The Commentariat -- March 16, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Aaron Davis & Marina Lopes of the Washington Post: "The FAA's publication of pilot training requirements for the Max 8 in the fall of 2017 [--which did not mention the new anti-stall software --] was among the final steps in a multiyear approval process carried out under the agency's now 10-year-old policy of entrusting Boeing and other aviation manufacturers to certify that their own systems comply with U.S. air safety regulations. In practice, one Boeing engineer would conduct a test of a particular system on the Max 8, while another Boeing engineer would act as the FAA's representative, signing on behalf of the U.S. government that the technology complied with federal safety regulations, people familiar with the process said.... The process was occurring during a period when the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General was warning the FAA that its oversight of manufacturers' work was insufficient. In the years between the time Boeing launched the Max 8 design in 2011 and the first plane rolled out of production in 2016, the inspector general criticized the FAA's handling of the 'self-certification' system in three successive reports."

Emanuel Stoakes & Gerry Shih of the Washington Post: "The primary suspect in Friday's deadly shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, appeared in court on Saturday. Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, did not enter a plea on one count of murder and made a white power gesture from the dock. Authorities have two more suspects in custody. New Zealand's [Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern] vowed its 'gun laws will change.' Suspect had license to carry the types of guns used in deadly attacks.... Ardern said Tarrant had modified guns used in the killing that left at least 49 dead, and Attorney General David Parker says the government will ban semiautomatic rifles."

Frances Robles, et al., of the New York Times explore Li "Cindy" Yang's endeavors in her pay-for-play shenanigans at Mar-a-Lago. It certainly appears she has engineered illegal contributions to Trump's re-election committee. "Over the weeks leading up to the event, at least nine people in Ms. Yang's orbit, some of them with modest incomes, made donations at exactly $5,400. She ended up at the dinner.... One of the $5,400 political donations came from a 25-year old woman who gives facials at a beauty school, in a strip mall in nearby Palm Beach Gardens that is owned by Ms. Yang's family. Another $5,400 came from a woman who says she worked as a receptionist at a massage parlor owned by Ms. Yang's husband. A third gift of $5,400 came from an associate of Ms. Yang's who had been charged in 2014 after a prostitution sting with practicing health care without a license, police records show."

~~~~~~~~~~

You know what I am? I'm a nationalist, O.K.? I'm a nationalist. Nationalist! Use that word! Use that word! -- Donald Trump, at a rally in October 2018

In Wake of Mass Murder, Trump Fails to Condemn White Nationalism. Shannon Vavra of Axios: "Following the fatal mosque shootings in New Zealand, President Trump said Friday he thinks white nationalists make up just 'a small group of people,' when asked if he believes white nationalism is a 'rising threat.' 'I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess. If you look what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that's the case. I don't know enough about it yet ... But it's certainly a terrible thing.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Once again, when it was especially necessary, Trump was unwilling to condemn white nationalism. And why would he? He is a white nationalist. ...

     ... Nick Confessore of the NYT, appearing on MSNBC, noted that Trump uses the same language avowed white nationalists do; for instance, both speak of the "invasion" of non-whites. ...

     ... Update: Alex Ward of Vox: "... Donald Trump just used similar language to describe immigrants coming into the United States that the alleged mass shooter did to justify killing nearly 50 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand.... During a veto signing ceremony [more on that farce below], Trump explained why he felt a national emergency was warranted to stop migrants from entering the US. 'People hate the word "invasion," but that's what it is,' he said.... In the rambling 74-page manifesto the 28-year-old suspected shooter posted online shortly before the attack, he writes that he was committing the killings 'to show the invaders that our lands will never be their lands.' It's also the same language the man who killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last October used: In that case, the perpetrator blamed Jews for helping what he called 'invaders' in the Central American migrant caravans who were trying to enter the US.... [Trump's] rhetoric around both Muslims and immigrants echos some of the same exact tropes that white nationalist extremists frequently traffic in -- and it has for a long time." ...

