The Commentariat -- March 23, 2019

The Trump Scandals, Ctd. -- Friday Night Mueller Dump

Sharon LaFraniere & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has delivered a report on his inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election to Attorney General William P. Barr, according to the Justice Department.... Mr. Barr told congressional leaders in a letter late Friday that he may brief them within days on the special counsel's findings. 'I may be in a position to advise you of the special counsel's principal conclusions as soon as this weekend,' he wrote in a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate Judiciary committees.... Only a handful of law enforcement officials have seen the report, a Justice Department spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec, said. She said a few members of Mr. Mueller's team would remain to close down the office. Mr. Mueller will not recommend any new charges be filed, a senior Justice Department official said.... In a joint statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York..., warned Mr. Barr not to allow the White House a 'sneak preview' of the report before the public views it." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: What this means to me is that Donald Trump, Donnie Junior & Jared Kushner (and others, like K.T. McFarland & Julian Assange) escaped indictment for the Trump Tower meeting, Trump Tower Moscow negotiations, & their other attempts at getting help from Russia. This looks to me like a huge win for Trump. He can't be an unindicted co-conspirator in or the director of a criminal conspiracy with Russians to manipulate a U.S. election if there are no co-conspirators. And there are not. Trump's talent for skating consequences is truly awesome. ...

     ... Update. The Unindicted. Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "A senior Justice Department official said the special counsel has not recommended any further indictments.... [AG William] Barr said there were no instances in the course of the investigation in which any of Mueller's decisions were vetoed by his superiors at the Justice Department.... Around 4:35, White House lawyer Emmet Flood was notified that the Justice Department had received the report. About a half-hour after that notification, a senior department official delivered Barr's letter to the relevant House and Senate committees and senior congressional leaders, officials said. One official described the report as 'comprehensive,' but added that very few people have seen it.... Immediately after the news of Mueller's report broke, Democrats demanded that its contents be made public." ...

... Here's Barr's letter to Congress, via NPR. ...

     ... Josh Gerstein of Politico has a helpful annotation of Barr's letter. Gerstein appeared on Rachel Maddow's show Friday & said he had "just come" from the DOJ, where he was assured the report Barr received was "comprehensive."

... Ellen Nakashima & Rachael Bade of the Washington Post: "The Democratic chairs of the six House committees investigating potential abuse of power by President Trump and his campaign's business and alleged foreign ties will ask several executive branch agencies to preserve information they provided to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as he investigated Russia's interference in the 2016 election, according to congressional aides.... The six House leaders and their Senate Democratic counterparts have signed a letter that will be sent to the Department of Justice, FBI and White House Counsel's Office, among other agencies, shortly after Mueller submits his report to Attorney General William P. Barr, signaling the investigation's conclusion."

Natasha Bertrand of the Atlantic runs down some of the significant matters Mueller has left dangling. In addition, "former FBI agents have expressed surprise that Mueller ended his probe without ever personally interviewing its central target: Donald Trump." Mrs. McC: Unless Mueller's report satisfactorily addresses these issues, and Barr makes that part of the report public, I'd say Mueller did not earn his paycheck. It was fairly disconcerting to watch a bunch of former prosecutors & other G-men go on the teevee Friday night & praise Mueller for "upholding the rule of law." We'll see. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton must be mighty pissed off, after his having to discuss blow jobs with a grand jury, to know that Donald Trump never had to answer for matters profoundly affecting national security.

On what looks like a dark day for democracy, David Remnick of the New Yorker reminds us of the stakes: "The Trump Presidency has, from the first, represented a threat to truth, liberal democracy, and the rule of law. Donald Trump's contempt for basic norms of governance is accompanied by a lack of decency, empathy, and psychological stability. This was never more evident than this week, when Trump, seemingly rattled by the imminence of the Mueller report, set off a fusillade of unhinged tweets, called the spouse of one of his senior advisers a 'whack job,' raged about the late Senator John McCain in front of a military audience..., and pronounced the Democratic Party 'anti-Jewish,' deepening, at every turn, the impression that he is unfit for government work. The perils of such instability are incalculable.... Trump has the psyche of an emotionally damaged toddler.... Given Trump's skills in the dark arts of campaigning and the general public satisfaction with the economy, no matter its inequities or vulnerabilities, it would be foolhardy to discount his chance of winning reëlection." ...

... Andrew Sullivan of New York: "Trump is showing his foes and friends that he can say anything, abuse anyone, lie about anything, break every norm of decency, propriety and prudence -- and suffer no consequences at all. It's all a dominance ritual." Mrs. McC: I'm no fan of Sullivan's, but he's right in every particular here.

Friday is a day ending in "y', so Donald Trump said offensive, stupid things:

... Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump suggested the public would view special counsel Robert Mueller's expected report on possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Moscow as illegitimate. 'A deputy, that didn't get any votes, appoints a man, that didn't get any votes, he's going to write a report on me,' Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, referring to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.... 'For two years we've gone through this nonsense. There's no collusion with Russia ... and there's no obstruction. They'll say, "oh, well wait, there was no collusion, that was a hoax, but he obstructed in fighting against the hoax,"' he said." Mrs. McC: Huh. Maybe Trump already knows the gist of Mueller's findings. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday renewed his attacks on Democrats as anti-Jewish' in response to a number of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates deciding to skip the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual conference in Washington. 'I don't know what happened to them but they are totally anti-Israel,' Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. 'Frankly, I think they are anti-Jewish.' Trump's comments come one day after he said the U.S. should recognize Israeli control of the disputed Golan Heights territory." Mrs. McC: This is of course the same guy whose "closing argument" in 2020 was one long anti-Semitic screed., said the white supremacists in Charlottesville who chanted "Jews will not replace us" were "good people," and so forth. (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Does Kim Another Favor. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "President Trump undercut his own Treasury Department on Friday by announcing that he was rolling back North Korea sanctions that it imposed just a day ago. The move, announced on Twitter, was a remarkable display of dissension within the Trump administration and represented a striking case of a White House intervening to reverse a major national security decision made only hours earlier by the president's own officials.... Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... said the decision was a favor to ... Kim [Jong-un]. 'Trump likes Chairman Kim, and he doesn't think these sanctions will be necessary,' she said.... Treasury and State Department officials, including career staff members and political appointees, spend months carefully crafting sanctions based on intensive intelligence gathering and legal research. Current and former Treasury Department officials were stunned by Mr. Trump's decision on Friday.... The department did issue a new round of sanctions against Iran on Friday, targeting a research and development unit that it believes could be used to restart Tehran's nuclear weapons program. It also announced new sanctions on Bandes, Venezuela's national development bank, and its subsidiaries, as part of its effort to topple the government of President Nicolás Maduro." ...

