The Commentariat -- January 30, 2018

Afternoon Update:

** As Plot Lines Converge. Devlin Barrett & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department's inspector general has been focused for months on why Andrew McCabe, as the No. 2 official at the FBI, appeared not to act for about three weeks on a request to examine a batch of Hillary Clinton-related emails found in the latter stages of the 2016 election campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.... A key question of the internal investigation is whether McCabe or anyone else at the FBI wanted to avoid taking action on the laptop findings until after the Nov. 8 election, these people said. It is unclear whether the inspector general has reached any conclusions on that point.... On Monday, McCabe left the FBI, following a meeting with FBI Director Christopher A. Wray in which they discussed the inspector general's investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.... McCabe was aware of the matter by late September or early October at the latest, according to the people familiar with the matter." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Note of Caution: It's not ridiculous to suspect the reporters' sources are members of the notorious Nunes Gang. Another likely possibility: The New York City-based Giuliani Gang, which has infiltrated the FBI branch there.

Daniella Diaz of CNN: "Rep. Paul Gosar said he requested that US Capitol Police arrest undocumented immigrants attending ... Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday.... The Arizona Republican, who is known as an immigration hardliner, tweeted his request that police 'consider checking identification of all attending the State of the Union address and arresting any illegal aliens in attendance.' He added they should "arrest those using fraudulent social security numbers and identification to pass through security.' A considerable number of Democratic lawmakers are bringing undocumented immigrants to Trump's State of the Union address amid the immigration debate that's shaking out on Capitol Hill." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. Mrs. McC: These people are such twisted SOBs they don't know they're twisted SOBs -- in fact, they boast about it.

Floor Me Once..., Floor Me Twice.... Say Congress wrote a bill, & you were the president* who signed that bill into law, a law which required your administration -- within six months -- to compile a list of Russian oligarchs involved in corruption & therefore whom the U.S. should sanction. How would you go about putting together that list? Wouldn't you assign multiple staff from, say, the CIA, the NSA, the State Department, the Treasury, providing input & sharing information & analysis? Something like that. Well, no, not if you were President* Trump. If you were Trump, you would crib that list -- not from U.S. intelligence agencies & other government sources, but from the magazine rack next to your golden throne. ...

... The Most Farcical Presidency in American History. Natasha Turak of CNBC: "The U.S. Treasury Department's list released Monday detailing 210 Russian oligarchs and close political affiliates of President Vladimir Putin bears a striking resemblance to a list of Russia's richest citizens published in Forbes Magazine in 2017. In fact, almost all 96 oligarchs listed in the unclassified annex of the report, who have a net worth of at least $1 billion, can be found in Forbes' ranking of the '200 richest businessmen in Russia 2017.'" ...

... John Hudson of BuzzFeed: "On Tuesday, a Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the unclassified annex of the report was derived from Forbes' ranking of the '200 richest businessmen in Russia 2017.'" ...

... Sylvan Lane of the Hill: At a Senate Banking hearing this morning, "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday [-- in response to outrage over his handling of Russian sanctions --] the Trump administration will impose financial sanctions on dozens of wealthy Russians despite the president declining a congressional deadline to do so. Mnuchin said that a report issued Monday on suspected financiers of Russian government political efforts is not a substitute for financial restrictions Congress mandated in a bill passed last year.... Trump announced Monday night that th current regiment of financial sanctions on Russia was doing enough to deter the country's unstabilizing political and military actions, declining to add others."

Stephanie Kirchgaessner & Nick Hopkins of the Guardian: "The FBI inquiry into alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 US presidential election has been given a second memo that independently set out some of the same allegations made in a dossier by Christopher Steele, the British former spy. The second memo was written by Cody Shearer, a controversial political activist and former journalist who was close to the Clinton White House in the 1990s. Unlike Steele, Shearer does not have a background in espionage, and his memo was initially viewed with scepticism, not least because he had shared it with select media organisations before the election. However, the Guardian has been told the FBI investigation is still assessing details in the 'Shearer memo' and is pursuing intriguing leads.... The Shearer memo was provided to the FBI in October 2016 ... by Steele -- who had been given it by an American contact -- after the FBI requested the former MI6 agent provide any documents or evidence that could be useful in its investigation.... Among other things, both documents allege Donald Trump was compromised during a 2013 trip to Moscow that involved lewd acts in a five-star hotel.... There is no evidence that the Clinton campaign was aware of the Shearer memo."

Kyle Cheney & Rachel Bade of Politico: "Speaker Paul Ryan urged Republican colleagues Tuesday to avoid overstating the findings of a classified House intelligence committee memo that alleges misconduct by FBI officials investigating Trump campaign contacts with Russia. In a closed-door meeting with House Republicans at the Capitol, Ryan (R-Wis.) also urged lawmakers not to connect the findings of the memo with the probe being run by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to a source in the room. Ryan pleaded with members not to oversell the memo and to distinguish it from Mueller's investigation." ...

... MEANWHILE. Mike Emanuel of Fox "News": "House Speaker Paul Ryan called Tuesday to 'cleanse' the FBI as he openly backed the release of a controversial memo that purportedly details alleged surveillance abuses by the U.S. government. 'Let it all out, get it all out there. Cleanse the organization,' Ryan, R-Wis., said. He added: 'I think we should disclose all this stuff. It's the best disinfectant. Accountability, transparency -- for the sake of the reputation of our institutions.' The striking remarks came at a breakfast with anchors and reporters ahead of ... Donald Trump's State of the Union address; much of the session was off the record."

Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "Three major employers, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase, announced Tuesday they were partnering to create an independent company aimed at reining in health-care costs. There were almost no details available about how the company would function or how it would disrupt and simplify the complicated fabric of American health care. But there's no doubt that the companies, which collectively employ more than 1 million workers worldwide, have a real interest in ratcheting down their spending on health care. Health care premiums are split between employers and employees and have been growing much faster than wages."

Brian Fung & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The Hawaii employee who sent out a false alarm earlier this month warning of an incoming missile attack said he misheard a message played during a drill and believed a ballistic missile was actually heading for the state, according to a federal investigation. This contradicts the explanations previously offered by Hawaii officials, who have said the Jan. 13 alert was sent because the employee hit the wrong button on a drop-down menu."

