The Commentariat -- June 26, 2018
Liam Stack of the New York Times: "There will be important primaries or runoff elections on Tuesday in seven states, including New York, where establishment candidates in both parties face tests in colorful, close primary battles.... Voters will also go to the polls in Utah, Maryland, Colorado, Oklahoma, Mississippi and South Carolina." Vote!
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
It's Another Mitch McConnell Day at the Supreme Court ...
Or, to borrow from Ian Millhiser, Another Great Day for White Nationalism
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "President Trump acted lawfully in imposing limits on travel from several predominantly Muslim nations, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. The vote was 5 to 4, with the courts conservatives in the majority." At 10:45 am ET, this is kind of a rump story, with little detail. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is that "presumption of good faith" Ian Millhiser & Cristian Farias discuss. Farias specifically tied said presumption to the possible decision in the Muslim ban case. Sadly, he was right. I'll be way interested to see if the winger justices presume good faith on the part of Democratic lawmakers & administrators. Scalia thought one purpose of ObamaCare was to make every American eat broccoli, & they all seem to think workers & unions are up to no good. ...
... Oh, P.S. California Legislators Presumably Act in Bad Faith. Because Abortion. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court said Tuesday that pregnancy centers established to persuade women to continue their pregnancies do not have to tell their clients about the availability of state-offered services, including abortion. The court's conservatives said a California law likely violates the First Amendment. It required what are called crisis pregnancy centers -- they promise prenatal care and help when the child is born -- to post notices or tell clients about the state's service. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the 5 to 4 decision." Justice Stephen Breyer, who wrote the dissent "said the court has repeatedly upheld state laws that provide a script for doctors when they are counseling women who seek abortion. 'If a state can lawfully require a doctor to tell a woman seeking an abortion about adoption services, why should it not be able, as here, to require a medical counselor to tell a woman seeking prenatal care or other reproductive healthcare about childbirth and abortion services?' Breyer wrote." Mrs. McC: Must be a false equivalency. Or something.
** Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "The Supreme Court held on Monday that white lawmakers enjoy a presumption of racial innocence, even when they draw legislative districts that empower white voters at the expense of racial minorities. The thrust of Justice Samuel Alito's opinion in Abbott v. Perez is that the 'good faith' of a 'state legislature must be presumed,' even when there are very serious allegations of racial gerrymandering.... [T]he Perez opinion is very bad news for anyone hoping to challenge a racial gerrymander in the future. Lawmakers now enjoy an exceedingly strong presumption of racial innocence when they draw legislative maps. It's a great day for white nationalism." --safari
Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in an effort to stop plans to allow mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota.... The legal challenges come after President Donald Trump announced during a rally in Duluth, Minnesota last week that he wanted to keep large portions of land within the state's Superior National Forest -- where the Boundary Waters recreation area is located -- open to mining. These ares of land were set to be banned to industry activities under the Obama administration." --safari
Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "One of the country's major federal science agencies [The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization] seems to have been forced to abandon climate change research as a key organizational focus, the New York Times revealed this week. The ... Organization is responsible for managing the National Weather Service and using its network of satellites to forecast the effects of climate change.... NOAA ... had remained relatively immune so far from the influence of climate change skeptics within the Trump administration." -safari
Diego Cupolo of The Atlantic: "Recep Tayyip Erdoğan extended his 16-year dominance over Turkey with a victory in the first round of the country's snap elections, winning 52.5 percent of the vote.... In the eyes of his roughly 26 million supporters, it was a resounding victory for the powerless.... The problem is that such victories for Turkey-s supposedly oppressed classes can feel like oppression for the other half of the country-s voters, who just missed their best chance to date to unseat a leader with very real staying power.... Erdoğan is poised to rule Turkey for up to three more terms with consolidated governing powers -- what his opponents call 'one man rule.' Turks have, in essence, voted away their democracy." --safari
*****
Incompetence, Malevolence, Indifference, Negligence, Chaos, Ctd.
Ron Nixon, et al., of the New York Times: "The nation's top border security official said on Monday that his agency has temporarily stopped handing over migrant adults who cross the Mexican border with children to prosecutors, undercutting claims by other administration officials that 'zero tolerance' for illegal immigration is still in place. Kevin K. McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said he had told border agents not to refer families to the Justice Department for prosecution until the two agencies can agree on a policy that would allow parents to be prosecuted without separating them from their children. Because Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not have enough detention space for families, the immediate impact of the decision will be that many families will be quickly released, with a promise to return for a court date at some point in the future. The decision by Mr. McAleenan, conveyed to reporters at a detention center here, will effectively revive a 'catch and release' approach used during the Obama administration for most families crossing the Mexican border illegally. President Trump has repeatedly railed against 'catch and release' and blamed it for helping to invite waves of crime and violence into the United States.... 'We're not changing the policy. We're simply out of resources, [Sarah] Sanders said. She blamed Democrats in Congress for not changing immigration laws in ways that would keep migrant families out of the country in the first place.... [Meanwhile,] Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed to continue enforcing Mr. Trump's zero tolerance immigration policy." ...
... Lolita Baldor & Robert Burns of Stars & Stripes: "The Trump administration has chosen an Army base and an Air Force base, both in Texas, to house detained migrants swept up in the federal government's crackdown on illegal immigration, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Monday. Mattis said he could not confirm specifics, such as the number of migrants to be sheltered at Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base.... The U.S. military has a long history of providing logistical support to people 'escaping tyranny' or affected by natural disasters, Mattis said... 'We provide logistics support and we're not going to get into the political aspect,' he said. 'Providing housing, shelter for those who need it is a legitimate governmental function.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's probably useful to read Mattis's decision in the light of reporting from Courtney Kube & Carol Lee of NBC News which documents how Trump has kept Mattis out of the loop on major decisions affecting the military. ...
... James Laporta & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "Active-duty and retired U.S. military officers and enlisted personnel are expressing a sense of moral emergency over the Defense Department setting up detention camps for undocumented immigrants on military bases<. 'It smacks of totalitarianism,' said Steve Kleinman, a retired Air Force colonel and military intelligence officer. Raf Noboa, an Iraq War veteran and former Army sergeant, said he was astounded by the 'enormous moral offense' the camps represent and which the military will be ordered to support." ...
... Kevin Tripp of the Guardian: "A senior manager at a child detention camp in Texas, close to the Mexican border, spoke out on Monday to decry Donald Trump&'s zero-tolerance immigration policy that had been tearing migrant families apart as 'dumb'. Speaking to journalists in what he said was an individual capacity, at the end of a special, supervised media tour of the facility in Tornillo, near El Paso, Texas, the manager, who asked not to be named, called family separations 'a dumb, stupid decision'. 'All it did was harm children,' he said. The manager works for the private contractor BCFS, which is running the camp on behalf of the federal government. 'This operation would not be necessary had it not been for the separation.'" ...
... Dana Milbank: Speaking at a Trump fear-mongering event last Friday, "Mary Ann Mendoza, one of the angel moms on stage with Trump, [said,] 'if the public would go to illegalaliencrimereport.com and see the magnitude of crimes being committed against your fellow Americans by illegal aliens allowed to stay in this country, you will be sickened.' I did as she said and looked into the Illegal Alien Crime Report. I was indeed sickened by what I found: white-nationalist claims of 'genocide' and a 'Holocaust' being perpetrated against white Americans. And now, those promoting such filth are getting mentioned behind a lectern bearing the presidential seal, at an official event hosted by the president himself.... [A video on the site showed] war footage of Nazis' victims, corpses in concentration-camp uniforms lined up and in piles.... [One of the video's producers, Frank Jorge,] called for violence against politicians. 'When is somebody gonna get a senator, hang him by his f------ balls and do something about this s---?; he demanded. 'When is somebody going to get to some representative and f--- him up for letting our people get murdered? When is it gonna happen because it's goddamned overdue.' Jorge added that politicians 'need to bleed.'... It is yet another peek at the ugliness that lurks just beneath the surface of support for Trump and his nativist policies.... There have always been such characters in American life. The difference is they now can hope for a White House shout-out." ...
... Mrs. McC: Now read Charles Pierce's post & Michelle Goldberg's column, linked below, not to mention the WashPostory linked below, in which Democrats call for "civility." ...
... Melanie Schmitz of ThinkProgress: "First lady Melania Trump called for 'compassion,' 'kindness,' and understanding during an event with young students Sunday night, even as her husband's administration continued its brutal crackdown on immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border.... Mrs. Trump's comments come days after she visited a detention center for immigrant children in McAllen, Texas and wore a jacket bearing the phrase 'I really don't care. Do u?'... The first lady's speech also contrasts with her husband's racist, degrading comments about immigrants, as his administration continues to crack down on those entering the country at the U.S. southern border." ...
... David Boroff of the New York Daily News: "A 27-year-old California man and his mother were called 'rapists' and 'animals' [and 'drug dealers'] by a Trump supporter while trying to do landscaping work -- and video of the exchange has been viewed millions of times online. Video shows the unidentified woman confronting Esteban Guzman and his mom and saying she hated them because they are 'Mexican.'... The woman mentioned President Trump during her racist tantrum, which was recorded by Guzman's mother and went viral on Twitter. Trump used similar wording when he announced he was running for president in 2015. He said Mexico is 'not sending' their best people, and alluded to them as 'rapists.'" Guzman says he was born in California. Includes video.
... Felicia Sonmez & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday escalated a feud with a veteran Democratic lawmaker who called for aggressive protests of administration officials, warning Rep. Maxine Waters of California to 'Be careful what you wish for Max!'... In a tweet, Trump called Waters 'an extraordinarily low IQ person' who, together with [Nancy] Pelosi, had become 'the Face of the Democrat Party.'... Waters, a vocal Trump critic, told supporters at a Los Angeles rally Saturday that 'if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them!' She repeated that call in an MSNBC interview later the same day. In a rare rebuke of a fellow Democrat, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized Waters's comments Monday.... 'Trump's daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but unacceptable. As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity....'... Democratic strategist Paul Begala warned that overly aggressive tactics could backfire by alienating the voters that his party needs most.... Several congressional Democrats issued clear rebukes of Waters's remarks, although they did not mention her by name." ...
... Juliegrace Brufke of the Hill: "A House Republican on Monday introduced a measure to censure Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and called on her to resign following her comments calling on Democrats to publicly confront officials in the Trump administration.... Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said the California Democrat's comments do 'not become somebody who's in Congress,' arguing disciplinary action is appropriate." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Biggs, a first-term Congressman, also has called repeatedly for Robert Mueller to resign, he said President Obama probably knew the FBI had "embedd[ed] ... undercover operatives into the Trump campaign." He also "call[ed] for the criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton and a variety of other Obama administration appointees, career FBI officials, and even Trump appointee Dana Boente. And so forth. In other words, a goose-stepping nut job. All due respect, etc.
... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump lashed out Monday at a Virginia restaurant that refused to serve his press secretary.... 'The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders,' Trump said in his Monday tweet. 'I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It is unconscionable for the POTUS* to make derogatory remarks about a small business, especially since there's no reason to think he's even seen the restaurant. Worse president* ever. ...
... ** Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "Compared to the Red Hen, some of Trump's own restaurants seem like the bathroom of a dive bar the morning after a live show. The Lexington, Virginia-based restaurant, which caused a Trumpworld uproar when it refused to serve White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Friday, passed its most recent health inspection with flying colors. State authorities found no violations when they visited the restaurant in February, and gave the Red Hen their best possible health-risk rating. By contrast, the conditions of restaurants at Trump's hotels and resorts have ranged from moderately unsanitary to outright revolting." Read on. Many thanks to Ed for the link. This is yet another instance of Trump's falsely accusing someone for shortcomings of which he himself is actually guilty. ...
... Charles Pierce: By all accounts, the most civil action taken in L'affaire Poule Rouge was the way Stephanie Wilkinson handled her refusal to serve Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. She first consulted with her staff..., she politely informed Sanders and her party that they would not be eating at the Red Hen that night. She even comped them the cheese plates they'd already ordered. She did not use an official government Twitter account to discuss the episode, as Sanders did later. She did not use the power of the Oval Office to try and destroy someone's business, as the president* found time to do later.... Suddenly, just as the issue of the hijacked children was beginning to bite the administration* severely in the ass, here was an event over which the elite political media could do one of its favorite traditional fan dances: the Question of Civility.... This debate is stupid. It's also dangerously beside the point. SarahHuck is the lying mouthpiece of a lying regime that is one step away from simply hauling people off in trucks. That she was politely told to take her business elsewhere is a small step towards assigning public responsibility to public officials that enable a perilous brand of politics.... So, Sarah, since I know it is hard for you to understand even short sentences, I'll put it as briefly as I can: Take a hike." ...
... ** Michelle Goldberg: "Naturally, all this [shaming of Trump officials & supporters] has led to lots of pained disapproval from self-appointed guardians of civility.... 'How hard is it to imagine, for example, people who strongly believe that abortion is murder deciding that judges or other officials who protect abortion rights should not be able to live peaceably with their families?' [the Washington Post] asked. Of course, this is not hard to imagine at all, since abortion opponents have assassinated abortion providers in their homes and churches, firebombed their clinics and protested at their children&'s schools. The Roman Catholic Church has shamed politicians who support abortion rights by denying them communion. The failure to acknowledge this history is a sign of the reflexive false balance that makes it hard for the mainstream media to grapple with the asymmetric extremism of the Republican Party.... There's a moral and psychic cost to participating in the fiction that people who work for Trump are in any sense public servants.... Public shaming ... [is] less a result of a breakdown in civility than a breakdown of democracy.... There's an abusive sort of victim-blaming in demanding that progressives single-handedly uphold civility...." ...
... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "As a desperate Republican Party does everything they can to prop up a minority coalition with undemocratic means, the concern trolling is particularly misplaced." ...
... Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: Hospitality traditions notwithstanding, "Sarah Huckabee Sanders's chosen role in life [is] to further [President Trump's] lies, treat lies as truth, and make lies acceptable. This is not just a question of protesting a particular policy; in the end there are no policies, only the infantile impulses of a man veering from one urge to another. The great threat to American democracy isn't 'policy' but the pretense of normalcy. That's the danger, for with the lies come the appeasement of tyranny, the admiration of tyranny, and, as now seems increasingly likely, the secret alliance with tyranny. That's what makes the Trump Administration intolerable, and, inasmuch as it is intolerable, public shaming and shunning of those who take part in it seems just. Never before in American politics has there been so plausible a reason for exclusion from the common meal as the act of working for Donald Trump."
Mike Murphy of Marketwatch: "Speaking at a campaign rally in South Carolina for Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday night, Trump bashed a trio of late-night talk-show hosts who often joke about him as talentless and unfunny. Trump has repeatedly called 'SNL' unfunny, especially Alec Baldwin's portrayal of him in sketches. Trump insulted Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC's ... 'Tonight Show,' in a tweet Sunday, calling him 'whimpering' and saying 'Be a man Jimmy!' The taunts continued Monday.... 'Jimmy Fallon apologized. He apologized for humanizing me,' Trump said Monday at the rally. 'The poor guy.... Now he's going to lose all of us.... He ... was so disappointed to find out it was real, he couldn't believe it,' Trump said. 'That's one of the great things I've got. Everyone used to say my hair is phony, you're wearing a hairpiece. But they never say that anymore.' Trump then shifted to Stephen Colbert.... 'The guy at CBS, what a lowlife, what a lowlife,' Trump said of the South Carolina native. 'This guy on CBS has no talent.' Finally, Trump mocked Jimmy Kimmel.... '... the guy's terrible,' Trump said." ...
... Oh, Why Can't the U.S. Be More Like North Korea. Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump is taken not only with his skeletal diplomacy with North Korea, but also with the communist kingdom's entire social model, which he has been praising to anybody who will listen. Trump loves the North Korean state media, the 'fervor' demonstrated by its people for their leader upon pain of death, and the way Kim Jong-un's advisers sit up in attention for him (also upon pain of death.) At his rally in South Carolina Monday night, Trump seemed to recognize similarities between his communication style and the North Korean regime. 'They took down anti-United States signs all over North Korea,' he said. '... Anti-U.S. signs, like I put up anti-media signs all over the place.' Well, yes, Trump's method for discrediting the news media is quite similar to North Korea's method of discrediting the United States. How unusually insightful of Trump to recognize the parallels, which would normally discomfit a democratically-elected official. Also at the rally, Trump once again declared the media 'the enemy of the people,' borrowing a classic communist regime term of abuse for any class which the state was murdering in large numbers...." ...
... Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Henry Gomez of BuzzFeed: "Hundreds of President Trump's supporters marched into a high school gymnasium Monday and began blistering their new perceived enemy: CNN's chief White House correspondent. 'Fake News Jim!' they chanted loudly at Jim Acosta as one woman confronted him near his seat in the press pen and then as he positioned himself in front of a camera for a live hit. 'Go home, Jim!' they added later -- a taunt that sounded especially menacing when aimed at a reporter with a Hispanic surname and a father who fled Fidel Castro's Cuba.... But before long..., Acosta posed for selfies, first with a kind woman who genuinely seemed to want one, and then with others who appeared more eager to share the moments ironically on social media. Then ... Acosta began signing autographs.'.. Eventually one of his most persistent hecklers -- a young man with a long, scruffy beard, wearing a MAGA cap backwards and a MAGA flag as a cape -- engaged Acosta in a friendly conversation. By the end of the exchange, the Trump fan was begging Acosta for an on-air shoutout. 'I think it helps calm them down,' Acosta replied when asked why he indulged the same people who had been jeering him. 'If I were to say no, it could make it more venomous.'"
... Thanks to Patrick for the link. It would never, of course, occur to DiJiT that bigbizguy might be upset and lacrimose about seeing a moron sitting in the big chair, and wondering WTF is happening to our country. Never. -- Patrick
Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "The [bond market's] so-called yield curve is perilously close to predicting a recession -- something it has done before with surprising accuracy -- and it's become a big topic on Wall Street." Phillips explains the yield curve, which is the difference between long- and short-term T-bills. "On Thursday, the gap between two-year and 10-year United States Treasury notes was roughly 0.34 percentage points. It was last at these levels in 2007 when the United States economy was heading into what was arguably the worst recession in almost 80 years.... if it keeps moving in this direction, eventually long-term interest rates will fall below short-term rates. When that happens, the yield curve has 'inverted.' An inversion is seen as 'a powerful signal of recessions.'... Every recession of the past 60 years has been preceded by an inverted yield curve, according to research from the San Francisco Fed." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Bye-Bye: The Sound of a Harley Backfiring. Arnie Tsang of the New York Times: "Harley-Davidson, the American motorcycle manufacturer, said on Monday that it was shifting some of the production of its bikes outside the United States to avoid European Union tariffs imposed as part of a widening trade dispute. The announcement, made in a public filing, is an early sign of the financial cost to companies on both sides of the Atlantic as the United States and Europe impose tariffs and counter-tariffs on each other. The moves have raised the specter of a full-blown trade war as the Trump administration pursues a protectionist tack.... Last week, the European Union imposed penalties on $3.2 billion worth of American products, many of which are produced in areas that form the heart of President Trump's political base, in response to steel and aluminum tariffs added by the White House. Harley-Davidson said on Monday that European Union tariffs on its motorcycles had increased to 31 percent, from 6 percent. It estimated that the higher tariffs would add about $2,200 on average to every motorcycle exported from the United States to the bloc, so it said it would move the production of bikes bound for Europe outside the United States." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It wasn't so long ago that Trump was telling Harley-Davidson executives their already-successful company would grow even bigger because of "a new American spirit that had emerged since his election." Earlier this year, Trump whined repeatedly about India's "unfair" tariffs on Harleys, so it's kinda funny that Harley is likely to move more of its production to -- you guessed it -- India. Who knew trade wars were so complicated? (Also linked yesterday.) ...
Politico: "... Donald Trump warned Harley-Davidson on Tuesday that its iconic American motorcycles 'should never be built in another country.'... 'A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never! Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end - they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!' the president tweeted. Earlier in the morning, the president also claimed that the American motorcycle manufacturer is using the EU's retaliatory tariffs as an 'excuse' to move some production overseas. 'Early this year Harley-Davidson said they would move much of their plant operations in Kansas City to Thailand. That was long before Tariffs were announced. Hence, they were just using Tariffs/Trade War as an excuse. Shows how unbalanced & unfair trade is, but we will fix it,' the president wrote online in a series of tweets. 'We are getting other countries to reduce and eliminate tariffs and trade barriers that have been unfairly used for years against our farmers, workers and companies. We are opening up closed markets and expanding our footprint. They must play fair or they will pay tariffs!'" ...
Surprised that Harley-Davidson, of all companies, would be the first to wave the White Flag. I fought hard for them and ultimately they will not pay tariffs selling into the E.U., which has hurt us badly on trade, down $151 Billion. Taxes just a Harley excuse - be patient!-- Donald Trump, in a tweet, Monday ...
... Heather Long of the Washington Post: "The first casualties of President Trump's trade war are 60 workers at Mid-Continent Nail, America's largest nail manufacturer. They lost their jobs on June 15 at a factory in a part of Missouri that voted overwhelmingly for Trump.... Mid-Continent Nail blames the layoffs on Trump's tariffs and the company says all 500 employees could lose their jobs by Labor Day.... This is a potential game changer in Trump's trade strategy, especially if it marks the start of more companies announcing layoffs. On Monday, Harley-Davidson said it will be moving some 'production' offshore because of the trade war (Europe hit Harley with a 31 percent tariff in response to Trump's steel tariffs on Europe). Harley won't confirm if jobs are leaving the United States, but the union representing many Harley workers, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, is worried. The Trump administration has argued that these tariffs will save jobs and that the cost to America will be minor. But now there are real job losses. The political pressure on Trump to stop the tariffs (especially on America's allies) is likely to escalate. In Missouri, a state with a close U.S. Senate race, the layoffs are already becoming a hot election issue. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is planning a rally by the nail plant on Friday." ...
... Paul Krugman: "I predict that as the downsides of hard-line trade policy become apparent, we'll see a nasty search by President Trump and company for people to scapegoat. In fact, that search has already started.... First, the administration has no idea what it's doing.... Second, this administration is infested -- I use that word advisedly -- with conspiracy theorists.... A a lot of American jobs -- more than 10 million, according to the Commerce Department -- are supported by exports.... And the damage wouldn't be limited to export industries: More than half of U.S. imports, and 95 percent of the Chinese goods about to face Trump tariffs, are ... things that U.S. producers use to make themselves more efficient.... I predict ... [the administration] will start seeing villains under every bed. It will attribute the downsides of trade conflict ... to George Soros and the deep state." ...
... Krugman points out that Wilbur Ross has already scapegoated "'antisocial' speculators engaged in 'profiteering.'" He doesn't mention that Trump himself has scapegoated Harley-Davidson execs for using E.U. tariffs as an "excuse" to move jobs overseas & are "waving the white flag." It's not his fault; it's theirs. Ingrates!
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
** Trump Team Won't Help Tech Companies Combat Russian Election Meddling. Sheera Frenkel & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Eight of the tech industry's most influential companies, in anticipation of a repeat of the Russian meddling that occurred during the 2016 presidential campaign, met with United States intelligence officials last month to discuss preparations for this year's midterm elections. The meeting, which took place May 23 at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., was also attended by representatives from Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Oath, Snap and Twitter.... The company officials met with Christopher Krebs, an under secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, as well as a representative of the [FBI]'s newly formed 'foreign influence' task force.... The meeting ... was initiated by Facebook.... But the people who attended described a tense atmosphere in which the tech companies repeatedly pressed federal officials for information, only to be told -- repeatedly -- that no specific intelligence would be shared.... One attendee of the meeting said the encounter led the tech companies to believe they would be on their own to counter election interference.... Part of the problem, [U.S.] officials say, is that the White House has expressed little interest in the problem of Russian interference, and that the apathy has had a trickle-down effect." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The only reasonable conclusion one can draw is that Trump is inviting further foreign election interference as he believes -- probably correctly -- that malicious foreigners are likely to help Republicans. This isn't incompetence; it's strategy. And it's treasonous.
Chris Strohm & Shannon Pettypiece of Bloomberg: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller is preparing to accelerate his probe into possible collusion between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russians who sought to interfere in the 2016 election, according to a person familiar with the probe. Mueller and his team of prosecutors and investigators have an eye toward producing conclusions -- and possible indictments -- related to collusion by fall, said the person.... He'll be able to turn his full attention to the issue as he resolves other questions, including deciding soon whether to find that Trump sought to obstruct justice." The reporters list "the players and their known interactions, with links to previous news stories."
