The Commentariat -- July 4, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Dario Thuburn of AFP: "A rare parchment copy of the US Declaration of Independence found at a British archive among the papers of an aristocrat [-- Charles Lennox, the Third Duke of Richmond --] who supported the rebels has been authenticated, officials said. The manuscript was discovered last year at the West Sussex Record Office in the southern English city of Chichester by a team of researchers led by two Harvard University academics. Tests supported the hypothesis that it was produced in the 1780s, West Sussex County Council said earlier this week -- just a few years after the declaration itself was issued in 1776. The document 'is the only other contemporary manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence on parchment apart from the signed copy at the National Archives in Washington DC,' known as the Matlack Declaration, a council statement said earlier this week. There are other printed parchment copies and handwritten copies on paper but the Sussex Declaration, as it has been dubbed, and the Matlack Declaration in Washington are the only two known ceremonial parchment copies of the declaration."

David Jackson of USA Today: "The Democratic National Committee's annual Fourth of July statement reflects its long-standing tensions with ... Donald Trump. While hailing the nation's founding ideal of equality for all, DNC chairman Tom Perez said in the statement, 'we recognize that America's founding promise remains out of reach for too many families.' Adding that everywhere we look, our most fundamental values are under attack,' Perez referred to problems surrounding low-paying jobs, health care, immigration, injustice to people of color and members or the LGBTQ community, a recent Supreme Court decision on public unions, and the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy."

Perfect Independence Day Eve Message. Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday rescinded a 2011 Justice Department guidance mandating that asylum seekers and refugees have a 'right' to work in the U.S. The Obama-era document was included on a list of 24 Justice Department guidances that Sessions scrapped because he said they were 'unnecessary, outdated, inconsistent with existing law' or imposed without congressional approval.'"

Jennifer Smola & Jessica Wehrman of the Columbus Dispatch: "U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan never witnessed abuse by the Ohio State University wrestling team's doctor and he hasn't been contacted by anyone investigating possible incidents that occurred while he was an assistant coach two decades ago, the Urbana Republican's spokesman said Tuesday. However, lawyers hired by OSU to probe the allegations said Jordan was contacted -- both by phone and email -- to request an interview, but he never responded. And three members of the wrestling team under Jordan insist that he knew about the abuse but looked the other way.... Doug Andres, a spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, called the allegations 'serious.'"

Federal Judge Good with "Separate AND Unequal." Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "Do students at poorly performing schools have a constitutional right to a better education? On Friday, a Federal District Court judge [-- Stephen J. Murphy III --] in Michigan decided that they did not when he dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed by students at troubled schools in Detroit. The suit, filed in September 2016, argued that students at some of the city's most underperforming schools -- serving mostly racial minorities -- had been denied 'access to literacy' because of underfunding, mismanagement and discrimination. The complaint described schools that were overcrowded with students but lacking in teachers; courses without basic resources like books and pencils; and classrooms that were bitingly cold in the winter, stiflingly hot in the summer and infested with rats and insects." Mrs. McC: Murphy is a white guy, appointed by George W. Bush.

Campaigning While Black. Everton Bailey of the Oregonian: "A black Oregon state representative says one of her constituents called police on her Tuesday while she was canvassing alone in a neighborhood she represents. Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat who is running for a second term this fall in the state House of Representatives, said she was knocking on doors and talking to residents for two hours along Southeast 125th Avenue in Clackamas. She was taking notes on her cellphone from [a] conversation she'd had ... when a Clackamas County deputy pulled up to her.... She introduced herself as a state legislator and said that she was out canvassing and that she guessed someone called him. The deputy said someone called and reported Bynum appearing to spend a long time at houses in the area and appearing to be casing the neighborhood while on her phone."

Random Act of Kindness. Caitlin O'Kane of CBS News: "Houston Police Officer Sandy Fernandez says he was working security at a quinceañera last weekend, when he noticed a ... little girl in a wheelchair, who was watching other party guests dance":

*****

Dana Milbank: "On this 242nd birthday of the United States, let's rededicate ourselves to freedom: Freedom from Trump's constant attacks on women, immigrants, people of color, gay people and Muslims. Freedom to work and live without discrimination, harassment and violence because of your gender, race or religion. Freedom to get medical care when you or your children are sick." He goes on to list eight more freedoms. "In a very real sense, the fight against Trump is a battle for freedom."

This Russia Thing, Etc. Ctd.

Martin Matishak of Politico: "The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday backed the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to aid ... Donald Trump and is continuing its efforts to undermine U.S. democracy. The finding that reveals Russia meddled in far more extensive ways than previously known is yet another strong rebuke to Trump and many of his allies...." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This is a two-graf story. The NYT, as of 9 pm ET Tuesday, has reported nothing on the Intel Committee report (a search leads to an AP story, which is not linked on the main online page). ...