... David Jackson of USA Today: "... Donald Trump appeared to use Twitter around midnight Thursday to promote a website with an interview in which he explained how 'tough' his supporters could get -- but the tweet had disappeared as of Friday morning. In his chat with the Breitbart News Network, Trump said: 'I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump -- I have the tough people, but they don't play it tough -- until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.'... 'I think it sounds very much to me like he's encouraging them to engage in something that's probably illegal such as assaulting people, you know behave in a dangerous way,' said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, speaking on MSNBC. 'That sounds like a threat to me. I think it's appalling.' Social media users criticized Trump for posting the article as news was breaking about the shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 49 people dead. On Friday morning, Trump tweeted a condemnation of the the attacks." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It appears to me that Trump -- or a staff member -- realized it was "bad optics" to favoriably tweet about violence against "the left" right after one of his admirers murdered dozens of Muslim worshippers & posted the killing spree on social media. Bad timing, sure, but I doubt Trump's sentiment has changed. ...

... Brian Klaas, in a Washington Post op-ed, writes "a short history of President Trump's anti-Muslim bigotry.... Trump is an Islamophobic bigot.... Upon taking office, Trump surrounded himself with anti-Muslim bigots.... Hollow statements of condolence are meaningless if you are willing to turn around and support an Islamophobic bigot in the White House who makes those condolences more necessary.... If we want to stop such massacres, we need to work much harder to stamp out hate and bigotry in society -- and part of that is to stop electing or supporting hateful bigots." ...

... Nicole Lafond of TPM: "In response to the massacre in New Zealand on Friday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) -- one of two Muslim women in Congress -- condemned 'white supremacists' in the U.S. who influence attacks around the world." --s ...

... Wajahat Ali in the New York Times: "All those who have helped to spread the worldwide myth that Muslims are a threat have blood on their hands." Ali calls out Donald Trump, Steve King & other white nationalists for their anti-Muslim rhetoric that stokes fear & hatred. ...

... Zack Ford of ThinkProgress: "In the wake of the deadly New Zealand shootings targeting two mosques, Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) issued a statement condemning the violence. He also suggested that the alleged shooter's apparent motivations were valid concerns that could have been addressed through either the courts or the legislature.... Gohmert did not specifically offer condolences to the victims or their families.... Gohmert was one of 24 House Republicans who refused to vote for last week's resolution condemning bigotry." --s ...

... Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Right from the twisted start, those who plotted to kill worshipers at two New Zealand mosques depended on the passive incompetence of Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms. They depended on the longtime priorities of the tech giants who, for years, have concentrated on maximizing revenue, not protecting safety or decency.... Many hours after the massacre, a horrific 17-minute video -- showing a man in black shooting with a semiautomatic rifle at those running from mosques and shooting into piles of bodies -- could still be easily accessed on YouTube.... As violence goes more and more viral, tech companies need to deal with the crisis that they have helped create." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

The attackers' civilized, European response to living among people not like them is barbarism. -- Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo ...

... C.J. Werleman of the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald: The New Zealand mosque murderer "represents the dangerous convergence between broken white men and extreme right-wing media, bearing in mind that 100 per cent of all terrorist attacks carried out on US soil in 2018 were carried out by right-wing extremists, with the Southern Poverty Law Centre crediting a' toxic combination of political polarisation, anti-immigrant sentiment and modern technologies that help spread propaganda online'. These kind of attacks are being carried out in increased frequency and ferocity in mosques, synagogues, and black churches throughout the Western world, with a notable common denominator: the gunmen are always white, male and fuelled by consumption of right-wing media.... Whereas anti-Semitism, anti-black and anti-Asian racism are rightfully and routinely condemned, Islamophobia remains the only form of racism that remains within socially acceptable limits. Last week, for instance, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro suggested America's first elected black Muslim congresswoman would not be loyal to the US constitution because she wears a hijab...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Amanda Meade of the Guardian: "Sky New Zealand has pulled fellow broadcaster Sky News Australia off air until the channel stops broadcasting clips from the Christchurch mosque shooter's Facebook live stream. In a tweet posted on Saturday morning, Sky New Zealand, an independently-owned broadcaster, said it had decided to remove the Australian 24-hour news channel from its platform because of the distressing footage.... Despite a plea from New Zealand police, Rupert Murdoch's Australian pay-TV channel was among the broadcasters that chose to screen [the video.]... Sky News Australia has been broadcasting the footage repeatedly, sparking anger on social media." --s ...

