The Commentariat -- November 30, 2019

Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "After abruptly axing nearly a year of delicate peace talks with the Taliban in September, President Trump put the negotiations back on the front-burner this week in a similarly jolting fashion by seeming to demand a cease-fire that his negotiators had long concluded was overly ambitious. Despite a sense of relief at the prospect of resuming talks to end the 18-year conflict, Western diplomats and Taliban leaders were scrambling to figure out whether Mr. Trump had suddenly moved the goal posts for negotiations. They were particularly confused by his remarks, made during an unannounced Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan, that the United States was once again meeting with the Taliban to discuss a deal, but that 'we're saying it has to be a cease-fire.' Demanding a cease-fire would amount to a big shift in the American position and require a significant new concession from the Taliban -- one that the Americans have little leverage to extract." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: All easily explained by the maxim, "Trump doesn't know what he's doing." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Oops. My mistake. The other maxim applies: "Trump made it up out of thin air" (sometimes rendered, "Trump is talking through his ass again," but I would never be so crude). ~~~

~~~ Karen DeYoung & Susannah George of the Washington Post: "President Trump's confident assertion that the Taliban is ready and even eager for a cease-fire demanded by the United States in Afghanistan's 18-year-old war may be more wishful thinking than reality.... But on Friday neither the Taliban nor the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani indicated that a cease-fire was near, or even being discussed in resumed U.S. negotiations. At the time the U.S.-Taliban talks ended, the two sides were preparing to sign a draft agreement that called for a reduction in violence. But it specifically declared that any discussion of a cease-fire was to be left to follow-on negotiations between the militants and the government in Kabul. In a statement, the Taliban said that remains its understanding. 'We are ready to talk, but we have the same stance to resume the talks from where it was suspended,' Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Post. Ghani spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said Trump's brief visit to Afghanistan was 'important' but that 'we will have to see' whether there has been any change in the status of peace talks."

Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) has informed President Trump that he has until Dec. 6 to let the committee know whether his counsel will participate in upcoming impeachment proceedings.... The notice follows a Monday letter from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to Democratic lawmakers saying that the committees leading the impeachment inquiry are putting together a report for the Judiciary Committee that they hope to send after members return from Thanksgiving."

Susan Simpson of Just Security: "At the heart of the impeachment inquiry, members of Congress may have been mistakenly led to believe that there were two phone calls between ... Donald Trump and Ambassador Gordon Sondland in early September -- with the second call having the possibility of helping the President's case. That's not what happened. There was only one call, and it was highly incriminating. The call occurred on September 7th. In this call, Trump did say there was 'no quid pro quo' with Ukraine, but he then went on to outline his preconditions for releasing the security assistance and granting a White House visit. The call was so alarming that when John Bolton learned of it, he ordered his deputy Tim Morrison to immediately report it to the National Security Council lawyers.... Sondland ... testified [in the public hearing that the September 9 call] was a brief conversation, in which he asked President Trump a single question, '... What do you want from Ukraine? And as I recall, he was in a very bad mood. It was a very quick conversation. He said: I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. I want Zelenskyy to do the right thing.'" [This of course is the claim Trump reiterated, reading from notes on the White House lawn, & which was later set to music, and which Trump has repeated.] Whether due to a faulty memory, or due to intentional deceit, Sondland's testimony about the 'no quid pro quo' call omitted the most critical part of the conversation: President Trump's rejection of the compromise offer for the Prosecutor General to announce the investigations, and his demand that Zelenskyy himself do it. The 'no quid pro quo' call was, in reality, a 'here is the specific quid pro quo I want' call." And it occurred on September 7. Emphasis original. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is sort of a follow-on to the Washington Post report also linked here Thursday in which Aaron Davis & others sussed out that a phone call Gordon Sondland said took place on Sept. 9 never happened. As the Post reporters noted, "would have occurred before dawn in Washington. And the White House has not located a record in its switchboard logs of a call between Trump and Sondland on Sept. 9, according to an administration official." Simpson said the Post published its report while her "article was in the publication process." It's a long article, but you can skim it (as I did), and still find her argument convincing -- & damning Trump.

Kylie Atwood of CNN: "Ukrainian officials are discussing ways to improve their country's standing with ... Donald Trump amid the continuing fallout from the impeachment inquiry, two sources told CNN. Those sources, who recently met with Ukrainian officials, said that the Ukrainian government could still announce new investigations which could be seen as politically beneficial to the US President. However, it is unclear what exactly those potential investigations would cover or when they would be announced. One source told CNN that Ukrainian officials recognized that any potential investigations would need to look into current issues and not just those of the past."

Trump Plays President for the Cameras. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "As Democrats in Congress push to impeach him, President Trump has toured a manufacturing plant in Texas, boasted about economic gains and signed numerous bills. He served turkey to U.S. troops in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving and grieved with the families of fallen service members at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. And next week, Trump is scheduled to jet to London to meet with European allies and be received at Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth II.... Sure, Trump has been consumed by the impeachment proceedings, popping off daily, if not hourly, about what he dubs a 'hoax.' But he and his aides also have staged photo opportunities and public events designed to showcase the president on the job -- a strategy one year out from the election to convince the American people that he is hard at work for them at the same time that Democrats are trying to remove him from office. 'I'm working my ass off,' Trump told a thunderous rally crowd of roughly 20,000 on Tuesday night in Sunrise, Fla. He added: 'The failed Washington establishment is trying to stop me because I'm fighting for you and because we're winning. It's very simple.'"

Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Former Republican congressman Charlie Dent said Thursday some of his former colleagues in the House of Representatives have privately told him they are 'absolutely disgusted and exhausted by the President's behavior.' Dent told CNN's Ana Cabrera on 'Newsroom' that House Republicans are standing with the President at the moment because of base pressure, but said 'they resent being put in this position all the time.' Dent ... cited the Trump administration trying to 'pivot from the Ukraine scandal' by announcing the 2020 G7 summit at the Trump National Doral resort. The decision was later reversed. 'Moving from one corrupt act to another,' Dent said. 'I mean those types of head-exploding moments are just I think infuriating these members and I think they'd like to step out but they just can't because of their base at the moment.'"

To put it mildly, I believe that Mr. Billingslea is one of the worst possible candidates for this critical senior leadership role overseeing human rights policy for the Department of State. -- Thomas J. Romig, retired major general & former judge advocate general of the Army ~~~