James Meek of ABC News: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller is digging deeper into Trump ally and Blackwater founder Erik Prince, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter. Prince, America's most famous private military contractor, acknowledged last week that he 'cooperated' with Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election after falling under scrutiny amid questions about an alleged effort to establish a backchannel between the Trump administration and the Kremlin, something Prince has vehemently denied. ABC News has since learned that Mueller is also reviewing Prince's communications, a sign that Mueller could try to squeeze Prince, as he has others, probing potential inconsistencies in his sworn testimony in an attempt to pressure him to turn into a witness against other targets of the investigation.... In April 2017, the Washington Post reported that Prince, whose sister Betsy DeVos is .... Donald Trump's education secretary, had traveled to the Seychelles in January following Trump's election for a secret meeting with a Russian official with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prince testified before the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in November that he hadn't made the trip ;to meet any Russian guy' and described his meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, the Putin-appointed head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, as a chance encounter 'over a beer.' ABC News reported earlier this year that Mueller has obtained evidence that calls that testimony into question."
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is appealing a judge's decision to jail him over charges that he attempted to tamper with the testimony of two potential witnesses against him. Ten days after U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson revoked Manafort's house arrest and ordered him jailed, his defense attorneys filed an official notice Monday appealing her ruling to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Manafort's defense team also filed another appeal Monday over a decision Jackson issued nearly two months ago tossing out a civil suit Manafort hoped to use to block any further prosecutions of him by special counsel Robert Mueller."
Another Big Deal Comey Screwed up. John Solomon in the Hill: "One of the more devastating intelligence leaks in American history -- the unmasking of the CIA's arsenal of cyber warfare weapons last year — has an untold prelude worthy of a spy novel. Some of the characters are household names...: James Comey, fired FBI director. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Department of Justice (DOJ) official Bruce Ohr. Julian Assange, grand master of WikiLeaks. And American attorney Adam Waldman, who has a Forrest Gump-like penchant for showing up in major cases of intrigue. Each played a role in the early days of the Trump administration to try to get Assange to agree to 'risk mitigation' -- essentially, limiting some classified CIA information he might release in the future. The effort resulted in the drafting of a limited immunity deal that might have temporarily freed the WikiLeaks founder from a London embassy where he has been exiled for years, according to interviews and a trove of internal DOJ documents turned over to Senate investigators. But an unexpected intervention by Comey -- relayed through Warner -- soured the negotiations, multiple sources tell me. Assange eventually unleashed a series of leaks that U.S. officials say damaged their cyber warfare capabilities for a long time to come." Solomon goes into the particulars.
<Andrew Kirell, et al., of the Daily Beast: "David Bossie, the former deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump and current outside adviser to the president, has been suspended from his contributor gig at Fox News, three sources familiar with the situation tell The Daily Beast. The suspension is set to last two weeks. Appearing Sunday on Fox & Friends Weekend," Bossie said to Joel Payne, who is black, "You're out of your cotton-picking mind." Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll have to admit that, having grown up white in the South, I never thought of "you're out of your cotton-picking mind" as a racist remark, & I may have said it myself. If I have, I certainly didn't intend to be making a slur.
Justin Story of the Bowling Green Daily News: "U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Bowling Green has filed a lawsuit against the neighbor who admitted to assaulting him in front of his house. In the civil complaint, filed Friday in Warren Circuit Court, the Republican senator seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages from Rene Boucher for 'physical pain and mental suffering' resulting from Boucher's tackle of Paul as the senator was mowing his yard Nov. 3 in the Rivergreen subdivision in Bowling Green. Paul sustained multiple rib fractures and dealt with recurrent pneumonia in the aftermath of the incident."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday told a lower court to reconsider the case of a florist in Washington State who had refused to create a floral arrangement for a same-sex wedding. The justices vacated a decision against the florist from the Washington Supreme Court and instructed it to take a fresh look at the dispute in light of this month's ruling in a similar dispute involving a Colorado baker. The case, Arlene's Flowers v. State of Washington, No. 17-108, started in 2013, when the florist, Barronelle Stutzman, turned down a request from a longtime customer, Robert Ingersoll, to provide flowers for his wedding to another man, Curt Freed. Ms. Stutzman said her religious principles did not allow her to do so.... The Washington Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Stutzman had violated a state anti-discrimination law by refusing to provide the floral arrangement. The Supreme Court ... decid[ed] the Colorado case on narrow grounds specific to the dispute, saying the baker there had faced religious hostility from members of a state civil rights commission that had ruled against him." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds as if the Supremes are punting again. The narrow grounds in which the Court decided the Colorado case do not apply to the Washington matter, so I don't see how "a fresh look" at the Colorado case will help the Washington State Supremes. It seems as if the Washington Supremes ruled consistent with this part of Kennedy's opinion in the Colorado case: “Our society has come to the recognition that gay persons and gay couples cannot be treated as social outcasts or as inferior in dignity and worth. For that reason the laws and the Constitution can, and in some instances must, protect them in the exercise of their civil rights." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Deciders Decide Not to Decide Another Gerrymandering Case. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Supreme Court on Monday said it is declining, for now, to wade into a dispute over a North Carolina redistricting plan that a lower court had found violated the Constitution by overly favoring Republicans. The justices had already passed up chances to issue sweeping decisions in cases from Wisconsin and Maryland involving claims of partisan gerrymandering. Instead, the high court ruled on narrow, technical grounds that steered clear of the central issue of when legislative districts are so skewed to favor one party that they violate voters' constitutional rights. In January, the justices blocked a lower court's order forcing a redraw of the North Carolina congressional map. Monday’s order returned the case to the lower court for further consideration of a legal standing issue the court addressed in the Wisconsin case." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... ** Update. But This Is Really Bad. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday largely upheld Texas congressional and legislative maps that a lower court said discriminated against black and Hispanic voters. The lower court was wrong in how it considered the challenges, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote in the 5 to 4 decision. The majority sided with the challengers over one legislative district. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent that was longer than Alito’s majority decision. She said the decision 'does great damage to the right of equal opportunity. Not because it denies the existence of that right, but because it refuses its enforcement.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Never Forget. Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "As African American political organizers often say to African American audiences, if voting wasn't important, Republicans wouldn’t work so hard to prevent them from doing it. And while Democrats are asking themselves whether they should avoid being rude to people who work for President Trump, the Republican majority on the Supreme Court just delivered another victory to the broad and deep GOP effort to make sure that American elections are rigged in conservatives' favor.... This is only the latest in a string of cases that have either upheld Republican efforts to rig the electoral system through things like partisan gerrymandering and voter purges, or at the very least delayed deciding on the question while those tactics remain in force. In other words, the Supreme Court is a key component of the GOP election-rigging project.... We must never forget that the court that keeps delivering these 5-to-4 decisions in favor of Republican efforts to rig the electoral system was itself rigged in favor of Republicans." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Waldman mentions several ways Democrats can "correct" the Supremes, but he doesn't say anything about the most obvious, short-term one: install Democratic governors & state legislators. If there be gerrymandering, let that gerrymandering favor Democrats. So in November, vote for your Democratic candidates, even if they're jerks (and you can be assured that some of the Democrats running for state houses are jerks -- it's kinda the nature of the job). ...
... Cristian Farias of New York: "... a 5-to-4 conservative majority on the Supreme Court has chosen to hand down a decision in a contentious racial gerrymandering case from Texas. Even though it didn't have to. Even though a lower court had found that a number of congressional and state legislative maps had been drawn with discriminatory intent, had a racially discriminatory effect, or were unlawful under the Voting Rights Act. Even though last summer the same conservative majority aggressively intervened to prevent any remedial maps from even being considered.... To Justice Samuel Alito and his conservative cohorts on the Supreme Court, the lower court that decided Abbott v. Perez in the first place made 'a fundamental legal error' that needed to be corrected.... Alito [assumed] 'the presumption of legislative good faith,' under which the government is given the benefit of the doubt.... (In a short concurrence written by Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Neil Gorsuch made a bit of news: He endorsed Thomas's extreme, if lonely, view that the Voting Rights Act can't be used to police racially discriminatory redistricting plans. Not even Jeff Sessions's Justice Department, which isn't exactly friendly to civil rights, endorses that view.)"
Adam Liptak: "American Express did not violate the antitrust laws by insisting in its contracts with merchants that they do nothing to encourage patrons to use other cards, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday. The decision has implications not only for what one brief called 'an astronomical number of retail transactions' but also for other kinds of markets, notably ones on the internet, in which services link consumers and businesses. Such 'two-sided platforms,' the court said, require special and seemingly more forgiving antitrust scrutiny. The vote was 5 to 4, with the court's more conservative members in the majority. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, said the specialized nature of credit-card transactions justified what in other circumstances might have been anti-competitive conduct."
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