The Commentariat -- November 7, 2017

Afternoon Update:

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday asserted that tougher gun laws would not have stopped the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Tex., last weekend and that 'hundreds more' would have died had another man not been able to 'neutralize' the alleged killer with a gun of his own. Asked during a news conference here whether he would entertain 'extreme vetting' on guns, Trump appeared irritated by the question and suggested it was not appropriate to talk about 'in the heart of South Korea.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As many have pointed out, Trump's NRA rationale works only if you ignore the fact that the U.S. has more guns per person & more gun deaths than any other country. These are not two unrelated stats.

Moscow on the Potomac. Lorraine Woellert, et al., of Politico: "A top adviser to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross served on the board of Navigator Holdings, a shipping company whose clients include a Russian energy company with Kremlin ties, while she was working in the Trump administration. Wendy Teramoto retained her seat on Navigator's board after joining Commerce in mid-March as a part-time adviser to Ross.... She also continued to serve as an executive of Ross's private equity firm WL Ross & Co. after becoming a government employee. Teramoto didn't resign her seat on Navigator’s board until July 17, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She left WL Ross that same month. On Aug. 1, she was formally named Ross's chief of staff. Her role with Navigator is notable because Ross has come under scrutiny after the release of a cache of documents ... that showed him profiting from investments in Navigator, which does significant business with Sibur, an energy company partly owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin's son-in-law."

Kyle Cheney & Elana Schor of Politico: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions will appear before the House Judiciary Committee next week, and Democrats said Tuesday they're prepared to pepper him with questions about a campaign adviser who attempted to broker a meeting between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I hope the House members practice up on the pronunciation of "Papadopoulos," because so far on-air personalities have had difficulty -- I keep hearing "Poppolopolis," which sounds like candy on a stick. Anyway, should be some fun clips. Watch for the Elf's studied outrage.

*****

Election Day. Steven Shepard of Politico: "Gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia might be the marquee contests on ballots across the country on Tuesday, but there are plenty of other high-impact elections and referenda across the country with national implications. There are key big-city mayoral races, pivotal state legislative contests and even a special congressional election, all of them providing some degree of insight into the political climate in the first Election Day of Donald Trump's presidency." ...

... ** "Anniversary of the Apocalypse." Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times writes a "who would have believed?" column that reads like articles of impeachment. Mrs. McC: Goldberg is shocking in her bluntness. And it is an indictment of the Republican Congress, which has accepted and exploited the circumstance. ...

... Paul Krugman points to the reason for the party's reluctance to rid itself of Trump -- he's ruder and cruder, but otherwise not much different from other Republicans. Krugman looks for proof to the House tax bill which caters to the rich more than any before it & to Ed Gillespie, a Bush insider who is running for governor of Virginia on the KKK ticket. ...

... Benjamin Wallace-Wells of the New Yorker: Ed "Gillespie's closing messages have all taken up Trumpian themes. In late October, his campaign released an ad focussed entirely on Confederate monuments. 'I'm for keeping 'em up, and he's for takin' 'em down, and that's a big difference,' Gillespie said of [his opponent Ralph] Northam, in the ad. A direct-mail campaign featured images of football players kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality. 'You'd never take a knee,' it read. 'So take a stand on Election Day. These things have widely been seen as marking a capitulation -- Republicans further embracing racial resentment. But how new are these tactics, really?" Wallace-Wells recalls elements of Dubya's dirty campaigns. Then supporters of Northam ran an equally incendiary ad.

David Montgomery, et al., of the New York Times: "A day after a gunman massacred parishioners in a small Texas church, the Air Force admitted on Monday that it had failed to enter the man's domestic violence court-martial into a federal database that could have blocked him from buying the rifle he used to kill 26 people. 'The Air Force has launched a review of how the service handled the criminal records of former Airman Devin P. Kelley following his 2012 domestic violence conviction,' the Air Force said in a statement. 'Federal law prohibited him from buying or possessing firearms after this conviction.'" ...

... David Philipps & Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Before a gunman entered a rural Texas church with a ballistic vest and a military-style rifle, killing at least 26 people on Sunday, he was convicted of assaulting his wife and breaking his infant stepson's skull.... 'He assaulted his stepson severely enough that he fractured his skull, and he also assaulted his wife,' said Don Christensen, a retired colonel who was the chief prosecutor for the Air Force. 'He pled to intentionally doing it.'" ...

... Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump declared that the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Tex., that left at least 26 people dead was not 'a guns situation,' saying instead he believed that 'mental health' was the problem. Trump's comments came at a news conference in Tokyo, when he was asked about the shooting at a South Texas church and if stricter gun laws were the answer.... Though the alleged shooter has been identified as Devin Kelley, 26, the full mental state of Kelley has yet to be determined. Kelley, a Texas man who enlisted in the Air Force in 2010, was court-martialed in 2012 for assaulting his wife and child, and received a bad conduct discharge from the military in 2014." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... David Leonhardt, et al., of the New York Times: The top ten Senate & top ten House recipients of NRA campaign funding all sent their thoughts & prayers (or some slight variation thereof) to the Sutherland Springs shooting victims & their loved ones -- except six of them, who couldn't be bothered with so much as a tweet. Mrs. McC: As contributor Marvin S.'s daughter wrote, "'Thoughts and prayers' is possibly the most mindless, laziest and hypocritical string of words ever assembled into a phrase."

Jack Holmes of Esquire: "... this president's ability to distinguish himself in the eyes of our Eastern allies is so potent he could start getting the job done before he even arrived. And so it emerged in The Japan Times, that nation's oldest English-language newspaper, that Trump has some intriguing views on the relationship between Japanese feudal history and North Korean ballistic missiles. '... Threats from North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile development programs were set to be high on the agenda in his talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday.... The U.S. president said he could not understand why a country of samurai warriors did not shoot down the missiles, the sources said....' Many have already sunk the slam-dunk snark-shot that katanas are a non-ideal weapon against cruise missiles." Do see Akhilleus' commentary below. (Also linked yesterday.)

