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The Ledes

Friday, May 3, 2024

CNBC: “The U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in April while the unemployment rate rose, reversing a trend of robust job growth that had kept the Federal Reserve cautious as it looks for signals on when it can start cutting interest rates. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 175,000 on the month, below the 240,000 estimate from the Dow Jones consensus, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The unemployment rate ticked higher to 3.9% against expectations it would hold steady at 3.8%.”

The Wires
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The Ledes

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Wisconsin Public Radio: “A student who came to Mount Horeb Middle School with a gun late Wednesday morning was shot and killed by police officers before he could enter the building. Police were called to the school at about 11:30 a.m. for a report of a person outside with a weapon.... At the press conference, district Superintendent Steve Salerno indicated that there were students outside the school when the boy approached with a weapon. They alerted teachers.... Mount Horeb is about 20 minutes west of Madison.”

Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

The Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron. Washington Post: A “group of amateur archaeologists sift[ing] through ... an ancient Roman pit in eastern England [found] ... a Roman dodecahedron, likely to have been placed there 1,700 years earlier.... Each of its pentagon-shaped faces is punctuated by a hole, varying in size, and each of its 20 corners is accented by a semi-spherical knob.” Archaeologists don't know what the Romans used these small dodecahedrons for but the best guess is that they have some religious significance.

"Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and physical ailments." So this Washington Post page allows you to check your own area to see how good your access to nature is.

Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:

If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:


Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hope comments in a CNN opinion piece:

~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~

~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.

He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”

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A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Thursday
Jun062019

The Commentariat -- June 7, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Top congressional Democrats are actively discussing opening a probe into Rudy Giuliani for his overseas political and consulting work, including a recent attempt to uncover dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, a source with direct knowledge tells The Daily Beast. The contours of a potential probe are still under consideration. But it would likely look at whether Giuliani's relationships with foreign politicos interfered or intersected with American foreign-policy efforts." Upon hearing the news, Rudy said a lot of stuff -- trashing the Constitution, Joe McCarthy, blah-blah.

BBC: "Theresa May has officially stepped down as the leader of the Conservative Party, but will remain as prime minister until her successor is chosen. She has handed in her private resignation letter to the backbench 1922 Committee, two weeks after announcing her intention to leave. Eleven Conservative MPs are vying to replace her as party leader and, ultimately, prime minister. The winner of the contest is expected to be announced in the week of 22 July."

Brad Lendon, et al., of CNN: "The United States and Russian navies are at odds over an apparent near collision in the Pacific Friday with each side blaming the other. The US and Russian warships came somewhere between 50 feet and 165 feet of each other, according to the two opposing reports, with both sides alleging their ships were forced to perform emergency maneuvers to avoid a collision, which can be seen in video and a picture of the event obtained by CNN."