     ... The Washington Post report, by Karoun Demirjian , is here. ...

... Profiles in Courage. Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "... the release of the report -- at around 3pm, just before the July 4 holiday -- suggests that the Senate Republicans are eager to keep their differences with Trump out of the sunlight." --safari ...

... Tana Ganeva of the Raw Story: "A new assessment issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday concurred with previous reports that President Vladimir Putin personally approved Russian meddling in the 2016 election." ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "One of the key findings of the [House] GOP report, led by critical White House ally Devin Nunes of California, was that the three intelligence agencies erred in their assessment of 'Putin's strategic intentions' behind his election interference.... The Senate Intelligence Committee, however, reached a much firmer conclusion: The January 2017 intelligence community was right to find the Russians meddled in the election to defeat Clinton and aid Trump.... Though the [Steele] Dossier's financial connections to the Democratic Party have made it a sort of Rosetta Stone on the right for determining the fundamental fraudulence underpinning all aspects of Trump-Russia collusion allegations, 'the dossier did not in any way inform the analysis in the [Senate Intelligence Committee assessment] ... because it was unverified information and had not been disseminated as serialized intelligence reporting."

Business Day: "US Republican senators met Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on a rare visit to Moscow on Tuesday ahead of a summit between the countries' Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. The US delegation is in Russia until Thursday, ahead of the summit planned in Helsinki on July 16...." ...

... AP: "... the head of a U.S. congressional delegation visiting Russia said Tuesday he hopes for 'a new day' in repairing relations between Russia and the U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, was meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow two weeks before the countries' presidents are to meet in Helsinki. 'We come here realizing that we have a strained relationship, but we could have a better relationship between the U.S. and Russia, because we have some common interests around the world that we could hopefully work together on,' Shelby told Lavrov at the start of their meeting. 'We could be competitors, we are competitors, but we don't necessarily need to be adversaries.'" Mrs. McC: Ain't that sweet. ...

... Jonathan Chait: Trump, CNN reports [linked here yesterday], plans to meet with Putin one on one, with no advisers or staff.... Huh, that's weird. It's almost as if Trump has some kind of secret relationship involving money or blackmail with Russia he wants to discuss without fear of being revealed to his own country!" ...

... Christian Caryl of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's talking points on Crimea are the same as Vladimir Putin's.... Over dinner at the recent Group of Seven summit, according to BuzzFeed, Trump told other summit participants that Crimea is Russian because the population of the peninsula speaks Russian.... Putin's (and Trump's) logic is simple enough: If the people in a place speak mostly Russian, and if it once belonged to Russia at some point, then Moscow has every right to come in and take it over again. But this is a false simplicity, one that comes at the price of many sins of omission.... [Trump] would be happy to revert to the 19th-century notion that great powers dictate the terms to smaller ones. The very idea that he and Putin should presume to discuss the fate of Ukrainian territory over the head of 44 million Ukrainians is scandalous.... Crimea belongs to Ukraine, and it is not Trump's to give away."

Marcy Wheeler reveals that she informed the FBI about a person she "believed had already done real damage to the United States as part of the Russian attack.... It infuriates me to observe (and cover) a months-long charade by the House GOP to demand more and more details about those who have shared information with the government, at least some of whom were only trying to prevent real damage to innocent people, all in an attempt to discredit the Mueller investigation.... This investigation is not, primarily, an investigation into Donald Trump. It's an investigation into people who attacked the United States. It's time Republicans started acting like that matters." (Also linked yesterday.)

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The string of insults, misstatements, exaggerations and outright falsehoods emanating from the White House began just after sunrise. In the space of a few hours, President Trump on Tuesday took credit for averting a war with North Korea, charged without proof that President Barack Obama had secretly granted citizenship to thousands of Iranians as part of nuclear disarmament negotiations and appeared to suggest that customers of the motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson were psychic. He called a sitting congresswoman 'crazy' and 'corrupt.' He branded the National Security Agency's handling of millions of telephone call records 'a disgrace' -- and suggested it was connected to the special counsel investigation into whether his campaign worked with Russia to interfere in the 2016 elections. 'Witch Hunt!' he wrote at the end of that tweet."

     ... Davis debunks some of the nonsense. For instance, on all those new Iranian-American citizens, "There is no evidence that such a side deal to the nuclear accord existed. Current and former Department of Homeland Security officials on Tuesday said they could not verify the claim, but spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified in contradicting the president. A Homeland Security spokesperson declined to comment and referred questions to the State Department. A State Department spokesperson referred questions back to the Department of Homeland Security. Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Mr. Obama at the time the Iran nuclear deal was reached, called the visa report as 'just a big lie. It's not true.' Additionally, American government data show no spike in naturalizations of Iranians or huge increase in green cards given to Iranians in 2015 when compared to the two previous years." ...

