The Commentariat -- March 26, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Katie Rogers & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States on Monday, adding to a growing cascade of similar actions taken by western allies in response to Russia's alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Poland, Italy, Denmark, France and Germany were among 14 European Union member nations announcing plans to expel Russians from their countries in solidarity with Britain, which previously expelled 23 Russian diplomats after the poisoning. Canada also said it would expel four." (Linked earlier, new lede.)

Alan Rappeport & Prashant Rao of the New York Times: "President Trump secured his first major trade deal on Monday as the United States and South Korea reached an agreement to renegotiate their trade pact, with Seoul agreeing to reduce its steel exports and open its market to American cars in exchange for an exemption from Mr. Trump's global tariffs on steel and aluminum. The deal ... appears to end a dispute that had strained ties between Washington and a reliable Asian ally. It also seemed to confirm Mr. Trump's 'America First' approach to trade, in which he has sought to extract concessions in return for exemptions and revisions to the blanket steel and aluminum tariffs announced by the White House this month."

James McAuley of the Washington Post: "The Paris prosecutor's office is investigating whether anti-Semitism was a motivation for killing of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor that has outraged France's Jewish community. Mireille Knoll was stabbed multiple times and left in her burning Paris apartment on Friday. French authorities have taken two suspects into custody, according to a judicial official...."

CBS News: "A night before CBS News' '60 Minutes' aired its interview with Stephanie Clifford, better known as the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, President Trump had dinner with Michael Cohen, his longtime personal attorney." Mrs. McC: Just wanted to chat about his golf game. ...

... Jay Michaelson of the Daily Beast has a theory: "Pretty much all [non-disclosure agreements] become voided once the confidential information becomes widely known.... In this case, when the Wall Street Journal revealed the details of the contract on January 12, 2018, that information stopped being confidential. So why not just say that?... [Because t]his dispute isn't about the affair: it's about ... pictures or texts.... The only question Daniels refused to answer [in her interview with Anderson Cooper] was about whether she's got more evidence of the affair. [Daniels' attorney Michael] Avenatti suggested the answer is yes: he tweeted a photo of a DVD inside a safe.... If Daniels has retained copies of pictures or texts, then she is in clear violation of the central parts of the confidentiality agreement.... If that DVD has pictures of Trump, it is literally Trump's copyrighted property. Unless, of course, the agreement is null and void.... Now you can see why Avenatti is pursuing this weird and unlikely strategy to say that the agreement was never valid in the first place: that's the only way for that DVD to matter."

Charles Pierce comments on the Trump/Mnuchin request that Congress send the Presidunce* a line-item-veto bill. "[Mnuchin] doesn't know. Worse, he doesn't care. Worst of all, he's sitting in the position he's in right now because he doesn't know and he doesn't care. About the country. About its Constitution. About anything that is outside the safety-deposit box he has for a soul." Read the whole post, because it's a hoot.

Andy Kroll of Mother Jones: "The acting director of the Federal Trade Commission confirmed Monday that the agency has an open investigation into Facebook's data privacy practices.... In 2011, the company settled charges brought by the agency alleging that the social network misleadingly told its users they could keep their information private. As part of the settlement, Facebook agreed to no longer make 'further deceptive privacy claims' and to better inform its users going forward about how it shares their information. The question now is whether Facebook violated the terms of that FTC agreement when it allowed Alex Kogan, the Russian-American academic, to extract huge amounts of personal data from Facebook and then pass it to Cambridge Analytica. Facebook's stock price had lost as much as 6 percent of its value on Monday after the FTC confirmed its investigation." ...

... Lauren Pearle of ABC News: "Government watchdog group Common Cause Monday filed a pair of legal complaints with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Department of Justice accusing Cambridge Analytica LTD, its parent company SCL Group Limited, CEO Alexander Nix, SCL co-founder Nigel Oakes, data scientist Alexander Tayler, and former employee-turned-whistleblower Christopher Wylie of violating federal election laws that prohibit foreigners from participating directly or indirectly in the decision-making process of U.S. political campaigns. The defendants are all non-U.S. citizens, according to the complaints.... The legal filings allege that Cambridge Analytica and its executives ignored [their attorney's] advice and allowed foreigners to be involved in 'management decisions of U.S. political committee clients concerning expenditures and disbursements during the 2014 and 2016 elections.'"

Gal Lotan & Krista Torralva of the Orlando Sentinel: "Pulse nightclub gunman Omar Mateen was considered by the FBI for development as a possible informant prior to carrying out the 2016 mass shooting, an agent testified today during the trial of Mateen's widow, Noor Salman. That revelation came hours after Salman's defense filed a motion seeking to have the case dismissed or declared a mistrial due to information that Mateen's father was an informant for the FBI for more than a decade and sent money out of the country in the months before the attack."

*****

Josh Lederman of the AP: "The Trump administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats on Monday and ordered Russia's consulate in Seattle to close, as the United States and European nations sought to jointly punish Moscow for its alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain. Senior Trump administration officials said all 60 Russians were spies working in the U.S. under diplomatic cover, including a dozen at Russia's mission to the United Nations. The officials said the administration was taking the action to send a message to Russia's leaders about the 'unacceptably high' number of Russian intelligence operatives in the U.S The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the U.S." --safari ...

... NEW. Katie Rogers & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States on Monday, including 12 people identified as Russian intelligence officers who have been stationed at the United Nations in New York, in response to Russia's alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. The expulsion order, announced by administration officials, also closes the Russian consulate in Seattle. The Russians and their families have seven days to leave the United States, according to officials. The expulsions are the toughest action taken against the Kremlin by President Trump...."

Emma Brown & Frances Sellers of the Washington Post: "Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who alleges that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, says that she was threatened for attempting to tell her story publicly and accepted money through a Trump attorney to remain silent because she was scared for her family.... Trump and his wife were 1,000 miles apart as Daniels told her story: Shortly before the interview aired on Sunday, Trump flew back to Washington from a weekend trip to Mar a Lago. First lady Melania Trump remained in Florida, where she usually spends spring break...." ...

... Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "Ms. Clifford said during the interview that while she had seen Mr. Trump more than once, she had had sex with him a single time, unprotected. That happened shortly after they met at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006.... Mr. Trump was 60 at the time; Ms. Clifford was 27." ...

... Here's the transcript, via "60 Minutes," of Anderson Cooper's interview of Stephanie Cohen/Stormy Daniels. AND a clip from the WashPo ...

... Brandon Patterson of Mother Jones: "Trevor Potter, a former chairman of the FEC, told Cooper he thinks [Trump attorney Michael] Cohen's payment to Daniels could amount to an illegal campaign contribution. 'It's a $130,000 in-kind contribution by Cohen to the Trump campaign, which is about $126,500 above what he's allowed to give. And if he does this on behalf of his client, the candidate, that is a coordinated, illegal, in-kind contribution by Cohen for the purpose of influencing the election, of benefiting the candidate by keeping this secret.' The payment could also have implications for the Russia investigation, Potter said. If [Robert] Mueller believes Cohen's payment was improper, he could charge Cohen with a crime in an effort to get him to dish on Trump." ...

This is about the cover-up. This is about the extent that Mr. Cohen and the president have gone to intimidate this woman, to silence her, to threaten her, and to put her under their thumb. It is thuggish behavior from people in power. And it has no place in American democracy. -- Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels' attorney, to Anderson Cooper, aired Sunday ...

