his troubles has always served him well.... On Tuesday night, Trump's flaming dumpster train of distractions, lies, cons, and empty political promises flew off the rails and plunged into a mountain of burning tires in one of his worst public speeches.... It went over like a wet fart.... The speech can most accurately be seen as the death twitch of The Wall cult.... [T]he idea of a glorious concrete wall from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico is deader than that lemur he glues on his head every morning." --s ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Why, Wilson seems almost disrespectful of the Presidunce*. ...

... Gail Collins: "For every viewer [of Trump's Oval Office fundraiser] whose response to the talk was 'Wow, we should do something about immigration!' there must have been a hundred whose first reaction was 'Why does this man keep sniffing?'... If you watched the address..., you saw a 72-year-old guy squinting at the teleprompter and making rather alarming breathing sounds while reading a speech about how we need a wall to protect women who are 'sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek up through Mexico.' This is not a man who should wrap his arguments around the idea of protecting women from sexual assault." ...

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "... Democrats are working to focus public attention on the painful costs of the partial government shutdown -- vulnerable families going without food assistance, farmers forgoing crop payments, national parks trashed -- and Mr. Trump's recklessness in courting it, rather than delving into the specific details of erecting a barrier on the southwestern border." ...

... Felicia Sonmez & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "House Democrats passed a bill [Wednesday] that would reopen the Treasury Department and ensure that the Internal Revenue Service would remain funded as tax season kicks off and millions of taxpayers begin to file their returns. Eight House Republicans voted in favor of the bill, defying the president's pleas for unity. But the measure has no path to passage, as Trump has said he opposes any legislation that does not include funding for the border wall. The vote comes on the eve of a visit by Trump to the U.S.-Mexico border." ...

... Laurie McGinley & Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "The furloughing of hundreds of Food and Drug Administration inspectors has sharply reduced inspections of the nation's food supply -- one of the many repercussions of the partial government shutdown that are making Americans potentially less safe. The agency, which oversees 80 percent of the food supply, has suspended all routine inspections of domestic food-processing facilities, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in an interview. He is working on a plan to bring inspectors back as early as next week to inspect facilities considered high-risk because they handle sensitive items such as seafood, soft cheese and vegetables, or have a history of problems." ...

... Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "The US government shutdown has stymied environmental testing and inspections, prompting warnings that Americans' health is being put at increasing risk as the shutdown drags on. More than 13,000 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are not at work, with just 794 people deemed essential staff currently undertaking the agency's duties. The remaining skeleton staff are able to 'respond to emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property', according to an EPA planning document. But many routine activities such as checks on regulated businesses, clean-ups of toxic superfund sites and the pursuit of criminal polluters have been paused since 28 December. 'State programs aren't being funded, enforcement actions have stopped -- it's a nightmare,' said Gary Morton, president of AFGE Council 238, which represents about 9,000 EPA workers." ...

... Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Employees of the U.S. Coast Guard who are facing a long U.S. government shutdown just received a suggestion: To get by without pay, consider holding a garage sale, babysitting, dog-walking or serving as a 'mystery shopper.'... 'Bankruptcy is a last option,' the document said.... The suggestions were part of a five-page tip sheet published by the Coast Guard Support Program, an employee-assistance arm of the service often known as CG SUPRT.... The Coast Guard receives funding from the Department of Homeland Security and is subjected to the shuttering of parts of the government along with DHS's other agencies. That stands in contrast to other military services, which are part of the Defense Department and have funding.... The Coast Guard removed the tip sheet from the support program's website late Wednesday morning after The Washington Post inquired about it.... Late last month, the Coast Guard announced it had found enough money to pay its service members one last time through the end of the year. The Trump administration took credit afterward, releasing a statement that said the president and some of his staff members had worked 'round the clock' to address the issue.... A bipartisan effort to get the Coast Guard paid through the shutdown was launched in Congress last week, but it isn't clear if or how quickly lawmakers might vote on the proposed 'Pay Our Coast Guard Act.'" Emphasis added for anyone who momentarily forgot those bastids lie about everything. ...