Just out that the Obama Administration granted citizenship, during the terrible Iran Deal negotiation, to 2,500 Iranians -- including to government officials. How big (and bad) is that? -- President Trump, in a tweet, July 3

This claim ... appears to have originated with a hard-line Iranian cleric who opposes the Iran deal. Zonnour gave an interview to an Iranian newspaper, which was then repackaged by Iran's semiofficial news agency, which was then picked up by U.S. media [Mrs. McC: i.e., Fox 'News'] and then by the president on his Twitter feed (with some of the details garbled). Three senior Obama administration officials pushed back on Trump's claim.... The Trump administration provided no evidence to back up the president's tweet. -- Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post

... Trump Sez His Photo-Op Stopped War. "All of Asia Is Thrilled." John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Tuesday that the United States would be at war with North Korea without his efforts and that conversations with the nation's leaders are 'going well' -- an assessment at odds with recent reports that North Korea is working to conceal key aspects of its nuclear weapons program. The president's comments in a morning tweet followed a report Saturday in The Washington Post that U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that North Korea does not intend to fully surrender its nuclear arms stockpile and instead is considering ways to conceal the number of weapons it has and its secret production facilities. In his rosy assessment, Trump claimed that 'only the Opposition Party' and the news media are presenting a different picture of his efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in the wake of his June 12 summit with North Korea leader Jim Jong Un." (Also linked yesterday.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: Nonetheless, before the 2020 election (or impeachment or Senate trial proceedings), Trump will take the U.S. to war against some country. ...

** Joshua Goodman of the AP: "As a meeting last August in the Oval Office to discuss sanctions on Venezuela was concluding..., Donald Trump turned to his top aides and asked..., why can't the U.S. just simply invade the troubled country? The suggestion stunned those present at the meeting, including U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, both of whom have since left the administration.... The idea, despite his aides' best attempts to shoot it down, would nonetheless persist in the president's head. The next day, Aug. 11, Trump alarmed friends and foes alike with talk of a 'military option' to remove [Venezuela's President Nicolas] Maduro from power.... Shortly afterward, he raised the issue with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.... Then in September, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Trump discussed it again, this time at greater length, in a private dinner with leaders from four Latin American allies.... [A] U.S. official said Trump was specifically briefed not to raise the issue...."

Mark Rutte Is Tired of Trump's Bull. Rebecca Tan of the Washington Post: "About a minute into his remarks [during a photo spray with Dutch PM Mark Rutte], Trump suggested that leaving the trade dispute unresolved could still be 'positive.' Rutte responded by raising his eyebrows, laughing and cutting in to say, 'No.' When Trump kept going, Rutte said while smiling to reporters: 'It will not be positive. We will work something out.'... While Rutte's concise interjection tickled many in the Netherlands, his remarks belie a deeper tension growing between the United States and its European allies.... The Netherlands is ... the fifth-largest exporter of goods in the world.... The country has a lot at stake in the face of U.S. protectionism, and this is not the first time Rutte has made that clear."

** Julia Ainsley & Jacob Soboroff of NBC News: "After a court order to reunite more than 2,000 migrant children who were separated from their parents in May and June, the Trump administration has instructed immigration agents to give those parents two options: leave the country with your kids -- or leave the country without them, according to a copy of a government form obtained by NBC News. The new instructions to agents do not allow parents who were separated from their children under ... Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy to reunite with their children while they await a decision on asylum.... Advocates say that even migrants who have already passed their initial asylum screenings are being presented with the form.... Parents and children who entered the U.S. after June 20 are being kept together in detention." ...

... Ryan Devereaux & Debbie Nathan of the Intercept: "Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen made a series of secretive visits to South Texas immigrant detention centers on Friday. One of the facilities the secretary visited, in Los Fresnos, houses parents whose children were taken from them under ... Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' family separation policy. Many of the detainees there are women, and many desperately wanted to speak with Nielsen. Instead, they were moved to a distant soccer field, where they shouted to Nielsen for help but were too far away for her to hear them. Reporters could not talk to Nielsen either.... Additionally, ICE confirmed to The Intercept on Tuesday that more than 60 women were moved during the secretary's visit, though the agency claimed the move was for the purpose of 'recreation.'" Mrs. McC: So "desperate shouting" is a form of "recreation"? ...

... Jonathan Blitzer of the New Yorker reports on brave women, inside & outside detention facilities, who are working to establish records of the mothers the U.S. is detaining. Officials lied to the mothers when they separated them from their children, saying they would be reunited. Some have been in detention for close to a year at least. "... judges have been rejecting asylum claims at the highest rate in more than a decade, and earlier this month the Attorney General issued a ruling that reversed decades of asylum jurisprudence and will make it much harder for Central Americans to qualify for protection under U.S. law."

