New Year's Day 2020

Afternoon Update:

Falih Hassan & Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "After vowing to camp outside the United States Embassy until the Americans left Iraq, and trying for a second day to scale the compound’s walls, demonstrators drawn largely from Iranian-backed militias called off their protest on Wednesday." The Hill has a story here. ~~~

~~~ Michael Crowley & Edward Wong of the New York Times: “President Trump toughened his rhetoric toward Iran on Tuesday, saying the country would 'be held fully responsible' for the attack by Iraqi demonstrators on the United States Embassy compound in Baghdad, an assault that Mr. Trump said was directed by Tehran. 'This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday evening, in some of his most bellicose language of the year toward Iran. The growing crisis has strained Mr. Trump’s aversion to war with Iran as well as his distaste for Middle East entanglements generally, including in Iraq.”

~~~ Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "Over the last 18 months, Donald Trump has picked a fight with Iran that he won’t end and can’t win. That fight has had horrifying consequences for the Iranian people, led Tehran to restart its nuclear program, and now left parts of the American embassy compound in Baghdad in flames.... Absent a revolution that replaces the Islamic Republic with a more pliant regime, he’s at Iran’s mercy.... When it comes to Iran, Trump has shifted Republican foreign policy away from war without shifting it towards diplomacy—the only stable alternative to war. So he’s caught in a kind of purgatory."

Fredreka Schouten of CNN: "Pete Buttigieg raised more than $24.7 million during the final three months of 2019, his campaign announced early Wednesday morning -- cementing his standing as one of the fundraising leaders of the 2020 Democratic presidential race."

New Rules. Benjamin Siu of ABC News: "It's the start of a new year, which means new state laws will take effect across the nation. Minimum wage hikes, fees for electric vehicles, new consumer privacy rules, gun regulations -- these are just a few of the issues state legislatures have dipped into or will be dipping into over the next decade."

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Falih Hassan, et al., of the New York Times: “Protesters broke into the heavily guarded compound of the United States Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday and set fires inside in anger over American airstrikes that killed 24 members of an Iranian-backed militia over the weekend. The men did not enter the main embassy buildings and later withdrew from the compound, joining thousands of protesters and militia fighters outside chanting 'Death to America,' throwing rocks, covering the walls with graffiti and demanding that the United States withdraw its forces from Iraq. The situation remained combustible, with the crowd vowing to camp indefinitely outside the sprawling compound, the world’s largest embassy. Their ability to storm the most heavily guarded zone in Baghdad suggested that they had received at least tacit permission from Iraqi security officials sympathetic to their demands.... The United States military made a show of force in response to the turmoil, with helicopter gunships circling overhead. From inside the compound, loudspeakers warned the crowd outside to keep away from the walls.... The [U.S.] State Department said that American personnel were safe and that there were no plans to evacuate the embassy.” An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Conor Finnegan, et al., of ABC News: "The Pentagon expects to send additional U.S. troops to the Middle East after hundreds of protesters, fomented by pro-Iranian militias and seemingly permitted by Iraqi security forces, attempted to storm the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.... There are already 5,000 U.S. troops in the country, there to train and support Iraqi security forces in the fight against the Islamic State. A number of U.S. Marines from Kuwait had already arrived at the Baghdad embassy to bolster security, according to two U.S. officials, one of whom said it was about 100 Marines. Two Apache helicopters conducted a show of force over the embassy, firing flares as a warning to protesters, another official said." ~~~

~~~ Thomas Franck of CNBC: “... Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed Iran for planning an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and promised to hold Tehran 'fully responsible.' 'Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible.' 'In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!' he added.... Trump’s tweet came after dozens of angry Iraqi Shiite militia supporters stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad and set fire to a reception area on the grounds earlier in the day. The Iraqi supporters, many dressed in military apparel, pushed into the compound using cars to break through its gate. The protesters hung a poster on the wall saying, 'America is an aggressor.'” Mrs. McC: I'm sure our embassy personnel feel a lot safer knowing Trump is threatening Iran & Iraq from the comfort of Mar-a-Lago. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Heather Hurlburt of New York: “Three factors led to the attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, and Trump only bears responsibility for two of them. But now he and his administration will have to manage a volatile situation that puts Americans in danger and undercuts his goal of disentangling the U.S. from Middle East conflicts.... Iraq’s government is weak and disliked by pretty much all wings of a divided Iraqi society. This is not Trump’s doing.... Trump does bear responsibility for Iraq increasingly becoming the place where U.S.-Iranian tensions play out.... After the Trump administration left the [Iran nuclear] deal and tightened the economic screws on Iran, the country retaliated by becoming more active in Iraq.... In [the] confusion [caused by Trump's withdrawal of U.S. troops from Kurdish-held Syrian territory earlier in 2019], Iranian-backed militias saw an opportunity to increase their influence.... On Twitter, Kelly Magsamen, who served in senior national security positions under both presidents Obama and Bush, described what’s needed now: 'cool headed leadership and a functioning national security process that effectively develops and evaluates options. We have neither.'”

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "As Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. prepares to preside over the impeachment trial of President Trump, he issued pointed remarks on Tuesday in his year-end report on the state of the federal judiciary that seemed to be addressed, at least in part, to the president himself.... The nominal focus of the report was the importance of civics education, but even a casual reader could detect a timely subtext, one concerned with the foundational importance of the rule of law." CNN's report is here.

Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, criticized Republicans and Democrats — citing Sens. Mitch McConnell and Elizabeth Warren by name — for making comments about the Senate impeachment trial of ... Donald Trump before it has even started.... Collins also told Maine Public Radio that she is 'open' to calling witnesses in the Senate trial but stopped short of saying which administration officials should testify."

The Democrats will do anything to avoid a trial in the Senate in order to protect Sleepy Joe Biden, and expose the millions and millions of dollars that 'Where’s' Hunter, & possibly Joe, were paid by companies and countries for doing NOTHING. Joe wants no part of this mess! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Tuesday ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: “Trump is now openly calling for his impeachment trial to be converted into something that is purely devoted to serving his own political needs — one that only includes witnesses that will help him keep smearing potential 2020 opponent Joe Biden, but has no meaningful relevance whatsoever to the corrupt conduct for which he has been impeached.... Incredibly, this comes as Senate Republicans push for a trial that features none of the witnesses who actually do have direct knowledge of that very same corrupt conduct.... They are doing this to protect Trump — and themselves — because he’s guilty as charged, and they know it.... There’s a deep irony here: Biden actually did work for years to root out kleptocracy and corruption in Ukraine, explicitly describing this as essential to drawing it into the Western orbit, and away from Russian predation, serving our national interests. By contrast, Trump actually does not care a whit about corruption in Ukraine. He used it as his cover story for extorting the Ukrainian president to help him advance his own kleptocratic and corrupt designs, subverting our national interests to his own.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Betsy Swan & Sam Brodey of the Daily Beast: “Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe faced scorching criticism and potential criminal prosecution for changing his story about a conversation he had with a Wall Street Journal reporter. Now newly released interview transcripts show McCabe expressed remorse to internal FBI investigators when they pressed him on the about-face. The FBI released the documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).... [On the day Trump fired Jim Comey -- May 9, 2017 -- McCabe said in an] interview..., [which was ostensibly on another topic,] he did not know how the Journal story came to be. But a few months later, his story changed after he reviewed his answer.... On Aug. 18, FBI officials met with McCabe in an attempt to work through what they said was 'conflicting information' they had gathered about the possible leak to the Journal.” In that interview, McCabe said he authorized the Journal report.... McCabe’s lawyer has said his story changed because in the initial interview he wasn’t prepared for the question. The question surprised him, and he didn’t give his answer a second thought because Comey was fired shortly after the interview concluded and his world turned upside down."

Joshua Partlow & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Nearly a year after the Trump Organization pledged to root out undocumented workers at its properties, supervisors at the Trump Winery on Monday summoned at least seven employees and fired them because of their lack of legal immigration status, according to two of the dismissed workers. The timing of the firings at the rural Virginia winery, 11 months after the company began purging the ranks of undocumented greenskeepers and cooks at Trump golf courses, came during the vineyard’s winter downtime. Workers had finished the arduous annual grape harvest, which involved working 60-hour weeks and overnight shifts under floodlights. Two of the fired workers — Omar Miranda, a 42-year-old tractor driver from Honduras, and a second employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity ... — said they thought the company had held off on firing them until after the year’s work was complete, taking advantage of their labor for as long as possible. Both had worked at the winery for more than a decade.... Legally, the wine is manufactured by the Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing Company, of which Eric Trump is president. But President Trump owns the land under the winery, which produces rental income — between $300,000 and $3 million in 2018, according to his financial disclosures. He also owns the Albemarle hotel on the property, which took in $1.14 million in revenue in 2018." CNN has a story citing the WashPo report here.

Trumplethinskin. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "The Trump administration was reportedly thrown into a tailspin in 2017 when someone at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels used the embassy’s official account to 'like' an anti-Trump tweet from Chelsea Clinton.... The spat followed Trump’s decision that week to place his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, in his seat at one of the G-20 meetings while he attended private meetings at the summit. According to the Daily Beast, the State Department first called the mission to complain about the offensive 'like,' then opened a weeks-long investigation into the matter.... At least 10 people were grilled in the probe.... Ultimately, they failed to snag the transgressor. The snafu fueled the paranoia that plagues Trump’s administration, which has made extensive efforts to root out staffers deemed 'anti-Trump' or otherwise insufficiently loyal to the President." --s

"The Daily Show" compiled this video for laughs, but it should make us all sad and alarmed. ~~~

Justin Elliott & Paul Kiel of ProPublica: “Finding free online tax filing should be easier this year for millions of Americans. The IRS announced significant changes Monday to its deal with the tax prep software industry. Now companies are barred from hiding their free products from search engines such as Google, and a years-old prohibition on the IRS creating its own online filing system has been scrapped. The addendum to the deal, known as Free File, comes after ProPublica’s reporting this year on how the industry, led by TurboTax maker Intuit, has long misled taxpayers who are eligible to file for free.... The addendum ... expressly bars the companies from 'engaging in any practice' that would exclude their Free File offerings 'from an organic internet search.' ProPublica reported in April that Intuit and H&R Block had added code to their Free File pages that hid them from Google and other search engines, diverting many users to the companies’ paid products.”

Valerie Volcovici of Reuters: "A panel of scientific advisers, including several appointed by ... Donald Trump, says some rollbacks of clean-air and vehicle rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency are based on weak scientific analysis and should be revised, according to draft reports published on Tuesday." --s

Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, ​said his country no longer felt bound by its self-imposed moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, its official media reported on Wednesday, the strongest indication yet that the country could soon resume such tests.... North Korea has not conducted a long-range missile test or a nuclear test in more than two years." NPR's story is here.

Presidential Race 2020. An Indiana Man Becomes Youngest Unemployed Person in Presidential Race. Ursula Perano of Axios: Pete "Buttigieg's term as mayor [of South Bend, Indiana, ends] Wednesday as James Mueller, who served in Buttigieg's administration as chief of staff, is set to be sworn in. Buttigieg announced he would not run for re-election in 2018. Mueller received Buttigieg's endorsement in February 2019. He won a crowded primary for the city's Democratic nomination in May." Buttigieg joins several other unemployed men who aspire to the top job.

Senate Race 2020. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: “Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski took to Twitter on Tuesday to announced that he will not run for Senate in New Hampshire.... 'After much consideration I have decided to forgo a campaign for the US Senate,' he tweeted. 'While taking on a career politician from the Washington swamp is a tall order, I am certain I would have won. My priorities remain my family and ensuring that @realDonaldTrump is re-elected POTUS.'” Mrs. McC: No, no, I would have won had I run. Corey has figured out the best way not to lose: don't even try. What a jerk. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: A December poll showed incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) beating Lewandowski 58%-35%.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Fox Nation. Joan Greve of the Guardian: "Fox News saw its biggest year ever in 2019, attracting the highest number of viewers in its 23-year history. According to ratings from Nielsen, Fox hit an average of 2.5 million viewers per night in 2019, making it the top-rated basic cable network. Fox easily beat out third-place MSNBC, which attracted an average 1.75 million viewers. The network also aired four of the top five most-watched shows on cable news in 2019[.]" --s ~~~

~~~ safari: In light of this depressing Fox news, I'm reupping this piece by Garrett Graff of Wired [Dec. 11]: "The lies and obfuscations forwarded ad infinitum on Fox News pose a dangerous threat to the national security of the United States.... Fox’s bubble reality creates a situation where it’s impossible to have the conversations and debate necessary to function as a democracy. Facts that are inconvenient to President Trump simply disappear down Fox News’ 'memory hole,' as thoroughly as George Orwell could have imagined in 1984.... Fox’s clear willingness to parrot the wingnuttiest ideas in service of the president, long-term implications to the United States be damned, should worry all concerned about the state of the United States." --s

Earth. Reuters: "Microscopic pieces of plastic have been discovered in the most remote locations, from the depths of the ocean to Arctic ice - and in our bodies as we breathe in and eat microplastic, and drink plastic-infused water every day. People could be ingesting the equivalent of a credit card of plastic a week, a recent study by WWF International concluded, mainly in drinking water but also via food like shellfish, which tend to be eaten whole so the plastic in their digestive systems is also consumed.  Reuters used the findings of the study to illustrate what this amount of plastic actually looks like over various periods of time. (Open here in an external browser to see a visualization of the amount of microplastic we consume.)" --s

Beyond the Beltway

Illinois. Kathleen Foody of the AP: "Illinois’ governor granted more than 11,000 pardons for low-level marijuana convictions on Tuesday, describing the step as a first wave of thousands of such expungements anticipated under the state’s new marijuana legalization law. The expungement process is a key part of the law, which takes effect Wednesday and made Illinois the 11th state to legalize marijuana for people 21 or older. When they crafted the policy, Illinois lawmakers said they wanted to repair some of the damage caused by law enforcement’s efforts to combat sale and use of the drug, particularly in minority communities. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker announced the pardons at a church on Chicago’s South Side. He said clearing the misdemeanor offenses from individuals’ records will make it easier for them to get jobs, housing and financial aid for college."

North Carolina. Will Doran of the Raleigh News & Observer: “Racial discrimination was at least part of the motivation for a new voter ID law in North Carolina, a federal judge wrote Tuesday, striking the law down for now. In a 60-page ruling evoking decades of racism in North Carolina, the judge wrote that parts of the new voter ID law 'were impermissibly motivated, at least in part, by discriminatory intent.'... Her ruling means that although voters statewide approved a voter ID mandate as an amendment to the state constitution in the 2018 elections, people most likely will be able to vote without showing ID in at least the March primary election.”

Way Beyond

Australia. Isabella Kwai of the New York Times: "As the fire stalked the east coast of Australia on Tuesday, the daytime sky turned inky black, then blood red. Emergency sirens wailed, followed by the thunder of gas explosions. Thousands of residents fled their homes and huddled near the shore. There was nowhere else to go. Apocalyptic scenes like these in Mallacoota, a vacation destination between Sydney and Melbourne, came on the last day of the warmest decade on record in Australia. The country is in the grip of a devastating fire season, with months of summer still to go, as record-breaking temperatures, strong winds and prolonged drought have ignited huge blazes across the country. The government prepared to deploy navy vessels and military helicopters to help fight the fires and evacuate people.... Australia is normally hot and dry in summer, but climate change, which brings more frequent and longer periods of extreme heat, worsens these conditions and makes vegetation drier and more likely to burn." ~~~

~~~ Some ghastly images of Australia's current 'bushfire day of terror', with more on the way. --s

Russia. Ilya Arkhipov & Stepan Kravchenko of Bloomberg: "More than a million Russians have been caught up in the worst wave of bomb threats in years, sending people to social media for information about events largely ignored by Kremlin-controlled national television.... In Moscow alone, more than a million people have been evacuated since Nov. 28, according to Interfax.... The source of the calls hasn’t been established, but Russia has been targeted by terrorist groups, including Islamic State, in the past. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, detained two suspects in St. Petersburg last week after receiving intelligence from the U.S. about a possible attack." --s

Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article238870598.html#storylink=cp

The Commentariat -- December 31, 2019

Afternoon Update:

The Democrats will do anything to avoid a trial in the Senate in order to protect Sleepy Joe Biden, and expose the millions and millions of dollars that 'Where's Hunter, & possibly Joe, were paid by companies and countries for doing NOTHING. Joe wants no part of this mess! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Tuesday ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Trump is now openly calling for his impeachment trial to be converted into something that is purely devoted to serving his own political needs -- one that only includes witnesses that will help him keep smearing potential 2020 opponent Joe Biden, but has no meaningful relevance whatsoever to the corrupt conduct for which he has been impeached.... Incredibly, this comes as Senate Republicans push for a trial that features none of the witnesses who actually do have direct knowledge of that very same corrupt conduct.... They are doing this to protect Trump -- and themselves --- because he's guilty as charged, and they know it.... There's a deep irony here: Biden actually did work for years to root out kleptocracy and corruption in Ukraine, explicitly describing this as essential to drawing it into the Western orbit, and away from Russian predation, serving our national interests. By contrast, Trump actually does not care a whit about corruption in Ukraine. He used it as his cover story for extorting the Ukrainian president to help him advance his own kleptocratic and corrupt designs, subverting our national interests to his own."

Thomas Franck of CNBC: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed Iran for planning an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and promised to hold Tehran 'fully responsible.' 'Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible.' 'In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!' he added.... Trump's tweet came after dozens of angry Iraqi Shiite militia supporters stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad and set fire to a reception area on the grounds earlier in the day. The Iraqi supporters, many dressed in military apparel, pushed into the compound using cars to break through its gate. The protesters hung a poster on the wall saying, 'America is an aggressor.'" Mrs. McC: I'm sure our embassy personnel feel a lot safer knowing Trump is threatening Iran & Iraq from the comfort of Mar-a-Lago.

Senate Race 2020. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski took to Twitter on Tuesday to announced that he will not run for Senate in New Hampshire.... 'After much consideration I have decided to forgo a campaign for the US Senate,' he tweeted. 'While taking on a career politician from the Washington swamp is a tall order, I am certain I would have won. My priorities remain my family and ensuring that @realDonaldTrump is re-elected POTUS.'" Mrs. McC: No, no, I would have won had I run. Corey has figured out the best way not to lose: don't even try. What a jerk. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: A December poll showed incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) beating Lewandowski 58%-35%.

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Welcoming the new year in Auckland, New Zealand:

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Mitch "McConnell badly needs the media's both-sidesing instincts to hold firm against the brute facts of the situation. If Republicans bear the brunt of media pressure to explain why they don't want to hear from witnesses, that risks highlighting their true rationale: They adamantly fear new revelations precisely because they know Trump is guilty -- and that this corrupt scheme is almost certainly much worse than we can currently surmise. That possibility is underscored by the Times report [linked here yesterday], a chronology of Trump's decision to withhold aid to a vulnerable ally under assault while he and his henchmen extorted Ukraine into carrying out his corrupt designs. The report demonstrates in striking detail that inside the administration, the consternation over the legality and propriety of the aid freeze -- and confusion over Trump's true motives -- ran much deeper than previously known, implicating top Cabinet officials.... We now have a much clearer glimpse into the murky depths of just how much more these officials know about the scheme -- and just how much McConnell and Trump are determined to make sure we don't ever learn." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: To me, the most important effect of the NYT report is that it proves that Trump's top international affairs advisors -- the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense & National Security Advisor -- made him aware that by withholding the Ukraine funding he was working against U.S. security interests. Senators, the supposed triers of fact in the impeachment process, can no longer pretend Trump may have made a bad call but only because he didn't know what he was doing. He knew. All the aides who mattered ganged up and told him so, according to the Times story.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A federal judge on Monday scrapped an effort by a former top aide to John Bolton to determine whether he could be required to testify before House impeachment investigators, declaring the matter moot and outside the court's power to resolve. Charles Kupperman, who was Bolton's deputy when Bolton was national security adviser, filed suit in October after he was subpoenaed by the House Intelligence Committee but ordered to ignore the subpoena by ... Donald Trump. In his suit, Kupperman asked for a judge's help to resolve the conflicting demands. The matter was put before Judge Richard Leon, a federal judge in the D.C. District Court. But before Leon could weigh in, the House withdrew its subpoena for Kupperman's testimony, declaring it a transparent effort to stonewall the impeachment investigation and mire it in months of legal delays. Both the House and the White House asked Leon to dismiss the case, and Leon ultimately agreed." The New York Times story is here. ~~~

      ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Cheney characterizes the dismissal as freeing both Bolton & Kupperman from testifying, which is how I would have interpreted it, too. However, Neal Katyal was on the teevee & said dismissal of Kupperman's suit means Boltonlost his excuse not to testify inasmuch as Bolton has claimed he was waiting for a decision on the Kupperman suit before determining whether or not he would testify.

Mac Bishop, et al., of NBC News: "Trump's attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden has ... exposed the cracks in the West's response to an emboldened Russia, inflicted permanent damage on Ukraine and heightened the risk of Moscow extending its influence in the country, according to democracy advocates and military experts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Betsy Swan of the Daily Beast: "Lev Parnas ... is looking to share more material with congressional investigators, according to a letter his lawyer has sent to a federal judge.... In the letter, Parnas'lawyer Joseph Bondy said the Justice Department will share materials with his client on Tuesday that it seized from his home and at his arrest. The materials include documents and the contents of an iPhone. Bondy then asked Judge Paul Oetken of the Southern District of New York to allow him to share those materials with the House Intelligence Committee.... The Justice Department has said it does not object to him giving the material to Congress."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Two Girls Chatting. Mehdi Hasan of the Intercept: "... [Margaret] Brennan's interview with Ivanka [Trump] -- which was ... pegged to the new policy of paid parental leave for federal government workers -- could be considered a low point in 'Face the Nation's storied 65-year history.... To quote liberal writer Eric Boehlert, 'for most Sunday shows, the blueprint remains the same: book a Republican and let them talk.' When Brennan asked Ivanka to address the cruel and callous policy of family separation at the border and the '900 children who remain separated from their families,' the senior adviser to the president dodged the question, claiming 'immigration is not part of my portfolio,' before quickly changing the subject to human trafficking. Yet there was no follow-up, no pushback whatsoever, from the 'Face the Nation' host.&" (Also linked yesterday.) Related story linked yesterday. ~~~

~~~ Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... given the way it obscured key facts, host Margaret Brennan's approach to interviewing the president's elder daughter and senior adviser would've fit right in on Fox & Friends.... Brennan described Ivanka as 'vocal in your opposition' to the inhumane family separation policy her father implemented in April 2018, noting that she described the policy as a 'low point.' But Ivanka was not in fact 'vocal' in opposition to the policy -- in fact, the opposite is the case.... Ivanka ... only spoke out in opposition to the family separation policy after her father signed an executive order in June 2018 ending it. She was conspicuously silent in the days leading up to that point...."

Rudy Is Not the Only Trump Ally Messing with Maduro. Joshua Goodman of the AP: "Erik Prince, a major Republican donor and founder of controversial security firm Blackwater, has been referred to the U.S. Treasury Department for possible sanctions violations tied to his recent trip to Venezuela for a meeting with a top aide of President Nicolas Maduro, two senior U.S. officials said. There's no indication that Prince, whose sister is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, will be sanctioned for the meeting last month in Caracas with Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. But the fact the visit was flagged underscores the concern of officials in the Trump administration over what appeared to be an unauthorized diplomatic outreach to Maduro.... It also marks something of a reversal for Prince, who earlier in 2019 was thought to have been pitching a plan to form a mercenary army to topple Maduro. A person familiar with Prince's visit said he had been asked to travel to Venezuela by an unidentified European businessman with longstanding ties to the oil-rich nation." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: We will never know how many of Trump's little buddies are running around the world acting as "back channels" for Trump & trying to put together shady deals. But it's fair to assume the level of corruption is staggering.

All the Best People, Ctd. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's White House hired an Ohio telemarketer who twice filed for bankruptcy for his telemarketing company and owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to the IRS. The president's 2016 campaign paid $1.2 million to Victory Solutions LLC, which owed the IRS and was facing numerous lawsuits, and its chief executive Shannon Burns went to work last year in the White House as a part-time advance associate, reported The Daily Beast." (The Daily Beast story is subscriber-firewalled.)

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The United States military on Sunday struck five targets in Iraq and Syria controlled by an Iranian-backed paramilitary group, the Pentagon said, a reprisal for a rocket attack on Friday that killed an American contractor." (This is an update & an expansion of a Reuters story linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Alissa Rubin & Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Iraq has been caught for years in a tug of war between its two most powerful patrons, the United States and Iran. In recent months, public opinion began to tilt against Iran, with street protests demanding an end to Tehran's pervasive influence. But American airstrikes that killed two dozen members of an Iranian-backed militia over the weekend have now made Washington the focus of public hostility, reducing the heat on Tehran and its proxies. Iraqi leaders accused the United States on Monday of violating Iraq's sovereignty and expressed fear that increasing tensions between the United States and Iran could escalate into a proxy war on Iraqi soil.... Anti-Iranian slogans have given way to anti-American ones. Demonstrators and others attacked what they deemed to be America's disproportionate response in killing 24 militiamen in retaliation for the death of one American contractor." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Washington Post: "Hundreds of Iraqis converge on U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to protest airstrike that killed members of Iran-backed militia. A spokesman for the Kataib Hezbollah militia said the demonstrators plan to remain outside until the embassy shuts down and U.S. diplomats leave Iraq." @ 5 am ET, this is a breaking news story. The Hill has a story here.

Jesse Drucker & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The overhaul of the federal tax law in 2017 was the signature legislative achievement of Donald J. Trump's presidency. The biggest change to the tax code in three decades, the law slashed taxes for big companies.... But big companies wanted more -- and, not long after the bill became law in December 2017, the Trump administration began transforming the tax package into a greater windfall for the world's largest corporations and their shareholders.... The process of writing the rules [that determine how laws are administered], conducted largely out of public view, can determine who wins and who loses. Starting in early 2018, senior officials in President Trump's Treasury Department were swarmed by lobbyists seeking to insulate companies from the few parts of the tax law that would have required them to pay more.... Thanks in part to the chaotic manner in which the bill was rushed through Congress -- a situation that gave the Treasury Department extra latitude to interpret a law that was, by all accounts, sloppily written -- the corporate lobbying campaign was a resounding success." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race 2020

Annie Grayer & Ryan Nobles of CNN: "Sen. Bernie Sanders is in 'good health,' nearly three months after suffering a heart attack, the attending physician at the US Capitol said in a letter released Monday. The physician, Brian Monahan, said in a summary of the Vermont senator's health that Sanders is no longer taking several of the medications initially prescribed to him after the heart attack." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "A Texas judge has ordered [Friend of Donald] Alex Jones and his InfoWars hoax website to pay more than $100,000 in court costs and legal fees, marking the latest court victory for a Sandy Hook family suing Jones for his promotion of conspiracy theories about the 2012 shooting."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "On Sunday, the New York Times revised conservative columnist Bret [Bedbug] Stephens' op-ed 'The Secrets of Jewish Genius,' which claimed that Ashkenazi Jews are intellectually superior, due to overwhelming backlash over the column citing a racist study. Shortly after the op-ed was published on Friday, critics assailed Stephens and the Times for pushing the kind of race science favored by white supremacists.... New York Times Magazine contributor Jody Rosen noted that one of the studies Stephens cited, 'Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence,' was co-authored by white supremacist and eugenicist Henry Harpending. In a lengthy editor's note, the Times stated it had removed the study from the op-ed. 'After publication Mr. Stephens and his editors learned that one of the paper's authors, who died in 2016, promoted racist views,' the note read. 'Mr. Stephens was not endorsing the study or its authors' views, but it was a mistake to cite it uncritically.' The Times also asserted that it was 'not [Stephens'] intent' to argue that 'Jews are genetically superior.' However, critics pointed out that ... Stephens, in fact, endorse[d] the study on Jewish intelligence by prefacing it with the sentence 'When it comes to Ashkenazi Jews, it's true.'..." ~~~

~~~ Jack Shafer of Politico: "The Times disavowal and re-edit (tellingly neither co-signed nor acknowledged by Stephens) was too little and too late...."

Mike Schneider of the AP: "The past year' population growth rate in the United States was the slowest in a century due to declining births, increasing deaths and the slowdown of international migration, according to figures released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. grew from 2018 to 2019 by almost a half percent, or about 1.5 million people, with the population standing at 328 million this year, according to population estimates. That's the slowest growth rate in the U.S. since 1917 to 1918, when the nation was involved in World War I, said William Frey, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution." Mrs. McC: Also in 1918, 500,000 to 675,000 people living in the U.S. died in the influenza pandemic. Obviously, slowing population growth leads to a slowing economy.

Beyond the Beltway

Kansas. Cop Caught on Tape. Ben Kesslen & Doha Madani of NBC News: "A Kansas police officer resigned Monday after fabricating a story that employees at a McDonald's wrote the words "F---ing Pig' on his coffee cup.... The ex-officer, who remained unidentified, is a former military police officer in the Army and had been on the small town's force for two months.... The McDonald's in Junction City, about 25 miles north of Herington near Fort Riley Army Base, said Sunday that after reviewing surveillance video, representatives were confident that was no employee wrote the message."

New York. Elisha Fieldstadt of NBC News: "Prosecutors on Monday filed federal hate crime charges against the 37-year-old man accused of storming a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home in Monsey, New York, with a machete and wounding five people.... Authorities ... discovered handwritten journals in [the suspect's] home that contained anti-Semitic writings. On one page, he had drawn a Star of David and a Swastika, and written about 'Nazi culture' and 'Adolf Hitler,' according to a federal criminal complaint filed Monday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

New York City. Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "Michael J. Reynolds, a New York City police officer ... who is white, [was visiting Nashville, Tennessee, when he] kicked in a black woman's door in a drunken rage, threatening her and her sons with a racist slur and obscenities. 'I'll break every bone in your neck,' he said in a rant that included two expletives. He then fled to his nearby Airbnb rental just before the police arrived. This month, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail and three years' probation after pleading no contest to four misdemeanors as a result of the episode, court records show. As of Monday, though, he remained an officer, stirring a growing backlash against the New York Police Department. More than 10,000 people signed an online petition demanding his dismissal and supporting the woman whose home he invaded.... The Police Department said last week that Officer Reynolds was on 'modified duty' and that the disciplinary process was awaiting the Nashville case's conclusion. Asked about the matter again on Monday, a top department official said the process 'was moving forward and questioning will take place imminently.'" Read on. Reynolds' actions would terrify anyone, and the victims had done nothing whatsoever to provoke him.

New York City. Trump Was Right: Wind Energy Is Dangerous. Craig McCarthy of the New York Post: "A shoddy wind turbine fell apart in the Bronx on Monday when it couldn't handle its own power source -- gusty winds. The blade damaged a nearby car and an illuminated billboard when it flew off the 250-foot structure in Baychester at about 1:20 p.m., police said. There were no injuries reported. Local politicians rushed to the scene and blasted the 'hastily' constructed alternative-energy source. The turbine started spinning on Dec. 17, providing power to nearby buildings, according to the Bronx Times."

West Virginia. Janelle Griffith of NBC News: "West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Monday he has approved the recommendations from a report calling for the firing of all correctional officer cadets who participated in a Nazi salute during a class photo. The photo of Basic Training Class 18, released by the state's Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety on Dec. 5 with the employees' faces blurred, shows about 30 uniformed trainees posing with their right arms raised, most of them with their hands also extended. The words 'Hail Byrd!' also appear at the top of the image. Three people -- two academy trainers and a cadet -- were fired days after the photo was released and 34 others suspended without pay amid the investigation by the department and its Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.... The use of the gesture began two to three weeks into training as one that the cadets have described as a 'sign of respect' for an individual identified as 'Instructor Byrd.' Byrd told investigators she was unaware of the 'historical or racial implications of the gesture' and reported it was 'simply a greeting,' according to the report. But her statement was contradicted by multiple sources, the report released Monday says." Byrd told a staffer that the salute signified that "I'm a hard-ass like Hitler."

Way Beyond

Japan/Lebanon. Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan who was facing charges of financial wrongdoing in Japan, has fled the country, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Ghosn is currently in Beirut, Lebanon, said two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Mr. Ghosn is a citizen of France, Brazil and Lebanon. The circumstances under which Mr. Ghosn left Japan were not immediately clear. But he enjoys widespread public support in Lebanon, where he spent much of his youth and retains family connections." A CNN story is here.

The Commentariat -- December 30, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Annie Grayer & Ryan Nobles of CNN: "Sen. Bernie Sanders is in 'good health,' nearly three months after suffering a heart attack, the attending physician at the US Capitol said in a letter released Monday. The physician, Brian Monahan, said in a summary of the Vermont senator's health that Sanders is no longer taking several of the medications initially prescribed to him after the heart attack."

Elisha Fieldstadt of NBC News: "Prosecutors on Monday filed federal hate crime charges against the 37-year-old man accused of storming a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home in Monsey, New York, with a machete and wounding five people.... Authorities ... discovered handwritten journals in [the suspect's] home that contained anti-Semitic writings. On one page, he had drawn a Star of David and a Swastika, and written about 'Nazi culture' and 'Adolf Hitler,' according to a federal criminal complaint filed Monday."

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Mitch "McConnell badly needs the media's both-sidesing instincts to hold firm against the brute facts of the situation. If Republicans bear the brunt of media pressure to explain why they don't want to hear from witnesses, that risks highlighting their true rationale: They adamantly fear new revelations precisely because they know Trump is guilty -- and that this corrupt scheme is almost certainly much worse than we can currently surmise. That possibility is underscored by the Times report [linked below], a chronology of Trump's decision to withhold aid to a vulnerable ally under assault while he and his henchmen extorted Ukraine into carrying out his corrupt designs. The report demonstrates in striking detail that inside the administration, the consternation over the legality and propriety of the aid freeze -- and confusion over Trump's true motives -- ran much deeper than previously known, implicating top Cabinet officials.... We now have a much clearer glimpse into the murky depths of just how much more these officials know about the scheme -- and just how much McConnell and Trump are determined to make sure we don't ever learn."

Mac Bishop, et al., of NBC News: "Trump's attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden has ... exposed the cracks in the West's response to an emboldened Russia, inflicted permanent damage on Ukraine and heightened the risk of Moscow extending its influence in the country, according to democracy advocates and military experts."

Jesse Drucker & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The overhaul of the federal tax law in 2017 was the signature legislative achievement of Donald J. Trump's presidency. The biggest change to the tax code in three decades, the law slashed taxes for big companies.... But big companies wanted more -- and, not long after the bill became law in December 2017, the Trump administration began transforming the tax package into a greater windfall for the world's largest corporations and their shareholders.... The process of writing the rules [that determine how laws are executed], conducted largely out of public view, can determine who wins and who loses. Starting in early 2018, senior officials in President Trump's Treasury Department were swarmed by lobbyists seeking to insulate companies from the few parts of the tax law that would have required them to pay more.... Thanks in part to the chaotic manner in which the bill was rushed through Congress -- a situation that gave the Treasury Department extra latitude to interpret a law that was, by all accounts, sloppily written -- the corporate lobbying campaign was a resounding success."

Two Girls Chatting. Mehdi Hasan of the Intercept: "... [Margaret] Brennan's interview with Ivanka [Trump] -- which was ... pegged to the new policy of paid parental leave for federal government workers -- could be considered a low point in 'Face the Nation''s storied 65-year history.... To quote liberal writer Eric Boehlert, 'for most Sunday shows, the blueprint remains the same: book a Republican and let them talk.' When Brennan asked Ivanka to address the cruel and callous policy of family separation at the border and the '900 children who remain separated from their families,' the senior adviser to the president dodged the question, claiming 'immigration is not part of my portfolio,' before quickly changing the subject to human trafficking. Yet there was no follow-up, no pushback whatsoever, from the 'Face the Nation' host."

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The United States military on Sunday struck five targets in Iraq and Syria controlled by an Iranian-backed paramilitary group, the Pentagon said, a reprisal for a rocket attack on Friday that killed an American contractor." (This is an update & an expansion of a Reuters story linked below.)

~~~~~~~~~~

** Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "Interviews with dozens of current and former administration officials, congressional aides and others, previously undisclosed emails and documents, and a close reading of thousands of pages of impeachment testimony provide the most complete account yet of the 84 days from when Mr. Trump first inquired about the money to his decision in September to relent. What emerges is the story of how Mr. Trump's demands sent shock waves through the White House and the Pentagon, created deep rifts within the senior ranks of his administration, left key aides like [Mick] Mulvaney under intensifying scrutiny -- and ended only after Mr. Trump learned of a damning whistle-blower report and came under pressure from influential Republican lawmakers.... Opposition to the order from his top national security advisers was more intense than previously known. In late August, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper joined Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and John R. Bolton, the national security adviser at the time, for a previously undisclosed Oval Office meeting with the president where they tried but failed to convince him that releasing the aid was in interests of the United States.... Mr. Mulvaney is shown to have been deeply involved as a key conduit for transmitting Mr. Trump's demands for the freeze across the administration."

Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "In the weeks leading up to their impeachment trial, senators on Capitol Hill are actively avoiding meeting with ... Rudy Giuliani -- partly because they fear he might try to pass off Russian conspiracy theories as fact, according to interviews with more than half a dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers and aides.... When he arrived back in Washington [after a trip to Kiev last month], Giuliani updated Trump, according to two individuals with knowledge of their conversation, and said publicly the president asked him to brief Republican senators about the information he gathered.... Both Democrat and Republican senators have steered clear of the president's personal attorney over concern that the information he is trying to disseminate originated from figures in Ukraine known for spinning the truth or spreading outright lies.... 'My advice to Giuliani would be to share what he got from Ukraine with the IC [intelligence community] to make sure it's not Russia propaganda...,' [Lindsey Graham said]."

"A Hand Grenade Who's Going to Blow Everybody Up." Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Rudolph W. Giuliani and then-Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) ... were part of a shadow diplomatic effort, backed in part by private interests, aimed at engineering a negotiated exit to ease [Venezuela's] President Nicolás Maduro from power and reopen resource-rich Venezuela to business, according to people familiar with the endeavor...' provid[ing] another example of how Giuliani used his private role to insert himself into foreign diplomacy, alarming administration officials confused about whose interests he was representing.... Giuliani's willingness to talk with Maduro in late 2018 flew in the face of the official policy of the White House, which, under national security adviser John Bolton, was then ratcheting up sanctions and taking a harder line against the Venezuelan government. Around the time of the phone call, Giuliani met with Bolton to discuss the off-the-books plan to ease Maduro from office -- a plan Bolton vehemently rejected, two people familiar with the meeting said." Of course Lev Parnas, (allegedly) crooked Venezuelan businessmen -- at least one of whom is Giuliani's client -- & the Grand Havana Room cigar bar in Manhattan figure in. Because these are Trump people. Slate has a summary report here.

Justine Coleman of the Hill: Sen. "Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) questioned whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will 'try to rig' the impeachment trial by teaming up with President Trump. Van Hollen told Jon Karl on ABCs 'This Week' that Senate Democrats are pushing for a 'fair trial' where they are permitted to call witnesses and obtain necessary documents.... 'We keep hearing President Trump say he's going to be exonerated,' he added. 'Look, if you have a rigged trial there's no exoneration in acquittal.'"

Ah, Those "New York Values" Are the Problem. Melissa Quinn of CBS News: "Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma criticized President Trump for his tweets and language, saying he doesn't believe the president is someone who young people can look up to. 'I don't think that President Trump as a person is a role model for a lot of different youth. That's just me personally,' Lankford said on 'Face the Nation.' 'I don't like the way that he tweets, some of the things that he says, his word choices at times are not my word choices. He comes across with more New York City swagger than I do from the Midwest and definitely not the way that I'm raising my kids.'" Mrs. McC: Thanks for your insights, Jim. Blaming NYC "swagger" for Trump's behavior is lame under any circumstance, and under the circumstance that most New Yorkers despise Trump makes your argument ridiculous. (In Manhattan, Clinton beat Trump 86%-10% in 2016; of the five boroughs, only on Staten Island did Trump top Clinton.) Trump doesn't talk like a New Yorker; he talks like a mobster.

Reuters: "Russia said it had thwarted terror attacks reportedly planned in St Petersburg as the result of a tip from Washington, as President Vladimir Putin personally thanked his US counterpart Donald Trump. Russian news agencies cited the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying that as a result of the information, two Russians had been detained on 27 December on suspicion of plotting attacks during new year festivities in St Petersburg." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "... on Sunday, the Kremlin statement said Mr. Putin had ... thanked Mr. Trump for 'information transmitted through the channels of U.S. special services.' It said the two leaders had also discussed other 'issues of mutual interest,' but did not spell them out. The White House did not respond to a request for comment."

In Keeping with Family Tradition, Ivanka Lies, Takes Credit for Legislation She Didn't Back. James Downie of the Washington Post: "Disgracefully, the United States remains one of just three countries in the world without statutory paid maternity leave. This month finally saw some small progress toward fixing this injustice when Trump's father signed a defense-spending bill that instituted 12 weeks of paid parental leave for government workers. From her CBS interview, in which [Ivanka] Trump touted '2½ years of building our coalitions of support for this policy,' you'd think this was the result of years of Trump's hard work. The truth is rather different. According to The Post, it's her father's opponents whom government workers have to thank for the new benefits: In negotiations over the defense bill, House Democrats used President Trump's desire for a Space Force to extract funding for the new paid leave policy.... The paid family leave bills that Ivanka Trump has supported don't look like the straightforward 12 week guarantee in the defense bill. In the Brennan interview, Trump touted a bill advanced by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). Rather than paid leave, the Cassidy-Sinema bill would offer families a loan of up to $5,000 to cover time off, and which would be repaid by cuts to the families' child tax credits.... [But] the new parental leave benefits for government employees closely resemble those in the FAMILY Act, proposed by Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), which would provide all workers with 12 weeks of paid leave. Yet in her interview with [CBS's Margaret] Brennan, Trump dismissed the FAMILY Act as 'stale.'" Since she didn't prevaricate quite enough about family leave legislation, she also lied about how family leave was instituted at her own company -- she fought it. ~~~

~~~ David of Crooks & Liars: "... Ivanka Trump declined to criticize her father's administration over its family separation policy for immigrants. In a highly publicized interview that aired on Sunday, CBS host Margaret Brennan asked Trump about the family separations policy in light of her concern for all children. '... Homeland Security says there's still around 900 children who remain separated from their families,' Brennan told Trump. 'Is that something that you continue to remain engaged on?' 'Well, immigration is not in part of my portfolio,' Trump replied. 'Obviously, I think everyone should be engaged and the full force of the U.S. government is committed to this effort of border security, to protecting the most vulnerable.'" She went on to talk about human trafficking, which was not part of the question. Then Brennan said, "Ivanka Trump, thank you very much." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Great suck-up interview, Maggie; thanks for not asking any embarrassing follow-up questions like, "Whaddaya mean, 'not in my portfolio'? You're a mother, for Pete's sake. Look at you, you're getting someone to iron your damned hair while your father & his henchmen are ripping babies from their mothers' arms. And your response is 'not in my portfolio? Get out!" Please, get me a good producer & researcher & I'll show Brennan & Chuck Todd how to interview politicians.

Bonus. Especially if you are a snob (count me in!), but even if you're not, you may enjoy David Roth's "Unified Theory of the Trumps' Creepy Aesthetic" (Dec. 19) in the New Republic.

Ahmed Rashid, et al., of Reuters: "A top Iraqi militia leader warned of a strong response against U.S. forces in Iraq following air strikes in Iraq and Syria overnight that hit several bases of his Iranian-backed group and killed at least 25 people. The U.S. military carried out air strikes on Sunday against the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group in response to the killing of a U.S. civilian contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base, officials said."

Presidential Race 2020

David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Our process for selecting presidential nominees is badly flawed.... It has come to resemble a reality television show, in which a pseudo-scientific process (polls plus donor numbers) winnows the field. The winner is then chosen by a distorted series of primaries and caucuses: The same few states always get outsize influence, and a crude, unranked voting system can produce a nominee whom most people don't want.... When voters are given the dominant role in choosing a nominee -- as with primaries here -- only an unrepresentative subset tends to participate, which skews the process." Leonhardt has some limp suggestions to improve it.... The seven candidates who made the last Democratic debate stage all have their strengths, but as a group, they offer an indictment of the nomination process. There are three candidates in their 70s -- and no African-American or Latino. There are two people who have never won an election -- and zero who have ever run a state. Of course, the biggest sign that the process is broken isn't any of those seven. It is the man in the Oval Office."

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "... Michael R. Bloomberg is ... spending millions each week in an online advertising onslaught [attacking Donald Trump] that is guided by polling and data that he and his advisers believe provide unique insight into the president's vulnerabilities. The effort, which is targeting seven battleground states where polls show Mr. Trump is likely to be competitive in November, is just one piece of an advertising campaign that is unrivaled in scope and scale. On Facebook and Google alone, where Mr. Bloomberg is most focused on attacking the president, he has spent $18 million on ads over the last month.... That is on top of the $128 million the Bloomberg campaign has spent on television ads.... Those amounts dwarf the ad budgets of his rivals, and he is spending at a faster clip than past presidential campaigns as well. Mr. Bloomberg is also already spending more than the Trump campaign each week to reach voters online.... In swing states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that are likely to decide whether Mr. Trump gets re-elected, the president's campaign and its allies have already been advertising on his behalf for more than a year. Mr. Bloomberg's campaign is focusing its efforts there, hoping to erode Mr. Trump's standing."~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Bloomberg is not likely to be the Democrats' nominee, but he seems to be helping the candidate who will be.

Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon known for promoting voting rights, announced Sunday that doctors diagnosed him with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which typically has a poor prognosis. Lewis (D-Ga.), who has served in Congress since 1987, said he planned to return to Washington soon to continue working and to undergo treatment over the next several weeks. He said he might miss some votes during that time." A Hill report is here.

"The Decade from Hell": New Republic Writers Condemn the Past Decade:

Alex Shephard: "The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, which [Jon Stewart] hosted [in October 2010] with his then-Comedy Central colleague Stephen Colbert, was an attempt to shame a media industry addicted to theatrical conflict and shallow analysis. It was also meant to showcase common ground typically lacking in political coverage.... The rally was a huge success: 200,000 people crowded the Mall in Washington, D.C.... But it hasn't aged well. Stewart's call for Americans to transcend party lines and concentrate on their shared aspirations is embarrassing to watch in 2019.... It serves as a milestone in recent political history: a nadir in the left's years-long refusal to reckon with the extremist right."

Nick Martin: "Three days after Stewart and Colbert's rally and their call for a return to normalcy, midterm elections were held across the country. Most headlines and politics-watchers focused on the dramatic Republican gains in the House of Representatives. But the results that would most profoundly shape American politics came not at the national level, but in the state houses and senates, the chambers where state budgets are set and national policies and political movements start their journeys."

Alex Pareene: "The story of American politics over the past decade is that of a [Democratic] party on the cusp of enduring power and world-historical social reform, and how these once imaginable outcomes were methodically squandered.""

Ganesh Sitaraman: "With the 2008 financial crash and the Great Recession, the ideology of neoliberalism lost its force. The approach to politics, global trade, and social philosophy that defined an era led not to never-ending prosperity but utter disaster. 'Laissez-faire is finished,' declared French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan admitted in testimony before Congress that his ideology was flawed. In an extraordinary statement, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd declared that the crash 'called into question the prevailing neoliberal economic orthodoxy of the past 30 years -- the orthodoxy that has underpinned the national and global regulatory frameworks that have so spectacularly failed to prevent the economic mayhem which has been visited upon us.'"

Libby Watson: "The last decade's misadventures in health care reform -- the fight to pass the ACA; the unhinged response of its opponents; the efforts, successful and unsuccessful, to undermine the law; and the rapid, unprecedented rise of a movement to replace it with something far bigger and more radical --— holds a clear lesson for the future. Passing a bill crafted with industry approval and based on ideas originated with the Heritage Foundation and Mitt Romney -- and then insisting that it's the most progressive thing since the New Deal and we should all be grateful for it -- set the party up for the single-payer movement that's happening now. If only this had been its intention."

Otherwise, things went very well.

News Lede

AP: "A man pulled out a shotgun at a Texas church service and fired on worshippers Sunday, killing two people before he was shot to death by congregants who fired back, police said. Authorities at a Sunday evening news conference praised the two congregants who opened fire as part of a volunteer security team at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement. It was unclear if the two people who were killed were the two who shot at the gunman."