~~~ All the Best People, Ctd. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "President Trump's decision to nominate an official involved in the Pentagon's post-9/11 use of harsh interrogation techniques to the State Department's top human rights post has sparked a standoff in the Senate that has extended a nearly three-year vacancy in a key diplomatic position. Trump's nomination in January of Marshall Billingslea as undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights raised immediate alarms among the activists and former government officials who believe his confirmation would send a dismal message about the United States' commitment to human rights abroad. A September confirmation hearing has intensified those concerns, with several officials accusing Billingslea of improperly minimizing his role in the interrogation debate inside of the George W. Bush administration. From 2002 to 2003, Billingslea served as the Pentagon's point man on military detainees housed at Guantánamo Bay under Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. In that position, according to a 2008 Senate report, he played a role in promoting interrogation techniques that Congress later banned as torture...."~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Many of Trump's nominees are nothing more than human trolls. They are his way of getting in the faces of decent Americans. He especially tries to put these people in positions for which he has no use, like human rights advocate.

Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "Newly released documents prove the U.S. Census Bureau under President Donald Trump was directly communicating with recently deceased GOP gerrymandering expert Thomas Hofeller -- despite DOJ repeatedly saying that no proof of such association existed.... According to DOJ attorneys, the damning documents were 'inadvertently not produced in discovery'...>. The potential for additional documents implicating administration officials got an additional boost on Tuesday when the House Oversight Committee sued [AG William] Barr over his 'unlawful refusals to comply with duly authorized, issued, and served Committee subpoenas' related to the 'citizenship question' controversy and coverup." --s

U.S. Senate. Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia "Gov. Brian Kemp plans to tap financial executive Kelly Loeffler for a U.S. Senate seat next week as he pushes to expand the Georgia GOP's appeal to women who have fled the party in recent years. The appointment would defy ... Donald Trump and other Republican leaders who have repeatedly urged the governor to appoint U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, a four-term congressman who is one of the president's staunchest defenders in Washington. It would end months of jockeying for the seat to be vacated by Republican Johnny Isakson, who is stepping down at year's end because of health issues."

Christopher Miller & Ryan Mac of Buzzfeed: "Ukrainian diplomats are lashing out at Apple after it gave in to Moscow's demands to show Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula as part of Russian territory on its maps and weather apps when accessed from Russia.... However, when viewing Apple Maps and Apple Weather from outside Russia, including Kyiv, those cities and Crimea don't show as being a part of any country. In those apps, which come preinstalled on all Apple iPhones, other global cities are typically listed with an associated country and state or region." --s

Jamil Smith of Rolling Stone: "Directed by Lynn Novick and produced by Sarah Botstein, College Behind Bars [on PBS] profiles the Bard Prison Initiative, a Bard College program that extends its curriculum and has awarded nearly 550 full degrees thus far to matriculated students in six New York State prisons.... [Dyjuan] Tatro entered prison the end of his teenage years and felt that he applied to BPI, one year into his 12-year sentence, because he had 'nothing else better to do.' He would go on to become a member of the Bard debate team that defeated Harvard in a well-publicized 2015 matchup and is now working for BPI as a government-affairs and advancement officer.... Our carceral state, one that prioritizes punishment over the actual correction that the facilities promise, is the America we continue to build. That's why it is so urgent that Bard Prison Initiatives become the rule, not the exception." --s

Pik-Mai Hui & Christopher Torres-Lugo of The National Interest:"We are part of the team that developed [a] tool that detects ... bot accounts on social media. Our next effort, called BotSlayer, is aimed at helping journalists and the general public spot these automated social media campaigns while they are happening.... At Indiana University's Observatory on Social Media, we are uncovering and analyzing how false and misleading information spreads online.... We also develop maps of how online misinformation spreads among people how it competes with reliable information sources across social media sites.... We receive many requests from individuals and organizations who need help collecting and analyzing social media data. That is why ... we combined many of the capabilities and software tools our observatory has built into a free, unified software package, letting more people join our efforts to identify and combat manipulation and misinformation campaigns." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Kentucky, Etc. Stephen Wolf of the Daily Kos: "GOP leaders in the Kentucky legislature are pushing a bill that would effectively remove Democratic Gov.-elect Andy Beshear's control over the state's Department of Transportation, the latest move in an accelerating trend of Republicans stripping power from Democratic governors before they can take office.... [W]ith Republicans firmly in charge of the legislature, it can become law even if Beshear were to veto it.... It also follows similar lame-duck maneuvers by Republican legislators in Michigan and Wisconsin in 2018 and North Carolina in 2016 -- all of which came only after the GOP lost elections for governor in each state.... The GOP establishment has given its full support to these power grabs in the states." --s

Way Beyond

Europe. Malcolm Chalmers of RUSI: "At the 2014 NATO summit in Wales, all the member states who were spending less than 2% of their GDP on defence agreed to 'halt any decline in their defence budgets' and 'to aim to increase defence expenditure in real terms as their GDP grew'. Both these aims have been achieved. Every one of NATO's 28 member states (excluding Iceland) has increased its defence budget in real terms since 2014. The median real-spending increase has been 31%. This is by far the most rapid, NATO-wide, increase in defence spending in the Alliance's history.... The number of European states meeting the 2% target has increased from two (Greece and the UK) to seven (these two, plus Poland, Romania and all three Baltic republics)." Includes lots of stats. --s

Iraq. Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "Pressured by an expanding protest movement and a rising death toll, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of Iraq said Friday that he would submit his resignation to Parliament, taking the country into greater uncertainty and possibly months of turmoil ahead.... Deep seated anger over corruption and Iran's influence in Iraqi politics are the major drivers of the protests across Iraq." The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

