The Commentariat -- February 15, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Anti-Defamation League: "A spokesperson for the white supremacist group Republic of Florida (ROF) told the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday, February 15, that Nikolas Cruz, the man charged with the previous day’s deadly shooting spree at a Parkland, Florida, high school, was associated with his group.... After self-described ROF members claimed on the discussion forum 4chan that Cruz had also been a member, the Anti-Defamation League called the ROF hotline and spoke with an ROF member who identified himself as Jordan Jereb. Jereb, based in Tallahassee, is believed to be the leader of ROF. " Mrs. McC: Trump's linkage to immigration legislation looks even more stupid now, doesn't it? (See David Nakamura's story, linked below.)
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate on Thursday rejected immigration legislation crafted by centrists in both parties after President Trump threatened to veto the bill if it made it to his desk. In a 54-45 vote, the Senate failed to advance the legislation from eight Republican, seven Democratic and one Independent senators. It needed 60 votes to overcome a procedural hurdle. A few Democrats, including Sens. Kamala Harris (Calif.), Martin Heinrich (N.M.) and Tom Udall (N.M.), withheld their votes until it was clear the measure could not get to 60, and then voted against it. The centrist deal, backed by Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and other Republicans, represented perhaps the best chance to advance legislation in the Senate, but was opposed by Trump and his allies...."
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Thursday called the suspect in the mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., 'mentally disturbed' and vowed to help local jurisdictions tackle mental health issues, but he made no mention of stricter gun control laws. In a televised address at the White House, Trump focused his response on the need for the nation to offer more support for young people who feel isolated a day after Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student who had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, was accused of the rampage that killed 17 people at his former school.... In a tweet earlier Thursday, Trump implored the public to report erratic behavior to authorities as a way to head off such rampages.... The president attached -- or 'threaded' -- his tweet to an unrelated one from two days earlier that dealt with the congressional negotiations on immigration. It was not clear why. 'So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!'... On Wednesday, he offered his 'prayers and condolences' to the families of the victims." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, I know why Trump "threaded" his tweet on immigration to the one on the Florida school shooting. The last name of the alleged shooter is "Cruz." Notice, too, how Trump's tweet seems to blame people acquainted with Cruz to adquately "report" his behavior. Nothing to do with most Americans' being able to purchase semi-automatic weapons. But then, as Akhilleus points out in today's comments, the NRA gave Trump $20MM & dropped another $57MM on other gun-loving' candidates. ...
... Brianna Sacks of BuzzFeed: "Last fall, a Mississippi bail bondsman and frequent YouTube vlogger noticed an alarming comment left on one of his videos. 'I'm going to be a professional school shooter,' said a user named Nikolas Cruz. The YouTuber, 36-year-old Ben Bennight, alerted the FBI, emailing a screenshot of the comment and calling the bureau's Mississippi field office. He also flagged the comment to YouTube, which removed it from the video. Agents with the bureau's Mississippi field office got back to him 'immediately,' Bennight said, and conducted an in-person interview the following day, on Sept. 25. 'They came to my office the next morning and asked me if I knew anything about the person,' Bennight told BuzzFeed News. 'I didn't. They took a copy of the screenshot and that was the last I heard from them.'... Though his name matches the YouTube user flagged in September, FBI officials would not say whether they have confirmed that the account belonged to Cruz.... At a press conference Thursday morning, the FBI confirmed that it had received and looked into a tip about the 'professional school shooter' comment on Bennight's YouTube channel, but could not uncover any details from the account." ...
... Noor Al-Sibai of the Raw Story: "As Republicans begin heaping 'thoughts and prayers' on the families of the 17-plus people killed in Wednesday's deadly shooting at a high school outside Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, [Bess Kalb,] a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live! made sure to note how much each had taken from the National Rifle Association."
Maggie Haberman & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "President Trump's inaugural committee paid nearly $26 million to an event planning firm started by an adviser to the first lady, Melania Trump, while donating $5 million -- less than expected -- to charity, according to tax filings released on Thursday. [The committee's] chairman, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a longtime friend of Mr. Trump, had pledged that the committee would be thrifty with its spending, and would donate leftover funds to charity. But the mandatory tax return it filed with the Internal Revenue Service indicates that the group's charitable donations included only an already publicized $3 million for hurricane relief, plus a total of $1.75 million to groups involved in decorating and maintaining the White House and the vice president's residence."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The rule of thumb for crisis communications in any White House is to get a complete and accurate account of events out quickly, if for no other reason than to keep a negative story from lasting longer than it otherwise might. But President Trump's White House has thrown out the rule book in so many ways. The continuing questions about Rob Porter, the staff secretary who resigned after being accused of abusing two former wives, have provided a case study in how shifting stories can make matters worse.... Critics say the conflicting accounts stem from the top, from a president who has made so many false statements or given so many contradictory versions of the truth in so many instances that even his own advisers cannot trust him." Baker reports on a summary by Ari Fleischer, Dubya's press secretary, of the underlying problems in the Trump administration's scattershot responses to the Porter problem.
Feud of the Old Farts. Elana Schor of Politico: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley hit back hard at Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday after his former Senate colleague launched a pre-emptive strike on his criminal justice bill. The legislation, which Grassley has worked on for more than two years, is expected to win committee approval Thursday. But it faces a tough climb to the Senate floor amid reluctance from GOP leaders and conservative resistance. Sessions, who opposed the reform effort during his time on the Judiciary panel, piled on Wednesday with a letter warning that the bipartisan proposal 'risks putting the very worst criminals back into our communities.'... What Sessions' letter 'doesn't recognize here,' Grassley added, 'and why I'm incensed about it is, look at how hard it was for me to get him through committee in the United States Senate. And look at, when the president was going to fire him, I went to his defense.'"
*****
When a country is not protecting its children, it's lost its soul. -- P.D. Pepe, in today's Comments
Jugal Patel of the New York Times: "When a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults with an assault rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, it ... reverberated across the world. Since then, there have been at least 273 school shootings nationwide. In those incidents, 439 people were shot, 121 of whom were killed." ...
... Casey Templeton of the AP (Feb. 3): "Americans are 10 times more likely to be killed by guns than people in other developed countries, a new study finds. Compared to 22 other high-income nations, the United States' gun-related murder rate is 25 times higher. And, even though the United States' suicide rate is similar to other countries, the nation's gun-related suicide rate is eight times higher than other high-income countries, researchers said." Thanks to Forrest M. for the link. ...
... ** Margaret Hartmann: "Like many of his GOP colleagues, [Sen.] Marco Rubio [Fla.] has repeatedly tweeted that his thoughts are with the latest mass-shooting victims, yet somehow it's never the right time to dig in on the underlying causes. In the past year Democrats have introduced more than 30 pieces of legislation aimed at combatting gun violence, and only four have had GOP sponsors, according to the Washington Post. That isn't to say that Republicans has been inactive on gun-related issues. Since President Trump took office, he and other Republicans have launched several efforts to loosen gun-control laws. There are also a handful of GOP lawmakers who expressed interest in fixing the gaps in existing laws that appeared to play a role in recent mass shootings -- yet so far, nothing has come of those efforts. Here's what Washington has been up to." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: In today's Comments, safari writes that the Republican party is a grave national security threat because of its willingness to allow practically any lunatic or zealot to get his hands on semi-automatic weapons (easily convertible to automatic weapons). I agree with that. But of course the GOP isn't going to finger itself. So I'd be happy, as a fallback measure, to see bills introduced in Congress & state legislatures declaring the National Rifle Association to be a terrorist front organization & a grave national security risk. These bills would go nowhere, but they would at least make a point, absent the possibility of passage of any meaningful gun-control legislation.
** Ed O'Keefe, et al., of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan group of senators reached a deal on immigration Wednesday as President Trump attempted to preemptively undercut the proposal by delivering an ultimatum: Pass my plan or risk a veto. The self-dubbed 'Common Sense Caucus' of bipartisan senators late Wednesday circulated legislation that would fulfill Trump&s calls to grant legal status to 1.8 million immigrants, and would authorize $25 billion for southern border security construction projects over the next decade -- not immediately, as Trump wants. The bill also would curb family-based immigration programs, but not to the extent Trump is seeking and does not end a diversity visa lottery program that he wants eliminated. Word of an agreement came as formal debate on immigration policy has mostly sputtered this week -- a stalemate that has underscored the politically fraught nature of the showdown that is further complicated by GOP leaders' insistence that the Senate act by week's end." ...
... Never Believe Anything Donald Trump Says. Michael Shear & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday called on lawmakers to oppose a series of bipartisan efforts to address immigration and resolve the fate of the so-called 'Dreamers,' demanding fealty to his hard-line approach and increasing the odds of political gridlock as the Senate debates the issue.... While the president's support of [Sen. Chuck Grassley's hard-line] bill is not surprising, his vague promise not to support other bills is notable, as Mr. Trump told lawmakers last month that he would sign any immigration bill that Congress sends him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... DACA Sabotage. Esther Yu Hsi Lee of ThinkProgress: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is giving the Senate the rest of this week only to consider permanent legislation to protect the nearly 800,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers before he moves on to 'other things.'... Allowing three days to debate the lives of millions of immigrants is absurd for a few reasons.... But there's also the issue of McConnell undercutting time by propping up measures that will go nowhere with Democrats." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "In a brief statement to reporters at the White House, Trump said, 'I'm totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. Everyone knows that. And it almost wouldn't even have to be said. So, now you hear it, but you all know.' He declined to answer follow-up questions." Mrs. McC: Okay then, totally opposed, not just opposed. Good for Trump for having the guts to take this controversial position. Jerk. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Darren Samuelsohn, et al., of Politico: "Nine days into the Rob Porter scandal..., Sarah Huckabee Sanders is pushing for senior officials who made the decisions surrounding his security clearance to take over the task of explaining -- and defending -- those decisions to the public.... The issue remained unresolved at the time Wednesday's briefing was canceled, according to the person, and may wind up being decided by ... Donald Trump himself.... After huddling behind closed doors with her colleagues for much of Wednesday morning, Sanders delayed the regular press briefing twice and then canceled it altogether late Wednesday afternoon, citing a school shooting in Florida as the reason. She kept the door to her office closed to reporters." ...
... Leaker-in-Chief. Brad Reed of RawStory: "There have been several leaks out of the White House recently that paint an unflattering portrait of White House chief of staff John Kelly, and the New York Times' Maggie Haberman says that Kelly's allies now believe the leaks are coming from President Donald Trump himself.... Haberman then said morale had sunk to a low point not seen since the president's insistence after Charlottesville that there were 'very fine people' attending a white nationalist rally -- and she said that Kelly's allies think Trump is trying to oust him through leaking dirt to the press." --safari: Trump doesn't have the cojones to fire a General, so he publicly humiliates him instead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The Show Goes on. Lachlan Markay, et al., of the Daily Beast: Trumpland comic actors, some of whom John Kelly fired or sidelined -- like Anthony Scaramucci, Roger Stone, Corey Lewandowski & Chris Christie -- are urging Trump to fire Kelly. ...
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Let me just pause to issue a mea culpa. The Constant Weader & I have repeatedly mocked the Daily Mail ...
... But we have learned over the past week-plus that even a rag like the Daily Mail can perform a vital public service. William Saletan of Slate points out the obvious: the "process" failed (and would have continued to fail) if the women Rob Porter abused had not gone public. "Porter shattered the lives of these women years go. And the process didn't serve them. It served him."
... ** Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "More than 130 political appointees working in the Executive Office of the President did not have permanent security clearances as of November 2017, including the president's daughter [Ivanka Trump], son-in-law [Jared Kushner] and his top legal counsel [Don McGahn], according to internal White House documents obtained by NBC News. Of those appointees working with interim clearances, 47 of them are in positions that report directly to ... Donald Trump. About a quarter of all political appointees in the executive office are working with some form of interim security clearance.... A total of 34 people who started their government service on Jan. 20, 2017, the first day of the Trump presidency, were still on interim clearances in November. Among them are White House counsel Don McGahn, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah.... One of the president's central arguments against his Democratic opponent in the 2016 presidential election was that Hillary Clinton's alleged mishandling of classified information not only disqualified her but was grounds for imprisonment." ...
... Mrs. McC: If a Hillary Clinton administration had an intern with no direct access to secret documents working without a permanent security clearance, we'd be on our fifth Congressional investigation by now. In case you were wondering why the White House counsel wasn't all concerned about top officials' lack of clearance, I guess you can stop wondering now. ...
... Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "A senior official on the National Economic Council resigned on Tuesday after being informed that he would not receive a permanent security clearance, as the White House faces increasing scrutiny over the number of high-ranking officials allowed to work on interim clearances. George David Banks, who had served since February 2017 as special assistant to the president for international energy and environmental policy, told Politico that he was informed by the White House counsel's office Tuesday that his application for a permanent clearance would not be granted over his past marijuana use.... Banks said he was told that his clearance would not be granted because he admitted to smoking marijuana in 2013." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Once again, this story doesn't make sense. Having smoked dope in 2013 would not create a security risk. Lying about it -- that's something else. As Restuccia notes, "A former Obama administration official who worked on personnel and vetting issues said the Obama White House usually only denied clearances when there was both past drug use and a lack of full disclosure." ...
... The Washington Post story on Banks' resignation, by Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis, is here. A photo of Banks accompanies the article. Mrs. McC: Sorry, but he looks in-sane.
Twisting Slowly, Slowly in the Wind. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "Trump's public search for his next chief has left [John] Kelly isolated and damaged by the drumbeat of leaks. Trump seems to be doing anything he can to needle Kelly.... One reason why Kelly still has a job is simply that it's been so difficult for Trump to find a qualified person who actually wants to be chief of staff." ...
... Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: White House counsel Don McGahn's lot is not a happy one. "From the start..., McGahn found himself in the thick of virtually every White House controversy.... McGahn's central role in such controversies, and his failure to shape events to the president's wishes, have led to ongoing tensions with Trump and left him increasingly isolated in the West Wing.... Particularly in the early months of the administration..., the two men would have 'spectacular' fights, according to a person who witnessed some of them."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "In interviews with [Chris Whipple, the author of a book about presidential chiefs-of-staff, Reince] Priebus gave the first extended description of his tumultuous six months as Mr. Trump's top aide.... Mr. Priebus struggled as none of his predecessors had before. However arduous his tenure looked from the outside, he said it was even more so on the inside.... Vanity Fair posted an excerpt from the new chapter on Wednesday."
Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Wednesday that the panel had seen an 'abundance' of evidence of collusion with Russia and obstruction by Donald Trump's campaign and administration that is not yet public. Speaking to reporters in Washington, Schiff said a lot of information was already in the public domain that pointed to extensive contacts between the Trump campaign team and the Kremlin, and later efforts by the Trump entourage to cover up those contacts. But Schiff said there was much more to come out.... Schiff, from California, added on Wednesday that the intelligence committee had also seen evidence pointing towards money laundering involving Trump's circle, but had been hindered by the partisan deadlock that has paralysed its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election." ...
... Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The House Intelligence Committee is preparing for a showdown with former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon that members call a moment of truth for Congress if it wants to maintain any authority to scrutinize the Trump administration. Panel lawmakers are urging leaders to issue a contempt citation for Bannon if he refuses to answer their questions during an interview expected Thursday -- their second attempt to compel Bannon's testimony in recent weeks. Lawmakers subpoenaed him last month when he declined to address subjects related to their probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Bannon has successfully delayed several attempts to reschedule the interview while his lawyers coordinate with the administration, and according to members of the committee, he still maintains he will not answer questions about his time on Trump's transition team or in the White House." ...
... Micah Lee & Cora Currier of the Intercept: "... in the fall of 2015..., [Julian] Assange [of WikiLeaks] spoke freely about why WikiLeaks wanted [Hillary] Clinton and the Democrats to lose the [2016] election. 'We believe it would be much better for GOP to win,' he typed into a private Twitter direct message group to an assortment of WikiLeaks' most loyal supporters on Twitter.... Assange's thinking appeared to be rooted not in ideological agreement with the right wing in the U.S., but in the tactical idea that a Republican president would face more resistance to an aggressive military posture than an interventionist President Hillary Clinton would.... Twitter messages obtained by The Intercept provide an unfiltered window into WikiLeaks' political goals before it dove into the white-hot center of the presidential election. The messages also reveal a running theme of sexism and misogyny, contain hints of anti-Semitism, and underline Assange's well-documented obsession with his public image." ...
... New York Times Editors: "... why is Mr. Trump still ignoring [the conclusions of the nation's top intelligence officials that Russia continues to compromise U.S. elections]? Some have said he is giving Russia a green light to tamper with the 2018 elections. That would have once been an absurd suggestion. It can no longer be dismissed out of hand." ...
... The Vichy Party. Frank Rich: "The most important moment at this week's Senate hearings came when FBI director Wray conceded under questioning that the president had issued no orders to his agency to fight back against the Russian attack on the integrity of American elections. Quite the contrary. Trump has repeatedly denied that the Russians are up to anything, choosing to believe Vladimir Putin's denials over the findings conveyed by his own appointees, whether Wray or the director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats. And so ... the collusion is continuing in 2018 right before our eyes. You'd have to be blind not to connect these dots. Or a bootlicker. Republicans on Capitol Hill pretend not to notice and do nothing to counter a threat to the very existential core of our democracy. Historians will look back at their willful ignorance just as they now do on their predecessors in Vichy France."
Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Trump's military parade would cost between $10 million and $30 million, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on Wednesday. Mulvaney offered the estimate during questioning at the House Budget Committee. He said the White House hasn't yet budgeted for the parade and would either rely on Congress to appropriate funds, or use money that already has been approved." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The President & the Porn Star, Ctd.
Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "A Hollywood tabloid is reporting that Stormy Daniels thinks that she is free to speak since Michael Cohen acknowledged that she was paid by him to keep her mouth shut about an alleged affair with ... Donald Trump.... Gina Rodriguez, a manager for Daniels, confirmed to The Associated Press that she believes Trump's lawyer invalidated the non-disclosure agreement. Sources told The Blast that Daniels' legal team notified Trump's legal team, including Cohen, that they are in violation of the 2016 agreement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Maggie Haberman & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The admission by President Trump's longtime personal lawyer [Michael Cohen] that he sent $130,000 to a pornographic film actress, who once claimed to have had an affair with Mr. Trump, has raised potential legal questions ranging from breach of contract to ethics violations.... Mr. Cohen's assertions left many questions unanswered, including whether the payment was truly a personal gift by him or whether he was reimbursed by some other party, like Mr. Trump or an associate of Mr. Trump."
Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Americans' dissatisfaction with the quality of the environment is at an all-time high, Gallup reported Monday.... It's also the first time more than half of Americans were dissatisfied.... At the same time, however, Republicans' satisfaction with the quality of the nation's environment jumped 5 points to a remarkable 69 percent over the past year. That's quite remarkable given that Trump's own EPA released a study last fall concluding that simply undoing the Obama-era rule aimed at cutting carbon pollution could kill 100,000 Americans by 2050." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jenny Rowland of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump's budget released Monday recommends extreme staffing cuts of nearly 2,000 National Park Service rangers at a time when national park visitation is at an all-time high.... In 2016, the national parks received record visitation rates of nearly 331 million visits. Cuts to park staff could lead to a reduction in services to the public, closed facilities, and heavier workloads for remaining staff." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
They're All Crooked. Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin's chief of staff doctored an email and made false statements to create a pretext for taxpayers to cover expenses for the secretary's wife on a 10-day trip to Europe last summer, the agency's inspector general has found. Vivieca Wright Simpson, VA's third-most-senior official, altered language in an email from an aide coordinating the trip to make it appear that Shulkin was receiving an award from the Danish government, then used the award to justify paying for his wife's travel, Inspector General Michael J. Missal said in a report released Wednesday. VA paid more than $4,300 for her airfare. The account of how the government paid travel expenses for the secretary's wife is one finding in an unsparing investigation that concluded that Shulkin and his staff misled agency ethics officials and the public about key details of the trip. Shulkin also improperly accepted a gift of sought-after tickets to a Wimbledon tennis match, the investigation found, and directed an aide coordinating the trip to act as what the report called a 'personal travel concierge' to him and his wife.... Shulkin ... is the administration's lone holdover from the Obama administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Donovan Slack of USA Today: "Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said he regrets mistakes he and others made during travel planning and ethics clearance processes that led to findings by the VA inspector general that he had misused taxpayer resources during a European trip last year."
They're All Crooked, Ctd. Caught Cheating Taxpayers, EPA Clams up. Eric Wolff, et al., of Politico: "EPA on Wednesday retracted its claim that Administrator Scott Pruitt has received a 'blanket waiver' to fly first class whenever he travels, after Politico pointed officials to federal travel rules that appeared to bar such arrangements. Pruitt has been routinely flying first class at taxpayers' expense after securing what EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox had described as 'blanket waiver,' Politico reported Tuesday. But the General Services Administration says federal rules require agencies' oversight staffers to sign off on officials' first- or business-class travel 'on a trip-by-trip basis ... unless the traveler has an up-to-date documented disability or special need.'... The EPA spokesman said anyone seeking additional details about Pruitt's travels would have to formally request them under the Freedom of Information Act, a process that can take months or years." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I get that Pruitt would prefer to travel in style; so would I. The solution is simple: Pruitt can personally pay for the difference between the ticket he's traveling on & the price of a coach ticket. He'd have to do the same for any of his security detail who are traveling along side him. He should reimburse us now for past upgraded travel. However, if he prefers to get a disability waiver, I'll bet we can find a doctor to certify that he has a profound & incurable asshole problem. ...
... David Eggert of the AP gets to the bottom of those "security reasons": "The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has broken months of silence about his frequent premium-class flights at taxpayer expense, saying he needs to fly first class because of unpleasant interactions with other travelers." Mrs. McC: Ergo, we must conclude that passengers in first class are much less "unpleasant" than are the riffraff shoehorned into coach. My sincere compliments to the riffraff. Some might call them taxpayers. ...
... All the Best People, Ctd. Charles Pierce: "There are two running gags within this administration* that are never going to stop being apropos. (How funny they are depends on how dark your sense of comedy is.) The first is the periodic arrival of Infrastructure Week, which invariably occasions something weird happening that has nothing to do with infrastructure. And the second can be fairly well summed up in the phrase .. all the best people! Throughout the campaign, the president* said over and over that he would staff his administration* with nothing but the best people because he knew all the best people and they were fairly slavering to help him снова сделай америку ... her ... Make America Great Again. This was crazy talk when you looked at the grifters and bedbugs with whom he staffed his campaign, but some people apparently bought it and, given the available evidence, those people would have been better off doing masonry work at the Trump Taj in Atlantic City."
Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "Last April, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, led the charge for his agency to approve rules allowing television broadcasters to greatly increase the number of stations they own. A few weeks later, Sinclair Broadcasting announced a blockbuster $3.9 billion deal to buy Tribune Media -- a deal those new rules made possible. By the end of the year, in a previously undisclosed move, the top internal watchdog for the F.C.C. opened an investigation into whether Mr. Pai and his aides had improperly pushed for the rule changes and whether they had timed them to benefit Sinclair, according to Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey and two congressional aides.... The inquiry puts a spotlight on Mr. Pai's decisions and whether there had been coordination with the company. It may also force him to answer questions that he has so far avoided addressing in public. The inquiry could also add ammunition to arguments against the Sinclair-Tribune deal. Public interest groups and Democratic lawmakers, including Mr. Pallone, are strongly opposed to the deal, arguing that it would reduce the number of voices in media and diminish coverage of local news."
Sasha Abramsky of the New Yorker takes a cleaver to the excellent Trumpbox plan for the hungry. "How, exactly, will this Administration -- which recently contracted with a desperately inept company to deliver millions of pre-made meals to Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria, only to withdraw the contract after almost none of the meals were delivered -- actually get these boxes of food to millions of households? Or to recipients who move frequently, or end up temporarily homeless? What if the food is stolen or delayed? How will the box cater to the dietary needs and allergies of all the recipients? Or children's finicky eating habits? Or simply to the fact that adults like to be treated like adults, which means having an element of choice -- one might even say of personal responsibility -- when making economic decisions, such as the ones bound up in grocery shopping?"
Casey Quilan of ThinkProgress: "This week, Congress is expected to vote on a bill that would significantly weaken the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act and let businesses off the hook for failing to provide accommodations for accessibility. The ADA Education and Reform Act was introduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), and was recently adopted in the House Judiciary Committee.... If the bill passes, it would affect 22 percent of Americans who have a disability, 13 percent of which experience mobility issues, such as walking or climbing stairs, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The share of people with disabilities is higher among women and people of color." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)
Cristiano Lima & Lauren Dezenski of Politico: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren reaffirmed her claims of Native American heritage during an address to community leaders on Wednesday, pushing back against ... Donald Trump's attacks on her ethnicity in the most expansive explanation yet about a controversy that has dogged her since her 2012 election campaign. In a surprise visit to the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, the Massachusetts Democrat responded to those who have accused her of misleading voters about her ethnic background, according to prepared remarks of the address.... Questions surrounding Warren's claims to Native American heritage ... have circulated since her first Senate bid. She had listed herself as a minority in a legal directory published by the Association of American Law schools from 1986 to 1995, and both Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania listed Warren as a Native American in federal forms filed by the law schools while she worked there. Trump has repeatedly derided Warren, who says her family is part Cherokee, as 'Pocahontas.' During a White House event to honor Native Americans at the White House in November, the president revived the derogatory nickname." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Senate Race
Courtney Tanner of the Salt Lake Tribune: "The Utah Republican Party chairman blasted Mitt Romney's anticipated Senate run, hitting him for 'essentially doing what Hillary Clinton did in New York' -- campaigning in a state he hasn't spent much time in. 'I think he's keeping out candidates that I think would be a better fit for Utah because, let's face it, Mitt Romney doesn't live here, his kids weren't born here, he doesn't shop here,' Rob Anderson told The Salt Lake Tribune in an interview. It's highly unusual for a party chairman to criticize a potential candidate. And Anderson's comments came in the run-up to Romney's expected announcement Thursday morning. He has since postponed that, citing 'respect for the victims and their families' after a deadly school shooting in Florida."
Trumpism Gone Wild. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Rather than simply fighting judicial rulings, elected officials in some states across the country -- largely Republicans, but Democrats as well -- are increasingly seeking to punish or restrain judges who hand down unfavorable decisions, accusing them of making law instead of interpreting it. Civil liberties advocates and other critics have a different take: The real law-flouting, they say, is by politicians who want to punish justices whose decisions offend their own ideological leanings.... Political attempts to reshape or constrain state courts have risen sharply in the last 10 years, [Bill Raftery, a senior analyst at the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va.,] said, propelled by polarization and a fading of the civics-book notion of governmental checks and balances.... 'This is Trumpism at the lower level,' said Bernard Grofman, an elections expert at the University of California.... 'This is the view that if independent branches of government say things that don't match what you say or do, you fire them; you impeach them; you malign them; you destroy them as best you can.'"
Beyond the Beltway
Elections Matter. David Dayen of The Intercept: "Dominion Energy, the utility monopoly in Virginia, suffered a rare loss on the floor of the state House of Delegates late Monday night, when their ability to double-charge ratepayers for infrastructure improvements was stripped out of a controversial bill.... The move is a major victory for Virginia's large freshman class of Democratic legislators, many of whom campaigned against Dominion in their races and refused to take campaign contributions from them. It's an act of defiance against the state's most powerful corporate donor, as well as the Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, who endorsed the overall bill." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Norimitsu Onishi of the New York Times: "President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, a master tactician who survived a string of corruption scandals and harsh court judgments during his nearly nine-year presidency, agreed on Wednesday night to step down, repudiated by the governing African National Congress Party, threatened by a no-confidence vote in Parliament, cornered by opposition parties and abandoned by millions of voters. In an address to the nation Wednesday night, Mr. Zuma said he was resigning even though he disagreed with the party's decision ordering him to do so."
Juan Cole: "Are there parallels between Netanyahu's situation and Trump’s? Both came to power in part through the backing of billionaires and their fake news organs such as Fox Cable News for Trump and Yisrael Ha-Yom for Netanyahu. Both men are being investigated for corruption. Both have responded by denigrating law enforcement. Netanyahu attacked the police, Trump the FBI. Both have tried to normalize corruption. Netanyahu dismissed the hundreds of thousands of dollars he received as a few gifts among friends. Trump asks his audience if they don't want him to make money for his businesses. And in the case of both men, if they are removed from office for corruption, they will be succeeded by political figures even farther to their right and more dangerous to the world." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mrs. McCrabbie: The three -- Zuma, Netanyahu & Trump -- all deserve suites (cell + slop bucket) at the Trump Club Cuba at Guantanamo.
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