The Commentariat -- May 14, 2019
Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Investors are dealing with a painful new reality: The trade war between the United States and China could last indefinitely. The anxiety caused by that realization rippled through the stock markets on Monday, and the S&P 500 suffered its steepest daily drop in months after China said it would increase tariffs on nearly $60 billion of American-made goods in response to a similar move last week by the Trump administration. The American stock benchmark fell 2.4 percent, pushing its losses for the month above 4.5 percent. Shares in trade-sensitive sectors like agriculture, semiconductors and industrials were particularly hard hit. Bonds and commodities, too, flashed warnings of a slowdown." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... "Trade Wars Are Good, and Easy to Win." Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States and China escalated their trade fight on Monday as Beijing moved to raise tariffs on nearly $60 billion worth of American goods in retaliation for President Trump's decision to punish China with higher tariffs on a slew of imports. China's finance ministry announced that it was raising tariffs on a wide range of American goods to 20 percent or 25 percent from 10 percent in response to Mr. Trump's decision to raise tariffs to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. China's increase will impact the roughly $60 billion in American imports already being taxed as retaliation for Mr. Trump's previous round of levies, including beer, wine, swimsuits, shirts and liquefied natural gas. The S&P 500 fell more than 2 percent soon after trading began in New York, and shares of companies particularly dependent on trade with China, including Apple and Boeing, fared poorly." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Trump Tries to Protect His Base from ... Himself. Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump is seeking an additional $15 billion in U.S. subsidies in an effort to protect farmers from the devastating impact of his trade war with China. That's on top of $12 billion already earmarked for the farmers to help them weather the fallout. That would be an additional bill for U.S. taxpayers already shouldering the cost of increased tariffs in the form of higher costs for products and parts from China. Trump revealed the subsidy figure in a tweet Friday. He suggested the government use the funds to buy agricultural products to ship to other nations for humanitarian aid, though setting up such a system would be extremely complicated. In his most recent budget proposal, Trump proposed eliminating three food aid programs, Politico noted. The president appeared to dismiss the impact of the cost as he falsely claimed -- again -- that 'massive' tariff payments are being paid by China 'directly' to the U.S. Treasury, which would presumably be used to cover the cost of the subsidy. There is 'absolutely no need to rush' to negotiate a deal with China, he tweeted. In fact, the tariffs are paid by U.S. importers, who pass on the extra costs to the American consumer in the form of higher prices for products...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Having lost more than a billion dollars of other people's money as a private businessman, Trump is digging in to lose many billions of all Americans' money. He was an incompetent ignoramus then; he's an incompetent ignoramus now. ...
... Zack Ford of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump kicked Monday morning off with a series of tweets defending his new tariffs against China. His latest tactic is to urge Americans not to buy products from American companies if they manufacture in China.... Trump said there is 'no reason' for U.S. consumers to pay the tariffs, before claiming that companies inside China would soon move to other countries. In the meantime, Trump said people should just buy products from inside the United States. Tariffs can still have an impact on the cost of a product, even if you buy it from inside the United States." --s ...
... No, No, Everything Is Going as Planned. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "President Trump has spent the past 24 hours tweeting manically about trade, repeating the absurd falsehood that China is paying us billions in tariffs. We keep hearing that this shows Trump 'doesn't understand' how tariffs work. But this is better seen as a straight-up, deliberate lie -- a lie upon which Trump is staking his reelection.... If Trump agrees to a deal that does not win real concessions, that will reveal his agenda of 'toughness' as hollow -- particularly if those concessions do not appear worth the pain that the tariff wars have already imposed on farmers, in the very region that's crucial to his reelection. So the New York Times reports that Trump is now hoping to flip the political calculus: No deal, followed by still more tariffs, will allow Trump to proclaim he's still being tough on China.... Central to this whole tale has always been the idea that Trump will take back for U.S. workers what this alliance of elites and foreign workers is stealing from them -- he will take back what is rightfully theirs.... Failure on China could be catastrophic for Trump. So he's just swapping in a new story: He's making China pay restitution to Americans it has ripped off for so long by forcing it to 'pay' us in tariffs."