Feds Debunk Trump Lies. Again. Shawn Boburg & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors concluded an 18-month investigation into a former congressional technology staffer on Tuesday by publicly debunking allegations -- promoted by conservative media and President Trump -- suggesting he was a Pakistani operative who stole government secrets with cover from House Democrats. As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Imran Awan pleaded guilty to a relatively minor offense unrelated to his work on Capitol Hill: making a false statement on a bank loan application. U.S. prosecutors said they would not recommend jail time.... The agreement included an unusual passage that ... cleared Awan of a litany of conspiracy theories.... The case has highlighted Trump's willingness to lobby for specific outcomes of federal criminal investigations and to suggest a coverup by his own Department of Justice. Trump also attempted to tie Awan to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee server -- a breach that intelligence agencies have concluded was directed by Russia." (Also linked yesterday.)

Hema Parmar & Matthew Townsend of Bloomberg: "Walmart Inc. is under fire after its website offered t-shirts from third-party sellers with 'IMPEACH 45' emblazoned across the front in big capital letters -- a call to bring down ... Donald Trump. The shirts that come in several shades -- plus similar baby onesies and even frisbees -- have the Twitter-sphere in a frenzy and spurred a grassroots call to boycott the world's biggest retailer. The hashtag #BoycottWalmart even began trending on Twitter.... Amazon.com Inc. has oodles of impeachment merchandise, too, including 'Impeach 45' football jerseys, tank tops and sweatshirts." Mrs. McC: Guess the Trumpbots will have to stick to dollar stores & mini-marts.

Erica Green, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration will encourage the nation's school superintendents and college presidents to adopt race-blind admissions standards, abandoning an Obama administration policy that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying their campuses, Trump administration officials said. The reversal would restore the policy set during President George W. Bush's administration, when officials told schools that it 'strongly encourages the use of race-neutral methods' for admitting students to college or assigning them to elementary and secondary schools. Last November, Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked the Justice Department to re-evaluate past policies that he believed pushed the department to act beyond what the law, the Constitution and the Supreme Court had required.... As part of that process, the Justice Department rescinded seven policy guidances from the Education Department's civil rights division on Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday.)

It's a Day Ending in "Y"

** Jonathan Chait has an excellent theory as to why Trump doesn't fire Scott Pruitt, who, as Chait writes, "has suffered a career-ending scandal at a rate of nearly one a day, for weeks on end, many of them utterly humiliating, and with no end in sight. The embarrassment brings no particular substantive benefit, since if Pruitt stepped down, he would be replaced by a deputy who is equally willing and able to let fossil-fuel companies run the agency." Do read on.

Kaitlan Collins of CNN: EPA "Administrator Scott Pruitt directly appealed to ... Donald Trump this spring to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and let him run the Department of Justice instead, according to three people familiar with the proposal. In an Oval Office conversation with Trump, Pruitt offered to temporarily replace Sessions for 210 days under the Vacancies Reform Act, telling the President he would return to Oklahoma afterward to run for office.... Advisers quickly shot down the proposal, but it came at a time when Trump's frustration with Sessions over his decision to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation had resurfaced. Trump has complained loudly and publicly about the recusal for the last 14 months, and floated replacing Sessions with Pruitt as recently as April." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Pruitt is the subject of some 14 ongoing investigations, many of them to determine whether or not Pruitt violated the law. He'd make a great attorney general. ...

     ... Update. Politico: "... Scott Pruitt is denying a CNN report that he appealed directly to ... Donald Trump this spring to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and put him in charge of the Justice Department.... But Pruitt has repeatedly expressed interest in Sessions' job, people familiar with the discussions first told Politico in January, and continued rumblings about his intra-Cabinet ambitions have become one factor in the White House staff's growing irritation with the EPA chief. At the same time, Trump himself 'enjoys discussing his negative view' of Sessions with Pruitt, The New York Times reported last month." ...

... Scott Bronstein, et al., of CNN: "EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and his aides have kept 'secret' calendars and schedules to overtly hide controversial meetings or calls with industry representatives and others, according to a former EPA official who is expected to soon testify before Congress. A review of EPA documents by CNN found discrepancies between Pruitt's official calendar and other records. EPA staffers met routinely in Pruitt's office to 'scrub,' alter or remove from Pruitt's official calendar numerous records because they might 'look bad,' according to Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt's former deputy chief of staff for operations, who attended the meetings.... The practice of keeping secret calendars and altering or deleting records of meetings could violate federal law as either 'falsifying records' or hiding public records...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Li Zhou of Vox: "Among the latest scandals plaguing EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt: He reportedly called on staffers to make his hotel bookings on their own personal credit cards -- and in at least one case, he didn't reimburse the payment in time." --safari ...