Aaron Rupar of Vox: "Fox News host Sean Hannity, who has done more than anybody (except perhaps Donald Trump himself) to push the narrative that Hillary Clinton should be locked up, now thinks such calls are something that only happens in 'banana republics' -- at least when they're directed toward Trump." Rupar goes into detail about Hannity's amazing double standard.

~~~~~~~~~~

"American Carnage," Redux

The Last Hurrah of an Idiot Abroad. Mark Landler & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Seventy-five years after the D-Day invasion, [President* Trump], who has called into question America's allies around the world -- including those whom Americans fought alongside in Normandy -- pledged fidelity to friendships 'forged in the heat of battle, tested in the trials of war, and proven in the blessings of peace.' It was Mr. Trump's only reference to the importance of the Atlantic alliance, in a speech that dwelled on the service of D-Day's American veterans.... In its graphic depiction of the horror on the beaches, Mr. Trump's speech evoked the ominous tone of his Inaugural Address. And when he declared, 'Today, America is stronger than ever before,' it was the kind of dependable applause line that could have been taken from one of his rallies.... There was a lingering incongruity to Mr. Trump's words: a president who has denigrated the European Union and accused NATO of exploiting American taxpayers was extolling an allied military campaign that was perhaps the greatest demonstration of America's commitment to a free and peaceful Europe. It fell to President Emmanuel Macron of France to defend the postwar international order. Speaking before Mr. Trump, he offered thanks to the United States for its wartime sacrifice and conferred the French Legion of Honor on several veterans. Then he paid tribute to the institutions the United States helped create." ...

... Heather Hurlburt of New York: "Trump, his falsehoods, and his transactional, zero-sum view of the U.S.-European relationship are now fully normalized. He has found a crop of partners in right-wing European parties; and he has understood very keenly that Europe's centrist leaders are too beleaguered themselves to lead a stand against him. Perhaps the saddest realization of the D-Day commemoration is that its sacrifices and heroism are no longer enough of an anchor The great-grandchildren of GIs and Resistance fighters and Nazis will have to find new inspiration and build new touchstones -- and a mere distaste for Donald Trump is far, far too weak a reed."

What's Wrong with This Picture? ...

... Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "Just before his speech honoring military veterans at a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, President Trump gave an interview marked by insults directed toward the speaker of the House and former special counsel Robert Mueller. Speaking to Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Trump called the former special counsel a 'fool' and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a 'disaster.' 'Let me tell you, he made such a fool out of himself,' Trump said of Mueller, speaking at a cemetery where more than 9,300 American soldiers who died in World War II are buried. Mueller is a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, in which President Trump did not serve, and which he described in an interview on British television as a 'terrible war' and 'very far away.'... 'Nancy Pelosi, I call her "Nervous Nancy," Nancy Pelosi doesn't talk about it,' the president said. 'Nancy Pelosi is a disaster, OK? She's a disaster. And let her do what she wants. You know what? I think they're in big trouble.' Pelosi, who was also in Normandy for the D-Day commemoration, declined to respond. 'I don't talk about the president while I'm out of the country,' she told CNN's Jim Acosta." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In the video that accompanies the Yahoo! News story, Trump says, "He [Mueller] made such a fool out of himself because what people don't report is the letter he had to do to straighten out his testimony because his testimony was wrong." What testimony? Trump seems to have made up testimony that never happened. (Why is it that "people don't report" that?) It's well-known that Mueller has resisted testifying. I couldn't figure out what "letter" Trump was talking about, but Jordan Fabian of the Hill took a stab at & guessed, "The president was referring to a joint statement later issued by the Justice Department and the special counsel';s office saying that Mueller's account did not conflict with Attorney General William Barr's previous comments, in which Barr said the decision not to charge Trump with obstruction did not hinge solely on the DOJ policy." But good idea to use the graves of dead American soldiers as a backdrop for an attack on a wounded war veteran. ...

     ... BTW, Stableford's report is a good example of the kind of journalism I complained about yesterday. Instead of pointing out that Trump made a statement at odds with the facts, Stableford writes, "The president took issue with Mueller's public statement on his investigation into Russian election interference." But Trump "took issue with" "testimony" Mueller never gave, not with a public statement. That is, Stableford radically "corrected" Trump's nonsensical remarks without indicating he had done so. ...

     ... ** Update. Fox "News" has released an expanded version of Laura Ingraham's interview of Donald Trump. Clearly Trump, his communications staff, Ingraham & Fox "News" all thought it entirely appropriate to have a POTUS* lambaste American leaders while sitting in France in front of a sea of graves of American soldiers. This says a lot more about their regard for men who fought & died for American values than does a speech someone else wrote & Trump deigned to deliver. ...

     ... Jessica Campisi of the Hill: "President Trump tore into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during a Thursday night interview on Fox News, calling her a 'nasty, vindictive, horrible person' after she said Thursday that she wanted to see him 'in prison' instead of getting impeached." Mrs. McC: Too bad he forgot to knock John McCain & Dwight Eisenhower; maybe that's in an upcoming clip.

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's adult sons enjoyed an Irish pub the night before marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day at a ceremony in Normandy. Eric and Donald Trump Jr. poured pints of Guinness -- with a higher head-to-ale ratio than is commonly accepted -- and posed for selfies with cheering crowds at pubs in Doonberg, where their father owns a golf course, reported the Daily Mail. The pair visited five pubs in an hour.... A BBC reporter managed to get in a question to Eric Trump outside one pub, asking if his trip was a good use of taxpayer money. 'We're just trying to have a good time,' Eric Trump said...."

Asawin Suebsaeng & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "After facing a torrent of pushback and harsh criticism from military veterans, Donald Trump has backed off plans to potentially pardon convicted and alleged U.S. war criminals -- at least for now. The president was personally taken aback by the nearly across-the-board resistance to his administration's consideration of pardons for several U.S. servicemen accused of grisly crimes in war zones, two people familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast.... The decision marks another instance of President Trump reconsidering his plans to dive head-first into a divisive debate at the egging of his media boosters." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Who can be surprised Trump was surprised that veterans weren't gleeful about his pardoning war criminals? As he demonstrated in his interview using an American military cemetery as a prop, Trump has no understanding whatsoever of American values.

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "At a frank meeting this week, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler again lobbied to win Speaker Nancy Pelosi's support for an impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump.Nadler, who appealed to the speaker that the House's court cases against the Trump administration would be bolstered by launching an impeachment inquiry, also offered two new arguments in the hopes of convincing Pelosi from moving off her steadfast opposition, according to a source with knowledge of the meeting. First, Nadler argued opening an impeachment probe would centralize the House' sprawling investigations now spread across various panels into just one.... Secondly, Nadler made a technical argument that it would be easier for lawmakers to discuss the President's alleged offenses on the House floor and in committees during a formal impeachment inquiry because House rules forbid members from disparaging individuals." Both Pelosi & Rep. Adam Schiff resisted Nadler's arguments. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As I suggested some time back, this is a turf war, and Pelosi is managing the factions. Nadler would have a better chance of winning his argument if he magnanimously suggested he would farm out parts of the inquiry to appropriate committees. Sharing the hoohah also could yield more evidence.

Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "House Democratic leaders are preparing to grant sweeping authority to committee chairs to sue the Trump administration over its refusal to comply with congressional demands for information -- from ... Donald Trump's tax returns to ... Robert Mueller's underlying files. The draft resolution, which the House will consider on Tuesday, formally holds Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in contempt of Congress for defying House Judiciary Committee subpoenas seeking Mueller's unredacted report, its underlying evidence, and additional witness testimony. But the most dramatic proposal will empower the chairs of all House committees to initiate legal action each time a witness or administration official defies a committee subpoena, a move to streamline and speed up the House's ability to respond to a mounting list of confrontations with the White House." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

Democrats' constant fiddling and fist shaking is making me sick. They have the brightest brains & specialists rooting for them and offering advice, and are getting rolled by a group of smash & grab day traders. -- safari, in today's Comments thread

I think safari wrote this even before Nicholas Fandos of the NYT reported on House Democrats' latest retreat. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Update. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "After weeks of pledging to hold Attorney General William P. Barr and the former White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II in contempt for defying subpoenas, House Democrats appear poised to pursue an alternative path to try to force them into sharing information. A resolution that the House Rules Committee unveiled on Thursday would authorize the House to petition a federal court to enforce its requests for information and testimony related to the report of the special counsel..., but without mentioning contempt. The committee is expected to consider the proposal on Monday, followed by a full House vote on Tuesday. The resolution appears to be something of a tactical reversal by Democrats...." ...

... BUT. Update Update. Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Friday indicated that he would formally move forward with contempt votes for Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, after they missed a Thursday deadline to hand over documents related to his committee's investigation on the census citizenship question. 'We gave Attorney General Barr and Secretary Ross every opportunity to produce the documents the Committee needs for our investigation, but rather than cooperate, they have decided that they would rather be held in contempt of Congress,' Cummings said in a statement." Mrs. McC: Thomsen is still reporting that the House also will vote to hold Barr in contempt for failing to turn over to them an unredacted Mueller report. Reporters could be forgiven for obsolete reporting inasmuch as House Democrats can't seem to make up their minds from moment to moment.

I don't want to see him [Trump] impeached. I want to see him in prison. -- Nancy Pelosi, in a closed-door meeting with House Democratic leaders, Tuesday ...

... Jonathan Chait: "The idea that Trump might face criminal charges has felt impossible since Robert Mueller declined to bring additional charges in his final report. But Trump faces several other investigations for crimes that are easier to prove than criminal conspiracy with Russia.... Should he lose reelection, Trump is facing at least five reasonably serious criminal cases: 1. Obstruction of justice.... 2. Campaign finance violations.... 3. Inauguration overcharges.... 4. New York tax fraud.... 5. Trump Foundation fraud." ...

... The Twilight Zone. Justin Baragona of The Daily Beast: "Reacting to reports that ... Nancy Pelosi said she doesn't want to see President Trump impeached because she would rather 'see him in prison,' Fox News host Sean Hannity lashed out at the Democratic leader Thursday night.... 'Speaker Nancy Pelosi telling senior Democrats she would like to see Trump behind bars,' Hannity exclaimed. 'Based on no actual crimes, she wants a political opponent locked up in prison. Umm, that happens in banana republics. Beyond despicable behavior.' Pelosi's statement, he said, was proof Democrats want to turn the United States into a country that we 'no longer recognize.'" --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Absolutely jaw-dropping. Pelosi made the remark in private, among colleagues. Trump screamed "Lock her up!" in public and made many unfounded public accusations of criminal wrongdoing (including death-penalty offenses) against people from Barack Obama to various FBI officials. One would not be surprised to learn that Hannity himself has made similar baseless claims. ...

... Renato Mariotti in Politico Magazine: "There is ... an overwhelming case that the president engaged in obstruction of justice -- his effort to stop the special counsel's office from probing his campaign's ties to Russia.... It's already possible to project some paths a likely prosecution would take.... The strongest count would be his attempt to fire Mueller, the man appointed to investigate the Russian government's interference in the 2016 election and the possibility that the Trump campaign conspired with it.... At least two others would almost certainly also be charged[: one in which Trump dictated a message for Corey Lewandowski to deliver to Jeff Sessions, telling Sessions to order Mueller to limit his investigation to "future election meddling"; the other is Trump's telling Don McGahn to create a false record claiming Trump had never ordered him to fire Mueller].... For Trump, much more is riding on the next election than remaining in office. The five-year federal statute of limitations applies to obstruction of justice, and obstructing a federal investigation is not a state crime, which means that a reelected President Trump could not be prosecuted for his obstruction in 2017 until he left office in January 2025, which is over two years after the statute of limitations would run."

David Enrich of the New York Times: "A group of Democratic senators wants top officials at the Federal Reserve to examine whether Deutsche Bank complied with anti-money-laundering and other laws after bank employees flagged transactions tied to President Trump as potentially suspicious. The request, in a letter sent Thursday, was in response to a New York Times report that specialists at Deutsche Bank recommend that transactions by legal entities controlled by Mr. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crime regulator. Managers at the bank rejected their employees' advice and did not alert the government." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn has fired his legal team as he awaits sentencing for lying to the FBI about his conversations with a top Russian official, according to a new filing Thursday from his long-time attorneys. The lawyers, Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony, offered no explanation for their abrupt dismissal in a two-page motion delivered to the federal judge who will mete out Flynn's punishment stemming from his 2017 guilty plea to Robert Mueller's prosecutors.... Flynn's decision to change attorneys at this late stage is unusual and has triggered speculation in legal and political circles he's considering backing out of his plea deal with the government in a play for a presidential pardon.... But the move also comes amid a yawning disconnect between the approach adopted by the well-respected legal team Flynn has used since the start of the Russia probe and the combative rhetoric from many of his friends and family members...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic: "Democrats debating whether to impeach Donald Trump may be misreading the evidence from the last time the House tried to remove a president.... While Republicans did lose House seats in both 1998 and 2000, Democrats did not gain enough to capture control of the chamber either time. And in 2000, lingering unease about [President Bill] Clinton's behavior provided a crucial backdrop for George W. Bush's winning presidential campaign -- particularly his defining promise 'to restore honor and dignity' to the Oval Office.... Even if the Senate doesn't convict Trump..., impeachment in the House could offer Democrats a similar chance to highlight the aspects of Trump's volatile behavior that most alienate swing voters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Michael Shear & Azam Ahmed of the New York Times: "Mexico and the United States have made significant progress in discussions that could forestall President Trump from following through on his threat of imposing tariffs on all Mexican imports, senior officials from both countries said Thursday. Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly demanded that Mexico end all illegal immigration into the United States, has not yet given his approval of the direction of the talks and no deal has been reached, the officials said. But they said Mexico and Guatemala have agreed to consider significant changes in asylum laws across the region that would allow the United States to reject requests for protection from many people fleeing persecution. The arrangement being discussed would require migrants to seek asylum in the first safe country they enter. It would mean that people from Guatemala who want refuge in the United States could be quickly sent to Mexico instead, while those fleeing El Salvador and Honduras who try to enter the United States could be turned away and sent instead to Guatemala." ...

... Rafael Bernal & Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump is planning to declare a new national emergency in order to implement sweeping tariffs on Mexico over the flow of Central American migrants to the U.S., according to a draft document of the declaration reviewed by The Hill. According to the document, the new emergency is necessary due to 'the failure of the Government of Mexico to take effective action to reduce the mass migration of aliens illegally crossing into the United States through Mexico.'" ...

... Dara Lind of Vox: "President Trump's constant temper tantrums about the US-Mexico border have become the background noise of his administration.... But as Trump has raged, something genuinely unprecedented has started happening at the border The past several months have seen a huge spike in unauthorized migration, especially of families, into the US.... What's happening at the border is the result of a regional crisis in which -- if current rates continue -- close to 1 percent of the entire population of Guatemala and Honduras will attempt to immigrate to the US this year." --safari: A very informative article on the immigration issue. ...

... Garance Burke of the AP: "The federal government is opening a new mass facility to hold migrant children in Texas and considering detaining hundreds more youths on three military bases around the country, adding up to 3,000 new beds to the already overtaxed system. The new emergency facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, will hold as many as 1,600 teens in a complex that once housed oil field workers on government-leased land near the border, said Mark Weber, a spokesman for Office of Refugee Resettlement. The agency is also weighing using Army and Air Force bases in Georgia, Montana and Oklahoma to house an additional 1,400 kids in the coming weeks, amid the influx of children traveling to the U.S. alone. Most of the children crossed the border without their parents, escaping violence and corruption in Central America, and are held in government custody while authorities determine if they can be released to relatives or family friends." ...

... BBC: "US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) says the 'dramatic rise' in migrants from African countries arriving [at the Texas-Mexico border] is a 'humanitarian crisis'. More than 500 African migrants have arrived at Del Rio border patrol sector in the past week, since 30 May. Most of these people are families that have travelled from Angola, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, CBP said.... Local news reporter Jaleesa Irizarry also tweeted that the city was 'in desperate need for French-speaking volunteers', and that local centres expected up to 300 more migrants to arrive in the next few days." --s