** Eric Schmitt & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "At a meeting of President Trump's top national security aides last Thursday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, administration officials said. The revisions were ordered by hard-liners led by John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump's national security adviser. They do not call for a land invasion of Iran, which would require vastly more troops, officials said. The development reflects the influence of Mr. Bolton, one of the administration's most virulent Iran hawks, whose push for confrontation with Tehran was ignored more than a decade ago by President George W. Bush.... On Monday, asked about if he was seeking regime change in Iran, Mr. Trump said: 'We'll see what happens with Iran. If they do anything, it would be a very bad mistake.'" ...
... Chris Cillizza of CNN: "'We'll see what happens' is Trump's go-to phrase for saying absolutely nothing while simultaneously ruling absolutely nothing out. On virtually every major issue which he has been asked to address over his first two-plus years in office, he has, at one time or another, pledged to 'see what happens.'" Cillizza lists nine other matters of which Trump has said, "We'll see what happens."
... Michael Birnbaum & Liz Sly of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo crashed a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday to push for a united transatlantic front against Tehran and its nuclear program. But he failed to bend attitudes among leaders who fear the United States and Iran are inching toward war. Pompeo's last-minute decision to visit the European Union capital, announced as he boarded a plane from the United States, set up a confrontation between the top U.S. diplomat and his European counterparts, who have been scrambling to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal last year. At least one, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, said he feared that unintentional escalation from the United States and Iran could spark a conflict -- an unusually bold statement that appeared to assign equal culpability to Washington and Tehran." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Zachary Basu of Axios: At a press spray, "President Trump on Monday praised far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for his immigration policies, telling reporters: 'Probably like me a little bit controversial, but that's OK. You've done a good job and you've kept your country safe.' [When a reporter asked,] 'Mr. President, are you concerned about democratic backsliding in Hungary under this prime minister?' [Trump answered,] 'Well, people have a lot of respect for this prime minister. He's a respected man, and I know he's a tough man, but he's a respected man, and he's done the right thing according to many people on immigration. And you look at some of the problems they have in Europe that are tremendous, because they've done it a different way than the prime minister.'" ...
... Asawin Suebsaeng & Sam Brodey of The Daily Beast: "On Monday afternoon, Donald Trump hosted Hungary's far-right leader Viktor Orban.... The Oval Office feting was a diplomatic coup for Orban and a culmination of a two-year effort to get the two nationalist, anti-immigration world leaders in the same room, glad-handing for the cameras." --s ...
... Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "Hungary is now the premier example of an emergent political model I've called 'soft fascism': a system that aims to stamp out dissent and seize control of every major aspect of a country's political and social life without needing to resort to 'hard' measures like banning elections and building up a police state. Orbán has also been explicit that his goal is the defeat of liberal democracy. Trump hasn't gone that far, but he has flashed some authoritarian instincts, and his party has shown it's willing to go along. David Cornstein, a longtime Trump associate currently serving as US ambassador to Hungary, told the Atlantic that the president 'would love to have the [political] situation that Viktor Orbán has.'... Orbán is one of the leading faces of the far-right backlash to democracy in the Western world today. In normal times, he would be condemned by the occupant of the White House, not treated as an honored guest. The fact that he isn't shows just how serious the threat to democracy in the West is -- and how worried Americans should be about the health of their own institutions." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In a system of supposed checks & balances, the real threat to democracy in the U.S. isn't Donald Trump; it's Congressional Republicans who refuse to check his excesses as long as he goes along with their other plans . We'll find out soon enough if the Trump Supremes join the open conspiracy. As for the GOP base, they're absolutely stupid enough to bring up the rear, their pitchforks points at their own rights -- and ours. That, BTW, is what they mean by a "Christian nation."