U.K. BBC: "Two members of the public have died and another three people were injured in a stabbing attack at London Bridge, the Met Police's commissioner has said. Cressida Dick told a press conference the stabbing attack, which has been declared a terrorist incident, began at an event at Fishmonger's Hall. Within five minutes of being called officers confronted the suspect - who was shot dead by police - she said. The suspect was wearing what is thought to have been a hoax explosive device." The Guardian is updating developments. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Rob Evans, et al. of the Guardian: "Eleven wealthy American donors who have given a total of more than $3.7m (£2.86m) to rightwing UK groups in the past five years have been identified, raising questions about the influence of foreign funding on British politics. The donations have been given to four British thinktanks that have been vocal in the debate about Brexit and the shape of the UK's future trade with the EU, and an organisation that claims to be an independent grassroots campaign representing ordinary British taxpayers." --s ~~~

~~~ Guy Faulconbridge of Reuters: "British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday he would not say how many children he had, saying that he would not 'put them on the pitch' ahead of the Dec. 12 election." Mrs. McC: Because there's nothing more politically advantageous that hinting you have secretly fathered children.

News Ledes

CNN: "Millions of holiday travelers will be met with rain, snow or a messy mix of both this weekend as a winter storm moves through the Midwest and into the Northeast. More than 40 million people from California to Maine were under winter weather alerts Saturday morning, said CNN meteorologist Haley Brink. The winter storm, located over the central US at that time, brought with it heavy snow to the northern Plains and Midwest, Brink said. She added, high wind warnings and wind advisories cover 20 million people from New Mexico to Nebraska where winds could gust up to 85 mph."

CNN: "A Kentucky company is recalling bacon and ready-to-eat turkey products over misbranding and undeclared allergens. Blue Grass Quality Meats is recalling 121,083 pounds of the products because they contain soy, an allergen that's not declared on the product labels, the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Friday. The bacon and turkey breast items -- all Cajun style -- were produced on various dates between October 29, 2018 and November 19, 2019. The labels of recalled items can be found here. They ... were shipped to retail locations in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia, where the turkey products may have been offered as retail-sliced deli product."

AP: "Usman Khan was convicted on terrorism charges but let out of prison early. He attended a' Learning Together' conference for ex-offenders, and used the event to launch a bloody attack, stabbing two people to death and wounding three others. Police shot him dead after he flashed what seemed to be a suicide vest. Khan is gone, but the questions remain.... Britons looked for answers Saturday as national politicians sought to pin the blame elsewhere for what was obviously a breakdown in the security system, which had kept London largely free of terror for more than two years." ~~~

~~~ Guardian: "A convicted murderer was among ex-prisoners and members of the public who grappled with and grounded the London Bridge knife attacker before police arrived. One man was armed with a fire extinguisher and another a 5ft narwhal tusk as people at the scene surrounded the attacker, who was eventually pinned to the ground."

The Commentariat -- November 29, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "After abruptly axing nearly a year of delicate peace talks with the Taliban in September, President Trump put the negotiations back on the front-burner this week in a similarly jolting fashion by seeming to demand a cease-fire that his negotiators had long concluded was overly ambitious. Despite a sense of relief at the prospect of resuming talks to end the 18-year conflict, Western diplomats and Taliban leaders were scrambling to figure out whether Mr. Trump had suddenly moved the goal posts for negotiations. They were particularly confused by his remarks, made during an unannounced Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan, that the United States was once again meeting with the Taliban to discuss a deal, but that 'we're saying it has to be a cease-fire.' Demanding a cease-fire would amount to a big shift in the American position and require a significant new concession from the Taliban -- one that the Americans have little leverage to extract." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: All easily explained by the maxim, "Trump doesn't know what he's doing."

Susan Simpson of Just Security: "At the heart of the impeachment inquiry, members of Congress may have been mistakenly led to believe that there were two phone calls between ... Donald Trump and Ambassador Gordon Sondland in early September -- with the second call having the possibility of helping the President's case. That's not what happened. There was only one call, and it was highly incriminating. The call occurred on September 7th. In this call, Trump did say there was 'no quid pro quo' with Ukraine, but he then went on to outline his preconditions for releasing the security assistance and granting a White House visit. The call was so alarming that when John Bolton learned of it, he ordered his deputy Tim Morrison to immediately report it to the National Security Council lawyers.... Sondland ... testified [in the public hearing that the September 9 call] was a brief conversation, in which he asked President Trump a single question, '... What do you want from Ukraine? And as I recall, he was in a very bad mood. It was a very quick conversation. He said: I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. I want Zelenskyy to do the right thing.' [This of course is the claim Trump reiterated, reading from notes on the White House lawn, & which was later set to music, and which Trump has repeated.] Whether due to a faulty memory, or due to intentional deceit, Sondland's testimony about the 'no quid pro quo' call omitted the most critical part of the conversation: President Trump's rejection of the compromise offer for the Prosecutor General to announce the investigations, and his demand that Zelenskyy himself do it. The 'no quid pro quo' call was, in reality, a 'here is the specific quid pro quo I want' call." And it occurred on September 7. Emphasis original. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is sort of a follow-on to the Washington Post report also linked here Thursday in which Aaron Davis & others sussed out that a phone call Gordon Sondland said took place on Sept. 9 never happened. As the Post reporters noted, "would have occurred before dawn in Washington. And the White House has not located a record in its switchboard logs of a call between Trump and Sondland on Sept. 9, according to an administration official." Simpson said the Post published its report while her "article was in the publication process." It's a long article, but you can skim it (as I did), and still find her argument convincing -- & damning Trump.

Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "Pressured by an expanding protest movement and a rising death toll, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of Iraq said Friday that he would submit his resignation to Parliament, taking the country into greater uncertainty and possibly months of turmoil ahead.... Deep seated anger over corruption and Iran's influence in Iraqi politics are the major drivers of the protests across Iraq." The AP story is here.