... Caitlin Oprysko & Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "... "Donald Trump on Friday declared he would reverse new sanctions on North Korea that his administration rolled out just a day before, deepening concerns that the ostensible leader of the free world is at odds with his own team as he makes American foreign policy in spontaneous 280-character bursts. The sudden move left the White House groping for an explanation, telling reporters only that Trump 'likes' North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.... Trump's announcement surprised many of his senior aides, and even some Treasury Department officials were caught off guard, according to a person familiar with the matter." ...

... Margaret Talev & Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg News: "'This is utterly shocking,' John Smith, a former director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control at Treasury, which issues and polices sanctions, said in an email. 'The president of the United States actively undercut his own sanctions agency for the benefit of North Korea.' Smith left the agency in May. A second former OFAC official, Sean Kane, said in an email that Trump's announcement was 'unprecedented' and 'calls any OFAC action into question when no one can be sure whether they're speaking for the administration.'"

Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times: "A four-year military operation to flush the Islamic State from its territory in Iraq and Syria ended on Saturday, as the last village held by the terrorist group was retaken, erasing a militant theocracy that once spanned two countries. Cornered in Baghuz, Syria, the last 1.5-square-mile remnant of the group's original caliphate in the region, the remaining militants waged a surprisingly fierce defense and kept the American-backed forces at bay for months. They detonated car bombs and hurled explosives from drones. Suicide bombers ran across the front line under cover of darkness to attack the sleeping quarters of the American-backed coalition. In the last weeks, the militants' families fled for their lives, their black-clad wives streaming into the desert by the tens of thousands, some of them defiantly chanting Islamic State slogans and lobbing fistfuls of dirt at reporters." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: It probably didn't help U.S.-backed forces that Presidunce* Blabber T. Mouth pulled a Geraldo* & told reporters on Wednesday that ISIS "will be gone by tonight." *In case you've forgotten Geraldo Rivera. The Unindicted President* remains the nation's greatest security threat.

All the Best People, Ctd.

Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Friday that he had offered a position on the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors to Stephen Moore, a conservative economic adviser who has become an outspoken critic of the Fed's interest rate policy. Mr. Moore has blamed the Fed's rate increases over the past year for slowing economic growth and recently began calling on the central bank to begin cutting rates. An economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Mr. Moore helped draft Mr. Trump's tax proposals in the 2016 campaign and has served as an informal adviser ever since. As a nominee, Mr. Moore, 59, would face intense criticism in the Senate from Democrats, with whom he has clashed on several economic issues in his career as a commentator and policy advocate." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Stephen Moore's career as an economic analyst has been a decades-long continuous procession of error and hackery. It is not despite but precisely because of these errors that Moore now finds himself in the astonishing position of having been offered a position on the Federal Reserve board by President Trump. Moore's primary area of pseudo-expertise -- he is not an economist -- is fiscal policy. He is a dedicated advocate of supply-side economics, relentlessly promoting his fanatical hatred of redistribution and belief that lower taxes for the rich can and will unleash wondrous prosperity. Like nearly all supply-siders, he has clung to this dogma in the face of repeated, spectacular failures."

León Krauze in Slate: "Trump is expected to nominate D.C. attorney Christopher Landau as the next ambassador to Mexico. While an accomplished lawyer, Landau's credentials for the Mexico assignment are virtually nonexistent. Other than being the son of former American ambassador to Paraguay, Chile, and Venezuela, George Landau, Trump's potential nominee has no practical foreign policy experience to speak of. He has never held any sort of diplomatic post, nor is he an expert on Mexico, its politics, its culture, or its current troubles.... If confirmed, Landau would be the least experienced American diplomat to occupy the Mexican ambassadorship in a generation, an indefensible decision at a crucial juncture for the two countries. On the other hand, perhaps Landau's appointment is merely symbolic. After all, when it comes to Mexico, the Trump administration seems to trust only one man: Jared Kushner."

A Hurricane Took Your Home; FEMA Took Your Personal Identity. Joel Achenbach, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Federal Emergency Management Agency shared personal addresses and banking information of more than 2 million U.S. disaster survivors in what the agency acknowledged Friday was a 'major privacy incident.' The data mishap, discovered recently and the subject of a report by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, occurred when the agency shared sensitive, personally identifiable information of disaster survivors who used FEMA'S Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, according to officials at FEMA. Those affected included the victims of California wildfires in 2017 and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, the report said. In a statement, Lizzie Litzow, FEMA's press secretary, said, 'FEMA provided more information than was necessary' while transferring disaster survivor information to a contractor." Mrs. McC: Um, yeah.

Devin Nunes Cowed. Rory Appleton of the Fresno Bee: "The Fresno County Republican Party canceled plans for its Lincoln Reagan dinner next month featuring Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, as its keynote speaker after social media calls for people to crash the event. The local GOP is working to reschedule the event, organizers confirmed to The Bee on Friday.... The event was removed from the Republicans' website and Facebook on Thursday."

Brian Lyman, et al., of the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser: "Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen said in a statement Friday he has asked the board of the troubled organization ... 'to immediately launch a search for an interim president in order to give the organization the best chance to heal,' and took responsibility for problems that have swept out the senior leadership of the group in just a week." Cohen will step down. Mrs. McC: I hope you got a chance to read Bob Moser's takedown of the SPLC, linked yesterday. It was an eye-opener for me.

Beyond the Beltway

Pennsylvania. Adeel Hassan of the New York Times: "A [white] former police officer in Eas Pittsburgh, Pa., was acquitted Friday on all counts in connection with the shooting death of a black teenager who fled during a traffic stop last summer. The verdict in the death of Antwon Rose II came after a four-day trial in downtown Pittsburgh and less than four hours of jury deliberation.... Antwon, who was unarmed, ran after [Officer Michael] Rosfeld pulled over the car he was riding in with another teenager. The car ... matched the description of one involved in a nearby drive-by shooting about 10 minutes earlier.... Prosecutors say Mr. Rosfeld, 30, gave inconsistent statements about the shooting, including whether he thought Antwon had a gun.... Mr. Rosfeld had been on the East Pittsburgh police force for about three weeks and had been officially sworn in just hours before the shooting. Previously, he had been a member of the University of Pittsburgh police force, but he left the job after discrepancies were found between one of his sworn statements and evidence in an arrest, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has reported."

Texas. Thank You, San Antonio. Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The San Antonio City Council, on a 6-4 vote, removed a planned Chick-fil-A location from an airport concession agreement on Thursday, after a councilman flagged the company's anti-LGBTQ activity. Local media reported that the move followed a ThinkProgress report on Wednesday which noted the company's foundation gave $1.8 million in 2017 to tax exempt groups with anti-LGBTQ records."

Way Beyond

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "... despite its reforms, Interpol [is] still vulnerable to manipulation by strongmen, despots and human rights violators."

Finally, some good news from London:

The Commentariat -- March 22, 2019

It's a day ending in "y', so Donald Trump is saying offensive, stupid things:

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday renewed his attacks on Democrats as anti-Jewish' in response to a number of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates deciding to skip the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual conference in Washington. 'I don't know what happened to them but they are totally anti-Israel,' Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. 'Frankly, I think they are anti-Jewish.' Trump's comments come one day after he said the U.S. should recognize Israeli control of the disputed Golan Heights territory." Mrs. McC: This is of course the same guy whose "closing argument" in 2020 was one long anti-Semitic screed., said the white supemacists in Charlottesville who chanted "Jews will not replace us" were "good people," and so forth. ...

... Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump suggested the public would view special counsel Robert Mueller's expected report on possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Moscow as illegitimate. 'A deputy, that didn't get any votes, appoints a man, that didn't get any votes, he's going to write a report on me,' Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, referring to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.... 'For two years we've gone through this nonsense. There.s no collusion with Russia ... and there's no obstruction. They'll say, "oh, well wait, there was no collusion, that was a hoax, but he obstructed in fighting against the hoax,"' he said." Mrs. McC: Huh. Maybe Trump already knows the gist of Mueller's findings.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trump Scandals, Ctd. -- Report Watch Edition

Stonewall, Ctd. Jeremy Herb & Pamela Brown of CNN: "The White House is rejecting a request from congressional Democrats to obtain documents tied to ... Donald Trump's communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a letter to three Democratic committee chairmen, White House counsel Pat Cipollone said that the courts have long established that presidential communications with foreign leaders are protected and confidential."

Lock Him Up! Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner ... uses an unofficial online messaging service for official White House business, including with foreign contacts, his lawyer told the House Oversight Committee late last year. The lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he was not aware if Mr. Kushner had communicated classified information on the service, WhatsApp, and said that because he took screenshots of the communications and sent them to his official White House account or the National Security Council, his client was not in violation of federal records laws. In a letter disclosing the information, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee [-- Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)] said that he was investigating possible violations of the Presidential Records Act by members of the Trump administration, including Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. He accused the White House of stonewalling his committee on information it had requested for months." What's the problem? (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Barbara Ortutay of the AP: "Facebook said Thursday that it stored millions of its users' passwords in plain text for years. The acknowledgement from the social media giant came after a security researcher posted about the issue online.... Facebook said there is no evidence its employees abused access to this data. But thousands of employees could have searched them. The company said the passwords were stored on internal company servers, where no outsiders could access them. But the incident reveals a huge oversight for the company amid a slew of bruises and stumbles in the last couple of years." Mrs. McC: Did I mention Facebook owns WhatsApp? Jared's password is Hot*Grifter2. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Russia, If You're Listening, I Hope You're Able to Find the 30,000 Emails that Are Missing. Chad Day & Jill Colvin of the AP: "Ivanka Trump ... did not preserve all of her official emails as required by federal law, and her husband, Jared Kushner, used a messaging application to conduct U.S. business outside government channels, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee said on Thursday. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said in a letter to the White House that the use of private email accounts and the messaging application WhatsApp by senior administration officials raises 'security and federal records concerns.'... In his letter, Cummings also singled out former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland, questioning whether they preserved documents related to a proposal to transfer nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia. That proposal is under investigation by Cummings' committee, which is looking into information from whistleblowers who have said they witnessed 'abnormal acts' within the Trump National Security Council involving senior White House officials who were pushing the plan."

... Abigail Tracy of Vanity Fair: "'There is no "children' immunity,' Congressman Eric Swalwell told me on Thursday afternoon. Swalwell, who sits on both the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, was describing the sprawling web of investigations picking up steam within the Democratic-controlled Congress that appear likely to cover ... the president's ... business interests, his cronies, and yes, even his family members.... The children have traditionally been behind one of Trump's red lines, but Democrats are trying to flip the script. 'We are not going out of our way to hear from the president's children, but the president has gone out of his way to involve his children in the campaign, in the transition and in the governing of our country,' Swalwell continued. 'You can't violate norms with the nepotism that he operates under and then put up a shield when those children land themselves as potential witnesses.'"

Jim Comey, in the New York Times, writes a high-minded op-ed about how he hopes the Mueller report proves justice has prevailed & how awful impeachment would be. Pardon me for gagging.

Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate has some advice for Bob Mueller on how to finish that big writing assignment.

Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump announced Thursday that the United States will formally recognize Israel's sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights. 'After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!' the president tweeted." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mark Landler & Edward Wong of the New York Times: "President Trump declared on Thursday that the United States should recognize Israel's authority over the long disputed Golan Heights, delivering a valuable election-eve gift to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but jettisoning decades of American policy in the Middle East. Mr. Trump's announcement, in a midday Twitter post, came after persistent pressure from Mr. Netanyahu, a close political ally who is fighting for his survival in the election scheduled for April 9, and has invoked his friendship with the American president as a prime argument for staying in office. But Mr. Trump's move, while popular in Israel and among some lawmakers in Congress, is likely to be condemned almost everywhere else. The United Nations has rejected Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights since 1967, when Israeli troops seized the 400 square miles of rocky highlands from Syria during the Arab-Israeli war. It will also reverberate throughout the Middle East and could undermine Mr. Trump's long anticipated peace proposal for Israel and the Palestinians."

** Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "... Donald Trump gleefully pressed on another culture war hot button Thursday afternoon, issuing an executive order that's supposed to address allegedly serious threats to free speech on America's college campuses.... As my colleague Ella Nilsen explains, it basically amounts to reminding universities about existing law. But that doesn't mean the order is insignificant. It reflects, instead, the degree to which the conservative movement ... has created a panic about the limitation of free speech on college campuses.... That's because this isn't a battle about free speech. it's a fight over political power and cultural control." --s

Presiduntial* Boredom. Steve M.: "I agree with George Conway that Trump has narcissistic personality disorder. I don't agree with those who believe that Trump's attacks on Conway, renewed attacks on McCain, and incessant tweeting last weekend are a sign of mental deterioration or dementia. Trump is just bored.... He has no battles to fight -- the Mueller report hasn't landed, the shutdown is over, the midterms and the Brett Kavanaugh fight were months ago, the North Korea initiative crashed and burned, the 2020 presidential campaign is just beginning ... and there won't be any significant legislation from this divided Congress anytime soon.... Trump has to be asking himself: How do I sustain my brand? The obvious answer: Twitter beefs! Fight with someone! Then fight with someone else! The base loves it! The base thinks it's presidential!" --s

Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "Marines Corps Commandant General Robert Neller slammed ... Donald Trump's plan to dispatch troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in a series of recently-leaked internal memorandums. According to the Los Angeles Times, Neller warned the Pentagon that Trump's widely-ridiculed border deployments and proposed funding transfers under his national emergency declaration have caused 'unacceptable risk to Marine Corps combat readiness and solvency.' Specifically, Neller said the 'unplanned/unbudgeted' border theatrics and spur-of-the-moment funds-shifting had caused the Marines Corps to delay crucial repairs at U.S. military bases.... [Trump's] moves, Neller said, also caused the branch to cancel or reduce several military training exercises in at least five different countries."

Scott Bixby of The Daily Beast: "The Trump administration has sought to expand the government's role in fostering religious freedom both at home and abroad, but within its own immigrant detention centers migrants of faith have seen their own religious freedoms curtailed. Religious detainees have had their religious texts and items confiscated, been forced to eat forbidden foods, and have even watched as U.S. immigration agents threw their holy objects into the garbage in front of them, according to a letter of complaint sent to government watchdogs by the American Civil Liberties Union this week." --s

Sam Mintz of Politico: "A Federal Highway Administration spokesman made dozens of jokes over the past several years about mass shootings, abortion and the killing of Trayvon Martin, a review of his personal Twitter account shows. Doug Hecox ... a comedian, writer and adjunct professor in addition to his role at the highway agency[.]" --s

John Schwartz of the New York Times: "Vast areas of the United States are at risk of flooding this spring, even as Nebraska and other Midwestern states are already reeling from record-breaking late-winter floods, federal scientists said on Thursday. Nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states will have an elevated risk of some flooding from now until May, and 25 states could experience 'major or moderate flooding,' according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration." Mrs. McC: Of course climate change is a hoax.

Presidential Race 2020

Mike Allen of Axios: "Close advisers to former Vice President Joe Biden are debating the idea of packaging his presidential campaign announcement with a pledge to choose Stacey Abrams as his vice president.... The popular Georgia Democrat, who at age 45 is 31 years younger than Biden, would bring diversity and excitement to the ticket -- showing voters, in the words of a close source, that Biden 'isn't just another old white guy.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jonathan Chait lists nine reasons this is a good idea for both Biden & Abrams. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ben White & Steve Shepard of Politico: "... Donald Trump has a low approval rating. He is engaging in bitter Twitter wars and facing metastasizing investigations. But if the election were held today, he'd likely ride to a second term in a huge landslide, according to multiple economic models with strong track records of picking presidential winners and losses." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Because This. A Cancer on the Body Politic. Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast: "Almost 8 in 10 Republicans who watch Fox News say Donald Trump is the most successful president in history. That was just one finding of a new poll showing the deep ideological divide between Fox News viewers and everyone else. The poll results were provided to The Daily Beast by Navigator, a project launched by Democratic groups Global Strategy Group and GBA strategies. They surveyed more than 1,000 registered voters online with the goal of examining the differences in views between Fox News viewers and non-Fox viewers.... The data show numerous ways in which Fox News-watching Republicans have radically different beliefs from non-Republicans and even Republicans who do not watch Fox News." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Whatever its potential merits, [the Electoral College] is a plainly undemocratic institution.... Narrow margins throw it into chaos."

Ernie Suggs of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Jimmy "Carter becomes the oldest living former president in United States history" today. (Also linked yesterday.)

Alex Shephard of the New Republic: Democrats have become the party of perpetual timidity. "... they inevitably tack toward the center when out of power, ever fearful of being labeled tax-and-spend liberals or, god forbid, socialists.... Now here comes a crop of fearless left-wing politicians, from first-term congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar to septuagenarian Senator Bernie Sanders, whose fearless policies are generating much of the excitement among the rank-and-file. For the party to turn its back on them, out of certainty that history will repeat itself -- now that would be blowing it."

Never-Trumper Rick Wilson of the Daily Beast: "Damn near every elected member of the Republican Party failed another easy test this week as Donald Trump lost his grip on reality and spent days attacking the late Senator John McCain. They tripped over their own dicks in the face of Trump's egregious bullying, racing for political cover and sacrificing their few remaining shreds of dignity because they fear this mad president more than they love their own honor.... In the House, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, spoke clearly and strongly -- his voice resonating even more given the silence around it from most of his Republican colleagues there." --s ...

... So Let's See How That Went. Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Crenshaw is a former Navy SEAL who earned two Bronze Stars and a purple heart for his service in Afghanistan, where he lost his right eye from an improvised explosive device explosion.... Supporters of ... Donald Trump quickly suffered an online meltdown." Brigham cites a number of Twitter responses, excoriating both Crenshaw & McCain. ...

... Robert Costa, et al., of the Washington Post: "By attacking McCain, Trump allies said Thursday, the president is stoking his supporters' rawest emotions and suspicions about the GOP's political elite."

Joan Biskupic, in a CNN piece about how John Roberts saved ObamaCare: "He was part of the majority of justices who initially voted in a private conference to strike down the individual insurance mandate -- the heart of the law -- but he also voted to uphold an expansion of Medicaid for people near the poverty line. Two months later, Roberts had shifted on both."

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Speaking in a halting, raspy voice, Cesar A. Sayoc Jr., sat in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Thursday and described how he painstakingly assembled homemade pipe bombs that he sent to prominent Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama and other critics of President Trump last fall.... Mr. Sayoc, 57, paused his explanation and broke into sobs, finally collecting himself and speaking softly just before he pleaded guilty to the attack.... Mr. Sayoc pleaded guilty to 65 counts, which included using a weapon of mass destruction and interstate transportation of an explosive. He faces up to life in prison if convicted."

Capitalism Is Deadly. Hiroko Tabuchi & David Gelles of the New York Times: "As the pilots of the doomed Boeing jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia fought to control their planes, they lacked two notable safety features in their cockpits. One reason: Boeing charged extra for them. For Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers, the practice of charging to upgrade a standard plane can be lucrative. Top airlines around the world must pay handsomely to have the jets they order fitted with customized add-ons." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... AFP: "Indonesia's national carrier Garuda has cancelled a multibillion-dollar order for 49 Boeing 737 Max 8 jets after two fatal crashes involving the plane, the company said, blaming passengers' loss of trust in the aircraft." --s

Julia Wong of the Guardian: "Facebook employees were aware of concerns about 'improper data-gathering practices' by Cambridge Analytica [in September 2015] months before the Guardian first reported, in December 2015, that the political consultancy had obtained data on millions from an academic.... The new information 'could suggest that Facebook has consistently mislead [sic.]' British lawmakers 'about what it knew and when about Cambridge Analytica', tweeted Damian Collins the chair of the [British] House of Commons digital culture media and sport select committee (DCMS).... After [the issue became] an international scandal, Mark Zuckerberg stated that Facebook 'learned from journalists at The Guardian that [former Cambridge University academic Aleksandr] Kogan had shared data from his app with Cambridge Analytica' in 2015. The article detailing this data sharing was published on 11 December 2015." --s

** "Spies for Hire." Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "The Saudi government's reliance on a firm from Israel [to surveil Saudi dissidents like Jamal Khashoggi], an adversary for decades, offers a glimpse of a new age of digital warfare governed by few rules and of a growing economy, now valued at $12 billion, of spies for hire. Today even the smallest countries can buy digital espionage services, enabling them to conduct sophisticated operations like electronic eavesdropping or influence campaigns that were once the preserve of major powers like the United States and Russia. Corporations that want to scrutinize competitors' secrets, or wealthy individual with a beef against a rival, can also command intelligence operations for a price.... The firms have enabled governments not only to hack criminal elements like terrorist and drug cartels but also in some cases to act on darker impulses, targeting activists and journalists. Hackers trained by United States spy agencies caught American businesspeople and human rights workers in their net.... The Middle East is the epicenter of this new era of privatized spying."

** Bob Moser, in the New Yorker, writes a damning reminiscence of his work at the Southern Poverty Law Center, in the news this week because the Center fired its co-founder Morris Dees. "For those of us who've worked in the Poverty Palace, putting it all into perspective isn't easy, even to ourselves. We were working with a group of dedicated and talented people, fighting all kinds of good fights, making life miserable for the bad guys. And yet, all the time, dark shadows hung over everything: the racial and gender disparities, the whispers about sexual harassment, the abuses that stemmed from the top-down management, and the guilt you couldn't help feeling about the legions of donors who believed that their money was being used, faithfully and well, to do the Lord's work in the heart of Dixie. We were part of the con, and we knew it."

Finland! Gabriella Paiella of New York: "... Bernie Sanders tweeted that it costs an average of $12,000 to have a baby in the United States, compared to just $60 in Finland -- at which point former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley decided to weigh in. 'Alright @BernieSanders, you're not the woman having the baby so I wouldn't be out there talking about skimping on a woman when it comes to childbirth. Trust me! Nice try though,' she replied, adding, 'Health care costs are too high that is true but comparing us to Finland is ridiculous. Ask them how their health care is. You won't like their answer.' Plenty of Finns took this as an invitation to tell Haley that they did, in fact, enjoy their health care.... Finnish journalist Anu Partanen ... [said,] '... It's ... extremely ironic that she would make that comment in relation to childbirth because that is exactly the area where Finland and all of Nordic countries really excel.... Typically people are very happy with the care they get while giving birth and you just pay a minimal co-pay for the hospital stay. Also, the American maternal mortality rates and infant mortality rates are sort of shockingly high for the wealthiest country in the world, practically. On the other hand, Finland does, in those areas, particularly well -- Finnish rates are among the lowest in the world."

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Also too, "alright" is not a word, Nikki, you ignorant slut.

Beyond the Beltway

South Carolina. Will Sommer of The Daily Beast: "The wacko pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory has some friends in high places in South Carolina, where State Rep. Lin Bennett (R) has been posting on Facebook about her belief in QAnon.... Bennett, who represents a Charleston-area district, has been posting about QAnon on Facebook since at least last year, even helping to 'decode' the QAnon 'clues' for her Facebook friends." --s

Wisconsin. Todd Richmond of the AP: "A judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Wisconsin Republicans' contentious lame-duck laws limiting the Democratic governor and attorney general's powers, brushing aside GOP lawmakers' concerns that the move leaves thousands of pages of statutes passed in so-called extraordinary sessions susceptible to challenge. Republican legislative leaders immediately vowed to appeal Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess" order, saying it will create chaos and calling Niess biased. The order is part of a lawsuit filed by a coalition of liberal-leaning groups. They allege the Legislature met illegally when it passed the lame-duck bills in December." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Brazil. Brad Brooks & Rodrigo Gaier of Reuters: "Brazil's former President Michel Temer was arrested on Thursday in an investigation of alleged graft in the construction of nuclear plant Angra 3, prosecutors told Reuters, rattling the political class and threatening to delay a major pension reform. Temer was president from 2016 to 2018, taking office following the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, for whom he served as vice president for six years. His lawyer confirmed the arrest." (Also linked yesterday.)

Indonesia. Kate Lamb of the Guardian: "The spread of fake news and disinformation has spiked in Indonesia in recent months, weeks before millions are scheduled to vote in the country's elections.... In the world's third-largest democracy and a country that is among the top five users of Facebook and Twitter, fake news has been used to deepen existing social, ethnic and religious divisions -- a polarisation of identity politics for political gain." --s

Myanmar. Emma Graham-Harrison of the Guardian: "Burmese and Chinese authorities are turning a blind eye to a growing trade in women from Myanmar' Kachin minority, who are taken across the border, sold as wives to Chinese men and raped until they become pregnant, a report claims. Some of the women are allowed to return home after they have given birth, but are forced to leave their children, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch, titled Give Us a Baby and We'll Let You Go." --s

U.K. Raf Casert & Jill Lawless of the AP: "Worn down by three years of indecision in London, European Union leaders on Thursday grudgingly offered the U.K. more time to ease itself out of the bloc, delaying by several weeks -- but not eliminating -- the threat of a chaotic British exit. After a meeting that stretched through the afternoon and over dinner, the bloc said Britain could postpone its March 29 departure to May 22 -- if the U.K. Parliament approves Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce deal with the bloc next week."

The Commentariat -- March 21, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Ben White & Steve Shepard of Politico: "... Donald Trump has a low approval rating. He is engaging in bitter Twitter wars and facing metastasizing investigations. But if the election were held today, he'd likely ride to a second term in a huge landslide, according to multiple economic models with strong track records of picking presidential winners and losses." Mrs. McC: A good argument for impeachment.

Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump announced Thursday that the United States will formally recognize Israel's sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights. 'After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!' the president tweeted."

Mike Allen of Axios: "Close advisers to former Vice President Joe Biden are debating the idea of packaging his presidential campaign announcement with a pledge to choose Stacey Abrams as his vice president.... The popular Georgia Democrat, who at age 45 is 31 years younger than Biden, would bring diversity and excitement to the ticket -- showing voters, in the words of a close source, that Biden 'isn't just another old white guy.'" ...

... Jonathan Chait lists nine reasons this is a good idea for both Biden & Abrams.

Lock Him Up! Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner ... uses an unofficial online messaging service for official White House business, including with foreign contacts, his lawyer told the House Oversight Committee late last year. The lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he was not aware if Mr. Kushner had communicated classified information on the service, WhatsApp, and said that because he took screenshots of the communications and sent them to his official White House account or the National Security Council, his client was not in violation of federal records laws. In a letter disclosing the information, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee [-- Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)] said that he was investigating possible violations of the Presidential Records Act by members of the Trump administration, including Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. He accused the White House of stonewalling his committee on information it had requested for months." What's the problem? ...

... Barbara Ortutay of the AP: "Facebook said Thursday that it stored millions of its users' passwords in plain text for years. The acknowledgement from the social media giant came after a security researcher posted about the issue online.... Facebook said there is no evidence its employees abused access to this data. But thousands of employees could have searched them. The company said the passwords were stored on internal company servers, where no outsiders could access them. But the incident reveals a huge oversight for the company amid a slew of bruises and stumbles in the last couple of years." Mrs. McC: Did I mention Facebook owns WhatsApp? Jared's password is Hot*Grifter2.

Hiroko Tabuchi & David Gelles of the New York Times: "As the pilots of the doomed Boeing jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia fought to control their planes, they lacked two notable safety features in their cockpits. One reason: Boeing charged extra for them. For Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers, the practice of charging to upgrade a standard plane can be lucrative. Top airlines around the world must pay handsomely to have the jets they order fitted with customized add-ons."

Brad Brooks &  Rodrigo Viga Gaier of Reuters: "Brazil's former President Michel Temer was arrested on Thursday in an investigation of alleged graft in the construction of nuclear plant Angra 3, prosecutors told Reuters, rattling the political class and threatening to delay a major pension reform. Temer was president from 2016 to 2018, taking office following the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, for whom he served as vice president for six years. His lawyer confirmed the arrest."

Ernie Suggs of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Jimmy "Carter becomes the oldest living former president in United States history" today.

A Cancer on the Body Politic. Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast: "Almost 8 in 10 Republicans who watch Fox News say Donald Trump is the most successful president in history. That was just one finding of a new poll showing the deep ideological divide between Fox News viewers and everyone else. The poll results were provided to The Daily Beast by Navigator, a project launched by Democratic groups Global Strategy Group and GBA strategies. They surveyed more than 1,000 registered voters online with the goal of examining the differences in views between Fox News viewers and non-Fox viewers.... The data show numerous ways in which Fox News-watching Republicans have radically different beliefs from non-Republicans and even Republicans who do not watch Fox News."