... Shutting Down the Government Is No Excuse for DOJ Delays. Erik Larson of Bloomberg News (Jan. 8): "A U.S. judge overseeing a veteran's multimillion-dollar negligence lawsuit in Puerto Rico rebuked the Justice Department for attempting to use the partial government shutdown to put the case on hold, calling the request 'laughable.' In a ruling denying the government's bid for more time, U.S. District Judge William G. Young said lapses in federal appropriations, like the current one triggered by ... Donald Trump's demand for funding for a border wall with Mexico, aren't a government 'policy' that could theoretically justify staying such a lawsuit. 'Let us talk plain -- they are simply an abdication by the president and the Congress (which could override a presidential veto) of the duty to govern responsibly to the end that all the laws may be faithfully executed,' Young said in the Jan. 2 ruling in San Juan. 'Nor does such a lapse in any way excuse this court from exercising its own constitutional functions.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Wouldn't it be nice if Mitch McConnell heeded Judge Young's admonition. Alas, the Turtle remains in his shell. ...

... Shutting Down the Government Is AG Nominee Bill Barr's Excuse for Delays. Marianne Levine of Politico: "Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) said Wednesday that she was unable to get a meeting with Attorney General nominee William Barr before his confirmation hearing next week because of the government shutdown. 'I tried (as did Blumenthal) to get meeting w/AG nominee Barr and was told he couldn't meet until AFTER the hearing,' Klobuchar, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tweeted, referencing Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal. 'The reason given? The shutdown.' Klobuchar added that the shutdown didn't prevent Barr from meeting with other senators. Among the senators Barr met with Wednesday were Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and former Committee Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) 'This is a 1st for me w/ any nominee as a member of judiciary,' Klobuchar tweeted." More on Barr's courtesy call to Graham linked below.

Junior Likens Migrants to Zoo Animals. Holly Rosenkrantz of CBS News: "Donald Trump Jr. used Instagram Tuesday night to endorse his father's border wall policy, saying the evidence that a wall works is because they protect people from zoo animals. 'You know why you can enjoy a day at the zoo? Because walls work,' Trump Jr., 41, wrote in his Instagram story." Virulent racism is a Trump family trait. ...

... Claudia Koerner of BuzzFeed News: "A gambling site is paying out thousands of dollars to people who correctly bet that ... Donald Trump would tell more than 3.5 lies in his Oval Office address on Tuesday. Bookmaker.eu asked people to wager on the president's truthfulness, offering odds of -145 for more than 3.5 lies and +115 for less than 3.5 lies. That means if a person bet $145 dollars that Trump would lie at least four times, they would win $100. And some people won big. Odds consultant John Lester told BuzzFeed News the site will lose $276,424, with 92% of its bettors correctly wagering that Trump would lie a lot. 'It's a bad day for Truthiness and Bookmaker,' he said. 'We knew we were in trouble early with this one.' The site used the Washington Post's Fact Checker as the arbiter of Trump's truth and lies. The Post's live blog has corrected six statements that Trump made during the televised address seeking a border wall."

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "After Tuesday night's debacle in the Oval Office, television network executives should be spending the day in their spacious offices practicing a simple word: No. No, Mr. President, you may not break into prime-time programming to fundraise and mislead. They'll need to practice because you can be sure that the request will come again.... There was no -- zero -- news in President Trump's address to the nation last night. There were high-drama quotes: 'crisis of the soul.' There was fearmongering: 'I've met with dozens of families whose loved ones were stolen by illegal immigration.'... And all the fact-checking in the world -- worthy as it is -- can't make a dent in the spread of misinformation that such an opportunity gives the president.... As the linguist and author George Lakoff puts it, the news media 'has become complicit with Trump by allowing itself to be used as an amplifier for his falsehoods and frames.'" ...

... "Faux" Reality World. Joe Concha of The Hill: "Fox News host Mark Levin called Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer(D-N.Y.) 'pathological liars' and 'scam artists' late Tuesday night following their response to President Trump's Oval Office address on the border wall...[speaking with] Sean Hannity during an interview." --s

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

"Collusion Case Closed." Josh Marshall of TPM: "[T]he seemingly accidental redaction error in the Manafort legal filing combined with the news published mid-evening by The New York Times is one of the biggest revelations in more than two years of the Trump/Russia scandal.... [T]hese new revelations combined with earlier reports effectively end the debate about whether there was 'collusion' between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. There was. It wasn't marginal. It was happening at the very top of the campaign.... We're not talking about vague conversations in which quid pro quos or campaign cooperation could have happened. It did happen.... How much collusion there was, how deeply Donald Trump was knowingly a part of it, remains to be seen. The fact of collusion is established. Not through some marginal member of the operation but by the man Trump chose to run his campaign." --s ...