... Here's Mean Mom Kristin Mink & her young son politely confronting Public Servant Scott Pruitt. Mink has a list, & it's accurate. (Now, doesn't it seems so-o-o-o-o unfair that the White House kicked Scotty out of its staff dining room?) Story linked below:

... That's Okay, Scotty. Wilbur Ross Is a Big Crook, Too. Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "Last month, Forbes reported that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's claims that he had divested from a significant number of his holdings were a bunch of hooey -- and that Ross, in a brazen move, attempted to profit off Forbes's disclosure of his corruption by shorting the stock of a Russian shipping company he had a large stake in.... On Monday evening, NBC News reported that Ross shorted two additional stocks while serving as commerce secretary, bringing the grand total to five. Ross has maintained that this is all a misunderstanding, and that his short positions were taken as a means of disposing of the stock.... But this is a very odd way to divest of stock --and it's especially odd given that Ross's means of 'divestment' thus far has largely been to move his holdings into a trust, which is not really divestment at all."

Carrie Johnson of NPR: "Scott Schools, a top aide to the deputy attorney general, is planning to leave the Justice Department at the end of the week, according to two people familiar with his decision. The job title for Schools -- associate deputy attorney general -- belied his importance as a strategic counselor and repository of institutional memory and ethics at the DOJ. Schools has played a critical, if behind-the-scenes, role in some of the most important and sensitive issues in the building.... Slate magazine called him 'the most important unknown person in D.C.' And that status has only grown as his boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, has found himself on defense among Republicans in Congress over the Mueller investigation."

Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "Rep. Jim Jordan, the powerful Republican congressman from Ohio, is being accused by former wrestlers he coached more than two decades ago at Ohio State University of failing to stop the team doctor from molesting them and other students. The university announced in April that it was investigating accusations that Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005, abused team members when he was the team doctor from the mid-1970s to late 1990s. Jordan, who was assistant wrestling coach at the university from 1986 to 1994, has repeatedly said he knew nothing of the abuse until former students began speaking out this spring. His denials, however, have been met with skepticism and anger from some former members of the wrestling team. Three former wrestlers ... said it would have been impossible for Jordan to be unaware; one wrestler said he told Jordan directly about the abuse." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Rachel Bade & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Rep. Jim Jordan emphatically denied allegations that he intentionally overlooked widespread sexual abuse of wrestlers whom he coached decades ago, telling Politico in a Tuesday night interview that he would have taken action had he known of the alleged behavior." Mrs. McC: This is the same guy who said he'd never heard Trump tell a lie, either to him or to the public. That's a pretty good indication of Jordan's relationship with the truth.

GOP Leader Admits He's Useless. Daniel Desrochers of the Lexington Herald Leader: "On Tuesday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he doesn't think Congress can do much to address the issue [of school shootings]. 'I don't think at the federal level there's much that we can do other than appropriate funds,' McConnell told a group of community leaders in Danville Tuesday.... McConnell is not in favor of gun control laws. He pointed out that Congress appropriated money for school counseling and school safety in its appropriations bill.... 'It's a darn shame that's where we are but this epidemic is something that's got all of our attention,' McConnell said of the school shootings." [Emphasis added] --safari: It's a darn fucking shame American youth are increasingly traumatized about getting murdered in school, but shucks, all out of ideas here! More guns?

American "Health Care". Aris Folley of The Hill: "Video of [a] woman from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police (MBTA) Police Department went viral over the weekend. It shows her in apparent agony after her leg was caught in a gap between a train and the platform on Friday.... The 45-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, asked fellow passengers who came to her aid to not call the ambulance. 'Do you know how much an ambulance costs?' the injured woman asked one passenger.... 'It's $3000,' she wailed. 'I can't afford that.'... [T]he woman was eventually taken to the hospital shortly after the incident where it was determined she did not suffer any broken bones but did suffer a 'serious laceration, exposing the bone,' and would need surgery. The chief of Boston EMS, Jim Hooley, told the publication the cost of an ambulance transporting people within the city is between $1,200 to $1,900." --safari ...

... "Capitalism is Awesome", Ctd. Avery Anapol of The Hill: "Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer raised prices on about 100 drugs this week, the second round of increases for the company this year. Overall, many of the drugs' prices have increased by double-digit percentages this year, according to Ars Technica.... President Trump has vowed to address high drug costs, and said in May that drug companies would 'voluntarily' begin to reduce prices in the coming weeks." --safari ...

... Monopolies Are Awesome. Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "AT&T told a federal judge this year that its landmark merger with Time Warner would probably result in lower prices for its DirecTV customers. But the telecom giant is saying that it will raise the price of DirecTV's online streaming service, DirecTV Now, by $5 a month for new and existing customers, according to an AT&T spokesman. The decision affects all service tiers of the product...."

