The Commentariat -- December 10, 2017

** John Hudson of BuzzFeed: "The Trump administration has rejected a sweeping Russian proposal seeking a mutual ban on foreign political interference, three senior US administration officials tell BuzzFeed News. Russia first broached the subject in July, when one of Vladimir Putin's top diplomats arrived in Washington with a sheet of proposals aimed at addressing a top concern of the US government: A resurgence of Russian meddling in the 2018 elections.... Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov ... [proposed] a sweeping noninterference agreement between Moscow and Washington that would prohibit both governments from meddling in the other's domestic politics. After examining the proposal, which has not previously been reported, US officials told Moscow there would be no deal.... When asked if the president weighed in on the proposal, a spokesman for the National Security Council said only that the White House and State Department 'coordinated closely on the United States' response.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: While it's reasonable to be skeptical that Russia would honor an agreement, I'd guess is the real motivation for rejecting an accord is that Trump. et al., of miscreants welcome Russian interference, just as they did in 2016.

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "Despite all his bluster, [Donald Trump] views himself less as a titan dominating the world stage than a maligned outsider engaged in a struggle to be taken seriously, according to interviews with 60 advisers, associates, friends and members of Congress.... For Mr. Trump, every day is an hour-by-hour battle for self-preservation.... Before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals. People close to him estimate that Mr. Trump spends at least four hours a day, and sometimes as much as twice that, in front of a television, sometimes with the volume muted, marinating in the no-holds-barred wars of cable news and eager to fire back.... To an extent that would stun outsiders, Mr. Trump, the most talked-about human on the planet, is still delighted when he sees his name in the headlines.... [An advisor said] Mr. Trump expected being president would be ... ruling by fiat, exacting tribute and cutting back room deals.... Advisers said they saw a novice who was gradually learning that the presidency does not work that way." ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Even if Trump were a more normal human being, he wouldn't have time to be president. When he isn't watching the teevee eight hours a day or playing golf nearly every weekend, he's tuned in to Twitter. ...

... Emily Yahr of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Saturday evening issued a call for a reporter with The Washington Post to be fired because of a quickly deleted tweet that presented a misleading impression of Trump's rally crowd in Florida. The Post reporter, David Weigel, had earlier tweeted a photo of the crowd gathered at Pensacola Bay Center for Trump's speech there Friday evening, showing numerous empty seats. He removed the tweet after being told by others that the photo was taken before the venue filled up and apologized in a later Twitter exchange with the president. Trump's public response: '.@daveweigel of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on T.V.). FAKE NEWS, he should be fired.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Lets' bear in mind this is the same Donald Trump who tweets out somewhere around a lie a day and never apologizes. Reporters, like all of us, especially in the Twitter era, are going to make mistakes. Since Trump constantly denigrates President Obama & regularly compares himself favorably to Obama, we probably should ask ourselves in many situations, What Would Obama Do? WWOD? It's pretty damned clear that Obama would not make any public response to an inaccurate tweet, tho since this tweet came from a WashPo reporter, he might reasonably ask an aide to privately correct Weigel. I don't think even Nixon was as petty, cruel & vindictive as the Sick Joke who lives in the White House now.

Josh Dawsey & Ashley Cusick of the Washington Post: "President Trump spent about 30 minutes inside Mississippi's glimmering civil rights museum Saturday, strolling through exhibits honoring jailed and assassinated leaders before delivering a brief speech at a private ceremony. The president's visit to commemorate the opening -- the capstone of Mississippi's bicentennial celebration -- brought protests and boycotts, and evoked raw emotions in the center of the Deep South, the core of the generations-long civil rights movement. Trump delivered his speech to a largely white audience, and his motorcade left before the main opening ceremony -- for which hordes of people had gathered in freezing temperatures and a rare snowfall. Tickets had been sold out for months."

AP: "Former President Barack Obama says Americans must be vigilant in their defense of democracy or risk following the path of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.... During [a] speech Tuesday, Obama pointed to Hitler's rise to power in Germany as he implored the audience to 'pay attention ... and vote.' Obama also defended the media. He said the press 'often drove me nuts' but that he understood that a free press was vital to democracy."

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "A uranium company launched a concerted lobbying campaign to scale back Bears Ears National Monument, saying such action would give it easier access to the area's uranium deposits and help it operate a nearby processing mill, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and top Utah Republicans have said repeatedly that questions of mining or drilling played no role in President Trump's announcement Monday that he was cutting the site by more than 1.1 million acres, or 85 percent. Trump also signed a proclamation nearly halving the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which is also in southern Utah and has significant coal deposits.... More than 500 uranium mines have been left near or on [Navajo Nation] lands, and most of these designated Superfund sites have not been cleaned up. Contamination still affects drinking-water wells, springs and storage tanks." ...

... Julia Manchester of the Hill: "California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) says President Trump's stance on climate change demonstrates that he does not appear to fear the 'wrath of God' or have any regard for the 'existential consequences' of his environmental policies. 'I don't think President Trump has a fear of the Lord, the fear of the wrath of God, which leads one to more humility ... this is such a reckless disregard for the truth and for the existential consequences that can be unleashed,' Brown said in an interview on CBS's '60 Minutes,' which is set to air on Sunday. Brown, who studied to become a Jesuit priest prior to entering politics, has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration."

Sarah Jones of the New Republic: "... the Donald Trump era has been clarifying in so many respects, not least in showing that the Republican Party, in league with the upper classes, is engaged in an all-out class war against the working and middle classes. In every area of policy -- tax, environment, health, energy, even the management of the nation's national parks -- we have seen a sustained disdain for common people and an allegiance to the rich. It is class war, and they're winning.... There will be other bills, other policies; there will be more deaths, just to satisfy the wealthy. All wars have body counts, and class war is the same." Mrs. McC: This is a longish piece & well-worth reading as a reminder of the scope of the GOP's sustained, multi-pronged attack on ordinary Americans. ...

... Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "The GOP tax plan on the cusp of becoming law diverges wildly from the promises President Trump and top advisers said they would deliver for the middle class -- an evolution that shows how traditional Republican orthodoxy swamped Trump's distinctive brand of economic populism as it moved through Washington. The bill was supposed to deliver benefits predominantly to average working families, not corporations, with a 35 percent tax cut Trump proposed on the campaign trail as part of the 'Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act.' 'The largest tax reductions are for the middle class, who have been forgotten,' Trump said in Gettysburg, Pa., on Oct. 22, 2016... [But] Trump and his top advisers have continuously prioritized corporate cuts -- even though they have promised that middle-class cuts would be their focus.... The final product is ... the result of a partisan policymaking process that largely took place behind closed doors, faced intense pressure from corporate lobbyists and ultimately fell in line with GOP wish lists.... The tax plan ... amounts to a massive corporate tax cut, with uneven -- and temporary -- benefits for the middle class that could end up increasing taxes for many working families in future years."

** The Enemy Within. Dana Milbank: "This year some of us marked Pearl Harbor Day by attacking America from within. For five hours on Thursday, President Trump's partisans delivered a reckless and sustained attack on the FBI and the special counsel. They amplified Trump's claim that the FBI's 'reputation is in Tatters -- worst in History' and that Robert S. Mueller III's Russia probe, which has already secured guilty pleas from two Trump campaign officials and the indictments of two more, is part of a system that is 'rigged,' 'phony,' 'dishonest' and using a 'double standard.'... Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee launched an all-out assault on the special counsel and the FBI -- choosing to protect Trump at the cost of Americans' faith in the justice system and the rule of law." See also Jonathan Chait's commentary, linked yesterday.

Senate Race

A digital billboard on the side of a truck, across the street from Trump's rally tonight in Pensacola, FL pic.twitter.com/6BaDOAf90o

---Henry J. Gomez (@HenryJGomez) December 8, 2017

... Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "A digital billboard was roaming around Pensacola, Fla., as President Trump held a rally there and urged residents in nearby Alabama to vote for embattled Republican candidate Roy Moore in the Senate race. The billboard, displayed on the side of a moving truck Friday, reminded people of what Ivanka Trump ... had previously said about Moore amid accusations of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls.... The billboard appears to be the work of the liberal group American Bridge.... The group seemed to double down on the trolling by blasting the comments over a loud speaker outside the rally." ...

... Brian Lyman of the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser: "In the last few days before the Dec. 12 election for Alabama's junior U.S. Senate seat, the Republican candidate [Roy Moore] has all but vanished from the public, continuing a pattern of absence that took hold after allegations of abuse, assault, harassment and misconduct with nine women surfaced against Moore in early November.... Although Friday's winter weather scrambled both campaigns' plans, Moore's absence from the trail is a notable contrast to Democratic nominee Doug Jones, whose campaign said Saturday he had done 217 public events over two months, and who has done almost daily appearances in the campaign's last weeks." ...

... Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Donald Trump has agreed to record a robocall for Alabama Republican Roy Moore ahead of next week's special election, the president's most direct involvement in Alabama on behalf of the embattled candidate to date.... Trump's involvement in the race has infuriated senior Republicans, many of whom have withdrawn their support for Moore in light of the accusations against him." ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Caroline Orr of Shareblue: "Fox News host and Trump cheerleader Laura Ingraham is concerned about the growing number of women who are coming forward to report incidents of sexual assault and harassment.... She's worried that they might ruin office Christmas parties this year. 'Is the #MeToo movement becoming a spoiler for this season's Christmas parties?' Ingraham asked Friday evening during a segment on Fox News' The Ingraham Angle. Speaking with comedian Jimmy Failla, Ingraham said she was worried that women who feel empowered to report sexual misconduct might ruin the holiday season by making office Christmas parties less festive. 'I can see this year it might be -- a little less festive, let's say that. No alcohol and no fun and no lampshades and, I don't know, maybe that's better,' she said. 'Is this just killing all the fun of Christmas?' she wondered absurdly." ...

(If there were a "real Jesus," he would have looked kinda like this. White? Well, darkish white.)     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: What's the fun of finally being able to say "Merry Christmas" again if the boss is afraid to boff the help in the broom closet? "Joy to the world, the Lord has come" -- Ruined! I miss the good old days when Megyn Kelly was a Fox "News" "reporting" that Jesus & Santa Claus were definitely white guys.

Beyond the Beltway

Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post: "After the officer involved was acquitted of second-degree murder charges, officials in Arizona publicly released graphic video showing Daniel Shaver crawling on his hands and knees and begging for his life in the moments before he was shot and killed by police in January 2016. Shaver died in one of at least 963 fatal police shootings in 2016, according to a Washington Post database. And his death was one of an increasing number of such shootings to prompt criminal charges in the years since the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Mo. following the death of Michael Brown. Yet charges remain rare, and convictions even more so. The shooting, by Philip 'Mitch' Brailsford, then an officer with the Mesa Police Department, occurred after officers responded to a call about a man allegedly pointing a rifle out of a fifth-floor window at a La Quinta Inn. Inside the room, Shaver, 26, had been doing rum shots with a woman he had met earlier that day and showing off a pellet gun he used in his job in pest control." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Commentariat -- December 9, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post: "After the officer involved was acquitted of second-degree murder charges, officials in Arizona publicly released graphic video showing Daniel Shaver crawling on his hands and knees and begging for his life in the moments before he was shot and killed by police in January 2016. Shaver died in one of at least 963 fatal police shootings in 2016, according to a Washington Post database. And his death was one of an increasing number of such shootings to prompt criminal charges in the years since the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Mo. following the death of Michael Brown. Yet charges remain rare, and convictions even more so. The shooting, by Philip 'Mitch' Brailsford, then an officer with the Mesa Police Department, occurred after officers responded to a call about a man allegedly pointing a rifle out of a fifth-floor window at a La Quinta Inn. Inside the room, Shaver, 26, had been doing rum shots with a woman he had met earlier that day and showing off a pellet gun he used in his job in pest control." ...