L'état, C'est Moi. Jonathan Swan of Axios recounts a June 2017 meeting in which President Trump told Native American tribal leaders how to cut the red tape that accompanies energy exploration on their lands: 'Chief, chief, what are they going to do? Once you get it out of the ground are they going to make you put it back in there? I mean, once it's out of the ground it can't go back in there. You've just got to do it. I'm telling you, chief, you've just got to do it.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Our Far-Flung Adventures. Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Last weekend, Jared Kushner, in his capacity as his father-in-law's viceroy in the Middle East, made an unexpected visit to Saudi Arabia and spent time with the country's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 'The two princes are said to have stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. several nights, swapping stories and planning strategy,' David Ignatius wrote in The Washington Post, noting that the prince is 'emboldened by strong support from President Trump and his inner circle' and it 'was probably no accident' that this intimate meeting took place shortly before the prince arrested his political rivals in a sweeping effort to consolidate power.... Congress has oversight power on U.S. foreign policy. If the Republicans were responsible enough to exercise it, they'd be scheduling hearings on Saudi Arabia right now." Mrs. McC: BTW, where's Rex? ...

... Irony Alert! David Smith of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has thrown his weight behind an anti-corruption crackdown in Saudi Arabia, claiming that its targets have been 'milking' the kingdom for years.... 'I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing,' the US president, who is travelling in Asia, posted on Twitter. 'Some of those they are harshly treating have been 'milking' their country for years!'" --safari...

** Junior Promised Russian Lawyer Tit-for-Tat. Irina Reznik & Henry Meyer of Bloomberg: "A Russian lawyer who met with ... Donald Trump's oldest son last year says he indicated that a law targeting Russia could be re-examined if his father won the election and asked her for written evidence that illegal proceeds went to Hillary Clinton's campaign. The lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, said in a two-and-a-half-hour interview in Moscow that she would tell these and other things to the Senate Judiciary Committee on condition that her answers be made public, something it hasn't agreed to.... 'Looking ahead, if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it,' Trump Jr. said of the 2012 law, she recalled. 'I understand our side may have messed up, but it'll take a long time to get to the bottom of it,' he added, according to her. Veselnitskaya also said Trump Jr. requested financial documents showing that money that allegedly evaded U.S. taxes had gone to Clinton's campaign." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Greg Sargent: “We know now as a matter of fact ... that the June 2016 meeting was held for the explicit purpose of getting a dump-truck's worth of Russian 'dirt' on Clinton — Donald Trump Jr.'s email chain confirms it. And let's not forget, as The Post has reported, that Trump himself helped dictate an initial statement from Donald Trump Jr. that misleadingly claimed the meeting was 'primarily' about Russian adoptions. This was later proven false, which means Trump himself has been directly implicated in an effort to mislead the country about his own top campaign officials' eagerness to benefit from help from the Russian government. Whatever legal conclusions Mueller ends up reaching, we now know that Trump's top campaign officials were eager to collude with Russia to help him win the election and that Trump himself helped to cover that up." Sargent reminds us that Veselnitskaya is not the most reliable witness. But still. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly reminds us of how the Jared/Russia/social-media triangle worked during the campaign: "... Jared Kushner's major role in the campaign was to manage messaging on social media via data-mining and micro-targeting. All of those efforts are now under investigation by the Mueller team, especially the involvement of Cambridge Analytica. This latest report shows that a business partner of Kushner's, Yuri Milner, played a role in Russian investment in Twitter and Facebook, the social media giants that Russia used so effectively to spread divisions during the campaign.... Even the most cursory look at these stories tells us that there are deep connections between Russia and almost everyone associated with Donald Trump. It is impossible to imagine that it is all simply a coincidence." ...

Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to President Trump's campaign... whose visit to Moscow during the election has drawn scrutiny, sent an email to fellow Trump aides during his trip describing 'a private conversation' with a senior Russian official who spoke favorably of the Republican candidate, according to records released late Monday by congressional investigators.... Page's email was read aloud by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) when Page met behind closed doors last week with the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 president election. The committee released the transcript of the seven-hour session late Monday.... In a statement Monday, Schiff said that Page had failed to produce the email to the committee before his interview, despite receiving a subpoena for documents." ...

... Kyle Cheney & Randy Lemmerman of Politico summarize highlights of Page's testimony before the committee. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: All righty then. We've found another Nixon Connection. Stand aside, Roger Stone. Page testified, according to the Politico summary, that "the man who first connected him was New York State GOP Chairman Ed Cox." Ed Cox is Richard Nixon's son-in-law.

More from the Paradise Papers. Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "Bank of Utah has that all-American feel. Founded in the 1950s by a veteran of both world wars, it offers affordable mortgages and savings accounts, sponsors children's festivals and collects coats for the poor. But in addition to its mom-and-pop customers, the bank has a lesser-known clientele that includes Russia's richest oligarch, Leonid Mikhelson, an ally of the country's president, Vladimir V. Putin. The bank served as a stand-in so Mr. Mikhelson could secretly register a private jet in the United States, which requires American citizenship or residency. The work on behalf of Mr. Mikhelson, whose gas company is under United States sanctions, is part of a discreet niche business for Bank of Utah that allows wealthy foreigners to legally obtain American registrations for their aircraft while shielding their identities from public view. The bank does this through trust accounts, in its own name, that take the place of owners on plane registration records."...

... Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Leaked documents and newly obtained public filings show how the billionaire Mercer family built a $60m war chest for conservative causes inside their family foundation by using an offshore investment vehicle to avoid US tax.... Mercer, 71, appears as a director of eight Bermuda companies in the Paradise Papers.... Mercer's foundation is barred from intervening in election campaigns. But over the past decade, it has given out $62m to conservative research groups and thinktanks.... From 2013 to 2015, the Mercer foundation gave $4.7m to [Steve] Bannon's Government Accountability Institute -- more than half its total funding in that time.... Bannon founded GAI in Florida in 2012 with Peter Schweizer, the conservative author of Clinton Cash.... Rebekah Mercer was a director of the group until 2014. It has continued assailing liberals since Trump's victory and says exposing the 'misuse of taxpayer monies' is central to its mission." --safari

All the Best People, Ctd. Dan Alexander of Forbes: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is a well-known fraud & liar. For one thing, he greatly inflated his assets in order to enhance business opportunities, then stiffed many of his investors. Hmm, that sounds familiar.

The New American Gilded Age

Darius Dixon & Eric Wolff of Politico: "A proposal by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to alter the nation's electricity markets would provide a windfall for a small group of companies -- most strikingly one owned by coal magnate Bob Murray, a prominent backer of ... Donald Trump. Perry's plan would force consumers to subsidize ailing coal-fired and nuclear power plants with billions of dollars, in what he calls an effort to ensure that the nation's power network can withstand threats like terrorist attacks or severe weather. But his narrowly written proposal would mostly affect plants in a stretch of the Midwest and Northeast where Murray's mining company, Murray Energy, is the predominant supplier...." ...

... ** Corporations Are Better People Than You Are, My Friend. Dana Milbank: "Room 1100 of the Longworth Building, with its ionic columns, gilt-fringed curtains and eagle-topped frieze, has for 80 years been the home of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. But perhaps never before have corporations wielded their power as openly as they have here this week. As the panel moves to approve the Republican tax plan, this is the room ... where the rich will get richer, where everybody else will be forced to shoulder a greater share of the tax burden, and where a trillion dollars of tax breaks for corporations are being passed by lawmakers who work for these very corporations." Read on. The "quiz" Rep. Susan DelBene (D-Wash.) gave a tax expert present at the bill's mark-up is one for the ages. ...

... Heather Long of the Washington Post: "The Tax Policy Center on Monday retracted its assessment of House Republicans' tax bill after discovering an error in its model, a mistake that could complicate the effort to evaluate the legislation by an organization that has long enjoyed broad, bipartisan credibility."...

...John Larson (D-Conn.) minces no words in blasting the GOP's tax shenanigans. --safari

... David Dayen, in the New Republic: Republicans have slipped "chained CPI" into their tax "reform" bill to substantially reduce Social Security benefits ($230 billion over ten years) AND increase taxes on the working poor ($128BB over the next ten years & another $500BB in the next ten-year period). Whether or not you buy the argument that chained CPI is more accurate than the Consumer Price Index, the effect of applying chained CPI to determine the rate of inflation is fairly certain. And Republicans are counting on it to screw ordinary Americans.

Kasie Hunt & Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "Disagreement between Rand Paul and his neighbor [Rene Boucher] over the senator's politics and his property line were possible motives in the attack that left the Kentucky lawmaker with five broken ribs, a source told NBC News on Monday." The neighbor's attorney denies there was a political motive. "Paul was wearing headphones while mowing his lawn in Bowling Green, Kentucky, when he was attacked from behind by Rene Boucher, 59, on Friday, two sources said.... The FBI is investigating the incident; assaulting a member of Congress is a federal crime." ...

... Charles Pierce thinks the story is weird. Mrs. McC: So do I. I think we're going to find out Boucher thought Paul was screwing his (Boucher's) wife. Or something like that. When civilized people have a property dispute, they either work it out or get lawyers to work it out. Our neighbor (who is a lawyer) accidentally had a treehouse built for her kids on our property. Medlar & I are concerned about liability in case some kid is injured on our lot. We're working it out with nobody getting in a huff. ...

... Update: Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times are on the case! They came upon some vague suggestions that Paul disregards neighborhood regulations in his gated community & spreads a lot of compost around. Mrs. McC: Well, that fits. Also, something about Randy's Great Pumpkin Patch. P.S. Paul was not pushing a lawnmower; he was just getting off his riding mower.

Ronan Farrow in the New Yorker: "In the fall of 2016, Harvey Weinstein set out to suppress allegations that he had sexually harassed or assaulted numerous women. He began to hire private security agencies to collect information on the women and the journalists trying to expose the allegations.... The explicit goal of the investigations ... was to stop the publication of the abuse allegations against Weinstein that eventually emerged in the New York Times and The New Yorker. Over the course of a year, Weinstein had the agencies 'target,' or collect information on, dozens of individuals, and compile psychological profiles that sometimes focussed on their personal or sexual histories.... In some cases, the investigative effort was run through Weinstein's lawyers, including David Boies, a celebrated attorney who represented Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential-election dispute and argued for marriage equality before the U.S. Supreme Court. Boies personally signed the contract directing [the agency] Black Cube to attempt to uncover information that would stop the publication of a Times story about Weinstein's abuses, while his firm was also representing the Times...."

Patricia Dvorak of the Washington Post: "It was the middle-finger salute seen around the world. Juli Briskman's protest aimed at the presidential motorcade that roared past her while she was on her cycling path in Northern Virginia last month became an instantly viral photo. Turns out it has now cost the 50-year-old marketing executive her job. On Halloween, after Briskman gave her bosses at Akima LLC, a government contracting firm, a heads-up that she was the unidentified cyclist in the photo, they took her into a room and fired her, she said, escorting her out of the building with a box of her things." Read on. Briskman did not ID her employer. It appears that if Briskman had been a man, the company would not have fired her. (Also linked yesterday.)

Civil War Revisionists: The brainwashing of generations --safari

Way Beyond the Beltway

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia charged Monday that a missile fired at its capital from Yemen over the weekend was an 'act of war' by Iran, in the sharpest escalation in nearly three decades of mounting hostility between the two regional rivals."

The Commentariat -- November 6, 2017

Late Morning Update:

L'état, C'est Moi. Jonathan Swan of Axios recounts a June 2017 meeting in which President Trump told Native American tribal leaders how to cut the red tape that accompanies energy exploration on their lands: 'Chief, chief, what are they going to do? Once you get it out of the ground are they going to make you put it back in there? I mean, once it's out of the ground it can't go back in there. You've just got to do it. I'm telling you, chief, you've just got to do it.'"