*****

At 10:00 am ET, the top New York Times story is about how upset Trump's supporters are they he might not be leading the Hail Trump! salute & wearing his Pepe the Frog badge at tonight's SOTU speech. Mrs. McC: I'm not reading or linking the story, but there's a good chance it contains some disgusting sentiments.

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, apparently disregarding Justice Department warnings that their actions would be 'extraordinarily reckless,' voted Monday evening to release a contentious secret memorandum said to accuse the department and the F.B.I. of misusing their authority to obtain a secret surveillance order on a former Trump campaign associate. The vote threw fuel on an already fiery partisan conflict over the investigations into Russia's brazen meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Republicans invoked a power never before used by the secretive committee to effectively declassify the memo that they had compiled. Democrats called the three-and-a half-page document a dangerous effort to build a narrative to undercut the department's ongoing Russia investigation, using cherry-picked facts assembled with little or no context." This story is breaking fast & @ 7:00 pm ET, the NYT is not yet on top of it. ...

     ... Chris Matthews of MSNBC News is a jerk, but he's right about this: "It looks like a slow-motion Saturday Night Massacre.... It's a purge." ...

... Ken Dilanian & Alex Johnson of NBC News: "... legal experts say the release of such classified surveillance details would be extraordinary on two counts: It could spill extremely sensitive secrets, and it could undermine the secrecy of a pending criminal investigation.... Republican House members have said the memo suggests that the FBI obtained its original Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, warrant to conduct surveillance on [Trump campaign screwball Carter] Page by citing the dossier compiled by former British intelligence operative Christopher Steele, which was funded in part by Democrats. In fact, U.S. officials say the FBI had many other sources of information -- including intelligence from foreign governments -- suggesting possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, in addition to the dossier. If the Republicans believe a national security warrant was obtained improperly, [Frank] Figliuzzi[, a former chief of FBI counterintelligence,] said, they could have alerted the Justice Department's inspector general or the judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, who sign the warrants. Instead, he said, they are taking a path that seems designed to inflict damage on the Russia investigation." ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "... the vote followed negotiations by both the FBI and the committee to give greater access for the bureau, to a memo that the FBI has not seen and which the Justice Department warned might harm counterintelligence investigations should it be released without vetting." ...

... Adam Goldman & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Andrew G. McCabe has stepped down as the F.B.I.'s deputy director, a move that was widely expected as he has repeatedly come under fire from Republicans in Congress and from President Trump. Mr. McCabe made his intentions known to colleagues on Monday, an American official said. He will immediately go on leave and plans to retire when he becomes eligible in mid-March." Mrs. McC: Well, the Von Trump Family Shitslingers can dance around the campfire tonight carrying McCabe's head on the end of stake. They're such WINNERS! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "Andrew G. McCabe abruptly stepped down on Monday as the F.B.I.'s deputy director after months of withering criticism from President Trump, telling friends he felt pressure from the head of the bureau to leave, according to two people close to Mr. McCabe." ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "Two days before Christmas, Trump tweeted, 'FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!'... McCabe was expected to stick around until March. Instead, he abruptly departed Monday, though he'll still be collecting those benefits. The deputy director is taking what is ominously known as 'terminal leave' -- he has accrued enough leave to depart his post now but not officially retire until benefits vest."

... The Nastiest Ass in the U.S.A. Carol Lee of NBC News: "The day after he fired James Comey as director of the FBI, a furious ... Donald Trump called the bureau's acting director, Andrew McCabe, demanding to know why Comey had been allowed to fly on an FBI plane from Los Angeles back to Washington after he was dismissed, according to multiple people familiar with the phone call. McCabe told the president he hadn't been asked to authorize Comey's flight, but if anyone had asked, he would have approved it, three people familiar with the call recounted to NBC News. The president was silent for a moment and then turned on McCabe, suggesting he ask his wife how it feels to be a loser -- an apparent reference to a failed campaign for state office in Virginia that McCabe's wife made in 2015. McCabe replied, 'OK, sir.' Trump then hung up the phone." ...

     ... digby's headline: "Good God what an asshole."

... Another Time Trump Lost It. Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump's frustrations with the Russia investigation boiled over on Air Force One last week when he learned that a top Justice Department official had warned against releasing a memo that could undercut the probe, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. Trump erupted in anger while traveling to Davos after learning that Associate Attorney General Stephen Boyd warned that it would be 'extraordinarily reckless' to release a classified memo written by House Republican staffers.... For Trump, the letter was yet another example of the Justice Department undermining him and stymieing Republican efforts to expose what the president sees as the politically motivated agenda behind Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe. Trump's outburst capped a week where Trump and senior White House officials personally reproached Attorney General Jeff Sessions and asked White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to speak to others -- episodes that illustrate Trump's preoccupation with the Justice Department." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "In the last 24 hours we've seen two stories of Trump throwing deranged temper tantrums related to the FBI probe.... Donald Trump has spent his entire life insulated from repercussions by his father's money, and by an entire coterie of much more intelligent and talented people protecting him from his actions. A fixer like Roy Cohn takes care of everything for him: every woman he assaults or uses gets paid off or destroyed in the press, every business partner or contractor he burns gets pennies on the dollar or countersued, every bad investment and scam that would put a normal person into the poorhouse or worse gets taken care of through clever legal and accounting jujitsu.... The problem for Trump is that there is no fixer for the situation he is in. He famously asked 'Where's my Roy Cohn?' when the walls of the Russia investigation slowly began to close in around him.... What will he do when the pressure becomes too much to bear? ... When that day comes, it will be a trial for American democracy like few before it." ...

... Susan Glasser of Politico Magazine: "Congress late last year received 'extraordinarily important new documents' in its investigation of ... Donald Trump and his campaign's possible collusion with the 2016 Russian election hacking, opening up significant new lines of inquiry in the Senate Intelligence Committee's probe of the president, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) says in an exclusive new interview.... Warner calls out [Rep. Devin] Nunes [R-Calif.], the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in arguably more explicit terms than any Democrat has yet, saying he has read the underlying classified material used in the memo and that Nunes misrepresented it as part of a McCarthyite 'secret Star Chamber' effort to discredit the FBI probe of the president.... Warner offers a provocative rationale for why it is we are now seeing such a stepped-up campaign by Trump and his defenders against those who seek to provide us the answers. 'Mueller is getting closer and closer to the truth,' Warner tells me, and 'closer and closer to the truth is getting closer and closer to the president.'... The spectacle on Capitol Hill is sure to continue." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Paul Rosenzweig, in the Atlantic, details why Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, or anybody else in the Justice Department is highly unlikely to indict Trump. "The resolution of the current American crisis is going to be political, not criminal. The future lies with Congress and, ultimately, the electorate, not with prosecutors and the courts." Mrs. McC: I have no idea whether or not Rosenzweig is correct in every particular & conjecture -- many attorney disagree with him -- but his is a sober reality chek for those of us hoping something would be done to rid us of Trump.

What's wrong with this picture?They Screw up Everything, Including M & N. Heather Caygle of Politico: Here's a shot of the official invitation to the event formerly known as the State of the Union address. ...

... Keeping It Classy. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump is seeking to parlay his first State of the Union address on Tuesday into cash for his reelection campaign by offering supporters a chance to see their name flashed on the screen during a broadcast of the speech. In a fundraising solicitation on Monday, Trump offered those willing to pay at least $35 the opportunity to see their name displayed during a live streaming of the address on his campaign website." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Ah well, their names probably will be misspelled. Let us pause to remind ourselves that the SOTU address is a solemn Constitutional mandate. "[The President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." (Article II, Sec. 3) The SOTU address or is not a campaign speech even if most presidents in recent memory have treated it as a vehicle for self-promotion. To treat the SOTU like the jumbotron at a ball game might be the sleeziest thing I've ever heard of. The same guy who claimed ball players kneeling for justice were "disrespecting the flag" (they were doing the opposite), also thinks it's A-OK to treat the Constitution as a marketing tool. (The Constitution is far more important than the flag, since the Constitution is the basis of nation while the flag is merely a symbol of it.) I thought Trump had lost the power to floor me. I was wrong. ...

... "Please Don't Call Him Presidential." Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... I'm begging my fellow pundits not to get too excited should Trump manage to read from a teleprompter without foaming at the mouth or saying anything overtly racist. No matter how well Trump delivers the lines in his State of the Union ... he will not become presidential. There will be no turning of corners or uniting the country. At best, Trump will succeed in impersonating a minimally competent leader for roughly the length of an episode of 'The Apprentice.' And if he does, recent history suggests that he will be praised as the second coming of Lincoln." ...

... "The State of the Union Is Awfully Precarious." Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "How does a 'union,' of the sort the president will boast about tonight,go from being a nation of laws to a fiefdom of a dear leader's whim? Through a hundred small steps from Jan. 20, 2017, to now. But for present purposes, let's focus on three. And interestingly ... they're not mostly Donald Trump's fault. They're mostly the fault of his Republican enablers.... we are in imminent -- imminent -- danger of losing the right to call ourselves a republic, a nation of laws."

Patricia Zengerle of Reuters: "The Trump administration said on Monday it would not immediately impose additional sanctions on Russia, despite a new law designed to punish Moscow's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, insisting the measure was already hitting Russian companies.... Under [a law Congress passed almost unanimously last summer & President Trump signed to avoid the embarrassment of a veto override], the administration faced a deadline on Monday to impose sanctions on anyone determined to conduct significant business with Russian defense and intelligence sectors, already sanctioned for their alleged role in the election. But citing long time frames associated with major defense deals, [an administration spokesperson] said it was better to wait to impose those sanctions.... Shortly before midnight (0500 GMT) on Monday, the Treasury Department released an unclassified 'oligarchs' list [as mandated by the law], including 114 senior Russian political figures and 96 business people.... Critics blasted [Trump] for failing to announce any sanctions."

** Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "The White House's immigration plan is ... a sleight of hand designed to help the far right shove through sharp new limits on legal immigration, under the pretense of moderation and reasonableness.... Nearly everyone, Democrat and Republican, wants to protect dreamers.... Yet somehow Trump and his fellow Republicans [and media observers] pretend that any offer to protect dreamers is a painful giveaway, for which Democratic leadership should grovel in gratitude.... the Trump framework packages protection for dreamers -- something both sides demand -- with stuff only the right demands, such as border wall funding, curbs to family-sponsored visas and an end to the diversity visa lottery.... It's not a quid pro quo; it's just quid." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Democrats must, once again, insist upon a "clean" DACA bill. ...

... Charles Pierce: "When the damage done by this administration* is toted up, assuming there will be somebody left to count the cost, the unleashing of Border Patrol and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, and the subsequent depredations thereof, are going to rank right at the top of the list. If you want to see real fascism in action, look at what these people have been up to. Somebody leaves water in the desert for undocumented immigrants, and the Border Patrol pours it all out and then arrests the guy.... Meanwhile, ICE has run wild. They are busting parents while their kids are at school. They're publicizing 'sweeps' in cities like they're chasing down Capone or someone. And there's a very good possibility that, in the so-called 'sanctuary cities,' we will see confrontations between ICE agents and local law enforcement. And now we have this latest insanity, whereby technology will be handed to an agency sliding swiftly toward a very dangerous point. From The Verge: 'The system gives the agency access to billions of license plate records and new powers of real-time location tracking, raising significant concerns from civil libertarians...."

Emily Stewart of Vox: "National security officials are reportedly considering a plan to nationalize the United States' next-generation 5G wireless network in an effort to guard against competitive and cybersecurity threats from China. It would be an unprecedented move -- especially from a Republican administration. And so ... Donald Trump's Federal Communications Commission, which would be a major player in such a project, immediately pushed back. This all started Sunday, when Axios reported that officials at the National Security Council have put together a memo saying that America needs a centralized nationwide 5G network within the next three years. It proposes that the best option would be for the US government pay for and build the network and then rent it to carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: Can hardly wait to see how Trump can screw up my 5G service AND raise the price.

Another One Bites the Dust. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, will retire from Congress at the end of this term, giving a boost to Democratic hopes of winning back the House of Representatives with wins in fast-changing suburbs.... Frelinghuysen, first elected in 1994, represents suburbs and exurbs of New York City that had long voted solidly Republican.... Donald Trump won just 48.8 percent of the vote in Frelinghuysen's 11th Congressional District. Democrats piled into the 2018 campaign, with Mikie Sherrill, a Navy veteran and federal prosecutor, garnering the most attention and largely clearing the field." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eric Levitz of New York: Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), who is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, outraised Cruz over the last three months. O'Rourke has not taken money from corporate superPACS. Cruz will probably win -- because Texas. But Levitz has written a fine remembrance of just in case:

Ted Cruz is living proof that the invention of high-school debate was a world-historic error on par with the Manhattan Project. He is a seething mass of smug self-regard; a 'populist' who, whilst at law school, refused to study with anyone who hadn't gotten their bachelor's degree at Harvard, Princeton, or Yale; an anti-Establishment gadfly who tried desperately to win a spot in George W. Bush's inner circle; a one-time #NeverTrump conservative who spent much of the past year licking the president's boots; and (almost certainly) a serial killer with a taste for cryptography.... (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Paul Krugman advises his barber not to buy Bitcoin. A very useful column.

Way Beyond the Beltway

A Cautionary Tale. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "... political analysts agree that the only sure bet in Italy's coming and critical March 4 elections is that [former Prime Minister Silvio] Berlusconi will return as a major force in Italian, and possibly European, politics. Even if he will not be prime minister immediately (he is barred until next year following a fraud conviction), he is likely to be the kingmaker.... He has been investigated over accusations of mob links. He entered politics in part to protect his vast business interests and then, as the owner of the majority of Italy's commercial television stations, used his sprawling media empire to stay in power. He hosted underage women at what he called 'elegant dinners' but what the world knew as sex-fueled Bunga Bunga bacchanals. He made a habit of embarrassing Italy on the global stage."

The Commentariat -- January 29, 2018

It's kind of amazing that, with the plethora of news items on offer here in RC World, there are relatively few comments. I look forward every day to the ideas you all put forward. -- Akhilleus, at the end of Saturday's thread.

Ditto. Commenting on Reality Chex couldn't be easier. You can assume almost any pseudonym you like. I do suggest you keep a copy of your comment until it is published. To assure your comment has been published, just refresh the page; the comment should come up right away. The only rules are that (1) you don't attack other commenters -- disagree with their ideas, not with their characters or intelligence -- (2) you don't advocate ideas that shock the conscience, and (3) (which seems to be a difficult one) your comments stick to politics. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... P.S. re: Rule 1: Insulting or attacking me, Mrs. Bea McCrabbie, will not go well, as yesterday's thread attests.

Afternoon Update:

Adam Goldman & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Andrew G. McCabe has stepped down as the F.B.I.;s deputy director, a move that was widely expected as he has repeatedly come under fire from Republicans in Congress and from President Trump. Mr. McCabe made his intentions known to colleagues on Monday, an American official said. He will immediately go on leave and plans to retire when he becomes eligible in mid-March." Mrs. McC: Well, the Von Trump Family Shitslingers can dance around the campfire tonight carrying McCabe's head on the end of stake. They're such WINNERS! Uh, wait. The next story seems to present a problem. ...

... Susan Glasser of Politico Magazine: "Congress late last year received 'extraordinarily important new documents' in its investigation of ... Donald Trump and his campaign's possible collusion with the 2016 Russian election hacking, opening up significant new lines of inquiry in the Senate Intelligence Committee's probe of the president, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) says in an exclusive new interview.... Warner calls out [Rep. Devin] Nunes [R-Calif.], the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in arguably more explicit terms than any Democrat has yet, saying he has read the underlying classified material used in the memo and that Nunes misrepresented it as part of a McCarthyite 'secret Star Chamber' effort to discredit the FBI probe of the president.... Warner offers a provocative rationale for why it is we are now seeing such a stepped-up campaign by Trump and his defenders against those who seek to provide us the answers. 'Mueller is getting closer and closer to the truth,' Warner tells me, and 'closer and closer to the truth is getting closer and closer to the president.'... The spectacle on Capitol Hill is sure to continue." ...

... Another Time Trump Lost It. Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump's frustrations with the Russia investigation boiled over on Air Force One last week when he learned that a top Justice Department official had warned against releasing a memo that could undercut the probe, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. Trump erupted in anger while traveling to Davos after learning that Associate Attorney General Stephen Boyd warned that it would be 'extraordinarily reckless' to release a classified memo written by House Republican staffers.... For Trump, the letter was yet another example of the Justice Department undermining him and stymieing Republican efforts to expose what the president sees as the politically motivated agenda behind Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe. Trump's outburst capped a week where Trump and senior White House officials personally reproached Attorney General Jeff Sessions and asked White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to speak to others -- episodes that illustrate Trump’s preoccupation with the Justice Department."

Another One Bites the Dust. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, will retire from Congress at the end of this term, giving a boost to Democratic hopes of winning back the House of Representatives with wins in fast-changing suburbs.... Frelinghuysen, first elected in 1994, represents suburbs and exurbs of New York City that had long voted solidly Republican.... Donald Trump won just 48.8 percent of the vote in Frelinghuysen's 11th Congressional District. Democrats piled into the 2018 campaign, with Mikie Sherrill, a Navy veteran and federal prosecutor, garnering the most attention and largely clearing the field."

Eric Levitz of New York: Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas), who is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, outraised Cruz over the last three months. O'Rourke has not taken money from corporate superPACS. Cruz will probably win -- because Texas. But Levitz has written a fine remembrance of just in case:

Ted Cruz is living proof that the invention of high-school debate was a world-historic error on par with the Manhattan Project. He is a seething mass of smug self-regard; a 'populist' who, whilst at law school, refused to study with anyone who hadn't gotten their bachelor's degree at Harvard, Princeton, or Yale; an anti-Establishment gadfly who tried desperately to win a spot in George W. Bush's inner circle; a one-time #NeverTrump conservative who spent much of the past year licking the president's boots; and (almost certainly) a serial killer with a taste for cryptography....