... Dylan Matthews of Vox: "A decent person who had an affair would, when faced with the prospect of that affair going public, tell their spouse what happened, apologize, and accept the consequences. That is not what Trump did. And it's not what Trump is still doing. Even now that the affair is public knowledge, Trump and his legal team are seeking $20 million or more in damages from Daniels, out of retribution more than anything else. A billionaire (or near-billionaire, depending on who you ask) using expensive lawyers to try to extract tens of millions of dollars from a working mother, out of anger that she refused to keep silent -- that is bullying. It's disgraceful behavior. And it's illustrative of the way that Trump has treated other people throughout his entire career in business and politics." ...

... Fox "News": "The lawyer for Michael Cohen, President Trump's personal attorney, sent adult film star Stormy Daniels a cease and desist letter late Sunday following her interview with '60 Minutes' where she spoke about her alleged affair with Trump and claimed she faced threats to her safety. Brent Blakely, Cohen's attorney, demanded that Daniels apologize for insinuating that his client was behind the threat she described that allegedly took place in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Intimidating and threatening people who get in Trump's way seems to be a recurring theme in his business interactions.... There is a lot of reason to suspect [Michael] Cohen had something to do with the threat [to Daniels].... [Cohen's] true value is as a goon. 'If somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn't like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump's benefit,' Cohen said in 2011. 'If you do something wrong, I'm going to come at you, grab you by the neck and I'm not going to let you go until I'm finished.' In 2015, he told a reporter, 'I'm warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I'm going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me?'... It may be difficult to imagine Cohen, the ultimate Trump loyalist, turning on his patron and idol. But mafiosos turn on their friends and mentors all the time. And Trump's organization was run in many respects like a crime family, with a sprawling web of shady and probably illegal activity.... If Stormy Daniels' account holds up, then it opens a vast new avenue for potential risk to Cohen, and ultimately Trump." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: It turns out the Daniels interview was not the biggest media event of the night. According to POTUS* (at 8:26 pm ET Sunday), what "everyone is talking about" is Howie Carr's book on "the most amazing political campaign of modern times." I am so out of it, I didn't even know.

Swamp Creature. Ken Vogel & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "For Elliott Broidy, Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign represented an unparalleled political and business opportunity. An investor and defense contractor, Mr. Broidy became a top fund-raiser for Mr. Trump's campaign when most elite Republican donors were keeping their distance, and Mr. Trump in turn overlooked the lingering whiff of scandal from Mr. Broidy's 2009 guilty plea in a pension fund bribery case. After Mr. Trump's election, Mr. Broidy quickly capitalized, marketing his Trump connections to politicians and governments around the world, including some with unsavory records, according to interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Broidy suggested to clients and prospective customers of his Virginia-based defense contracting company, Circinus, that he could broker meetings with Mr. Trump, his administration and congressional allies. Mr. Broidy's ability to leverage his political connections to boost his business illuminates how Mr. Trump's unorthodox approach to governing has spawned a new breed of access peddling in the swamp he vowed to drain." ...

Desmond Butler, et al., of the AP: "A top fundraiser for President Donald Trump received millions of dollars from a political adviser to the United Arab Emirates last April, just weeks before he began handing out a series of large political donations to U.S. lawmakers considering legislation targeting Qatar, the UAE's chief rival in the Persian Gulf.... George Nader ... wired $2.5 million to the Trump fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, through a company in Canada.... [Two informants claim] Nader paid the money to Broidy to bankroll an effort to persuade the U.S. to take a hard line against Qatar, a long-time American ally but now a bitter adversary of the UAE.... In October, Broidy also raised the issue of Qatar at the White House in meetings with Trump and senior aides. The details of Broidy's advocacy on U.S. legislation have not been previously reported." --safari

Hilarious News. Everything Is Going So Smoothly. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump has decided not to hire two lawyers ... Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing ... who were announced last week as new additions to his legal team, leaving him with a shrinking stable of lawyers as the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, enters an intense phase.... The president met with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing, who are married, in recent days to discuss the possibility that they would join his legal team.... According to two people told of details about the meeting, the president did not believe he had personal chemistry with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing. But beyond that, Ms. Toensing is representing Mark Corallo, who was the spokesman for Mr. Trump's legal team in 2017 before they parted ways. Mr. Corallo has told investigators he was concerned that a close aide to Mr. Trump, Hope Hicks, may have been planning to obstruct justice during the drafting of a statement about a meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. during the campaign." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Josh Dawsey & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Trump's legal team has now shrunk to two: Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer who does not personally represent the president and occasionally draws grumbles from him, and [Jay] Sekulow, an outside conservative attorney and radio host. Trump had not closely researched di Genova or even consulted with top aides, including Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and White House counsel Donald McGahn, before hiring him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump's legal team is bigger than it looks. Two sources familiar with the president's team have told The Daily Beast that about half a dozen attorneys affiliated with a conservative non-profit have been helping Jay Sekulow represent the president.... Andrew Ekonomou, Mark Goldfeder, and Ben Sisney are among the attorneys who have helped him handle legal matters related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe.... The fact that these men have worked on Trump's legal team has not been previously reported." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As noted in yesterday's Commentariat, Trump tweeted Sunday morning that "Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case...." So no problem. On the other hand, if Trump fires Mueller, destroys the documentation the Mueller team has assembled & pardons himself, he doesn't need any Russia-related lawyers. ...

NEW. Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Though it is a virtual given that [Rick] Gates will sell out his business partner and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, less understood is the direct threat Gates could pose to President Donald Trump.... 'He saw everything,' said a Republican consultant who worked with Gates during the campaign. The consultant called Gates one of the 'top five' insiders whom Mueller could have tapped as a cooperative government witness. One defense attorney in the case said that Gates';s plea has triggered palpable alarm in Trump world.... Worst of all for the White House, Gates lacks hard-wired loyalty." --safari

Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Treasury SecretarySteven Mnuchin has urged lawmakers to give President Trump a line-item veto, saying on 'Fox News Sunday' that it might prevent Democrats from stacking more nondefense discretionary spending into the next must-past budget bill. But Mnuchin's short exchange with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace also underlined the problem with the idea -- a 20-year-old Supreme Court ruling that struck down the line-item veto, finding 'no provision in the Constitution that authorizes the president to enact, to amend or to repeal statutes,' after President Bill Clinton used it 82 times.... Mnuchin did not discuss an idea that has circulated on the right -- simply not spending money appropriated by Congress. The 'impoundment' process also has been struck down by the Supreme Court.... But the Trump administration already has played around the edges of impoundment." Trump called for the line-item veto in his announcement Friday afternoon that he would sign the "ridiculous" bill. ...

     ... NEW. James Downie of the Washington Post: "For Mnuchin to make this mistake days [after Trump made it] means two things: 1.) The treasury secretary, more than a year into his tenure, is not aware of basic budget-making procedure; 2.) Either no one else senior enough at the White House to prepare Mnuchin knew those basics, or no one was organized enough to prep the one Cabinet member to appear on any of the Sunday shows this weekend. In the president's first 400 days, we've seen plenty of government by amateurs. But as 'record-setting turnover' in Trump's White House continues apace, his administration seems determined to mine new levels of incompetence. Mnuchin would play a critical role in the next economic crisis. If he can't get something so basic right, what chance does the country have when things get tough?"