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Ali Watkins, the New York Times reporter whose email and phone records were secretly seized by the Trump administration, will be transferred out of the newspaper's Washington bureau and reassigned to a new beat in New York, The Times said on Tuesday. Ms. Watkins, 26, had been the subject of an internal review by The Times after revelations that she had a three-year affair with a high-ranking aide on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which she covered for several news organizations before joining The Times in December. The aide, James Wolfe, 57, who handled classified material for the committee, was arrested last month as part of a leak investigation in which the Justice Department also seized Ms. Watkins's communications...." Mrs. McC: Seems like a no-brainer. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "Alan Dershowitz says he has been shunned -- first by old political allies who have stopped inviting him to dinners, and now by liberal elites who are trying to exclude him from their social circles on Martha's Vineyard. The reason, he says, is his unrelenting defense of President Trump's civil liberties.... Dershowitz likened his alleged shunning -- on Martha's Vineyard and elsewhere -- to McCarthyism in the 1950s, when lawyers who represented suspected Communists were ostracized." ...

... Jon Levine of the Wrap: "'The idea that some of these people aren't talking to me is not a punishment, it's a great reward. I am so pleased,' [Alan Dershowitz] told WABC radio hosts Rita Cosby and Curtis Sliwa on Tuesday. 'It's a red badge of courage for me that there are some people who prefer to shut down debate and not talk to me.' 'These are people who have asked me for help over the years, who have asked me for support when their kid gets busted on a marijuana charge, or on possession of alcohol, I'm the first one they call,' he added dismissively. 'But as soon as I defend the rights of Donald Trump or anybody else they disagree with, I'm am a pariah.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Dershowitz might want to actually read The Red Badge of Courage. It's about a coward who deserts his regiment. The title is ironic. See also Akhilleus's comment below.

Beyond the Beltway

Alex Seitz-Wald of NBC News: "As it tries to fend off a progressive insurgency, the Democratic Party in one of the bluest states in the country is facing open revolt after endorsing candidates -- including a Trump-voting former Republican -- in primaries against three progressive women up for re-election this year. Progressives across the country say they're fighting an out-of-touch party establishment, but nowhere are the battle lines more clearly drawn than Rhode Island, where the state is run largely by Democrats who oppose abortion rights and get 'A' ratings from the National Rifle Association. The long-simmering fight burst into the open this week after the Rhode Island Democratic Party released its slate of endorsements, which critics say is aimed at punishing three women who ousted old-guard incumbents two years ago."

Chris Harris of People: "The 3-year-old whose birthday was being celebrated when a man allegedly went on a stabbing spree in Idaho Saturday, attacking six children and three adults, has died. A statement from the Boise Police Department confirms the birthday girl, Ruya Kadir, was among the wounded -- all of whom were refugees -- and succumbed Monday to the severe injuries she sustained i the mass stabbing incident."

Way Beyond

Marc Santora of the New York Times: Poland's Law & Justice party has taken "control of the courts, undermining judicial independence step by step. The culmination of that effort came on Tuesday, when 27 of the 72 judges on the Supreme Court were expected to be forced out by a mandatory retirement age of 65 and a new disciplinary chamber was established to keep judges and prosecutors from stepping out of line. Major protests against the changes in the judiciary are scheduled for Tuesday. And ... dozens of ... judges have vowed to show up for work Wednesday morning, setting the stage for a possible confrontation with the authorities if they are barred from the building.... Critics, both in Poland and abroad, contend they are creating a system where the courts will be subservient to politicians, who then will be able to change the constitution through judicial rulings." ...

     ... Update. Marc Santora: "Poland's government carried out a sweeping purge of the Supreme Court on Tuesday night, eroding the judiciary’s independence, escalating a confrontation with the European Union over the rule of law and further dividing this nation. Tens of thousands took to the streets in protest. Poland was once a beacon for countries struggling to escape the yoke of the Soviet Union and embrace Western democracy. But it is now in league with neighboring nations, like Hungary, whose leaders have turned to authoritarian means to tighten their grip on power, presenting a grave challenge to a European Union already grappling with nationalist, populist and anti-immigrant movements."

Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "In China's remote western province of Xinjiang, the Chinese government has begun constructing a series of internment camps larger than anything the world currently knows. Meant to house upwards of a million — and potentially more -- of the region's indigenous Muslim minority, known as Uyghurs, the camps, according to one U.S. commission studying the region, present the 'largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.'... [They're] called 'Concentrated Education Transformation Centers' -- with one even named, in a manner that would make George Orwell blush, as 'the Loving Kindness School.'... One professor at Australian National University described Xinjiang, an area approximately half the size of India, as the testing ground for China's looming 'neo-totalitarian' model." --safari

Hannah Beech & Austin Ramzy of the New York Times: "Najib Razak, the former prime minister of Malaysia who was ousted in an election two months ago, was arrested by anticorruption officials on Tuesday, amid an investigation involving billions of dollars diverted from a state investment fund. Atop a political machine that had governed Malaysia since its independence in 1957, Mr. Najib and his allies used political influence, cash handouts and news media repression to try to keep corruption accusations at bay for years. But in May, voter anger over the scandal at the investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, led to a sweeping victory for a sprawling opposition movement that came together to oust Mr. Najib. His successor as prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, campaigned on bringing Mr. Najib to justice, and after his inauguration, officials moved to block Mr. Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, from leaving the country.