*****

Jeet Heer of the New Republic (Jan. 26) on the "paranoid style in American politics." Now, as it did in the era of Joe McCarthy, that paranoid style begins at the top & has quite a few prominent adherents. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** Speaking of Sinister Plots. Jonathan Chait: "It is possible that the deafening drumbeat of charges in the GOP-controlled media about alleged liberal bias in the Justice Department and the FBI is only designed to prepare the base to disregard evidence of President Trump's culpability in the Russia scandal.... It seems much more likely now that the conspiracy theories and charges serve a different purpose: to give Trump cover to shut down Robert Mueller's probe and remake the Justice Department into an organ of his personal protection. Several new reports have clarified the president's disturbing intent.... So, why hasn't Trump acted yet? Reports have also answered this question: because his lawyers keep stopping him.... The question is how long this unstable equilibrium will last.... Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself because he was a key member of the campaign that was being investigated, and who also lied about his interactions with Russians, has selectively un-recused himself." (Also, Trump, not usually known for his subtlety, has found an odd euphemism for reminding fans that Rosenstein is an untrustworthy Jew. Disgusting.) Mrs. McC: Color me paranoid. Chait's evidence, especially two stories we've previously linked, is convincing. ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "I can't overstate the level of anxiety among sources close to Trump after the president told the NYT's Maggie Haberman last week he was willing and eager to submit himself to a live interview under oath with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.... One source, who knows Trump as well as anyone, told me he believes the president would be incapable of avoiding perjuring himself. ]Trump doesn't deal in reality,' the source said. 'He creates his own reality and he actually believes it.'"

... Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times: "A secret, highly contentious Republican memo reveals that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein approved an application to extend surveillance of a former Trump campaign associate shortly after taking office last spring, according to three people familiar with it. The renewal shows that the Justice Department under President Trump saw reason to believe that the associate, Carter Page, was acting as a Russian agent. But the reference to Mr. Rosenstein's actions in the memo -- a much-disputed document that paints the investigation into Russian election meddling as tainted from the start -- indicates that Republicans may be moving to seize on his role as they seek to undermine the inquiry.... No information has publicly emerged that the Justice Department or the F.B.I. did anything improper while seeking the surveillance warrant involving Mr. Page.... Mr. Trump considered firing Mr. Rosenstein last summer." ...

... MEANWHILE. Sheryl Stolberg & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Republican lawmakers warned President Trump on Sunday not to fire Robert S. Mueller III, but showed little sense of urgency to advance long-stalled legislation to protect the special counsel despite a report that Mr. Trump had tried to remove him last June. 'I don't think there's a need for legislation right now to protect Mueller,' Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, said Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'Right now there's not an issue. So why create one when there isn't a place for it?'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Right. Not an issue. Because Trump already has ordered the White House counsel to fire Mueller. So he would never do so again. ...

Ken Starr Thinks Trump Likely Should Be Impeached. Lois Beckett of the Guardian: 'If Donald Trump lied to the American people when he called reports he tried to fire Robert Mueller 'fake news', that would be grounds for impeachment, the independent counsel who investigated the Clinton White House said on Sunday. Ken Starr, who used Bill Clinton's false statements about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky as grounds for impeachment, told ABC's This Week: 'Lying to the American people is a serious issue that has to be explored. I take lying to the American people very, very seriously, so absolutely.' Starr said: 'That is something Bob Mueller should look at.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course the "fake news" shout-out was not the only time Trump lied to the public about firing Bob Mueller if the NYT is correct. According the the Times, Trump ordered Mueller's firing in June 2017. In August 2017, when asked by a reporter if he'd ever considered firing Mueller, Trump replied, "I haven't given it any thought." Worth noting also, as David Leonhardt does below, that an article of impeachment against Nixon is worded, "... made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States." ...

... David Leonhardt of the New York Times comes up with a list of Trump's publicly-known bad acts that should warrant an article of impeachment for obstruction of justice. Trump is unlikely to face impeachment anytime soon, or perhaps anytime at all. But it's time for all of us -- voters, members of Congress, Trump's own staff -- to be honest about what he's done. He has obstructed justice. He may not be finished doing so, either." ...

... "American Hustler." Franklin Foer, in the Atlantic, pores through years of e-mails written by Paul Manafort's daughters. "When Paul Manafort officially joined the Trump campaign, on March 28, 2016, he represented a danger not only to himself but to the political organization he would ultimately run. A lifetime of foreign adventures didn't just contain scandalous stories, it evinced the character of a man who would very likely commandeer the campaign to serve his own interests, with little concern for the collective consequences." A long piece. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Donald Trump, Climate Scientist. Benjamin Hart of New York: "President Trump has a long history of mind-bogglingly foolish statements about climate change, the most notorious of which is probably his 2012 Twitter declaration that the phenomenon is merely a Chinese hoax. On Sunday, he added another whopper to his least-greatest hits collection. Speaking to kindred spirit Piers Morgan on the British network ITV, Trump said that, despite what you may have heard, the polar ice caps are actually thriving. 'The ice caps were going to melt, they were going to be gone by now, but now they're setting records,' he said.... [And he's been saying (& tweeting) it for years.] The president also told Morgan, sagely: 'Look, it used to not be climate change, it used to be global warming. That wasn't working too well because it was getting too cold all over the place.'" Mrs. McC: The worst part: he believes this. ...

... In case Daffy Duck wrote your science book, too, here's the Chicago Tribune's fact-check.

These next two stories are one atop the other in the Guardian:

     Martin Farrer: "A round-up of some of the more eyebrow-raising statements in the US president's interview with Piers Morgan [begins with,] 'I think I'm very popular in your country.' Morgan interjects: 'Let's not be too hasty Mr President.' Trump continued: 'I know but I believe that, I really do. I get so much fan mail from people in your country. They love my sense of security, they love what I'm saying about many different things. 'We get tremendous support from people in the UK.'"

     Nicola Swanson: "Protesters are readying themselves for the 'most incredible protest in our history' to coincide with Donald Trump's planned visit during the second half of the year. After a meeting between Theresa May and Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, it was confirmed that the US president would visit 'later this year'. A Facebook event set up to organise a large-scale protest already boasts of 20,000 attendees and a further 61,000 who are interested in attending."

Justin Bank of the New York Times: "President Trump bragged about lowering the black unemployment rate in a tweet directed at Jay-Z on Sunday morning. The message was seemingly a response to comments the hip-hop artist and businessman made during an interview with CNN on Saturday night.... Mr. Trump is right. Black unemployment in the United States reached its lowest level in December. But, as my colleague Linda Qiu reported two weeks ago, the record is the culmination of a longer trend, and there has been no shift in the larger racial unemployment gap[.]... Further, it's an open question whether a president can claim credit for economic outputs like unemployment." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: A friend sent me a thoughtful gift last week. Thanks, Trump! My neighbor has been ill, but she's feeling better. Thanks, Trump! The ice on my driveway from last week's icestorm finally melted. Thanks, Trump!