Caitlin Emma of Politico: "... Donald Trump Thursday signed a package that would deliver $19.1 billion in disaster relief to communities across the country that are still recovering from a spate of catastrophic hurricanes, wildfires and flooding. The House passed the bill on Monday after Republicans successfully thwarted three attempts to fast-track the package. The Senate passed the bill before the Memorial Day recess, removing Trump's request for billions in emergency border aid in a last-minute scramble because it was holding up the deal. The legislation was delayed for months prior to that amid partisan infighting."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The world's largest automakers warned President Trump on Thursday that one of his most sweeping deregulatory efforts -- his plan to weaken tailpipe pollution standards -- threatens to cut their profits and produce 'untenable' instability in a crucial manufacturing sector. In a letter signed by 17 companies including Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Volvo, the automakers asked Mr. Trump to go back to the negotiating table on the planned rollback. It represents the most forceful statement to date by the auto industry against Mr. Trump's effort to weaken the pollution rules, which were one of President Barack Obama's signature policies to fight climate change. The carmakers are addressing a crisis that is partly of their own making. They had sought some changes to the pollution standards early in the Trump presidency, but have since grown alarmed at the expanding scope of the administration's plan."

** Laura Davison of Bloomberg News: "... Donald Trump's trade wars have already wiped out all but $100 of the average American household's windfall from Trump's 2017 tax law. And that's just the beginning. That last $100 in tax-cut gains could soon completely disappear -- and then some -- because of additional tariffs Trump has announced. If the president makes good on his threats to impose levies on virtually all imports from China and Mexico, those middle-earning households could pay nearly $4,000 more. Subtract the tax cut, and the average household will effectively be paying about $3,000 more in taxes through additional levies on the products they consume." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. Mrs. McC: As numerous observers (including some Republicans in Congress) have pointed out, Trump's tariffs amount to a tax on American consumers. If you don't need to buy anything that has at least a part manufactured abroad or anything from U.S. manufacturers whose competitors are foreign or use some foreign parts, then you've got no problem. Trump's trade wars are the ingredients in a recipe for a recession.

Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "On April 15, Trump called Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, a military commander and alleged war criminal, whose Libyan National Army controls eastern Libya.... [R]eports quickly emerged that Trump -- and national security adviser John Bolton in a separate phone call with the warlord -- had encouraged Haftar's armed assault, launched a few weeks earlier, on Tripoli and militias supporting the government there.... With one phone call..., Trump undercut years of American diplomacy in Libya, leaving US policy toward the war-torn state uncertain. Now a colorful cast of lobbyists and would-be profiteers are cashing in on the confusion, as they sign up with assorted Libyan factions ... to help them influence policymakers in Washington. In short, Trump threw US policy toward Libya into chaos and created a money-making opportunity for K Street." --s

Samantha Grasso of Splinter: "Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits federal employees from using their positions to promote partisan politics when he tweeted a photo of himself in MAGA socks last June, according to a December letter from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel which was leaked to the Washington Post and published on Thursday. The letter said that the Special Counsel, which investigates people for Hatch Act violations found that Zinke, in wearing these dumbass socks, had indeed broken the rules. Zinke, who resigned in December five days before the Special Counsel notified him of his violation, only received a warning. Specifically, he avoided punishment because he deleted the tweet and apologized." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "At a time when no one is really sure anymore just what constitutes Republican ideology, you could do worse than to call it the Except-When-Trump-Does-It Party."

Igor Derysh in Salon: "Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of just two Republican senators who claim to be pro-choice, has voted for at least 32 of President Trump's anti-abortion judicial nominees."

Presidential Race 2020

Uh, Is This What You Mean by "Moderate," Joe? Jonathan Kozol in the Nation: Joe Biden "said nothing to disown his long history as a fierce opponent of school busing and a scathing critic of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. 'We've lost our bearings since the 1954 Brown v. School Board desegregation case,' Biden said in 1975, in an interview that he gave to a newspaper in Delaware that was recently unearthed by The Washington Post. 'To "desegregate" is different than to "integrate."'... 'The real problem with busing,' he said [in the 1975 interview], 'is that you take [white] people who aren't racist, people who are good citizens, who believe in equal education and opportunity, and you stunt their children's growth by busing them to an inferior [black] school.'... As The Washington Post candidly surmised, his 'decision to stand by his views on the issue illustrates what some of his supporters think would be his advantage in the 2020 field: his ability to appeal beyond his Democratic base to some white working-class voters who voted for Donald Trump in 2016.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

A Reluctant Follower, Not a Leader. Bill Barrow of the AP: "After two days of intense criticism, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden reversed course Thursday and declared that he no longer supports a long-standing congressional ban on using federal health care money to pay for abortions. 'If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment' that makes it harder for some women to access care, Biden said at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Atlanta. The former vice president's reversal on the Hyde Amendment came after rivals and women's rights groups blasted him for affirming through campaign aides that he still supported the decades-old budget provision." Mrs. McC: Reminds me of Trump's reversing his position on criminally "punishing" women who have abortions. ...

... He Was For It Before He Was Against It Before He Was For It Before He Was Against It. Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "One day after he was torn to shreds by a righteous Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden decided that maybe he does support repealing the Hyde Amendment after all.... In the recent past, Biden said he still supported upholding the amendment. Last month, he briefly changed his mind, telling the ACLU that the law 'can't stay,' but his campaign later backtracked. Now, Biden has changed his mind about the long-standing law AGAIN."

Natasha Korecki & Marc Caputo of Politico: "Twenty-four hours after Joe Biden's campaign was taken to task for lifting portions of a climate change plan without citation, it's clear that the former vice president has plenty of company. A sampling of policy proposals from Biden's leading rivals suggests the lifting of direct text from academic papers, think tanks or policy institutes -- and the cribbing of facts without attribution -- is fairly widespread on 2020 campaign websites. A Politico review found previously published material on the official campaign websites of Sens. Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, as well as frequent use of facts and data without citation on a number of others." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There's nothing at all wrong with politicians using other people's statistics & policy analyses. Advocates are glad to have prominent politicians back their policies. But conducting studies & developing policies is time-consuming, difficult & expensive. We wouldn't expect candidates to do this kind of detail work themselves, but they must give credit to the organizations or individuals who did the work.


Mark Stern of Slate: "The latest bombshell from the formerly secret files of the GOP's top gerrymandering guru emerged on Thursday, and it's astounding: Voting rights advocates claim to have evidence that North Carolina Republican lawmakers repeatedly lied to a federal court, and to the public, in a successful effort to delay a special election that threatened their legislative supermajority.... The newest discovery from the files pertains to Covington v. North Carolina, a challenge to Republicans' racial gerrymander of state legislative districts. In 2016, a federal district court ordered the legislature to draw new maps and hold a special election after finding the map had been illegally gerrymandered along racial lines. The Supreme Court agreed that the maps were unlawful, but sent the case back to district court to resolve how quickly Republican lawmakers could draw new maps.... GOP legislators insisted that they had not yet prepared any maps and would need ample time to do so.... According to Common Cause, these representations to the district court were a lie." ...

... ** Russ Choma of Mother Jones: Last week brought a "bombshell revelation in the fight over a controversial question about citizenship status on the 2020 census.... Key wording in its legal rationale matches memos written by Tom Hofeller, a Republican gerrymandering expert.... Republican Party financial filings with federal regulators add a twist to this backstory: The party's main political apparatus paid Hofeller more than $2 million for his work. That suggests that Hofeller's memos weren't simply independent advocacy for a pet issue, but that he and his work were deeply embedded in the heart of the GOP's strategic operations." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That is, the Republican party has been paying serious money to curb the foundational democratic exercise of voting. ...

... Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "[T]he story of this [Supreme Court] term is likely to be a story about democracy -- and the Supreme Court's role in thwarting it. The court is likely to hold that federal judges are powerless to stop partisan gerrymandering.... And it is even more likely to hold that the Trump administration may effectively& rig the Census to discourage immigrants from participating and shift power to white communities.... Below the surface, however, are two far more subtle attacks on democracy. These two cases, Kisor v. Wilkie and Gundy v. United States, are early stages of a much broader effort to transfer power from the executive branch -- whose leader is elected, at least most of the time -- to a judiciary that is unaccountable to voters and that is now controlled by the Republican Party." --s

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Matt Novak of Gizmodo: "Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals announced today that the company expects to pay $15.4 million in a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department after allegations that Questcor Pharmaceuticals, which Mallinckrodt acquired in 2014, had bribed doctors and their staff to prescribe an incredibly expensive drug.... Questcor raised the price of the medication by almost 100,000 percent (not a typo) from just $40 in 2000 to $38,892 today, despite the fact that Acthar has been on the market since 1952. Mallinckrodt currently rakes in about $1 billion per year from Acthar, according to CNN." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Ivana Hrynkiw of AL.com: "Former Senate candidate Roy Moore's attorney was arrested Wednesday night for charges of driving under the influence and for possessing drugs. Trenton Roger Garmon, 39, was booked into the Etowah County Jail around 8 p.m., according to jail records. He was arrested by Gadsden police and charged with driving under the influence of controlled substances, second-degree possession of marijuana, and drug paraphernalia." This isn't Garmon's first arrest for impaired driving. It isn't clear from the story, but he may have been driving on a suspended license when stopped Wednesday. Anyhow, he's in the jailhouse now. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

Politico: "U.S. hiring slowed in May as employers added just 75,000 jobs, a sign that businesses may have become more cautious in the face of slowing global growth and widening trade conflicts. The tepid job growth, along with the rising pressures on the economy, make it likelier that the Federal Reserve will cut rates in the coming months."

Comments Off
Wednesday
Jun052019

The Commentariat -- June 6, 2019

Afternoon Update:

What's Wrong with This Picture? ...

... Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "Just before his speech honoring military veterans at a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, President Trump gave an interview marked by insults directed toward the speaker of the House and former special counsel Robert Mueller. Speaking to Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Trump called the former special counsel a 'fool' and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a 'disaster.' 'Let me tell you, he made such a fool out of himself,' Trump said of Mueller, speaking at a cemetery where more than 9,300 American soldiers who died in World War II are buried. Mueller is a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, in which President Trump did not serve, and which he described in an interview on British television as a 'terrible war' and 'very far away.'... 'Nancy Pelosi, I call her "Nervous Nancy," Nancy Pelosi doesn't talk about it,' the president said. 'Nancy Pelosi is a disaster, OK? She's a disaster....' Pelosi, who was also in Normandy for the D-Day commemoration, declined to respond. 'I don't talk about the president while I'm out of the country,' she told CNN's Jim Acosta." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In the video that accompanies the Yahoo! News story, Trump says, "He [Mueller] made such a fool out of himself because what people don't report is the letter he had to do to straighten out his testimony because his testimony was wrong." What testimony? Trump seems to have made up testimony that never happened. (Why isn't "people don't report" that?) It's well-known that Mueller has resisted testifying. I couldn't figure out what "letter" Trump was talking about, but Jordan Fabian of the Hill took a stab at & guessed, "The president was referring to a joint statement later issued by the Justice Department and the special counsel's office saying that Mueller's account did not conflict with Attorney General William Barr's previous comments, in which Barr said the decision not to charge Trump with obstruction did not hinge solely on the DOJ policy." But good idea to use the graves of dead American soldiers as a backdrop for an attack on a wounded war veteran. ...

     ... BTW, Stableford's report is a good example of the kind of journalism I complained about below. Instead of pointing out that Trump made a statement at odds with the facts, Stableford writes, "The president took issue with Mueller's public statement on his investigation into Russian election interference." But Trump "took issue with" "testimony" Mueller never gave, not with a public statement. That is, Stableford radically "corrected" Trump's nonsensical remarks without indicating he had done so.

Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "House Democratic leaders are preparing to grant sweeping authority to committee chairs to sue the Trump administration over its refusal to comply with congressional demands for information -- from ... Donald Trump's tax returns to former special counsel Robert Mueller' underlying files. The draft resolution, which the House will consider on Tuesday, formally holds Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in contempt of Congress for defying House Judiciary Committee subpoenas seeking Mueller's unredacted report, its underlying evidence, and additional witness testimony. But the most dramatic proposal will empower the chairs of all House committees to initiate legal action each time a witness or administration official defies a committee subpoena, a move to streamline and speed up the House's ability to respond to a mounting list of confrontations with the White House."

David Enrich of the New York Times: "A group of Democratic senators wants top officials at the Federal Reserve to examine whether Deutsche Bank complied with anti-money-laundering and other laws after bank employee flagged transactions tied to President Trump as potentially suspicious. The request, in a letter sent Thursday, was in response to a New York Times report that specialists at Deutsche Bank recommend that transactions by legal entities controlled by Mr. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crime regulator. Managers at the bank rejected their employees' advice and did not alert the government."

Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn has fired his legal team as he awaits sentencing for lying to the FBI about his conversations with a top Russian official, according to a new filing Thursday from his long-time attorneys. The lawyers, Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony, offered no explanation for their abrupt dismissal in a two-page motion delivered to the federal judge who will mete out Flynn's punishment stemming from his 2017 guilty plea to Robert Mueller’s prosecutors.... Flynn's decision to change attorneys at this late stage is unusual and has triggered speculation in legal and political circles he's considering backing out of his plea deal with the government in a play for a presidential pardon.... But the move also comes amid a yawning disconnect between the approach adopted by the well-respected legal team Flynn has used since the start of the Russia probe and the combative rhetoric from many of his friends and family members...."

Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic: "Democrats debating whether to impeach Donald Trump may be misreading the evidence from the last time the House tried to remove a president.... While Republicans did lose House seats in both 1998 and 2000, Democrats did not gain enough to capture control of the chamber either time. And in 2000, lingering unease about [President Bill] Clinton's behavior provided a crucial backdrop for George W. Bush's winning presidential campaign -- particularly his defining promise 'to restore honor and dignity' to the Oval Office.... Even if the Senate doesn't convict Trump..., impeachment in the House could offer Democrats a similar chance to highlight the aspects of Trump's volatile behavior that most alienate swing voters."

Samantha Grasso of Splinter: "Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits federal employees from using their positions to promote partisan politics when he tweeted a photo of himself in MAGA socks last June, according to a December letter from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel which was leaked to the Washington Post and published on Thursday. The letter said that the Special Counsel, which investigates people for Hatch Act violations found that Zinke, in wearing these dumbass socks, had indeed broken the rules. Zinke, who resigned in December five days before the Special Counsel notified him of his violation, only received a warning. Specifically, he avoided punishment because he eleted the tweet and apologized."

Uh, Is This What You Mean by "Moderate," Joe? Jonathan Kozol in the Nation: Joe Biden has "said nothing to disown his long history as a fierce opponent of school busing and a scathing critic of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. 'We've lost our bearings since the 1954 Brown v. School Board desegregation case,' Biden said in 1975, in an interview that he gave to a newspaper in Delaware that was recently unearthed by The Washington Post. 'To "desegregate" is different than to "integrate."'... 'The real problem with busing,' he said [in the 1975 interview], 'is that you take [white] people who aren't racist, people who are good citizens, who believe in equal education and opportunity, and you stunt their children's growth by busing them to an inferior [black] school.'... As The Washington Post candidly surmised, his 'decision to stand by his views on the issue illustrates what some of his supporters think would be his advantage in the 2020 field: his ability to appeal beyond his Democratic base to some white working-class voters who voted for Donald Trump in 2016.'"

Ivana Hrynkiw of AL.com: "Former Senate candidate Roy Moore's attorney was arrested Wednesday night for charges of driving under the influence and for possessing drugs. Trenton Roger Garmon, 39, was booked into the Etowah County Jail around 8 p.m., according to jail records. He was arrested by Gadsden police and charged with driving under the influence of controlled substances, second-degree possession of marijuana, and drug paraphernalia." Read on. This isn't Garmon's first arrest for impaired driving. It isn't clear from the story, but he may have been driving on a suspended license when stopped Wednesday. Anyhow, he's in the jailhouse now.

~~~~~~~~~~

Raf Casert & John Leicester of the AP: "With the silence of remembrance and respect, nations honored the memory of the fallen and the singular bravery of all Allied troops who sloshed through bloodied water to the landing beaches of Normandy, a tribute of thanks 75 years after the D-Day assault that doomed the Nazi occupation of France and portended the fall of Hitler's Third Reich.... Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy on D-Day. Of those 73,000 were from the United States, 83,000 from Britain and Canada. The second day of ceremonies moved to France after spirited commemorations in Portsmouth, England, the main embarkation point for the transport boats." ...

... New York Times: "President Trump spoke at a ceremony in Normandy, reflecting on the lives lost 75 years ago and honoring the dozens of World War II veterans who were present." This is a liveblog. ...

... Roger Cohen of the New York Times: "To have Donald Trump -- the bone-spur evader of the Vietnam draft, the coddler of autocrats, the would-be destroyer of the European Union, the pay-up-now denigrator of NATO, the apologist for the white supremacists of Charlottesville -- commemorate the boys from Kansas City and St. Paul who gave their lives for freedom is to understand the word impostor. You can't make a sculpture from rotten wood.... If Europe is whole and free and at peace, it's because of NATO and the European Union; it's because the United States became a European power after World War II; it's because America's word was a solemn pledge; it's because that word cemented alliances that were not zero-sum games but the foundation for stability and prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic. Of this, Trump understands nothing." Thanks to MAG for the link.

... this trip is really about great relationships we have with the U.K., and I really wanted to do this stop in Ireland. It was very important to me because of the relationship I have with the people and with your prime minister. -- Donald Trump, at Shannon Airport Wednesday

... apparently ... Mike Pompeo forgot to inform Trump that Ireland isn't part of the United Kingdom. -- Cristina Cabrera of TPM, Wednesday ...

... Idiotic U.S. President* Tries to Exacerbate Ireland-Northern Ireland "Troubles," Insults Taoiseach. Rory Carroll of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has started his visit to Ireland by comparing its post-Brexit border with Northern Ireland to the US border with Mexico, along which he wants to build a permanent wall. Trump, sitting next to a visibly uncomfortable taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, waded into the Brexit debate minutes after Air Force One touched down at Shannon airport on Wednesday afternoon. 'I think it will all work out very well, and also for you with your wall, your border,' he said at a joint press conference. 'I mean, we have a border situation in the United States, and you have one over here. But I hear it's going to work out very well here.' Varadkar interjected that Ireland wished to avoid a border or a wall, a keystone of Irish government policy.... In London on Tuesday Trump met the Brexiter politicians Nigel Farage, Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson, all of whom have played down the idea that the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland will be a problem after the UK leaves the EU.... The Irish government has mounted an intense, three-year diplomatic effort arguing the opposite, that Brexit threatens peace and prosperity on the island of Ireland. The US president's comments were an awkward start to what is expected to be a low-key end to his visit to Europe, with much of his time spent at his golf and hotel resort in Doonbeg, County Clare." ...

... Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "For the backdrop to his first official visit to Ireland..., Donald Trump wanted to promote his golf course on the nation's rocky west coast. The Irish government countered with the grand staging of an ancient castle. In the end, neither side got what they wanted.... The White House initially proposed that Trump meet Varadkar at the course, as part of the president's unprecedented blending of government affairs and business advertising. But the Taoiseach's office balked and proposed a more historic site before settling on Shannon.... The compromise location for Trump's meeting Wednesday with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar was the VIP lounge at Shannon Airport, just down the hallway from the food court and duty-free shop. And the meeting itself was more than just a warm handshake for the cameras, as the two broke sharply on what would be best for Ireland if the United Kingdom were to leave the European Union. Varadkar has become a vociferous opponent of Brexit, a move Trump supports. Many in Ireland express worry that if the U.K. does leave, a 'hard border' will return between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K, potentially reigniting sectarian tension that lasted for decades and sometimes exploded into violence.... Trump’s two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, poured pints of Guinness for locals in a Doonbeg pub Wednesday night. The Trump Organization has poured tons of millions into Doonbeg since it bought the resort in 2014 but it has yet to make a profit." ...

... Charles Pierce: "As part of his international exploration to find new problems that he invariably can make worse, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago stopped in the Motherland on Wednesday and proceeded to bungle his way into one of Ireland's most delicate and volatile issues.... The president* is bunking in at Doonbeg, his property in Clare on the west coast of the island. This is something of an irony since the resort has been lobbying the Irish government for a huge seawall to be built to protect the president*'s golf course against the erosion caused by the climate crisis in which the president* doesn't believe."

Your Taxpayer Dollars Going up in Exhaust Fumes. Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "President Trump has spent $1 million of taxpayer money on four limousines he may or may not use on his trip to Ireland this week, according to The Guardian.... The pricey limos were rented from JP Ward & Sons, a funeral home in south Dublin that seems to moonlight as a rental agency for the rich and famous. In addition to doing funerals, the company rents out Mercedes E-Class limousines.... When in [his] packed schedule will Trump and his entourage have time to drive around Ireland in limos? We don't know!" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It could be the pricey limos are indeed just idling near the front door of the Doonbeg golf club, but whaddaya bet we get to spend $1MM for limos to drive around Trump's adult children, whose travel expenses we taxpayers also generously paid. Last night, Eric & bro went out to lift Guinnesses at local pubs, and you know they won't want to drink-drive. So a quarter-million-dollar limo probably came in right handy.

CBS News: "President Trump was spending Wednesday and Thursday with other world leaders commemorating the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied northern France by Allied forces.... The president and first lady participated commemorative events in Portsmouth, England on Wednesday, the first of two days of ceremonies. Portsmouth, on the southern English coast, was one of the primary points of departure for the Allied forces as they struck out across the English Channel to invade Normandy. Mr. Trump joined British Prime Minister Theresa May, Queen Elizabeth II and leaders from the other nations which took part in the Allied D-Day invasion for the events on Wednesday."

Trump Still Doesn't Understand Difference between Climate & Weather. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "President Trump during an interview broadcast early Wednesday said that he appreciates Prince Charles's passion on climate change but dismissed the British royal's concerns on the topic, adding that the weather 'changes both ways.' Trump told Piers Morgan of ITV's 'Good Morning Britain' that the prince spent more than an hour trying to warn him the dangers of climate change. Prince Charles did 'most of the talking" during their interaction, Trump said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** Adam Raymond of the New York Times lists the nine "most bonkers" moments from Trump's interview with Morgan. Kind of a must-read. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... Donald Trump's state visit to the United Kingdom began with him firing off tweets from Air Force One calling London Mayor Sadiq Khan 'a stone cold loser' and culminated with him posting tweets at 1:30 am London time on Wednesday denigrating actress Bette Midler as a 'Washed up psycho.' In between, the president called Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer 'a creep' and urged his supporters to boycott AT&T because of his displeasure with how CNN covers him. He also did a television interview with Piers Morgan in which he demonstrated appalling ignorance about climate science and attempted to walk back a comment he'd recently made about Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle being 'nasty' -- by calling her 'nasty' again. Trump was accompanied to the UK by his adult children and their spouses, despite the fact that only two of them (Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner) actually have official government roles.... The trip is a perfect illustration of what people feared from a Trump presidency: an immature, impulsive bully leveraging his office to demean his enemies and promote his business interests.... Meanwhile, back at home, the New York Times and Washington Post covered the trip as though Trump is a normal president...." Read the 4 grafs about Trump's remarks on the Brits' National Health Service (and watch the clip where Theresa May tells Trump what NHS is). ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Rupar's observation about the NYT & WashPo is well-taken. All too frequently, I have heard a snippet of Trump's saying something that was incomprehensible; I really could not figure out what he was trying to say, though I could tell there was some superficial thought in there somewhere that just couldn't traverse the journey from brain to mouth. Then mainstream reporters "interpret" what Trump seemed to be saying & report it out in normal, readable sentences. This leaves the unsuspecting reader with the false impression that Trump had a coherent opinion which he shared with reporters. ...

... Amy Sorkin of the New Yorker has some thoughts on Trump & the NHS (more thoughts than Trump had, that's for sure) -- and on Trump & Brexit.

** Erik Sherman of Fortune: "When it comes to talking himself up, Trump in particular has compared himself to Barack Obama. So, how do the two presidents measure up in terms of growth in major indexes, measured between their inauguration and May 31 of their third year in office? The short answer is that Trump has quite a way to go. Under Obama, the S&P 500 grew by 56.4%. The Dow Jones Industrials Average was up 50.6% and the Nasdaq, 92.9%. The numbers under Trump were 21.4% for the S&P 500, 25.2% for the Dow, and 34.2% for Nasdaq." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Heather Caygle of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi told senior Democrats that she'd like to see ... Donald Trump 'in prison' as she clashed with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler in a meeting on Tuesday night over whether to launch impeachment proceedings. Pelosi met with Nadler (D-N.Y.) and several other top Democrats who are aggressively pursuing investigations against the president, according to multiple sources. Nadler and other committee leaders have been embroiled in a behind-the-scenes turf battle for weeks over ownership of the Democrats' sprawling investigation into Trump. Nadler pressed Pelosi to allow his committee to launch an impeachment inquiry against Trump -- the second such request he's made in recent weeks only to be rebuffed by the California Democrat and other senior leaders. Pelosi stood firm, reiterating that she isn't open to the idea of impeaching Trump at this time." ...

... MEANWHILE, Ian Philbrick of the New York Times helpfully has read through actual Articles of Impeachment against Richard Nixon & Bill Clinton, and revised them to apply to Donald Trump. "These rewritten articles against Mr. Trump don't include other potentially impeachable offenses that lack a clear precedent in the Nixon and Clinton cases, such as hush-money payments to women or possible violations of the Constitution's emoluments clause." And it's all interactive! Fun!

Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "The only committee of the U.S. Congress running a genuinely bipartisan probe of Russian meddling in U.S. politics [the Senate Intelligence Committee] has still had no word from the Trump administration on briefing the panel about the Mueller report's counterintelligence findings, congressional sources said on Wednesday.... The committee is 'not satisfied' with the Justice Department's stonewalling and 'will press ahead with its effort to obtain' the Mueller material, one of the two sources said." --s

Laura Davison of Bloomberg News: "House Democrats clamoring for Donald Trump's tax information have eagerly awaited a newly passed New York law allowing limited access to the president's state returns. They're about to be sorely disappointed. House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal would be the only Democrat allowed by the new law to ask for the documents, but so far he has said he won't do it. Neal has said he fears that getting the state returns would bolster Trump administration arguments that Congress is on a political fishing expedition -- and not, as Neal has claimed, overseeing the Internal Revenue Service's annual audits of the president." Mrs. McC: Long on principle, short on common sense?

Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "[T]he royal family has for years batted back stories that its members were looking into or joining Trump's properties -- stories that, according to multiple biographies of Trump, were spread by the real-estate developer himself. Between 1981 and 1995, multiple claims that members of the British Royal family were joining Trump properties filled New York tabloids and national papers according to a CNN KFile review of archival papers, audio, and books about the then-real estate developer. All of them were unequivocally shot down by Buckingham Palace." --safari: A damning review of how Trump has cynically manipulated journalists for decades for free publicity. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Anjali Tsui of ProPublica and Alice Wilder of WNYC: "In mid-March, the payday lending industry held its annual convention at the Trump National Doral hotel outside Miami. Payday lenders offer loans on the order of a few hundred dollars, typically to low-income borrowers, who have to pay them back in a matter of weeks. The industry has long been reviled by critics for charging stratospheric interest rates -- typically 400% on an annual basis -- that leave customers trapped in cycles of debt.... The mood was celebratory.... A month earlier, Kathleen Kraninger, who had just finished her second month as director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, had delivered what the lenders consider an epochal victory: Kraninger announced a proposal to gut a crucial rule that had been passed under her Obama-era predecessor.... Now, the industry was taking credit for the CFPB's retreat.... The CFSA and its members have poured a total of about $1 million into the Trump Organization's coffers through ... two annual conferences.... They [also] contributed to the president's inauguration and earned face time with the president after donating to a Trump ally. But it's the payment to the president's business that is a stark reminder that the Trump administration is like none before it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Cay Johnson of DC Report in RawStory: "Only one of the billionaire Koch brothers supported Donald Trump's 2016 campaign: William Ingraham Koch. Bill Koch even raised money for Trump, his nearby neighbor in Palm Beach, Fla. That same year, IRS criminal agents began an investigation after receiving nearly 1,000 pages of documents detailing what were described as multiple tax frauds at Bill Koch's companies. The documents, which we call the Koch Papers, came from a deeply knowledgeable source: Charles Middleton, who had been one of the companies' top tax executives. The IRS investigation went cold after Trump assumed office, documents obtained by DCReport show.... Middleton's lawyers ... both say the IRS and Justice Department stopped acknowledging their calls, emails and letters after Trump became president." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Election 2016. Tim Starks of Politico: "Russia's infamous troll farm conducted a campaign on Twitter before the 2016 elections that was larger, more coordinated and more effective than previously known, research from cybersecurity firm Symantec out Wednesday concluded. The Internet Research Agency campaign may not only have had more sway -- reaching large numbers of real users -- than previously thought, it also demonstrated ample patience and might have generated income for some of the phony accounts, Symantec found. The company analyzed a massive data set Twitter released in October 2018 on nearly 3,900 accounts and 10 million tweets.... The research also found that the accounts played to both sides of the aisle more than previously believed, and that most of them were fakes pretending to be regional news outlets, while a smaller subset amplified those messages." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Central American migrants surged across the United States border with Mexico in May, officials announced on Wednesday, as American and Mexican diplomats began discussions aimed at averting the damaging economic consequences from President Trump's threat to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports. More than 144,200 migrants were arrested and taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection along the southwestern border in May, a 32 percent increase from April and the highest monthly total in seven years. Most crossed the border illegally, while about 10 percent arrived without the proper documentation at ports of entry along the border. The announcement of the surge in border crossings was meant to put pressure on the Mexican government to meet Mr. Trump's demands that it take quick action to stop the flow of migrants." ...

     ... New Lede: "The United States on Wednesday barreled closer to imposing tariffs on all Mexican imports as high-stakes negotiations at the White House and the State Department failed to immediately resolve President Trump'sdemand that Mexico prevent a surge of Central American migrants from flowing across the southwestern border. Mr. Trump declared Wednesday evening on Twitter that 'not nearly enough' progress had been made and warned that 'if no agreement is reached, Tariffs at the 5% level will begin on Monday, with monthly increases as per schedule.'"

Cruel & Unusual. Priscilla Alvarez of CNN: "The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is charged with caring for unaccompanied migrant children, is 'scaling back' or canceling activities at shelters, citing the need for more resources.... 'This week, ORR instructed grantees to begin scaling back or discontinuing awards for (unaccompanied minors) activities that are not directly necessary for the protection of life and safety, including education services, legal services, and recreation,' Evelyn Stauffer, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, said in a statement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Cruel & Unusual, Ctd. "Egregious" Conditions." Priscilla Alvarez: "The Department of Homeland Security inspector general found expired food and dilapidated bathrooms during unannounced visits to four immigrant detention facilities in 2018, according to a not-yet-released report obtained by CNN. The kitchen at one facility was in such poor shape -- with open packages of raw chicken leaking blood over refrigeration units -- that the kitchen manager was replaced while the IG inspection was ongoing. The report describes conditions at facilities last year, but it comes amid a worsening situation along the US-Mexico border, where the number of migrants crossing the border illegally has surpassed previous years. The dramatic increase in arrivals -- the majority of whom are families and children -- has overwhelmed the Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency reviewed in the latest report.... The latest report obtained by CNN comes on the heels of a DHS IG report released Friday that found 'dangerous overcrowding' and unsanitary conditions at an El Paso, Texas, Border Patrol processing facility following an unannounced inspection last month."

Another Triumph for Stupid. Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "The Trump administration announced Wednesday that the federal government would sharply curtail federal spending on medical research that uses tissue from aborted fetuses, mainly by ending fetal-tissue research within the National Institutes of Health. The move goes a long way toward fulfilling a top goal of anti-abortion groups that have lobbied hard for it; it is just the latest in a string of decisions that have pleased such groups. But scientists say the tissue is crucial for studies that benefit millions of patients. Besides ending N.I.H. research, the Department of Health and Human Services said it would immediately cancel a $2 million-a-year contract with the University of California, San Francisco, for research involving fetal tissue from abortions; the contract started in 2013. Other university research projects would be subject to case-by-case review."

AP: "The US government plans to reclassify some of the nation's most dangerous radioactive waste to lower its threat level [sav[ing] $40bn in cleanup costs across the nation's entire nuclear weapons complex], outraging critics who say the move would make it cheaper and easier to walk away from cleaning up nuclear weapons production sites in Washington state, Idaho and South Carolina.... The new rules would allow the energy department to eventually abandon storage tanks containing more than 100m gallons (378m liters) of radioactive waste in the three states, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is brilliant. How to eliminate hazardous waste at almost no cost: say it's not hazardous, after all.

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration is seeking to dramatically escalate federal penalties for pipeline protesters. Under newly proposed changes, pipeline protesters could face up to 20 years in prison for disrupting the construction of oil and gas infrastructure.... The administration argues that the changes are key to ensuring safety.... But environmental groups and activists will likely oppose the proposed measures and are expected to seek legal action against the Trump administration." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ellie Kaufman of CNN: "The Interior Department has released five different versions of Secretary David Bernhardt's schedule for the first five months of 2019.... But many of these ... give conflicting information when compared side by side on any given day. With none of the five sources apparently being the definitive record, it raises questions about what the secretary is actually using to schedule his days and why the public doesn't have access to it." --s

Susannah George of the AP: "Directly challenging ... Donald Trump's use of executive power, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are banding together to introduce more than a dozen resolutions aimed at blocking the Trump administration's sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia. The maneuver amounts to a remarkable display of bipartisan pushback to Trump's foreign policy and threatens to tangle the Senate in a series of floor votes this summer. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is leading the effort, but he has support from two of Trump's allies in Congress: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Anger has been mounting in Congress over the Trump administration's close ties to the Saudis, fueled by the high civilian casualties in the Saudi-led war in Yemen -- a military campaign the U.S. is assisting -- and the killing of U.S.-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. Trump's decision in May to sell the weapons, in a manner intended to bypass congressional review, further inflamed the tensions." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The Democrat-led House passed legislation on Tuesday to grant a path to citizenship to about 2.5 million immigrants whose legal protections President Trump has moved to end, advancing a measure that highlights the bitter partisan differences over immigration. The bill, which passed 237 to 187, with seven Republicans voting yes, would create a new legal pathway for young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, known as Dreamers, and for those with Temporary Protected Status, granted to immigrants whose countries are ravaged by natural disaster or violence. It is almost certain to die in the Republican-led Senate, where there is no appetite to challenge Mr. Trump on his signature issue and the majority regards it as amnesty for people who have broken the law. The White House said on Monday that Mr. Trump would veto the measure." Mrs. McC: Sorry, thought I linked a story on this earlier Wednesday. Obviously not. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "At least 43 of the 58 Republican House members who voted against a $19 billion bipartisan disaster relief bill Monday night have previously demanded or endorsed emergency aid funding for their own states, a ThinkProgress analysis has found." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race 2020

Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times: "Elizabeth Warren is running the most impressive presidential campaign in ages, certainly the most impressive campaign within my lifetime.... Warren actually has ideas. She has grand, detailed and daring ideas, and through these ideas she is single-handedly elevating the already endless slog of the 2020 presidential campaign into something weightier and more interesting than what it might otherwise have been: a frivolous contest about who hates Donald Trump most.... The only way to liberate ourselves from Trumpism is through politics that rise above Trumpian silliness. For that, for now, we have Elizabeth Warren to thank."