News Ledes

Guardian: "The 12 boys trapped in a cave in northern Thailand are being trained in how to breathe through scuba masks as they prepare for a possible attempt at leaving the cave. Thai authorities are racing to drain water from a northern Thailand cave where the boys and their football coach are stranded before storms arrive, after which an extraction will become 'almost impossible' for months, according to a coordinator of the international rescue effort."

Guardian: "Counter-terrorism police have joined the investigation into two people in a critical condition in Wiltshire, amid fears that they may have been exposed to a nerve agent.... The man and woman, both in their 40s, were in a critical condition at Salisbury district hospital, Wiltshire police said on Wednesday.... Government security officials held a meeting of the Cobra committee in the Cabinet Office on Wednesday morning to discuss events in Amesbury and another meeting will take place later.... The incident comes four months after the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned by a suspected military nerve agent in Salisbury, around eight miles from Amesbury." ...

... New York Times: "A British man and woman have been critically sickened by the same nerve agent, Novichok, that was used to poison a former Russian spy and his daughter four months ago, the authorities announced on Wednesday."

Comments

[Kimberly]

@Ken Winkes' comment (next) would make perfect sense if Kimberly's comment was still here. Alas, Kimberly is a spammy girl, & a mean lady has sent her spammy comment into the ether.

[Ken Winkes]

Nice to hear from Kimberly (above). I wish her and the elixir she's selling well, but I couldn't detect the political, social, musical or even literary intent of her comment.

BUT to a RC point. This from Slate:

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/07/amy-coney-barretts-alleged-religious-group-people-of-praise-what-is-it.html

Great! Not just a Catholic, (how many already litter--a word used advisedly in Ms. Barretts' case--the SCOTUS-- but a Catholic nut job.

[Akhilleus]

Alan Dershowitz, who has been Constitutionalizing the Trump Monster, is whining that he’s being unfairly disinvited from canasta tournaments and tea and crumpets on the Vineyard. He’s claiming McCarthyite victimization for being an upstanding supporter of the president*.

Can I get a Womp Womp?

Gee Alan, I’m sure that shark from “Jaws”’would be happy to invite you over for dinner some night.

[MAG]

Per the Washington Post: Rep. Louie Gohmert says he’s been told he’s ‘being monitored’ by Justice Department

Well, thank goodness!

[Mrs. Bea McCrabbie]

@MAG: If Rosenstein is "monitoring" Louie, he isn't doing a very good job. It's obvious Louis is off his meds again.

BTW, when the feds "monitor" a suspect, they don't usually tell the suspect about it.

[Akhilleus]

“But as soon as I defend the rights of Donald Trump or anybody else they disagree with, I’m am a pariah.”

Sez Alan Dershowitz, helper of kids busted for possession of a joint.

I have no problem with a defense of someone’s civil liberties that are truly under attack, but racing to any TV camera with a red light on to offer legal and moral cover for a treasonous thug who pisses on civil liberty, sticks babies in prison camps, and mocks the Constitution, then wrapping yourself in the flag and whining about being unfairly excluded from the company of those who see that traitor for the destructive, anti-American monster that he is establishes a new level of odious.

And it’s not just “anybody else they disagree with”. Trump isn’t just anybody else. He’s a dangerous, immensely powerful, off the chain crook whose policies are tearing pieces of the Constitution out one article at a time. What’s wrong with you?

Oh, Alan. I have Sean Hannity on line two. He needs a quote on how it’s snooty liberals on Martha’s Vineyard who are the real enemies of America. Hurry, hurry, hurry.

[safari]

Rachel Maddow noticed that no Democrats were invited on the chum-chum fest to Russia. Ever since Donald arrived, even since Obama really, Republicans have steadfastly refused almost any cooperation with Democrats unless institutionally necessary. We don't even count anymore, I guess. Just democratic window dressing. The GOP is probably afraid a mean Mark Warner or Adam Schiff would actually stand up for the US and give a few diplomatic rebukes to the Russians' faces. Heaven forbid.

The whole GOP, the party of "national security" has gone limp-dick.

[Mrs. Bea McCrabbie]

@safari: Trump's attitude toward Democrats is very Putinesque. So far he hasn't resorted to "shooting them in the middle of Fifth Avenue" or jailing them, but he does recommend jailing them -- "Lock her up!" -- & he's constantly complaining that DOJ is failing to "investigate" (i.e., persecute) them on Trumped-up criminal charges, fire them, or cooperate fully with House witch hunts.

