The Commentariat -- October 24, 2017

... Kristine Phillips & Freedom du Lac of the Washington Post: "Making her first public comments since she took the call from Trump last week -- on the same day her husband's remains were flown back to the United States -- [Myeshia] Johnson recalled that the president said her husband 'knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyways. And it made me cry. I was very angry at the tone of his voice, and how he said it.' She added: 'I didn't say anything. I just listened.' Trump on Monday disputed Johnson's account, characterizing his conversation with her as 'very respectful.' 'I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon). ...

... ** In Effect, Trump Called a Gold Star Widow a Liar. Amy Sorkin of the New Yorker: "There were no accompanying words of compassion [from Trump] for Johnson, who said that the call 'made me cry even worse.'... This is a steep escalation of Trump's claims that Representative Frederica Wilson, who was in a car with Johnson during the call, and said that the President had not been respectful, had 'totally fabricated' her account of it." ...

     ... Mrs Bea McCrabbie: Let me think, whom do I believe? The apolitical new widow of an American soldier KIA or a guy who tells a whopper -- in public -- an average of five times a day? That of course does not include the many fibs he surely tells off-the-record. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: The headline on Politico's story is "Trump spars with widow of slain soldier about condolence call." I'm no historian, but I'll bet a headline that reads "[President] spars with widow of slain soldier" is a first in American history. ...

...Spineless. Luke Barnes of ThinkProgress: "[A]s Trump attacked a grieving military widow, Congressional Republicans were completely silent online...Several Democrats blasted Trump for attacking a Gold Star widow." --safari...

... AND Andy Borotwitz "reports," "Calling himself 'unbelievably brave,' Donald Trump said on Monday that he is the only President in U.S. history with the courage to stand up to war widows." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Since Trump thinks all the liberal media put out is "fake news," we should quit labeling the Borowitz Report as satire & just accept it as another news source. If the right can treat its nutty conspiracy theories as news, why can't we? Comedians' "reports" are more truthy than are the "reports" of some right-wing outlets. ...

... Daniella Diaz of CNN: "Some senators are saying they didn't know the US had troops in Niger as questions swirl about the raid that killed four US servicemen there earlier this month.The Pentagon, however, said Monday it has kept Congress informed of the operation." Among those who said they didn't know were Lindsey Graham & Chuck Schumer.

... Michelle Goldberg makes the case that Democrats should publicly urge Trump's impeachment now. "... as the Harvard Law scholar Cass Sunstein, author of the recent book 'Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide,' told me, that doesn't mean Congress can impeach only a president who is caught breaking the law. 'Crime is neither necessary nor sufficient,' said Sunstein.... 'If the president went on vacation in Madagascar for six months, that's not a crime, but that's impeachable.'"

... Paul Krugman: John "Kelly has neither admitted error nor apologized. Instead, the White House declared that it's unpatriotic to criticize generals -- which, aside from being a deeply un-American position, is ludicrous given the many times Donald Trump has done just that. But we are living in the age of Trumpal infallibility: We are ruled by men who never admit error, never apologize and, crucially, never learn from their mistakes. Needless to say, men who think admitting error makes you look weak just keep making bigger mistakes; delusions of infallibility eventually lead to disaster, and one can only hope that the disasters ahead don't bring catastrophe for all of us.... Trumpal infallibility ... is a disease that infested the modern Republican Party long before Trump. And one of the areas where the symptoms are especially severe is monetary policy." Krugman discusses some zombie errors confederate economists can never admit.

Naomi Jagoda of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday tweeted that changes won't be made to 401(k) plans after reports that congressional Republicans were considering a major alteration to the retirement accounts in forthcoming tax-reform legislation." Mrs. McC: I would not count on taking this or any other Trump promise to the bank. (Also linked yesterday afternoon). ...

... Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Monday that he would oppose any effort to reduce the amount of pretax income that American workers can save in 401(k) retirement accounts, effectively killing an idea that Republicans were mulling as a way to help pay for a $1.5 trillion tax cut. The directive, issued via Twitter, underscored a growing fear among Republicans and business lobbyists that Mr. Trump's bully-pulpit whims could undermine the party's best chance to pass the most sweeping rewrite of the tax code in decades.... Mr. Trump 'can shift on a dime, and he has many unformed policy positions,' said Representative Charlie Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania. 'We have to worry about him shifting positions.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The only "reform" bill Trump would not sign is one that had too few Tax-cuts-for-Trump provisions. Otherwise, Trump will sign any bill he can call a "win." If Republicans brought him a bill that abolished 401(k)s & confiscated all 401(k) funds which Americans had previously saved, Trump would sign it.

Best Way to Influence Trump: Appeal to His Greed. Eric Levitz: "In a perfect world, the American president would neither take foreign-policy advice from a casino magnate with ties to the Chinese government, nor give special preference to asylum-seekers who frequent his luxury properties. But sometimes, the next best option is, apparently, to have a president who does both.... The Wall Street Journal ... reports that casino tycoon Steve Wynn ... [who] owns multiple billion-dollar gambling properties in the Chinese region of Macau ... hand-delivered a letter to Trump that was written by the Chinese government. In the missive, Beijing urged the president to extradite Guo Wengui, a Chinese businessman turned vocal critic of corruption in Xi Jinping's government. Guo fled China in 2014 and is currently seeking asylum in the United States.... During an Oval Office discussion of the Guo affair in June ... the president reportedly ... [told] his top advisers, 'We need to get this criminal [Guo] out of the country.' Those advisers eventually convinced Trump not to deport the Chinese dissident -- in part, by alerting the president to the fact that Guo was a member of his Mar-a-Lago club...."

** Ignoramus-in-Chief, Ctd. Matt Yglesias of Vox: "It's not exactly a news flash at this point that Donald Trump isn't very fluent on questions of public policy, but his interview over the weekend with Fox Business Channel's Maria Bartiromo is really a sobering reminder of the levels of ignorance and dishonesty that the country is dealing with. Bartiromo is an extraordinarily soft interviewer who doesn't ask Trump any difficult questions.... That makes the extent to which he manages to flub the interview all the more striking. He's simply incapable of discussing any topic at any length in anything remotely resembling an informed or coherent way. He says the Federal Reserve is 'important psychotically' and it's part of one of his better answers, since one can at least tell that he meant to say 'psychologically.'" Do read on. Trump is so ignorant, he's funny -- until you consider the consequences. Mrs. McC: I continue to think Trump is suffering from a form of dementia. President Reagan, who had Alzheimer's, didn't mess up like this. ...

... For Instance, There's This. Apocalypse Soon. Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "The fear that ... Donald Trump is returning the world to the nightmare years of the Cold War, when nuclear annihilation was an ever-looming threat, got more intense over the weekend with the news that the United States Air Force is preparing to put B-52 bombers on 24-hour alert for the first time since 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. According to the news site Defense One, the Air Force is anticipating an escalation in its deterrence duties as part of a general shift in America's nuclear posture, sparked by 'North Korea's rapidly advancing nuclear arsenal, President Trump's confrontational approach to Pyongyang, and Russia's increasingly potent and active armed forces.'... But the danger comes not just from Dr. Strangelove-style scenarios in which Trump lurches into the apocalypse, with his hapless military staff in tow. It also comes from a degradation of America's nuclear policy, caused by a combination of Pentagon hubris and Trump's punch-drunk diplomacy, which taken together would cause the other nations of the world to abandon diplomacy and put their faith in their own nuclear stockpiles. The longer-term danger isn't that Trump blows up the world, but that he pushes the international system towards a world with many more nukes in many more hands."

Andrew Desiderio of The Daily Beast: "When Congress sent President Donald Trump a bill in July that slapped new sanctions on Russia, the president signed the legislation reluctantly.... The administration has since blown past an October 1 deadline to implement the sanctions. Lawmakers are now searching for answers as to whether the president is even planning to follow the law.... But aside from procedural tactics, Congress is essentially powerless in compelling the executive branch to follow through on the law it forced them to sign." --safari

The Slime Always Floats on the Top of the Pond. Anita Kumar & Ben Weider of McClatchy News have a swell report on Steve Bannon's murky but lucrative ties to Middle Eastern interests. Among the names that figure into the report: Michael Flynn, Erik Prince and Robert Mercer. ...

... Charles Pierce: "One of the things that often eludes people about Steve Bannon, still apparently a presidential* adviser and the only surviving heir to House Harkonnen, is the money. For example, without the Mercer fortune, he's stapling his Deep Thoughts about world politics to a lamp post in Washington Square. He's also cozied up to people like Erik Prince, the founder of the former Blackwater murder gang and -- Bannon hopes -- possible future U.S. Senator from Wyoming."

Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "Banker turned human-rights activist Bill Browder says his authorization to travel to the US using his British passport via an ESTA visa was revoked on the same day that Russian prosecutors issued an Interpol warrant for his arrest on charges of tax evasion and murder. Browder tweeted over the weekend that Russian President Vladimir Putin had managed, on the fifth attempt, to place him on the Interpol list after four previous rejections by the International Police Organization.... The same day the warrant was issued, Browder said, he was notified that his ESTA had been revoked. Browder gave up his US citizenship in 1998 and became a British citizen. ESTA, or the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, is an automated system that allows tourists from a Visa Waiver Program country to travel to the US for business or pleasure for 90 days or less..... He also said the Department of Homeland Security 'refused to provide any answers' when he initially asked last week why his ESTA had been revoked. 'They suggested I file a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request and wait for the answer, which can take as long as six months,' Browder said.... Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya detailed Browder's alleged misconduct in a memo that she brought with her to a meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner at Trump Tower last June. The document closely mirrored a memo written by the Russian prosecutor's office months earlier...." Mrs. McC: Why, you might think the whole Trump administration was still collaborating with the Russians. ...

     ... Too Hot to Handle? Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "The Department of Homeland Security said Monday that it has restored the visa of Bill Browder, a prominent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who announced Sunday that the Trump administration had prevented him from traveling to the United States, drawing sharp criticism of the department.... Browder's visa status quickly drew concern from US lawmakers and prominent former government officials." ...

... Tom Hunter & Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Tony Podesta and the Podesta Group are now the subjects of a federal investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, three sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News. The probe of Podesta and his Democratic-leaning lobbying firm grew out of Mueller's inquiry into the finances of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to the sources. As special counsel, Mueller has been tasked with investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Manafort had organized a public relations campaign for a non-profit called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU). Podesta's company was one of many firms that worked on the campaign, which promoted Ukraine's image in the West.... Tony Podesta is the chairman of the Podesta Group and the brother of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chairman. John Podesta is not currently affiliated with the Podesta Group and is not part of Mueller's investigation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon). ...

... Daisuke Wakabayashi & Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "... as investigators in Washington examine the scope and reach of Russian interference in United States politics, the once-cozy relationship between RT and YouTube is drawing closer scrutiny. YouTube -- the world's most-visited video site, owned by one of the most powerful and influential corporations in America -- played a crucial role in helping build and expand RT, an organization that the American intelligence community has described as the Kremlin's 'principal international propaganda outlet' and a key player in Russia's information warfare operations around the world.... YouTube also provided RT with the kind of perks it reserved for big publishers, including custom backgrounds for its channel in the early days and a 'check mark' that designated RT as a verified news source. Until recently, RT was also among a select group of news organizations included in Google's 'preferred' news lineup, granting them access to guaranteed revenue from premium advertisers. Those advertisers, in effect, subsidized Russia's international propaganda arm. Google dropped RT from the preferred lineup last month."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Larry Harmon, a software engineer who lives near Akron, Ohio..., sometimes he stays home on Election Day, on purpose.... It turned out that Mr. Harmon's occasional decisions not to vote had led election officials to strike his name from the voting rolls. On Nov. 8, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether the officials had gone too far in making the franchise a use-it-or-lose-it proposition.... The question for the justices is whether two federal laws allow Ohio to cull its voter rolls using notices prompted by the failure to vote. The laws prohibit states from removing people from voter rolls 'by reason of the person's failure to vote.' But they allow election officials who suspect that a voter has moved to send a confirmation notice." (Also linked yesterday afternoon).

Paul Fahri of the Washington Post: "Megyn Kelly waded back into territory she vowed to leave behind on Monday, saying on her new NBC morning program that she complained about Bill O'Reilly while she was an anchor at Fox News but was ignored. In an extraordinary monologue, Kelly went after O'Reilly, her former bosses and colleagues, accusing the network of fostering a toxic culture for its female employees. 'O'Reilly's suggestion that no one ever complained about his behavior is false,' Kelly said during 'Megyn Kelly Today.' 'I know because I complained.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon). ...

... It's All About Bill. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "'It's horrible what I went through, horrible what my family went through,' Bill O'Reilly said of the sexual harassment allegations that cost him his job at Fox News. Mr. O'Reilly spoke on the record to my colleagues Emily Steel and Michael S. Schmidt, addressing the latest reporting on a $32 million settlement he reached with a longtime network analyst." An audio tape of the conversation follows. (Also linked yesterday afternoon). ...

... Caroline Bankoff of New York: "At one point, O'Reilly claimed that previous reporting on his history of harassment had brought 'indescribable pain' to his children (in front of whom he allegedly beat his ex-wife), and then appeared to blame journalists for the death of his former colleague Eric Bolling's son.... In a statement to Steel, Bolling called O'Reilly's behavior 'beyond inappropriate[.]'... A couple of hours later, O'Reilly apologized[.]" Mrs. McC: Which makes O'Reilly something less of an ass than is Trump. (See Krugman's "Trumpian infallibility doctrine," linked above.) ...

...God drops the ball. Elizabeth Preza of RawStory: "Disgraced former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly added another figure to the cadre of people he holds responsible for his alleged sexual misconduct, telling listeners of the web series 'No Spin News' that he also blames God for how the events transpired. 'You know, am I mad at God? Yeah, I'm mad at him,' O'Reilly said, according to CNN. 'I wish I had more protection. I wish this stuff didn't happen. I can't explain it to you. Yeah, I'm mad at him.'" --safari

Bump Stock Who? Sam Stein of The Daily Beast: "Three weeks after the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, efforts to pass even scaled-down gun-control legislation have effectively stalled on Capitol Hill. Congressional aides and issue advocates say they see no viable path for passing even the most promising bill: an effort to ban the manufacturing and sale of bump stocks." --safari

Annals of "Journalism"? Ctd.

Blame it on these bitter political times.... The nasty back-and-forth with Frederica S. Wilson, a Democratic congresswoman who is close to the soldier's family, might have dissipated had she not repeatedly disparaged Mr. Trump's intentions on national television, failing to extend him the benefit of the doubt that previous presidents had received.... And Ms. Wilson, a flamboyant, cowboy-hat-wearing Democrat, is just the kind of critic that can push Mr. Trump's buttons. -- Michael Shear, in a New York Times report, October 21 ...

... Charles Pierce: "What Congresswoman Wilson did was repeat, apparently verbatim, what the president* said to the widow of a fallen U.S. soldier. As we have come to expect, the president* sank to the occasion quite abysmally.... This, of course, was a graphic illustration, as though we needed another, that the Republic is in the hands of madmen. You have to really strain those Both Sides muscles to hang this fiasco on Wilson.... I'm just going to assume that the editors at the Times who OK'd this nonsense were sockless drunk celebrating Babbling Day and let it go at that." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: When Shear described Wilson as the kind of person who could push Trump's buttons, he, no doubt purposely, omitted her two most important qualifications – she's a woman AND she's black. For the record, Shear & Peter Baker are the NYT's top disciples of the Church of Both Sides Do It.

Casey Hopkins of Mediaite: "Fox News has parted ways with Jerusalem-based correspondent John Huddy. The timing of this news coming out is sure to raise eyebrows as it has nearly immediately followed a shocking interview that his sister Juliet Huddy had with Megyn Kelly today. Ms. Huddy appeared on the Today show to discuss her settled sexual harassment allegations against former Fox News anchor, Bill O'Reilly, a story that has led to numerous accusations leveled by O'Reilly, Kelly's husband and Fox News. Not a pretty story by any stretch." Fox claimed it fired John Huddy because of a "physical altercation earlier this month."

Beyond the Beltway

What happens when an 11-year-old Cub Scout asks a Colorado Republican state senator about her far-right votes on gun control? (a) He earns a merit badge in politics; (b) The den leader throws him out. Check the link to verify your answer, which I'm sure you got right. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- October 23, 2017

Afternoon Update:

... Kristine Phillips & Freedom du Lac of the Washington Post: "Making her first public comments since she took the call from Trump last week -- on the same day her husband's remains were flown back to the United States -- [Myeshia] Johnson recalled that the president said her husband 'knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyways. And it made me cry. I was very angry at the tone of his voice, and how he said it.' She added: 'I didn't say anything. I just listened.' Trump on Monday disputed Johnson's account, characterizing his conversation with her as 'very respectful.' 'I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!'" ...

     ... Mrs McCrabbie: Let me think, whom do I believe? The apolitical new widow of an American soldier or a guy who tells a whopper -- in public -- an average of five times a day? That of course does not include the many fibs he surely tells off-the-record. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: The headline on Politico's story is "Trump spars with widow of slain soldier about condolence call." I'm no historian, but I'll bet a headline that reads "[President] spars with widow of slain soldier" is a first in American history.

Naomi Jagoda of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday tweeted that changes won't be made to 401(k) plans after reports that congressional Republicans were considering a major alteration to the retirement accounts in forthcoming tax-reform legislation." Mrs. McC: I would not count on taking this or any other Trump promise to the bank.

Tom Hunter & Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Tony Podesta and the Podesta Group are now the subjects of a federal investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, three sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News. The probe of Podesta and his Democratic-leaning lobbying firm grew out of Mueller's inquiry into the finances of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to the sources. As special counsel, Mueller has been tasked with investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Manafort had organized a public relations campaign for a non-profit called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU). Podesta's company was one of many firms that worked on the campaign, which promoted Ukraine's image in the West.... Tony Podesta is the chairman of the Podesta Group and the brother of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chairman. John Podesta is not currently affiliated with the Podesta Group and is not part of Mueller's investigation."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Larry Harmon, a software engineer who lives near Akron, Ohio..., sometimes he stays home on Election Day, on purpose.... It turned out that Mr. Harmon's occasional decisions not to vote had led election officials to strike his name from the voting rolls. On Nov. 8, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether the officials had gone too far in making the franchise a use-it-or-lose-it proposition.... The question for the justices is whether two federal laws allow Ohio to cull its voter rolls using notices prompted by the failure to vote. The laws prohibit states from removing people from voter rolls 'by reason of the person's failure to vote.' But they allow election officials who suspect that a voter has moved to send a confirmation notice."

Paul Fahri of the Washington Post: "Megyn Kelly waded back into territory she vowed to leave behind on Monday, saying on her new NBC morning program that she complained about Bill O'Reilly while she was an anchor at Fox News but was ignored. In an extraordinary monologue, Kelly went after O'Reilly, her former bosses and colleagues, accusing the network of fostering a toxic culture for its female employees. 'O'Reilly's suggestion that no one ever complained about his behavior is false,' Kelly said during 'Megyn Kelly Today.' 'I know because I complained.'" ...

... It's All About Bill. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "'It's horrible what I went through, horrible what my family went through,' Bill O'Reilly said of the sexual harassment allegations that cost him his job at Fox News. Mr. O'Reilly spoke on the record to my colleagues Emily Steel and Michael S. Schmidt, addressing the latest reporting on a $32 million settlement he reached with a longtime network analyst." An audio tape of the conversation follows.

What happens when an 11-year-old Cub Scout asks a Colorado Republican state senator about her far-right votes on gun control? (a) He earns a merit badge in politics; (b) The den leader throws him out. Check the link to verify your answer, which I'm sure you got right.

*****

Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump campaigned as one of the world's greatest dealmakers, but after nine months of struggling to broker agreements, lawmakers in both parties increasingly consider him an untrustworthy, chronically inconsistent and easily distracted negotiator. As Trump prepares to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to unify his party ahead of a high-stakes season of votes on tax cuts and budget measures, some Republicans are openly questioning his negotiating abilities and devising strategies to keep him from changing his mind. The president's propensity to create diversions and follow tangents has kept him from focusing on his legislative agenda and forced lawmakers who might be natural allies on key policies into the uncomfortable position of having to answer for his behavior and outbursts."

Charles Blow: "Donald Trump has a particular taste for the degradation of racial, ethnic and religious minorities and women -- and God forbid those identities should overlap -- as a way a playing out his personal sense of racial, sexist, and patriarchal entitlement. And as he degrades, he plays to those very same entitlements in the base that elected him. This has manifested itself most recently in a despicable episode in which Trump became embroiled in a controversy -- mostly of his own making! -- over an unacceptable call he made to a pregnant widow of one of four soldiers killed in a still-murky attack in Niger." See especially Blow's analysis of how Trump uses the military as an instrument of his racism & sexism. ...

... Kali Holloway of AlterNet: "Racism is the Trump administration's magic wand, a device it uses, to great effect, to dazzle its base, whose own proud bigotry dispenses with the need for suspension of disbelief. In the face of controversies and criticism, Trump race-baits not just for cynical political reasons -- though that's part of it -- but because he, too, is deeply racist, so much that his presidency is basically a live-action fantasy against the country's first black president.... And if there was any question about whether Chief of Staff John Kelly endorses Trump's targeting of women of color, recent events show this an all-hands-on-deck team effort." --safari ...

... Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "In defending his boss, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly gratuitously attacked Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.), derisively referred to her as being like 'empty barrels,' misrepresented her conduct at a dedication of an FBI building and, even when film of the event showed his characterization to be utterly false, did not apologize. Kelly deemed it appropriate to restrict questions to reporters with a connection to a Gold Star family, as if one group of Americans (and their readers and viewers) is more worthy than another. However, when White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders warned reporters not to criticize Kelly (or his slander of Wilson), the administration took on the creepy aura of a military junta.... Kelly and Trump seem to actually have a lot in common. They both display disdain for the press and contempt for critics. Kelly rails at treatment of ('sacred') women but enthusiastically serves a president who serially insults and abuses women. Rather than address criticism, Kelly and Trump both like to pull rank, treat critics as their lessers and react indignantly when anyone questions their motives.... Congress should ... bar generals from acting in civilian capacities in the White House." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: "Good for Rubin. It has troubled me that since Kelly's attack on Wilson, many liberal pundits have tiptoed in criticizing Kelly. Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker, for instance, framed the attack as one that was a blow to Kelly's reputation as a result of his Trumpification; that is, a blow to the way others perceive him, not as an illumination of who he is. Gene Robinson was on the teevee saying that "both sides" could be right, both sides being Kelly & Wilson. Others have knocked themselves out thanking Kelly for his military service & reiterating his laudable reluctance to speak about his son's death, before tossing in some polite criticism of his press room remarks.

President Bone Spurs. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "After a week in which President Trump endured not-so-veiled criticisms from his two predecessors as president and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), McCain delivered another broadside that seems clearly aimed at Trump -- in the most personal terms yet. McCain, whose status as a war hero Trump publicly and controversially doubted as a 2016 presidential candidate, appeared to retaliate in kind against the president in a C-SPAN interview about the Vietnam War airing Sunday night. 'One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest-income level of America, and the highest-income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur,' McCain said. 'That is wrong. That is wrong. If we are going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve.' Trump received five deferments during Vietnam: four for his studies in college, and one for -- you guessed it -- bone spurs in his heel." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump's attacks, especially the pre-emptive ones, usually are backhanded compliments of sorts. He claimed McCain wasn't heroic because Trumpenheiden was & is a coward. He called Hillary crooked because Trumpencrookster is dishonest to his core. Trump's need to get up & defeat President Obama every day derives from Trump's fear that Obama represents the new U.S. -- a country where race doesn't define a person AND where black men rival white men for white women's isexual favors. All of these attacks derive from Trump's own real or perceived shortcomings.

Make Foreigners Rich Again? Rebekah Entralgo of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump's tax plan fulfills a request the GOP establishment has long wanted: a significantly lowered corporate tax rate.... According to new analysis from Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center...roughly 35 percent of U.S. corporate stock is owned by foreign investors. Slashing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent would translate to a tax cut for these investors worth $70 billion dollars, a cut three times the tax break that households in the middle income quintile would get under Trump's tax plan." --safari

John Solomon & Alison Spann in the Hill: As Hillary Clinton assumed her role as Secretary of State, FBI agents discovered that the Kremlin launched a multi-pronged effort to try to gain influence on the Clintons & infiltrate the State Department.

Robin Fields & Joe Sexton of ProPublica: "The questions are straightforward, with public health implications that would seem impossible to shrug off. How many American women die each year from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth? How many of these deaths are preventable?... The answers are central to any true picture of U.S. maternal health, and an essential tool in limiting such tragedies going forward...Yet because of flaws in the way the U.S. identifies and investigates maternal deaths.... [F]or the last decade, the U.S. hasn't had an official annual count of pregnancy-related fatalities, or an official maternal mortality rate." --safari

Today's reports of GOP tactics to knee-cap Democracy

**Ari Berman of Mother Jones: "On election night,Trump carr[ied] Wisconsin by nearly 23,000 votes. The state, which ranked second in the nation in voter participation in 2008 and 2012, saw its lowest turnout since 2000.... Clinton's stunning loss in Wisconsin was blamed on her failure to campaign in the state.... The impact of Wisconsin's voter ID law received almost no attention.... We will never be able to assign exact proportions to all the factors at play. But a year later, interviews with voters, organizers, and election officials reveal that, in Wisconsin and beyond, voter suppression played a much larger role than is commonly understood." Read on. --safari...

...Democracy alert. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "In 2010, when Republican power was at its low point, ;two GOP strategists devised a bold plan. By pouring tens of millions of dollars into state legislative races, they hoped to capture key swing states during a redistricting year -- and then draw maps that would lock in Republican control of the House and of state legislatures for a decade. They named this plan 'REDMAP.' It worked...Now, one of the architects of REDMAP -- Ed Gillespie...is running to be the governor of Virginia. Should he prevail, he will benefit from the gerrymandered maps that give his party a firm grip on the Virginia House of Delegates. And he will have the opportunity to extend REDMAP's success into another decade...." --safari...

...Andy Kroll of Mother Jones has a long piece on Sinclair Broadcasting's long-game effort to bring right-wing Fox "News"-style propaganda to your local news channels. --safari

For real? Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "The Environmental Protection Agency is expanding the number of security personnel dedicated to protecting agency chief Scott Pruitt by 12, raising the administrator's total security detail to 30 guards.... No previous EPA administrator has ever received a 24/7 security detail." --safari

Mission Creep. Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the chamber's most hawkish members, told host Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that he didn't know until recently that a thousand U.S. troops are stationed in Niger.... And he made the admission when Todd pressed him on whether Congress needs to vote on an Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) for that mission...That AUMF, which sailed through Congress after the attacks on 9/11 has been used as legal justification for numerous campaigns beyond counteracting the Taliban in Afghanistan; most prominently in Syria to target ISIS and, now, as far-flung as Niger." --safari

Merchants of Addiction and Overdose. Meet the Sacklers. --safari

...Name and Shame. Christopher Glazek of Esquire: "The Sacklers' philanthropy ... has donated its fortune to blue-chip brands, braiding the family name into the patronage network of the world's most prestigious, well-endowed institutions. The Sackler name is everywhere, evoking automatic reverence; the Sacklers themselves, however, are rarely seen.... That may be because the greatest part of that $14 billion fortune tallied by Forbes came from OxyContin, the narcotic painkiller regarded by many public-health experts as among the most dangerous products ever sold on a mass scale.... The family's leaders have pulled off three of the great marketing triumphs of the modern era: The first is selling OxyContin; the second is promoting the Sackler name; and the third is ensuring that, as far as the public is aware, the first and the second have nothing to do with one another." --safari

Way Beyond the Beltway

AP: "Japan's leader has scored a major victory in national elections that returned his ruling coalition to power in decisive fashion. Japanese media said Monday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and a small coalition partner had together secured at least 312 seats in the 465-seat lower house of parliament, passing the 310-barrier for a two-thirds majority. Four seats remained undecided."

Luke Barnes of ThinkProgress: "The President of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman, crudely insulted reporters by showing off a replica AK-47 with the inscription 'for journalists' -- less than a week after an investigative journalist in Malta was killed by a car bomb. Zeman brandished the fake assault rifle during a press conference on Friday, as Czechs voted to elect populist billionaire Andrej Babis as prime minister.... Critics however are concerned that Babis' media dominance -- he owns two of the country's leading newspapers and a radio station -- will lead to conflicts of interest. In addition to Babis' success, the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy party (SPD) made surprising gains in the election, potentially positioning them as the country's political kingmakers." --safari...

...Shaun Walker of the Guardian: "A well-known Russian journalist [Tatyana Felgenhauer, the deputy editor of Ekho Moskvy radio station] is in hospital after being stabbed in the neck by an intruder at work.... Ekho Moskvy is one of the few outlets for independent journalism in Russia, featuring reports and discussions sharply critical of the Kremlin.... The attacker's motivation was not immediately clear.... A news report on Russian state television this month singled out Ekho Moskvy and Felgenhauer personally as working to advance foreign interests in Russia before presidential elections next March." --safari

Sean Ingle of the Guardian: "A former doctor for the Chinese Olympic team has revealed that more than 10,000 of the country's athletes were involved in a systematic doping programme across all sports -- and that every one of China's medals in major tournaments in the 1980s and 90s came from performance‑enhancing drugs.... Xue Yinxian...is seeking political asylum in Germany...China has long been linked with accusations of doping -- although never before on this scale. In February athletes linked to the controversial track coach Ma Junren, whose athletes broke 66 national and world records, said they had been forced to take performance-enhancing drugs.... Ma always claimed his athletes' success was down to hard training at high altitude in Tibet, turtle blood and caterpillar fungus." --safari

The Commentariat -- October 22, 2017

Late Morning Update:

Mitch Throws the Ball into Donnie's Court. Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday he would bring the Alexander-Murray bipartisan health care bill to the floor if ... Donald Trump said he would sign it. 'I'm not certain yet, what the president is looking for here but I'll be happy to bring a bill to the floor if I know President Trump would sign it,' McConnell said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' Speaking with Dana Bash, McConnell (R-Ky.) said he has not heard from the president on what kind of health care bill Trump would sign."

Just Kidding, Sick People! Politico: "Betty Price, the wife of former HHS Secretary Tom Price, is defending her comment about quarantining people with HIV as an attempt to be provocative about a public health crisis. The physician and Georgia state legislator says she does not favor quarantining people with HIV or AIDS." Mrs. McC: Well, "provocative," yes. But more along the lines of monstrous.

A History of Russian Racial Meddling. Julia Ioffe of The Atlantic: "During the Cold War, the Kremlin similarly sought to plant fake news and foment discontent, but was limited by the low-tech methods available at the time...The Soviets planted misinformation about the AIDs epidemic as a Pentagon creation ... as well as the very concept of a nuclear winter...[P]laying on racial tensions inside the United States [isn't] a new Russian tactic. In fact, it predates even the Cold War.... The point then, as it was in 2016, was to discredit the American system, to keep the Soviets (and, later, Russians) loyal to their own system instead of hungering for Western-style democracy." --safari*****

Everything Donald Trump Does Is Corrupt. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump plans to spend at least $430,000 of his personal funds to help cover the mounting legal costs incurred by White House staff and campaign aides related to the ongoing investigations of Russian meddling in last year's election, a White House official said. The Washington Post reported last month that the Republican National Committee had spent roughly that amount to pay lawyers representing Trump and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., in the multiple investigations.... The White House's and campaign aides' legal costs are expected to balloon well beyond what Trump is putting forward.... The arrangement drew immediate criticism from Walter Shaub, the former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, who suggested on Twitter that it is rife with potential conflicts. 'A potential witness or target of an investigation (and boss of investigators) paying for legal fees of other potential witnesses or targets?' Shaub wrote."...

... Runs in the Family. Celeste Katz of Newsweek: "Ivanka Trump's federal financial disclosure report doesn't mention her past involvement with the charitable foundation that bears her family's name -- and which remains under investigation for self-dealing.... [E]ven after multiple updates, Ivanka Trump's financial disclosure form appears to make no mention of her time as a director of the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating for fraud." --safari

Mrs. McCrabbie: Some White House staffer(s) ghost-wrote a USA Today op-ed in the name of Donald Trump, promoting his tax-cuts-for-the-rich bill. I doubt if Trump read it & he certainly didn't edit it, because nowhere in it does the word "amazing" appear. Also too, the piece is fordevoid of Me, Myself & I, but it has lots of "we"s. (This will probably be the last op-ed that staffer writes for Trump.) Anyhow, the fact that you don't see a link here is not an oversight.

John Wagner: "President Trump on Saturday downplayed the significance of Russian-bought Facebook ads, which leading lawmakers investigating election meddling have said were intended to influence last year's campaign and divide Americans. 'Keep hearing about "tiny" amount of money spent on Facebook ads,' Trump said on Twitter, before taking aim at U.S. television networks. 'What about the billions of dollars of Fake News on CNN, ABC, NBC & CBS?' Trump later wrote that Facebook was on the side of Democrat Hillary Clinton, not him. 'Crooked Hillary Clinton spen[t] hundreds of millions more on Presidential Election than I did,' Trump tweeted." ...

... Tom Porter of Newsweek "The suicide of GOP operative and financier Peter W. Smith -- who was found non-responsive in a room in the Rochester Hotel, Minnesota, in mid-May -- is now the focus of investigators probing Russia[s alleged bid to tip the 2016 presidential election in Trump's favor.... Investigators will be seeking to clarify whether Smith was acting as unofficial Trump campaign operative, or was a fantasist.... Smith was not the only [Michael] Flynn associate engaged in the desperate hunt for Clinton's emails. Last week The Guardian reported that conservative activist Barbara Ledeen turned to the dark web to obtain Clinton's emails in 2015." --safari

Ultimate Asshole. E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "All five living former U.S. presidents are set to participate in a fundraiser for hurricane relief efforts on Saturday, but they won't be joined by the current job holder -- President Donald Trump is marking the occasion at his golf course." --safari

Presidential Sabotage. Tara Culp-Hessler of ThinkProgress: "The uninsured rate had been on a steady downward trajectory since the Affordable Care Act was implemented, hitting historic lows over the past several years. But Gallup's most recent report, released Friday, found the uninsured rate has risen 1.4 percentage points since the end of 2016. That works out to be almost 3.5 million more Americans going without insurance this year." --safari

Akela Lacy of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday continued the White House's ongoing war of words with Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) over his response to the deaths of four U.S. troops in Niger. 'I hope the Fake News Media keeps talking about Wacky Congresswoman Wilson in that she, as a representative, is killing the Democrat Party!' President Trump tweeted Saturday morning." Mrs. McC: If you want to know what they're saying on Fox "News" but you can't stand to watch, just check TrumpyTweets. As for "killing the Democrat Party," I'd say Wilson is showing people how she stands up for her constituents. We need a few hundred representatives who are more like Wilson. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "We learned this week that, even if you maintain the most sympathetic view of why ... ex-generals continue to serve Trump, there is no way to work for him without paying the Trump tax on one's reputation.... The White House chief of staff maligned a congresswoman, whose only crime seemed to be criticizing Trump, with a series of lies." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, but Kelly volunteered to pay the tax. He should have gone out there to tell the truth & left it at that. It was enough to corroborate Wilson's account of the Trump-Johnson conversation & refute Trump's, and this he did. Kelly's attack on Wilson was as unconscionable as it was superfluous: not only was every bit of it a lie, he called her a name -- an "empty barrel" -- attacking not just her supposed remarks but her character. He also essentially accused Wilson (and, by extension, Myeshia Johnson) of being sacrlegious when he said Wilson violated some "sacred" celestial rite by listening in on her friend's conversation with Trump, even as he implicitly excused himself & other unnamed White House staff who were doing the same damned thing. But to what end? What public policy purpose does it serve to have a presidential chief of staff trash a member of Congress? Kelly's sanctimonious presser was -- in a much less hilarious way -- just a more egregious version of Sean Spicer's debut performance in which he insisted, contra all evidence, that the crowd at Trump's inauguration was way larger than the crowd at Obama's first swearing-in. Like Spicer, Kelly told an obvious lie, but Kelly also smeared two specific people -- a Congresswoman & the widow of a soldier slain in battle. ...

Marco Chown Oved, et al. of The Toronto Star: "How every investor lost money on Trump Tower (but Donald Trump made millions anyway). Donald Trump called himself a 'genius' for investing in Toronto's Trump Tower. Behind the scenes, he had no money on the line. The inside story of an unlikely bankruptcy, and the investors who lost everything when they bet on the Trump brand.... In the last decade, more than 400 condominium towers of 14 storeys or more have been successfully built in Toronto.... Industry insiders and analysts interviewed for this story could identify only one that went bankrupt after completion: the Trump International Hotel and Tower Toronto." --safari

Karen Tumulty, et al., of the Washington Post: As some high-profile men -- Harvey Weinstein, Bill O'Reilly & Roger Ailes -- finally have paid for the consequences of sexually abusing women -- Donald Trump's accusers wonder why he has gotten away with similar behavior. See also story, linked below, on O'Reilly's $32MM settlement.

Scott Pruitt Is Killing Me. No, Really. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "A scientist who worked for the chemical industry now shapes policy on hazardous chemicals. Within the E.P.A., there is fear that public health is at risk.... In late May ... a top Trump administration appointee insisted upon the rewriting of a rule to make it harder to track the health consequences of ... [a] chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, [which] has been linked to kidney cancer, birth defects, immune system disorders and other serious health problems. The revision was among more than a dozen demanded by [a Trump] appointee, Nancy B. Beck, after she joined the E.P.A.'s toxic chemical unit in May as a top deputy. For the previous five years, she had been an executive at the American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry's main trade association."...

... ** War on Truth. David Ferguson of RawStory: "More and more, President Donald Trump's administration appears to believe that it is above media scrutiny -- or at least beyond the reach of press whose agenda doesn't include puffing up the president. The New York Times on Saturday [linked above] published an article about how recently hired industry insiders are loosening the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s rules on multiple poisons.... [W]hen the Times contacted the agency for more information, spokeswoman Liz Bowman gave a response.... 'No matter how much information we give you, you would never write a fair piece,' Bowman said in an email. 'The only thing inappropriate and biased is your continued fixation on writing elitist clickbait trying to attack qualified professionals committed to serving their country.'" --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Certainly other public officials & their representatives have felt this way about some disreputable rags, but I have never seen such a contemptuous refusal to cooperate with, or at least comment on, a matter of vital public interest when one of the top news outlets in the U.S. calls. Any responsible Department head would fire Bowman. But Scott Pruitt is the furthest thing from responsible.

Betsy Gets Out Her Red Marker. Moriah Balingit of the Washington Post: "The Education Department has rescinded 72 policy documents that outline the rights of students with disabilities as part of the Trump administration's effort to eliminate regulations it deems superfluous.... The documents, which fleshed out students' rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Rehabilitation Act, were rescinded Oct. 2.... Advocates for students with disabilities were still reviewing the changes to determine their impact."

O Really, O'Reilly? Emily Steel & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Last January, six months after Fox News ousted its chairman amid a sexual harassment scandal, the network's top-rated host at the time, Bill O'Reilly, struck a $32 million agreement with a longtime network analyst [-- Lis Wiehl --] to settle new sexual harassment allegations, according to two people briefed on the matter -- an extraordinarily large amount for such cases. Although the deal has not been previously made public, the network's parent company, 21st Century Fox, acknowledges that it was aware of the woman's complaints about Mr. O'Reilly.... It was at least the sixth agreement -- and by far the largest -- made by either Mr. O'Reilly or the company to settle harassment allegations against him. Despite that record, 21st Century Fox began contract negotiations with Mr. O'Reilly, and in February granted him a four-year extension that paid $25 million a year.... But by April, the Murdochs decided to jettison Mr. O'Reilly as some of the settlements became public and posed a significant threat to their business empire." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: But remember, people, there are still some sacrilegious clerks at Target or someplace who will be saying "Happy Holidays" within the month. Luckily, we have a guy of O'Reilly's high moral character fighting to save us from these unholy devils.

Glenn Whipp of the Los Angeles Times: The accounts of 38 women portray film producer-director-writer "James Toback as a man who, for decades, sexually harassed women he hired, women looking for work and women he just saw on the street. The vast majority of these women -- 31 of the 38 interviewed -- spoke on the record. The Times also interviewed people that the women informed of the incidents when they occurred." Mrs. McC: Unfortunately, Whipp provides details. I could not keep reading.

Beyond the Beltway

With Obama's "Re-education camps" Defeated, Dr./Mrs. Tom Price Wants to Establish HIV Colonies. Politico>: "The lawmaker wife of former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price asked this week whether the government could quarantine people with HIV to limit transmission of the virus that causes AIDS. Betty Price, a Georgia state representative from the Atlanta suburbs, made the inquiry during a Georgia House of Representatives study committee meeting about barriers to accessing adequate care. Price, an anesthesiologist, raised the question during an exchange with the director of the Georgia Department of Public Health's HIV/AIDS epidemiology section." Mrs. McC: This has been the top story on Politico for much of the day Saturday. I'd guess that most readers -- even those familiar with Dr. Betty's husband Dr. Tom -- can't believe any human being could be such a monster. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... As Forrest M. asks, "Wouldn't it be better to work on getting a little more money for research and treatment? No, I guess not."

WTF? E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "Residents of one Texas town [Dickinson, Texas] are being asked to make an unusual promise in exchange for hurricane relief funds — they have to vow not to boycott the nation of Israel.... According to the grant application posted on the city's website for the Dickinson Harvey Relief fund, those interested will need to refrain from boycotting Israel, now or in the near future." --safari

Greg Garrison of AL.com tells the story of whistleblower Dana Johnson and the strict requirements of her Christian homeless shelter in Birmingham, Alabama, "[S]he was told all women at the shelter must attend the same church. For three consecutive Sundays, she and other residents boarded a van and attended worship services at the Woodlawn branch of the Church of the Highlands, Alabama's largest church.... When she got a job, Johnson, 47, said she was also told she was required to tithe, or donate 10 percent of her income. She was told to go to a bank, get a money order and make it payable to the Church of the Highlands, she said." --safari

GOP's War on Media. Esme Cribb of TPM: "A Montana Republican official on Thursday said she 'would have shot' the reporter Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) body-slammed a day before he was elected to office. 'If that kid had done to me what he did to Greg, I would have shot him,' Karen Marshall, the& vice president of programs for Gallatin County Republican Women, said on the 'Voices of Montana' radio program." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you recall, "what he did to Greg" was pose a polite question of public interest (the scoring of a GOP healthcare repeal bill) to a candidate for Congress at a public event. Most people would call that "doing his job," a job which, BTW, is so important to the functioning of government that the Founders gave that job special status in its First Amendment to the Constitution. Will some nice shut-in mbroider the First Amendment on a couple of pillows & send them to Marshall & Liz Bowman of the EPA?

Way Beyond

Raphael Minder of the New York Times: "The escalating confrontation over Catalonia's independence drive took its most serious turn on Saturday as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain announced that he would remove the leadership of the restive region and initiate a process of direct rule by the central government in Madrid. It was the first time that Spain's government had moved to strip the autonomy of one of its 17 regions, and the first time that a leader had invoked Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution -- a broad tool intended to protect the 'general interests' of the nation. The unexpectedly forceful moves by Mr. Rajoy, made after an emergency cabinet meeting, thrust Spain into uncharted waters as he tried to put down one of the gravest constitutional crises his country has faced since embracing democracy after the death of its dictator Gen. Francisco Franco in 1975." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)