Preet Bharara & Christine Todd Whitman, in a USA Today op-ed: "One year into the Trump presidency, it's clear that the norms and boundaries traditionally guiding American political behavior have deeply eroded. That matters greatly. A workable democracy can thrive only when there are basic rules, often unwritten, that curb abuse and guide policymakers.... Now is the time to ensure the president and all our public officials adhere to basic rules of the road. It's time to turn soft norms into hard law. So far, President Trump has refused to divorce himself from his business interests, despite decades of tradition. He has repeatedly tried to influence federal criminal investigations. Policymaking processes have become haphazard. And we now see worrisome attacks on the independent press. All this shows just how easily a chief executive can ignore the unwritten rules that typically constrain presidents. We see similar erosion elsewhere in government, too. For example, a major tax bill, affecting the whole economy, enacted with no committee hearings.... Today, we're launching an independent democracy task force at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law to holistically review these informal rules, which ones should remain guidelines, and perhaps which ones should be enshrined into law."

** Julian Zelizer of the Atlantic: "Trump has proven to be a reflection of the nation's darkest political traditions.... Viewing the aggressive and socially divisive elements of President Trump's conservative populism as a deviation from the enlightened path of the nation romanticizes the American political tradition as being purely about cherished values such as liberty, freedom, equality, opportunity, representation, free markets, and justice. This view of America whitewashes away huge swaths of U.S. history in order to perpetuate the myth that at its essence America is a shining city on the hill." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.

Stars auditioned for a Grammy for their Fire & Fury readings. Watch to the end:

"This Land Is Your Land." Guardian: "Amid dangers from the Trump administration and climate change, sites including the Grand Canyon and Zion national park are facing yet another threat: 'massive disrepair'[.]... A huge funding shortfall [for the U.S. National Park System] means that the strain ... is showing Trails are crumbling and buildings are rotting. In all there is an $11bn backlog of maintenance work that repair crews have been unable to perform, a number that has mostly increased every year in the past decade.... National parks are just one part of an unparalleled system, managed by the government and held in trust for the public, and spanning over 600m acres of forests, deserts, tundra and glacier-covered peaks, as well as historical sites such as the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. They are integral to American life: an ancestral home for Native Americans; a retreat for vacationers, sportspeople and hunters; a source of grazing; and an economic engine. Yet their future is uncertain. Earlier this month 10 members of a National Park Service advisory board ... quit en masse, complaining that the new administration was unwilling to meet with them and was not prioritizing the parks.... Meanwhile advocates have raised concerns that the Department of Interior, which oversees many federal lands, is staffed with lobbyists for the energy industry. Even absent such issues, climate change, privatization and energy extraction risk changing the face of the country's public spaces forever."

Loveday Morris, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and the subsequent visit of the evangelical vice president [mike pence] to Israel mark the culmination of a long, complicated and sometimes uneasy alliance between Israeli leaders and Christian evangelicals that dates back to before the establishment of the state. But the high-water mark, ironically, comes just as younger American evangelicals are growing less attached to Israel. Recent polls have sparked anxiety among Israeli officials and Christian Zionist groups, which are trying to reverse the decline.... In the eyes of most Palestinians, however, the influence of evangelicalism on the White House has been disastrous for their relations with the United States.Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator, slammed the 'messianic discourse' of Pence during his visit.... Many Jews, for their part, have long viewed the missionary work of evangelicals and their messianic, prophetic beliefs with suspicion." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This worries me, not because I think the "messianic discourse" is a positive, but because I worry that anti-Semitism will become more powerful. It already is a driving force in the alt-right, of course. (And Trump seems to have caught the bug. See Rosenstein, Rod, above.)

Alex Hern of the Guardian: "Sensitive information about the location and staffing of military bases and spy outposts around the world has been revealed by a fitness tracking company. The details were released by Strava in a data visualisation map that shows all the activity tracked by users of its app, which allows people to record their exercise and share it with others. The map, released in November 2017, shows every single activity ever uploaded to Strava -- more than 3 trillion individual GPS data points, according to the company. The app can be used on various devices including smartphones and fitness trackers like Fitbit to see popular running routes in major cities, or spot individuals in more remote areas who have unusual exercise patterns. However, over the weekend military analysts noticed that the map is also detailed enough that it potentially gives away extremely sensitive information about a subset of Strava users: military personnel on active service."

A Secret Photo, Revealed. Esme Cribb of TPM (Jan. 25): "A journalist announced last week that he will publish a photograph of then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (D) and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan that he took in 2005 at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting, but did not make public because he believed it would have 'made a difference' to Obama's political future. The photographer, Askia Muhammad, told the Trice Edney News Wire that he 'gave the picture up at the time and basically swore secrecy.' 'But after the nomination was secured and all the way up until the inauguration; then for eight years after he was President, it was kept under cover,' Muhammad said. Asked whether he thought the photo's release would have affected Obama's presidential campaign, Muhammad said, 'I insist. It absolutely would have made a difference.'... TPM has published the photo above with Muhammad's permission." ...

... Vinson Cunningham of the New Yorker: "The latter months of Hillary Clinton's losing 2008 primary campaign were characterized by a Pyrrhically effective, subtly racialized populist appeal to the people she referred to, at one point, as 'hard-working Americans, white Americans,' in states such as Michigan and Ohio. As Clinton chugged beers and downed shots of whiskey at every notch along the Rust Belt, her campaign disseminated photos of Obama looking especially black or exotic, or standing next to figures of questionable repute.... When I saw a recently released photo, by Askia Muhammad, of Obama and a beaming Louis Farrakhan, I immediately thought of the Clinton campaign. What fun they could've had with this one!" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND people chastize me for not being a big Hillary fan. One of a dozen reasons: Barack's so black.

** Cloak & Dagger One Step Ahead of Nixon. Eric Lichtblau in the New Yorker: Daniel "Ellsberg was aided [in his theft & distribution of the Pentagon Papers] by about a half-dozen volunteers whose identities have stayed secret for forty-six years, despite the intense interest of the Nixon Administration, thousands of articles, books, documentaries, plays, and now a major film, 'The Post.'... Ellsberg told me that the hidden role of this group was so critical to the operation that he gave them a code name -- 'The Lavender Hill Mob,' the name of a 1951 film about a ragtag group of amateur bank robbers. He has referred obliquely to his co-conspirators over the years. But he held back from identifying them because some in the group still feared repercussions. Now, [some of Ellsberg's team have] agreed to be revealed for the first time.... Several other members of the group told me that they still wished to remain anonymous, or declined interview requests."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Nutella!

The Commentariat -- January 28, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Jeet Heer of the New Republic (Jan. 26) on the "paranoid style in American politics." Now, as it did in the era of Joe McCarthy, that paranoid style begins at the top & has some prominent adherents.

"American Hustler." Franklin Foer, in the Atlantic, pores through years of e-mails written by Paul Manafort's daughters. "When Paul Manafort officially joined the Trump campaign, on March 28, 2016, he represented a danger not only to himself but to the political organization he would ultimately run. A lifetime of foreign adventures didn't just contain scandalous stories, it evinced the character of a man who would very likely commandeer the campaign to serve his own interests, with little concern for the collective consequences." A long piece.

*****

For anyone hoping for what safari humorously calls in today's Comments, a "potentially transformative" SOTU address, let's see how the President* chose to begin SOTU week:

Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "President Trump, in two late-night tweets on Saturday pitched his immigration plan while slamming Democrats, saying they are only interested in obstruction. Trump called his fix for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program 'wonderful'.... 'I have offered DACA a wonderful deal, including a doubling in the number of recipients & a twelve year pathway to citizenship, for two reasons: (1) Because the Republicans want to fix a long time terrible problem. (2) To show that Democrats do not want to solve DACA, only use it!' he said. 'Democrats are not interested in Border Safety & Security or in the funding and rebuilding of our Military. They are only interested in Obstruction!' he added in a subsequent tweet."

If you get to what's most essential and important and, I think, really damaging to our country, beyond just the confines of this administration, it's this attack on our democratic institutions and particularly the Department of Justice. It is a firm tradition at the Department of Justice that the White House just has absolutely no involvement in criminal investigations or prosecutions, period. It seems like there are almost weekly efforts to try to get DOJ to open up a case on his former political rival.... The near daily attacks on the FBI -- we've never seen anything anywhere close to this before. -- Sally Yates, former acting director of the Justice Department, whom Trump fired ...

... The "Trump Justice Department." Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, as Republicans were clamoring to make public a secret document they think will undercut the investigation into Russian meddling, President Trump made clear his desire: Release the memo. Trump's directive was at odds with his own Justice Department, which had warned that releasing the classified memo written by congressional Republicans would be 'extraordinarily reckless' without an official review. Nevertheless, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly relayed the president's view to Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- although the decision to release the document ultimately lies with Congress. Kelly and Sessions spoke twice that day ... and Kelly conveyed Trump's desire, a senior administration official said.... The intervention with Sessions ... marked another example of the president's year-long attempts to shape and influence an investigation that is fundamentally outside his control. Trump, appearing frustrated and at times angry, has complained to confidants and aides in recent weeks that he does not understand why he cannot simply give orders to 'my guys' at what he sometimes calls the 'Trump Justice Department,' two people familiar with the president's comments said." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: We all know that Trump is an obstreperous, ignorant authoritarian, so it is not surprising that he came into office unaware of the fundamental concept of an independent judiciary. "Concepts" are not his thing. Neither are inconvenient facts. (This is a guy who, after all, said in 2016 that as president, he would uphold the nonexistent Article 12 of the Constitution.) But staff must have explained to him 370-some times since he took the oath that the president must keep his mitts off the Justice Department. And yet. After more than a year on the job, he "does not grasp why he cannot simply give orders around [his] guys" at the "Trump Justice Department." "Unfit for office," you say? ...

... Along Those Same Lines. Jordan Bhatt of International Business Times: "Donald Trump is refusing to visit the UK unless Theresa May can ensure that he is not met with protests. Bloomberg revealed that Trump complained in a phone call to May about the 'negative coverage' he has received in the British press. May told the US president that that was how the UK media operated and she could do little to change it. Trump went on to say that he would not visit the UK unless there were guarantees that he would not be met with protests. Advisers who had been listening to the phone call are reported to have been 'astonished' at the demands." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Among the other fundamental liberties Trump doesn't get: freedom of assembly. All modern representative democracies have some form of baked-in guarantee of "the right of the people peaceably to assemble." Trump is not just a huge embarrassment on the world stage, he's a danger to society -- even without controlling the nuclear football. Argumentum ad Hitlerum is no longer a fallacy.

The Abdication of Asia. Ben Wescott of CNN: "In just one year, US President Donald Trump has changed the way Asia looks at the United States. The cornerstones of American power in Asia, Japan, Australia and South Korea, all lost a little faith in their longtime close ally and protector in 2017.... No military assets have been withdrawn, no embassies closed, but the lack of interest expressed by a US administration focused on 'America First' has deeply shaken its status in the region.... Uncertainty about America's commitment to the region has prompted local leaders to strengthen ties with each other, to prepare for the day when the US no longer has their backs." --safari ...

... Max Greenwood of The Hill: "President Trump said that he 'deeply respects' the people of Africa and pledged 'strong and respectful relationships' with the continent's nations in a letter sent to African leaders this week. The letter ... comes after allegations emerged that Trump demanded in a meeting with lawmakers this month to know why the U.S. should admit immigrants from 'shithole countries,' including African nations." --safari

** Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "President Donald Trump's first non-Fox television interview in a long time, conducted with CNBC's Joe Kernen from Davos, Switzerland, is in many respects weirdly devoid of substance. And much of the substance that's there consists of misstatements of fact. But lurking in that is an important insight: Trump is holding the office of president, but he's not doing the job of president. He seems to have no real idea what's going on, even with his own signature policy moves.... Listening to him talk is interesting from an entertainment perspective ... but it conveys no information about the world, the American government, or the Trump administration's policies." --safari

Amy Sorkin of the New Yorker: Robert Mueller's "most consequential questions for Trump might not be about Russian influence over American voters but about the power that the President of the United States believes he has to control, or to abrogate, the rule of law.... If Trump thinks that Mueller can be scared off by the prospect of being fired ... [as Trump as either threatened or actually fired other top Justice Department officials], he will have misunderstood not only the laws that restrain any President but the terms of his own employment. This time, Trump could be the one to lose his job."

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Russian bots on Twitter retweeted President Trump hundreds of thousands of times during the last months of his presidential campaign, Twitter told Congress. The company revealed to lawmakers on Thursday that the Russian-linked accounts had retweeted Trump nearly 470,000 times from Sept. 1 to Nov. 15, 2016. The accounts retweeted Hillary Clinton less than 50,000 times during the same timeframe."

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn on Saturday stepped down as Republican National Committee finance chairman, according to three senior Republicans briefed on the decision. The decision followed a Friday report in the Wall Street Journal alleging that Wynn engaged in sexual harassment. Wynn, 76, was ... Donald Trump's handpicked choice for the finance position.... 'Today I accepted Steve Wynn's resignation as Republican National Committee finance chair,' said RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, who spoke about the Wynn situation with the president on Saturday morning...." ...

... Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "For 24 hours, the Republican Party said nothing. The silence was particularly remarkable in light of the GOP's reaction to reports in October that Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted numerous women. The same day the first report was publish, the Republican Party demanded the Democratic Party and all Democratic officials return money from Weinstein, who was a major donor to Democrats.... The statement was released to press [by the RNC] but does not appear on the GOP website or Twitter account. It was also not posted to Twitter by [Ronna Romney] McDaniel.... It doesn't even make an oblique mention to the importance of women to the Republican Party.... The GOP demanded Democrats return every cent from Weinstein.... Thus far Republicans are keeping Wynn's money -- and keeping their mouths shut." --safari: Some could claim a case of hypocrisy here, but that concept is only reserved for principled Democrats. Republicans are just plain ratfucking scoundrels: hypocrisy need not apply. ...

... Victoria Cavaliere and Joe Sutton of CNN: "The board of directors of Wynn Resorts has formed a special committee to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct made against the company's founder and CEO Steve Wynn." ...

... Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed: "Not only was [Hillary Clinton's faith] adviser, Burns Strider, not pushed out [of her 2007 presidential campaign after allegedly harassing a young female staffer] -- he thrived after her campaign, landing a senior role at a super PAC preparing for her next presidential bid. In that job, he exhibited the same kinds of inappropriate behavior toward women who worked there, particularly two young female subordinates. In at least three separate instances between 2007 and 2015, women who worked for the Clinton campaign or the pro-Clinton PAC said that Strider, 52, harassed them at work." Cramer provides the disturbing details. ...

... ** Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post unloads, appropriately on Hillary Clinton: "... classically, infuriatingly, this episode and its aftermath exposes, once again, the trademark Clinton failure to take personal responsibility; the allergy to owning up to error; the refusal to cede any ground, no less apologize; the incessant double-standarding, with different, more forgiving rules for the Clintons and their loyalists." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course I didn't know of Burns Strider's behavior -- and Hillary's response to it, I am not surprised. Marcus perfectly captures the essential Hillary -- a smug, pompous person who privileges her allies & sickophants (not a misspelling) over ordinary Americans. I know many of you are fans. I voted for her, of course, but I am glad she is not my president. ...

... Even Maureen Dowd Gets It: "It's a shattering moment for the country, when many of the institutions that gave America its identity as a smart, brave, generous, fair country -- the presidency, Congress, sports, faith, Hollywood, big business -- seem corroded and immoral." Mrs. McC: This is another of Dowd's trademark gossipy columns, but she does hit some of the "highlights" of where we are. I think a lot of people voted for Trump in the vain hope he might grow into the office ("I can be so presidential") over Clinton, whom they intuitively knew would not. ...

... So Does This Guy, sort of:

Dirty Laundry? Emily Hazzard of ThinkProgress: "On Friday, a federal judge rejected a request to hide details of rental properties affiliated with Jared Kushner's real estate empire.... Kushner still owns a stake in, and collects income from, at least one of the companies in the suit, according to his last financial disclosure filed with the federal government. And those Kushner-owned companies are fighting to keep their investors secret.... Under the order issued Friday, the companies have to file the unsealed information about their investors in federal court by Feb. 9. The information could provide the public with a rare look into how the companies are structured." --safari

Beyond the Beltway

Susannah Bryan of the Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Hallandale Beach [Florida] Mayor Joy Cooper [D], who was removed from office Friday after being snared in an FBI sting, solicited illegal campaign contributions not only for herself but for two political allies, court documents say.Gov. Rick Scott suspended Cooper on Friday, a day after she was arrested and accused of accepting contributions funneled through Alan Koslow, a once prominent attorney who has since been disbarred after a conviction on federal charges. In August 2012, undercover agents handed Koslow a Dunkin' Donuts bag filled with $8,000 in cash -- all in $100 bills, investigators said in court records." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Electing Democrats & women will not solve all our problems.

Way Beyond

Robert Tait of the Guardian: "Miloš Zeman, the Czech Republic's populist president, has been narrowly re-elected in a tense contest against a liberal challenger, marking a victory for anti-immigrant, far-right forces in the country and potentially tilting its politics in an anti-western direction.... Zeman, who is a vocal supporter of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and who has promoted ties with China, has called for referendums on the Czech Republic's membership of the EU and Nato.... His electoral triumph appeared to be due to strong support in the provinces and far-flung areas, while his opponent scored heavily in the major cities, particularly Prague." --safari

Joshua Eaton of ThinkProgress: "An oil tanker carrying nearly a million barrels of ultra-light crude oil burned for days in the East China Sea before sinking on Jan. 14, killing all 32 crew members. Now, the disaster threatens to become the worst oil spill in 35 years, according to a report Friday by Reuters -- potentially devastating reefs and fishing grounds and polluting seafood from the region.... The ship was carrying 34 million gallons of ultra-light condensate -- a form of oil that is extremely toxic, highly flammable, and difficult to detect." --safari...

...Here's the Reuters piece with some great graphics showing the potential impacts of the spill. --safari

News Ledes

New York Times: "Ingvar Kamprad, a Swedish entrepreneur who hid his fascist past and became one of the world's richest men by turning simply-designed, low-cost furniture into the global Ikea empire, died on Saturday at his home in Smaland, Sweden. He was 91."

New York Times: "Mort Walker, the creator of 'Beetle Bailey,' a comic strip about an Army private who malingered his way through seven decades at Camp Swampy to the consternation of his commanding officers and the delight of his fans in the armed forces and beyond, died on Saturday at his home in Stamford, Conn. He was 94.... Mr. Walker had the longest tenure of any cartoonist on an original creation, King Features, which began its syndication of 'Beetle Bailey' in 1950, said in a statement."