Hope Yen & Ken Thomas of the AP: "... Donald Trump is planning to oust embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin amid an extraordinary rebellion at the agency and damaging government investigations into his alleged spending abuses, three administration officials told The Associated Press on Sunday."

Thanks for Your Service. Love, ICE. Theresa Waldrop of CNN: "A US Army veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan has been deported to Mexico, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. The deportation follows an earlier decision by US authorities to deny Miguel Perez's citizenship application because of a felony drug conviction, despite his service and the PTSD he says it caused.Perez, 39, was escorted across the US-Mexico border from Texas and handed over to Mexican authorities Friday, ICE said in a statement. Perez, his family and supporters, who include Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, had argued that his wartime service to the country had earned him the right to stay in the United States and to receive mental health treatment for the PTSD and substance abuse."

Question: Who actually said this on national TV about the March for Our Lives?: "How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that."

Answer: Close yo' mouth. It was this guy. (Sorry, his most famous page is down.) Now you're not so surprised, are you?

Benjamin Hart of New York: "As morbidly risible as [this] opinion is, it doesn't really diverge from the mainstream Republican position on guns. On the right, it is an article of faith that gun violence in America is inevitable, regulations be damned. (The mountain of evidence showing that America is an extreme outlier in this arena precisely because of its lax gun laws is ignored.)"

Martin Longman of Booman Tribune contrasts the remarks this weekend of "the man who likes to think of himself as the world's biggest Catholic" (above) and those of "the man who actually is the world's biggest Catholic."

Benjamin Hart of New York: "As morbidly risible as [this] opinion is, it doesn't really diverge from the mainstream Republican position on guns. On the right, it is an article of faith that gun violence in America is inevitable, regulations be damned. (The mountain of evidence showing that America is an extreme outlier in this arena precisely because of its lax gun laws is ignored.) ...

... Martin Cizmar of the Raw Story: "Gun-lovers in red Trump hats showed up at many of the rallies carrying AR-15s and sidearms, an effort they dubbed 'March For Our Guns.'... A search of social media finds images of heavily armed people -- including Utahans in a military-style vehicle with a mounted machine gun -- showing up to rallies." ...

... Talel Ansari of BuzzFeed: "... as Parkland massacre survivor Emma González and hundreds of thousands rallied at events across the US, on the internet, a fake photo claiming to show González tearing apart the Constitution was beginning to make the rounds.... The real photo is from a Teen Vogue photo shoot, and shows Emma González ripping up a shooting target poster, not the Constitution." Mrs. McC: Let's not just bully & threaten student activists; let's spread lies about them, too. ...

... Here's One Way Trump Really Is Making Us Safer. Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "Remington Outdoor, one of the oldest firearm manufacturers in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday amid mounting debt and declining sales. The gun maker had said last month it was nearing a bankruptcy filing, which it made on Sunday in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. In its Chapter 11 filing, Remington said it had between $100 million and $500 million in debt and would continue to operate while under bankruptcy protection.... After 20 children and six adults were killed in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., public outrage zeroed in on Remington after the authorities reported that the gunman had used an AR-15-style rifle made by the company.... The company expected a ... bump in sales if Hillary Clinton had won the presidential election in 2016 because of her possible pursuit of gun control legislation. But in the first nine months of Donald J. Trump's presidency, Remington's sales were down 27.5 percent."

NEW. Mark Stern of Slate: "On Friday night, the Trump administration released its plan to exclude transgender troops from the armed forces ... federal courts have found that discrimination against trans service members violates the Constitution, and the new proposal does nothing to ameliorate the ban's grave constitutional flaws.... Yet behind the scenes, a 'panel of experts' has been crafting a report, also released on Friday, designed to provide pretextual justification for Trump's ban. According to multiple sources, Vice President Mike Pence played a leading role in the creation of this report, along with Ryan Anderson, an anti-trans activist, and Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ lobbying group. Mattis actually supports open transgender service, but he was effectively overruled by Pence, and chose not to spend his limited political capital further defending trans troops." --safari

Care for a Glass of Coal Ash Water? Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker reviews Scott Pruitt's illustrious career & his "administration" of the EPA.

Russell Berman of the Atlantic: "President Obama finally got a Republican-controlled Congress to fund his domestic budget. All it took was Donald Trump in the White House to get it done. In the $1.3 trillion spending bill that President Trump reluctantly signed on Friday, lawmakers did more than reject the steep cuts in dollars and programs that Trump proposed for domestic agencies a year ago. Across much of the government, Republican leaders agreed to spending levels that matched or even exceeded what Obama asked Congress to appropriate in his final budget request in 2016 -- and many of which lawmakers ignored while he was in office." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. Mrs. McC: As Berman points out, you can thank the filibuster for this. Also, too, IMO, the Freedom Caucus, who made it necessary for Paul Ryan to get votes from Democrats.

Congressional Races. Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The passionate gun control rallies Saturday that brought out large crowds around the country sent a vivid signal that the issue is likely to play a major role in the 2018 midterm elections, and that Republicans could find themselves largely on the defensive on gun issues for the first time in decades.... State and local Democrati parties across the country also used the marches to register voters and sign up volunteers."

Craig Timberg & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Cambridge Analytica assigned dozens of non-U.S. citizens to provide campaign strategy and messaging advice to Republican candidates in 2014, according to three former workers for the data firm, even as an attorney warned executives to abide by U.S. laws limiting foreign involvement in elections.... That year, Cambridge Analytica documents show it advised a congressional candidate in Oregon, state legislative candidates in Colorado and, on behalf of the North Carolina Republican Party, the winning campaign for Sen. Thom Tillis.... 'Its dirty little secret was that there was no one American involved in it, that it was a de facto foreign agent, working on an American election,' [whistleblower Christopher] Wylie said.... U.S. election regulations say foreign nationals must not 'directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process' of a political campaign, although they can play lesser roles. Those restrictions were explained in a 10-page memo prepared in July 2014 by a New York attorney, Laurence Levy, for Cambridge Analytica's leadership at the time, including President Rebekah Mercer, Vice President Stephen K. Bannon and chief executive Alexander Nix."

Alex Hern of the Guardian: "As users continue to delete their Facebook accounts in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a number are discovering that the social network holds far more data about them than they expected, including complete logs of incoming and outgoing calls and SMS messages. The #deletefacebook movement took off after the revelations that Facebook had shared with a Cambridge psychologist the personal information of 50 million users, without their explicit consent, which later ended up in the hands of the election consultancy Cambridge Analytica." ...

... Zuckerberg Is Very, Very Sorry He Lost Billions for Using Your Personal Data. Sheena McKenzie of CNN: "Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in several British and American newspapers Sunday to apologize for a 'breach of trust' in the Cambridge Analytica scandal." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Speaking of invasions of privacy, I just clicked on a page of the Hill & up popped an ad for a medication I'm taking. It is not a particularly common medication (I haven't seen ads for it on TV), so I have to assume the ad targeted me. I have never ordered the medication online & I have never looked up information online about my medication or underlying condition, so that means in all likelihood that the vendor -- a major commerical pharmacy -- or my health insurer -- also a major provider -- is selling information about my medical history to pharmaceutical companies. That's pretty disturbing.

NEW. "Capitalism is Awesome", Ctd. Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Car companies like GM, Ford, and Toyota are getting great publicity for touting a future of green cars. But at the same time, new reports show their lobbying group is pushing science denial to weaken U.S. clean car standards.... One of the report's authors is actually long-time climate science denier Joseph D'Aleo -- who has remained a policy adviser to the notorious anti-science Heartland Institute even after they put up a billboard comparing climate science believers and reporters to mass 'murderers and madmen.' The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has thoroughly debunked the car companies' report, which is straight out of the science denier playbook." --safari

Way Beyond the Beltway

Juan Cole: "The numbers on the Saudi-led Yemen War are apocalyptic, worse even than Syria. The total number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Yemen is 22.2 million -- or 76% of the population -- including 11.3 million children. The Saudis and allies have hit Yemen with 15,000 airstrikes. 5,000 children have been killed. 8,700 civilians have been killed 50,000 civilians have been wounded 1.9 million children are not in school, and both sides have recruited children, some as young as ten, as fighters 11.3 million children need humanitarian assistance, with many on the verge of going hungry. All in all, 22.2 million Yemenis of all ages need humanitarian assistance, 3/4s of the population." --safari

Reuters: "The Saudi air force intercepted a missile over the northeastern part of the capital Riyadh late on Sunday night, Saudi state television said.... Yemen's Houthi-run SABA news agency reported that the group's missile force had targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a Burkan H2 missile. The group also fired other types of missiles at airports in the southern Saudi cities of Abha, Jizan and Najran, according to the SABA report.... More than 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since March 2015 when Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim Arab states launched a military campaign against the Houthis, a group of Shi’ite fighters who had seized the capital and forced President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi to flee."

The Commentariat -- March 25, 2018

Late Morning Update:

Question: Who actually said this on national TV about the March for Our Lives?: "How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that."

Answer: Close yo' mouth. It was this guy. (Sorry, his most famous page is down.) Now you're not so surprised, are you?

Hilarious Breaking News. Everything Is Going So Smoothly. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump has decided not to hire two lawyers ... Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing ... who were announced last week as new additions to his legal team, leaving him with a shrinking stable of lawyers as the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, enters an intense phase.... The president met with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing, who are married, in recent days to discuss the possibility that they would join his legal team.... According to two people told of details about the meeting, the president did not believe he had personal chemistry with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing. But beyond that, Ms. Toensing is representing Mark Corallo, who was the spokesman for Mr. Trump's legal team in 2017 before they parted ways. Mr. Corallo has told investigators he was concerned that a close aide to Mr. Trump, Hope Hicks, may have been planning to obstruct justice during the drafting of a statement about a meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. during the campaign." ...

... Josh Dawsey & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Trump's legal team has now shrunk to two: Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer who does not personally represent the president and occasionally draws grumbles from him, and [Jay] Sekulow, an outside conservative attorney and radio host. Trump had not closely researched di Genova or even consulted with top aides, including Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and White House counsel Donald McGahn, before hiring him." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As noted below, Trump tweeted this morning that "Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case...." So no problem. On the other hand, if Trump fires Mueller, destroys the documentation the Mueller team has assembled & pardons himself, he doesn't need any Russia-related lawyers.

*****

Peter Jamison, et al., of the Washington Post: "Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the nation's capital and cities across the country Saturday to demand action against gun violence, vividly displaying the strength of the political movement led by survivors of a school massacre in Parkland, Fla. Organized by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School ... the March for Our Lives showcased impassioned teens calling on Congress to enact stricter gun-control laws to end the nation's two-decade stretch of campus shootings. Hundreds of 'sibling protests' took place across the world, from New York City -- where demonstrators spread across 20 blocks -- to Jonesboro, Ark., a small city marking the 20th anniversary of a middle-school shooting that left four students and a teacher dead. Gun-rights advocates mounted counterprotests in Salt Lake City, Boise and Valparaiso, Ind., where one sign read 'All Amendments Matter.'" ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Standing before vast crowds from Washington to Los Angeles to Parkland, Fla., the speakers -- nearly all of them students, some still in elementary school -- delivered an anguished and defiant message: They are 'done hiding' from gun violence, and will 'stop at nothing' to get politicians to finally prevent it. The students, as they seized the nation's attention on Saturday with raised fists and tear-streaked faces, vowed that their grief about school shootings and their frustration with adults' inaction would power a new generation of political activism." ...

... Christal Hayes of USA Today: "Well over 1 million students -- and their supporters -- packed the streets in Washington, D.C., and around the globe Saturday to make a powerful statement against gun violence and call on lawmakers to pass stricter laws or face their wrath at the polls. Busload after busload filled the nation's capital with students from across the country, including some from as far away as California and Minnesota, for the March for Our Lives, a rally announced just days after a Valentine's Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. In passionate speeches, students from Marjory Stoneman gave a rallying cry to wild cheers from the thousands assembled along Pennsylvania Avenue.... About 800 sister marches were scheduled in every U.S. state and across several continents. About 800,000 descended on the nation's capital, exceeding expectations including many from Parkland." ...

... The New York Times has photos from across the country the world. More photos at the Washington Post. Sure looks like a lot more participants than at the "American Carnage" inaugural. More pix from Slate.

Looking for a supportive tweet from the president? Hey, there is one!

Michelle and I are so inspired by all the young people who made today's marches happen. Keep at it. You're leading us forward. Nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change. -- Barack Obama, Saturday ...

... Trump Really Goes out of His Way to Avoid the March. Benjamin Hart of New York: "As of midafternoon on Saturday [Mrs. McC: and as of 9 pm ET], President Trump, who is in Florida, had not weighed in on the march. His only tweet during the day focused on Friday's terrorist attack in France. However, the White House did indicate some support for the march.... Making its way from Mar-a-Lago to Trump International Golf Club, where Trump engaged in his favorite weekend activity, the president's motorcade took an unusual route, seemingly in an effort avoid a March for Our Lives protest in West Palm Beach. That was one of about 800 such events around the world." ...

... Luis Sanchez of the Hill: "Protesters at the 'March for Our Lives' rally for gun control in Washington, D.C., left their signs outside Trump Hotel after they marched." ...

... Here are more highlights, via New York. ...

... Luis Sanchez: "Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said Saturday during a March for Our Lives..., 'You know the NRA gave me an "F" and I am proud to wear that "F,"' the civil rights hero told a crowd gathered in Atlanta. 'On the Democratic side of the House of Representatives, many members of Congress are wearing an F.'..."

... Luis Sanchez: "Asked about estimated attendance at the rally [in Washington, D.C.], which was expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people, [Sen. Chris] Van Hollen (D-Md.) told The Hill, 'I can tell you for sure, it's larger than the Trump inauguration.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Benjamin Hart: "Beatles legend Paul McCartney was among the many celebrities who took to the streets on Saturday around the country, joining hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding action to stem gun violence in America. Interviewed by CNN in New York City, McCartney, sporting a 'We Can End Gun Violence' T-shirt, made clear that the issue is personal to him.... 'One of my best friends was killed by gun violence right 'round here,' he said. McCartney was of course referring to his former bandmate John Lennon...." ...

... Here are some other celebrities who marched, some of whom performed. ...

... Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker: "In the six weeks since the young survivors of Parkland, Florida, jump-started a vibrant new movement for gun control, its leadership has managed to broaden the locus of concern beyond mass shootings at comfortable suburban schools like Marjory Stoneman Douglas, to gun violence in urban neighborhoods as well.... The speakers at Saturday's rally included students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who talked about the sudden intrusion of terror into their lives on February 14th, and young black and Latino activists from Chicago and Los Angeles who talked about the threats they faced from guns every day." ...

... Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "The latest attack [against the Parkland organizers] came from Colion Noir, a host on NRATV who took to the airwaves on the eve of the Parkland teens-led March on Washington, telling them: 'No one would know your names' if a student gunman hadn't stormed into their school and killed three staff members and 14 students.... Colion Noir is a pseudonym for Collins Iyare Idehen Jr., a lawyer and gun rights activist from Houston who has nearly 650,000 subscribers on YouTube." -- Mrs. McC: That's 650,001 gun-totin' hatemongers right there. Feel safer now? ...

... Here Are Some More. Julie Turkewitz of the New York Times: "Across the country, supporters of the Second Amendment gathered at state capitals and in city centers, hoping to counter the swell that has emerged in the wake of a February massacre that killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Fla. Their message in many cases was that the surviving Parkland students have it all wrong -- more guns, not fewer, is what will end the violence that has ripped through so many American communities." Mrs. McC: Sorry, I would not call this riffraff "Second Amendment supporters." ...

... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Since it's very hard to hate child victims of school shootings, the best available critique that could be mustered for Saturday's March for Our Lives was the familiar refrain that 'these children are puppets.' What began in the days immediately after the shootings as a widespread internet claim that the victims were paid crisis actors morphed rapidly into the allegation that student leader David Hogg had been 'coached' on what to say during his TV interviews. That was followed by former Rep. Jack Kingston demanding on CNN, 'Do we really think 17-year-olds on their own are going to plan a nationwide rally?' CNN was accused, falsely as it turned out, of 'scripting' student questions during a town hall. On Saturday, the NRA said on Facebook, '... Gun-hating billionaires and Hollywood elites are manipulating and exploiting children as part of their plan to DESTROY the Second Amendment and strip us of our right to defend ourselves and our loved ones.' The notion that the whole operation was choreographed by George Soros and Hollywood meant that if, as I did, you watched Saturday's event on Facebook Live, you were barraged by comments that the entire event was 'fake,' and that the sheep-like students had been unwittingly conscripted into a vicious liberal fake media stunt." ...

... Perfect News for March for Our Lives Day. John Bowden of the Hill: "A Department of Justice (DOJ) agency has cancelled a pair of efforts to improve school safety after their funding was cut under the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that President Trump signed Friday. A message posted on the website for the DOJ's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) states that funding for the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI) and Research and Evaluation of Technologies to Improve School Safety solicitations was reapportioned under the recently-passed Stop School Violence Act of 2018." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** "America First." David Sanger & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "The incoming national security adviser has called for the 'swift takeover' of North Korea by the South. He and the newly nominated secretary of state have urged withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. The pick for C.I.A. director once oversaw interrogations in which terrorism suspects were tortured. The two generals celebrated by President Trump for their reputations for toughness are now considered the moderates -- and at risk of falling out of favor. Not since the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, have key national security leaders so publicly raised the threat of military confrontation if foreign adversaries do not meet America's demands. But George W. Bush's war cabinet was responding to the biggest direct attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor. The current moment of peril arises from Mr. Trump's conviction that the United States is being pushed around by adversaries who need to understand that 'America First' means they have a brief window to negotiate a deal, or force may follow."

It's a day ending in "Y" & we have, according to Maureen Dowd, "a president who is treated like a boy king, requiring minders; who is easily swayed because he is underinformed; who can sit still only long enough for short oral briefings; who swaggers and mocks to mask his insecurities; who tries to replace real news with faux...." ...

... SO of course King Donaldo is tweeting some crap. Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday claimed that many lawyers want to represent him in the special counsel's Russia investigation. 'Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case...don't believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on,' he tweeted. 'Fame & fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted,' he continued. 'Problem is that a new lawyer or law firm will take months to get up to speed (if for no other reason than they can bill more), which is unfair to our great country.' Trump then reiterated that he is pleased with his current legal team. 'I am very happy with my existing team,' he tweeted. 'Besides, there was NO COLLUSION with Russia, except by Crooked Hillary and the Dems!'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: A way to attract good legal counsel is to defame all lawyers. I do think it's interesting that Trump may think the Mueller investigation into his shenanigans is quite simple & would not really "take months to get up to speed" but for a desire to rack up more billable hours. I expect the reason we keep hearing that Trump is champing at the bit to meet with Mueller is that he thinks he can waltz in, yell "NO COLLUSION" several times & Mueller will say, "Okay then, case closed." ...

     ... Oh, and not a word about those million-plus gun-shy hippie chickens who caused all the traffic jams this weekend.

AP: "Stocks around the world plunged Friday as investors feared that a trade conflict between the U.S. and China, the biggest economies in the world, would escalate. A second day of big losses pushed U.S. stocks to their worst week in two years.... It wound up being the worst week for U.S. indexes since January 2016. The S&P 500 index sank 6 percent. Among notable decliners was Facebook, which lost 13.9 percent, or $68 billion in value, as outrage mounted over its handling of user data. That's about as much as the company was worth in in 2012, the year of its initial public offering." Thanks, Donald! Thanks, Mark! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Donald Trump Corruption Racket, via Democracy Now! --safari

...Anjali Kamat of the New Republic (March 25): "Investigations into Donald Trump's foreign entanglements may have largely begun with Russia, but the president and his family have a special relationship with India, too.... [T]he Trump Organization has entered into more deals there than in any other foreign country. Five of them are still active -- four luxury residential projects and one commercial tower -- and are valued at an estimated ;$1.5 billion." A long read, fruits of a year-long investigation. --safari

Congressional Race. Fair Elections Are Such a Bummer. Veronica Stracqualursi and Eric Bradner of CNN: "Republican Rep. Ryan Costello plans to drop his bid for reelection in the 2018 House election for Pennsylvania's 6th Congressional District and will retire at the end of his term, a Republican familiar with Costello's plans told CNN Saturday.... Pennsylvania's Supreme Court recently ruled that the state's congressional districts were gerrymandered and put a new map in place for November's midterm elections. Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court denied a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to block new congressional maps.A two-term congressman, Costello won his previous races in a then-more favorable district for Republicans with 57% of the vote in 2016 and 56% in 2014.The new map, however, favors Democrats in the redrawn district...."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Employers are moving to adopt or strengthen policies to prevent bias against transgender people after the latest in a series of court rulings that have extended protections for an increasingly diverse work force. A federal appeals court, rejecting the position of the Trump administration, ruled this month that transgender people are protected by a civil rights law that bans workplace discrimination based on sex. Lawyers who specialize in employment cases said that the decision, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, was highly significant."

David Streitfeld, et al., of the New York Times: "The contemporary internet was built on a bargain: Show us who you really are and the digital world will be free to search or share.... Now, the consumer surveillance model underlying Facebook and Google's free services is under siege from users, regulators and legislators on both sides of the Atlantic. It amounts to a crisis for an internet industry that up until now had taken a reactive, whack-a-mole approach to problems like the spread of fraudulent news and misuse of personal data."