... It's Never Wingers' Fault. Caleb Ecarma of Mediaite: "Rush Limbaugh promoted a fringe conspiracy that suggests the Christchurch, New Zealand Mosque massacre may have been a false flag attack carried out by a 'leftist' to 'to smear' right-wingers.... Limbaugh was repeating a conspiracy promoted on online, fringe cesspools, like 4chan's /pol/ and the /r/The_Donald subreddit, during the immediate aftermath of the shooting." ...

... Guardian: "Mosques in New Zealand and around the world have been inundated with floral tributes and messages of support after a massacre in Christchurch that killed 49 Muslims. The strongest response from the public was in New Zealand, which is reeling in the wake of the worst peacetime mass killing in the nation's history. Unable to reach the mosques that were targeted by the shooter because of a cordon, people left piles of flowers and cards as close as they were allowed to go." --s ...

... Spencer Ackerman, et al. of The Daily Beast: "[F]ewer than a fifth of the FBI's open terrorism investigations focus on people without connections to international extremist organizations. It's a proxy figure that highlights what former counterterrorism officials consider an insufficient focus on far-right violence.... Out of about 5,000 open terrorism investigations, 900 probe domestic terrorism, according to FBI data.... 'Domestic terrorism' is an umbrella category that includes far more than just far-right terrorism, but functions as the most granular data available to indicate how federal law enforcement targets white supremacist violence." --s

Look! Trump signed something.Bill Barr Overtly Politicized the DOJ. Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday issued the first veto of his presidency, rejecting legislation that opposed his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall along the southern border. The bill blocking Mr. Trump's emergency declaration had attracted significant Republican support in Congress.... The president called the resolution 'dangerous' and 'reckless.' The president was flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William P. Barr and Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary. Mr. Barr said that the president's emergency order was 'clearly authorized under the law' and 'solidly grounded in law.' The president's veto, which was expected, will send the legislation back to Congress, which most likely does not have enough votes for an override, meaning that Mr. Trump's declaration will remain in effect." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: In yesterday's Comments, Akhilleus made fun of Trump for this ceremonial show veto: "It seems like every time Trump signs some bill in the Oval Office, surrounded by selected members of the press and a passel of obsequious toadies, he holds up the document, freshly scribbled gigantic John Hancock down below, to show it off to the assembled group. As if he's a five year old showing mom and dad that he can too write his name. I cannot, for the life of me, recall any other president going through this same embarrassing ritual whereat they sign a bill then hold it up and waggle it around in this fashion." You should read the whole comment. But it's even worse than Akhilleus lets on. Real presidents don't "sign vetoes." Rather, they return the bills to Congress, unsigned. As Brian Williams put it on MSNBC, "Somebody gave Trump some kind of document to sign & pass around the room."

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump put in another plug Friday for a group that seeks to lure Jews from the Democratic Party, writing that 'Republicans are waiting with open arms' in a tweet sent shortly after he used Twitter to condemn deadly attacks on New Zealand mosques.... 'The "Jexodus" movement encourages Jewish people to leave the Democrat Party,' Trump wrote. 'Total disrespect! Republicans are waiting with open arms. Remember Jerusalem (U.S. Embassy) and the horrible Iran Nuclear Deal!'... The timing of Trump's latest tweet was panned by many pundits on Twitter.... 'Trump is now stoking religious division immediately after tweeting out a post-#ChristchurchMosqueAttack condolence message. Add it to the pile,' wrote Kevin Baron, executive editor of Defense One, a publication devoted to national security." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe it's just me, but I do find the term "Jexodus" to be anti-Semitic. ...

