The Commentariat -- November 14, 2017

Late Morning Update:

Nicholas Fandos & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times are live-updating Jeff Sessions' testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. His memory is not too good. The reporters call it "selective recall." ...

... Matt Zapotosky & Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that he has 'always told the truth' in describing his knowledge of Trump campaign contacts with Russians -- though he acknowledged he now recalls an interaction with a lower-level Trump adviser [George Papadopoulos] who has said he told Sessions about contacts who could help arrange a meeting between Trump and Russian PresidentVladimir Putin." ...

... JeffBo Says Something Sensible. Kyle Cheney & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions threw cold water Tuesday on Republicans clamoring for the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel to investigate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) pressed Sessions on why it had taken the Justice Department months to hint, as it did Monday, at the prospect of considering a special counsel to probe years-old matters connected to Clinton. Jordan said he thought evidence unearthed in the last year about how FBI decided not to charge Clinton over her handling of classified information at the State Department appeared to be enough to warrant a special counsel. "'Looks like' is not enough basis to appoint a special counsel,' Sessions responded." ...

... Kyle Cheney: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that he has 'no reason to doubt' the women who have accused Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct. 'I have no reason to doubt these young women,' he told the House Judiciary Committee." Mrs. McC: Pardon my math, but the "young women" are in their 50s.

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Volvo has pulled its advertisements from Sean Hannity's show on Fox News after his coverage of sexual misconduct allegations made against Roy Moore. Volvo is the latest advertiser to pull its ads from "Hannity" in the wake of the prime-time host's coverage of Moore, the Alabama GOP Senate candidate accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women. Keurig and Realtor.com both said they were pulling their ads in recent days." Mrs. McC: And we're all very sorry for Sean.

Alex Isenstadt & Josh Dawsey of Politico: "Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, the GOP's most prominent megadonor, is publicly breaking with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon over his efforts to oust Republican incumbents in 2018. 'The Adelsons will not be supporting Steve Bannon's efforts,' said Andy Abboud, an Adelson spokesman. 'They are supporting Mitch McConnell 100 percent. For anyone to infer anything otherwise is wrong.'"

Shaun Walker of the Guardian: "Russia's defence ministry said ... the Americans refuse[d] to carry out a joint operation to strike Isis fighters leaving Abu Kamal but also allowed them to regroup on coalition-controlled territory.... The allegations are extremely grave, but may be harder to take seriously given the 'irrefutable proof' offered in the form of photographic accompaniment...[O]ne photograph [is] apparently a screenshot from the promo for a mobile phone game called AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron...[T]he other four of the five photographs appear to be taken from 2016 footage released by Iraq's ministry of defence...Soon after people noted the dubious origin of the photographs, the defence ministry deleted its tweets, and removed the photographs from the corresponding Facebook posts." --safari

*****

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure-dome decree ...

... Oh, the Humanity! Charles Pierce is full of the spirit of the season in his analysis of "The Adventures of Marco Polo Donaldo Trumpo": "According to the Beeb [BBC], the folks in the nations he visited looked at the departing Air Force One very much like Les Nessman's on-the-spot report of the great Thanksgiving giveaway."

     ... "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." ...

... Okay, that was fun, BUT the real effects of Trump's buffoonery & thug-hugging are not so hilarious. ...

... ** Susan Rice, in a New York Times op-ed: "President Trump's recently concluded trip to Asia ... left the United States more isolated and in retreat, handing leadership of the newly christened 'Indo-Pacific' to China on a silver platter. The trip began with solid performances in Japan and Korea.... But in China, the wheels began to come off his diplomatic bus. The Chinese leadership played President Trump like a fiddle, catering to his insatiable ego and substituting pomp and circumstance for substance.... President Trump's last stops in Vietnam and the Philippines proved the most problematic.... President Trump's lighthearted embrace of a self-proclaimed killer, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, was the nadir of a high-stakes trip that set back American leadership in Asia. But it was, perhaps, the perfect if unintended coda to the president's 'Make China Great Again' tour." ...

... New York Times Editors: "Authoritarian leaders exercise a strange and powerful attraction for President Trump. As his trip to Asia reminds us, a man who loves to bully people turns to mush -- fawning smiles, effusive rhetoric -- in the company of strongmen like Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines.... At home, Mr. Trump's determination to arrogate power unto himself has seriously weakened the State Department and the cadre of professional diplomats that is central to successful international problem-solving. It has effectively sidelined people like Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. It has left to other nations the important tasks of pursuing goals like climate change and the Iran nuclear deal. In major ways, he is dealing America out of the game." ...

I think Mr. Trump is, for whatever reason, either intimidated by Mr. Putin, afraid of what he could do or what might come out as a result of these investigations. -- Former CIA Director John Brennan on CNN's "State of the Union," Sunday

... Juan Cole: "Brennan gave three possibilities, that Trump is easily manipulated by flattery, or easily cowed, or compromised. The first is true but can't account for the obsequiousness of Trump's behavior toward Putin. The second is not true -- Trump is like an enraged bull rampaging around an arena trying to gore everyone in sight. His typical response to attempts to make him back down is to explode. So what Brennan is really saying is that there is actually only one possible explanation for Trump's creepy and peculiar relationship to Putin. Kompromat."

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday challenged congressional Republicans to use tax reform to repeal Obamacare's individual mandate and slash the top tax rate for the wealthiest Americans to 35 percent, potentially throwing up new hurdles for legislation moving in Congress. Neither the House bill nor the Senate version under consideration repeals the individual mandate or proposes a top rate that is as low as Trump suggested on Monday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "For months, the White House has pledged that its tax plan will not benefit the rich -- or, at least, that it won't do so intentionally. Then, the House and Senate unveiled tax bills that deliver the lion's share of their benefits to the idle superrich, while raising taxes on a broad swath of middle-class households. The bills would also eliminate deductions that benefit veterans, indebted students, and people who suffer from rare diseases -- while preserving loopholes that enrich hedge-fund managers and owners of golf courses.... So: The populist president looked at legislation that increases the tax burden of half of all families with children -- even as it allows the heirs of multimillion-dollar estates to avoid paying all capital gains taxes on their inherited assets -- and concluded: This bill really needs to do more to increase the post-tax income of millionaires, and reduce the number of Americans with health insurance.... Here he is, bucking the congressional leadership ... by calling for an even more regressive tax-cut plan." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Paul Krugman: "... this isn't just ordinary class warfare; it's class warfare aimed at perpetuating inequality into the next generation. Taken together, the elements of both the House and the Senate bills amount to a more or less systematic attempt to lavish benefits on the children of the ultra-wealthy while making it harder for less fortunate young people to achieve upward social mobility. Or to put it differently, the tax legislation Republicans are trying to ram through Congress with indecent haste, without hearings or time for any kind of serious study, looks an awful lot like an attempt not simply to reinforce plutocracy, but to entrench a hereditary plutocracy." Mrs. McC: Instead of calling the bill "Cut, Cut, Cut!" as Trump wanted, why not call it "Ivanka, Ivanka, Invaka!" to convey a more accurate & compelling image of the true beneficiaries.

"Lock Her Up!" Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Ten days after President Trump said that he was frustrated with the Justice Department for not investigating Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, the Justice Department told Congress on Monday that senior prosecutors were looking into whether a special counsel should be appointed to investigate them. The prosecutors will examine reports of misconduct at the Clinton Foundation and the Obama administration's 2010 decision to allow a Russian nuclear energy agency to acquire much of the United States' uranium, among other matters, according to a letter sent to the House Judiciary Committee from a senior Justice Department official on Monday.... The decision to examine those matters raises questions about whether Mr. Trump is trying to use the Justice Department to investigate his political rivals and distract from the special counsel's investigation into his presidential campaign. It also comes at a tenuous time for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom Mr. Trump has hinted to advisers he may want to fire." Senior prosecutors will report directly to JeffBo. ...

... Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions is entertaining the idea of appointing a second special counsel to investigate a host of Republican concerns -- including alleged wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation and the controversial sale of a uranium company to Russia -- and has directed senior federal prosecutors to explore at least some of the matters and report back to him and his top deputy, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post. The revelation came in a response from the Justice Department to an inquiry from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who in July and again in September called for Sessions to appoint a second special counsel to investigate concerns he had related to the 2016 election and its aftermath. The list of matters he wanted probed was wide ranging, but included the FBI's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, various dealings of the Clinton Foundation and several matters connected to the purchase of the Canadian mining company Uranium One by Russia's nuclear energy agency. Goodlatte took particular aim at former FBI director James B. Comey, asking for a second special counsel to evaluate the leaks he directed about his conversations with President Trump, among other things.... President Trump has repeatedly criticized his Justice Department for not aggressively probing a variety of conservative concerns. He said recently that officials there 'should be looking at the Democrats['] and that it was 'very discouraging' they were not 'going after Hillary Clinton.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Now this would be the very definition of a political witch hunt -- Trumped-up accusations, so to speak, & a president & his attorney general -- who are supposed to maintain an arm's-length distance from one another (for this very reason) -- collaborating on a plot to undermine & possibly bring charges against the top people in the opposition party. The only way JeffBo can extricate himself from this mess is to find no cause, as he did when the DOJ "investigated" the Clinton e-mail saga earlier this year. The only way Trump can extricate himself -- oops! there's no way.

** Frank Rich of the New Yorker: "For many, if not most, Americans, the only pleasure to be had from Donald Trump's presidency is to imagine his premature eviction from the White House.... Once Trump exits -- whenever and however he goes '' then what? It's a continuing liberal blind spot to underestimate the resilience of Trumpism, which, if history is any guide, will easily survive both the crack-up of the GOP and the implosion of the Trump presidency. Whether Trump lasts another three weeks, another three years, or another seven years, our troubles won't be over when he's gone. They may well get worse." Read on. --safari

Eileen Sullivan & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump nominated a pharmaceutical executive to be the next secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. The nominee, Alex M. Azar II, served as a deputy at the department under former President George W. Bush. Until January, he was the head of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly's United States division. Mr. Trump made his announcement in a Twitter post while traveling in Asia. Mr. Trump said Mr. Azar would be 'a star and lower drug prices!'" Mrs. McC: Right, because there's nothing a drug company executive wants to do more than lower drug prices. Donald Trump thinks your stupider than he (actually) is. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)...

... Joanna Purpich & Sam Stein of The Daily Beast: "[I]f there is one trend that has defined this current president's staffing decisions, it has been his proclivity to turn to men when filling out key posts. Since he assumed office, Donald Trump has sent 480 nominations to the U.S. Senate for positions in the judicial branch and executive branches. Of those, The Daily Beast found, 387 were men -- constituting just over 80 of all of Trump's nominees. The trend goes across government, though it is truly accentuated in certain fields." --safari: Yeah, but, fear not egalitarians, Ivanka's on the case!

Sharon Lerner of The Intercept: "Massive conflicts of interest no longer stand in the way of confirmation to the Environmental Protection Agency's highest posts.... YetMichael Dourson, the industry scientist Trump nominated to head EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, may be unable to clear even this low bar.... Resistance to his nomination is coming from red states that have been directly harmed by chemicals Dourson has defended on behalf of industry.... Dourson was responsible for setting a state standard for [the chemical] PFOA that was thousands of times higher than the EPA's current safety level.... Dourson has worked on behalf of industry to defend dozens of chemicals that have contaminated the water and air of Republicans, as well as Democrats." --safari

Matt Apuzzo & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "One of President Trump's most controversial judicial nominees did not disclose on publicly available congressional documents that he is married to a senior lawyer in the White House Counsel's Office. The nominee, Brett J. Talley, is awaiting a Senate confirmation vote that could come as early as Monday to become a federal district judge in Alabama. He is married to Ann Donaldson, the chief of staff to the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II. Mr. Talley was asked on his publicly released Senate questionnaire to identify family members and others who are 'likely to present potential conflicts of interest.' He did not mention his wife.... Democrats have strongly criticized the nomination of Mr. Talley, a 36-year-old who has never tried a case and who received a rare 'not qualified' rating from the American Bar Association. His nomination advanced through the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday on a party-line vote." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Talley, he's probably too dumb to know that it's a conflict when your wife works in the White House & you may be adjudicating matters that have an impact on administration policies. As he was filling out the questionnaire, he probably put his pen in his mouth, furrowed his brow, looked at the ceiling & decided, "Nah, you can't say you have a conflict with your own wife. That would look like you & your wife didn't get along or something. And, hey, we're great. Hell, I probably wouldn't of been nominated if not for little Annie putting in a good word." Really, you want to cut these bozos some slack for stupid. ...

     ... UPDATE: I highly recommend your reading Akhilleus' report, in today's thread, on Talley Ho. Among Talley's other fine attributes, apparently he's a ghostbuster or something.

Carol Leonig & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "President Trump's eldest son exchanged private messages with WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign at the same time the website was publishing hacked emails from Democratic officials, according to correspondence made public Monday. Donald Trump Jr. did not respond to many of the notes, which were sent using the direct message feature on Twitter. But he alerted senior advisers on his father's campaign, including his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to two people familiar with the exchanges. In the messages, WikiLeaks urged Trump Jr. to promote its trove of hacked Democratic emails and suggested that President Trump challenge the election results if he did not win, among other ideas. They were first reported by the Atlantic and later posted by Trump Jr. on Twitter. WikiLeaks, which bills itself as an anti-secrecy group, was described in April by CIA Director Mike Pompeo as a 'non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you read the Atlantic piece, by Julia Ioffe, you'll find that Junior did not reply often, but neither did he didn't rebuff WikiLeaks (presumably featuring Julian Assange on keyboard), nor did he report the correspondence to law enforcement officials -- as far as we know. One interesting passage: "'Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us,' WikiLeaks went on, pointing Trump Jr. to the link wlsearch.tk.... Trump Jr. did not respond to this message. But just 15 minutes after it was sent, as The Wall Street Journal's Byron Tau pointed out, Donald Trump himself tweeted, 'Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!'" So if the question is, "Did Donald Trump himself knowingly collaborate with WikiLeaks to disseminate info hacked by Russian operatives that damaged the Clinton campaign?" the answer appears to be, "Yes, he did."...

... Margaret Hartmann: "[I]f real, the messages shed light on WikiLeaks' role in the election, the Trump campaign's relationship with the organization, and what other campaign officials knew.... While WikiLeaks bills itself as a neutral proponent of transparency, the 2016 election made it quite clear that wasn't the case.... WikiLeaks suggests that the campaign should let them leak Trump's tax returns.... [I]t would help make WikiLeaks appear less anti-Clinton -- thus aiding their efforts to undermine her.... 'If we publish them it will dramatically improve the perception of our impartiality,' WikiLeaks wrote.... If someone in the Trump campaign was directing the leaks, it appears Trump Jr. didn't know about it (or wasn't dumb enough to let the WikiLeaks Twitter account know that he knew)." --safari

Fred Kaplan of Slate: "For the first time in over 40 years, Congress is holding hearings on Tuesday about the president's authority to launch nuclear weapons. The reasons for the revived interest should be clear.... Everyone knows that the president's powers include the ability to blow up the world, but few have explored -- in part because they'd rather not know -- the degree to which the president can do this on his own.... Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey, a member of the committee holding hearings on Tuesday, has drafted a bill requiring the president to obtain a declaration of war from Congress before launching a nuclear first-strike.... Another step, proposed by many nuclear strategists, would be to get rid of the land-based ICBMs. They are likely to be the targets of a nuclear strike; and because they are vulnerable, a president would have to decide very quickly whether to 'use them or lose them.'"

Thomas Moriarty & MaryAnn Spoto of NJ.com: Jurors in the corruption case of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) are deadlocked. "Seven of the 16 jurors and alternates in the trial of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez raised their hands when U.S. District Judge William Walls on Monday morning asked whether they'd heard or read anything about the case, prompting the judge to take them into his chambers individually to get more details. The inquiry came after defense attorneys in the trial noted that widespread news coverage of an excused juror's public statements may have tainted the remaining members of the panel.... After questioning the four seated jurors, Walls said he found no reason to declare a mistrial."

International Embarrassment. Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "[T]he Trump administration's delegation to the United Nations' climate conference in Bonn, Germany, is using the talks to promote the U.S. coal industry.... Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who serves as the UN Secretary-General's special envoy for cities and climate change, said Monday that 'promoting coal at a climate summit is like promoting tobacco at a cancer summit.'" --safari

Senate Race

Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senate Republican leaders on Monday waged an urgent campaign to pressure GOP nominee Roy Moore to withdraw from the Alabama Senate race amid allegations of sexual misconduct, declaring him 'unfit to serve' and threatening to expel him from Congress if he were elected. But Moore showed no signs that he was preparing to step aside.... The fusillade from Senate Republicans started Monday morning in Louisville, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) called on Moore to end his run.... Later, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) issued a written statement going further. 'If he refuses to withdraw and wins, the Senate should vote to expel him,' Gardner said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Don't kid yourself into believing these invertebrates suddenly sprouted backbones. They were against Roy Moore from the git-go. ...

     ... BTW, I hope many of you got to read David Atkins' post, linked yesterday, on why evangelicals are sticking with Roy. I found it illuminating.

... Jonathan Martin & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "An Alabama woman accused Roy S. Moore on Monday of sexually assaulting her when she was 16, the fifth and most brutal charge leveled against the Republican Senate candidate. Senate Republicans are now openly discussing not seating him or expelling him if he wins the Dec. 12 special election. The new accuser, Beverly Young Nelson, told a packed news conference in New York that Mr. Moore attacked her when she was a teenager and he was a prosecutor in Etowah County, Ala. Ms. Nelson was represented at the news conference by Gloria Allred, a lawyer who has championed victims of sexual harassment. 'I tried fighting him off, while yelling at him to stop, but instead of stopping, he began squeezing my neck, attempting to force my head onto his crotch,' Ms. Nelson said, growing emotional as she described the assault, which she said happened one night after her shift ended at a local restaurant, where she was a waitress." ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "Moore adamantly denied her allegations, saying ... that he does not even know Nelson.... 'I never did what she said I did. I don't even know the woman. I don't know anything about her. I don't even know where the restaurant is or was.' [Which is a teeny bit unbelievable because] Nelson presented a copy of her yearbook in which the then-30-year-old Moore wrote: 'To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say Merry Christmas. Christmas 1977. Love, Roy Moore, D.A.' Below his name, he wrote the date and 'Olde Hickory House,' the name of the restaurant he now claims he has no knowledge of.... [As Josh Barro notes,] 'Roy Moore's signature from that 1977 yearbook matches Roy Moore's signature on his US Term Limits pledge this year." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: What was that thing about "thou shalt not bear false witness"? Didn't Roy have it engraved in stone someplace?

... Sheryl Stolberg: "Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said Monday that Roy S. Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, 'should step aside' and that he believes the women who have accused Mr. Moore of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers. 'I believe the women, yes,' Mr. McConnell said at a news conference in Louisville. Mr. McConnell also said that encouraging a write-in candidate to run in the Dec. 12 special election is 'an option we're looking at.' Mr. Moore, a judge who was twice removed from the state's high court, first for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from the Supreme Court grounds, then for refusing to accept gay marriage, responded defiantly. He showed no sign of leaving the race ahead of Alabama's Dec. 12 special election date.... At 2:30 p.m. Monday, New York lawyer Gloria Allred, who has made her name by championing victims of sexual harassment, will publicly introduce a new woman accusing Mr. Moore of sexual impropriety." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Charles Bethea of the New Yorker: "This past weekend, I spoke or messaged with more than a dozen people -- including a major political figure in the state -- who told me that they had heard, over the years, that Moore had been banned from the [Gadsden] mall because he repeatedly badgered teen-age girls. [Gadsden is the seat of Etowah County.] ...

     ... Anna Vollers of AL.com writes a similar story, with some of the same sources. ...

... Jessica Contrera of the Washington Post: "The photos of teenage girls began appearing on Twitter Thursday night. First, a smiling, ponytailed 14-year-old looking into the camera. Then, another 14-year-old, this one posing for a school-style photo. Soon, there were photos from Katie Couric, Alyssa Milano and Sarah Silverman -- all showing what they looked like when they were 14. 'Can't consent at 14. Not in Alabama. Not anywhere,' wrote attorney Catherine Lawson, the first woman to tweet a photo of her 14-year-old self with the hashtag #MeAt14. Lawson and the others on Twitter were responding to allegations against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama, first reported in The Washington Post." See the pix & commentary at #Me@14." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Dahlia Lithwick & James Sample in Slate: "... the idea that it might be the alleged molesting of multiple teenage girls and women that could prove disqualifying for Moore, rather than his decadeslong contempt for the law, the courts, and the Constitution, tells us how very far we have strayed from our legal moorings at this moment in history. Roy Moore ... is revered ... for his long-standing performance of figurative -- and literal -- contempt for any legal ruling or norm with which he disagrees.... He was never fit for a seat in the U.S. Senate in the first place. That the Republican Party still fails to see this will forever be to its shame. It shouldn't take child molestation allegations to realize that lawlessness is not a credential." ...

... Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "In this #MeToo moment, when we're reassessing decades of male misbehavior and turning open secrets into exposes, we should look clearly at the credible evidence that Juanita Broaddrick told the truth when she accused [Bill] Clinton of raping her."

President George H.W. Cop-a-Feel. Aric Jenkins of Time: "Roslyn Corrigan was sixteen years old when she got a chance to meet George H.W. Bush, excited to be introduced to a former president having grown up dreaming of going into politics. But Corrigan was crushed by her encounter: Bush, then 79 years old, groped her buttocks at a November 2003 event in The Woodlands, Texas, office of the Central Intelligence Agency where Corrigan's father gathered with fellow intelligence officers and family members to meet Bush, Corrigan said. Corrigan is the sixth woman since Oct. 24 to accuse Bush publicly of grabbing her buttocks without consent.... Corrigan said the incident happened while she was being photographed standing next to Bush.... Her mother, Sari, said Corrigan told her about the encounter as soon as Bush stepped away." Several other people, including Corrigan's ex-husband, told Time that Corrigan had told them about the incident over the years." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bush, who joked about it with some of the other women he groped, seemed to think ass-grabbing is hilarious & harmless. No, actually, it's physically aggressive & demeaning. You can see in Sari Corrigan's response that VIPs like Bush get away with it (while many ordinary men do not) because women realize they're comparably powerless & could suffer repercussions if they object. Yes, some mothers would read the POTUS the riot act in a roomful of their husband's colleagues, but most would not. Bush's (alleged) little joke hurt two women -- a 16-year-old & her mother.

Beyond the Beltway

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Sam Levin of the Guardian: "Journalists working for Facebook say the social media site's fact-checking tools have largely failed and that the company has exploited their labor for a PR campaign. Several fact checkers who work for independent news organizations and partner with Facebook told the Guardian that they feared their relationships with the technology corporation, some of which are paid, have created a conflict of interest, making it harder for the news outlets to scrutinize and criticize Facebook's role in spreading misinformation. The reporters also lamented that Facebook had refused to disclose data on its efforts to stop the dissemination of fake news.... 'I don't feel like it's working at all. The fake information is still going viral and spreading rapidly,' said one journalist who does fact-checks for Facebook."

Renée Feltz of The Intercept: "[I]nestimable tons of moldy debris have to be mucked out as [Houston] rebuilds. Much of the work is being done by undocumented immigrants, who make up half of the Texas construction workforce, according to some estimates. But even as their labor is in high demand, many are silently enduring abuse as they fear deportation.... Post-Harvey, Houston has become a perfect storm for worker exploitation. Texas leads the nation in construction industry deaths, and workers in the state lose the most money to wage theft. But confronting abuse on the job now carries an added risk for undocumented workers, thanks to a new state law that allows police to report anyone in their custody to immigration officials." --safari

**Republican Dreamland. Kansas City Star: "Kansas runs one of the most secretive state governments in the nation, and its secrecy permeates nearly every aspect of service, The Star found in a months-long investigation. From the governor's office to state agencies, from police departments to business relationships to health care, on the floors of the House and Senate, a veil has descended over the years and through administrations on both sides of the political aisle...In the past decade, more than 90 percent of the laws passed by the Kansas Legislature have come from anonymous authors...Kansas became the first state to fully privatize Medicaid services in 2013, and now some caregivers for people with disabilities say they have been asked to sign off on blank treatment plans -- without knowing what's being provided.... The state, they say, seems hellbent on keeping information from the public." Read on for many more examples. --safari

Way Beyond

Natasha Geiling of ThinkProgress: "For the first time in three years, global carbon dioxide emissions are back on the rise, illustrating that while the world has taken some crucial steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the work is far from over...[a]ccording to figures released on Monday by the Global Carbon Project." --safari: And coal barons raise a toast!

The Commentariat -- November 13, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said Monday that Roy S. Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, 'should step aside' and that he believes the women who have accused Mr. Moore of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers. 'I believe the women, yes,' Mr. McConnell said at a news conference in Louisville. Mr. McConnell also said that encouraging a write-in candidate to run in the Dec. 12 special election is 'an option we're looking at.' Mr. Moore, a judge who was twice removed from the state's high court, first for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from the Supreme Court grounds, then for refusing to accept gay marriage, responded defiantly. He showed no sign of leaving the race ahead of Alabama's Dec. 12 special election date.... At 2:30 p.m. Monday, New York lawyer Gloria Allred, who has made her name by championing victims of sexual harassment, will publicly introduce a new woman accusing Mr. Moore of sexual impropriety."

Jessica Contrera of the Washington Post: "The photos of teenage girls began appearing on Twitter Thursday night. First, a smiling, ponytailed 14-year-old looking into the camera. Then, another 14-year-old, this one posing for a school-style photo. Soon, there were photos from Katie Couric, Alyssa Milano and Sarah Silverman -- all showing what they looked like when they were 14. 'Can't consent at 14. Not in Alabama. Not anywhere,' wrote attorney Catherine Lawson, the first woman to tweet a photo of her 14-year-old self with the hashtag #MeAt14. Lawson and the others on Twitter were responding to allegations against Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama, first reported in The Washington Post." See the pix & commentary at #Me@14."

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday challenged congressional Republicans to use tax reform to repeal Obamacare's individual mandate and slash the top tax rate for the wealthiest Americans to 35 percent, potentially throwing up new hurdles for legislation moving in Congress. Neither the House bill nor the Senate version under consideration repeals the individual mandate or proposes a top rate that is as low as Trump suggested on Monday." ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "For months, the White House has pledged that its tax plan will not benefit the rich -- or, at least, that it won't do so intentionally. Then, the House and Senate unveiled tax bills that deliver the lion's share of their benefits to the idle superrich, while raising taxes on a broad swath of middle-class households. The bills would also eliminate deductions that benefit veterans, indebted students, and people who suffer from rare diseases -- while preserving loopholes that enrich hedge-fund managers and owners of golf courses.... So: The populist president looked at legislation that increases the tax burden of half of all families with children -- even as it allows the heirs of multimillion-dollar estates to avoid paying all capital gains taxes on their inherited assets -- and concluded: This bill really needs to do more to increase the post-tax income of millionaires, and reduce the number of Americans with health insurance.... Here he is, bucking the congressional leadership ... by calling for an even more regressive tax-cut plan." Emphasis added.

Eileen Sullivan & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump nominated a pharmaceutical executive to be the next secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. The nominee, Alex M. Azar II, served as a deputy at the department under former President George W. Bush. Until January, he was the head of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly's United States division. Mr. Trump made his announcement in a Twitter post while traveling in Asia. Mr. Trump said Mr. Azar would be 'a star and lower drug prices!'" Mrs. McC: Because there's nothing a drug company exec wants to do more than lower drug prices. Donald Trump thinks you're stupider than he is.

*****

Click on photo for larger view.... David Nakamura of the Washington Post calls the photo the revenge of NYT photographer Doug Mills. "On Friday, Mills was part of the small group of traveling 'press pool' members shadowing Trump in Danang, Vietnam, when he tweeted a 'photo' of a black box to protest the White House's decision to shut out the pool from any coverage of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meetings." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: No way to know for sure why Trump is grimacing, but I would guess is that the crossed-arm handshake is painful, either because he never exercises the muscles the gesture requires or his arthritis is acting up. Or maybe it was something he ate. Notice, BTW, that Russian PM Dmitri Medvedev isn't playing along. Sure looks like the Russians were the "real winners" in the Asia confabs. It sure as hell wasn't Trump, who embarrassed & diminished his country in multiple ways. ...

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Monday that he had a 'great relationship' with President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, making little mention of human rights at his first face-to-face meeting with an authoritarian leader accused of carrying out a campaign of extrajudicial killings in his nation's war on drugs.... 'Human rights briefly came up in the context of the Philippines' fight against illegal drugs,' said Sarah Huckabee Sanders.... But Mr. Duterte's spokesman denied that the subject of rights was ever broached, even as the Philippine president spoke about the 'drug menace' in his country." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's see, whom to believe? Sarah Sanders or a spokesman for a mass killer? It's a toss-up, at best. But wait, wait, it gets worse: "Among those at the private session was Jose E. B. Antonio, a developer who is Mr. Trump's partner on a $150-million, 57-story luxury tower in Manila's financial district and also serves as Mr. Duterte's trade envoy to the United States." So of course Trump is promoting his "great relationship with Duterte. ...

     ... AND This: "The two presidents declined to answer questions during brief remarks to reporters at the start of the meeting. As journalists shouted questions about whether Mr. Trump would press Mr. Duterte on human rights, the Philippine president quickly silenced them. 'Whoa, whoa -- this is not the press statement,' Mr. Duterte said.... 'You are the spies,' he told the reporters, as Philippine security personnel jostled some of them roughly. The remarks elicited a hearty laugh from Mr. Trump before the journalists were led out of the room." Because roughing up the press is hilarious.

     ... It might be worth noting that Trump has much more incentive to be nice to dictators than to democratically-elected world leaders. The dictators are likely the ones who decide whether or not a Trump-branded real-estate development can go up in their country, whereas in democracies, lower-level bureaucrats and/or local politicians usually make those decisions. In addition, voters don't keep their leaders around forever, whereas dictators, in general, have a longer shelf-life. And, as we know, this whole presidency gig is all about Trump & nothing at all about the welfare of oppressed peoples.

Olivier Laughland of the Guardian: "Two former US intelligence chiefs [Former director of national intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director John Brennan] have said Donald Trump poses 'a peril' to the US because he is vulnerable to being 'played' by Russia, after the president said on Saturday he believed Vladimir Putin's denials of Russian interference in the 2016 election.... Speaking to reporters in Vietnam on Sunday, the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, attempted to downplay the president's online outbursts by claiming he did not read Trump's tweets. 'They are what they are,' Kelly said.... Brennan said the remarks were 'reprehensible' but added: 'Considering the source of the criticism, I consider that criticism a badge of honour.'" --safari ...

... Troll-in-Chief. Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "A common strategy for dealing with trolls on Twitter, since they can't be reasoned with, is to simply ignore them. It's the same strategy White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has taken with the President of the United States. Speaking to reporters on Sunday in Vietnam, Kelly said he doesn't pay attention to what Trump is tweeting. 'Believe it or not, I do not follow the tweets,' Kelly said. Kelly also said that he prohibits his staff from reacting to Trump's tweets and does not take them into account when developing policy." --safari: A new first: the Chief-of-Staff admits to completely ignoring our president*'s deepest thoughts, because he's a fucking moron.

E.J. Dionne: "The focus on President Trump's political strength among white working-class voters distracts from a truth that may be more important: His rise depended on support from rich conservatives, and his program serves the interests of those who have accumulated enormous wealth. This explains why so few congressional Republicans denounce him, no matter how close he edges toward autocracy, how much bigotry he spreads -- or how often he panders to Vladimir Putin and denounces our own intelligence officials, as he did again this weekend.... To borrow from the president, he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and still not lose House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) as long as they have a reactionary tax bill to push into law."

Deb Riechmann of TPM: "Two former CIA employees are accusing the Trump administration's choice for CIA chief watchdog [Christopher Sharpley] of being less than candid when he told Congress he didn't know about any active whistleblower complaints against him.... Sens. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden say they find it hard to believe Sharpley didn't know about the complaints when he testified. They said one of the open cases is being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog. They say that inspector general's office, which is looking into the CIA matter to avoid a conflict of interest, asked Sharpley in January for documents. The office asked to interview Sharpley on Oct. 12. Sharpley's office said he wouldn't be available until after Oct. 17 -- the day he testified to senators." --safari

Scott Shane, et al., of the New York Times: The National Security Agency, "America's largest and most secretive intelligence agency, [has] been deeply infiltrated.... The agency regarded as the world's leader in breaking into adversaries' computer networks failed to protect its own.... Fifteen months into a wide-ranging investigation by the agency's counterintelligence arm ... and the F.B.I., officials still do not know whether the N.S.A. is the victim of a brilliantly executed hack, with Russia as the most likely perpetrator, an insider's leak, or both.... A mysterious group [calling itself the Shadow Brokers] ... [has] somehow obtained many of the hacking tools the United States used to spy on other countries.... There is broad agreement that the damage from the Shadow Brokers already far exceeds the harm to American intelligence done by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You can bet Trump is sure Putin had nothing to do with it.

** Adios Puerto Rico! Adrienne Masha Varkiani of ThinkProgress: "It's been nearly two months since Hurricane Maria first hit Puerto Rico, creating a humanitarian emergency. Today, only 44.5 percent of the population has electricity, and nearly 13 percent of the island still doesn't have access to clean drinking water.... Despite these ongoing challenges, emergency management director Abner Gomez resigned on Friday, and Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, who leads the military relief effort, will also be reassigned outside the island next week.../ Gov. Ricardo Rossello did not give a reason for Gomez's resignation. Last month, El Nuevo Dia newspaper reported that Gomez went on a two-week vacation less than one month after the hurricane first hit.... On Wednesday, Puerto Rican officials said 472 more people died this September compared to the same time last year. But last month, BuzzFeed reported that the Puerto Rican goverment is allowing funeral homes and crematorium homes to burn the bodies of those who were killed by the hurricane without including them in the official death toll." --safari ...

... Frances Robles of the New York Times: "The small energy outfit from Montana that won a $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico's tattered power grid had few employees of its own, so it did what the Puerto Rican authorities could have done: It turned to Florida for workers.... The six electrical workers from Kissimmee are earning $42 an hour, plus overtime. The senior power linemen from Lakeland are earning $63 an hour working in Puerto Rico, the Florida utility said. Their 40 co-workers from Jacksonville, also linemen, are making up to $100 earning double time, public records show. But the Montana company that hired the workers, Whitefish Energy Holdings, had a contract that allowed it to bill the Puerto Rican public power company, known as Prepa, $319 an hour for linemen, a rate that industry experts said was far above the norm even for emergency work -- and almost 17 times the average salary of their counterparts in Puerto Rico.... Questions are already being raised about a second contract that Prepa signed, this one with an Oklahoma company, Cobra, which was the highest bidder, required a $15 million down payment and -- like the doomed Whitefish agreement -- included a clause that said the deal could not be audited."

Benjamin Hart of New York: "If you strike Obamacare down, it will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. That, so far, is the lesson for the Trump administration, which has done just about everything in its power to weaken, undermine, and subvert the Affordable Care Act -- and now must contend with the reality that Americans are not only voting to expand the law, but are racing to sign up for it in record numbers. A government report from last week showed that 601,462 people had enrolled in the Affordable Care Act's individual marketplaces during the first four days of open enrollment, up 79 percent from the same period a year ago. 23 percent of those customers are new to the marketplace.... The numbers are remarkable considering the lengths to which the Trump administration has gone to try to dissuade Americans from President Obama's signature law." --safari

Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: "Global carbon dioxide emissions are projected to rise again in 2017, climate scientists reported Monday, a troubling development for the environment and a major disappointment for those who had hoped emissions of the climate change-causing gas had at last peaked. The emissions from fossil fuel burning and industrial uses are projected to rise by up to 2 percent in 2017, as well as to rise again in 2018, the scientists told a group of international officials gathered for a United Nations climate conference in Bonn, Germany. Despite global economic growth, total emissions held level from 2014 to 2016 at about 36 billion tons per year, stoking hope among many climate change advocates that emissions had reached an all-time high point and would subsequently begin to decline." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm sure this is of great concern to the three stooges who are running U.S. energy policy: Trump, Perry & Pruitt.

Rays of Sunshine? Jen Kirby of Vox: "Election Day 2017 was a women's march through the voting booths.... The 2017 elections are widely seen as a bellwether for the 2018 midterms, and the gains among women make next year's election even more intriguing. So could 2018 be another 'Year of the Woman' -- a term that arose in 1992.... Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, says it's too early to tell. What is obvious, she says, is the wave of interest among women, especially Democratic women, in running for office." Includes interview with Debbie Walsh. --safari...

... Ezra Klein: "The political press -- myself included -- underestimated both the depth and the durability of [Trump's] support, and has been trying to atone for that mistake, and ensure it's not made again, ever since. But in trying to take Trump's staunchest supporters seriously, we need to make sure we don't lose sight of his weaker supporters -- and his numerous opponents. They're the ones who decided the 2016 election and will decide the 2018 and 2020 elections.... Here's the thing: No one will win in 2018 or 2020 by trying to convert the most hardcore of Trump supporters.... A 4 percentage point swing toward the Democratic candidate in 2020 wouldn't require converting any hardcore Trump enthusiasts, but it would bury his reelection campaign." --safari

Senate Race

Lisa Mascaro of the Los Angeles Times: "Many politicians might seize on allegations that Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore pursued sexual relations with teenage girls. But Democrat Doug Jones isn't going there. The former prosecutor, who won convictions against Ku Klux Klan members for killing four young girls in the infamous 1963 Birmingham church bombing, has his own story to tell as his unlikely campaign gains sudden momentum. At a Friday night fish fry in this modest, working-class neighborhood outside Mobile, Jones spent more time talking about his own record and what he would do in Washington than about the scandal engulfing Moore.... 'Our message is the same.... Kitchen-table issues -- jobs, the economy,' he continued. 'Healthcare is such an important issue for the state...." ...

... Daniel Politi of Slate: "... after the explosive allegations that [Republican nominee Roy Moore] had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl decades ago, Democratic contender Doug Jones is rising in the polls. A poll by JMC Analytics and Polling published on Sunday shows Jones with 46 percent to Moore's 42 percent. The results are within the poll's margin of error of 4.1 percentage points -- and nine percent remain undecided -- but it still demonstrates just how much the Senate race in Alabama has changed since the Washington Post's story last week." ...

... Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Top Trump administration officials cautioned Sunday that Roy S. Moore ... should be allowed to defend himself against allegations that he pursued sexual and romantic relationships with teenage girls, even as Senate Republicans appeared to have largely abandoned his candidacy." ... Mrs. McC: Moore has already "defended himself" in a bizarre interview with supporter Sean Hannity in which he admitted to dating underaged girls, said he never plied one of the girls with wine because the county was dry (it wasn't), denied foreplay with a 14-year-old girl, was hesitant & conveniently couldn't remember much. Here's a true thing: it's much easier for a rapist to forget statutory rape than for his victim. ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "At a Christian Citizen Task Force forum in Huntsville, Alabama, on Sunday night, Moore said the Post had impugned his character and reputation because 'they are desperate to stop my political campaign,' adding, 'these attacks said I was with a minor child and are false and untrue -- and for which they will be sued.'... Moore offered no details about what kind of suit he planned to file, or when he planned to file it.... Moore also said he planned to reveal more information about the background of his accusers. 'We've still got investigations going on,' Moore said. 'We're still finding out a lot we didn't know.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As I suggested earlier in response to Jonathan Swan's post about Breitbart "journalists," linked below, the response to the allegations against Moore will be to smear the women who spoke to the Post. This is a well-worn pattern: sexually assault a women, and if she complains, attack her character. ...

... Conjob. Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress: "White House adviser Kellyanne Conway refused repeatedly to say whether Alabama Republican Roy Moore should step aside in his Senate race over allegations he is a serial child molester.... In the process of demurring on Moore's guilt or innocence, Conway said elected officials who are guilty of sexual assault or harassment should resign -- a call to action that would seem to implicate Conway's boss.... 'And if the allegations are true about a lot of people, they oughta step aside,' Conway continued. 'And some of them are probably holding office right now.'" --safari ...

... Judd Legum: "Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) appeared on Meet The Press and became the latest Republican Senator to withdraw support from Roy Moore.... Toomey said 'the accusations are more reliable than the denial.' The other Republican Senators who have withdrawn their support from Moore since his appearance on Hannity are Mike Lee (R-UT), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA).... Marc Short, Trump's Director of Legislative Affairs, tried to create some distance between Moore and the White House on Sunday morning. 'There's no Senate seat more important than the issue of child pedophilia,' Short said." ...

... ** David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "Moore's politics and his personal life are not separate, but rather deeply interconnected. Both are rooted in defense of a specific subculture of evangelical conservatism that privileges an extreme form of patriarchy, gerontocracy and arranged child marriage.... It is disturbingly commonplace in this culture to see 'understandings' in which older men from their late twenties on well into middle age are 'given permission' to date much younger women and girls.... It is no surprise that some of Moore's defenders have taken to using Biblical precedent to defend it.... When Roy Moore rails against the government and demands that the Bible be the basis for all law and culture, this is the culture he is defending.... Moore isn't a troubled abuser who has besmirched his political agenda. His political creed and his personal affronts are one and the same." ...

     ... David Atkins, in a follow-up: "... [Sunday's] polling shows that 37% of Alabama evangelicals are actually more likely to vote for Roy Moore after hearing the allegations against him, and 34 percent said it would make no difference.... These numbers cannot be attributed to pure political tribalism. It is ... a culture of explicitly sanctioned sexual abuse." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Kinda makes you see Republican "traditional family values" in a whole new light, doesn't it?

... Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Steve Bannon has sent two of Breitbart News' top reporters ... to Alabama. Their mission: to discredit the Washington Post's reporting on Roy Moore's alleged sexual misconduct with teenagers." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: My guess is that the way these two fine "journalists" intend to "discredit" the WashPo story is to dig up dirt on the women & needlessly embarrass them.

Scott Shane: "For eight years, the jihadist propaganda of Anwar al-Awlaki has helped shape a generation of American terrorists, including the Fort Hood gunman, the Boston Marathon bombers and the perpetrators of massacres in San Bernardino, Calif., and Orlando, Fla. And YouTube, the world's most popular video site, has allowed hundreds of hours of Mr. Awlaki's talks to be within easy reach of anyone with a phone or computer. Now, under growing pressure from governments and counterterrorism advocates, YouTube has drastically reduced its video archive of Mr. Awlaki, an American cleric who remains the leading English-language jihadist recruiter on the internet six years after he was killed by a United States drone strike. Using video fingerprinting technology, YouTube now flags his videos automatically and human reviewers block most of them before anyone sees them, company officials say."

Brett Samuels of The Hill: "No NFL players protested during the national anthem during Sunday's early games, according to multiple reports. The NFL Players Association unanimously passed a resolution earlier in the week calling for a moment of silence during Sunday's games in honor of Veterans Day. Players who previously knelt or raised their fists during the anthem stood this week.... Players had been spotted protesting each week since Trump's remarks, until Sunday." --safari ...

... AP Update: "Three players took a knee during the national anthem before the New York Giants game at the San Francisco 49ers, as the rest of the league stood during Veterans Day weekend. 49ers Eric Reid and Marquise Goodwin, both of whom have been protesting for most of the season, knelt, as did Giants defensive end Olivier Vernon, who was just activated. Vernon had been protesting while he was injured. Goodwin and his wife had lost their baby son earlier on Sunday due to complications during pregnancy. David Lombardi of The Athletic later tweeted a photo of Reid embracing an Air Force member. Reid has said his protest is not against the military." ...

... GQ has named Colin Kaepernick it's "Citizen of the Year" & put him on its cover. The story is here. Mrs. McC: And a big GQ-FU to non-citizen of the year Donald Trump.

Way Beyond

Build that Wall ... Sky-High? Jeremy Kryt of The Daily Beast: "The 3DR Solo Quadcopter carried a shrapnel-filled IED that was in turn rigged to detonate by remote control. It was the first time a weaponized Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) had been found in the hands of an organized crime group in Mexico. While contraband-laden drones operated by Mexican cartels have frequently penetrated U.S. airspace, none of them have been armed -- yet. But the drone's discovery comes at a time of widespread escalation o crime-related violence in Mexico, and could be a sign of things to come." --safari

Hamdi Alkshali & Ralph Ellis of CNN: "Mass graves containing the remains of civilians executed by ISIS have been found in the disputed Iraqi province of Kirkuk, Iraqi authorities told reporters on Saturday.... That area was an American base prior to 2011, Kirkuk Governor Rakan Saeed said. 'We are standing here, where ... at least 400 civilians were dragged, some in their red jumpsuits, and brutally executed by ISIS,' he said." --safari

Iona Craig of the Guardian: "Seven million people are on on the brink of famine in war-torn Yemen, which was already in the grip of the world's worst cholera outbreak when coalition forces led by Saudi Arabia tightened its blockade on the country last week, stemming vital aid flows." --safari

Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress: "Right-wing racists flew in from Slovakia, Hungary, and Spain to join tens of thousands of Poles at a white supremacist rally in Warsaw on Saturday where marchers bore signs with messages like 'Europe Will Be White' and 'Clean Blood.' Reporters on hand said the crowd numbered roughly 60,000, citing police estimates. A polish neo-nazi group called The Radical Camp, borrowing its name from a 1930s fascist movement in the country, organized the march.... Counterprotesters also showed up in far smaller numbers. One small group in the square held a sign reading 'We are Polish Jews' and stood encircled by police. Nearby, a group of 2,000 anti-fascists rallied in opposition to the massive hate march. Poland's resurgent fascist youth movement has embraced ... Donald Trump, whose campaign manager Steve Bannon worked for years to exploit white ethno-nationalist political energy in western Europe as well as the United States from his position leading Breitbart.com."

Jon Henley & Rajeev Syal of the Guardian: "The EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said the bloc is drawing up contingency plans for the possible collapse of Britain's departure talks.... The remarks came as Theresa May faces increasing pressure at home, with Tory and Labour MPs warning she risks a Commons defeat over Brexit within weeks if she continues to deny parliament a meaningful vote on the final deal with the EU." --safari

Barbie Latza Nadeau of The Daily Beast: "Americans may have a lot to learn from the fact that Italians have just welcomed Silvio Berlusconi, an 81-year-old cad tried for sex crimes and convicted of tax crimes, back to mainstream politics. Berlusconi, Italy's thrice-elected prime minister, known as the grand master of 'bunga bunga' sex parties and leering licentiousness, arrived at his political homecoming party on the posh island of Ischia last month aboard a fancy yacht alongside his 30-year-old live-in girlfriend ... and his closest advisors.... Berlusconi's comeback might also serve as a warning to those Americans who find it hard to swallow the notion that vile behavior, even on such a grand scale as Berlusconi's, can be forgiven in pursuit of agendas like tax breaks." --safari

News Lede

Washington Post: "More than 300 people have been killed and nearly 6,000 wounded in a powerful earthquake that jolted the Iran-Iraq border late Sunday, Iranian state media reported. The death toll was expected to rise even further, officials said. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said Monday that 341 people had been killed and 5,953 injured mainly in Iran's western provinces after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Iraqi side of the border, sending seismic shock waves as far as Lebanon, Israel, and Turkey. Seven people were killed in Iraq...."

The Commentariat -- November 12, 2017

David Lawler of Axios: "Rep. Kevin Brady, chairman of the Ways and Means committee, was unequivocal when asked on 'Fox News Sunday' whether he could guarantee that deductions for state and local taxes would not be eliminated in the final tax plan: 'I can,' he said."

*****

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "In a stream of tweets on Sunday, the president said those who wanted to investigate his ties to Russia were 'haters and fools,' ridiculed 'crooked' Hillary Clinton's ill-fated effort to reset relations with Russia and fired back at North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, for calling him old, saying that he could call Mr. Kim 'short and fat' -- but had restrained himself. That followed a freewheeling session with reporters on Air Force One on Saturday, in which Mr. Trump dismissed the Russia investigation as a Democratic 'hit job' and derided as 'political hacks' three former chiefs of the nation's intelligence agencies, all three of which concluded that Russia had meddled in the 2016 presidential election.... Pressed again on Sunday about whether he believed President Vladimir V. Putin's denials that Russia had intervened, Mr. Trump seemed to walk back his earlier comments somewhat.... 'As to whether I believe it or not, I'm with our agencies, especially as currently constituted, with their leadership,' Mr. Trump said at a news conference with Vietnam's president, Tran Dai Quang. 'I believe in our agencies. I've worked with them very strongly.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Landler is perplexed about what caused Trump to start mean-tweeting. But it seems obvious: somebody in the administration told him a POTUS had to put the U.S. before the leader of an adversarial government. So he came up with that weird "very strongly" line, but he wasn't happy about it. ...

... Karen DeYoung, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump said that President Vladimir Putin had assured him again Saturday that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 presidential campaign, and indicated that he believed Putin's sincerity, drawing immediate criticism from lawmakers and former intelligence officials who assessed that the meddling took place.... Former CIA director Michael V. Hayden said he was so concerned by Trump's statement that he contacted the agency to confirm that it stood by the January assessment. He described Trump's remarks as 'egregious comments on the character of folks who have been public servants ... [and] the public should know that these guys are thoroughgoing professionals, and what the president left unsaid is that the people he put into these jobs agree with the so-called hacks.'... Michael Morell, a former acting director and deputy director of the CIA, said Trump was 'biting hook, line and sinker' the word of Putin, a former intelligence officer who is a 'trained liar and manipulator.' Although progress had been made in the intelligence community's initial raw relationship with Trump, Morell said in an email, 'this will most definitely be a step backward.' Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of the panels investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, said he was left 'completely speechless' by Trump's willingness to take Putin's word 'over the conclusions of our own combined intelligence community.'... Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a statement that 'there's nothing "America First" about taking the word of a KGB colonel over that of the American intelligence community ... Vladimir Putin does not have America's interests at heart. To believe otherwise is not only naive but also places our national security at risk.'" ...

... Daniella Diaz of CNN: "CIA Director Mike Pompeo stands by US intelligence assessments that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, the agency said Saturday, despite ... Donald Trump saying he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin when he says his country didn't interfere." Mrs. McC: That's not exactly what Trump said: rather, he said he believed Putin was sincere in his denials of Russian interference. That's stupid, but it's not quite saying he believes Putin, although of course he implied it by running down our own intelligence assessments & the men who directed them. ...

... The Washington Post story on the Trump-Putin chats, by Ashley Parker & David Nakamura, also linked yesterday, has been updated several times. Here are a few additions: "On Saturday, Trump described former FBI director James Comey, who testified to Congress that Trump asked him to drop an investigation into his campaign's ties to Russian officials, as a proven 'liar' and 'leaker.' Trump called the former U.S. intelligence officials who concluded the Russians tampered -- including former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and former CIA director John Brennan -- 'political hacks.'... Of Putin, he added: 'He says that very strongly, he really seems to be insulted by it, and he says he didn't do it. He is very, very strong in the fact that he didn't do it. You have President Putin very strongly, vehemently, says he has nothing to do with that....'... Trump did not answer when asked during the flight to Hanoi whether he believed Putin's denial of the tampering.... Yet a Kremlin spokesman denied that the two leaders discussed election meddling, according to CNN." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump said that Putin spoke so strongly -- 'He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did" -- and that our own intelligence agencies were run by liars and hacks. This implies, IMO, that the head of government of an adversarial nation is more believable & trustworthy than is U.S. intelligence. Whatever your political leanings, this is an alarming, anti-American statement. And it's coming from the President of the United States. ...

... Amber Phillips of the Washington Post has Trump's full remarks aboard AF1 to the press, annotated, here. Here's another comment Trump made about Putin: "And there are those that say, if he did do it, he wouldn't have gotten caught, all right? Which is a very interesting statement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Dan Merica of CNN: "... Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin informally met on the sidelines of a regional economic summit in Vietnam Saturday and agreed to an extensive statement on the conflict in Syria. The statement, which reaffirms the leaders' commitment to defeat ISIS in the country, stresses the need to keep existing military communications open and agrees that the bloody conflict does not have a military solution. 'President Trump and President Putin today, meeting on the margins of the APEC conference in Da Nang, Vietnam, confirmed their determination to defeat ISIS in Syria,' the statement reads, adding later that Trump felt he had a 'good meeting with President Putin.'... The statement mostly addresses long-accepted areas of agreement between the United States and Russia...." ...

... Mark Landler: "President Trump has issued two starkly contradictory calls on his trip to Asia this past week: The nations of the world must rally behind the United States to confront the nuclear threat from North Korea, but they should expect America to go its own way on trade. Reconciling those messages will be hard.... The contradictions also reflect a more fundamental disarray in the presidency's policy toward Asia. It seems caught between the geopolitical realism of Mr. Trump's diplomats and the economic nationalism of his political aides. These competing impulses have left allies and adversaries alike confused about America's motives and staying power. Over time, several experts said, the balancing act will be impossible to maintain." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Nakamura & Ashley Parker: "On his third day in office, President Trump signed an executive memorandum withdrawing the United States from a 12-nation Asia-Pacific trade accord that had been painstakingly negotiated over a decade by two of his White House predecessors.... But on the 295th day of his presidency -- during a trip to the region where the trade pact was most vital -- a competing narrative emerged. Trump's 'America first' slogan has, in many ways, begun to translate into something more akin to 'America alone.'"

The New York Times Editors urge Trump to read the Constitution: "... throughout his candidacy and presidency, Mr. Trump has treated the Constitution less as a guiding light than as an inconvenient hindrance. 'His idea of the presidency is, he was elected and he can do whatever he wants,' said Corey Brettschneider, a professor of political science at Brown University and author of 'The Oath and the Office: A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents.'... 'Presidents usually regard the oath as a set of legally binding principles that they abide by,' Mr. Brettschneider said. 'Trump tends to think of things in terms of real estate law -- ways to get around legal requirements rather than enforcing and promoting them. That's scary, because we rely on a president to espouse the norms of the Constitution.'" The editors provide "a small sampling of Mr. Trump's depredations of those foundational amendments -- via tweet, speech or interview -- over the past two and a half years." We've hit most if not all of them here.

Mark Hosenball & John Walcott of Reuters: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has questioned Sam Clovis, co-chairman of ... Donald Trump's election campaign, to determine if Trump or top aides knew of the extent of the campaign team's contacts with Russia, two sources familiar with the investigation said on Friday.... 'The ultimate question Mueller is after is whether candidate Trump and then President-elect Trump knew of the discussions going on with Russia, and who approved or even directed them,' said one source. 'That is still just a question.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... it certainly appears that Cambridge Analytica was heavily involved with trying to get Clinton's stolen emails, and was aware that Russia had engineered their theft, and played an important role facilitating cooperation between Russia and the Trump campaign." Chait connects the known dots. There are quite a few of them. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... in [Mike] Flynn's case, if the allegations [about his $15MM deal with Turkey] are proved to be true, the scandal would ... resemble ... Teapot Dome (the 1920's scandal that took down former Interior Secretary Albert Fall for selling public oil leases), but with a dash of treason. That a presidential National Security Advisor would sell his influence to a foreign government so quickly and cheaply is a very big deal, which we need to linger over before returning to the rest of the issues Mueller is investigating." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Trump Team Begins Drafting Middle East Peace Plan" seems like an Andy Borowitz headline, but it actually heads a story by Peter Baker & is the New York Times' top story this morning. "President Trump and his advisers have begun developing their own concrete blueprint to end the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, a plan intended to go beyond previous frameworks offered by the American government in pursuit of what the president calls 'the ultimate deal.'" Mrs. Mc.C: Also, that's as far as I could read.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times has the most depressing story of the day, especially for younger people who will bear the brunt of it: Trump is reshaping the federal courts with young, ultra-conservative judges.

** Trumpian Values. Adam Davidson of the New Yorker: "[T]he Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. E.I.T.I., formed in 2003, is an international organization through which governments, private citizens, and corporations seek to reduce the rampant pilfering of wealth in the oil, gas, mineral, and other extractive industries.... The membership roll has been growing rapidly and now includes dozens of nations.... As of last spring, the Trump Administration seemed to be moving away from years of enthusiastic, bipartisan American support of E.I.T.I.... Now we learn that the Trump Administration is abandoning the global pact...[T]he U.S. pulling out of E.I.T.I. ... does show that the Trump Administration is actively implementing, in real policy, its avowed distrust -- even contempt -- for international compacts designed to improve the lives of people around the world. That is terrifying." --safari

Senate Race

Everybody Thought Roy Was Weird. Max Greenwood of the Hill: "A former colleague of GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore said Saturday that it was 'common knowledge' that the Alabama Republican dated high school girls when he worked in the Etowah County District Attorney's Office in the 1980s. In a statement to CNN, Teresa Jones, who served as deputy district attorney for Etowah County, Ala., from 1982 until 1985, said that multiple people thought it was unusual that Moore dated high school girls, but that no one ever raised the matter with him. 'It was common knowledge that Roy Moore dated high school girls, everyone we knew thought it was weird,' Jones told CNN. 'We wondered why someone his age would hang out at high school football games and the mall ... but you really wouldn't say anything to someone like that.'"

News Lede

New York Times: "Liz Smith, the longtime queen of New York's tabloid gossip columns, who for more than three decades chronicled little triumphs and trespasses in the soap-opera lives of the rich, the famous and the merely beautiful, died on Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She was 94."