Dorothy Wickenden & Jane Mayer of the New Yorker talk about how data mining & dark money are being used to influence elections:

Way Beyond the Beltway

Mrs. McCrabbie: If I told you that a New Yorker writer claimed that member of the Russian Duma named "Leonid Slutsky, who is the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs" was accused of sexual assault & harassment, you'd probably say, on it's Andy Borowitz again. Actually, no.

The Commentariat -- March 24, 2018

Afternoon Update:

The Washington Post is liveblogging March for Our Lives events in Washington, D.C. The Post's front page is carrying events live. ...

... Here's the New York Times' report, which is being updated. ...

... In response to MAG's comment below... Luis Sanchez of the Hill: "Asked about estimated attendance at the rally, which was expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people, [Sen. Chris] Van Hollen (D-Md.) told The Hill, 'I can tell you for sure, it's larger than the Trump inauguration.'"

... Perfect News for March for Our Lives Day. John Bowden of the Hill: "A Department of Justice (DOJ) agency has cancelled a pair of efforts to improve school safety after their funding was cut under the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that President Trump signed Friday. A message posted on the website for the DOJ's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) states that funding for the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI) and Research and Evaluation of Technologies to Improve School Safety solicitations was reapportioned under the recently-passed Stop School Violence Act of 2018."

AP: "Stocks around the world plunged Friday as investors feared that a trade conflict between the U.S. and China, the biggest economies in the world, would escalate. A second day of big losses pushed U.S. stocks to their worst week in two years.... It wound up being the worst week for U.S. indexes since January 2016. The S&P 500 index sank 6 percent. Among notable decliners was Facebook, which lost 13.9 percent, or $68 billion in value, as outrage mounted over its handling of user data. That’s about as much as the company was worth in in 2012, the year of its initial public offering." Thanks, Donald! Thanks, Mark!

*****

Marissa Lang of the Washington Post: "Students, teachers, parents and survivors of mass shootings have been streaming into the Washington area ahead of the March for Our Lives, an anti-gun-violence demonstration that could draw hundreds of thousands of protesters Saturday.... And on Friday, they participated in potluck dinners, tailgate parties, sign-making events and live concerts throughout the city on what District officials have described as one of the busiest weekends the city will see this year — thanks, as well, to the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which begins Sunday. The march, billed as a youth-led movement spearheaded by student survivors of school shootings, has galvanized many area families, businesses and organizations to lend their support. Families have opened their homes to visitors. Solidarity 'sibling marches' have been planned throughout the region and across the nation. The main March for Our Lives demonstration is scheduled from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, and due to the expected crowd size, organizers warned, the protest might be less of a march down Pennsylvania Avenue and more of a standing-room-only rally." Mrs. McC: MSNBC is planning wall-to-wall coverage. ...

... Luz Lazo of the Washington Post has the logistics: "Big crowds are expected in Washington on Saturday for the March for Our Lives, an anti-gun-violence rally organized by students, that could bring as many as 500,000 protesters to downtown Washington."

** This is the remarkable headline of the New York Times' top story Friday night: "After Another Week of Chaos, Trump Heads to Palm Beach. No One Knows What Comes Next." Mark Landler & Julie Davis: "President Trump left the White House for Florida on Friday after a head-spinning series of moves on national security, trade, the budget and his legal team that left the capital reeling, sent the stock market into another dive and left his own advisers nervous of what comes next. The decisions attested to a president riled up by cable news and increasingly unbound. Mr. Trump appeared heedless of his staff, unconcerned about Washington decorum, confident of his instincts and determined to set the agenda himself, even if that agenda looked like a White House in disarray. Inside the West Wing, aides described an atmosphere of bewildered resignation as they grappled with the all-too-familiar task of predicting and reacting in real time to the shifting moods of the president." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I don't know that the staid Times has ever before led a straight-news story with words & phrases like "chaos, head-spinning, reeling, nervous, riled, unbound, heedless, disarray, bewildered, shifting moods." But that's where we are. And, remember too, that Trump is thinking of firing John Kelly & "managing" the White House himself. ...

... Update: Trump Ends Work Week Bullying Transgender Troops. Jacquelin Klimas & Bryan Bender of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday issued orders to ban transgender troops who require surgery or significant medical treatment from serving in the military except in select cases — following through on a controversial pledge last year that has been under review by the Pentagon and is being fought out in the courts. The memorandum, which drew swift condemnation from gender rights groups, states that while the secretary of defense and other executive branch officials will have some latitude in implementing the policy, 'persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria — including individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery — are disqualified from military service except under limited circumstances.'” ...

... Mark Stern of Slate: "Four federal courts have blocked the Pentagon from discriminating against transgender individuals, and those orders remain in place. In fact, it is doubtful that this plan, or any effort to ban transgender troops, will ever take effect. Those federal courts have found that discrimination against trans service members violates the Constitution, and the new proposal does nothing to ameliorate the ban’s grave constitutional flaws. Instead, the policy issued by the White House on Friday combines anti-trans propaganda with baseless, discredited concerns about the alleged danger of open transgender service. That might satisfy Trump’s base. It will not satisfy the federal judiciary."

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Friday that the Justice Department was proposing to ban so-called bump stocks through regulations rather than wait for Congress to act, a move that defies recommendations by federal law enforcement officials. Mr. Sessions’s announcements came moments after President Trump said on Twitter that the Justice Department would imminently announce a rule banning bump stocks.... A bump stocks ban would defy the conclusion of Justice Department officials, who have said they could not, under existing law, stop the sales of bump stocks, accessories that allow semiautomatic guns to mimic automatic fire, and that congressional action was needed to ban them. But Mr. Sessions said the department had worked around those concerns." ...

Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns. -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Friday afternoon

Really? Trump got this talking point from the NRA. According to Manuela Tobias of PolitiFact, the "ATF, a bureau within the executive branch, decided it could not regulate bump stocks during the Obama administration.... It’s important to note this was not a statement of [President] Obama’s preferred policy, which called for more regulation of guns, but was what the agency determined it had to do under the language of current law." Mrs. McC: Yeah, that would be "important." What Sessions did was overrule the ATF's analysis & Congress's "judgment." Trump & the NRA, of course, mean to leave the impression that President Obama was cool with bump stocks. As for me, I'm fine with Sessions' ruling, but I suppose the two companies that sell bump stocks in the U.S. could prevail in a lawsuit.

GOP Leaders Coax POTUS out of Trumpertantrum. Julie Davis & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill into law on Friday, avoiding a government shutdown that had suddenly become a possibility when the president vented angrily on Twitter about his frustration with the bipartisan legislation. The president abruptly backed down from his threat to veto the spending bill in a head-spinning four hours at the White House that left both political parties in Washington reeling and his own aides bewildered about Mr. Trump’s contradictory actions. Speaking at the White House, Mr. Trump said the spending bill was important for increasing military spending.... It was the latest instance of the president parting ways with his advisers in a sudden reversal that could have serious consequences.... The president’s apparent change of heart came as a surprise but hardly a shock to Republican leaders, who spent much of a snowy Wednesday privately imploring an agitated Mr. Trump to put aside his objections and back the measure, claiming it as a win." ...

... Elana Schor, et al., of Politico: "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Chief of Staff John Kelly were key in convincing Trump not to veto the legislation, according to a source.... Speaker Paul Ryan also put in a call to Trump from Wisconsin.... 'I will never sign another bill like this again,' he said, calling it a 'ridiculous situation.'... The president had been concerned by conservative outcry on Fox News about the limited amount provided for the border wall and interior enforcement and the way in which Amtrak funding was being framed as a victory for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).... 'I've had lunches and dinners with all the congressional leadership,' another White House official said. 'They just can't deal with him anymore. They're done.'... According to one legislative source, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and conservative lawmakers had been trying to persuade Trump to reject the spending deal."

... Ed Kilgore IDs "The Eight Zaniest Things about Trump's Omnibus Veto Threat:... 1) It directly contradicts a presidential tweet from Wednesday night in which Trump conveyed his grudging support for the bill....  2) It directly contradicts Trump’s own personal assurances to Republican congressional leaders, and the White House’s public assurances to the whole world soon after.... 3) Trump himself caused the DACA problem that he’s now pitching a fit about Congress not fixing.... 4) Negotiations leading to the omnibus — including the immigration provisions and the lack thereof — have been going on for more than six months.... 5) Trump has moved the goalposts on immigration policy, making a deal all but impossible.... 6) Trump waited until Congress was heading out of town before his latest veto threat.... 7) Trump may have issued his veto threat because of a Fox and Friends segment.... 8) If Trump vetoes this bill, his biggest fan will be Bob Corker [who encouraged the veto]." 

Peter Goodman of the New York Times: "As the United States accuses China of predatory trading practices while doling out unilateral punishment, the [World Trade Organization] tasked with preserving the peace appears marginalized. Diplomats and trade officials said the American action — if followed through — would flout W.T.O. rules, given that the United States would be imposing tariffs without first adjudicating its grievances. Chinese retaliation would similarly deviate from W.T.O. rules. The W.T.O. fancies itself a United Nations for global commerce, a place where its 164 member nations convene to hash out clear rules of engagement, seeking to defuse conflict. But as the United States and China, the two largest economies on earth, edge closer to a trade war, the organization established in 1995 to prevent such hostilities appears increasingly impotent.... Mr. Trump appeared to acknowledge on Thursday that he was circumventing the rules-based trading system, asserting that the W.T.O. 'has actually been a disaster for us.' 'It’s been very unfair to us,' he said.”

Michelle Kosinski of CNN: "... Donald Trump is expected to receive a recommendation from his National Security Council on Friday that he expel a yet-to-be-determined number of Russian diplomats from the US in response to the poisonings of a former spy and his daughter on UK soil, a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN. The decision to send that recommendation to the President comes after a high-level meeting at the White House on Wednesday during which the NSC drew up a range of options to take action against Russia, according to multiple State Department officials and a source familiar with the discussion." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course Wednesday was way back when H.R. McMaster chaired the NSC.

Rosalind Helderman & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "When a Russian news agency reached out to George Papadopoulos to request an interview shortly before the 2016 election, the young adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump made sure to seek approval from campaign headquarters. 'You should do it,' deputy communications director Bryan Lanza urged Papadopoulos in a September 2016 email, emphasizing the benefits of a U.S. 'partnership with Russia.' The exchange was a sign that Papadopoulos — who pushed the Trump operation to meet with Russian officials — had the campaign’s blessing for some of his foreign outreach. Emails described to The Washington Post ... show Papadopoulos had more extensive contact with key Trump campaign and presidential transition officials than has been publicly acknowledged. Among those who communicated with Papadopoulos were senior campaign figures such as strategist Stephen K. Bannon and adviser Michael Flynn, who corresponded with him about his efforts to broker ties between Trump and top foreign officials, the emails show.... In a tweet after Papadopoulos pleaded guilty, Trump wrote that 'few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar.'”

Andrew McCabe, in a Washington Post op-ed, described his eleventh-hour firing, which he learned of "third-hand, based on a news account." He devotes a graf to criticizing the "unhinged," "cruel" POTUS*. ...

... ** Al Franken comments on his Facebook page about Sessions' firing McCabe: "That the attorney general would fire the man who was tasked with investigating him raises serious questions about whether retaliation or retribution motivated his decision. It also raises serious questions about his supposed recusal from all matters stemming from the 2016 campaign. But the fact that Attorney General Sessions would claim that a 'lack of candor' justified Mr. McCabe’s termination is hypocrisy at its worst." Franken writes an excellent rundown of Sessions' known lies lack of candor about his ties to Russia.

Hannah Summers of the Guardian: "Eighteen enforcement officers have entered the Cambridge Analytica headquarters in London’s West End to search the premises after the data watchdog was granted a warrant to examine its records. Four days after the information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, first announced plans to raid the offices, a judge issued a warrant on Friday evening. Denham has been seeking access to records held by the London-based data analytics company which faces allegations it may have illegally acquired the information of millions of Facebook users and used it to profile and target voters during political campaigns." ...

... Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The political action committee founded by John R. Bolton, President Trump’s incoming national security adviser, was one of the earliest customers of Cambridge Analytica, which it hired specifically to develop psychological profiles of voters with data harvested from tens of millions of Facebook profiles, according to former Cambridge employees and company documents. Mr. Bolton’s political committee, known as The John Bolton Super PAC, first hired Cambridge in August 2014, months after the political data firm was founded and while it was still harvesting the Facebook data. In the two years that followed, Mr. Bolton’s super PAC spent nearly $1.2 million primarily for 'survey research,' which is a term that campaigns use for polling, according to campaign finance records.... The contract [between Bolton's group & Cambridge] broadly describes the services to be delivered by Cambridge as 'behavioral microtargeting with psychographic messaging.'” Whistleblower Christopher Wylie said Bolton's group told them they wanted to make "people more militaristic in their worldview.” ...

... New York Times Editors: "There are few people more likely than Mr. Bolton is to lead the country into war. His selection is a decision that is as alarming as any Mr. Trump has made so far. Coupled with his nomination of the hard-line C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, as secretary of state, Mr. Trump is indulging his worst nationalistic instincts. Mr. Bolton, in particular, believes the United States can do what it wants without regard to international law, treaties or the political commitments of previous administrations." ...

... Eric Levitz: Thursday "night was the darkest of the past 14 months. From day one, it was clear that America’s election of Donald Trump was an act of self-harm. But the president’s hiring of John Bolton has radically increased the risk that it will also prove to be one of mass murder on a world-historic scale. The top national security adviser to the most ignorant and impressionable president in modern memory is a man whose lust for war is so rabid, it makes Senate Republicans uncomfortable. Bolton wants to bomb Iran and North Korea, and he wants to do it yesterday. Just this month, the former U.N. ambassador told Fox News that Trump’s upcoming summit with Kim Jong-un was a positive development — because moving right to high-level talks would accelerate the inevitable failure of diplomacy, thereby clearing the way for war between the United States and a nuclear power." ...

... Republicans Don't Learn from Their Party's Classic Mistakes. Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg: "The most striking thing about how President Donald Trump chose his new national security adviser, John Bolton, and new director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, isn't about either of them personally, although neither is well suited to the honest-broker role that their position calls for.... What is striking is that both are essentially within the mainstream of the Republican Party on policy approaches that ended in disaster during the last Republican presidency."

Ellen Nakashima & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration on Friday announced sanctions and criminal indictments against an Iranian hacker network it said was involved in 'one of the largest state-sponsored hacking campaigns' ever prosecuted by the United States, targeting hundreds of U.S. and foreign universities, as well as dozens of U.S. companies and government agencies, and the United Nations. None of the alleged hackers were direct employees of the Iranian government, but all worked at the behest of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, officials said. While not the first such punishments imposed on Iran for malicious cyber acts, the new measures address more extensive Iranian efforts than previously alleged."

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "... Donald Trump’s top White House lawyer, Don McGahn, is expected to step down later this year, though his resignation is contingent on the president finding a replacement and several other factors, according to four sources familiar with McGahn’s thinking. McGahn, according to two of the sources, has signaled interest in returning to the Jones Day law firm where he previously worked and reprising a role he had during the 2016 campaign by handling legal matters for Trump’s reelection.... Sources said Trump wants to have a new White House counsel in place who he’s comfortable with before clearing McGahn for the exits."

Why Mattis Still Has a Job. Eliana Johnson in Politico Magazine: "Last July, James Mattis and Rex Tillerson arranged a tutoring session at the Pentagon for ... Donald Trump in the secure, windowless meeting room known as 'The Tank.' The plan was to lay out why American troops are deployed in far-flung places across the globe, like Japan and South Korea. Mattis spoke first.... The secretary of defense walked the president through the complex fabric of trade deals, military agreements and international alliances that make up the global system the victors established after World War II, touching off what one attendee described as a 'food fight' and a 'free for all' with the president and the rest of the group. Trump punctuated the session by loudly telling his secretaries of state and defense, at several points during the meeting, 'I don’t agree!' The meeting culminated with Tillerson, his now ousted secretary of state, fatefully complaining after the president left the room, that Trump was 'a fucking moron.'... Mattis ... manages to disagree with the president without squandering his clout or getting under Trump’s skin.... White House aides say Trump is cowed and intimidated by Mattis, who peppers his comments with aphorisms and historical arcana gleaned from his extraordinary personal library.”

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: Donald Trump has repeatedly denied news stories that turn out to be true.

All in the Family

Kate Bennett of CNN: "The day after a CNN interview with a former Playboy model who claims to have had a 10-month affair with her husband, first lady Melania Trump opted to leave ... Donald Trump alone for the ride from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base. The official White House schedule, released Thursday evening, stated the first couple would depart the White House together aboard Marine One en route to Joint Base Andrews, but Mrs. Trump did not appear beside her husband.... The President plans to remain for the weekend and the first lady is slated to stay for at least a week while the couple's son has a scheduled spring break vacation from school."

Lisa Ryan of New York: "Ivanka Trump often winds up trying to defend her dad ... in the press.... But according to a new report from Vanity Fair, Ivanka sometimes confronts her dad behind-the-scenes and ends up defending ... her husband, Jared Kushner, who apparently doesn’t feel supported by his father-in-law.... And so, for now, Kushner still has a job in the White House (even though his security clearance has recently been downgraded and the president is reportedly trying to undermine the Kushner and Ivanka behind closed doors, whoops). According to Vanity Fair, the president is keeping his son-in-law around because he 'fears letting him out of his sight — particularly if he gets indicted.'” Mrs. McC: The linked Vanity Fair piece, by Emily Fox, is long & I didn't care to read it.

Clayton Swisher & Ryan Grim of the Intercept: "Joshua Kushner, a venture capitalist and the younger brother of White House adviser Jared Kushner, met with Qatari Finance Minister Ali Sharif Al Emadi the same week as his father, Charles Kushner, did in April 2017, in an independent effort to discuss potential investments from the Qatari government. Both meetings took place at Al Emadi’s St. Regis Hotel suite in Manhattan.... The Qataris declined to invest, saying that the investment was not significant enough to warrant making, two sources familiar with the decision told The Intercept."

** "A Detailed Account." Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Sen. John McCain, whose experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam has established him as Congress’s moral conscience on torture, asked CIA director nominee Gina Haspel to detail her role in the agency’s enhanced interrogation program. Haspel’s tenure at the CIA, where she serves as deputy director, has been tied to its history of using enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, on terrorism suspects in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. At one point, Haspel was in charge of a 'black site' prison where such measures — often referred to as torture — were used. Haspel is also part of a group of CIA officials who were involved in the decision to destroy videotaped evidence of some of the interrogation sessions with detainees. In a letter to Haspel on Friday, McCain (R-Ariz.) asked for 'a detailed account' of her role overseeing the CIA’s interrogation programs between 2001 and 2009.... He also asked her to list the steps she did not take to prevent the CIA from using such measures — and for the names of those who asked her to destroy evidence related to the sessions."

Matthew Daly of Politico: "The chairman of the House Oversight Committee is seeking details from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke about a $139,000 project to upgrade doors in Zinke’s office. Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina asked Zinke to explain the need for the replacement doors and provide details about the project’s cost estimates, bids and final contract.... An Interior spokeswoman said Friday that Zinke has directed changes in the project’s scope to save money. The new estimate is about 50 percent lower than the initial amount, spokeswoman Heather Swift said."

The Alabama Way. Shawn Boburg & Dalton Bennett of the Washington Post: "Days after a woman accused U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual impropriety, two Moore supporters approached her attorney ... Eddie Sexton to drop the woman as a client and say publicly that he did not believe her. The damaging statement would be given to Breitbart News, then run by former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon. In exchange, Sexton said in recent interviews, the men offered to pay him $10,000 and promised to introduce him to Bannon and others in the nation’s capital. Parts of Sexton’s account are supported by recorded phone conversations, text messages and people in whom he confided at the time."

Daniel Camacho in the Guardian: "If a Muslim man planted bombs in predominately white neighborhoods before blowing himself up, you could bet that the White House and various media outlets would label him a terrorist and draw some connection between his religion and his violent acts. But the case of the Austin bomber reveals an enduring double standard: white Christian terrorists continue to get a free pass. According to a Buzzfeed report, 23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt – the one responsible for the recent bombings in Austin – was part of conservative survivalist circles. An acquaintance of Conditt confirmed he was involved in a group called Righteous Invasion of Truth, 'a Bible study and outdoors group for homeschooled kids, created and named by the kids and their families that included monthly activities such as archery, gun skills and water balloon fights.'... Because he is white, his acts are reduced to a personal problem even though white American men have consistently posed a bigger domestic terrorist threat than Muslim foreigners who get treated as systemic threat.”

Beyond the Beltway

The Littlest Dictator. Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Republican legislative leaders in Wisconsin called lawmakers back to the Capitol Friday afternoon to change state law governing special elections. The move comes a day after a court ruled that Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, must hold a pair of special elections, which Walker has sought to avoid. Democrats called the plan to change the law an 'attack on democracy.'”

News Ledes

New York Times: Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, "a French police officer who was badly wounded on Friday after taking the place of a gunman’s hostage has died from his injuries, Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said on Saturday.... The death of Colonel Beltrame, 44, brought the toll from Friday’s outburst of violence to five, including the gunman, who the authorities said had hijacked a car, shot at police officers and taken hostages in a supermarket in southwestern France." (See also yesterday's News Ledes.)

New York Times: "Zell Miller, a cantankerously independent politician from the mountains of northern Georgia who disdained backslapping and baby-kissing as he snarled at journalists and battled fellow Democrats in his four years as a United States senator, died on Friday morning at his home in Young Harris, Ga. He was 86." ...

... Zell's Greatest Hit. At the 2004 Republican convention: