The Commentariat -- March 14, 2019
Afternoon Update:
I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump -- I have the tough people, but they don[t play it tough -- until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad. -- Donald Trump, to Breitbart "News," Monday ...
... So It Begins. Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star: "... Donald Trump has issued what seems to be a warning of armed pushback against his political opponents, telling a right-wing website on Monday that 'it would be very bad, very bad' if his supporters in the military, police and a motorcycle group were provoked into getting 'tough.' Trump uttered the remark in an interview with Breitbart News, a right-wing website that supports him. It came, according to Breitbart, as Trump was arguing that 'the left' plays politics in a 'tougher' and more 'vicious' manner than the pro-Trump right even though 'the tough people' are on Trump's side."
Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on the Justice Department to make special counsel Robert Mueller's findings and full report public and available to Congress. The 420-0 vote came after a fiery debate on the House floor, during which some Democratic lawmakers were admonished for their criticisms of ... Donald Trump.... Four Republicans -- Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky — voted 'present.'"
Stupid Republican Tricks. Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "A trio of GOP senators crashed the White House to plead with President Trump to compromise with congressional critics of his border emergency declaration, but the president rejected their entreaties as the Senate headed toward a showdown vote Thursday.... Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he showed up at the White House on Wednesday night with Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), interrupting Trump as he dined with first lady Melania Trump. They discussed how to satisfy GOP concerns on the emergency declaration but reached no agreement.... 'With Trump everything is possible,' Graham said. 'Rabbits being pulled out of a hat are just everyday business.'"
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... Thanks to forrest m. for the reminder.
The Great National Farce, Ctd.
Michael, Since you jumped off the phone rather abruptly, I did not get a chance to tell you that my friend has communicated to tell me that he is meeting with his client this evening and he added that if there was anything you wanted to convey you should tell me and my friend will bring it up for discussion this evening. I would suggest that you give this invitation some real thought. -- Robert Costello, in an e-mail to his client Michael Cohen
Decryption: "my friend" = Rudy Giuliani; "his client" = Donald Trump; "anything you wanted to convey" = pardon ...
... "Sleep Well Tonight, You Have Friends in High Places." Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "... federal prosecutors have requested the emails and documents from [attorney Robert J.] Costello [-- who represented Michael Cohen regarding a presidential pardon --] according to a copy of the request, which cited an investigation into 'possible violations of federal criminal law' but offered no further detail. The request, sent last week, was for any documents related to Mr. Cohen as well as any bills Mr. Costello had sent him.... Before he pleaded guilty and began assisting federal prosecutors last summer..., Cohen ... spoke with [Costello,] who agreed to reach out to the president's legal team on his behalf.... Costello had about a dozen conversations with Mr. Trump's lead lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, according to emails and documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with people involved in the matter. In one email, the discussions were characterized as a 'back channel of communication.' During one of the conversations last April, Mr. Costello ... asked whether Mr. Trump might put a pardon 'on the table' for Mr. Cohen.... Mr. Giuliani told Mr. Costello that the president was unwilling to discuss pardons at that time, Mr. Costello said..., and they did not discuss it again.... In one of the emails, sent by Mr. Costello in April 2018 after a conversation with Mr. Giuliani, he assured Mr. Cohen, 'Sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places.' He added, in a postscript: 'Some very positive comments about you from the White House. Rudy noted how that followed my chat with him last night.'&" ...
... digby: "Why would a joint defense agreement require a 'back channel' I wonder?" ...
... Gloria Borger & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Cohen, in his closed-door congressional testimony, has provided these emails in an effort to corroborate his claim that a pardon was dangled before he decided to cooperate with federal prosecutors, according to sources familiar with his testimony. But the attorney who wrote those emails, Robert Costello, told CNN that Cohen's interpretation of events is 'utter nonsense.' Costello said that Cohen asked him to raise the issue of a pardon with Giuliani.... A source with knowledge of Cohen's thinking at the time disputes Costello's version of events and insists it was Costello who was pushing his relationship with Giuliani. Another source familiar with the emails said that Trump's legal team was trying to keep Cohen in the fold as a way to keep him quiet, hinting that a pardon could be in the mix at some point.... 'There was never a doubt and they are in our corner,' Costello wrote [to Cohen]. 'Rudy said this communication channel must be maintained. He called it crucial and noted how reassured they were that they had someone like me whom Rudy has known for so many years in this role.'... The morning after Costello's first email was sent, Trump tweeted about Cohen. 'Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if ... it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don't see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!' the President tweeted."
Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman who was sentenced last week to nearly four years in prison, was ordered on Wednesday to serve an additional three and a half years for conspiracy, closing out the special counsel's highest-profile prosecution. Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Federal District Court in Washington sentenced Mr. Manafort, 69, on two conspiracy counts that encompassed a host of crimes, including money-laundering, obstruction of justice and failing to disclose lobbying work that earned him tens of millions of dollars over more than a decade. 'It is hard to overstate the number of lies and the amount of fraud and the amount of money involved,' Judge Jackson said of Mr. Manafort's case. She added, 'A significant portion of his career has been spent gaming the system.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
... Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Paul Manafort's prison sentence was upped to seven-and-a-half years on Wednesday morning, bringing an end to Robert Mueller's most public legal battle and capping a spectacular fall for the globetrotting GOP consultant and former chairman of the Trump campaign. It's the longest sentence by far for anyone ensnared in Mueller's nearly two-year-old probe. Manafort's punishment reached its final length after U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Wednesday gave Manafort an additional roughly three-and-a-half years in prison for a series of lobbying and witness tampering crimes he pleaded guilty to last fall. Manafort also must serve nearly four years for his conviction in a jury trial for financial fraud crimes in Virginia.... Manafort issued a full-throated and blunt apology on Wednesday shortly before his second -- and final -- prison sentence was set to be handed out. But it appeared his appeals were falling on deaf ears.... Judge Amy Berman Jackson swiftly upbraided Manafort's penitence, though, insinuating that it was insincere and hinting that she believed Manafort had previously calibrated his statements to appeal to ... Donald Trump for a pardon -- the only way out of a multi-year prison sentence at this point for the former Trump campaign chairman.... 'Saying I'm sorry I got caught is not an inspiring plea for leniency,' Jackson said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Judge Amy Berman Jackson made a series of strong statements before sentencing President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, on Wednesday. But one in particular struck at the core of Trump's personal defense in the Russia investigation. She said the no collusion' mantra is bunk. Manafort's legal team had suggested repeatedly in its sentencing memo that the fact that Manafort hadn't been found to have colluded with Russia should be a mitigating factor when it came to how much time he would serve in prison. But Jackson not only rejected that argument in sentencing him to 43 additional months in prison; she rejected the entire argument behind it. 'The "no collusion" refrain that runs through the entire defense memorandum is unrelated to matters at hand,' she said. 'The "no collusion' mantra is simply a non sequitur.'... The "no collusion" mantra is also not accurate, because the investigation is still ongoing.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So then Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing walked out of the courtroom & said on the courthouse steps that "Judge Jackson conceded that there was absolutely no evidence of any collusion in this case." I guess its okay if an "officer of the court" flat-out lies about a judge's remarks if your message is not to her but to a corrupt President*. But protesters, who shout-checked Downing, didn't agree. ...
... Dana Milbank: "President Trump and Manafort have been using their public statements to coordinate with each other with the rhythm of synchronized swimmers. Trump praises Manafort for not flipping on him, and Manafort's lawyers dutifully repeat Trump's mantras -- that there was 'no collusion' between the campaign and Russia.... The judge was wise to the signaling. After [Kevin] Downing suggested Wednesday that Manafort's manifold crimes wouldn't have been prosecuted 'but for a short stint as a campaign manager in a presidential election,' [Judge Amy] Jackson unloaded on him.... 'The elements of remorse and personal responsibility were completely absent,' Jackson said, describing [Manafort's] continued 'dissembling at every turn' and his 'willingness to win at all costs.' Manafort ... then was wheeled away -- to await relief from another man who dissembles at every turn, exercises no personal responsibility, shows contempt for the law and seeks to win at all costs." ...
... Darturnorro Clark, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump picked up the refrain in remarks to reporters at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, saying, 'today, again, no collusion. The other day, no collusion. There was no collusion.' Both judges, however, did not say there was no collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia, but rather that the issue had nothing to do with the charges against Manafort. Asked whether he would pardon Manafort, Trump told reporters, 'I have not even given it a thought, as of this moment.' But the president also said he feels 'very badly' for his former campaign chairman." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** Franklin Foer of the Atlantic: Felicity "Huffman and [Paul] Manafort are spiritually connected, and the fact they are packed together above the fold today is more than an accident of timing. They are twin avatars of an elite that acts with impunity." Read on. Special shoutout to Anthony Kennedy.
... ** William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Paul J. Manafort ... has been charged in New York with mortgage fraud and more than a dozen other state felonies, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., said Wednesday, an effort to ensure he will still face prison time if Mr. Trump pardons him for his federal crimes. News of the indictment came shortly after Mr. Manafort was sentenced to his second federal prison term in two weeks; he now faces a combined sentence of more than seven years for tax and bank fraud and conspiracy in two related cases brought by the special counsel, strong> Robert S. Mueller III. The president has broad power to issue pardons for federal crimes, but has no such authority in state cases." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** A Clear-cut Case of Attempted Obstruction of Justice. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said Wednesday that former acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker 'did not deny' that President Trump 'called him to discuss the case' against his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, as well as personnel decisions regarding the personnel at the federal prosecutor's office bringing the case against him. Speaking to reporters after a two-hour meeting with Whitaker, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) presented Whitaker's closed-door comments as a contradiction with his public testimony from February, during which Whitaker said Trump never expressed his dissatisfaction with Cohen for pleading guilty to various financial crimes and lying to Congress. When asked at that hearing whether he had ever discussed the Cohen case with Trump, Whitaker refused to answer the question. But Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), who was also present for the interview, strongly disagreed with Nadler, calling it an 'interpretation' -- and insisting that Whitaker 'said he did not talk with the president about Mr. Cohen at all, and had no conversations with the Southern District of New York.'... According to Nadler, Whitaker did not refute the assertion that he was 'directly involved in conversations about whether to fire one or more U.S. attorneys.' Nadler also said that Whitaker did not deny having been 'involved in conversations about the scope' of the recusal of the SDNY's lead prosecutor, U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman, from Cohen's case -- and whether the prosecutors 'went too far in pursuing the campaign finance case in which Trump is Individual-1.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Inasmuch as the New York Times reported on February 19 that "several American officials" had "direct knowledge of call" between Trump & Whitaker about Berman's "unrecusing" himself, it's obvious there are witnesses to the call. Whitaker had previously denied such a conversation in his public House testimony. And "On Tuesday, after The Times article published, Mr. Trump denied that he had asked Mr. Whitaker if Mr. Berman could be put in charge of the investigation. 'No, I don't know who gave you that, that's more fake news,' Mr. Trump said. 'There's a lot of fake news out there. No, I didn't.'" ...
... Jonathan Chait: "This is a really, really big deal.... As Alex Whiting explained, the argument for why a president can pardon his own subordinates is that it's a public act, and the voters can examine the facts and look at whether the president acted corruptly in issuing the pardon. 'As long as it remained secret,' he notes, 'it could be done without incurring any of the political downstream consequences that come with actually pardoning someone.'" ...
... BUT, But, What about the Garth Brooks Defense? "Friends in Low Places." Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "In an email to The Daily Beast, Costello said that he was not hinting at a Trump pardon when he talked about sleeping well at night. Instead, he was referencing a song by music star Garth Brooks.... And, he added, there were documents that could confirm as much. 'This statement: "Sleep Well tonight, you have friends in high places" was a tongue-in-cheek reference to a Garth Brooks song, to a client whose state of mind was highly disturbed and had suggested to us that he was suicidal. We were simply trying to be decent human beings. There is no hidden message.' In fact, the popular 1990 single that Brooks recorded is titled, 'Friends in Low Places.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I listened to as much of "Friends in Low Places" as I could stand (before it dawned on me I could search the lyrics), and there's nothing in it about "sleeping well tonight." It's one of those sad country and Western songs where a guy crashes his ex-girlfriend's classy party & makes an ass of himself. The song most definitely would not cheer up a "suicidal" person.
Martin Longman of the Booman Tribune: "On days like this, it's hard to believe that anyone will remember what Nancy Pelosi had to say about impeachment. But I do wonder how much evidence of criminality the American people can absorb at one time."
Tiptoeing around Ivanka. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "The president's eldest daughter and top White House adviser was notably absent from a blitz of document requests that the House Judiciary Committee sent earlier this month to 81 individuals and organizations linked to the president. House Democrats have been cautious about targeting Ms. Trump and the other Trump children as they investigate the president, worried about triggering a backlash. But a close read of the document requests suggests they aren't exactly tiptoeing around the first daughter, either. Of the 81 document requests sent, 52 individuals and organizations were asked to turn over documents related to Ms. Trump or her business interests.... The inquiries related to Ms. Trump follow a side track: They ask for documents related to any financial benefit that Ms. Trump or her businesses reaped from foreign and domestic governments after the 2016 election. 'She'd be in violation of the Constitution if she was getting any business deals from foreign governments,' said Richard W. Painter, who served as chief ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush."
Carrie Johnson of NPR: "One of the most prominent members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating Russia's attack on the 2016 presidential election will soon leave the office and the Justice Department, two sources close to the matter tell NPR. Andrew Weissmann, the architect of the case against ... Paul Manafort, will study and teach at New York University and work on a variety of public service projects.... The departure is the strongest sign yet that Mueller and his team have all but concluded their work."
Ian Austen & Selam Gebrekidan of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Wednesday that the United States was grounding Boeing&'s 737 Max aircraft, reversing an earlier decision by American regulators to keep the jets flying after a second deadly crash in Ethiopia. The Federal Aviation Administration had for days resisted calls to ground the plane even as safety regulators in some 42 countries had banned flights by the jets. As recently as Tuesday, the agency said it had seen 'no systemic performance issues' that would prompt it to halt flights of the jet." (Also linked yesterday in an earlier draft.)
Elham Khatami of ThinkProgress: "For the third consecutive year, President Donald Trump's fiscal 2020 budget proposal, released Monday, would eliminate the federal agency tasked with leading service and volunteering programs like AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. Trump is the first president who has sought to get rid of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) since the agency's inception in 1993.... CNCS, which operates on a $1.08 billion budget, mobilizes millions of volunteers and delivers grants to nonprofit organizations to address critical community needs, such as tutoring and mentoring, disaster relief, and opioid addiction support." --s
Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Coal production will drop nearly 8 percent in 2019, and then another 4.5 percent in 2020, according to a new Trump administration analysis. But over the same two years, total renewable power generation will rise 30 percent, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected on Tuesday. So despite campaigning on a pledge to save the dirtiest of fossil fuels, President Donald Trump is overseeing a collapse in both domestic coal production and coal generation." --s
Trump's Latest Screw-the-Workers Plan. Terri Gerstein in Slate: "... a new rule proposed by the Trump administration last week ... would leave millions of workers unprotected, compared with a far better Obama-era rule that ... Donald Trump's Labor Department has helped undo.... The proposal ... would leave millions of people unprotected, well over half of those who would have been covered under the Obama proposal."
Oliver Holmes of the Guardian: "The US has dropped its description of the Golan Heights from 'Israeli-occupied' to 'Israeli-controlled' in a state department report, the latest sign of approval towards Israel's disputed claim to land it captured from Syria. World powers have long called on Israel to rescind its authority of the strategic region and labelled the occupation as illegal under international law." --s
Karoun Demirjian: "The Senate voted Wednesday to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, its latest rebuke of the Trump administration's continued embrace of the Saudi monarchy despite growing frustration among lawmakers with its actions on the world stage. The 54-to-46 vote marks the second time in recent months that the Senate has rejected the United States' continued participation in Saudi Arabia's bombing campaign against Yemen's Houthi rebels, waged in the name of holding back Iran's expansion in the region. But the Saudi-led effort, which has at times targeted civilian facilities and prevented aid shipments from getting to Yemenis, has been faulted by human rights organizations for exacerbating what the United Nations has deemed the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe.... The resolution must still be taken up in the House, where members passed a nearly identical resolution to end U.S. participation in the Yemen war earlier this year. It is unlikely, however, that either chamber would have the votes necessary to resuscitate the measure if President Trump vetoes it."
Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Senate prepared Wednesday to rebuke President Trump over his national emergency declaration at the U.S.-Mexico border, after Trump rejected a GOP compromise aimed at curtailing presidential emergency powers in the future. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who was leading the compromise efforts, announced plans to defect and vote for a resolution to nullify Trump's emergency declaration when it comes to the floor on Thursday. Lee made the announcement shortly after hearing directly from Trump that his legislation was not acceptable."
Jay Michaelson of The Daily Beast: "A dramatic congressional hearing [Wednesday] revealed proof that Donald Trump's controversial 2017 decision to dramatically shrink two national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. was a gift to the energy and mining industries.... [N]ow we know that the government official tasked with drawing the final map was told to exclude certain coal-rich areas from the monuments, that secret meetings were held between the Department of Interior and uranium mining interests before the sham public process even began, and that now-EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler was among the lobbyists involved in the secret deals.... [In] March 2017, then Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) had provided the Trump administration with a revised map of Bears Ears, in an email -- obtained by The New York Times ... saying that it would 'resolve all known mineral conflicts.' The final map, adopted in December 2017, was almost identical to Hatch's map.... Remarkably, it's possible that none of this is illegal." --s
Carol Anderson in a New York Times op-ed: "The Republicans would have the nation believe that the threat to our democracy is from voter fraud, where someone impersonates someone else to cast an illegal ballot or multiple ballots to 'steal elections. But the chance of voter fraud occurring is, at best, 0.0000044 percent. The real theft of American democracy happens through election fraud and voter suppression. And Republicans are the thieves.... The only thing that will save us is a restored Voting Rights Act." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Restoring the VRA is an excellent first step, but it's past time for this country to make voting rights a Constitutional guarantee.
Presidential Race 2020
... Matt Flegenheimer & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Beto O'Rourke, the 46-year-old former Texas congressman whose near-miss Senate run last year propelled him to Democratic stardom, announced his candidacy for president on Thursday, betting that voters will prize his message of national unity and generational change in a 2020 primary teeming with committed progressives. His decision jolts an early election season already stuffed with contenders, adding to the mix a relentless campaigner with a small-dollar fund-raising army, the performative instincts of a former punk rocker and a pro-immigrant vision to counteract President Trump's. Yet Mr. O'Rourke also comes to the 2020 race with few notable legislative accomplishments after three terms in the House representing El Paso. And in a primary so far defined by big-ticket policy ideas, like the economic agendas of Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Mr. O'Rourke enters without a signature proposal that might serve as the ideological anchor of his bid."
... KTSM El Paso: "Beto O'Rourke is running for President of the United States. The former El Paso Congressman will make the announcement on Thursday morning, but he confirmed via text to KTSM Wednesday afternoon that he is seeking the Democratic nomination."
Michael LaForgia, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of th world's largest technology companies, intensifying scrutiny of the social media giant's business practices as it seeks to rebound from a year of scandal and setbacks. A grand jury in New York has subpoenaed records from at least two prominent makers of smartphones and other devices, according to two people who were familiar with the requests.... Both companies had entered into partnerships with Facebook, gaining broad access to the personal information of hundreds of millions of its users. The companies were among more than 150, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Sony, that had cut sharing deals with the world's dominant social media platform. The agreements, previously reported in The New York Times, let the companies see users’ friends, contact information and other data, sometimes without consent. Facebook has phased out most of the partnerships over the past two years."
Isn't This Chummy? TMZ: "As Lori Loughlin traveled from Vancouver to L.A. Tuesday night to surrender to federal authorities in the college bribery scandal -- which got her daughter, Olivia Jade, into USC -- Olivia spent the night on the yacht of the Chairman of USC's Board of Trustees ... but she's off the boat now, TMZ has learned. We've learned 19-year-old Olivia was on Rick Caruso's yacht in the Bahamas. Caruso's daughter, Gianna, Olivia and several other friends were spending spring break in the area." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: On the other hand, look how the rich kids turn out when their parents don't cheat to get them into a nice college. (The Daily Intelligencer call the headline of the story "the platonic idea of a New York Post headline.")
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha
"Rupert's Bitch." Aida Chávez of The Intercept: "Tucker Carlson, who recently branded himself as a leading anti-elitist, had previously labeled himself as an 'out-of-the-closet elitist,' and separately said that he is '100 percent [Rupert Murdoch's] bitch.' The two quips are part of a trove of newly unearthed recordings from 2008 to 2011 that haven't previously been reported." --s ...
Meet the Powerful Media Mogul Who Would Silence Tucker. Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "Madeline Peltz works the night shift at the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America. Given the timing of that particular shift, one of her main responsibilities is watching Tucker Carlson's 8 p.m. show on Fox News.... After many Carlson-watching hours, the 24-year-old researcher developed a working theory, which she outlined on the nonprofit's website: that Carlson is using his platform on Fox News to introduce white-nationalist ideas to the mainstream, making him a uniquely prominent 'mouthpiece for white supremacy.' Peltz dug into his recent past and discovered a trove of ... misogynistic, racist and homophobic remarks Carlson made, the audio of which Media Matters published this week. In response, Carlson ... cast himself as the victim of 'the great American outrage machine'a mob of power-seeking organizations and people he says are waging a political war to censor him. In reality, credit for the tapes' publication is due to Peltz: a 20-something in her first adult job who lives in the basement of a D.C. house she rents with five other people, a few cats and a dog named Noodles."
Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "Sharp and potentially devastating temperature rises of 3C to 5C in the Arctic are now inevitable even if the world succeeds in cutting greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris agreement, research has found. Winter temperatures at the north pole are likely to rise by at least 3C above pre-industrial levels by mid-century.... Such changes would result in rapidly melting ice and permafrost, leading to sea level rises and potentially to even more destructive levels of warming." --s
Rick Rojas & Liam Stack of the New York Times: "Allegations of sexual abuse trailed John Capparelli, a former priest, for decades, resurfacing in the years after the Archdiocese of Newark removed him from ministry. There were the lawsuits from accusers, and last month his name was included on a list published by the Roman Catholic Church in New Jersey that identified priests who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse. On Saturday, Mr. Capparelli was found fatally shot in his home in Nevada, and the authorities there said that his death was being investigated as a homicide." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Ali Winston, et al., of the New York Times: "Francesco Cali, the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, was fatally shot outside his home on Staten Island on Wednesday night, a senior police official said. Mr. Cali, 53, was shot six times, the official said." Mrs. McC: This is what happens to real Mafiosi, Donald. Lucky for you, you're just a cheap copy.
Way Beyond
Britain. Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Having twice thrown out Prime Minister Theresa May's plan for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, the fractious British Parliament defied her again on Wednesday, worsening the power vacuum atop British politics just 16 days before the exit is scheduled to take place. Parliament voted to oppose the prospect of a disorderly 'no-deal' exit from the bloc, doing it in a dramatic and unexpected fashion that undercut the already-battered Mrs. May's dwindling authority and negotiating leverage. And the breakdown of discipline in her own Conservative Party renewed speculation that her own cabinet could try to force her from power. No other prime minister in recent British history has been so unable, repeatedly, to work her will in Parliament."
Iran. Iliana Magra of the New York Times: "Iran has faced international condemnation after one of the country's most prominent human rights lawyers, detained for eight months, said she had been sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes, according to her husband. Security agents arrested the lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, at her home in June last year. The government offered no explanation, but at the time Ms. Sotoudeh was defending women who had been arrested after removing their hijabs, or head scarves, in public protests. She received the European Union's most prestigious human rights award, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, in 2012, while serving a previous prison sentence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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