     ... See related story under Beyond the Beltway.

*****

Adam Goldman & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "F.B.I. officials warned one of President Trump's top advisers, Hope Hicks, earlier this year about repeated attempts by Russian operatives to make contact with her during the presidential transition, according to people familiar with the events. The Russian outreach efforts show that, even after American intelligence agencies publicly accused Moscow of trying to influence the outcome of last year's presidential election, Russian operatives were undaunted in their efforts to establish contacts with Mr. Trump's advisers. There is no evidence that Ms. Hicks did anything improper.... After he took office, senior F.B.I. counterintelligence agents met with Ms. Hicks in the White House Situation Room at least twice, gave her the names of the Russians who had contacted her, and said that they were not who they claimed to be.... Ms. Hicks informed Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, about the meetings.... On Thursday and Friday, investigators working for Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, interviewed Ms. Hicks as part of his investigation into Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election and whether any of Mr. Trump's advisers assisted the Russian campaign." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So Russian spies are trying to infiltrate the White House via a top presidential aide, the White House counsel knows about it, but Trump believes Putin??? ...

... Unreliable Sources. Joe Concha of the Hill: "CNN has issued a correction to a Friday morning exclusive about documents that Donald Trump Jr. received from WikiLeaks.... The new reports said Trump Jr. and other campaign officials had received an email pointing them to the WikiLeaks documents on the afternoon of Sept. 14 -- after they had already been made public. The original CNN report said Trump Jr. had received the email on Sept. 4, before WikiLeaks had made the documents public.... CNN said its original story had been based on two sources who had seen the email." The original CNN story was linked here yesterday...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Federal prosecutors' investigation into Paul Manafort's financial dealings was enormous in scope, with FBI agents executing at least 15 search warrants and assembling a trove of hundreds of thousands of records related to the case, according to details in a new court filing. Lawyers from special counsel Robert Mueller's office publicly outlined the scale of the probe on Friday as they informed a federal judge about efforts to turn over evidence to Manafort ... and his business partner, Rick Gates, who were both indicted in October on charges that included money laundering and failing to register as foreign lobbyists for Ukraine." ...

...Jonathan Chait of New York: "It is almost a maxim of the Trump era that the bounds of the unthinkable continuously shrink." Republicans have been able to rationalize Donald Trump's "Access Hollywood" tape, Roy Moore's extreme views & alleged sexual assault on underaged girls, & now "the next step in the sequence is almost insultingly obvious. Trump is preparing to shut down Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian intervention in the 2016 election..." --safari...

... ** Contempt of Congress. The Most Arrogant Little Prince Evah. Charles Pierce reads the transcript of Erik Prince's Congressional testimony. You will want to read his takeaways.

In response to Congressmen Lewis and Thompson skipping the civil rights museum opening in MS:We think it's unfortunate that these members of Congress wouldn't join the President in honoring the incredible sacrifice civil rights leaders made to right the injustices in our history. The President hopes others will join him in recognizing that the movement was about removing barriers and unifying Americans of all backgrounds. -- Sarah Sanders, in a statement Thursday

Sanders was upset that 'these members of Congress' weren't going to honor the 'incredible sacrifice' of 'civil rights leaders.' Does she know that one of 'these members of Congress' was one of her aforementioned 'civil rights leaders?' -- Nicole Karlis of Salon, Friday

No, Nicole, probably not. Besides being duplicitous, mendacious, petty & generally nasty, Mrs. Huckleberry is remarkably ignorant. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Frances Robles, et al., of the New York Times: "A review by The New York Times of daily mortality data from Puerto Rico's vital statistics bureau indicates a significantly higher death toll after [Hurricane Maria] than the government there has acknowledged. The Times's analysis found that in the 42 days after Hurricane Maria made landfall on Sept. 20 as a Category 4 storm, 1,052 more people than usual died across the island. Officially, just 62 people died as a result of the storm.... On Oct. 3, nearly two weeks after the storm, Mr. Trump visited the island and praised the low official death toll. He referred to the 1,833 deaths in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina as a 'real catastrophe.' 'Sixteen people certified,' Mr. Trump said. 'Sixteen people versus in the thousands. You can be very proud of all of your people and all of our people working together.' By that visit, an additional 556 people had died in Puerto Rico compared with the same period over the two prior years."

You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful '' I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.... Grab 'em by the pussy. -- Donald Trump, "Access Hollywood" tape, 2005

This was locker room talk.... Nobody has more respect for women than I do. -- Donald Trump, debate, October 9, 2016 ...

... Cristiano Lima of Politico: "A former Fox News anchor said Friday that ... Donald Trump tried to kiss her after a lunch visit to Trump Tower in 2005. Juliet Huddy, a current radio host in New York City and a former news anchor on Fox News, said she rebuffed an overture from the real-estate mogul after the two met at his luxury Manhattan high-rise. The incident ... allegedly occurred near the time he married first lady Melania Trump. 'He took me for lunch at Trump Tower, just us two. He said goodbye to me in an elevator while his security guy was there, rather than kiss me on the cheek he leaned in to kiss me on the lips....'" she said.... Huddy, who settled claims of sexual harassment against former Fox News star Bill O'Reilly, said Trump later joked about an exchange when he appeared on her daytime talk show. 'I hit on her but she blew me off,' Trump reportedly said."

** "Welfare Reform." John Cassidy of the New Yorker: Paul Ryan said Wednesday "'We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit.'... Programs like Medicare and Medicaid 'are the big drivers of debt, so we spend more time on the health-care entitlements, because that's really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking.'... In a speech last week, the President talked about moving onto 'welfare reform' -- seemingly oblivious to the fact that Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress dismantled the primary welfare programs back in the late nineteen-nineties. About the only big federal means-tested programs left are Medicaid and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Evidently, these will be on the Republican hit list, even though the primary populations they serve are the sick, the elderly, and children.... Ryan's remarks illustrate why he and other Republican leaders have refused to break with Trump despite his frequent outrages...." Cassidy does an excellent job of explaining the callous compact between a greedy, corrupt president & an equally greedy, corrupt Congress...

...Thanks Supremes! Andy Kroll of Mother Jones: "Very few Americans want or even understand the sweeping tax bill Republicans are right now conspiring to ram through Congress.... Yet Republican leaders in Washington show no sign of slowing down.... What explains the Republican Party's reckless rush to pass this bill? It boils down to two words: Citizens United...When I say that Citizens United explains the GOP's tax-bill frenzy, I really mean the big-money political climate that Citizens United helped create and, broadly speaking, embodies." --safari...

...Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "Richard Waters and Tom Braithwaite at the Financial Times ran the numbers yesterday and found that the Republican tax plan's largest single winner is going to be Apple, which stands to reap a windfall of about $47 billion. For a sense of scale, that would cover four years' worth of the federal tab for the Children's Health Insurance Program which provides coverage to 9 million kids but is currently on hiatus since congressional Republicans say they can't find the money." --safari

Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "The degree to which the Trump administration has pushed to reverse regulations on the oil, gas, and coal sectors has shocked even the most optimistic in the industry, according to a new report issued by the Center for Western Priorities...Along with gutting important regulations, the Trump administration has filled key positions inside the Department of the Interior with fossil-fuel industry players.... The report, released Thursday, cites Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas trade association. Sgamma remarked a few months ago: 'Not in our wildest dreams, never did we expect to get everything. We were kind of used to getting punished.'" --safari

E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "The Department of Justice is moving to investigate Planned Parenthood's transfer of fetal tissue, continuing the fall-out from discredited sting videos released two years ago by an anti-abortion group. On Thursday, the Justice Department reportedly asked Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) for documents relating to a Senate committee's report on Planned Parenthood's fetal tissue practices.... The request seems set to re-open a controversy surrounding the use of fetal tissue, as well as Planned Parenthood more generally.... The decision is further proof that sting videos hold significant power and sway. While the Judiciary Committee's finding were not based on the CMP videos, their release prompted the report." --safari: Perfect timing to gin up some froth of the Evangelists for 2018. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: While the link may be more philosophical for most confederates, there's a direct link between the DOJ's attack on Planned Parenthood & the behavior of Trent Franks. ...

... Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), facing an ethics investigation over alleged sexual harassment, announced Friday that he will resign immediately following his wife's admission to the hospital. Franks had said Thursday that he would resign at the end of January but said Friday that his wife's ailment had prompted him to change his plans and immediately step down." ...

... Rachel Bade & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Arizona Rep. Trent Franks allegedly made unwanted advances toward female staffers in his office and retaliated against one who rebuffed him, according to House GOP sources with knowledge of a complaint against him. The allegations, which reached Speaker Paul Ryan and top GOP leaders in recent days, led to Franks' sudden resignation this week. Franks originally announced that he would resign on Jan. 31, 2018. But just hours after Politico inquired about the allegations, he sped up his resignation and left office Friday. The sources said Franks approached two female staffers about acting as a potential surrogate for him and his wife, who has struggled with fertility issues for years. But the aides were concerned that Franks was asking to have sexual relations with them. It was not clear to the women whether he was asking about impregnating the women through sexual intercourse or in vitro fertilization. Franks opposes abortion rights as well as procedures that discard embryos. A former staffer also alleged that Franks tried to persuade a female aide that they were in love.... One woman believed she was the subject of retribution after rebuffing Franks. While she enjoyed access to the congressman before the incident, that access was revoked afterward, she told Republican leaders." ...

     ... Juliet Linderman of the AP: "A former aide to Republican Rep. Trent Franks has told The Associated Press the congressman repeatedly pressed her to carry his child, at one point offering her $5 million to act as a surrogate mother.... The former staffer said the congressman at least four times asked if she'd be willing to act as a surrogate in exchange for money. Franks, in his statement announcing his resignation, said he and his wife, who have struggled with infertility, have twins who were carried through surrogacy.... The aide cited the surrogacy requests as 'a main reason' for leaving the office, adding that she felt retaliated against after turning down the congressman, ignored by Franks and not given many assignments." ...

... Stephanie Akin of Roll Call: "The Treasury Department paid $220,000 in a previously undisclosed agreement to settle a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment that involved Florida Democrat Alcee L. Hastings, according to documents obtained by Roll Call. Winsome Packer, a former staff member of a congressional commission that promotes international human rights, said in documents that the congressman touched her, made unwanted sexual advances, and threatened her job. At the time, Hastings was the chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, where Packer worked. Hastings has called Packer's charges 'ludicrous' and in documents said he never sexually harassed her. 'Until this evening, I had not seen the settlement agreement between the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and Ms. Packer,' the congressman said in a statement Friday night. 'This matter was handled solely by the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment. At no time was I consulted, nor did I know until after the fact that such a settlement was made.'" ...

... Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "A former clerk for Judge Alex Kozinski said the powerful and well-known jurist, who for many years served as chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, called her into his office several times and pulled up pornography on his computer, asking if she thought it was photoshopped or if it aroused her sexually. Heidi Bond, who clerked for Kozinski from 2006 to 2007, said the porn was not related to any case.... Bond is one of six women -- all former clerks or more junior staffers known as externs in the 9th Circuit -- who alleged to The Washington Post in recent weeks that Kozinski, now 67 and still serving as a judge on the court, subjected them to a range of inappropriate sexual conduct or comments.... Another clerk, Emily Murphy, who worked for a different judge on the 9th Circuit and is now a law professor, described their experiences in on-the-record interviews.... Kozinski was appointed to the 9th Circuit by President Ronald Reagan in 1985."...

... Frank Rich: "The Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Predators.... It should also be noted that a tolerance for sexual predation may be well on its way to becoming a majority plank among the GOP rank and file. While a new Quinnipiac poll finds that 77 percent of Democrats believe elected officials should resign in the face of multiple sexual harassment accusations, only 51 percent of Republicans do.... [Republicans] will shed crocodile tears about the new sexual miscreant in the Senate chamber all the way to the bank." --safari

Senate Race

The NRA ❤s Pedophiles! David Corn of Mother Jones: "[T]he NRA, perhaps the biggest outside political player on the right, has quietly entered the race to help [Roy] Moore [R-Pedophile].... The NRA's website does not list the Alabama Senate race as a contest in which it is involved, but two days ago, the Center for Public Integrity reported that the NRA was spending $55,000 to send out postcards to boost Moore in the election this Tuesday." --safari: So the NRA has no morals, surprised? Even better, all NRA members are now supporting a pedophile with their hard-earned dollars.

Beyond the Beltway

Paige Blankenbuehler & Brooke Warren of Mother Jones: "The 2017 fire season was the nation's costliest, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which houses the Forest Service. That agency's annual budget is increasingly dedicated to suppressing and fighting wildland fires, as longer seasons and more destructive blazes require more resources.... Some of the West's biggest fires began in September, at a time when the fire season is typically waning." -- safari: Article contains lots of fire-related stats.

Luke Barnes of ThinkProgress: "A former Mesa, Arizona police officer who fatally shot and killed an unarmed father of two was cleared of second degree murder charges on Thursday. Philip Mitchell Brailsford, 27, was also cleared of criminal liability in the death of Daniel Shaver.... The Shaver case is another grim reminder of how common it is for police officers involved in unarmed shootings to avoid any sort of punishment for their actions. Even officer firings like Brailsford's are something of a paper tiger: an August investigation by the Washington Post found that, of the 1,881 officers fired for misconduct since 2006, more than 450 were reinstated after union appeals." --safari: The video, embedded in the article, is egregious. This is called murder.

News Lede

Los Angeles Times: "The powerful Santa Ana winds that fueled a five-day fire siege across Southern California this week began to ease Friday, but the destructive toll of the blazes continued to grow and firefighters will remain on high alert through the weekend. The fires, which stretched from Ojai to Oceanside, destroyed more than 500 structures and forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. The smoke created air quality problems that officials said reached unprecedented levels in some areas. As hot, dry Santa Anas faded, officials warned that breezes from the ocean could pick up, changing the direction of the flames, placing fire crews at higher risk of getting caught without an escape route."

The Commentariat -- December 8, 2017

The Madness of King Donald, Ctd.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The Trump White House is apparently where self-awareness goes to die.... The White House says that merely raising questions about Trump's health isn't okay even though Trump's campaign offered specific diagnoses and insinuations about similar episodes for Clinton.... 'I know that there were a lot of questions on [Trump's slurred speech],' [Sarah Sanders said], 'frankly, ridiculous questions.'... White House reporters have been asking for months about when Trump might get a physical, and they haven't gotten answers. Thankfully, Sanders disclosed Thursday that Trump will have a full physical early next year and that the results will be made public. So if reporters got nothing else from asking about the slurring, at least they got an answer to that question." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll believe the public will see the full results of Trump's check-up when I see it. JFK, remember, did his best to keep secret the serious illnesses with which he struggled. (Here's an article on John Kennedy's health troubles, written by presidential historian Robert Dallek & published in the Atlantic in 2002.) ...

... Joe Scarborough in a Washington Post op-ed: "Donald Trump spent much of 2016 questioning his opponent's stamina to be president of the United States. But it is now Trump's own fitness that is being scrutinized by friends and foes alike. After Trump spent recent weeks creating a level of chaos unseen around the White House since Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974, Capitol Hill politicians and media outlets are quietly questioning whether Trump is fit for the highest office in the land. That the commander in chief slurred his way through the end of a speech on Jerusalem Wednesday was just the latest in a string of unsettling incidents. Many who move through his orbit believe Trump is not well. That is a verdict that was reached long ago by many of the president’s own staff. More than a few politicians and reporters across Washington have shared similar fears." ...

... Joe Concha of the Hill: "Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) former presidential campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, said early Thursday that President Trump was 'clearly slurring his words' during an announcement that the U.S. will recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, adding that 'the impairment is chilling.' 'I don't know the cause of it, but when you combine it with [Sen.] Bob Corker's critique that the president of the United States is unstable, that he's dangerous, when you look at the private comments that are made by members of Congress around his stability, you look at his actions in recent weeks,' said Schmidt.... 'Morning Joe' co-host Joe Scarborough has questioned Trump's mental fitness on several occasions in the past, with the former GOP congressman most recently stating on Nov. 30 that 'people close to him during the campaign' told him 'he had early stages of dementia.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "The president is coming to America's poorest, blackest state to open a civil rights museum on Saturday, and people in the neighborhoods surrounding that gleaming tribute to the past would rather have Donald Trump visit their present.... 'What do you have to lose?' Trump asked [during the campaign], making a quixotic and ultimately failed bid for black votes to a nearly all-white crowd. 'We're losing a lot,' [Pete] McElroy[, who has a small business in the Jackson, Mississippi, neighborhood,] said here this week. 'Losing Obamacare. Where are people going to go? Losing money. He's making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Mostly, we're losing respect. No way you can evade that. The way he speaks, the racists feel like they can say anything they want to us.'... On Thursday, Rep. John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat who is one of the last surviving leaders of the civil rights movement, canceled his commitment to give the keynote address at the opening. Lewis, who had refused to attend Trump's inauguration because he considered him an illegitimate president, joined with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) in announcing that they will not attend because Trump is coming."

Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "... outdoor retailer Patagonia ... filed a complaint on Wednesday accusing Donald Trump of exceeding the powers of his office earlier this week when he ordered that Bears Ears national monument be reduced in size by 85%. The president framed the action as a correction of earlier federal overreach. Barack Obama established the monument at 1.3m acres one year ago, in a move Republicans in Utah's legislature compared at the time to 'the unilateral tyranny exercised by the King of England against the American colonies two and a half centuries ago'. But Patagonia's lawsuit asserts that Trump is the one playing king, by enacting the largest removal of protection from federal lands in history. The complaint, which was joined by a coalition of conservation groups, was filed in parallel with a separate lawsuit joined by five Native American tribes who say the president's move endangers sacred sites.... The government has 60 days to respond to Patagonia's complaint."

Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Candidate Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and others in the Trump Organization received an email in September 2016 offering a decryption key and website address for hacked WikiLeaks documents, according to an email provided to congressional investigators. The September 4 email was sent during the final stretch of the 2016 presidential race -- two months after the hacked emails of the Democratic National Committee were made public and one month before WikiLeaks began leaking the contents of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's hacked emails. The email came less than three weeks before WikiLeaks itself messaged Trump Jr. and began an exchange of direct messages on Twitter. Trump Jr. told investigators he had no recollection of the September email." ...

... Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "An executive at a leading Russian social media company made several overtures to Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016 -- including days before the November election -- urging the candidate to create a page on the website to appeal to Russian Americans and Russians. The executive at Vkontakte, or VK, Russia's equivalent to Facebook, emailed Donald Trump Jr. and social media director Dan Scavino in January and again in November of last year, offering to help promote Trump's campaign to its nearly 100 million users, according to people familiar with the messages.... While Scavino expressed interest in learning more at one point, it is unclear whether the campaign pursued the idea. An attorney for Trump Jr. said his client forwarded a pitch about the concept to Scavino early in the year and could not recall any further discussion about it.... The overture with VK was brokered by Rob Goldstone, a British music promoter who asked Trump Jr. last year to meet with a Russian lawyer who he said had compromising information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton." ...

... Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Attorneys for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort acknowledged Thursday that he edited an opinion piece for a Ukraine newspaper but did not publicly address allegations by special counsel prosecutors that he drafted it with a former colleague with ties to Russian intelligence. Manafort's defense argued in a court filing to a federal judge in Washington that Manafort's work on the op-ed piece for an English-language newspaper in Kiev defending himself did not violate a court gag order because it would not likely bias potential jurors in any U.S. trial." ...

... Rhonda Schwartz & Matthew Mosk of ABC News: "The Italian fiancee of George Papadopoulos..., Simona Mangiante..., said Papadopoulos 'set up meetings with leaders all over the world' for senior campaign officials. He was 'constantly in touch with high-level officials in the campaign,' she added. That included direct communication with now-former senior Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn, Mangiante said, adding that she had seen correspondence supporting the assertion.... 'He never took any initiative, as far as I know, [that was] unauthorized. All the initiatives had [the] blessing of the campaign,' she said." Also, he doesn't make coffee. ...

... Well, of Course They Did. Sarah Wire of the Los Angeles Times: "The House Ethics Committee on Thursday cleared Rep. Devin Nunes of allegations that he disclosed classified information related to the House investigation of Russian meddling in last year's election. The committee said in a statement that experts it interviewed determined that the information the House Select Intelligence Committee chairman divulged was not classified. When the complaint was filed in April, the Tulare Republican said he would step away from leading the intelligence committee's Russia investigation. But Nunes did not recuse himself and many Democrats have complained he has been too involved in the investigation. In a statement thanking the committee for clearing him, Nunes did not address whether he would formally retake control of the investigation." Mrs. McC: So endeth the Tale of the Midnight Run of Devin Nunes. ...

... Rachel Maddow is dedicating her show tonight to the Steele dossier. Could be interesting. Airs at 9:00 pm ET on MSNBC.

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "North Korea is open to direct talks with the US over their nuclear standoff, according to the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who said he passed that message to his counterpart, Rex Tillerson, when the two diplomats met in Vienna on Thursday. There was no immediate response from Tillerson but the official position of the state department is that North Korea would have to show itself to be serious about giving up its nuclear arsenal as part of a comprehensive agreement before a dialogue could begin." The linked ABC page has video.

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions dismissed a claim that there's widespread fear of police among poor minority communities and taunted a woman who said guns were more fatal than marijuana, calling her 'Dr. Whatever Your Name Is.' The attorney general's comments came in a 25-minute session with Justice Department interns on June 22, according to ABC News, which first reported Sessions' remarks and obtained internal DOJ video of the event through a Freedom of Information Act request.... [A UC Berkeley law student said] he 'grew up in the projects to a single mother, and the people who we are afraid of are not necessarily our neighbors but the police.' 'Well, that may be the view in Berkeley,' Sessions shot back, 'but it's not the view in most places in the country.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Translation: "... in most places" = "where we nice white people live." I wonder if JeffBo is going along with Trump to the opening of the civil rights museum. He could get together some of his friends like Steve Scalise & they could do a Klan tableau.

Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: Some of Trump's richy-rich New York friends are complaining to him about repeal the local-tax deduction in the Tax Heist bills. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: They're right, of course, but it's ironic that Trump may be listening only to the rich about a drastic change to the tax code that has a negative impact on every person who itemizes deductions & pays state &/or local taxes. As the reporters write, "The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, has estimated that there could be tax increases for as many as 700,000 residents if the legislation is approved." I'm not sure why they haven't noticed, but the limitation of the property tax deduction to $10,000 is going to hurt some of these rich guys almost as much. Most of them own more than one expensive home, & their property taxes are likely far higher than $10,000. ...

... ** "The Republican War on Children." Paul Krugman: "Republicans are showing that they consider it more important to give extra millions to one already wealthy heir than to provide health care to a thousand children.... While there is zero evidence that tax cuts pay for themselves, there's considerable evidence that aiding lower-income children actually saves money in the long run.... And despite everything we've seen in U.S. politics, it's still hard to believe that a whole political party would balk at doing the decent thing for millions of kids while rushing to further enrich a few thousand wealthy heirs. That is, however, exactly what's happening. And it's as bad, in its own way, as that same party's embrace of a child molester because they expect him to vote for tax cuts." ...

... The GOP Tax Heist Also Aims to Wreck the Environment. Brad Plumer & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The Republican tax bills moving through Congress could significantly hobble the United States' renewable energy industry because of a series of provisions that scale back incentives for wind and solar power while bolstering older energy sources like oil and gas production. The possibility highlights the degree to which the nation's recent surge in renewable electricity generation is still sustained by favorable tax treatment, which has lowered the cost of solar and wind production while provoking the ire of fossil-fuel competitors seeking to weaken those tax preferences. Whether lawmakers choose to protect or jettison various renewable tax breaks in the final bill being negotiated on Capitol Hill could have major ramifications for the United States energy landscape, including the prices consumers pay for electricity.... The tax bill joins a host of federal policy changes proposed by the Trump administration that could crimp the growth in clean energy."

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Congress passed a short-term spending deal Thursday, sending to President Trump a bill to avert a partial government shutdown and setting up a heated budget fight later this month. Trump has indicated that he will sign the deal, preventing a government stoppage that had been set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.... The short-term measure passed the Senate 81 to 14 and passed the House 235 to 193.... The deal does not resolve numerous debates over domestic spending, immigration and funding for the military that brought the government to the brink of partial closure, leaving party leaders with a new Dec. 22 deadline to keep the government open."

Sheryl Stolberg, et al., of the New York Times: "Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, in an emotional speech on the Senate floor, announced on Thursday that he would resign from Congress, the most prominent figure in a growing list of lawmakers felled by charges of sexual harassment or indiscretions.... As his Democratic colleagues looked on, he took a parting shot at President Trump and Roy S. Moore; both have also been accused of sexual misconduct." ...

... Masha Gessen of the New Yorker: "The force of the #MeToo moment leaves no room for due process, or, indeed, for Franken's own constituents to consider their choice. Still, the force works selectively.... Trump and Moore are immune because the blunt irresistible force works only on the other half of the country.... The Trump era is one of deep and open immorality in politics.... These are men who proclaim their allegiance to the Christian faith while acting in openly hateful, duplicitous, and plainly murderous ways." Read on. Mrs. McCrabbie: I have a fundamental disagreement with Gessen in that I think the matters she attributes to sex are better attributed to power struggles. In an ideal world, sex is about love. In the real world, sex is often about power. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nanny Ruth Marcus has a pretty good take on the way Senate Democrats dealt with Al Franken. AND when she compares the Senate's reactions to Franken & Bob Menendez, she helps make Gessen's point. ...

... Michelle Goldberg: "... the Republican Party is not the party of people who are fundamentally opposed to sexual harassment.... While the current frenzy to expose sexual harassers is, in large part, a reaction to the trauma of Trump's election, it has not yet touched Trump himself.... The incendiary rage unleashed by Trump's election needs to be directed back at him. Otherwise, only those who already advocate women's equality will be forced to grant it." ...

... Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Representative Trent Franks of Arizona, one of the House's most ardent social conservatives, said Thursday night that he would resign after the House Ethics Committee began an investigation into complaints that he had asked two female staff members to be a surrogate to bear his child.... Mr. Franks denied that he had ever 'physically intimidated, coerced, or had, or attempted to have, any sexual contact with any member of my congressional staff.' His statement said only that he deeply regretted discussing the topic of surrogacy, but a Republican familiar with the accusation said that Mr. Frank had specifically asked those aides to be surrogates.... Mr. Franks, whose strident social conservatism and adamant opposition to abortion in all forms have defined his tenure, said he would step aside at the end of January rather than wait for the outcome of the investigation." ...

... In case you're feeling all sorry for poor Trent Franks, Jeff Singer of Daily Kos has a reminder of who Franks is: "... Franks has been a mouthpiece for some of the worst ideas of the far-right. Franks said in 2010 that '[f]ar more of the African-American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by policies of slavery,' declared the next year that same-sex marriage was 'a threat to the nation's survival,' and mused in 2013 that the instances of rape causing pregnancy are 'very low.' Franks also was very unbothered by the Russian government's meddling in the 2016 elections, saying, 'The bottom line is if they succeeded, if Russia succeeded in giving the American people information that was accurate, then they merely did what the media should have done,' before claiming his comments were misconstrued."

... A Reckoning for Pajama Boy? Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "The House Ethics Committee announced Thursday it has established a subcommittee to investigate allegations of misconduct by Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.), expanding its work in light of new information that surfaced in recent weeks about a 2015 settlement agreement he reached with his former aide.... His former communications director, Lauren Greene, in 2014 accused Farenthold of making sexually charged comments designed to gauge whether she was interested in a sexual relationship."

Senate Races -- The GOP Has the Best Candidates

Roy Moore's Family Values. Roy Moore longs for the days when "families were strong, our country had a direction..., even though we had slavery." Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: The institution of slavery was built on tearing apart families. Parents were separated from their children. Husbands were separated from their wives. Plantation owners, such as the third president of the United States, routinely raped their enslaved workers. Excepting the centuries-long genocide of American Indians (or 'reds,' in the parlance of the Republican nominee for US Senate), slavery was the greatest attack on American families the country has ever seen.... Only a broken view of society that excludes people of color from the calculus entirely and makes accommodations for mass rape could possibly consider the society of slavery a time when families were 'strong.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll concede Moore's flaming racial bigotry is the worst part of his nostalgia. But also, what makes Moore, or anyone, think that "families were strong" in antebellum days? I suppose he means that a patriarchal society is highly preferable to one where a white man's aspirations might be upended by revelations about his sexual assaults on underaged girls. He means that families were strong, I guess, because the old man ruled the roost, women were chattel & the kids pulled their own weight or got the belt. Please bear in mind, Alabamians, that Moore is perverted in many more ways than one. ...

... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "President Trump is headed to Florida on Friday for a rally that appears aimed at boosting Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore's chances in a special election next week. The trip to Pensacola, Fla. -- just 20 miles away from the Alabama border -- may have initially been scheduled to give Trump a way to rally the Republican base in Alabama while keeping some distance from Moore, who is accused of molesting teenagers. But Trump explicitly endorsed Moore this week, calling the candidate directly to offer his support." ...

AND This. Scott Bixby of the Daily Beast: "Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has no interest in running for Rep. Trent Franks' (R-AZ) soon-to-be vacated seat, he said on Thursday. Instead..., [Arpaio,] who was recently pardoned by ... Donald Trump..., [said], 'I am seriously, seriously, seriously considering running for the U.S. Senate,' Arpaio told The Daily Beast, 'not the congressman's seat.' Whatever he decides, Arpaio's next political step will have profound implications in the Grand Canyon State. He is a darling of anti-immigration hardliners, but reviled by Democrats and even some mainstream Republicans for his reputation of breaking the law to enforce it."

Ryan Grim of the Intercept: "Progressive radio and television personality Sam Seder will be offered his MSNBC contributor job back and plans to accept, according to multiple MSNBC sources. Seder and MSNBC were set to part ways when his contributor contract expired next year, with reports indicating the departure had to do with a 2009 tweet from Seder surfaced by the far-right provocateur Mike Cernovich. After initially caving in to right-wing internet outrage over the tweet, MSNBC reversed its decision to not renew Seder's contract.... Cernovich is a ... conspiracy theorist who works in hand-in-glove with white supremacists. Cernovich dug up a 2009 tweet from Seder and claimed it endorsed rape. The tweet was meant as a satirical criticism of accused rapist Roman Polanski's liberal defenders, but MSNBC took Cernovich's bad-faith reading at face value and fired Seder." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Teevee executives are not very bright people & even obvious satire is way over their heads. When there's a possibility that one of these guys is in your audience, be sure to end your remark with "Only kidding!" Sure, it ruins the punchline, but it will save you from being the brunt of ridiculous rumors.

Beyond the Beltway

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Michael T. Slager, the white police officer whose video-recorded killing of an unarmed black motorist in North Charleston, S.C., starkly illustrated the turmoil over racial bias in American policing, was sentenced on Thursday to 20 years in prison, after the judge in the case ruled that the shooting had been a murder. The sentence was pronounced in Federal District Court in Charleston about seven months after Mr. Slager pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of Walter L. Scott when he shot and killed him in April 2015. It concluded one of the few cases in which a police officer has been prosecuted for an on-duty shooting." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Washington Post: "British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced Friday that they had reached an agreement for Britain to exit the bloc, a milestone that means Britain will likely move on to trade talks early next year, pending confirmation by the rest of the 27 E.U. leaders next week." This is a breaking story at 2:20 am ET. ...

... The Guardian is liveblogging updates.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The economy's vital signs are stronger than they have been in years. Companies are posting jobs faster than they can find workers to fill them. Incomes are rising. The stock market sets records seemingly every month. The latest evidence of the revival came Friday, when the Labor Department reported that American employers added 228,000 jobs in November. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent, the lowest since 2000. Job growth has slowed since its peak in 2014 but remains remarkably steady: For the first time on record, employers have added jobs every month for more than seven years -- 86 months, to be precise."

Los Angeles Times: "Gusty Santa Ana winds and bone-dry conditions continued to stoke major wildfires in Southern California on Thursday as Ventura County fire officials said the battle there could last well over a week. By Thursday evening, the Thomas fire had consumed 115,000 acres, destroyed 427 structures in Ventura and damaged at least 85 more.... An additional 12 structures were destroyed in unincorporated areas of Ventura County. As the blaze intruded on Santa Barbara County, residents living in Carpinteria, Summerland and other coastal communities nearby were told to prepare to evacuate...."