Patricia Dvorak of the Washington Post: "It was the middle-finger salute seen around the world. Juli Briskman's protest aimed at the presidential motorcade that roared past her while she was on her cycling path in Northern Virginia last month became an instantly viral photo. Turns out it has now cost the 50-year-old marketing executive her job. On Halloween, after Briskman gave her bosses at Akima LLC, a government contracting firm, a heads-up that she was the unidentified cyclist in the photo, they took her into a room and fired her, she said, escorting her out of the building with a box of her things." Read on. Briskman did not ID her employer. It appears that if Briskman had been a man, the company would not have fired her.

** Junior Promised Russian Lawyer Tit-for-Tat. Irina Reznik & Henry Meyer of Bloomberg: "A Russian lawyer who met with … Donald Trump;s oldest son last year says he indicated that a law targeting Russia could be re-examined if his father won the election and asked her for written evidence that illegal proceeds went to Hillary Clinton's campaign. The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, said in a two-and-a-half-hour interview in Moscow that she would tell these and other things to the Senate Judiciary Committee on condition that her answers be made public, something it hasn't agreed to.... 'Looking ahead, if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it,' Trump Jr. said of the 2012 law, she recalled. 'I understand our side may have messed up, but it'll take a long time to get to the bottom of it,' he added, according to her. Veselnitskaya also said Trump Jr. requested financial documents showing that money that allegedly evaded U.S. taxes had gone to Clinton's campaign." ...

... Greg Sargent: “We know now as a matter of fact ... that the June 2016 meeting was held for the explicit purpose of getting a dump-truck's worth of Russian 'dirt' on Clinton -- Donald Trump Jr.'s email chain confirms it. And let's not forget, as The Post has reported, that Trump himself helped dictate an initial statement from Donald Trump Jr. that misleadingly claimed the meeting was 'primarily' about Russian adoptions. This was later proven false, which means Trump himself has been directly implicated in an effort to mislead the country about his own top campaign officials' eagerness to benefit from help from the Russian government. Whatever legal conclusions Mueller ends up reaching, we now know that Trump's top campaign officials were eager to collude with Russia to help him win the election and that Trump himself helped to cover that up." Veselnitskaya is not the most reliable witness.

Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump declared that the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Tex., that left at least 26 people dead was not 'a guns situation,' saying instead he believed that 'mental health' was the problem. Trump's comments came at a news conference in Tokyo, when he was asked about the shooting at a South Texas church and if stricter gun laws were the answer.... Though the alleged shooter has been identified as Devin Kelley, 26, the full mental state of Kelley has yet to be determined. Kelley, a Texas man who enlisted in the Air Force in 2010, was court-martialed in 2012 for assaulting his wife and child, and received a bad conduct discharge from the military in 2014."

Jack Holmes of Esquire: "... this president's ability to distinguish himself in the eyes of our Eastern allies is so potent he could start getting the job done before he even arrived. And so it emerged in The Japan Times, that nation's oldest English-language newspaper, that Trump has some intriguing views on the relationship between Japanese feudal history and North Korean ballistic missiles. '... Threats from North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile development programs were set to be high on the agenda in his talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday.... The U.S. president said he could not understand why a country of samurai warriors did not shoot down the missiles, the sources said....' Many have already sunk the slam-dunk snark-shot that katanas are a non-ideal weapon against cruise missiles." Do see Akhilleus' commentary below.

*****

The Paradise Papers

** Most Corrupt Administration Ever, Ctd. Jon Swaine & Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, is doing business with Vladimir Putin's son-in-law through a shipping venture in Russia.... Leaked documents and public filings show that Ross holds a stake in a shipping company, Navigator, through a chain of offshore investments. Navigator operates a lucrative partnership with Sibur, a Russian gas company part-owned by Kirill Shamalov, the husband of Putin's daughter Katerina Tikhonova. Ross, a billionaire and close friend of Trump, retained holdings in Navigator even after taking office this year. The relationship means that he stands to benefit from the operations of a Russian company run by Putin's family and close allies, some of whom are under US sanctions.... Democratic senators wrote to Ross in February demanding that he disclose 'the full extent of your connections to Russia'. Ross did not respond." --safari ...

... The New York Times story, by Mike McIntire & others, on Wilbur Ross's Kremlin ties, is here. "In a written response to questions by the Times, James Rockas, a spokesman for Mr. Ross, said that Navigator's relationship with Sibur began before Mr. Ross joined the board in March 2012, and that he had never met the Russian oligarchs who are Sibur's major shareholders. Public records show that Mr. Ross's firm became a major investor in Navigator in November 2011, three months before the company chartered its first ships to Sibur. 'Sibur was not under sanctions at the time the contract was signed and is still not subject to sanctions,' Mr. Rockas said. More broadly, he said that Mr. Ross 'recuses himself from any matters focused on transoceanic shipping vessels, but has been generally supportive of the administration's sanctions of Russian and Venezuelan entities.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Ross (via his spokesman) lied about the timing of his & Sibur's association with Navigator, as the Times story claims, can't we assume he is lying about other aspects of his business holdings? ...

... Richard Engel & Aggelos Petropoulos of NBC News: "Wilbur Ross ... shares business interests with Vladimir Putin's immediate family, and he failed to clearly disclose those interests when he was being confirmed for his cabinet position.... The documents seen by NBC News, however, along with a careful examination of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, tell a different story than the one Ross told at his confirmation. Ross divested most of his holdings, but did not reveal to the government the full details of the holdings he kept.... Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said members of Congress who were part of Ross' confirmation hearings were under the impression that Ross had divested all of his interests in Navigator. Furthermore, he said, they were unaware of Navigator's close ties to Russia. 'I am astonished and appalled because I feel misled,' said Blumenthal. 'Our committee was misled, the American people were misled by the concealment of those companies.' Blumenthal said he will call for the inspector general of the Commerce Department to launch an investigation." ...

... Kevin Drum speculates that Ross held onto the investment, which hasn't been very profitable, & misled the Senate "for reasons other than money." ...

... All the President's Swamp. Jon Swain & Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Trump is surrounded by wealthy individuals who have legally either sheltered their own investments or presided over policies to keep company profits or clients' funds out of reach in tax havens.... The leaked documents reveal that for various periods between 2002 and 2006, [economic advisor Gary] Cohn was president or vice-president of 22 separate entities in Bermuda for Goldman Sachs.... Secretary of state [Rex Tillerson] is named in the leaked files as a director of an offshore firm used in a multibillion-dollar oil and gas venture in the Middle East that became embroiled in controversy.... Treasury secretary [Steven Mnuchin]'s former bank financed offshore private jets for wealthy clients.... The Trump administration's most senior banking watchdog [Randy Quarles] appears in the Paradise Papers in connection with an offshore bank that is under investigation by US authorities for possible tax evasion.... New US ambassador to Russia [Jon Huntsman] helped lead a previously undisclosed offshore company, according to the leaked files.... Ambassador to India [Kenneth Juster] benefited from the offshore business of his former investment company and its billion-dollar purchase of a shipping corporation.... [Carl] Icahn, a friend and former adviser to Trump, owns a $250m mining company spread across three tax havens and structured in a way that limits the information it must disclose to US authorities.... The chairman of Trump's inaugural committee [Tom Barrack] leads a $58bn real estate investment trust that channels some of its profits to the low- or no-tax jurisdictions of Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and Lebanon.... SEC chairman [Jay Clayton] received income from a hedge fund based in the Cayman Islands.... A biotechnology company headed by [Ben] Carson, Trump's housing and urban development (HUD) secretary, set up offshore firms that could have reduced its tax bill." --safari ...

... From Russia to Silicon Valley. Jon Swaine amp; Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Two Russian state institutions with close ties to Vladimir Putin funded substantial investments in Twitter and Facebook through a business associate of Jared Kushner, leaked documents reveal. The investments were made through a Russian technology magnate, Yuri Milner, who also holds a stake in a company co-owned by Kushner.... The discovery is likely to stir concerns over Russian influence in US politics and the role played by social media in last year's presidential election. It may also raise new questions for the social media companies and for Kushner." --safari ...

... Andrew Desiderio & Noah Shatchman of The Daily Beast: "Top White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, is also implicated. The documents reveal that Russian tech leader Yuri Milner invested $850,000 in a startup called Cadre that Kushner co-founded in 2014. Milner has long had a reputation in Silicon Valley as a big-league investor; his firm at one point owned major chunks of both Facebook and Twitter. But Milner was never considered particularly Kremlin-connected. These new documents call that reputation into question. The investing arm of Gazprom, the state-backed energy company, financed a share of Facebook worth up to $1 billion; a Kremlin-owned bank invested $191 million into a Milner firm, and some of that money was then injected into Twitter. Despite Milner's investment in his startup, Kushner said in July that he told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed-door meeting that he never 'relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector.... Kushner, who still has a stake in Cadre, did not previously disclose the firm's other business ties.'" --safari...

... Nick Hopkins of the Guardian explains the importance of the leaked "Paradise Papers", outing users of offshore tax havens. ...

... Max de Haldevang & Zachard Seward of Quartz also have a guide to major revelations in the Paradise Papers. ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "The leaked documents, which are being referred to as the 'Paradise Papers,' came from Appleby, a prominent law firm based in Bermuda that specializes in offshore bank accounts. They were originally procured by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, then given to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which made them available in part to several outlets. Approximately 13.4 million documents were leaked, with tax details of more than 100 public figures exposed."

Jane Perlez of the New York Times on how China's Xi Jinping plans to coax Trump into "a special relationship that sets China apart, as the other great power in an emerging bipolar world." Mrs. McC: Give him some golden things, Jinping. Tell him he's smart & handsome & say, "Oh, Mr. President, you hands are so-o-o big."

** Julia Ainsley, et al. of NBC: "Federal investigators have gathered enough evidence to bring charges in their investigation of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser [Michael T. Flynn] and his son as part of the probe into Russia's intervention in the 2016 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation." --safari ...

... digby: "Flynn isn't just dirty, he's nuts. Everyone knew he was nuts too. And he was Trump's most important National Security Adviser. Also, one of Trump's most egregious obstructions of justice was firing the acting AG who warned them and then telling the head of the FBI to go easy on Flynn." ...

... Andy Borowitz: "The White House called an unscheduled press briefing on Sunday to clarify Michael T. Flynn's role in the Trump campaign, claiming that his job consisted entirely of making coffee when George Papadopoulos was busy with other matters.... [Sarah] Sanders said that, in the weeks to come, the White House is likely to release the names of additional campaign staffers whose roles were limited to the preparation of coffee beverages, and that such names might include Jared Kushner and Donald Trump, Jr."

... Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... documents and interviews show there are at least nine Trump associates who had contacts with Russians during the campaign or presidential transition. Some are well-known, and others, such as Papadopoulos, have been more on the periphery.... Trump in the past denied that he or his associates communicated with Russia during the campaign. Now, he and his allies are seeking to minimize the importance of the contacts that have emerged.... Experts who have studied Russian tactics see something different: a picture emerging of a concerted and multifaceted Kremlin effort to infiltrate Trump's campaign." ...

... Michael Kranish & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post report on where Rick Gates, long Paul Manafort's deputy, fit into Trump world and what some of his previous business interests were. Mrs. McC: Whatever he did, "While Gates listed $2.2 million in assets in 2011, he filed a 2016 credit application saying he had a liquid net worth of $25 million and that his wife was worth $30 million...." That's a helluva jump. The $2.2MM sounds like total assets: houses, vehicles, college funds, retirement accounts AND liquid assets like checking accounts. $25MM in liquid assets, however, is money you can pull out of your pocket, so to speak. It would not include real property, IRAs, etc. ...

... Julia Manchester of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions needs to return to the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions about alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia after recent revelations suggest that Sessions's previous statements were false.... "This is getting a bit old with Jeff Sessions," he [told Chris Wallace of Fox 'News']. 'I asked a question "did anyone ever talk to you about talking with the Russians?" I didn't ask about collusions. So we now know that somebody at a meeting, Mr. Papadopoulos, raised the idea of meeting with Putin. There's nothing wrong with Trump meeting with Putin if he wanted to. It would be wrong to have the Russians help the Trump campaign,' he said. Graham's comments come after The New York Times reported that unsealed court documents revealed that Trump and Sessions were aware of correspondence between members of the campaign and Russian actors, despite saying earlier this year they were unaware of such communications."

Lynnley Browning of Bloomberg: "House Republicans should slow down their consideration of a tax-overhaul bill after investigative reports Sunday alleged offshore tax-avoidance by U.S. multinational companies including Apple Inc. and Nike Inc., congressional Democrats and tax-advocacy groups said. But the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee [Kevin Brady] indicated Sunday that the panel would stick to its plans to consider the bill this week.... House leaders want to pass the bill by Thanksgiving.... In all, the bill is 'very weak' on combating aggressive tax evasion by both corporations and individuals, said Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer who's an expert on financial crime and international tax abuse." --safari

Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "Republicans are mostly a party of cultural grievance-mongers, not ambitious legislators. That's why Donald Trump is their president. That's why they don't seem to notice or care that Paul Ryan is a total fraud. They'd be a lot happier if they just owned it. At the end of the day, mostly adhering the policy status quo while catering to the symbolic and social recognition demands of the ethno-sectarian majority is a perfectly plausible approach to the problems of party politics." --safari

Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) sustained five fractured ribs after he was assaulted by a neighbor at his Bowling Green home on Friday, a top adviser said Sunday -- and it's unclear when the senator will be able to return to Washington for work. 'Senator Paul has five rib fractures including three displaced fractures,' his chief political strategist, Doug Stafford, said in a statement Sunday. 'This type of injury is caused by high velocity severe force. It is not clear exactly how soon he will return to work, as the pain is considerable as is the difficulty in getting around, including flying.'... Authorities say Paul's neighbor, Rene Boucher, tackled the senator from behind at 3:21 p.m. on Friday, leaving Paul struggling to breathe and bleeding from cuts around his mouth. Boucher, 59, has been charged with one count of fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor that can carry up to one year in prison.... Officials have not disclosed a reason for Friday’s altercation." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So how come we heard yesterday, "Kelsey Cooper, Paul's Kentucky communications director, issued a statement to the Daily News indicating that 'Senator Paul is fine'"? (Yesterday's linked story has been updated to indicate Paul suffered rib fractures & lung contusions. The "Sen. Paul is fine" part has been disappeared.) And excuse me -- beating a person bloody, fracturing his ribs & leaving him unable to work is a misdemeanor??? There's something odd here. Update: The New York Times fingers the cops for the misdiagnosis: "The injuries ... appear to be much worse than the 'minor' injuries that the police had reported on Saturday." Well, no, Kelsey there works for Paul.

Beyond the Beltway

David Montgomery & Christopher Mele of the New York Times: "A gunman wearing all black and a ballistic vest opened fire with a rifle outside a small Baptist church in rural [Sutherland Springs,] Texas and continued firing inside the building on Sunday, killing at least 26 people and turning a tiny town east of San Antonio into the scene of the country's most recent mass horror. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas confirmed the death toll, which has steadily increased throughout the day after the shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.... At least 20 people were also injured.... Two law enforcement sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity..., identified the gunman as Devin P. Kelley, 26." ...

... The Houston Chronicle, in association with the San Antonio Express-News has updates here. The front page of the Chron has links to related stories.

Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "Runners taking part in a 5km race in a small city in North Carolina on Saturday afternoon ... followed a zigzag course that took them, literally, all around the houses. The event was intended as a live demonstration of the absurdity and insidiousness of the way voting boundaries have been redrawn -- or gerrymandered -- in Asheville, a liberal town at the western end of the state. The head-spinning route of the 'Gerrymander 5K' ...follow[ed] an invisible line that since 2011 has divided what was previously a single US congressional seat into two odd-shaped districts.... Each half was thus in a new district dominated by a traditionally Republican rural area. The result was that the GOP now has a firm lock on power in Asheville, a progressive enclave in a red state that is now represented in Washington by two Republicans, one an ultra-conservative." --safari

Way Beyond

Long Live Shady Practices. Hilary Osborne of the Guardian: "Millions of pounds from the Queen's private estate has [sic] been invested in a Cayman Islands fund as part of an offshore portfolio that has never before been disclosed, according to ... an investigation into offshore tax havens." --safari

Guardian: "Saudi Arabia arrested 11 princes, including a prominent billionaire, and dozens of current and former ministers, reports said, in a sweeping crackdown as the kingdom's young crown prince consolidates power. Saudi King Salman appointed two new ministers on Saturday to key security and economic posts, removing one of the royal family;s most prominent members as head of the national guard, as part of a series of high-profile sackings that sent shock waves in the kingdom." --safari...

...Saudi Power Grabs. Juan Cole: "The Secretary-General of Hizbullah, the Lebanese party-militia, Hassan Nasrullah, gave a major speech Sunday in the wake of the resignation of prime minister Saad Hariri. Nasrullah characterized this step as a Saudi move dictated to Hariri by Riyadh.... Nasrullah said he was surprised by Hariri's sudden move. He maintained that until recently, Hariri had reported at cabinet meetings that Saudi Arabia wants a stable Lebanon and backed the national unity government.... Then Hariri recently went back to Riyadh, Nasrullah said, and this time he did not come back.... So the Hizbullah leader is implying that something changed in the politics of the royal family all of a sudden, and they imposed this resignation on Lebanon through their proxy.... In any case, Hariri's resignation has caused a crisis in Lebanon." --safari.

The Commentariat -- November 5, 2017

Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "The White House on Saturday disparaged the legacies of the only two living Republican presidents to precede Donald Trump, after reports that both men castigated Trump in interviews last year and refused to vote for him. Former president George H.W. Bush mocked then-candidate Trump as a 'blowhard' and voted for a Democratic president, while the younger Bush worried aloud that Trump would destroy the idea of a Republican president in all but name, according to 'The Last Republicans,' which is scheduled to go on sale later this month. The White House response followed a CNN report about the new book in an extraordinary war of words involving three presidents from the same party. 'If one Presidential candidate can disassemble a political party, it speaks volumes about how strong a legacy its past two presidents really had,' the White House wrote to CNN. It called the younger Bush's decision to wage war on Iraq 'one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes in American history.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Nakamura & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump donned a military-style bomber jacket shortly after arriving in Japan on Sunday and projected confidence that the United States will confront threats in Asia, telling hundreds of U.S. troops that they will have the resources 'to fight, to overpower and to always, always, always win.' Trump's tough talk in a speech to U.S. and Japanese military personnel at Yokota Air Base, shortly after Air Force One touched down here, aimed to set a tone for his five-nation tour during which the president said he is likely to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a regional summit in Vietnam later this week. The president told reporters during his flight that he wants 'Putin's help on North Korea,' as his administration attempts to consolidate support for its strategy to pressure Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons program."

Ashley Parker & Courtney Teague of the Washington Post: "Stopping in Hawaii en route to his five-country, 12-day trip in Asia -- his longest foreign trip since assuming office -- the president appeared energetic and enthusiastic, from almost the moment Air Force One climbed into the sky." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Business, As Usual. Lindsay Gibbs of ThinkProgress: "Oh his way to Asia for a five-country diplomatic tour, one of his most significant international trips since taking office..., Donald Trump stopped in Honolulu, Hawaii to visit the USS Arizona Memorial, which is dedicated to the victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor. But on his way back to the airport, Trump made another stop -- this time at the Trump Hotel in Waikiki. According to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump wanted to greet the employees and thank them for their hard work in making the Trump Hotel a 'tremendously successful project.' This stop, which happened amidst a taxpayer-funded trip, was both unexpected and unannounced, according to reporters travelling with the president."

"Trump Committed Another Impeachable Offense." Frank Bowman in Slate: "On July 27, 1974..., the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon because he sought to turn the immense power of the Justice Department and federal criminal investigative agencies against his political adversaries.... No respectable scholar of the Constitution doubts that directing the criminal justice and intelligence systems of the United States against political opponents ... is among the impeachable 'high crimes and misdemeanors' of Article II, Section 4. Friday morning..., Donald Trump sent out a series of tweets in which he explicitly urged the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party for a grab bag of supposed offenses -- emails deleted from then-Secretary of State Clinton's private server, the Russia-uranium kerfluffle, activities by Tony Podesta (lobbyist and brother of Secretary Clinton's campaign manager), and the allegation that officials at the Democratic National Committee worked with Clinton's campaign to give it a boost over Sen. Bernie Sanders'.... Trump followed up these tweets with statements to the press in which he said he is 'disappointed' with the Justice Department and would not rule out firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions if Sessions won't investigate Democrats. In my view, Trump's tweets tiptoed right up to the line of an impeachable offense. His subsequent statements to the press stepped firmly over it." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: One big difference: Nixon had the sense to do his dirty work in secret; he knew what he was doing violated his oath of office, even if he later "justified" his actions by claiming that "if the president does it, it's not illegal." Trump is either too stupid to know or too imperious to care that he repeatedly flouts his Constitutional duties & limitations. ...

... Leigh Caldwell & Frank Thorp of NBC News: "The Trump administration has downplayed the role of foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos during the 2016 presidential campaign. But the public record shows that Papadopoulos, who attempted to set up a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, was a more prominent figure than previously understood." The story goes on to cite several instances in which Papadopoulos represented the campaign over a period of several months. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs! Jeff Ostrowski of the Palm Beach Post: "Trump won permission to hire 70 [foreign] maids, cooks and servers at the Mar-a-Lago Club for the 2017-18 tourist season, according to newly released data from the U.S. Labor Department. In 2016-17, Trump hired 64 foreign workers at the Palm Beach property. The trend is similar throughout Palm Beach County."

Dan Balz & Scott Clement of the Washington Post: "A majority of Americans say President Trump has not accomplished much during his first nine months in office and they have delivered a report card that is far harsher even than the tepid expectations they set for his tenure when he was sworn into office, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News survey.... Trump has an approval rating demonstrably lower than any previous chief executive at this point in his presidency over seven decades of polling. Fewer than 4 in 10 Americans -- 37 percent -- say they approve of the way he is handling his job."

NEW. "Way Bigger than Donald Trump." Jonah Shepp of New York: "... the Russian government has developed a sophisticated digital propaganda and misinformation strategy based on using hacked data from public figures and institutions in countries of interest to influence public opinion and elections in those countries.... Even more disconcerting is that because Trump was at best an unwitting beneficiary in last year';s election meddling, he cannot see past his own role in this story to understand these implications in the longer term.... Perhaps instead of trying to catch the administration in another lie, the White House press corps should start asking what they are doing to prevent this type of interference from happening again in the future. Responding to such threats is part of the president's job, and if he refuses to do so, he should pay a price for that negligence, at least in the court of public opinion."

Heather Long of the Washington Post: "President Trump promised to cut taxes for the middle class, but some would end up paying more under the 'Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,' according to a report released Friday night by Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeepers tasked with determining how much any tax legislation would add to the debt and how it would impact the poor, middle class and wealthy.... The JCT found that the GOP bill would add nearly $1.5 trillion to the debt over the next decade and that, on average, families earning between $20,000 and $40,000 a year and between $200,000 to $500,000 would pay more in individual income taxes in 2023 and beyond.... Democratic tax experts say most of the benefits go to the richest Americans. 'JCT's estimates show that this bill is heavily tilted toward the wealthy,'says Lily Batchelder, a tax law professor at New York University and former member of President Obama's National Economic Council." ...

... ** Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: The House tax "bill bristles with tax increases aimed at low- and moderate-income households -- small in their aggregate effect but burdensome on the targeted taxpayers -- that have no apparent social rationale. Here's a sampling.... The tax bill would eliminate tax deductions for interest on student loans.... Teachers lose their deduction for classroom supplies.... The tax plan eliminates a deduction for catastrophic medical expenses that already had been made less generous than in the past.... The bill repeals the adoption tax credit, which allows families to offset up to $13,570 in taxes for every child adopted out of foster care.... Despite a surge of weather-related disasters in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, the tax bill would repeal deductions for property and casualty losses.... The tax measure would continue the Republican attack on renewable energy by ending the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric cars.... Beyond these provisions, the tax bill would take away modest deductions and exclusions that help ordinary people live their lives." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: These "reforms" are a lesson in nasty. Even the stupidest members of Congress can understand the moral purpose of each of these tax breaks. Some are to help ordinary people suddenly hit with unexpected financial crises -- high medical costs, weather disasters. Some are to help people who do the right thing -- provide school supplies for kids, purchase a fuel-efficient car. Most are family-friendly -- help send the kids to college, take in an orphan, etc. Eliminating any of these deductions would place more American families in greater financial stress. And the "reason" for removing these deductions aimed at people who need them? Of course it's to put more money in the pockets of people who already have way more money than they need to live in luxury.

Don Sergent of the Bowling Green (Kentucky) Daily News: "A Bowling Green man was arrested Friday and charged with fourth-degree assault after an incident at the Bowling Green home of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul. Rene Boucher, 59, is in the Warren County Regional Jail in lieu of a $5,000 bond, according to online jail records available Saturday afternoon. Paul suffered minor injuries, according to a news release from Kentucky State Police Post 3 in Bowling Green. Kelsey Cooper, Paul's Kentucky communications director, issued a statement to the Daily News indicating that 'Senator Paul is fine.' 'Senator Paul was blindsided and the victim of an assault,' Cooper said in an email."

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Former Democratic National Committee head Donna Brazile writes in a ew book that she seriously contemplated replacing Hillary Clinton as the party's 2016 presidential nominee with then-Vice President Biden in the aftermath of Clinton's fainting spell, in part because Clinton's campaign was 'anemic' and had taken on 'the odor of failure.' In an explosive new memoir, Brazile details widespread dysfunction and dissension throughout the Democratic Party, including secret deliberations over using her powers as interim DNC chair to initiate the removal of Clinton and running mate Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) from the ticket after Clinton's Sept. 11, 2016, collapse in New York City. Brazile writes that she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt most certain would win over enough working-class voters to defeat Republican Donald Trump. But then, she writes, 'I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, surely that would have gone smoothly. ...

... Jesse Ferguson of the Clinton campaign: "We were shocked to learn the news that Donna Brazile actively considered overturning the will of the Democratic voters by attempting to replace Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine as the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees. It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate's health." ...

... Steve M.: "And while she was at it, [Brazile] was going to pick her presidential nominee's running mate for him.... Did she have the right to do this? Absolutely not. Three days after the fainting incident, The Washington Post's Joshua Tucker interviewed Richard Pildes, an NYU law professor and election law expert. As Pildes noted, the decision to remove a Democratic nominee is up to the entire Democratic National Committee, not the DNC chair. It's Josh Marshall's belief, after a look at the DNC's charter and bylaws, that the process can be initiated only in the event of a vacancy. In other words, Clinton would have had to agree to removal from the ticket, and Kaine as well.... And if Clinton and Kaine had been replaced, could they have made it onto state ballots? In many states they might not have.... This is insane." ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "Most bizarrely, [Brazile] writes of fearing for her life after the murder of Seth Rich, the DNC staffer whose death has been the locus of deranged Republican conspiracy theories surrounding WikiLeaks and Hillary Clinton's emails. Whether Brazile's apparent fabulism will be dismissed as a bookselling stunt or cause any real internecine conflict among Democrats is unclear. But with a pivotal, uncomfortably close gubernatorial election just around the corner in Virginia, one thing's for sure: The timing for a massive distraction for the party could scarcely be worse." ...

... Paul Campos, in LG&$: "What's next, Pizzagate?"

Anne Bernays, in a Washington Post op-ed, on the indignities of being female.

Adam Vary of BuzzFeed: Kevin "Spacey is alleged to have consistently used his sexuality in a way that was unwanted and unwarranted, and often unrelenting. In Spacey's case, these stories also demonstrate the complex effect the closet can have for men of any sexual orientation when talking about sexual misconduct by another man. Spacey appears to have discovered how to weaponize the closet, shielding his own behavior from scrutiny under the guise of merely protecting his privacy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Brent Lang & Daniel Holloway of Variety: "Producers are exploring several options for getting 'House of Cards' back on track in the wake of sexual assault and harassment allegations against star Kevin Spacey. One scenario being discussed is to kill off Spacey's character, the villainous Frank Underwood, and have the show's sixth and final season concentrate on his equally manipulative wife Claire, played by Robin Wright, according to insiders." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia announced the arrest on Saturday night of the prominent billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, plus at least 10 other princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers.m he announcement of the arrests was made over Al Arabiya, the Saudi-owned satellite network whose broadcasts are officially approved. Prince Alwaleed's arrest is sure to send shock waves both through the Kingdom and the world's major financial centers. He controls the investment firm Kingdom Holding and is one of the world's richest men, with major stakes in News Corp, Time Warner, Citigroup, Twitter, Apple, Motorola and many other well-known companies. The prince also controls satellite television networks watched across the Arab world. The sweeping campaign of arrests appears to be the latest move to consolidate the power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son and top adviser of King Salman."

Juan Cole: "In a news conference this week, [Secretary of Energy Rick Perry] expressed the opinion that fossil fuels would prevent sexual assault.... It should be noted that when governor of Texas Perry actively resisted Federal regulations to reduce prison rape, so he seems more interested in hydrocarbons than in do-gooding.... Lack of electricity is certainly a problem for development in Africa.... But electrification can be pursued in environmentally sustainable ways ... solar and wind are everywhere and there is no impetus to fight over control of them. As for fossil fuels, they are responsible for enormous numbers of rapes.... Take [South] Sudan ... it fell into civil war as elites of these two struggled for control of the vast oil wealth. It doesn't get the press that Syria did, but South Sudan is one of the most brutal civil wars on the planet.... Then there is the violent conflict in the Niger Delta of southern Nigeria. It is also over oil and its proceeds, and their distribution.... There is war rape." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)