BBC: "Two members of the public have died and another three people were injured in a stabbing attack at London Bridge, the Met Police's commissioner has said. Cressida Dick told a press conference the stabbing attack, which has been declared a terrorist incident, began at an event at Fishmonger's Hall. Within five minutes of being called officers confronted the suspect - who was shot dead by police - she said. The suspect was wearing what is thought to have been a hoax explosive device." The Guardian is updating developments.

~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Trump paid an unannounced Thanksgiving visit to American troops in Afghanistan on Thursday and declared that he had reopened peace negotiations with the Taliban less than three months after scuttling talks in hopes of ending 18 years of war. 'The Taliban wants to make a deal, and we're meeting with them,' Mr. Trump said during a meeting with Afghanistan's president, Ashraf Ghani, at the main base for American forces north of Kabul. 'We're going to stay until such time as we have a deal, or we have total victory, and they want to make a deal very badly,' Mr. Trump added even as he reaffirmed his desire to reduce the American military presence to 8,600 troops, down from about 12,000 to 13,000." The AP story is here.

Jonathan Chait: "... the New York Times and Washington Post both have new stories [linked below] about [Rudy] Giuliani pursuing business deals with Ukrainian government officials at the same time he was lobbying them on Trump's behalf.... The first and most important thing to understand about these deals is that there is no possible set of mitigating circumstances that might make the negotiations remotely ethical." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Erin Banco & Betsy Swan of The Daily Beast: "Even before Gordon Sondland's work in Ukraine set off alarm bells, senior U.S. officials were raising concerns about his communications with officials from Romania -- including his efforts to get White House access for a politician [Liviu Dragnea, a Romanian politician] with a history of pushing back against anti-corruption reforms.... Sondland ... often hosted meetings with Romanian officials without consulting the National Security Council (NSC). His increasingly close relationship with one of those officials, former deputy prime minister Ana Birchall, generated significant concerns within the NSC.../ Ana Birchall has a history of opposing anti-corruption measures in her country and for years supported Liviu Dragnea." --s ~~~

~~~ Because He's a Trumpy Kinda Guy. David Herszenhorn of Politico: Gordon Sondland, "the U.S. ambassador to the EU..., has no intention of resigning over allegations of sexual misconduct, a close associate said Thursday. Sondland has flatly denied the accusations, made by three women, who allege he engaged in inappropriate behavior years before he was named Trump's envoy to the EU."

Nicholas Confessore & Alexandra Alter of the New York Times: "At least nine Republican organizations, G.O.P. candidates or advocacy groups are selling [Donald Trump, Jr.,'s book] 'Triggered' or promoting Mr. Trump's book tour, according to emails obtained by The New York Times, interviews and disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission. The president's son has emerged over the past few years as a political star in his own right, often said to be considering a run for office. It is neither illegal nor uncommon for candidates and political organizations to use books in fund-raising drives.... But the breadth of the Republican establishment's effort behind Mr. Trump is striking for a noncandidate whose most significant claim to fame remains his parentage, and who has sought to deflect criticism of his recent attacks on impeachment witnesses by asserting that he is merely a 'private citizen.' And it underscores the unusual cross-pollination between the Trump family's political ambitions, its business ventures and the party President Trump now leads.... Earlier this month, the R.N.C. denied making large bulk purchases of the book, a practice that some best-seller lists, including that of The Times, may penalize authors for when ranking sales. But F.E.C. records released last week showed that it spent almost $100,000 on copies on Oct. 29...." The Raw Story has a summary of the story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Gee, I wonder if they'll help me sell my new book, 1,001 Stupid Things Donald Trump Has Said & Done. It comes with a special bonus: a pass to read a firewalled online addition to the book every day. More than one entry daily often available.

Chantal Da Silva of Newsweek: "Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, was reportedly forced to retreat from a Thanksgiving Eve bash on Wednesday after former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley tore into him over his role in enforcing the Trump administration's hardline immigration policies. According to one witness, Siobhan Houton Arnold, who tweeted about the incident, O'Malley 'drove' Cuccinelli out of the Dubliner, a Capitol Hill pub meant to be popular among Gonzaga High School graduates, a school both men had attended, graduating five years apart in the 1980s, according to The Washington Post. 'Martin O'Malley just drove Ken Cuccinelli out of the Dubliner in DC w/ a passion-laced and shame-invoking tirade on behalf of immigrant refugee children!!!' Arnold said in her tweet.... The former governor said he also was not the only one to air his grievances with Cuccinelli, who he described as 'the son of immigrant parents who cages children for a fascist president,' that evening." ~~~

~~~ Laura Vozzella & Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "Both O'Malley and Cuccinelli described a confrontation that involved O'Malley hotly criticizing Cuccinelli's politics. And both said they eventually ended up face-to-face with O'Malley asking Cuccinelli if he wanted to throw a punch."

Melissa Lemieux of Newsweek: "WholeFoods Magazine has named Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as its Man of the Year for championing a hemp growing project in his home state of Kentucky. Twitter users have cried foul, though, and now they are trying to boycott the Whole Foods Supermarkets chain, which has nothing to do with the magazine."

Pete Hegseth, the Fox "News" host who most recently made the news for his advocacy for war criminal Eddie Gallagher is not only morally bankrupt, he is far more ignorant than any U.S. elementary school graduate should be. Yesterday, I linked a scene from the 1993 film "Addams Family Values," in which the character Wednesday (Christina Ricci) plays Pocahontas in a summer camp Thanksgiving play. Apparently the movie was where Pete learned his American history. Anyone who passed 5th-grade history knows that Pocahontas had nothing to do with the New England settlers. P.S. I checked Hegseth's bio to see if maybe he had a good excuse for his ignorance of early American history, like "raised by wolves in Mongolia." But no. Pete was graduated from Princeton & has a masters degree from the JFK School at Harvard. Someone should check to see if those schools are accredited. ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Justin Wise of the Hill: "Fox News host Pete Hegseth echoed language from President Trump on Thursday while taking a shot at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), saying that it was 'fitting' the 'Fox & Friends' morning program was talking about "Pocahontas" on Thanksgiving. Hegseth used the name Pocahontas, which Trump deploys to mock Warren's claims of Native American ancestry, as a panel discussed Warren's recent drop in polls focused on the 2020 Democratic presidential primary."

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Sabrina Caserta of the AP: "The beloved balloons flew, but lower than usual, in a windy Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade after an anxious weather watch. Wind had threatened to ground the giant inflated characters. But officials announced less than an hour before Thursday's start time that the balloons could fly, if in a down-to-Earth way. As the parade continued -- even while city emergency officials sent out a public alert about wind gusts -- handlers struggled with some balloons and pulled them close to the ground. Meanwhile, winds did keep giant balloons out of Philadelphia's Thanksgiving Day parade." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ohio. Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "A bill to ban abortion introduced in the Ohio state legislature requires doctors to 'reimplant an ectopic pregnancy' into a woman's uterus -- a procedure that does not exist in medical science – or face charges of 'abortion murder'. This is the second time practising obstetricians and gynecologists have tried to tell the Ohio legislators that the idea is currently medically impossible.... An ectopic pregnancy is a life-threatening condition, which can kill a woman if the embryonic tissue grows unchecked. In addition to ordering doctors to do the impossible or face criminal charges, House Bill 413 bans abortion outright and defines a fertilized egg as an 'unborn child'. It also appears to punish doctors, women and children as young as 13 with 'abortion murder' if they 'perform or have an abortion'. This crime is punishable by life in prison. Another new crime, 'aggravated abortion murder', is punishable by death, according to the bill. The bill [has two sponsors]..., and [is] co-sponsored by 19 members of Ohio's 99-member House."

Way Beyond

China, Hong Kong. Yanan Wang of the AP: "China reacted furiously Thursday to ... Donald Trump's signing two bills aimed at supporting human rights in Hong Kong, summoning the U.S. ambassador to protest and warning the move would undermine cooperation with Washington. Hong Kong, a former British colony that was granted semi-autonomy when China took control in 1997, has been rocked by six months of sometimes violent pro-democracy demonstrations. Thousands of pro-democracy activists crowded a public square in downtown Hong Kong on Thursday night for a 'Thanksgiving Day' rally to thank the United States for passing the laws and vowed to 'march on' in their fight." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

U.K. Boris Was Not Amused. Alex Wickham & Mark Di Stefano of BuzzFeed News: "The Conservative Party is threatening to review Channel 4's public service broadcasting obligations after the broadcaster replaced Boris Johnson with an ice sculpture at Thursday night's election debate. In a dramatic escalation of the war of words between the Tories and Channel 4 that will likely provoke outcry, a Conservative source told BuzzFeed News that if they win the coming election they will reassess the channel's public service broadcasting licence.... The inflammatory move came after Channel 4 said it would empty-chair the prime minister and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage at its climate change leaders' debate, after the two leaders declined to take part.... Channel 4 is unique among UK broadcasters in that it is a publicly owned' public service broadcaster', which means it has licensing obligations imposed on it by the regulator Ofcom including requirements for impartial news, current affairs, original programming and production outside of London." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's hoping the sculptures melted during the broadcast.

The Commentariat -- November 28, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Jonathan Chait: "... the New York Times and Washington Post both have new stories [linked below] about Giuliani pursuing business deals with Ukrainian government officials at the same time he was lobbying them on Trump's behalf.... The first and most important thing to understand about these deals is that there is no possible set of mitigating circumstances that might make the negotiations remotely ethical."

Sabrina Caserta of the AP: "The beloved balloons flew, but lower than usual, in a windy Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade after an anxious weather watch. Wind had threatened to ground the giant inflated characters. But officials announced less than an hour before Thursday's start time that the balloons could fly, if in a down-to-Earth way. As the parade continued -- even while city emergency officials sent out a public alert about wind gusts -- handlers struggled with some balloons and pulled them close to the ground. Meanwhile, winds did keep giant balloons out of Philadelphia's Thanksgiving Day parade."

Yanan Wang of the AP: "China reacted furiously Thursday to ... Donald Trump's signing two bills aimed at supporting human rights in Hong Kong, summoning the U.S. ambassador to protest and warning the move would undermine cooperation with Washington. Hong Kong, a former British colony that was granted semi-autonomy when China took control in 1997, has been rocked by six months of sometimes violent pro-democracy demonstrations. Thousands of pro-democracy activists crowded a public square in downtown Hong Kong on Thursday night for a 'Thanksgiving Day' rally to thank the United States for passing the laws and vowed to 'march on' in their fight."

~~~~~~~~~~

Or Something Like This. Painting by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, ca. 1914"Everything You Learned about the First Thanksgiving Is Wrong." Maya Salam of the New York Times: The main course was venison brought by Wampanoag men, there's no direct evidence the Pilgrims ate turkey, and they didn't call themselves Pilgrims but "separatists." The separatists didn't come seeking religious freedom; they came to set up an entrepreneurial theocracy. And Squanto spoke English because he'd been captured by an Englishman & sold into slavery years earlier (even that story is complicated & essential parts of it unknown). Mrs. McC: In other words, the "Pilgrims" were a lot like many present-day Americans: insular, religiously intolerant & avaricious. Pass the sweet potatoes corn meal mush, please.

Also not necessarily historically accurate:

Trump Vows to Save "Thanksgiving." Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "The Trump-Fox News Feedback Loop was on full display Wednesday morning when ... Donald Trump's favorite morning show backed his patently absurd claim that liberals want to change the name of Thanksgiving -- an idea he obviously got from Fox's recent round-the-clock 'War on Thanksgiving' coverage. At his Tuesday night campaign rally in Florida, the president insisted that 'some people' want to change the name of the holiday and 'don't want to use the term Thanksgiving,' likening this supposed anti-Thanksgiving sentiment to another infamous right-wing media invention. 'And that was true with Christmas. Now everybody is using Christmas again. And remember I said that,' Trump declared. 'Now we're gonna have to do a little work on Thanksgiving. People have different ideas on why it shouldn't be called Thanksgiving. Everybody here loves the name Thanksgiving and we're not changing it!' During Wednesday morning's broadcast of Fox & Friends, the hosts appeared to give credence to the president's conspiracy, all while sidestepping the role their network had in planting the idea in his head." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Somebody please tell me what I'm supposed to call today's holiday now that it's not Thanksgiving anymore. "Thursday"? ~~~

~~~ Update. The Thanksgiving war is real. I lost an uncle at the battle of Cranberry Hill. He was going upriver on a gravy boat that got ambushed by Col. 'Cornbread' Stuffing's men. Bones everywhere --- he died of heartburn. Tried to hold on until Black Friday but just couldn't. I'll be thinking of him tomorrow when I go shopping for all those overpriced bargains. -- Forrest M., in today's Comments

New York Times: "Two major storm systems have paralyzed large parts of the nation just ahead of Thanksgiving. Though the storms were weakening, holiday travel issues were likely to continue into the weekend." The story is being updated. The Weather Channel's main page has links to a number of weather horror stories, to a travel forecast, & of course to the weather outlook for your, uh, Thursday or whatever, & beyond.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: In case venison is not your entree today & you are asked to carve a turkey, there are quite a few YouTube videos advising how to do it. The Washington Post has a story with helpful graphics on the art of bird-carving.

William Saletan of Slate: "Republicans claim that two private remarks by ... Donald Trump clear him of wrongdoing in the Ukraine scandal. The first remark, supposedly made on Aug. 31 to Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, was that Trump would 'never' require Ukraine to do anything for him in order to get military aid he had suspended. The second remark, made on Sept. 7 or Sept. 9 to Gordon Sondland..., was that Trump wanted 'nothing' from Ukraine [Mrs. McC: The 'no quid pro quo' conversation].... But now it turns out that by the time Trump spoke to Johnson, the president already knew he was under investigation for extorting Zelensky. This discovery, reported on Tuesday night [also linked yesterday] by the New York Times, inverts the meaning of Trump's statements to Johnson and Sondland. Trump wasn't telling the truth. He was launching his cover story." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ About That "No Quid Pro Quo" Call. Aaron Davis, et al., of the Washington Post: Gordon "Sondland's recollection of a phone conversation that he said took place on Sept. 9 has emerged as a centerpiece of Trump's defense as House Democrats argue in an impeachment inquiry that he abused his office to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democrats. However, no other witness testimony or documents have emerged that corroborate Sondland's description of a call that day. Trump himself, in describing the conversation, has referred only to the ambassador's account of the call, which -- based on Sondland's activities -- would have occurred before dawn in Washington. And the White House has not located a record in its switchboard logs of a call between Trump and Sondland on Sept. 9, according to an administration official.... But there is evidence of another call between Trump and Sondland that occurred a few days earlier -- one with a very different thrust, in which the president made clear that he wanted his Ukrainian counterpart to personally announce investigations into Trump's political opponents.... The way witnesses [Tim Morrison & Bill Taylor] describe a call between the two men in early September ... [is that] Trump said he was not seeking a 'quid pro quo,' but he also relayed a specific demand ... that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky personally and publicly announce the investigations Trump was seeking." Emphasis added. The Raw Story has a summary report here. More on Sondland linked below.

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "As Rudolph W. Giuliani waged a public campaign this year to unearth damaging information in Ukraine about President Trump's political rivals, he privately pursued hundreds of thousands dollars in business from Ukrainian government officials, documents reviewed by The New York Times show. Mr. Giuliani ... has repeatedly said he has no business in Ukraine, and none of the deals was finalized. But the documents indicate that while he was pushing Mr. Trump's agenda with Ukrainian officials eager for support from the United States, Mr. Giuliani also explored financial agreements with members of the same government.... Prosecutors and F.B.I. agents in Manhattan are examining whether Mr. Giuliani was not just working for the president, but also doing the bidding of Ukrainians who wanted [Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch] removed for their own reasons...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
~~~

~~~ Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "These negotiations were in early 2019 -- not long before Giuliani put the prosecutor, Yuri Lutsenko, in touch with John Solomon, a right-leaning US journalist then at The Hill.... Solomon publicized Lutsenko's claims, many of which Lutsenko later withdrew, winning the prosecutor attention from Trump's circle. Lutsenko used that access to influence US policy toward Ukraine, helping to force the ouster of Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, who was critical of Lutsenko.... [Giuliani's] negotiation with Lutsenko, while particularly brazen, is just one of many engagements for which the former mayor has drawn accusations of acting as unregistered foreign agent.... Giuliani has never registered as a foreign agent with the Justice Department. Nor has he registered as a lobbyist of any kind. In various public statements, he has said he doesn't need to.... [His] excuses may not get Giuliani off the hook on foreign lobbying laws. You don't have to be paid to be considered a foreign agent under FARA, a World War II-era law that requires anyone promoting the interests of foreign clients to register with the Justice Department and detail their efforts."

~~~ Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Rudolph W. Giuliani negotiated earlier this year to represent Ukraine's top prosecutor for at least $200,000 during the same months that Giuliani was working with the prosecutor to dig up dirt on vice president Joe Biden, according to people familiar with the discussions. The people said that Giuliani began negotiations with Ukraine's top prosecutor, Yuri Lutsenko, about a possible agreement in February. In the agreement, Giuliani's company would receive payment to represent Lutsenko as the Ukrainian sought to recover assets he believed had been stolen from the government in Kyiv, those familiar with the discussions said.... The people said that another retainer agreement, drafted in March, called for Giuliani Partners to receive $300,000 from the Ministry of Justice for help locating the supposedly stolen assets.... The talks occurred as Giuliani met with Lutsenko in New York in January and then in Warsaw in February while he was also gathering information from Lutsenko on two topics Giuliani believed could prove useful to Trump: the involvement of Biden, and his son, Hunter, in Ukraine and allegations that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 election.... A person familiar with the negotiations described a series of contracts that were drafted earlier this year in which Giuliani would have worked for Lutsenko or separately, the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Hill has a summary of the NYT & WashPo stories. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump was right when about one thing he told Bill O'Reilly (story linked yesterday) while trying to distance himself from Rudy: "Rudy has other clients, other than me. He's done a lot of work in Ukraine over the years." Trump's "Rudy who?" chat with O'Reilly seems to have been a "response" to the NYT & WashPo stories linked above, in that reporters most likely called the White House for comment yesterday. The distancing from Rudy also may mean Trump is keeping tabs on the SDNY investigation of the Three Stooges, and that the investigation is not going well Rudy. BTW, if Trump was so concerned about corruption in Ukraine, why would he hire a lawyer who has "done a lot of work in Ukraine over the years"? Wouldn't that lawyer have been working with corrupt Ukrainians over the years? ~~~

     ~~~ digby: "Put simply, Rudy was doing with Trump what they accuse Biden and his son of doing. Of course. And it's much, much worse since they were simultaneously doing Russia's bidding and putting lives on the line in the war with Ukraine." ~~~

~~~ Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Rudy Giuliani acknowledged this week meeting with a lawyer for a Ukrainian oligarch who he had previously said he had 'nothing to do with.'... Asked about the discrepancy, Giuliani called CNN's inquiry 'horseshit' and 'trickery,' and said previous responses to CNN were not misleading."

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "... Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that he did not direct his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to have Ukraine dig up dirt on his political rivals, contradicting testimony from several witnesses in the House impeachment inquiry.... [But] public testimony in the impeachment inquiry from multiple senior diplomats portrayed Giuliani as the driver behind Trump's pressure campaign to get Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden and a leading voice in the spread of debunked conspiracies that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. election. Trump asked Zelenskiy to get in touch with Giuliani in the July 25 phone call that ultimately led to the impeachment inquiry.... In testimony from two key witnesses alone, Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union and Kurt Volker, then the U.S. special representative for Ukraine, Giuliani was mentioned more than 430 times, highlighting his outsize influence in Ukraine policy.... Giuliani has maintained that there was nothing illegal or improper about his actions, even tweeting publicly about conducting an 'investigation' on Trump's behalf."

Just Kidding, Donald! Karen Friefeld of Reuters: "... Rudy Giuliani called the president this week to reassure him that he had been joking when he told media outlets he had 'insurance' if Trump turned on him in the Ukraine scandal, Giuliani's lawyer said on Wednesday. The attorney, Robert Costello, said Giuliani 'at my insistence' had called Trump 'within the last day' to emphasize that he had not been serious when he said he had an 'insurance policy, if thrown under the bus.'" Mrs. McC: Nice try, Rudy. Trump knows what you have on him.

Harper Neidig of the Hill: "A federal district judge on Wednesday issued a temporary stay of her order that former White House counsel Don McGahn comply with House Democrats' subpoena for testimony. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, an Obama appointee on the district court in D.C., granted McGahn's request for a temporary stay while she deliberates on whether to issue a lengthier one to allow him to appeal her decision. The House Judiciary Committee, which had asked the court to enforce its subpoena for President Trump's former legal adviser, said it would not oppose a temporary stay." ~~~

~~~ Update. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court on Wednesday evening stayed a lower-court ruling that former Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn must comply with a House subpoena after the administration appealed, arguing the battle poses great consequences for the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted an administrative stay while it considers a longer-term order, and fast-tracked oral arguments in the case for a hearing Jan. 3. The stay came after U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of Washington on Monday found no basis for a White House claim that the former counsel is 'absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony,' saying 'Presidents are not kings' and raising the possibility that McGahn could be forced to testify before the House Judiciary Committee as part of its impeachment inquiry."

Gordon Sondland, Sexual Predator. Allegedly. Julia Silverman, et al., of Portland Monthly & Maryam Jameel & Doris Burke of ProPublica: "Three women say they faced sexual misconduct by Gordon Sondland before he was the U.S. ambassador to the European Union and at the center of the presidential impeachment inquiry. They say he retaliated against them professionally after they rejected his advances. In one case, a potential business partner recalls that Sondland took her to tour a room in a hotel he owns, only to then grab her face and try to kiss her. After she rejected him, Sondland backtracked on investing in her business. Another woman, a work associate at the time, says Sondland exposed himself to her during a business interaction. She also recalls falling over the back of a couch trying to get away from him. After she made her lack of interest clear, she says Sondland called her, screaming about her job performance. A third woman, 27 years Sondland's junior, met him to discuss a potential job. She says he pushed himself against her and kissed her. She shoved him away. She says his job help stopped. All three women have agreed to be named in this story. In all the cases, friends, family members or colleagues of the women recall being told about the encounters at the time.... Sondland denies the allegations." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Should be quite a nice Thanksgiving Day dinner at the Sondland residence.

Impeachment Then. When Some Republicans Were Heroes. Timothy Smith of the Washington Post: "William D. Ruckelshaus, a pragmatic and resolute government official who shaped the Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1970s as its first administrator and returned to the agency a decade later to restore its shattered morale after its watchdog powers had been muzzled, died Nov. 27 at his home in Medina, Wash. He was 87.... In a long career in government and private industry, Mr. Ruckelshaus was widely promoted as 'Mr. Clean' as much for his uprightness as for his role with the EPA. He cemented his reputation for unshakable integrity when, in 1973, as President Richard Nixon's deputy attorney general, he defied a presidential order to fire the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate break-in." Ruckelshaus's New York Times obituary is here.

More on Other Trump Scandals:

Heather Vogell of ProPublica: "Donald Trump's business reported conflicting information about a key metric to New York City property tax officials and a lender who arranged financing for his signature building, Trump Tower in Manhattan, according to tax and loan documents obtained by ProPublica. The findings add a third major Trump property to two for which ProPublica revealed similar discrepancies last month. In the latest case, the occupancy rate of the Trump Tower's commercial space was listed, over three consecutive years, as 11, 16 and 16 percentage points higher in filings to a lender than in reports to city tax officials, records show."

Scott Stedman of Forensic News: "Thomas Bowers, a former Deutsche Bank executive and head of the American wealth-management division, killed himself in Malibu, California, on Tuesday, November 19th, according to the Los Angeles county coroner's initial report.... Bowers was the boss of Donald Trump's banker Rosemary Vrablic, according to a New York Times article in early 2019. Vrablic approved over $300 million dollars in high risk loans for Trump starting in 2010. Vrablic's other clients have included Jared Kushner.... One source who has direct knowledge of the FBI's investigation into Deutsche Bank said that federal investigators have asked about Bowers and documents he might have."

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Michael Flynn..., Donald Trump's first national security adviser, will not be sentenced on December 18 as previously planned, a federal judge said Wednesday, to await the release of an internal Justice Department report on FBI surveillance. Judge Emmet Sullivan agreed with prosecutors and Flynn's lawyers, who asked for Flynn's long-awaited sentencing hearing to be delayed because they won't be fully prepared for it until the DOJ inspector general's report regarding FBI surveillance as part of its early Russia probe is published. The inspector general's review is due out December 9." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday signed legislation offering support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, one week after it passed the House and Senate with veto-proof majorities. The White House made the announcement that Trump had signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act despite protests from officials in Beijing, who complain that the legislation meddles in their domestic matters.... The legislation imposes sanctions on individuals who commit human rights violations in Hong Kong and blocks them from entering the United States." The Washington Post story is here.

Former Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer in a Washington Post op-ed: "... military justice works best when senior leadership stays far away. A system that prevents command influence is what separates our armed forces from others. Our system of military justice has helped build the world's most powerful navy; good leaders get promoted, bad ones get moved out, and criminals are punished.... President Trump involved himself in the [Gallagher] case almost from the start.... The president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices." ~~~

~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer on Wednesday admonished President Trump for repeatedly involving himself in an internal review of a Navy SEAL whose case led to controversy and Spencer's ouster over the weekend. Spencer penned an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he laid out multiple instances in which Trump attempted to intervene in a military review of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, who was accused and later acquitted of several war crimes." ~~~

~~~ Barbara Starr & Nicole Gaouette of CNN: "Tensions that have been mounting for months between some of the nation's most senior military officers and ... Donald Trump are boiling over after his decision to intervene in the cases of three service members accused of war crimes. A long-serving military officer put it bluntly, telling CNN 'there is a morale problem,' and senior Pentagon officials have privately said they are disturbed by the President's behavior. Dismay in the Pentagon has been building over Trump's sporadic, impulsive and contradictory decision-making on a range of issues, including his sudden pullback of troops in Syria. But now there are new and significant worries, as multiple military officials and retired officers say Trump's intervention into high-profile war crimes cases cannot be ignored."

~~~ Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "Donald Trump is a war-crimes enthusiast.... Although Trump was talked out of authorizing torture by his advisers, the president's ardor for violations of the laws of war has manifested itself in his decisions to intervene in war-crimes cases.... In four separate cases since the beginning of his presidency, and for the first time in the history of modern warfare, an American president has aided service members accused or convicted of war crimes, against the advice of his own military leadership. The clearances eroded the rule of law, as well as institutional safeguards against authoritarianism and the politicization of the military. But they were also a rational extension of Trumpist nationalism, which recognizes no moral, legal, or institutional restraints on the president worth upholding, and which sees violence against outsiders as a redemptive expression of national loyalty." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Shocking Report Will Reveal Barack Obama Is Not a Master Spy. Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The Justice Department's inspector general found no evidence that the F.B.I. attempted to place undercover agents or informants inside Donald J. Trump's campaign in 2016 as agents investigated whether his associates conspired with Russia's election interference operation, people familiar with a draft of the inspector general's report said. The determination by the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is expected to be a key finding in his highly anticipated report due out on Dec. 9 examining aspects of the Russia investigation. The finding also contradicts some of the most inflammatory accusations hurled by Mr. Trump and his supporters, who alleged not only that F.B.I. officials spied on the Trump campaign but also at one point that former President Barack Obama had ordered Mr. Trump's phones tapped.... The finding is one of several by Mr. Horowitz that undercuts conservatives' claims that the F.B.I. acted improperly in investigating several Trump associates starting in 2016. He also found that F.B.I. leaders did not take politically motivated actions in pursuing a secret wiretap on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page -- eavesdropping that Mr. Trump's allies have long decried as politically motivated. But Mr. Horowitz will sharply criticize F.B.I. leaders for their handling of the investigation in some ways, and he unearthed errors and omissions when F.B.I. officials applied for the wiretap, according to people familiar with a draft of the report." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: C'mon, you-all were sure Barack was down in the bowels of Trump Tower just a-tippity-tip-tappin' them wires. Drat! Turns out it was not Barack in the basement with a bug. Another Trump conspiracy theory bites the dust. (Well, okay, Trump probably won't give up on it. Stay tuned for Sean Hannity's report on Michael Horowitz, deep-state mole for George Soros & the international liberal cabal.)

Mark Walker & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "An examination of Federal Emergency Management Agency data and records demonstrates the degree to which the recovery from Hurricanes Maria and Irma on America's Caribbean islands has been stalled compared with some of the most disaster-prone states on the mainland, leaving the islands' critical infrastructure in squalor and limbo.... That disparity underscored how a federal government in Washington has treated citizens on the mainland, with voting representatives in Congress and a say in presidential contests, compared with citizens on the islands. Further complicating the recovery are issues of corruption, often amplified by President Trump and, islanders say, questions of race." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tim Apple Is Doing Putin's Bidding. Chris Welch of the Verge: "When used within Russia, Apple's Maps and Weather apps now list Crimea as being a Russian territory. The move, reported by BBC News, is the latest example of Apple kowtowing to a government's demands to keep its devices and services in good standing. The company faced significant criticism in October for removing the Taiwanese flag emoji from the iOS keyboard in Hong Kong. This latest change stems from Russia's roundly condemned annexation of Crimea in 2014. It only applies when Crimea is viewed or searched for with Apple Maps inside Russia; elsewhere in the world, Crimea isn't labeled as Russian territory."