... Paul Campos in LG&$: "After the election, Manafort was debriefed by Russian intelligence, as any spy would be in such circumstances. Note that this revelation comes from one failure, intentional or otherwise, to fully redact one document in Mueller's sprawling investigation. How long will the Republican party choose to continue to tolerate the Trump administration's combination of profound corruption and utter incompetence?" ...

... John Schindler of the (New York) Observer: "This looks unmistakably like a clandestine intelligence operation to anyone even marginally acquainted with spycraft. Russian intelligence routinely uses 'former' agents like Kilimnik to gain access to foreigners and their secrets; Kilimnik, when pressed, hardly denied his GRU affiliation.... President Trump's consistent 'no collusion' claims, ailing for months as Mueller's cards are revealed, one by one, are now officially moribund. Manafort has admitted that he was in touch with Kilimnik during and after Trump's presidential run, regarding campaign matters, in what appears to be a clandestine back-channel between Team Trump and the Kremlin. The big open question is how much Donald Trump knew about Manafort's secret dealings with Kilimnik in 2016 and after. Given the president's well-documented micro-managerial ways, plus the fact that he's known Manafort for decades, it's impossible to imagine he was wholly unaware of his own campaign's hush-hush back-channel to Moscow."

... Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare is far more cautious than are Marshall, Campos & Schindler in his analysis of the "tantalizing tidbits": "We will not know what these tidbits mean, if anything, until we see both how Mueller characterizes them and, more particularly, how Mueller situates them against that broader pattern of interactions." ...

... Christal Hayes of USA Today: "Members of President Donald Trump's campaign and transition team had more than 100 contacts with Russian-linked officials, according to a new report. The milestone illustrates the deep ties between members of Trump's circle and the Kremlin.... The organizations counted each meeting and message as a separate contact." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You could cook up a plausibly "innocent" explanation for almost every one of these contacts, and lord knows the participants have tried. But there is no innocent explanation for 100 contacts.

Nico Hines of The Daily Beast: "Cambridge Analytica has been found guilty of breaking data laws after refusing to disclose how much information it holds on an American professor, where it got the data, and -- perhaps most importantly -- how it used it and who it gave it to." --s

Katelyn Polantz & Laura Robinson of CNN: "One law firm involved in a foreign government-owned company's challenge of a mysterious grand jury subpoena related to the Robert Mueller investigation is Alston & Bird..., a firm that has previously represented Russian interests, including working for a Russian oligarch and a contractor of the Russian government. CNN's reporting of the law firm's identity is among the first details revealed about a case that's progressed to the Supreme Court under extreme secrecy. The identity of the foreign government and the company has been a closely held secret, and after several setbacks in court, the company may be forced to give the special counsel's office information or face a steep financial penalty."

Senator Russkie Turncoat. Martin Cizmar of RawStory: "On Wednesday morning on CNN, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) defended Manafort's meeting with the Russian spy by arguing that Manafort, who had worked on behalf of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, had known the spy for many years and that there was nothing odd about a presidential campaign sharing confidential campaign polling data with a foreign adversary." With video --s

Pete Williams & Allan Smith of NBC News: "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who had been overseeing the special counsel investigation, plans to step down after Robert Mueller finishes his work, according to administration officials familiar with his thinking. A source close to Rosenstein said he intends to stay on until Mueller's investigative and prosecutorial work is done. The source said that would mean Rosenstein would remain until early March. Several legal sources have said they expect the Mueller team to conclude its work by mid-to-late February, although they said that timeline could change based on unforeseen investigative developments. The source said once Mueller's work is done, the special counsel's report to the Justice Department would follow a few weeks later, and Rosenstein would likely be gone by then. But others familiar with his thinking said there's no firm timeline and that Rosenstein would work out a departure plan once the new attorney general is confirmed and on board." ...

     ... Mrs McCrabbie: If this version of the Rosenstein Early Retirement Plan is accurate, it's a BFD. Not only will Mueller be somewhat protected, but also he will finish at least some significant parts of his investigation within a month or two. ...

... Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "Theoretically, the report that Rosenstein will step down in the coming weeks and the report that he will only step down once Mueller submits a report do not necessarily contradict one another. Remember: both Bloomberg News and NBC News have predicted that Mueller will submit a Russia report in February." ...

... Andrew Prokop of Vox: William "Barr's nomination [to the AG spot] appeared to raise serious questions about the Mueller investigation's future. Back in May (months before Trump nominated him), Barr wrote a 19-page memo harshly criticizing Mueller's investigation, particularly with regards to the special counsel's reported focus on obstruction of justice and efforts to subpoena or question the president.... Hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee kick off on Tuesday, and he'll surely be grilled about the memo he wrote last year criticizing Mueller and questioned about whether he'd let the investigation continue." Prokop's report provides a handy summary of Rod Rosenstein's tenure, vis-a-vis the Trump corruption investigations. ...

... Mary Jalonick of the AP: "The new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said attorney general nominee William Barr has confidence in special counsel Robert Mueller and will let him complete his Russia investigation. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said after meeting with Barr, who led the Justice Department under President George H.W. Bush, that Barr has a 'high opinion' of Mueller. Barr was spending most of Wednesday on Capitol Hill, meeting senators on the committee before his confirmation hearing next week. 'He had absolutely no indication he was going to tell Bob Mueller what to do or how to do it,' Graham said Wednesday.... Graham said that the two men were 'best friends,' that their wives attended Bible study together and that Mueller had attended the weddings of Barr's children.... Graham listed a number of questions that he had put to Barr: 'I asked Mr. Barr directly, "Do you think Mr. Mueller is on a witch hunt?" He said no. "Do you think he would be fair to the president and the country as a whole?" He said yes. "And do you see any reason for Mr. Mueller's investigation to be stopped?" He said no. "Do you see any reason for a termination based on cause?" He said no. "Are you committed to making sure Mr. Mueller can finish his job?" "Yes."'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I find Graham's assurances as reassuring as Donald Trump's claim that he could be "very presidential."

Benjamin Siegel of ABC News: "The new Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, is readying a subpoena to compel acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to testify later this month, a move that could become one of the first investigative actions of the new House majority that's promised closer oversight of the Trump administration. 'We're preparing the subpoena,' Nadler told ABC News. The order could be issued within days if Whitaker and committee Democrats can't reach an agreement on a hearing date before January 29, when ... Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to Capitol Hill for his State of the Union address."

Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "President Donald Trump's tenuous relationship with the military he commands took another awkward turn last week when he ordered the Pentagon to block the publication of independent reports that have been harshly critical of reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. Over the past 11 years, SIGAR has probed the management of the more than $130 billion spent in Afghanistan.... By its own estimation, the office has recovered more than $951 million from fines and settlements. Its most recent report, released in October, contained the startling conclusion that Afghan government forces now control the least amount of territory of any point in the past three years." --s

Nasser Karimi & Jon Gambrell of the AP: "Iran confirmed it is holding U.S. Navy veteran Michael R. White at a prison in the country, making him the first American known to be detained under ... Donald Trump's administration. White's detention adds new pressure to the rising tension between Iran and the U.S., which under Trump has pursued a maximalist campaign against Tehran that includes pulling out of its nuclear deal with world powers. Although the circumstances of White's detention remain unclear, Iran in the past has used its detention of Westerners and dual nationals as leverage in negotiations." ...

... Reuters: "U.S. sanctions are putting unprecedented pressure on Iranians while 'first class idiots' are running Washington's policy, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday." --s

** David Jackson of USA Today: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday again threatened to cut off federal [FEMA] funds to fight California wildfires, saying the money is being wasted. 'Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,' Trump tweeted. 'Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., responded that Trump's threat 'insults the memory of scores of Americans who perished in wildfires last year & thousands more who lost their homes.' Pelosi's tweet said House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, another Californian, 'must join me to condemn & call on POTUS to reassure millions in CA that our govt will be there for them in their time of need.'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See his commentary below. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This really is astounding: punishing Americans for political reasons & for the reason of his own ignorance. In fact, I suspect that Trump is wilfully ignorant: continuing to push disproved/hilariously-mocked forest "management" theories gives him a fake excuse to exact political retribution: Somebody over there in the House add this to your long list of proposed articles of impeachment.

Justice For Sale. Sam Stein & Lachlan Markey of The Daily Beast: "In the summer of 2017, the Trump White House asked for a meeting with a top official at the Department of Justice to discuss a sensitive legal and administrative matter involving a top Republican donor. The donor, then-Republican National Committee finance chairman and casino magnate Steve Wynn, was embroiled in litigation involving Obama-era rules governing how companies could distribute tips gathered by their employees. Months after the meeting request, the Trump administration revised those rules to make them far friendlier to employers. It is unclear why the White House made the request for the meeting with acting Solicitor General Jeff Wall, which was uncovered in a Freedom of Information Act ... and has not been previously reported." --s

Max Rivlin-Nadler of The Intercept: "[M]ore than 1,000 pages of previously unseen Customs and Border Protection training documents ... were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union after a four-year legal battle and shared exclusively with The Intercept.... What’s included in the documents ... is a portrait of an agency that acknowledges that citizens and noncitizens alike are covered by the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, while also instructing officers on expansive ways to circumvent it." Includes documents. --s

"Swamp Creatures," Ctd. David Dayen of The Intercept: "Republican Jon Kyl, whose second Senate tenure concluded on December 31 [after serving as John McCain's replacement], is keeping secret nine clients he advised while working at a powerful corporate lobbying and law firm [Covington & Burling] in 2017 and 2018. Kyl was supposed to reveal the clients in his mandatory Senate financial disclosure, but he cited a D.C. bar rule to keep them confidential.... On Monday, Covington & Burling announced that Kyl would return to his lobbying job, swinging through the revolving door only one week after leaving the Senate.... Kyl's annual disclosure was due September 28, a few weeks after he was sworn in. But he got a 90-day extension, and he waited until the last possible day, January 3, to file the form. By this time, he had left the Senate and was replaced by Martha McSally. It's unclear whether anyone in government will now demand that Kyl release the names of the clients. However, some experts believe the public has a right to know...." --s

"Swamp Creatures," Ctd. Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "Two lobbyists [Nick Muzin..., a former top aide to Sen. Ted Cruz..., and Joey Allaham,] known for helping Qatar curry favor among allies of President Donald Trump, received nearly $4 million from a mysterious PR firm that appears to be tied to the Qatari government -- another indication that a shadow war in the Middle East has taken root in the DC swamp with little oversight.... The filings were submitted more than a year after they say the work had started. Justice Department rules require foreign lobbying to be reported within 10 days of signing a contract or performing work." --s

Election 2018. North Carolina. Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "Despite making numerous baseless claims about voter fraud over the years, President Donald Trump has remained silent on the contested congressional race in North Carolina's 9th district, where allegations of election fraud centering around a Republican operative have prevented the state from certifying results. But Mark Harris --— the Republican candidate who was thought to have won a narrow victory over Democrat Dan McCready before his campaign's connections to [felonious fraudster] Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. came to light -- revealed on Tuesday [in an interview] that Trump has encouraged him to 'stand and fight.'... Harris' interview occurred less than 24 hours after he reportedly set off a fire alarm and ran away from reporters, which he apologized for Tuesday." Emphasis mine --s

Presidential Election 2020. Jessica Taylor of NPR: "California billionaire Tom Steyer confirms to NPR that he will not seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, instead putting even more muscle behind his efforts to impeach President Trump. 'This is the biggest issue in American politics today,' Steyer said of impeachment efforts. 'We have a lawless president in the White House who is eroding our democracy and it is only going to get worse.'"

Presidential Election 2016. Alex Thompson of Politico: "On the final night of the Democratic National Convention in July of 2016, Bernie Sanders' staffers went out to a Mediterranean restaurant ... to celebrate and mourn the end of the campaign.... Sometime after midnight, convention floor leader Robert Becker ... told [a] 20-something woman [staffer who had reported to him] that he had always wanted to have sex with her and made a reference to riding his 'pole,' according to the woman and three other people who witnessed what happened or were told about it shortly afterward by people who did. Later in the night, Becker ... forcibly kissed her, putting his tongue in her mouth as he held her, the woman and other sources said. The woman did not formally report the incident at the time because the campaign was over."

Terry Gross of NPR: "There are countless presidential scandals in U.S. history, but very few of them have resulted in resignation or impeachment -- which is precisely why MSNBC host Rachel Maddow was drawn to the story of Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon's first vice president, who resigned in 1973.... Maddow and her former producer Mike Yarvitz created the podcast Bag Man to revisit Agnew's story. Though his resignation was officially linked to tax evasion, they say that Agnew had engaged in bribery that dated to the early 1960s, when, as Baltimore County executive, he demanded kickbacks in exchange for local engineering or architecture contracts. He continued the practice even after being elected governor of Maryland in 1967 and then vice president in 1969." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I happened to catch a good portion of Gross's program yesterday, and it was fascinating, particularly in light of the Trump clusterfuck. Really. I intend to listen to Maddow's podcast, which you can (probably) access via the link above (I got there via Google Play). I do hope Bush I fanboy Jon Meacham happened to have the radio on yesterday afternoon. The part about Poppy will burst "historian" Jon-boy's bubble.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Alex Samuels of the Texas Tribune: "Shahid Shafi identifies as a Republican because of his firm belief in small government, lower taxes and secure borders. But his commitment to core GOP values hasn't shielded him from ire within his own party. A group of Tarrant County Republicans will vote Thursday evening on whether to remove Shafi as vice-chairman of the county party after a small faction of members put forth a formal motion to oust him because he's Muslim. Those in favor of the motion to recall Shafi, a trauma surgeon and member of the Southlake City Council, have said he doesn't represent all Tarrant County Republicans. They've also said Islamic ideologies run counter to the U.S. Constitution -- an assertion many Texas GOP officials have called bigoted and Shafi himself has vehemently denied." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, Doc; you get to be a decent person or a Republican. It's an either/or choice. You can't be both. And you should have been smart enough to figure that out before you threw in your lot with the Party of Ignorant Bigots.

Way Beyond

Congo. Jason Burke of the Guardian: "Felix Tshisekedi, the leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's main opposition party, has been declared the surprise winner of the 30 December presidential election in the vast central African country. The result, announced early on Thursday, means the first electoral transfer of power in 59 years of independence in the DRC. It will come as a shock to many observers who believed authorities would ensure that the government candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, would be the victor in the polls ... hand-picked by outgoing president Joseph Kabila to succeed him.... [P]re-election ... polls had put [opposition frontrunner and respected former business executive Martin] Fayulu on 47%, at least 20 points ahead of Tshisekedi. Vote tallies compiled by the DRC's Catholic church found Fayulu clearly won the election, two diplomats told Reuters, raising the spectre of protests that many fear could lead to violence. Fayulu's supporters feared Kabila would rig the vote in favour of his hand-picked candidate, or do a power-sharing deal with Tshisekedi[.]" --s

Comments

[unwashed]

Today Gail talks about the squinting sniffler.

"For every viewer whose response to the talk was “Wow, we should do something about immigration!” there must have been a hundred whose first reaction was “Why does this man keep sniffing?” Deviated septum? Nasal polyps? Trump’s breathing has actually sounded strange for a long time, but most of us have chosen to ignore it rather than engage in a national conversation about the president’s nose."

Many of her commenters make an Adderall connection as well.

[Marie Burns]

@unwashed: Darn! Last night I was wishing I could weigh in with the Adderall theory based on the "research" Jeanne's daughter & I did on the subject, but I thought it would never get past the Times censors moderators.

[Akhilleus]

Fireman Fatty Sez...

Time once again, folks, for an episode of the adventures of your favorite wildfire warrior, Fireman Fatty. Today Fireman Fatty threatens to stop all FEMA money from helping citizens of California devastated by wildfires (promoted and helped along by his inaction on climate change). Because, we’ll, because he can. Also, Nancy Pelosi😡.

“I told them all how to do it. Get out your rakes and start sweeping the forest floors. All 750 million square miles. No one knows more about forest fires than me. I’m the greatest and the smartest. So get busy. Otherwise no more FEMA trailers. You can all sleep on an ash pile and eat those roasted chestnuts. What’s that? They’re not roasted chestnuts? They’re burnt human remains? Well, see? If they had been out raking the forests, like I ordered, they still be alive.”

Well, that’s it for another episode of Fireman Fatty. Tune in again next week as Fatty pulls all federal support for the state and gives Nancy Pelosi a great big raspberry, cuz she won’t give him his wall. 😭

Th, th, th th, that’s all, folks.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/2523581002

[forrest morris]

I'm incensed, humiliated, and laughing at the trumpertweet on
withholding FEMA funds for California wildfires. Quote:
"Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for
Forrest fires that, with proper Forrest Management, would
never happen. Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely,
I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful
situation in lives & money!"
I don't like being blamed for improper Forrest Management.
I've spent years raking and clearing out brush so why is he blaming
me?
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/stable-genius-just-rage-
tweeted-16400928.html?.tsrc=fauxdal

[Victoria]

Love the B&W western - with a very young Robert Culp.
Looks like the average american of the 50's was more sophisticated about con men than at least 30% of merkins now.
Thinking about distractions: Oh, I long for the day of the MOAB - it was far away, gave a big bang, and only killed 4 people.
Our worsening situation is what happens when the sociopath isn't stopped in his tracks (and hopefully shot).

[MAG]

Re the Sniffer. It could be a nervous tic. My husband had a friend who did this all the time, drove me crazy...I'd have to leave the room because I couldn't stand to be around him.

This was more apparent when he was making comments or pronouncements about things which he knew little about or was more prejudicial in his view. Someone who isn't that confident about themselves will use this 'protective' device while they frantically search for the 'right' words or posture.

That Old Western clip is fab!

[PD Pepe]

That old Western bit was amazing––Trump and the Wall and the con–-all in one and back in the day.

Juan Cole has a piece he calls "The Most Dangerous Thing Trump Has Ever Said."
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-most-dangerous-thing-trump-has-ever-said/

"Trump is not a normal president (or a person) and he is perfectly capable of behaving like a Middle Eastern despot."

And I wonder if Trump denies knowledge of Manafort's collusion and it turns out Manafort has said otherwise then...?

I'm also wondering how Trump will save face re: the shutdown. I envision mobs of angry constituents in the halls of congress if this goes on too much longer. Would our dip shit leader of the free world then say: "I can no longer let my people and federal agencies suffer even though the Democrats are willing to do so."

Hereby becoming the hero–-the compassionate one. It would be one way he might think he can win and let go of the WALL which he used as a mythical cudgel anyway.

[Marie Burns]

@forest moris: I had to look up the original tweet because either Trump's staff or USA Today cleaned up Trump's mispeling in the version USA Today reported. Anyhow, keep on rakin'. Some day you wil be absolved.

[Akhilleus]

Forrest fires! Cripes. Forrest, what have you been up to, man? You need some management. Hey, and once you get a manager, you could hire an agent. Maybe get a Netflix series. "Forrest Fires Away". A sure hit with the arsonists, firebugs, and pyromaniacs. You'd rake it in. Ba-dum-bum.

[Akhilleus]

Marie was asking for some appropriate theme music to accompany the ongoing Trumpy disaster.

It's already been written. Here it is.

Great TV Land clip. Proof positive that time travel exists. Some writer must have either visited our time or gone back to the past and written this script. Even better, they have the Robert Culp character (whose name just has to be Mueller), arrest the wall-hawking con man, Trump.

Just having a con man named Trump would be good enough, but to have the guy promising a wall for the townspeople, and standing up on a stage with flaming torches (like a Bund rally) and declaring that only he can fix their problems is just too much.

[PD Pepe]

@Marie: thank you so much for the NPR recording–-very enlightening and disturbing. I always thought Agnew was a slime-ball but never realized how corrupt he really was.

[Akhilleus]

Fatty has truly painted himself into the proverbial corner. And now he's painting himself. Because, as Marie points out, he's waaaaay out of his league. He's used to having some kind of upper hand in negotiations, something the other side wants badly. But a truly great negotiator, a real deal maker, can create a situation in which he or she comes out okay even if they have very little leverage. It's called being smart, something Trump is not. He's never had to be smart. He conflates bullying and stomping around with acting smart and has always attributed whatever "wins" he garnered to his giant intellect.

But now he's going up against Nancy Pelosi (nothing against Chuck Schumer, but he's not Nancy). She is kicking his fat ass around the block. (Love her jab about how Trump believes all those furloughed government workers should just ask their daddies for the money.)

Long time ago, I read a book about the Cuban missile crisis. One of the techniques employed by the Kennedy people during that test was an old street fighting tactic. If you want to avoid an all out rumble in which both sides end up in the hospital, and if you have the upper hand, you give the other guy a chance to back out and save face. This is what they did for Khrushchev. They let him walk away in a manner that enabled him to save face with his people. We avoided nuclear war and everyone lived to fight another day.

Pelosi gave Fatty a chance to back out and save face. She held out the exact same bill his party passed just days before Limbaugh and Coulter double dog dared him to go all out for his stupid wall. And he, being the coward and easily manipulated douchebag that he is, caved. But Pelosi still offered him a way out. We reopen the government and we all live to fight about the wall another day.

But Trump is too much of an idiot to see that (or simply too much of a coward). Luckily Khrushchev was not that stupid.

Fatty is in a corner of his own making, with paint he bought on his own dime, and a brush shoved up his fat ass by Limbaugh and Coulter, neither of whom were smart enough to see this as a no-win situation for their side.

But, like Fatty, they don't care.

Because they're stupid too.

McConnell could end this by allowing the Senate to vote on Pelosi's bill. If congress votes to end the Trump/McConnell shutdown, Fatty can blame them. He gets out of the corner.

But they're all stupider than cracked eggshells. And like eggshells, they're about to get crushed.

(As long as Democrats don't waver.)

[Akhilleus]

So I'm a white supremacist, what's the big deal?

Rep. (for reptile) Steve King, (R-Nazi Germany) is on the record wondering what all the fuss is about being a dyed in the wool bigot.

"A sitting member of Congress has just more-or-less openly endorsed white supremacism.

'White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?' Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said in an interview with the New York Times’s Trip Gabriel published Thursday morning. 'Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?'"

I must have missed those classes in college (damned liberal arts school!) where western civilization was conflated with white supremacy.

Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of periods of history where white supremacy was pretty much the de facto ruling paradigm, likewise nationalism. After the Peace of Westphalia, nationalist sentiments arose on occasion and in some instances became a serious problem.

The difference is, liberal democracies have been striving to overcome that past and move beyond white supremacy and nationalism, especially in the second half of the last century and into the 21st century. King seems to think that the mindset prevalent in 1648 (and 1939) is still A-Ok. He's not alone. Donald J. (for jackass) Trump is in complete agreement.

But it's a sign of the times here in the Age of Trump, that openly admitting that one thinks there's nothing wrong with hangin' with the Nazis and the KKK is perfectly acceptable.

The Party of Traitors and their pundits and supporters and consultants all have a lot to answer for.

[Ken Winkes]

Didn't see "Trackdown" at the time, so it was new to me.

Was curious enough to try to identify the author of the "Trackdown" script but failed.

Someone who lived or knew someone who lived in a Trump slum?
Someone of color who was refused entrance to one of them?

The coincidence of names and modus operandi are just too perfect.

Whoever it was, I'd expect he or she will be retroactively blacklisted.

[forrest morris]

@Ken: There were a dozen or more writers according to
Wikipedia.
https://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackdown_(TV_series)

[Marie Burns]

@Ken Winkes: My thoughts exactly. I did find out who the director & writer of the episode were, but both were born & died in California. That doesn't mean they couldn't ever have lived in one of Old Man Trump's apartment buildings in Queens, or that they never heard Woody Guthrie's song about living in the Beach Haven apartments.

But for all we know so far, this is an a-mazing coincidence.