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: “... Donald Trump tried to take credit on Monday for a sudden turnaround in the Boston Red Sox' season, pointing out that the reigning World Series champions have gone undefeated since their fraught visit to the White House last week. 'Has anyone noticed that all the Boston @RedSox have done is WIN since coming to the White House!' Trump wrote in a tweet. 'Others also have done very well. The White House visit is becoming the opposite of being on the cover of Sports Illustrated! By the way, the Boston players were GREAT guys!' The Red Sox, who visited the White House last Thursday, swept all three of their home games over the weekend against the Seattle Mariners, scoring 34 runs across the three games. Boston has won eight of its last 10 games, a stretch that predates the team's reception with the president." Mrs. McC: I'm too lazy to check the stats, but I wonder if the Sox (Socks) players who boycotted the White House trip contributed to the wins. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Investigating the Investigators, Ctd. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut to examine the origins of the Russia investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter, a move that President Trump has long called for but that could anger law enforcement officials who insist that scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful. John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, has a history of serving as a special prosecutor investigating potential wrongdoing among national security officials, including the F.B.I.'s ties to a crime boss in Boston and accusations of C.I.A. abuses of detainees. His inquiry is the third known investigation focused on the opening of an F.B.I. counterintelligence investigation during the 2016 presidential campaign into possible ties between Russia's election interference and Trump associates. The department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is separately examining investigators' use of wiretap applications and informants and whether any political bias against Mr. Trump influenced investigative decisions. And John W. Huber, the United States attorney in Utah, has been reviewing aspects of the Russia investigation. His findings have not been announced." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: There is nothing wrong with investigating a series of FISA court proceedings once to make certain that authorities have not overstepped Constitutional limitations. But three times? (And this of course doesn't count Rudy's aborted trip to Ukraine, where he planned to ask the incoming president to "investigate the origins" of the Russia probe.) This is a solution in search of a problem.
Betsy Woodruff & Adam Rawnsley of The Daily Beast: "Rod Rosenstein was a #Resistance hero -- and one of Donald Trump's favorite whipping boys -- for overseeing the Russia investigation. But Rosenstein's legacy at the Justice Department shows he was ... spearheading the president's war on leakers and whistleblowers.... In just two years, the Trump administration has come close to prosecuting the same number of cases as Team Obama, which prosecuted 10 government employees and contractors with similar offenses over the course of two terms.... Under the Trump administration, agencies' referrals of alleged leaks of classified information for consideration by the Justice Department have skyrocketed. The Justice Department fielded an annual average of 104 referrals in the first two years of Trump's presidency, compared to an annual average of 39 under Obama." --s ...
... Rosenstein's First Rewrite of History ... Casts Rosenstein as Faultless. Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Former deputy attorney general Rod J. Rosenstein on Monday defended his role in the firing of James B. Comey from the FBI and criticized the bureau's former director as a 'partisan pundit' -- offering one of his most detailed public accounts of the hectic events that led to the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel.... Rosenstein said he 'did not dislike' Comey but that Comey took steps that were 'not within the range of reasonable decisions' during the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. Rosenstein suggested that if he -- rather than Trump -- had been in charge, 'the removal would have been handled very differently, with fa more respect and far less drama.'"
Impeach Trump. Jamelle Bouie: "Democrats have the upper hand, but they aren't acting like it.... The logic of their arguments and accusations leads to impeachment, and there, they have flinched, worried that the public -- or at least Republican voters -- will rally to his side. Instead of a direct confrontation using everything at their disposal, Democrats want to maneuver around the president as if there's another path to victory. But there isn't. The next election will be about Trump. His base, as well as most Republican voters, will almost certainly be with him. What Democrats need is the confidence of their position. At this stage, when most Americans say they won't vote for Trump in 2020, they have the public. They have evidence of wrongdoing. They have all the tools they need to seize the initiative and center the next year of political conflict on the president's contempt for the Constitution and the welfare of the American people." ...
... Digby, in Salon: What all [the] failed impeachments [of the past] demonstrate is that as long as a president can hold one-third of the Senate plus one, he is immune from removal or legal punishment.... Our system has an extremely poor mechanism for removing a president who commits high crimes and misdemeanors. Donald Trump has decided to push that weakness to the limit. He isn't just exercising executive privilege. He's defying all congressional oversight.... If Republicans are able to demonstrate that Democrats won't move even against a president like Trump, I think we can be sure that further Republican presidents will no longer even bother to observe the law, much less the norms and rules that have governed our republic since the beginning. They've been heading this way for some time. Regardless of whether or not the Senate can protect the president from conviction, the risk of failing to impeach Trump is greater than the risk of doing it. If the Democrats refuse even to open an impeachment inquiry...[,] we will have shown that a president is literally unimpeachable...."
David Frum of the Atlantic: "Trump has tried to close [the] gap [between what the Mueller report says & what he wants it to say] by lying about it -- and by demanding that other people lie, too. When they don't and won't, Trump gets angry.... Trump got extra angry Sunday night ... [in] a sequence of rage tweets that included the line: 'The FBI has no leadership.'... Trump disjointedly tweeted over linked messages: 'The Director is protecting the same gang.....that tried to..... ...overthrow the President through an illegal coup...' Trump wants the FBI to endorse his own theory of victimhood --; and it won&'t.... Worse, the FBI ... received, and still holds, whatever information the investigation gathered about Russia's interference in the 2016 election.... [According to Mueller's report,] '... the evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal or political concerns.'... What Trump means by leadership is compliance." ...
... Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg: "If ... Donald Trump thinks he's been totally exonerated, as he says, why is he stonewalling Congress?... What worries me is that there';s another possible answer, and it's a lot worse. What if Trump is stonewalling Congress because the lesson he took from the Mueller report is that his behavior was perfectly okay? That is, what if Trump isn't pretending that he didn't do the misdeeds detailed in the report? What if instead he thinks that Attorney General William Barr, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other congressional Republicans are now willing to go along with a theory of presidential power so expansive and unrestricted that even John Yoo and other advocates of executive authority are alarmed? Unfortunately, that theory fits with Rudy Giuliani's perfectly open plan to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. It also fits with a series of tweets and statements and actions by the president that appear to be a continuation of a cover-up."
Nicholas Fandos & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Allies of Donald Trump Jr. may have stirred up a firestorm among Republicans over a subpoena to recall the president's eldest son to the Senate Intelligence Committee, but the panel's Republican chairman has suggested to colleagues that the standoff is of the younger Mr. Trump's making. Twice in recent months Donald Trump Jr. agreed to sit for voluntary interviews with the Intelligence Committee, only to later back out, Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the panel's chairman, told colleagues privately last week, according to two people.... The chairman said at a senators-only luncheon last Thursday that the evasions had left the committee no choice but to issue a subpoena on April 8 to give senators a chance to directly question the younger Mr. Trump as they seek to tie up loose ends on their investigation of Russian election interference."
They don't look like Indians to me. -- Donald Trump, in 1993, urging a House committee to investigate the heritage of members of a tribe that operates a Connecticut resort & casino ...
... Marc Fisher of the Washington Post explores a topic Akhilleus discussed last week: "... President Trump last week found time to tweet about an obscure House bill that would assure a Massachusetts Indian tribe control of 321 acres of land it wants to use for a gambling casino. The president was against the bill, he wrote, because it was 'unfair and doesn't treat Native Americans equally!'... Even though this president has a four-decade-long record of slamming American Indian casinos as scams that pose unfair competition to other gambling enterprises, notably his own, Trump's decision to weigh in on a measure that had strong bipartisan support seemed unusual for a chief executive who doesn't like to be bothered with the little stuff. But a closer look at House Resolution 312 and the favor it would do for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe reveals a sprawling network of Trump-related interests, from the National Enquirer to a Rhode Island casino company -- a small but strikingly intricate example of the ways this president's business dealings, personal bonds and political alliances can complicate and color the ordinary doings of government.... The tribe's site is about 18 miles from Rhode Island, and that state's politicians aren't keen to have a new competitor go up against their two casinos, both of which are run by Twin River Worldwide Holdings, a public company with strong Trump ties."
Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "In the weeks before they were ousted last month, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and top immigration enforcement official Ronald Vitiello challenged a secret White House plan to arrest thousands of parents and children in a blitz operation against migrants in 10 major U.S. cities. According to seven current and former Department of Homeland Security officials, the administration wanted to target the crush of families that had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border after the president's failed 'zero tolerance' prosecution push in early 2018. The ultimate purpose, the officials said, was a show of force to send the message that the United States was going to get tough by swiftly moving to detain and deport recent immigrants -- including families with children.... But Vitiello and Nielsen halted it, concerned about a lack of preparation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the risk of public outrage and worries that it would divert resources from the border. Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller and ICE Deputy Director Matthew Albence [whom Trump then tapped to replace Vitiello] were especially supportive of the plan, officials said, eager to execute dramatic, highly visible mass arrests that they argued would help deter the soaring influx of families.&"
Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "A growth in the undocumented immigrant population is not associated with an increase in local crime, according to a new study from The Marshall Project. The findings directly contradict one of the president's favorite talking points about immigrants and crime." --s
Lee Fang of The Intercept: "At a luxury resort [held the weekend of April 5-7] just outside of the nation's capital last month [in Middleburg, Virginia], around four dozen senior congressional staffers decamped for a weekend of relaxation and discussion at Salamander Resort & Spa. It was an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to come together and ... hear from health care lobbyists focused on defeating Medicare for All. The event was hosted by a group called Center Forward and featured a lecture from industry lobbyists leading the charge on undermining progressive health care proposals." --s
... Congressional Race 2019. Nothing Could Be Finer. Ed Kilgore of New York: "Republican voters in the south-central North Carolina Ninth Congressional District go to the polls Tuesday to choose a nominee for their star-crossed House seat, which has been vacant since January owing to election-fraud allegations against the campaign of Republican Mark Harris.... The front-runner in limited public polling and the best-financed Republican in the race is State Senator Dan Bishop, a staunch conservative who gained some unsavory national attention as the author of North Carolina's so-called bathroom bill, a law designed to force transgender folk to use restroom facilities denoted for the gender on their birth certificates. It was partially repealed in 2017 after Bishop's bill earned the state terrible publicity and the loss of convention, tourism, and other business, with cost estimates reaching $3.7 billion.... Believe it or not, though, Bishop is the more sedate of the top two Republicans in the race. Running second in the polls is County Commissioner Stoney Rushing, a gun-range owner whose trademark is to dress up like Boss Hogg, the corrupt southern pol in the old TV series The Dukes of Hazzard."
Presidential Race 2020
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, who was twice elected to lead a state that President Trump carried by more than 20 points, entered the Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday, vowing to elevate the issue of campaign finance and, more implicitly, to make Democrats competitive again across the country's interior. 'We need to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 and defeat the corrupt system that lets campaign money drown out the people's voice so we can finally make good on the promise of a fair shot for everyone,' Mr. Bullock said in a video centered on his record in Republican-leaning Montana."
Clio Chang of The Intercept: "Beto O'Rourke's Thursday hiring of Jeff Berman, a Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton veteran, is the latest step his presidential campaign has ... toward a more centrist and corporate strategic direction.... Berman ... is joining O'Rourke's campaign as senior adviser for delegate strategy.... An often overlooked part of his record, though, is his stint at law and lobbying firm Bryan Cave, a position for which he was hired immediately after Obama's presidential campaign.... According to the federal lobbying registry, between 2009 and 2011 Berman's clients on behalf of Bryan Cave included the private prison company GEO Group; TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline; and SeaWorld, which was then owned by massive private equity firm Blackstone." --s
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court's conservative majority overturned a 40-year-old precedent Monday, prompting a pointed warning from liberal justices about 'which cases the court will overrule next.' The issue in Monday's 5-to-4 ruling was one of limited impact: whether states have sovereign immunity from private lawsuits in the courts of other states. In 1979, the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to such immunity, although states are free to extend it to one another and often do. But the court's conservative majority overruled that decision, saying there was an implied right in the Constitution that means states 'could not be haled involuntarily before each other's courts,' in the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote Monday's decision. Thomas acknowledged the departure from the legal doctrine of stare decisis, in which courts are to abide by settled law without a compelling reason to overrule the decision." Mrs. McC: So long, Roe v. Wade. ...
... Irin Carmon of New York: "On Monday, the normally plodding and passionless Justice Stephen Breyer issued a Cassandra-like warning in a dissent joined by the other liberal justices, calling the majority's overruling of a states' rights precedent 'dangerous' and adding ominously, 'Today's decision can only cause one to wonder which cases the Court will overrule next.' If that wasn't clear enough, he twice mentioned the court's major abortion precedent when he didn't have to. Only running down the court steps shrieking would have been less subtle.... Brett Kavanaugh has already made it clear in a Louisiana procedural vote that he's willing to throw out abortion precedent in radical fashion as long as he can sound slightly calmer than he did in his confirmation hearings. Chief Justice John Roberts, the court's new swing vote, is no one's idea of a moderate and, despite voting to keep Louisiana's clinics temporarily open in a procedural move, has upheld every single abortion law that the court has considered in full."
Devin Dwyer of ABC News: "A divided Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for iPhone owners to sue Apple for alleged 'higher-than-competitive prices' for apps sold in App Store. 'A claim that a monopolistic retailer (here, Apple) has used its monopoly to overcharge consumers is a classic antitrust claim,' wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the majority opinion, joined by the court's liberal justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.... The opinion does not resolve the merits of the consumers' allegations against Apple, rather simply allows them to proceed in court." Mrs. McC: Looks as if Brett thinks Apple ripped him off. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Lynh Bui of the Washington Post: "A federal judge ordered a U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant accused of plotting a widespread terrorist attack to remain in jail pending trial, overturning an earlier magistrate judge's decision to release Christopher Paul Hasson on home arrest. The decision Monday came in a hearing in U.S. District Court in Maryland, where prosecutors and Hasson's public defender clashed for the fourth time over whether Hasson should stay in jail if he faces drug and weapons charges but no terrorism-related offenses. Although the charges Hasson faces are 'unremarkable,' U.S. District Court Judge George J. Hazel said, Hasson's 'history and characteristics' and potential danger to the community weighed in favor of blocking release. The evidence the government brought showed specific alleged actions toward a plan, Hazel said. Hasson's alleged actions of amassing weapons, creating a target list of enemies and researching their locations ramped up after he started studying the manifesto of a Norwegian terrorist who killed 77, Hazel said."
Kate Taylor & Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "The actress Felicity Huffman ... pleaded guilty on Monday to a single count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, acknowledging that she paid $15,000 to arrange for cheating on her daughter's SAT test.... Prosecutors have said that they would recommend four months behind bars for Ms. Huffman. They also have said that they would recommend a fine of $20,000 and 12 months of supervised release."
E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "The third-largest coal company in the United States has declared bankruptcy, leaving the future of its more than 1,000 workers uncertain.... Officials said the company's mines will continue to operate throughout the bankruptcy process; Cloud Peak operates two mines in Wyoming and one in Montana.... The company's workers lack union protections. But even coal miners backed by unions are at risk -- a ruling earlier this year allowed a coal company to abandon union contracts. And broader threats to federal funding for miner benefits are jeopardizing pensions for tens of thousands of workers." --s
Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "'One hundred thousand dollars a day? That's just off the charts.' That's how Deborah Rhode, a legal ethics expert from Stanford Law School, put it after reviewing a memo from ex-NRA president Oliver North.... Meanwhile, the NRA's latest financial disclosures forms show its revenue has slumped under the gun-friendly Trump administration. North's memo --; which NRA top brass dispute -- raises new questions about the association's finances at an extraordinarily fraught moment for the grassroots gun-rights powerhouse.... Meanwhile, numerous legal ethics experts who reviewed the memo told The Daily Beast they found it astonishing, especially for a nonprofit -- and the kind of thing that could draw attention from the IRS." --s ...
... Wayne's World. He Shopped Till He Dropped ... $39K in One Day. Ashley Reese of Jezebel: "The National Rifle Association, it brings me no pleasure to report, is fully in the shit: The Wall Street Journal reports that leaked internal NRA documents reveal, among other things, that NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre billed more than $542,000 worth of clothing, travel, and other expenses to its longtime ad agency, Ackerman McQueen Inc. (It's worth noting that the NRA and Ackerman McQueen are in the middle of a lawsuit over, you guessed it, money.) One of the more amusing aspects of the leak revealed that LaPierre once spent $39,000 in one day at Beverly Hills designer boutique called Ermenegildo Zegna." With illustrations!
News Lede
New York Times: "Tim Conway, whose gallery of innocent goofballs, stammering bystanders, transparent connivers, oblivious knuckleheads and hapless bumblers populated television comedy and variety shows for more than half a century, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 85."
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