... Matthew Yglesias of Vox explains the origins behind the fake "Jexodus" peddled by Trump. --s

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday insisted there should be no report from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, denouncing the investigation as 'illegal.' 'So, if there was knowingly & acknowledged to be 'zero' crime when the Special Counsel was appointed, and if the appointment was made based on the Fake Dossier (paid for by Crooked Hillary) and now disgraced Andrew McCabe (he & all stated no crime), then the Special Counsel ... should never have been appointed and there should be no Mueller Report,' the president tweeted Friday.... The president on Friday also complained that the probe was only started as an excuse for Democrats losing the 2016 election. 'This was an illegal & conflicted investigation in search of a crime,; he tweeted, adding 'Russian Collusion was nothing more than an excuse by the Democrats for losing an Election that they thought they were going to win.' 'THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN TO A PRESIDENT AGAIN!' Trump concluded." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump doesn't seem to know what an "investigation" is. It's a search for facts; not a statement of fact. The whole "Waiting for Mueller" drama is a pause in which Congress & ordinary citizens are waiting to learn what facts Mueller has uncovered to determine whether or not crimes or other bad acts were committed. It's not "illegal" to conduct an investigation of a person if there is evidence s/he may have violated the law. It's how a justice system is supposed to work. Otherwise, we are left with Trump's system: if an official doesn't like somebody -- say "Crooked Hillary" -- you just accuse her of a crime and "lock her up." Trump's whine o' the day is yet another iteration of his authoritarianism.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Michael Flynn has finished cooperating with ... Robert Mueller's investigation, but the information he provided is still part of other ongoing criminal investigations, prosecutors said in court on Friday.Federal prosecutors in Virginia want to restrict sharing some special counsel memos of interviews with Flynn because of the 'ongoing investigation' into matters he shared with investigators. In court Friday, the prosecutor said the ongoing probes were unrelated to Flynn's Turkish lobbying case -- raising the possibility it touches on Flynn's ties to the Trump campaign, transition, administration or the Russian government. The prosecutor in court Friday stopped himself after he acknowledged other US attorneys may be looking at what Flynn shared with the special counsel."

Chad Day of the AP: "Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and key cooperator in the special counsel's Russia probe, is not ready to be sentenced because he continues to help with 'several ongoing investigations,' prosecutors said in a court filing Friday.... The [joint] filing [by prosecutors & Gates' attorneys] asks for another 60 days to update U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on whether Gates can proceed to sentencing." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ken Vogel & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, sued the United States government on Friday, demanding it lift sanctions that he claimed have cost him billions of dollars, made him 'radioactive' in international business circles and exposed him to criminal investigation and asset confiscation in Russia. In a lawsuit filed in United States District Court in Washington, Mr. Deripaska said that the sanctions, leveled in April by the Treasury Department, should be struck down because they deprived him of due process and relied on unproven smears that fell outside the sanctions program." Mrs. McC: Maybe Deripaska can get Trump & Manafort to testify as character witnesses. ...

Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The academic who helped Cambridge Analytica vacuum up private information from tens of millions of Facebook profiles sued the social media giant on Friday, arguing that the company defamed him when it claimed he had lied about how the data was going to be used. Since the full scope of Cambridge Analytica's data mining was revealed last year, Facebook has repeatedly tried to shift blame for the privacy breach onto the academic, Aleksandr Kogan. Facebook executives -- including the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg -- have said Mr. Kogan told Facebook that the data was for academic purposes when it was being collected for use in political campaigns."

** Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "[Cliff Zhonggang Li, the executive director of the National Committee of Asian American Republicans] said he can't 'rule out' the possibility that Chinese citizens illegally used American straw donors to funnel cash to the Trump campaign at events in which his group participated.... Li has been a political mentor to Cindy Yang, 45, the massage parlor entrepreneur who, through a separate company she set up in 2017 with her husband, offered access to President Donald Trump and his family at Mar-a-Lago and in Washington.... He said that he and Yang agreed last year -- in either March or April -- that she would be 'gradually dismissed' from a fundraising role with his organization due to differing views on fundraising.... Yang instead began fundraising for Republican politicians through a corporation, called the Women's Charity Foundation, that she created, according to Li." --s ...

... U.S. Foreign Policy for Sale at Mar-a-Lago. Caitlin Ostroff, et al., of the Miami Herald: "South Florida day spa entrepreneur Li 'Cindy' Yang -- now famous for her Super Bowl party selfie with the president -- used her burgeoning political access to bring Xianqin Qu, a leader from the foreign arm of the Communist Party of China, to an event where she met top Republicans and members of the Trump administration, including Kellyanne Conway, counselor to ... Donald Trump. Qu is the president of the Florida Chapter of the Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Unification -- a group 'directly subordinate' to the Communist Party of China, according to a 2018 U.S. government report. The group's stated purpose is to push for reunification of China and Taiwan, although in recent years members in chapters around the world actively promoted a wide range of policies in harmony with Beijing's agenda abroad.... Through Yang, Qu gained access to high-profile events featuring Trump aides and family members on at least two occasions.... Although liaisons with lobbyists from foreign governments are normal, Qu gained access to some of Trump's closest allies not through official channels but at political and social events."

** Dana Milbank: "This is what happens when corporations run the government. As the world was grounding 737 Max airliners this week, following the second crash involving the new jet in five months, the Trump administration, serving as a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing, declared 'no basis to order grounding.' This from an administration and president that claim climate change is a hoax, radiation and pesticides are healthy, and that 'raking' prevents forest fires. When President Trump finally buckled to pressure and grounded the 737 Max on Wednesday, he said he 'maybe didn't have to' but thought it important 'psychologically.' And why shouldn't everybody trust the judgment of a guy who didn't know the difference between HIV and HPV, proposed that exercise is bad for you and claimed that vaccines cause autism?" Read on.

The "Power" of the Purse. Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "Created during the Cold War, OCO ['overseas contingency operations'] has become popular in recent years as a convenient place to stash funding that exceeds the budget restrictions instituted by Congress in 2011. [It's] ... a quirky funding tool lawmakers from both parties have long despised, seeing it as a usurpation of the power of Congress in determining budgets.... The Pentagon is open about the fact that this account is set up this way to avoid being limited by budget caps.... But during the Trump administration, its use far has exceeded historical norms. Last year, the Pentagon requested $69 billion in OCO funding on top of their base budget of $616 billion and projected it would need only $20 billion from OCO in this year's budget cycle. Because the 2011 caps restrict the Pentagon this year to a $545 billion base budget, officials requested roughly $165 billion in uncapped OCO funding, a 140 percent increase from the prior year and a 725 percent difference from the Pentagon's earlier projection." --s

Weak Presidunce* Overruled, Again. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan says the Trump administration will not ask allies who host U.S. troops to pay the full cost of hosting plus an extra 50 percent for the privilege of having American soldiers on their soil.... Democrats and Republicans in both chambers were alarmed when Bloomberg reported last week that 'under White House direction, the administration is drawing up demands that Germany, Japan and eventually any other country hosting U.S. troops pay the full price of American soldiers deployed on their soil -- plus 50 percent or more for the privilege of hosting them.'" --s

Matthew Lee of the AP: "The United States will revoke or deny visas to International Criminal Court personnel who attempt to investigate or prosecute alleged abuses committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan or elsewhere and may do the same with those who try to take action against Israel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday. Pompeo, making good on a threat delivered last September by national security adviser John Bolton, said the U.S had already moved against some employees of The Hague-based court, but declined to say how many or what cases they may have been investigating." (Also linked yesterday.)

A "Charity" in Name Only. Kim Barker of the New York Times: Southwest Key is best known for its substandard migrant shelters, but "the operations of ... charter schools, serving about 1,000 students, show how Southwest Key profits off public money, boosting compensation for charity leaders and stockpiling tens of millions of dollars.... The charity has been awarded almost $1.8 billion to run migrant shelters over the last decade, but is now under federal investigation for possible financial improprieties, prompted by an article last December in The New York Times. Two top officials, including the founder, Juan Sanchez, have stepped down. And a complaint about mismanagement at the schools, which have received more than $65 million in government money over the last decade, is under review by the Texas Education Agency." (Also linked yesterday.)

Bess Levin of Vanity Fair: "Republicans have reacted to the [Green New Deal policy proposal] in the same evenhanded, reasonable manner with which they've responded to other Democratic ideas like affordable health care and higher taxes on the wealthy. By which we mean they've lost their f--king minds.... Speaking at a news conference in Washington on Thursday night, Congressman Rob Bishop, who worked as a history teacher before going on to represent Utah's 1st Congressional District, told reporters, 'For many people who live in the West, but also in rural and urban areas, the ideas behind the Green New Deal are tantamount to genocide. That may be an overstatement, but not by a whole lot.'" --s

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The Equality Act, which would ensure legal protections for members of the LGBTQ community, was reintroduced in Congress on Wednesday. Shortly thereafter, the Human Rights Campaign announced a 167-member corporate coalition in support of the legislation. But a ThinkProgress review of campaign finance data reveals that, through their corporate PACs, members of that coalition have recently given more than $750,000 combined to the two biggest congressional obstacles to the Equality Act's passage: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC)." --s

Natalie Kitroeff, et al., of the New York Times: "Weeks after a deadly crash involving a Boeing plane last October, company officials met separately with the pilot unions at Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. The officials said they planned to update the software for their 737 Max jets, the plane involved in the disaster, by around the end of 2018. It was the last time the Southwest pilots union heard from Boeing.... After a second 737 Max crashed, on Sunday in Ethiopia, United States regulators said the software update would be ready by April. This delay is now part of the intense scrutiny over Boeing's response after the first air disaster, a Lion Air accident that killed 189 people in Indonesia." (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Moon of the Alabama Political Reporter: "The Southern Poverty Law Center on Thursday announced that it had fired Morris Dees, the center's co-founder and long-time public face of the civil rights organization, amid undisclosed allegations that Dees failed to meet the standards of the SPLC.... Internal emails obtained by APR related to Dees' firing appear to show that the problems -- which employees said spanned from sexual harassment to gender- and race-based discrimination — were more systemic and widespread, creating an atmosphere over several years in which female and minority employees felt mistreated. The employees also said that they felt their complaints were either not heard or resulted in retaliation from senior staff." The story cites specific e-mails.

Samantha Michaels of Mother Jones: "Since the 1970s, [Gary] DeLand has written or helped develop jail standards in at least 19 states, striking agreements with counties and sheriffs' groups to keep his model guidelines private. When lawyers requested to see the DeLand-inspired standards for Oregon's Deschutes County Jail as part of a wrongful death lawsuit in 2015, the sheriffs' association there claimed they were a 'trade secret' like 'the formula for Coca-Cola or the recipe for KFC.' Making them public 'would destroy their value,' the association's executive director said. A federal district court ruled that the documents must remain confidential.... Jails are keeping more than their rules out of the public eye. When the Utah State Records Committee sided with DeLand, it also found that Davis County had no obligation to release its jail's audit reports, which would reveal whether employees were complying with the operational standards.... Jails in more than a dozen states, from Alabama to Pennsylvania, use the company's auditing system. According to DeLand, ensuring that all these records stay private improves jails' accountability." --s

Bee Wilson of the Guardian: "For most people across the world, life is getting better but diets are getting worse. This is the bittersweet dilemma of eating in our times. Unhealthy food, eaten in a hurry, seems to be the price we pay for living in liberated modern societies.... You can measure this life improvement in many ways, whether by the growth of literacy and smartphone ownership, or the rising number of countries where gay couples have the right to marry. Yet our free and comfortable lifestyles are undermined by the fact that our food is killing us, not through lack of it but through its abundance -- a hollow kind of abundance." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times: "When a white newspaper editor in Alabama drew widespread condemnation for an editorial that called for the Ku Klux Klan to ride again, only to be replaced by a black woman who hoped to take the newspaper in a new direction, it seemed like a symbolic moment. The new editor and publisher, Elecia R. Dexter, said she wanted to make the newspaper, The Democrat-Reporter, more reflective of the community it serves in Linden, a small town in western Alabama that is about 59 percent white and 41 percent black. But now, after only a few weeks, Ms. Dexter has stepped down. Her departure this week, which she attributed to continuing interference from the editor she was meant to replace [he still owns the paper], complicates the future of the weekly newspaper, which was once hailed for its journalism, and reflects the thorny reality that healing from racially hurtful acts is rarely a once-and-done process."

West Virginia. Herald-Dispatch: "Former Massey Energy CEO and U.S. Senate candidate Don Blankenship on Thursday filed a lawsuit seeking at least $12 billion in damages from a variety of national news and political organizations, claiming they set out on a 'search and destroy' mission against his 2018 candidacy for the Senate. The lawsuit, filed in Mingo County Circuit Court, claimed the 'DC establishment "swamp" and the establishment media united ... to take out Mr. Blankenship' in his bid for election. He argued in the suit that repeated references about him in the media as a 'convicted felon' as damaging his bid, even though he was not convicted of any felonies in relation to the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in Raleigh County in 2010 that killed 29 miners. Among those named in the lawsuit were news organizations Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Boston Globe Media Partners, Breitbart News Network, Clarity Media Group, The Washington Times, Tribune Publishing Co., Los Angeles Times Communications, The Washington Post and The Associated Press. Also named were the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a variety of individuals.... Blankenship ... was sentenced in 2016 for a misdemeanor conviction of conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch. He was acquitted of felonies that could have stretched his sentence to 30 years."

News Lede

New York Times: "W. S. Merwin, a formidable American poet who for more than 60 years labored under a formidable poetic yoke: the imperative of using language -- an inescapably concrete presence on the printed page -- to conjure absence, silence and nothingness, died on Friday at his home near Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii. He was 91."

Comments

[safari]

As Obama once stated about Confederate extremism, "The fever will have to break".

I'm seriously beginning to wonder if that's really the case. Maybe global warming is heating up their collective organisms to require even more extreme temperatures to reach fever levels. Because while none of this presiduncy* is normal, the "conservative" base is still nearly 100% behind this hateful Ogre and the political class is a set of pom-pom waving fanatics, ready and willing to shred their once cherished Constitution.

Why am I interested in the fever temperature today? Because with Javanka back in the headlines due to an upcoming book hopefully tearing holes in them, I'm reminded again in various headlines that both Ivanka and Jared are debating which will run for president next. Jared has no chance in hell given his charisma level's on par with a shit-stained diaper. But Ivanka could transform into a prettier Ann Coulter easily. And now I've seen some (surely planted) articles about Freddo Junior being groomed to run for President to make the Trump family a dynasty on par with the Kennedys and the Clintons.

(barfs into bag).

Ivanka or Freddo running for President evokes constant derision for now, but look who's sitting in the Oval Office right now, with 80+% public support, and a soulless party apparatus only concerned with power. Until the fever breaks, that batshit crazy idea of a Trump dynasty can't be called off. And that is both fucking terrifying and would surely precipitate the downfall of America.

[PD Pepe]

@safari: don't forget to include the Bush's in your family dynasties.

I was thinking this morning that the feelings I have toward this frightening madness is now more of an intense frustration. This fever you so well describe does not seem to be dissipating and I no longer think this is going to change any time soon––or ever? Having read so many reasons why does not ease my concern, in fact it accelerates it knowing we have those that on a dime will destroy what should be cherished. If you read the Atlantic piece I linked yesterday it gives us the history of hate that fomented in this country which we thought was finally being pushed aside for the "better angels" of our natures; apparently that isn't the case.

Watching Trump yesterday at his signing ceremony–-"see Mommy, I done sign my paper" crap––I was appalled that he did not mention the Mosque shooter's manifesto mentioning of HIM. What was even more sickening was watching those around him licking his tiny hands and bowing down to his stinky feet.

And to the death of Merwin whose poems always felt like life lived fully, always seeing the intrinsic beauty in the smallest of details.

[Jeanne]

The longer we wait for the Mueller report, the more pessimistic we get and sound. I think I have pinned too much weight to a report that, most likely, will be suppressed and/or provide little relief by legally removing all the reasons against impeachment. If it weren't for the fact that the one party of fools and traitors is solidly behind a fool, a primitive conman and traitor, we could maybe forget the damaged mortal who writes like a toddler and shows it to mommy, and just live out his time and replace him, but it is so much bigger than that, now the Congress has largely lost its lustre and gravitas. Honestly, we haven't been to DC in a long time (only three hours away) and it doesn't attract like it used to. Who can be enthusiastic about our country when such dishonesty rules?? The persons responsible for the view held by allies are there because they don't even like this country as a whole. If they did, they would not consent to its stranglehold by someone so corrupt and inept. Every single damn thing tweeted by the Idiot-in-Chief can be hung around the necks of career politicians on the right. They must dance around bonfires late at night. A coven of shitheels...