Ryan Grim of the Intercept: "As vice president, Joe Biden repeatedly sought to undermine the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate, working in alliance with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to push for a broad exemption that would have left millions of women without coverage. Biden's battle over contraception is a window into his approach to the politics of reproductive freedom, a function of an electoral worldview that centers working-class Catholic men over the interests of women.... According to contemporaneous reporting and to sources involved with the internal debate, Biden had argued that if the regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act were going to mandate coverage, it would anger white, male Catholic voters, and threaten President Obama's reelection in 2012. Biden's main ally in the internal fight over contraception was Chief of Staff William Daly; both men are Catholic." ...

... Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has shunned today's Democratic Party orthodoxy on issues from crime to compromising with Republicans, again broke with his party's base and many of his campaign rivals on Wednesday when his campaign confirmed that he still backs the Hyde Amendment, a measure that prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion with exceptions for cases involving rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger. The backlash to Mr. Biden, who despite leading early presidential polls faces skepticism from his party's progressive wing, came swiftly from lawmakers and activists who support abortion rights, with many noting that the Hyde Amendment disproportionately affects economically disadvantaged women and women of color." ...

... Benjamin Fearnow of Newsweek: "Bernie Sanders backed abortion rights and ridiculed male-dominated legislatures governing women's bodies in a 1972 article [which!] surfaced Wednesday. The commentary reveals another stark, decades-long contrast between he [him!] and former Vice President Joe Biden's progressive stances. Sanders told Vermont's Bennington Banner newspaper in September 1972 -- months before the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Roe v. Wade -- that abortion procedures should only be a concern between a woman and her physician. The article sits aside several letters the then-Liberty Union candidate for governor wrote to local newspapers calling for the abolition of 'all laws dealing with abortion, drugs, sexual behavior.'" Mrs. McC: Newsweek must have fired all its copy editors.


Kevin Roose & Kate Conger of the New York Times: "YouTube announced plans on Wednesday to remove thousands of videos and channels that advocate for neo-Nazism, white supremacy and other bigoted ideologies in an attempt to clean up extremism and hate speech on its popular service. The new policy will ban 'videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion,' the company said in a blog post. The prohibition will also cover videos denying that violent incidents, like the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School..., took place." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... BUT. Homophobic Slurs A-Okay. Tom McKay of Gizmodo: "YouTube has chosen not to take action against right-wing video personality Steven Crowder after Vox host Carlos Maza posted clips of Crowder repeatedly harassing him with derogatory, anti-gay, and racist statements, which Maza says resulted in hordes of Crowder's fans doxxing him and subjecting him to abuse on social media.... YouTube's hate speech policy page specifically bars 'content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups' based on a number of attributes including ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation.... After claiming YouTube takes 'allegations of harassment very seriously' and that they had spent days 'conducting an in-depth review of the videos flagged to us,' the Team YouTube Twitter wrote that while Crowder's language was 'clearly hurtful,' 'the videos as posted don't violate our policies' and will 'remain on our site.'... YouTube's stance is apparently that it is okay for a host with millions of subscribers (3,846,360 as of early Wednesday a.m.) to repeatedly engage in racist, homophobic bullying so long as it's couched as part of some kind of ambiguously defined 'debate.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Madison Kircher of New York: "June is usually the time when tech companies deck themselves out in rainbow colors and bend over backward to demonstrate just how much they support the LGBTQ+ community. YouTube, refreshingly, has taken a different tack this year. The company has ruled that right-wing commentator Steven Crowder hasn't violated YouTube policy by continuously slinging anti-gay and anti-immigrant slurs -- including a 'gay Mexican,' a 'lispy queer,' an 'anchor baby,' and a 'token Vox gay atheist sprite' -- at Vox host Carlos Maza, leading to harassment and abuse against Maza from Crowder's fans and followers." Mrs. McC: No, no Madison. It turns out labeling someone a "lispy queer" is an essential element of "debate." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by the second highest annual rise in the past six decades, according to new data. Atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas were 414.8 parts per million in May.... Scientists have warned for more than a decade that concentrations of more than 450ppm risk triggering extreme weather events and temperature rises as high as 2C, beyond which the effects of global heating are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible.... As recently as the 1990s, the average annual growth rate was about 1.5ppm, but in the past decade that has accelerated to 2.2ppm, and is now even higher. Thi brings the threshold of 450ppm closer sooner than had been anticipated." --safari: No one can honestly claim today that we're leaving a better life for future generations. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Brazil. Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon surged last month to the highest May level since the current monitoring method began, prompting concerns that president Jair Bolsonaro is giving a free pass to illegal logging, farming and mining. The world's greatest rainforest -- which is a vital provider of oxygen and carbon sequestration -- lost 739sq km during the 31 days, equivalent to two football pitches every minute, according to data from the government's satellite monitoring agency." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Hannah Ellis-Peterson of the Guardian: "African swine fever, which is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs, was discovered in China in August, where it has caused havoc, leading to more than 1.2m pigs being culled. China is home to almost half of the world's pigs and the news sent the global price of pork soaring [by almost 40%]. There is no vaccination for African swine fever, which causes pigs to internally haemorrhage until they die, so the only option to contain the disease is to kill any contaminated animals. Some estimates say that in China up to 200m animals may eventually be slaughtered...It has spread like wildfire across Asia.... Currently the battle to contain the disease is being lost." --s

News Ledes

New York Times: "Mac Rebennack, the pianist, singer, songwriter, and producer better known as Dr. John, who embodied the New Orleans sound for generations of music fans, died on Thursday. He was 77."

New York Times: "One West Point cadet was killed, and 20 cadets and two soldier trainers were injured, on Thursday after a military vehicle overturned en route to a training exercise near the academy, a West Point spokesman said."

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Tuesday
Jun042019

The Commentariat -- June 5, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Trump Still Doesn't Understand Difference between Climate & Weather. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "President Trump during an interview broadcast early Wednesday said that he appreciates Prince Charles's passion on climate change but dismissed the British royal's concerns on the topic, adding that the weather 'changes both ways.' Trump told Piers Morgan of ITV's 'Good Morning Britain' that the prince spent more than an hour trying to warn him the dangers of climate change. Prince Charles did 'most of the talking" during their interaction, Trump said." ...

... ** Adam Raymond of the New York Times lists the nine "most bonkers" moments from Trump's interview with Morgan. Kind of a must-read.

** Erik Sherman of Fortune: "When it comes to talking himself up, Trump in particular has compared himself to Barack Obama. So, how do the two presidents measure up in terms of growth in major indexes, measured between their inauguration and May 31 of their third year in office? The short answer is that Trump has quite a way to go. Under Obama, the S&P 500 grew by 56.4%. The Dow Jones Industrials Average was up 50.6% and the Nasdaq, 92.9%. The numbers under Trump were 21.4% for the S&P 500, 25.2% for the Dow, and 34.2% for Nasdaq."

Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "[T]he royal family has for years batted back stories that its members were looking into or joining Trump's properties -- stories that, according to multiple biographies of Trump, were spread by the real-estate developer himself. Between 1981 and 1995, multiple claims that members of the British Royal family were joining Trump properties filled New York tabloids and national papers according to a CNN KFile review of archival papers, audio, and books about the then-real estate developer. All of them were unequivocally shot down by Buckingham Palace." --safari: A damning review of how Trump has cynically manipulated journalists for decades for free publicity.

Anjali Tsui of ProPublica and Alice Wilder of WNYC: "In mid-March, the payday lending industry held its annual convention at the Trump National Doral hotel outside Miami. Payday lenders offer loans on the order of a few hundred dollars, typically to low-income borrowers, who have to pay them back in a matter of weeks. The industry has long been reviled by critics for charging stratospheric interest rates -- typically 400% on an annual basis -- that leave customers trapped in cycles of debt.... The mood was celebratory.... A month earlier, Kathleen Kraninger, who had just finished her second month as director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, had delivered what the lenders consider an epochal victory: Kraninger announced a proposal to gut a crucial rule that had been passed under her Obama-era predecessor.... Now, the industry was taking credit for the CFPB's retreat.... The CFSA and its members have poured a total of about $1 million into the Trump Organization's coffers through ... two annual conferences.... They [also] contributed to the president's inauguration and earned face time with the president after donating to a Trump ally. But it's the payment to the president's business that is a stark reminder that the Trump administration is like none before it."

David Cay Johnson of DC Report in RawStory: "Only one of the billionaire Koch brothers supported Donald Trump's 2016 campaign: William Ingraham Koch. Bill Koch even raised money for Trump, his nearby neighbor in Palm Beach, Fla. That same year, IRS criminal agents began an investigation after receiving nearly 1,000 pages of documents detailing what were described as multiple tax frauds at Bill Koch's companies. The documents, which we call the Koch Papers, came from a deeply knowledgeable source: Charles Middleton, who had been one of the companies' top tax executives. The IRS investigation went cold after Trump assumed office, documents obtained by DCReport show.... [O]ne of Middleton's lawyers, William ... Cohan, and Middleton's Seattle lawyer, John Colvin, both say the IRS and Justice Department stopped acknowledging their calls, emails and letters after Trump became president." --s

Tim Starks of Politico: "Russia's infamous troll farm conducted a campaign on Twitter before the 2016 elections that was larger, more coordinated and more effective than previously known, research from cybersecurity firm Symantec out Wednesday concluded. The Internet Research Agency campaign may not only have had more sway -- reaching large numbers of real users -- than previously thought, it also demonstrated ample patience and might have generated income for some of the phony accounts, Symantec found. The company analyzed a massive data set Twitter released in October 2018 on nearly 3,900 accounts and 10 million tweets.... The research also found that the accounts played to both sides of the aisle more than previously believed, and that most of them were fakes pretending to be regional news outlets, while a smaller subset amplified those messages."

Cruel & Unusual. Priscilla Alvarez of CNN: "The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is charged with caring for unaccompanied migrant children, is 'scaling back' or canceling activities at shelters, citing the need for more resources.... 'This week, ORR instructed grantees to begin scaling back or discontinuing awards for (unaccompanied minors) activities that are not directly necessary for the protection of life and safety, including education services, legal services, and recreation,' [a] ... spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services... said in a statement."

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration is seeking to dramatically escalate federal penalties for pipeline protesters. Under newly proposed changes, pipeline protesters could face up to 20 years in prison for disrupting the construction of oil and gas infrastructure.... The administration argues that the changes are key to ensuring safety.... But environmental groups and activists will likely oppose the proposed measures and are expected to seek legal action against the Trump administration." --s

Susannah George of the AP: "Directly challenging ... Donald Trump's use of executive power, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are banding together to introduce more than a dozen resolutions aimed at blocking the Trump administration's sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia. The maneuver amounts to a remarkable display of bipartisan pushback to Trump's foreign policy and threatens to tangle the Senate in a series of floor votes this summer. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is leading the effort, but he has support from two of Trump's allies in Congress: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Anger has been mounting in Congress over the Trump administration's close ties to the Saudis, fueled by the high civilian casualties in the Saudi-led war in Yemen -- a military campaign the U.S. is assisting -- and the killing of U.S.-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. Trump's decision in May to sell the weapons, in a manner intended to bypass congressional review, further inflamed the tensions."

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The Democrat-led House passed legislation on Tuesday to grant a path to citizenship to about 2.5 million immigrants whose legal protections President Trump has moved to end, advancing a measure that highlights the bitter partisan differences over immigration. The bill, which passed 237 to 187, with seven Republicans voting yes, would create a new legal pathway for young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, known as Dreamers, and for those with Temporary Protected Status, granted to immigrants whose countries are ravaged by natural disaster or violence. It is almost certain to die in the Republican-led Senate, where there is no appetite to challenge Mr. Trump on his signature issue and the majority regards it as amnesty for people who have broken the law. The White House said on Monday that Mr. Trump would veto the measure." Mrs. McC: Thought I linked a story on this earlier today. Obviously not.

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "At least 43 of the 58 Republican House members who voted against a $19 billion bipartisan disaster relief bill Monday night have previously demanded or endorsed emergency aid funding for their own states, a ThinkProgress analysis has found." --s>

Kevin Roose & Kate Conger of the New York Times: "YouTube announced plans on Wednesday to remove thousands of videos and channels that advocate for neo-Nazism, white supremacy and other bigoted ideologies in an attempt to clean up extremism and hate speech on its popular service. The new policy will ban 'videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion,' the company said in a blog post. The prohibition will also cover videos denying that violent incidents, like the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, took place." ...

... BUT. Homophobic Slurs A-Okay. Tom McKay of Gizmodo: "YouTube has chosen not to take action against right-wing video personality Steven Crowder after Vox host Carlos Maza posted clips of Crowder repeatedly harassing him with derogatory, anti-gay, and racist statements, which Maza says resulted in hordes of Crowder's fans doxxing him and subjecting him to abuse on social media.... YouTube's hate speech policy page specifically bars 'content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups' based on a number of attributes including ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation.... After claiming YouTube takes 'allegations of harassment very seriously' and that they had spent days 'conducting an in-depth review of the videos flagged to us,' the Team YouTube Twitter wrote that while Crowder's language was 'clearly hurtful,' 'the videos as posted don't violate our policies' and will 'remain on our site.'... YouTube's stance is apparently that it is okay for a host with millions of subscribers (3,846,360 as of early Wednesday a.m.) to repeatedly engage in racist, homophobic bullying so long as it's couched as part of some kind of ambiguously defined 'debate.'" ...

... Madison Kircher of New York: "June is usually the time when tech companies deck themselves out in rainbow colors and bend over backward to demonstrate just how much they support the LGBTQ+ community. YouTube, refreshingly, has taken a different tack this year. The company has ruled that right-wing commentator Steven Crowder hasn't violated YouTube policy by continuously slinging anti-gay and anti-immigrant slurs -- including a 'gay Mexican,' a 'lispy queer,' an 'anchor baby,' and a 'token Vox gay atheist sprite' -- at Vox host Carlos Maza, leading to harassment and abuse against Maza from Crowder's fans and followers." Mrs. McC: No, no Madison. It turns out labeling someone a "lispy queer" is an essential element of "debate."

Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by the second highest annual rise in the past six decades, according to new data. Atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas were 414.8 parts per million in May.... Scientists have warned for more than a decade that concentrations of more than 450ppm risk triggering extreme weather events and temperature rises as high as 2C, beyond which the effects of global heating are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible.... As recently as the 1990s, the average annual growth rate was about 1.5ppm, but in the past decade that has accelerated to 2.2ppm, and is now even higher. This brings the threshold of 450ppm closer sooner than had been anticipated." --safari: No one can honestly claim today that we're leaving a better life for future generations.

Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon surged last month to the highest May level since the current monitoring method began, prompting concerns that president Jair Bolsonaro is giving a free pass to illegal logging, farming and mining. The world's greatest rainforest -- which is a vital provider of oxygen and carbon sequestration -- lost 739sq km during the 31 days, equivalent to two football pitches every minute, according to data from the government's satellite monitoring agency." --s

~~~~~~~~~~

New York Times: "After meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Theresa May, President Trump traveled to southern England to commemorate the D-Day operation." Here is the Times' liveblog of events.

When Royals Meet. Many thanks to forrest m. for making my day. Every time I look at King Donaldo I LOL.

Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "Demonstrators inflated a 20-foot blimp depicting President Trump as a baby in a diaper outside the U.K. parliament in London Tuesday, as mass protests got underway across the U.K. while Trump met with Prime Minister Theresa May on the second day of his state visit." Lots of photos. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jamie Ross of the Daily Beast: "Thousands of Brits took to the streets [of London] Tuesday, where they marched alongside a 16-foot farting robot of Donald Trump and held aloft huge photos of John McCain in an attempt to trigger the president. The protests — which saw thousands brave the typical British weather shielded by umbrellas emblazoned with anti-Trump slogans, EU flags, and the LGBTQ rainbow symbol -- went within meters of Downing Street, where the president must have heard creatively foul-mouthed chants, although he still insists there have been no protests against him at all. Protesters were kept away from the gates of Downing Street for Trump' arrival and departure for talks with Theresa May. However, the thousands occupied a large stretch of central London, marching from Trafalgar Square past the government buildings of Whitehall and eventually arriving outside parliament to hear a speech by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

I kept hearing that there would be 'massive' rallies against me in the UK, but it was quite the opposite. The big crowds, which the Corrupt Media hates to show, were those that gathered in support of the USA and me. -- Donald Trump, in a tweet today

There were thousands of people (Monday) on the streets cheering. And even coming over today, there were thousands of people cheering and then I heard that there were protests. I said: 'Where are the protests? I don't see any protests.' I did see a small protest today when I came, very small, so a lot of it is fake news, I hate to say. ... There was great love. ... And I didn't see the protesters until just a little while ago and it was a very, very small group of people. -- Donald Trump, news conference Tuesday ...

... Thousand of People Cheering:

... As Akhilleus pointed out in yesterday's Comments, Camilla's stock went up in the U.K. after her, "Yes, we all know this is a farce" wink yesterday:

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Susan Page of USA Today: "Former Senate majority leader Harry Reid, who as recently as last month cautioned Democrats about the perils of pursuing President Trump's impeachment, now says the House should open an impeachment inquiry that might or might not lead to a formal effort to remove him from office. 'It's not the right thing to do nothing,' Reid said in an interview Monday with USA Today. It's not the right thing to jump into impeachment without doing an inquiry.' The most important goal, he said, would be to 'give the American people a view of what's going on.'"

Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "The White House has directed former officials Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson not to turn over any documents to the House Judiciary Committee relating to their time at the White House, according to two sources familiar with the matter. But Hicks, the former White House communications director, still could turn over documents the committee has requested related to the 2016 Trump campaign, a period that's not covered by executive privilege, according to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler. The White House sent letters to the committee stating that White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had directed Hicks and Donaldson, the former deputy White House counsel, not to turn over the documents. The committee had issued subpoenas to both Hicks and Donaldson for documents, setting a Tuesday deadline. The subpoenas also include requests for testimony from the former White House officials for later this month. In a statement, Nadler argued that the White House could not prevent the officials from complying with the committee's request, though he added that Hicks' agreement to provide documents related to the Trump campaign was a 'show of good faith.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

All the President*'s Men (in Jail)

Brutal. William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Paul J. Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman who is serving a federal prison sentence, is expected to be transferred within the next few weeks to the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City, where he will most likely be held in isolation while facing state fraud charges, people with knowledge of the matter said.... Rikers Island has been plagued by violence and mismanagement over the years...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pilar Melendez & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "George Nader, an emissary to the United Arab Emirates who cooperated extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller probe, was denied release on Tuesday after being arrested for possessing child pornography. Nader, 60, a Lebanese-American businessman will be handed over to federal agents for extradition to Virginia for his prosecution. He was arrested Monday at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport for allegedly possessing child pornography on a cellphone more than a year ago."

MEANWHILE. Lachlan Cartwright of the Daily Beast: "Michael Cohen is being celebrated as a celebrity inside the federal prison where he's serving time after flipping on ... Donald Trump. Prisoners have approached Inmate No. 86067-054 for advice on their legal problems, quizzed him about Trump's alleged dalliance with porn star Stormy Daniels, and tried to take photos of him on cellphones smuggled into the facility, according to people who've spoken to inmates."


Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "A federal judge reversed course on Tuesday and absolved the Justice Department of a demand to make public transcripts of recorded phone calls between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and a Russian official. In a one-paragraph order, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan said he accepted the argument recently made from federal prosecutors who defied his earlier request to release any recordings from December 2016 between Flynn and Sergey Kislyak, who at the time was the Russian ambassador to the U.S."

S. V. Date of the Huffington Post: “With commercial tenants fleeing his Trump Tower..., Donald Trump continues to spend $37,500 a month of campaign money for office space there -- with some of that cash destined for his own wallet ― even as thousands of square feet go unused at a newly opened office in northern Virginia. No more than 'four or five' campaign staffers work at Trump's Manhattan base, according to an informal adviser close to the White House, where the campaign rents a few thousand square feet as its 'headquarters.' The per-square-foot cost is likely at least triple what the Republican National Committee pays for the much larger space it shares with the campaign in Arlington, according to a HuffPost analysis." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** Jonathan Chait explains why right-wing grifters -- including the Biggest Grifter of Them All -- are so good at their cons. Thanks to Schlub for the lead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair reports on Trump's cheesy prenuptial agreement with Marla Maples: "Maples reportedly wanted $25 million, but Trump agreed to pay her only $1 million if they separated within five years, plus another $1 million to buy a house. Trump also would stop making $100,000 child support payments for Tiffany when she turned 21. The agreement states that Trump's payments would cease earlier if Tiffany got a full-time job, enlisted in the military, or joined the Peace Corps.... According to the prenup, Maples surrendered any claim to Trump's future income and inheritances. The $1 million award Trump would pay her was it. (There would be no alimony.)" Also, the agreement contained rigid confidentiality terms that prevented Maples from mentioning from revealing any details of the marriage. Trump married Maples, according to Gabriel, mostly because marriage would encourage lenders to believe he was a more stable risk, & Trump was in desperate straits.


Radio Free Europe: "Russia has denied it informed ... Donald Trump that it is pulling defense personnel out of Venezuela, contradicting a comment by the U.S. leader. 'I was surprised when I read this. We did not notify anyone. He apparently read an article in The Wall Street Journal,' Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on June 4 referring to a June 3 tweet by Trump. Trump in March said Russia 'has to get out' of the South American nation after it landed planes carrying supplies and technical advisers to help President Nicolas Maduro amid an uprising. The United States is seeking the ouster of Maduro, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as thousands of Venezuelan citizens take to the streets to protest his regime. Trump on June 3 tweeted that Russia had informed the United States 'that they have removed most of their people from Venezuela.'... His tweet came a day after The Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed source close to the Russian Defense Ministry, reported that Moscow had pulled out many defense advisers from the country. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said that Russia had not informed the United States of any such withdrawal, adding that Russian specialists continue to work in the South American country." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Since both sides lie, it's impossible to know what's going on.

Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Jared Kushner's Middle East peace plan isn't even out yet, but there are already intensifying calls to scrap the rollout -- including from some Trump allies. Prominent conservative and pro-Israel voices close to the White House are increasingly sharing their fears, which range from the possibility that the peace proposal could trigger violence to worries that its offerings could forever kill efforts to craft a two-state solution.... For their part, Kushner and other aides to Trump appear intent on going full speed ahead." --s ...

... Muhammad Shehada of Haaretz: "The most disturbing aspect of ... [U.S. President Trump's 'Deal of the Century,' developed by ... Jared Kushner] is its disastrous effect on the overall peace process paradigm. In simple terms: Palestinians are losing faith fast with the foundational idea of peace through negotiations.... Forcing what U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo himself calls an 'inexecutable' deal on Palestinians - through bribery, coercion and punitive measures - and framing it as Palestinians' last chance to get anything, undermines moderate Palestinian voices and amplifies immensely violent rejectionism.... Most prominent among these is the new Islamic Jihad leader and Iran's loyal man, Ziad Nakhalah.... As the biases of Kushner's peace plan will continue to sow feelings of defeat, humiliation and isolation amongst Palestinians, Nakhalah's ascendance to a gruesome kind of stardom is inevitable." --s

"Bone Saw Bonus." Matt Shuham of TPM: "The Trump administration approved the transfer of nuclear expertise to Saudi Arabia just two weeks after Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) revealed Tuesday.... [T]he administration ... [made] ... seven such approvals. Notably, two occurred after Khashoggi's death: One on October 18, 2018, '16 days after Khashoggi's murder,' Kaine noted, and another on Feb. 18, 2019." --s

Speaking Truth to Trumpy Is Creepy. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "President Trump called Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) "a creep" on Tuesday after the Democratic leader predicted the president would back down from slapping new tariffs on Mexico. 'Can you imagine Cryin' Chuck Schumer saying out loud, for all to hear, that I am bluffing with respect to putting Tariffs on Mexico. What a Creep,' Trump wrote in a tweet. He asserted that Schumer 'would rather have our Country fail with drugs & Immigration than give Republicans a win. But he gave Mexico bad advice, no bluff!'... Schumer, speaking from the Senate floor, characterized the new tariffs as another example of Trump's 'whimsical and erratic proposals.' 'President Trump has a habit of proposing asinine and dangerous policies before backing off. And President Trump has a habit of pretending that the very act of not following through on a misguided policy is somehow a victory. So, I wouldn't be surprised at all if President Trump doesn't follow through on these tariffs either,' Schumer said." ...

... Catie Edmondson & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “Republican senators sent the White House a sharp message on Tuesday, warning that they were opposed to President Trump's plans to impose tariffs on Mexican imports, just hours after the president said lawmakers would be 'foolish' to try to stop him. Mr. Trump's latest threat -- 5 percent tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico, rising to as high as 25 percent until the Mexican government stems the flow of migrants -- has riled Republican senators who fear its impact on the economy and their home states. They emerged from a closed-door lunch in the Capitol angered by the briefing they received from a deputy White House counsel, Patrick F. Philbin, and Assistant Attorney General Steven A. Engel on the legal basis for imposing new tariffs by declaring a nationa emergency. 'I want you to take a message back' to the White House, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, told the attorneys, according to people familiar with the meeting. 'You didn't hear a single yes' from the Republican conference. He called the proposed tariffs a $30 billion tax hike on Texans."

Burgess Everett & Eliana Johnson of Politico: "strong>Ken Cuccinelli has spent years attacking Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans. Now, [there is little chance those Senate Republicans will confirm Cuccinelli] ... to be director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But there may be nobody in Washington whom McConnell and his allies would take more pleasure in defeating, and the bottom line is Cuccinelli has little chance of getting approved for the job, Republican senators said.... 'It's unlikely he's going to be confirmed if he is nominated,' [Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) said].... Some senators are still hoping to persuade Trump not to formally nominate or appoint Cuccinelli, but if the president goes through with it, the former Virginia attorney general likely will be either rejected or blocked from a floor vote entirely."

Presidential Race 2020

Here We Go Again. Zack Colman & Natasha Korecki of Politico: "Former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign came under fire on Tuesday for putting out a $1.7 trillion climate change plan that appeared to copy a handful of passages from previously published documents. The incident recalled the plagiarism incident that helped drive Biden from the 1988 presidential race, though Biden's campaign team called the latest episode an error that was corrected.... Biden rolled out his climate policy on Tuesday after facing weeks of criticism from the Democratic Party's left flank for reportedly considering a plan to strike a 'middle ground' on the issue. It won praise from environmental groups who welcomed its call to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and ban oil and gas drilling on public lands. Biden also said he would reject campaign contributions from fossil fuel executives and corporations."


Ari Berman of Mother Jones: "Documents unearthed last week showed that the Republican Party's top gerrymandering expert, Tom Hofeller, was behind the decision to add a controversial question about US citizenship to the 2020 census.... But the [Supreme Court] justices are unlikely to be swayed by the bombshell new evidence. In fact, they may not even be able to consider it.... First, there's little time for the court to consider the new evidence. The justices typically make up their minds following oral arguments, and they have already started writing their opinions.... Second, the Supreme Court is only supposed to examine evidence that is part of the record in the case.... Though the justices sometimes do their own research or cite outside sources, deviation from the legal record is frowned upon.... Any consideration of Hofeller's memos, which have not been vetted by a federal court, would be an exception to the rule[.]" --s

Helen Lock of the Guardian: "When it comes to trying to stop fake medicines getting into the hands of sick patients, experts describe a difficult task where they are constantly trying to stay one step ahead of counterfeiters.... Th need for any solution being developed to have a global reach is clear. In 2011, Interpol seized 2.4m fake and illicit pills, and that number jumped to 20.7m seized in 2015. A large quantity is produced in China, but India, Pakistan, Paraguay and the UK are also among the top sources for fakes.... Counterfeited medicine, thought to be the most lucrative of illegally copied goods trades, ends up all over the world. But developing countries, where spending on medicine means being out of pocket for the majority of people, are the most vulnerable to conterfeits. Most of the cases (42%) reported by the WHO between 2013 and 2017 were found in subSaharan Africa." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. David Ovalle, et al., of the Miami Herald: "Scot Peterson, the former Broward Sheriff's deputy responsible for protecting Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, has been criminally charged for failing to confront a gunman who methodically shot and killed 17 students and staffers, state authorities said Tuesday. In a highly unusual case, the retired 56-year-old deputy was arrested Tuesday on 11 charges -- including child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury -- for his role in the massacre that shocked the United States, galvanized gun-control activism and led to changes in Florida's law. Peterson, who has long insisted he acted properly and was not sure Nikolas Cruz was inside the 1200 building, faces nearly 100 years in prison if convicted. As a school resource officer trained to engage an active shooter immediately, Peterson 'was responsible for the welfare and safety' of the students and 'failed to make a reasonable effort' to protect them, according to an arrest warrant. The criminal charges against Peterson stemmed from an investigation by the Florida Department of Law of Enforcement, tasked by former Gov. Rick Scott to examine the response of law enforcement to the worst school shooting in state history." ...

... Meet your local GOP, Ctd. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "Florida state Rep. Mike Hill (R) refuses to apologize for his reaction [of laughing] to a suggestion that he pass legislation to allow the execution of gay men. On Friday, the Pensacola News Journal published an audio recording of Hill holding a meeting at Pensacola City Hall, during which a man asked the GOP lawmaker about imposing the death penalty onto gay men." --s

Texas. Sam Levine of the Huffington Post: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) pushed officials at the state's Department of Public Safety to scour driver's license records for noncitizens and forward that information to the Texas secretary of state, a fellow Republican, in advance of the state's botched voter purge, according to emails made public Tuesday. Texas officials would go on to falsely claim that they had found nearly 100,000 noncitizens registered to vote. They later admitted that number was based on deeply flawed data. But some Texas officials knew all along that they could access more information in order to determine whether the people whose driver's licenses said they were noncitizens were actually noncitizens, the emails suggest -- and pushed ahead regardless.... A spokesman for the governor denied Abbott had any role in the botched January effort.... The state has refused to comply with a congressional request to turn over communications and documents related to the January incident."

Virginia. Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "Citing the shooting in Virginia Beach in which 12 people were killed, 'as well as the tragedies that happen every day across Virginia,' Gov. Ralph Northam on Tuesday called for a special session of the General Assembly to vote on gun control bills. He listed a number of measures he intended to propose, including universal background checks and a requirement that people report lost or stolen firearms. Those ideas were floated in the past but died in committee before reaching the floor of the Legislature. This time, the governor said, he was demanding that the measures be 'put to a vote by the entire General Assembly.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Brazil. Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon surged last month to the highest May level since the current monitoring method began, prompting concerns that president Jair Bolsonaro is giving a free pass to illegal logging, farming and mining. The world's greatest rainforest -- which is a vital provider of oxygen and carbon sequestration -- lost 739sq km during the 31 days, equivalent to two football pitches every minute, according to data from the government's satellite monitoring agency." --s

Israel. Ha Ha! Donald's Best People didn't think up this one: Bibi Netanyahu, who is about to be indicted for fraud, bribery & breach of trust appointed himself justice minister. Not that Bill Barr isn't doing a great job at Justice, but think how much better Trump would be: in his first week, he would indict Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden & John Brennan for something or other; in his second week, he'd lock up Jim Comey, Jeff Sessions & Andy McCabe on charges of treason & being "horrible people." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

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