Todd Richmond of the AP: "A judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Wisconsin Republicans' contentious lame-duck laws limiting the Democratic governor and attorney general's powers, brushing aside GOP lawmakers' concerns that the move leaves thousands of pages of statutes passed in so-called extraordinary sessions susceptible to challenge. Republican legislative leaders immediately vowed to appeal Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess' order, saying it will create chaos and calling Niess biased. The order is part of a lawsuit filed by a coalition of liberal-leaning groups. They allege the Legislature met illegally when it passed the lame-duck bills in December."

~~~~~~~~~

Rats! I missed the vernal equinox. It was March 20 this year. Happy Spring! One day in. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

You. Are. Nuts. On Wednesday, Donald Trump dedicated himself to proving George Conway right. Besides feuding with Conway, Trump continued, unbid, his attacks on John McCain, dead war hero, & offered up a nonsensical (and untrue) rationale for rejecting the Mueller report. Stories linked below.

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "For months, President Trump has been unable to shake his grudge against Senator John McCain, who died in August of brain cancer. Planning his funeral, the Republican Arizona senator made it clear that Mr. Trump would not be welcome, leaving the president to fume when his two immediate predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, eulogized Mr. McCain in a service at Washington National Cathedral. The president's response was to stall on issuing any proclamation of praise, or ordering flags to be flown at half-staff to commemorate the senator's death.... In front of a military audience at a tank plant ... in Lima, [Indiana,] he took [his complaints] to a new level. He said he gave Mr. McCain 'the funeral he wanted, and I didn't get a thank you.' He blamed him for 'a war in the Middle East that McCain pushed so hard.' He said that 'McCain didn't get the job done for our great vets and the V.A.' 'I have to be honest, I've never liked him much,' Mr. Trump said, about 10 minutes into a freewheeling speech that was ostensibly about the resurgence of manufacturing jobs. '... -- probably never will.'" ...

... Sam Brodey of the Daily Beast: "A senior Republican senator with a reputation for not rocking the boat in Donald Trump's Washington spent Wednesday doing just that, issuing blistering criticisms of the president for his continued attacks on the late Sen. John McCain. Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican, appeared on a political talk show on Georgia Public Broadcasting on Wednesday afternoon to denounce the president's most recent comments about the senator and Vietnam war hero who died seven months ago. 'It's deplorable what he said,' Isakson said.... Most of Isakson's colleagues have been far more circumspect, save for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) who tweeted he 'can't understand why the president would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain.'"

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday escalated his attacks on George Conway, calling him a 'whack job' who is doing a 'disservice' to his wife, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. 'I don't know him. He's a whack job, there's no question about it,' Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before traveling to Ohio." ...

... Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday defended ... Donald Trump's attacks on her husband George Conway saying he's 'a counterpuncher' and asserting that the president is free to respond when he's accused of having a mental illness. 'He left it alone for months out of respect for me,' Conway, a senior Trump aide, told Politico in a brief telephone interview. 'But you think he shouldn't respond when somebody, a non-medical professional accuses him of having a mental disorder? You think he should just take that sitting down?'"

Also, Trump is either unaware that (1) NATO = North American Atlantic Treaty Alliance or that (2) Brazil is in South America.

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Wednesday for the first time that he would be okay with making the Mueller report public. And in doing so, he nixed a major argument against its release.... 'I don't mind,' he said when asked whether the report should be public. 'I mean, frankly, I told the House if you want, let them see it.' Trump went on to decry the very existence of the Mueller report..., arguing it is the result of an investigation that never should have been launched. He concluded by again suggesting it should be public but also indicating it may not be. 'Let it come out. Let people see it,' Trump said. 'That's up to the attorney general. And we'll see what happens.'" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you're able to watch videos, you may want to take the time to hear Trump's latest rationale -- delivered at Wednesday's chopper presser -- for why the Mueller report is bogus. After winning one of the greatest elections in the history of the country with 63 millions votes, some guy who was not elected to anything comes "out of the blue" to write a report; Trump and his voters can't understand that. (Even in this summary, I've made Trump sound more coherent than he was:

The Trump Grift, Ctd. Dan Alexander of Forbes: "Donald Trump has charged his own reelection campaign $1.3 million for rent, food, lodging and other expenses since taking office, according to a Forbes analysis of the latest campaign filings. And although outsiders have contributed more than $50 million to the campaign, the billionaire president hasn't handed over any of his own cash.... 'I don't need anybody's money,' he announced on the day he launched his 2016 campaign, standing inside the marble atrium at Trump Tower. 'I'm using my own money. I'm not using the lobbyists. I'm not using donors. I don't care. I'm really rich.'"

Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director and long-time confidante of ... Donald Trump, plans to turn over documents to the House Judiciary Committee as part of its investigation into potential obstruction of justice. Rep. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent Hicks a detailed letter earlier this month, asking for documents on a wide-range of topics, including over former national security adviser Michael Flynn's false statements to the FBI, the firing of then-FBI Director James Comey, Trump's involvement in a hush-money scheme to silence stories about his alleged affairs and the drafting of a misleading 2017 statement to the media about Donald Trump Jr.'s 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Russians.... Hicks' cooperation comes in stark contrast to former White House chief of staff John Kelly, who is facing an array of questions from the House Oversight Committee over his role in the White House security clearance process. Kelly is allowing the White House counsel's office to respond to the Democrats' demands for information, but Hicks appears to be interacting directly with the House Judiciary Committee."

Kyle Cheney & Anita Kumar of Politico: "Former Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates -- a central cooperating witness for special counsel Robert Mueller -- has been advised by prosecutors not to cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee's broad investigation of ... Donald Trump, his lawyer told lawmakers in a recent letter obtained Wednesday by Politico. But Gates' lawyer, Thomas Green, left open the possibility of assisting the panel 'in the coming months.'... Green's letter was also copied to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, who he said had also requested Gates' testimony. The decision to delay immediate cooperation with the Democrat-led investigation comes days after Mueller signaled that Gates was still an active cooperator in multiple ongoing investigations."

Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve expressed increasing concern about slowing economic growth as it left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and showed little appetite for raising them in the near future. The Fed's fairly downbeat economic assessment is at odds with the White House's rosy economic projections, which have continued to predict stronger growth than most other forecasters say is likely. The Fed, in a statement at the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting, said 'growth of economic activity has slowed from its solid rate in the fourth quarter' and cited slowdowns in household spending and business fixed investment. Fed officials now expect economic growth of 2.1 percent for 2019, down from the 2.3 percent it forecast in December." ...

... Paul Krugman: "The 2019 Economic Report of the President is out, and everyone is having fun with the bit at the end that acknowledges the help of student interns -- a list that includes Peter Parker, Aunt May, Bruce Wayne, and Jabba the Hutt.... The White House is passing this off as a deliberate joke. More likely, someone slipped superheroes in to see whether anyone in charge was actually paying attention, and proved that they weren't. But the bigger news from the report involves the supposed economic payoffs from the Trump tax cut. Even the White House now acknowledges that the tax cut won't do all they said it would -- their wildly optimistic economic projections depend on the claimed payoff to other economic policies that they themselves haven't specified.... This report is double voodoo, or voodoo squared: it relies on voodoo economics to make big claims for tax cuts, then adds a whole additional layer of magic to get the growth projections the administration wants to hear."

Helene Cooper & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "The Defense Department's inspector general said on Wednesday that it was investigating complaints that the acting defense secretary, Patrick M. Shanahan, had been promoting his former employer, the Boeing Company, and disparaging its military contractor competitors. The investigation will examine complaints filed last week by a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington."

Steve Miletich of the Seattle Times: "The FBI has joined the criminal investigation into the certification of the Boeing 737 MAX, lending its considerable resources to an inquiry already being conducted by U.S. Department of Transportation agents, according to people familiar with the matter. The federal grand jury investigation, based in Washington, D.C., is looking into the certification process that approved the safety of the new Boeing plane, two of which have crashed since October."

** Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "A federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the Interior Department violated federal law by failing to take into account the climate impact of its oil and gas leasing in the West. The decision by U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Rudolph Contreras marks the first time the Trump administration has been held to account for the climate impact of its energy-dominance agenda, and it could have sweeping implications for the president's plan to boost fossil fuel production across the country. Contreras concluded that Interior's Bureau of Land Management 'did not sufficiently consider climate change' when making decisions to auction off federal land in Wyoming to oil and gas drilling. The judge temporarily blocked drilling on roughly 300,000 acres of land in the state."

"An Extraordinary Departure from the Diplomatic Norm." Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump Jr. and national security adviser John Bolton took to British media to scold the country's political leadership over Prime Minister Theresa May's plan to request a delay in Britain's seemingly endless divorce from Europe. The effort by presidential surrogates is aimed at amplifying the pro-Brexit message among Britons even though the United States has no say in the matter. 'Next Friday, March 29, is supposed to be the British people's Independence Day,' the younger Trump wrote in an opinion piece published Wednesday in Britain's Daily Telegraph. 'But because the elites control London from Brussels, the will of the people is likely to be ignored.' Bolton gave an interview to British broadcaster Sky News, accusing political leaders in London of failing voters who chose more than two years ago to quit the European Union and its collective trade policy. Bolton dangled a separate trade deal between Britain and the United States once Britain rids itself of the E.U., saying 'we are ready to go.' The commentary from members of Trump's inner circle was an extraordinary departure from the diplomatic norm, in which close allies such as the United States and Britain are careful not to appear to be meddling in each other's business."

If you'd care to read about a soulless cipher, then Alex Pareene's profile in the New Republic of Mitch McConnell is for you.

Presidential Race 2020

Dan Merica of CNN: "Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper [D] said Wednesday that he would consider putting a woman on his presidential ticket, and then asked why female Democratic presidential candidates are not being asked if they would select a man as their running mate." Mrs. McC: Apparently Hickenlooper is unaware the U.S. has never had a woman president or vice-president & that women are underepresented in Congress, in most state legislatures & in the top jobs in American businesses. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: That said, I would like to suggest that female candidates consider studying under voice coaches. Kamala Harris & Amy Klobuchar already have good presidenty voices that project gravitas, but Elizabeth Warren & Kirsten Gillibrand, for instance, not so much. Of course, it takes more than a well-modulated voice to win, as Hillary Clinton found out.

Mika and I have been overwhelmed by the reaction @PeteButtigieg got after being on the show. The only other time in twelve years that we heard from as many people about a guest was after @BarackObama appeared on Morning Joe. pic.twitter.com/PoEK4Obtul

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) March 21, 2019

Laura Holson of the New York Times: "... a parody account pretending to be an imaginary cow owned by Representative Devin Nunes, the California Republican, is more popular on Twitter than the congressman, a day after he sued the account (and Twitter) for $250 million.... The parody account @DevinCow had only 1,200 followers on Monday, but it ended Wednesday afternoon with 467,000, surpassing Mr. Nunes's account with its 395,000 followers. And the count was still growing.... A website now sells Devin Cow T-shirts. Twitter users have been celebrating with cow-themed items and jokes. Even Mr. Nunes's fellow legislators showed their support for the errant beast. Ted Lieu, a Democratic congressman from Southern California, told Mr. Nunes on Twitter to 'lighten up, dude.' Of course, no one might have heard of @DevinCow if Mr. Nunes had not sued Twitter and other users for defamation on Tuesday, seeking $250 million and an end to online mockery he said no one should have to 'suffer in their whole life.'"

Ryan Broderick & Ellie Hall of BuzzFeed News: "Before killing 50 people during Friday prayers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and injuring 40 more, the gunman apparently decided to fully exploit social media by releasing a manifesto, posting a Twitter thread showing off his weapons, and going live on Facebook as he launched the attack. The gunman's coordinated social media strategy wasn't unique, though. The way he manipulated social media for maximum impact is almost identical to how ISIS, at its peak, was using those very same platforms. While most mainstream social networks have become aggressive about removing pro-ISIS content from the average user's feed, far-right extremism and white nationalism continue to thrive. Only the most egregious nodes in the radicalization network have been removed from every platform.... Christchurch could be the moment Silicon Valley decides to finally treat white nationalism the way it's been treating ISIS for years." ...

... White Supremacy Pays. Nitasha Tiku of Wired: "... concerns that Big Tech expends more effort to curb the spread of terrorist content from high-profile foreign groups, while applying fewer resources and less urgency toward terrorist content from white supremacists, resurfaced last week after the shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.... For [the big tech companies], failure to police terrorist content by white supremacists is a business decision molded by political pressure, not a legal constraint.... Tech companies say that it is easier to identify content related to known foreign terrorist organizations such as ISIS and Al Qaeda because of information-sharing with law enforcement and industry-wide efforts, such as the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a group formed by YouTube, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter in 2017.... Law professor Hannah Bloch-Wehba ... says tech platforms built [content moderation] tools in response to pressure from regulators and engineered them to address a specific kind of terrorist threat. 'We just haven't seen comparable pressure for platforms to go after white violence,' and if they do, companies face 'political blowback from the right,'..." ...

... Kelly Weill of the Daily Beast (March 18): "A Virginia police officer assigned to a high school is involved in onboarding new members for a white nationalist group, leaked chat logs reveal. Daniel Morley, 31, is a police officer at L.C. Bird High School in Chesterfield, Virginia. He's also an organizer for Identity Evropa, a white nationalist group. In the group's leaked chat messages, first highlighted by Virginia anti-fascists on Monday, Morley discussed ways to downplay appearances of racism, while still promoting white nationalism. Morley is suspended while Chesterfield County Police Department investigates the allegations...." ...

     ... Zak Cheney-Rice of New York: "... such behavior has become more useful in the post-civil-rights era, as open bigotry has become more taboo in polite company and the explicit racism of Jim Crow-era laws and sumptuary codes ran afoul of federal law, requiring evasive action among its adherents. This is where cries of 'reverse racism' enter the discourse, where claims like Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts's 2007 insistence that 'the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race' captures the ethos of pols seeking to override civil-rights gains through fealty to a theoretical -- but not actual -- equality.... It is an easy and frequently successful pursuit to obscure racism by dressing it up in nice clothes."

Dylan Matthews of Vox: "Ari Fleischer is a liar. He lies about stuff big and small. And as President George W. Bush's press secretary during the run-up to the Iraq War, he participated in a large effort to exaggerate and misrepresent what the intelligence community believed about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq's (negligible) links to al-Qaeda. But Fleischer does not like it when people point out that he's a liar, so he took to Twitter on Tuesday night to mark the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and address what is, in his mind, a major tragedy surrounding the war: the fact that people sometimes point out that he and his friends are liars.... Some might argue the real victims of the war are the nearly 300,000 civilians and combatants killed due to an unnecessary invasion, but Fleischer would rather focus on his and his colleagues' hurt feelings."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Marc Caputo & Gary Fineout of Politico: "Andrew Gillum announced a plan Wednesday to register and turn-out 1 million new and low-propensity Florida voters in an effort to crush ... Donald Trump's reelection chances in the nation's largest swing state. 'Voter registration is red flag No. 1,' the former Tallahassee mayor told Politico, calling increased voter registration crucial to the Democratic Party's ability to survive and thrive in Florida."

Kentucky. Child Abuse by Stupid. Deborah Yetter & Tom Loftus of the Louisville Courier Journal: "In a move experts say is medically unsound -- and can be dangerous -- Gov. Matt Bevin [RTP] said in a radio interview Tuesday that he deliberately exposed all nine of his children to chickenpox so they would catch the disease and become immune. 'Every single one of my kids had the chickenpox,' Bevin said in an interview with WKCT, a Bowling Green talk radio station. 'They got the chickenpox on purpose because we found a neighbor that had it and I went and made sure every one of my kids was exposed to it, and they got it..... They were miserable for a few days, and they all turned out fine.' Three medical experts called the practice unsafe and unwise.... In the interview, Bevin also suggested that the government stay out of mandating vaccines. In Kentucky, varicella (chickenpox) is among vaccines mandated for all children entering kindergarten, though parents may seek religious exemptions or provide medical proof that a child has already had the disease." ...

... Only in America. Nick Martin of Splinter: "Bevin is right about one thing, and one thing only: This is indeed America, where shithead anti-vaxxers can not only ascend to some of the highest offices in the land -- don't forget, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul spouted the same bullshit just two weeks ago -- but can then go on a rant about having to vaccinate their nine (!!!) kids and think to themselves that they served as a positive influence on society."

Way Beyond

New Zealand. Kate Lyons of the Guardian: "Jacinda Ardern announced sweeping an immediate changes to New Zealand's gun laws, including the banning of assault rifles and military-style semi-automatics, following the Christchurch mosque shootings. Officials estimate that there are 1.2-1.5 million guns in a country of 5million people. They say they have 'no idea' how many assault rifles are in circulation and roughly 13,500 military style semi-automatic weapons. Ardern also directed officials to develop a gun buyback scheme for those who already own such weapons. She said 'fair and reasonable compensation' would be paid. The government estimates this will cost $100m - $200m[.]" Emphasis original.

News Lede

Guardian: "Rescue teams in Mozambique are struggling to reach the thousands of people stranded on roofs and in trees and urgently need more helicopters and boats as post-cyclone flood waters continue to rise. Mozambique, which was hit by Cyclone Idai over the weekend, has declared a state of emergency and is appealing for international help. Rescue workers, military personnel and volunteers are rushing to save thousands of Mozambicans before flood levels rise further, but with four helicopters, a handful of boats and extremely difficult conditions, have only been able to save about 413 so far."