Rachel also noted last night that when Russia refused to give a visa to Democrat Jean Shaheen, the two Republican senators in the planned December 2017 trip stood with her & decided not to take the trip without her. That solidarity is gone now, & Shelby is over in Russia touting our two nations' "common interests," like a good little Trumpbot.

[PD Pepe]

THIS YEAR, FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY, CAN WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE?

Louis Menand indeed gives us an interesting piece about Jasper John's flag paintings and how his "FLAG" got into MOMA which tells a story about politics and American life in the fifties, but––in the end Trump enters in––and Menand ends with this:

"Look, you can't get away from the guy. It's like a disease."

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/this-year-for-the-fourth-of-july-can-we-talk-about-something-else

@safari: "Chum chum fest"––love it! and they are there because? To hold hands with the Ruskies and smooth the way for their crazy Uncle Don's love affair with Vlad? They, I understand, will be there until Thursday? that's one hell of a long time to lay groundwork for these clowns–-would make sense in prior administrations where congressional personal had representatives from both parties and those persons had a good degree of what we call diplomatic acumen. Do we have reporters accompanying this crew? Will a few swigs of vodka loosen their tongues–-give them some backbone to confront?
Or continue on the path of cowardly co-mingling and at the end say, with big smiles and limp handshakes, "Tenjooberrymuds and have a good day."

[Ken Winkes]

Republicans are just waking up to (or being more public about) all they have in common with Russia's current regime, and there's a lot. The Pretender has reduced them to their essence.

Their own detestation of democracy and fascination with law and order strong man government along with their obvious preference for white supremacy along with a fascist alliance of government and business with all the possibilities for corruption that alliance provides.

Or maybe they don't believe in anything but money.

A brief bout of morning dyslexia provided this: GPO, or Greedy Party of Opportunists.

I see no other explanations.

[Ken Winkes]

And now this, our foreign policy in sum:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-pressed-aides-about-venezuela-invasion-official-tells-ap-n888816

....as conceived by the bully in chief, Kiss up to the bigger bully (Putin) and threaten the smaller one (Maduro).

That's all we need to know,

[Akhilleus]

Okay, on this Fourth of July we also need freedom from stupidity.

Check this out. A tweety-thing from the Writer-in-Chief bragging about his skills as a wordsmith.

"After having written many best selling books, and somewhat priding myself on my ability to write, it should be noted that the Fake News constantly likes to pour over my tweets looking for a mistake. I capitalize certain words only for emphasis, not b/c they should be capitalized!"

Duh. Guess we wouldn't have "pour" too far looking for a mistake. The mistake is only three words away from "looking for a mistake". And, conveniently, in the same sentence too.

Writing a stupid tweet. Expected.

Writing a stupid tweet with a glaring misspelling in which you brag about your exceptional abilities with the English language: Priceless.

Can't wait for his first novell.

[Mrs. Bea McCrabbie]

@Akhilleus: "After having written many best selling books, and somewhat priding myself on my ability to write...."

AND. One minor problem with Trump's "priding himself on his ability to write" is that he didn't actually write "his" "many best-selling books," & one can't be sure he read them either, as I assume they're all longer than 280 characters. So I guess there are two other misspellings in his tweet: "ghostwritten" and "ghostwrite."

[Periscope]

Re:Ken's link

Within the vacuous lobes of Spanky vonClownstick's brain, an idea: "Get the oil" from the failed Latin American country to exert leverage on (1) Saudi Arabia, with whom we are trading US-made arms and nuclear capability for oil, but also as a way of protecting Israel and checking Iran (never mind the tens of millions that are perishing from disease and hunger during SA's USA-backed siege of Yemen); (2) leverage Russia, who desperately needs European markets for its oil reserves to lift their miserable economy. Then, threaten to leave NATO unless they buy arms from USA - because, your know, America first. Belligerence is what we do best. And while we're at it, lets get out of the WTO. We don't need to be giving free stuff away to "sh*thole countries" anymore.

There is more than the usual amount of smoke pouring out of that "shining beacon on the hill" these days. Nevertheless, the ideals of democracy and independence remain...shaken, smoldering, yes - oppressed by partisanship, but inextinguishable. Happy 4th all of you RC readers! Go watch some baseball.

[forrest morris]

Like my old granny used to say, "he's too dumb to poor piss out of a
boot", but she wasn't referring to trumpkins since he would have only
been a child.
And here at latitude 42.66 N, longitude 86.2 W, it's so hot that dogs
have been banned from walking in our 4th of July parade. They can
be in fire trucks, or on skateboards. Sounds kinda like climate change
since this is August weather.

[Marvin Schwalb]

So summing up America last year: "lie, lying, liar". Used to be unethical, criminal etc. Now in the new America, just common words of no value.

[JD]

This comment has been deleted. It appears to have come from a troll. It wasn't clear that the writer meant to be sarcastic; if he did not, the comment was perversely bigoted.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie