The Commentariat -- May 12, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Paul Waugh of the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump will be denied the historic honour of addressing parliament during his state visit to the UK next month, government sources have confirmed. In a major snub to the US President, lingering hopes of him delivering a speech to MPs and peers have been dashed following defiant opposition by Commons Speaker John Bercow, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and others. Although Barack Obama made a landmark address in Westminster Hall in 2011, Trump will not be allowed the same privilege after the visit's organisers decided to avoid a diplomatic row over his 'racism and sexism'."

Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "Space at certain Border Patrol stations has become so scarce that [ICE] authorities have resorted to transporting immigrants on aircrafts to other parts of the U.S.-Mexico just to be processed.... The first flight left McAllen, Texas, on Friday for Del Rio, Texas. Daily flights are scheduled over the next few days. It is not out of the ordinary for ICE to transport immigrants on a plane, as they frequently use flights as a way of transferring individuals from one detention center to another. What is new, however, is the practice of transporting recently-arrived immigrants via aircraft to different parts of the border so that they can go through a preliminary booking procedure." --s

Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "Electric vehicles are increasingly popular, with sales up a whopping 81% between 2017 and 2018.... On Thursday, congressional lawmakers received a letter signed by 34 conservative organizations urging them to oppose any expansion of tax credits for electric vehicles. Signatories to the letter include several think tanks that promote climate science denial, a group run by a former Koch lobbyist, and the newly launched Energy 45 Fund set up by a former Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official." --s

Juan Cole: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told NBC that Iran is an active threat to US interests and 'sowing chaos' in the Middle East. It strikes me that exactly the opposite is true. The Islamic Republic of Iran has in recent years, despite its heritage in the 1979 revolution, acted as an Establishment, status quo power. I don't agree with Iranian policy, e.g. its Syria intervention; I'm just acting as a dispassionate analyst and asking if it is really destabilizing. I conclude, not so much. In contrast, the United States (and more especially the Republican Party) has sown enormous amounts of chaos in the Middle East just in the past 20 years." --s

Juan Cole: "[T]here are 2 million solar home installations in the United States. That is enough to power 12 million homes. (There are 127 million households in the US, and about 64% of Americans own a home). It was only in 2016 that the country hit 1 million.... By two years from now, the number of solar home installations will climb to 3 million, and in 2023 it will climb to 4 million, having doubled in 4 years. By 2024, new home panels will be installed at the rate of one a minute.... The cost of solar panels has dropped 70% since 2010, and dropped 5% just in the past year. There is still a $7500 Federal tax rebate, and many states also offer tax incentives (the states not controlled by Big Oil)." --s

Dylan Matthews of Vox: "The Trump administration has been incredibly consistent, from day one, about its desire to slash benefits for poor Americans.... [T]he latest [attempt] is subtle but profound: changing the inflation rate used to update the poverty line.... The change the administration is proposing would, over the course of many years, shrink the size of Medicaid, food stamps, free school breakfasts, Head Start, and many, many other programs." --s

Robert Burns of the AP: "Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan visited a border city in Texas on Saturday and said he intends to accelerate planning to secure the border and bolster the administration's ability to accomplish that without the Pentagon's continuous help.... Shanahan told Congress this past week that there are 4,364 military troops on the border, including active-duty and National Guard. They are erecting barriers, providing logistics and transportation service and other activities in support of Customs and Border Protection. The troops are prohibited from performing law enforcement duties. Troops have been deployed on the border since last October and are committed to being there through September." --s

Justin Wise of the Hill: "White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Sunday contradicted President Trump, saying he didn't disagree with the characterization that China is not paying the tariffs on goods coming into the U.S. Kudlow made the comments after Fox News anchor Chris Wallace repeatedly pressed him on "Fox News Sunday" about Trump's recent comments in regard to trade with China.... Wallace ... [noted] that Trump has said China pays the tariffs. 'They may suffer consequences, but it's U.S. businesses and U.S. consumers who pay, correct?' he asked. Kudlow responded by saying he didn't disagree with that characterization, adding that both sides will suffer because of new tariffs." Mrs. McC: Even on the rare occasions Trump's surrogates know the facts, interviewers have to pull out their two front teeth to get them to even implicitly disagree with Trump's lies.

Ellen Mitchell of the Hill: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo must warn Russian President Vladimir Putin against meddling in the upcoming 2020 presidential election, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged on Sunday. 'During your meeting with Vladimir Putin, it is critical that you warn him that any action to interfere in our elections will be met with an immediate and robust response,' Schumer wrote in a letter to Pompeo. 'President Trump's approach to dealing with President Putin, especially on this vital issue, must change. I urge you to make absolutely clear to President Putin that interference in U.S. elections will not be tolerated.' Pompeo is set to meet with Putin on Tuesday, the first major meeting of an administration official and the Russian president since the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report...."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump lashed out at Don McGahn on Saturday ... amid an ongoing battle between House Democrats and the administration over documents and testimony related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. 'I was NOT going to fire Bob Mueller, and did not fire Bob Mueller. In fact, he was allowed to finish his Report with unprecedented help from the Trump Administration,' the president wrote online. 'Actually, lawyer Don McGahn had a much better chance of being fired than Mueller. Never a big fan!'"

Matt Apuzzo & Adam Satariano of the New York Times: "Less than two weeks before pivotal elections for the European Parliament, a constellation of websites and social media accounts linked to Russia or far-right groups is spreading disinformation, encouraging discord and amplifying distrust in the centrist parties that have governed for decades. European Union investigators, academics and advocacy groups say the new disinformation efforts share many of the same digital fingerprints or tactics used in previous Russian attacks, including the Kremlin's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Rachel Bade & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "President Trump and his allies are working to block more than 20 separate investigations by Democrats into his actions as president, his personal finances and his administration's policies, according to a Washington Post analysis, amounting to what many experts call the most expansive White House obstruction effort in decades. Trump's noncooperation strategy has shifted from partial resistance to all-out war as he faces mounting inquiries from the Democratic-controlled House -- a strategy that many legal and congressional experts fear could undermine the institutional power of Congress for years to come. All told, House Democrats say the Trump administration has failed to respond to or comply with at least 79 requests for documents or other information. The president is blocking aides from testifying, refusing entire document requests from some committees, filing lawsuits against corporations to bar them from responding to subpoenas and asserting executive privilege to keep information about the special counsel's Russia investigation from public view. One such case will come to a head in court on Tuesday, when a federal judge is expected to rule on whether Trump can quash a House Oversight Committee subpoena demanding financial records from his personal accounting firm." ...

... Speaking of Federal Judges ... Having thumbed his nose at one branch of government, Trump is also working to neutralize another. This is not about a "unitary executive." It's about dictatorship. ...

... King Donald's New Plan to Neuter the Judiciary. Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "President Trump is looking to stop lower courts from being able to issue wide-ranging injunctions in a move that could dramatically limit the authority of judges. The plan comes as groups opposed to Trump have been able to get several of his policies, including those seeking to limit immigration, put on hold by nationwide orders issued by lower courts in battles that were eventually decided by the Supreme Court.... Vice President Pence this week brought the issue front and center, saying in a speech to the conservative Federalist Society that the administration has been 'unfairly' targeted by injunctions -- and promising to unveil in coming days pathways to put the issue before the Supreme Court."

** "First Among Equals." Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) in a Washington Post op-ed: "Oversight isn't the only area where the president thinks he can supersede and supplant Congress. He believes he can declare a national security emergency when lawmakers reject funding for his border wall -- and then reprogram money Congress has appropriated for other purposes to build the wall behind our backs. And despite the fact that his main job is to 'take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,' as the Constitution's Article II provides, he routinely sabotages the effective administration of the Affordable Care Act (by starving recruitment efforts and promoting 'junk' plans) and encourages government officials at the border to violate the law on asylum seekers. All this falls outside of his constitutional power.... Congress was never designed as, nor should it ever become, a mere 'co-equal branch,' beseeching the president to share his awesome powers with us. We are the exclusive lawmaking branch of our national government and the preeminent part of it. We set the policy agenda, we write the laws, and we can impeach judges or executives who commit high crimes and misdemeanors against our institutions. As James Madison observed in the Federalist Papers, 'In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.' Congress is first among equals." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Now, class, Raskin's op-ed is your reading assignment for today. Raskin is a retired Constitutional law professor, & this is a Constitutional lesson.

Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Facing withering attacks accusing him of seeking foreign assistance for President Trump's re-election campaign, Rudolph W. Giuliani announced on Friday night that he had canceled a trip to Kiev in which he planned to push the incoming Ukrainian government to press ahead with investigations that he hoped would benefit Mr. Trump. Mr. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, explained that he felt as if he was being 'set up' by Ukrainians critical of his efforts, and he blamed Democrats for trying to 'spin' the trip.... Mr. Giuliani said on Thursday that he had hoped to meet in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, with the nation's president-elect and urge him to pursue inquiries that could yield new information about two matters of intense interest to Mr. Trump. One is the origin of the special counsel's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. The other is the involvement of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. The trip raised the specter of a lawyer for Mr. Trump pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that his allies hope could help him win re-election.... Mr. Trump has suggested he would like Attorney General William P. Barr to look into the material gathered by the Ukrainian prosecutors.... After The New York Times published a report about the trip on Thursday, Democrats assailed Mr. Giuliani, accusing him of activity evoking that at the center of the recently concluded special counsel's investigation.... The change of plans came as advisers were urging the incoming Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian and political newcomer, not to meet with Mr. Giuliani, according to a person familiar with the conversations." ...

      ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, Rudy, it's everybody else's fault. You & your boss are not just collaborating with but encouraging a foreign government to insert itself into a U.S. election, & shame on Ukrainians for not going along with your little plot & on Democrats for pointing to your potentially criminal plans. The House & Senate Intelligence Committees should haul Rudy in to testify on his scheme & what Trump knew about it (no doubt he would claim attorney-client privilege, but it doesn't hurt to ask), and the House Judiciary Committee should add this incident as part of its evidence for impeachment. It's part of continuing corrupt conduct. ...

... David Boddiger of Splinter: "In reality..., [Giuliani's] activities looked a lot like a brazen conspiracy with a foreign government to disrupt U.S. elections and possibly could have led to campaign finance law violations. Trump claimed not to know too much about Giuliani's plans, despite making several comments this week about the subject of the trip, an investigation into the business interests of Biden's son, Hunter, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as well as Russian attacks on the 2016 U.S. election.... Giuliani, perhaps sensing that conspiracy in plain sight might not be a good idea, switched course on Friday night.... Giuliani also claimed the purpose of the trip wasn't to influence the 2020 U.S. election.... However..., Giuliani already had made his intentions clear in a tweet on Friday. 'Election is 17 months away. Let's answer [the Biden-Ukraine questions] now,' he tweeted." ...

... Maureen Dowd: "When Trump fatigue seemed to set in after the Mueller report..., I had total faith that Trump and his crazy posse would find some bizarre way to grab back the spotlight. And, indeed, what could be more insane than this? A president who has spent two years battling accusations that he colluded with a foreign power to fix the 2016 election manages to wriggle off the hook. Just three weeks later, his lawyer unveils their 2020 plan: to collude with a foreign power to fix the election." ...

... Allan Smith & Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Friday for a probe into Rudy Giuliani's efforts to influence investigations in Ukraine he anticipates as possibly beneficial to President Donald Trump, citing 'the implications of this for United States foreign policy.' In a letter to the committee's Republican chairman, Murphy, D-Conn., said that he was 'alarmed' after reading reports that Giuliani ... had planned to travel to the country to push Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president-elect, to move ahead with investigations involving former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and probes related to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.... 'As far as we know, none of these meetings are being coordinated with the U.S. State Department or other government agencies,' Murphy wrote." ...

... Harry Siegel of the New York Daily News points out that Rudy has many shady foreign entanglements.

Trade Isn't Just about Trade. Paul Krugman: "As far as I can tell, [Trump] isn't getting a single thing about trade policy right. He doesn't know how tariffs work, or who pays them. He doesn't understand what bilateral trade imbalances mean, or what causes them. He has a zero-sum view of trade that flies in the face of everything we've learned over the past two centuries. And to the (small) extent that he is making any coherent demands on China, they're demands China can't/won't meet. But Trump's critics, while vastly more accurate than he is, also, I think, get a few things wrong.... In the short run, a tariff is a tax.... [Even though the tax is regressive,] we're still talking, at least so far, about a tax hike that is only a fraction of a percent of GDP.... [But] trade policy isn't just about economics. It's also about democracy and peace.... The postwar trading system grew out of the vision of Cordell Hull, FDR's Secretary of State, who saw commercial links between nations as a way to promote peace.... Trump/s trade war should correspondingly be seen as part and parcel of his embrace of foreign dictators, lack of respect for our allies, and evident contempt for democracy, at home as well as abroad.... He's working actively to make the world a more dangerous, less democratic place, with trade war just one manifestation of that drive." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Needless to say, all this is way more than Trump can understand, and even if he could understand it, he wouldn't care. He would still think it was great that initiating trade wars made him look tough & strong & America-Firsty. Update: See Landler & Swanson's report, linked below. ...

... digby: "... this wild, chaotic destruction with nothing but ignorant bellicosity and a huge military is a recipe for something very terrible happening. The US has not been a benign actor on the world stage. But it was predictable which meant that as it acted as the fulcrum for international organizing of various players, at least everyone was playing on the same field. Now we aren't. And it's anyone's guess as to how that's going to come out. Trump's idiotic trade war, based upon a sixth grade understanding of how trade works, is a big part of that." ...

... New York Times Editors: "President Trump's new tariffs on Chinese imports, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, are taxes that will be paid by Americans. That is a simple fact, and it remains true no matter how many times Mr. Trump insists the money will come from China.... He is willfully peddling a falsehood for political gain.... A pair of recent studies by prominent academics, including the chief economist at the World Bank, have concluded that the full cost of the Trump tariffs is being paid here in the United States, although China has suffered a loss of access to the American market.... Mr. Trump -- who famously declared in March 2018 that 'trade wars are good, and easy to win' -- has yet to show he can strike a deal." ...

... Mark Landler & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "When President Trump had finished mocking the field of Democratic presidential candidates at a rally in Florida this week ('Sleepy Joe,' 'Crazy Bernie' and 'Boot-edge-edge'), he pivoted abruptly to his intensifying trade war with China. The segue was no accident: Mr. Trump is determined to present himself as tougher on the Chinese than any of his potential challengers in 2020. 'Representin us against President Xi of China,' a sarcastic Mr. Trump said of Pete Buttigieg, the young mayor of South Bend, Ind. 'That'd be great.' Taking aim at former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. earlier in the day, he said that China had pulled back from a trade deal because it wanted to wait him out and negotiate with a President Biden or 'one of the very weak Democrats, and thereby continue to rip off the United States.' Election-year politics have crept into Mr. Trump's trade policy.... His recent statements suggest he now believes that demonstrating his toughness with the Chinese and walking away from a deal might well put him in a better position politically than signing one."

Senate Republicans' support for Trump is fairly strong:

Presidential Race 2020. Alex Thompson of Politico: "It was a startling spectacle in the heart of Trump country: At least a dozen supporters of the president -- some wearing MAGA stickers -- nodding their heads, at times even clapping, for liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren. About 150 people gathered at the Kermit [W. Va.] Fire & Rescue Headquarters Station to hear the Massachusetts senator and former Harvard professor talk about what she wants to do to fight the opioid epidemic. Trump-supporting college students in baggy t-shirts, housewives in pearls, and the fire chief dressed in uniform joined liberal retirees wearing rainbow 'Persist' shirts and teachers with six-figure student loan debt. Kermit is one of the epicenters of the opioid addiction epidemic."

It's like fucking in a cathedral. -- Leonard Bernstein to Maryan Stevens, describing the intensity of conducting a musical masterpiece ...

... ** Robert Barnes of the Washington Post reports on his interview with retired Justice John Paul Stevens. Stevens' autobiography will be published this week.

Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "The NRA has racked up huge legal bills over the last year that threaten to debilitate the organization, according to documents posted anonymously online that appear to be written by the group's ex-president Oliver North. The bills highlight the organization's extraordinary legal challenges.... Senior NRA officials disputed the documents' claims but not their authenticity.... [A memo from North & NRA official Richard Childress] says [outside counsel Bill] Brewer charged the NRA $24,324,290 since they engaged him last year, and that some of that had been reimbursed as part of a settlement of litigation against an insurance company -- leaving the NRA to pay $18.5 million."

Trouble in the Academy. Kate Taylor of the New York Times: "Harvard said on Saturday that a law professor who is representing Harvey Weinstein [-- the accused serial sex abuser --] would not continue as faculty dean of an undergraduate house after his term ends on June 30, bowing to months of pressure from students. The professor, Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, who is a lecturer at the law school, have been the faculty deans of Winthrop House, one of Harvard's residential houses for undergraduate students, since 2009. They were the first African-American faculty deans in Harvard's history.... The decision not to renew the appointments of Mr. Sullivan and Ms. Robinson as faculty deans does not affect their positions at the law school, where Mr. Sullivan is the Jesse Climenko Clinical Professor of Law and the director of the Criminal Justice Institute."

Another Trumpy Grifter. Michael Brice-Saddler of the Washington Post: "A December fundraising campaign brought in more than $20 million over the course of a few weeks, its thousands of donors united by a common goal: the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, oft-promised by President Trump. Some four months later, a contingent of those supporters is ready to see what their money has built. The now-famous border wall GoFundMe was conceived by Purple Heart recipient Brian Kolfage.... Reporting on the apparent lack of progress on the private wall, published early Friday by the Daily Beast, drew criticism from Kolfage.... Back in January, Kobach told the New York Times they'd hopefully be breaking ground 'within weeks.' Some critics noted Kolfage was accused of shady behavior in the past, including allegations of misusing funds he raised.... BuzzFeed looked into Kolfage's previous crowdfunding efforts, which included an initiative to mentor wounded veterans at military hospitals -- among them Walter Reed and Brooke Army Medical Center. He raised thousands for the project, according to BuzzFeed, but spokespersons for the medical facilities told the outlet they have no record of him working at the hospitals or donating money.... Facebook removed several of the pages he operated last year, according to NBC, in a purge of pages that were used to 'drive traffic to their websites.'"

The Commentariat -- May 11, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Facing withering attacks accusing him of seeking foreign assistance for President Trump's re-election campaign, Rudolph W. Giuliani announced on Friday night that he had canceled a trip to Kiev in which he planned to push the incoming Ukrainian government to press ahead with investigations that he hoped would benefit Mr. Trump. Mr. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, explained that he felt as if he was being 'set up' by Ukrainians critical of his efforts, and he blamed Democrats for trying to 'spin' the trip.... Mr. Giuliani said on Thursday that he had hoped to meet in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, with the nation's president-elect and urge him to pursue inquiries that could yield new information about two matters of intense interest to Mr. Trump. One is the origin of the special counsel's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. The other is the involvement of former Vice President Jospeh R. Biden Jr.'s son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. The trip raised the specter of a lawyer for Mr. Trump pressing a foreig government to pursue investigations that his allies hope could help him win re-election.... Mr. Trump has suggested he would like Attorney General William P. Barr to look into the material gathered by the Ukrainian prosecutors.... After The New York Times published a report about the trip on Thursday, Democrats assailed Mr. Giuliani, accusing him of activity evoking that at the center of the recently concluded special counsel's investigation.... The change of plans came as advisers were urging the incoming Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian and political newcomer, not to meet with Mr. Giuliani, according to a person familiar with the conversations." ...

      ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, Rudy, it's everybody else's fault. You & your boss are not just collaborating with but encouraging a foreign government to insert itself into a U.S. election, & shame on Ukrainians for not going along & Democrats pointing to your potentially criminal plans.

It's like fucking in a cathedral. -- Leonard Bernstein to Maryan Stevens, describing the intensity of conducting a musical masterpiece ...

... ** Robert Barnes of the Washington Post reports on his interview with retired Justice John Paul Stevens. Stevens' autobiography will be published this week.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Alan Rappeport & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "Trade talks between China and the United States ended on Friday without a deal as President Trump raised tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports and signaled he was prepared for a prolonged economic fight. Mr. Trump, who only weeks ago predicted a signing ceremony for an 'epic' trade deal with President Xi Jinping of China, reclaimed his stance of threatening Beijing and insisting his approach would help the American economy. In a flurry of tweets on Friday, Mr. Trump warned that he would tax nearly all of China's imports if the country continued to backtrack on a trade deal.... On Friday, the trade dispute appeared to be lurching toward an all-out economic war. China has threatened to retaliate with its own 'countermeasures,' which include ending purchases of American farm goods and establishing other nontariff barriers for companies trying to gain access to the Chinese market."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "White House officials asked at least twice in the past month for the key witness against President Trump in the Mueller report, Donald F. McGahn II, to say publicly that he never believed the president obstructed justice, according to two people briefed on the requests. Mr. McGahn, who was the president's first White House counsel, declined, one of the people said. His reluctance angered Mr. Trump, who believed that Mr. McGahn showed disloyalty by telling investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, about Mr. Trump's attempts to maintain control over the Russia investigation. The White House made one of the requests to Mr. McGahn's lawyer, William A. Burck, before the Mueller report was released publicly but after the Justice Department gave a copy to Mr. Trump's lawyers to read. Reading the report, the president's lawyers saw that Mr. Mueller had left out that Mr. McGahn had told investigators that he believed Mr. Trump never obstructed justice. Mr. Burck had told them months earlier that his client had shared that belief with investigators. Mr. McGahn initially entertained the White House request. But after the report was released, detailing the range of actions Mr. Trump took to try to impede the inquiry, Mr. McGahn declined to put out a statement." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Assuming the reporting here is accurate, I don't think Democrats will get a John Dean-like hearing out of him.

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service on Friday, disregarding the Treasury secretary's refusal this week to hand over six years of President Trump's personal and business tax returns and demanding access. The subpoenas from Representative Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Charles P. Rettig, the I.R.S. commissioner, amounted to an unexpected shift in tactics in the yearslong Democratic effort to secure tax returns that Mr. Trump has refused to release.... The new approach is unlikely to be any more fruitful in the short term..., but ... the fight over Mr. Trump's tax returns could soon head to the federal courts, and House lawyers believe they have a better and speedier case defending a subpoena than a legally untested tax code provision."

Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y) said Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller will not be testifying before his panel next week. Nadler told reporters that the committee is still negotiating over his testimony with the Justice Department and Mueller but expects the special counsel to appear.... Nadler did not give a specific reason for why Mueller would not testify next week, telling reporters it 'just hasn't developed.' 'He will come at some point. If it's necessary, we will subpoena him and he will come,' Nadler said later."

Zachary Basu of Axios: "House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told Axios' Mike Allen Friday that the House is considering reviving its 'inherent contempt' power, which would allow Congress to enforce subpoenas through coercive measures like fines. 'Much as I like the visual of [throwing people in jail], I think it's far more practical to consider levying individual fines on the person -- not the office -- until they comply. You could fine someone $25,000 a day until they comply. You can do that. We're looking through the history and studying the law to make sure we're on solid ground.'" ...

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: Nancy "Pelosi is a sharp and pragmatic woman, and her evident belief that impeachment carries strategic risks for Democrats should be taken seriously. But it is incoherent to argue that Trump constitutes an existential threat to the Constitution, and that Congress should wait to use the Constitution's primary defense against such a threat.... In the face of an administration that is trying to amass dictatorial powers, Democrats need to bring to bear all the powers of their own. Trump's outright rejection of congressional authority makes impeachment proceedings necessary, but even impeachment alone is not sufficient.... There are dangers in increased Democratic combativeness, but even greater dangers in timidity." Goldberg cites some interesting remarks by Rep. Jamie Raskin [D-Maryland] who was a constitutional law professor, including on the concept of "inherent contempt."

From Crooked Hillary to Crooked Joe. Jonathan Chait: Donald Trump's campaign is "pressuring a foreign government to assist Trump's reelection campaign. The effort consists of Trump's agents lobbying Ukraine to smear his political rivals. The smear campaign is being run by Rudy Giuliani, who -- perhaps operating on the theory that a massive scandal boasted about in the media by its perpetrators is less damaging than one uncovered by investigators -- is broadcasting his scheme. 'There's nothing illegal about it,' he tells the New York Times. [NYT story previously linked in the Commentariat.] 'Somebody could say it's improper.' Well, yes, they could.... Giuliani is trying to get Ukraine to pursue two investigations: one against ... [Hillary Clinton], and another against [Joe Biden.... The first is based on murky charges that have circulated on the right that Hillary Clinton's campaign conspired with Ukraine to gin up the Russia investigation.... 'In the case against Biden,] there is no quid, no pro, no quo.... So why would Ukraine pursue baseless charges? Because its government has a strong interest in mollifying Trump. The Times reported last year that Ukraine halted its cooperation with the Mueller probe because it couldn't risk provoking Trump.... On its face, there is nothing illegal here.... The powers legally available to a corrupt president and a party that has turned a blind eye to his violations of governing norms may be more terrifying than anybody has considered." ...

... Trump Implies He Doesn't Know Much about It. Andrew Restuccia, et al., of Politico: "Trump ... said that he plans to speak to Rudy Giuliani about his personal attorney's imminent plans to go to Ukraine to reportedly encourage the Ukrainian president to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation and Hunter Biden's role on the board of directors of an energy company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. 'I will speak to him about it before he leaves. I'm just curious about that,' he said, adding that he has 'not spoken to him at any great length' about it.... When asked whether he would consider directing Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the Bidens, as some Democrats fear, Trump said he had not spoken to Barr about the issue. But he left open the possibility, saying 'certainly it would be an appropriate thing to' discuss with Barr." ...

... Allan Smith & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "'We have come to a very sorry state when it is considered OK for an American politician, never mind an attorney for the president, to go and seek foreign intervention in American politics,' said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to reporters Friday. Rep. Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, tweeted that Giuliani's efforts are not only improper, but 'immoral, unethical, unpatriotic and, now, standard procedure.'... PolitiFact, meanwhile, reported that it found no evidence to 'support the idea that Joe Biden advocated with his son's interests in mind.'" ...

... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: “Yes, Trump is trying to collude with a foreign government in an attempt to aid his campaign by creating negative stories about a potential opponent. Again.... They're now skipping over the secrecy and denial parts, and just doing it openly.... This isn't some kind of freelancing on Giuliani's part. [An] earlier article in the Times [also linked here previously] reported that Giuliani called Trump to brief him during his meeting with the Ukrainian prosecutor, and Giuliani 'acknowledged that he has discussed the matter with the president on multiple occasions.' So to be clear: The president of the United States is, through his lawyer, pressuring a foreign government to mount an investigation in order to tarnish his potential general-election opponent.... Trump has already told Sean Hannity that Attorney General William P. Barr is looking into what he called 'incredible' charges involving Ukraine and Hillary Clinton, no doubt at his suggestion. This is only the beginning of what Trump is going to pull, and there's every reason to think that he feels utterly unrestrained by law or ethics." ...

... AND This Particular Stunt Might Not Work. Oliver Carroll of the (UK) Independent: "... president-elect Volodymyr Zelensky may now refuse to meet Mr Trump's lawyer Rudy Guiliani when he arrives in Kiev later this month. Mr Guiliani’s trip, first reported in The New York Times on Thursday, has been described as an attempt to pressure Ukraine into investigations to help Mr Trump's re-election campaign.... Two separate sources in Mr Zelensky's circle told The Independent that it was now unlikely the president-elect would choose to personally attend the meeting, and would instead send representatives." Zelensky also has said he plans to replace the controversial prosecutor who made the unsupported claims about Joe Biden.

"A Pattern of Corruption." Jordyn Hermani of Politico: "Former FBI general counsel Jim Baker said Friday he's troubled by obstruction allegations outlined in the Mueller report, explaining that even if there isn't a possibility of charging ... Donald Trump, there still appears to be a 'pattern of corruption.' '... It's alarming,' said Baker, now the director of national security and cybersecurity at the R Street Institute. 'Even if it doesn't rise to the level of illegality, it sure looks like a pattern of corruption.' During an interview at the Brookings Institution, Baker also refuted the notion that the Russia investigation was an 'attempted coup' -- a claim Trump has repeatedly alleged. '(The campaign probe) was about Russia...,' Baker said. "When the Papadopoulos information comes across our radar screen it's coming across in the sense we were always looking at Russia.... We have been thinking about Russia as a threat actor and the Soviet Union before for decades and decades.' Baker also echoed comments made by FBI Director Christopher Wray Tuesday when he said not investigating the interactions between Trump's campaign and Russian foreign agents would have gone against the FBI's duty. Baker said he also didn't agree with Attorney General William Barr's assertion that the FBI spied on Trump's campaign."

Ari Melber of MSNBC bids a not-so-fond farewell to Rod Rosenstein, whose last day on the job was Friday:

Trump Ruins Everything He Touches. Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has effectively taken charge of the nation's premier Fourth of July celebration in Washington, moving the gargantuan fireworks display from its usual spot on the Mall to be closer to the Potomac River and making tentative plans to address the nation from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, according to top administration officials. The president's starring role has the potential to turn what has long been a nonpartisan celebration of the nation's founding into another version of a Trump campaign rally. Officials said it is unclear how much the changes may cost, but the plans have already raised alarms among city officials and some lawmakers about the potential impact of such major alterations to a time-honored and well-organized summer tradition."

Robert Burns of the AP: "The Pentagon is shifting $1.5 billion in funds originally targeted for support of the Afghan security forces and other projects to help pay for construction of nearly 80 miles (130 kilometers) of wall at the U.S.-Mexican border, officials said Friday. Congress was notified of the move Friday. It follows the Pentagon's decision in March to transfer $1 billion from Army personnel budget accounts to support wall construction. Some lawmakers have been highly critical of the Pentagon shifting money not originally authorized for border security. The combined total of $2.5 billion is in response to ... Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the border.... Trump vetoed Congress' attempt to reverse his emergency declaration. In all, the Pentagon is expected to shift about $6.1 billion to help build a border wall, including about $3.6 billion from military construction projects, some of which will be delayed." ...

Abigail Hauslohner of the Washington Post: "More than 80 Democratic members of Congress have asked the Government Accountability Office to conduct an investigation into the 'record-breaking' backlog of immigration cases pending under the Trump administration.... Immigration attorneys, advocates and Democratic lawmakers say the administration has intentionally slowed the process through which it grants citizenship and other immigration benefits, creating a massive backlog.... The USCIS net backlog -- which includes all immigration case applications, ranging from pending green cards to immigrant work visas -- exceeded 2.3 million cases by last fall, a recent analysis by the American Immigration Lawyers Association found."

Beyond the Beltway

North Carolina. She Asked for It. Avery Wilks of the Charlotte Observer: “A GOP state lawmaker [-- Nancy Mace --] who recently gave an impassioned speech about being raped as a 16 year old says she feels attacked after a Republican colleague passed out literature describing rape as a 'misdeed of the parent' that doesn't justify having an abortion.... 'It is a twisted logic that would kill the unborn child for the misdeed of the parent,' read the card, produced by Personhood SC, a group fighting for an outright abortion ban with no exceptions in South Carolina. The Spartanburg Republican who passed out the card this week, state Rep. Josiah Magnuson, acknowledged the poor word choice in an interview with The State Friday but said he wouldn't back down from his position. And now House leaders plan to address the dustup in a private meeting next month, reminding fellow Republicans there are rules against attacking the integrity or character of fellow House members." Mrs. McC: This is why you don't want to be a Republican, Nancy.

The Commentariat -- May 10, 2019

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Katelyn Polantz & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Judge Amit Mehta plans next week to weigh the major legal issues raised in ... Donald Trump's challenge of a congressional subpoena for his accounting firm's records, according to an order issued Thursday -- putting the case on an even faster track than it previously looked to be. Congress has subpoenaed Trump and his business' accounting records from the firm Mazars USA, and Trump's personal legal team sued to stop the records from being turned over. A hearing is now scheduled for May 14."

Sheryl Stolberg & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the United States was in a 'constitutional crisis' and warned that House Democrats might move to hold more Trump administration officials in contempt of Congress if they continued their refusals to comply with committee subpoenas.... Ms. Pelosi said Democrats would bring the contempt citation [against AG William Barr] to the floor for a vote of the full House 'when we are ready.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Katherine Tully-McManus of Roll Call goes in search of the Capitol jail: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi resurfaced one of the Capitol’s most enduring mysteries when answering a question about whether Democrats might imprison Trump administration officials who defy Congress: the House jail.... 'We do have a little jail down in the basement of the Capitol, but if we were arresting all of the people in the administration, we would have an overcrowded jail situation. And I'm not for that,' Pelosi said Wednesday at a Washington Post live event.... Capitol Police officers from multiple divisions told CQ Roll Call that no House jail exists, though Capitol Police headquarters on D Street Northeast does have a holding facility.... There once was a cell in the Capitol basement to hold those in contempt, but it is long gone.... A senior House Democratic aide told CQ Roll Call that the sergeant-at-arms could use existing spaces in the Capitol to hold someone, as has been done in the past." Mrs. McC: More like a "gaol," then. (Also linked yesterday.)

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "resident Trump said on Thursday that he would leave it up to Attorney General William P. Barr to decide whether Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, may testify before Congress on the Russia investigation. His comments were a seeming reversal, since Mr. Trump wrote over the weekend on Twitter that Mr. Mueller should not be allowed to appear before Congress. Mr. Barr has told lawmakers that he has no objection to letting Mr. Mueller talk to them. In a surprise, 45-minute news conference in the Roosevelt Room, his first since the release of the special counsel's report, Mr. Trump also said he was' pretty surprised' that his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was subpoenaed to testify in front of the Senate about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 campaign.... 'My son is a good person,' Mr. Trump said. 'My son testified for hours and hours. My son was totally exonerated by Mueller.'... Mr. Trump, who for months has been advised not to personally attack Mr. Mueller, described him on Thursday as 'somebody that is in love with James Comey.'... He also appeared to hedge on claiming that the Mueller report cleared him of obstruction of justice, telling reporters that the findings showed that there was 'no collusion and, essentially, no obstruction.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "The President ... went off on several tangents related to Trump Jr.'s involvement in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer. Trump worked in references to a favorite Republican target -- the dossier compiled by a former British intelligence officer -- as well as phone calls Don Jr. made to an unknown number while planning the infamous meeting." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It depends upon what the definition of "a good person" is, I guess. But Mueller definitely did not "totally exonerate" Junior. ...

... Burgess Everett & Marianne Levine of Politico: Sen. "Richard Burr [R-NC] faces intense pressure from Republicans to drop his subpoena of ... Donald Trump's eldest son and quickly wrap up the Senate Intelligence Committee's Russia probe. But despite a day facing attacks from the highest rungs of party leadership, Burr is unmoved, according to colleagues in both parties.... To many Republicans, the news of Trump Jr.'s subpoena presented a painful dilemma: Stand with a respected GOP chairman who has held together his committee for years during a contentious probe, or with a president who takes vengeance on fellow Republicans who cross him and his family."

Trump's 2020 Campaign Already Attempting to Conspire with a Foreign Power. Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, is encouraging Ukraine to wade further into sensitive political issues in the United States, seeking to push the incoming government in Kiev to press ahead with investigations that he hopes will benefit Mr. Trump. One is the origin of the special counsel's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. The other is the involvement of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. Mr. Giuliani's plans create the remarkable scene of a lawyer for the president of the United States pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that Mr. Trump's allies hope could help him in his re-election campaign. And it comes after Mr. Trump spent more than half of his term facing questions about whether his 2016 campaign conspired with a foreign power."

Trump Campaign + Foreign Power, Ctd. Jay Weaver, et al., of the Miami Herald: "The FBI has opened a public corruption investigation into Republican donor and South Florida massage-parlor entrepreneur Li 'Cindy' Yang, focusing on whether she illegally funneled money from China into the president's re-election effort or committed other potential campaign-finance violations, the Miami Herald has learned.... The investigation could raise complications for a president who, after the Mueller report was delivered to Congress last month, might have hoped to put an end to controversy over foreign influence potentially benefiting his campaign.... The reports about potential Chinese influence come as Trump is in the midst of intense trade negotiations with China over tariffs on imports."

** Lily Batchelder in a New York Times op-ed: "The latest bombshell Times story on the president's tax history confirms what we already suspected: Donald Trump is a terrible businessman.... The latest story also shows how we do a terrible job of adequately taxing the wealthy.... But perhaps most important, the story reinforces the need for a congressional investigation of the president's tax returns.... As the Times has documented, there is ample evidence that his father's estate -- of which he was the executor -- engaged in tax evasion and outright fraud, failing to pay about $500 million in estate taxes.... Other reports have documented numerous instances where Mr. Trump has taken sketchy or unlawful tax positions.... The latest revelations about the president's eye-popping tax losses provide fresh grounds for concern that he has violated tax laws.... There is ample reason to fear that conflicts of interest have infected his approach to tax policy. When campaigning, Mr. Trump promised to close tax loopholes based on his expert knowledge of them. But instead, the 2017 tax bill seemed designed to lower taxes on him and his family through special carve-outs.... Subsequent Treasury regulations have also been great news for real estate developers.... All of this raises the question of whether the president steered the 2017 tax bill and subsequent regulations in directions that personally benefited him and his family. Moreover, because Mr. Trump is the only president for at least 40 years not to liquidate his business assets or put them in a blind trust, concerns about his financial conflicts of interest are uniquely heightened." ...

... Frank Rich: "[T]his latest investigative report by the Times [about his $1 billion business losses] is anything less than conclusive and devastating in its exposure of the lies that have abetted Trump's self-portrait as a business genius. But how one wishes this and other exposés like it had appeared in 2016 or before.... The laxness of the Trump coverage [during the 2016 elections] -- not just by the Times but by most major news organizations -- helps account for the strange persistence of that mythology [of his being a bigly business genius] despite all the evidence to the contrary uncovered by the Times, the Post, and other outstanding organs of investigative journalism over the past few years." --s ...

... Charles Leerhsen, in Yahoo! News: "... from late 1988 to 1990, I was his ghostwriter, working on a book that would be called 'Surviving at the Top.'... There was a stretch of months when ... the banks seemed to accept the version of him depicted in his first book, 'The Art of the Deal,' which we now know from his previous ghostwriter, Tony Schwartz, was entirely invented.... Often they came up with things he could say yes to before he could think of them himself. As a result, a failing real estate developer who had little idea of what he was doing and less interest in doing it once he'd held the all-important press conference wound up owning three New Jersey hotel-casinos, the Plaza Hotel, the Eastern Airlines Shuttle and a 281-foot yacht.... But Trump's portfolio did not jibe with what I saw each day -- which to a surprisingly large extent was him looking at fabric swatches.... The main thing about fabric swatches was that they were within his comfort zone -- whereas, for example, the management of hotels and airlines clearly wasn't.... Trump's King Midas period ended in early 1990, when news broke about his looming bankruptcy." Thanks to Aunt Hattie for the lead.

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Federal prosecutors handling Roger Stone's case were ordered on Thursday to turn over to a judge any unredacted sections of special counsel Robert Mueller's report relating to the longtime GOP operative that could help prepare his defense for their upcoming trial. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson in a one-paragraph order gave the U.S. attorneys handling the Stone case until Monday to provide her with portions of Mueller's report that deal with Stone 'and/or "the dissemination of hacked materials"' that were leaked during the 2016 presidential campaign to the detriment of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton."

"Moral Turpitude." Keith Alexander & Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "The D.C. Court of Appeals on Thursday disbarred Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, because Manafort has been convicted of obstruction of justice and conspiracy.... The D.C. bar's decision came after the court's disciplinary committee issued a report in March that recommended Manafort be disbarred because of crimes 'involving moral turpitude.'"

Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "National advocacy groups on Thursday delivered to Congress multiple petitions of what they said contained 10 million signatures from people who support the impeachment of ... Donald Trump. They delivered the signatures to Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who has introduced a bill that would direct the House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Trump committed impeachable offenses -- an issue that has been heating up among congressional Democrats and presidential contenders. MoveOn spearheaded the effort that included groups such as Need to Impeach, CREDO and the organizers behind the annual Women's March."

Alan Rappeport & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Thursday that the United States would raise tariffs on $200 billion of worth of Chinese goods on Friday morning and begin the process to tax nearly all of China's imports as he accused Beijing of trying to renegotiate' a trade deal. But Mr. Trump, who made his comments ahead of a pivotal meeting between United States and Chinese officials on Thursday afternoon, suggested an agreement could still be within reach, saying he had received a 'beautiful letter' from Chinese President Xi Jinping and would probably speak to him by phone.... Mr. Trump's toughened stance toward China has rattled American businesses.... The tariffs that would go into effect on Friday include many consumer products that Americans rely on from Beijing, like seafood, luggage and electronics. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... ** The story has been updated. New Lede: "President Trump escalated his trade war with China on Friday morning, raising tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and taking steps to tax nearly all of China's imports as punishment for what he said was Beijing's attempt to 'renegotiate' a trade deal. Mr. Trump's decision to proceed with the tariff increase came after a pivotal round of trade talks in Washington on Thursday night failed to produce an agreement to forestall the higher levies. The White House said talks would resume again on Friday...." ...

... Matthew Phillips & Amy Tsang of the New York Times: "The resurgence of trade tensions between the United States and China, along with contradictory color commentary from President Trump, whipsawed stock markets again Thursday. The S&P 500 notched its fourth straight daily decline, though the benchmark index pared its worst losses after President Trump suggested a trade deal could still be within reach, adding that he had received a 'beautiful letter' from Chinese President Xi Jinping and may speak to Chinese leader on the phone. The comments helped the S&P 500 regain some ground, to close down 0.3 percent Thursday, after having fallen as much as 1.5 percent earlier in the day." ...

... Paul Krugman looks at the many ways Trump hurts his biggest supporters: rural Americans. His trade "policies" constitute one of them.

Eileen Sullivan & Benjamin Weisner of the New York Times: "The United States has seized a Nort Korean shipping vessel that was violating American law and international sanctions, the Justice Department announced Thursday, a move certain to escalate tensions already on the rise between the two nations because of recent North Korean weapons tests. Prosecutors said the carrier ship, the Wise Honest, was being used to export North Korean coal, a critical sector of the North's economy that the United States and the United Nations have aggressively imposed sanctions on in an effort to force Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons program." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tara Palmeri of ABC News: "Ahead of the second summit in Hanoi, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un requested as part of the agreement between the countries moving forward that the U.S. send 'famous basketball players' to normalize relations between the two countries, according to two U.S. officials.... The request was made in writing, officials said, as part of the cultural exchange between the two countries, and at one point the North Koreans insisted that it be included in the joint statement on denuclearization. The North Koreans also made a request for the exchange of orchestras between the two countries." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Slurs Kerry with False Charges. Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "... Donald Trump on Thursday accused former Secretary of State John Kerry of violating the Logan Act by taking part in negotiations with Iran's government.... Trump alleged that Kerry 'is talking to Iran and has been. He's had many meetings and phone calls and he's telling him what to do.'... Kerry promptly denied the President's accusation.... Since the act's creation [in 1799], correspondence and interaction between Americans -- lawmakers, former lawmakers, and citizens alike -- has become increasingly common. ​It's also common for former secretaries of states and diplomats to stay in touch with their counterparts around the world.... Last October, Kerry told reporters that he had not met with Iranians since the US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and had seen Iran's foreign minister at a few international security meetings.... A source close to the former secretary of state said Kerry hasn't talked with Iranian officials since President Trump announced the US was pulling out of the Iran deal last year. Prior to the withdrawal, the source said Kerry did communicate with the Iranians to urge them to stay in the deal. The source also denied that Kerry ever discouraged the Iranians from talking to Trump." Vazquez goes on to demonstrate how Michael Flynn potentially did violate the act by undermining Obama administration policies, although he was not charged. ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "'I'd like [Iran] to call me,' Trump said. 'You know, John F. Kerry speaks to them a lot. John F. Kerry tells them not to call. That's a violation of the Logan Act. And frankly, he should be prosecuted on that. But my people don't want to do anything that's -- only the Democrats do that kind of thing.' Trump trailed off when he started to talk about what his 'people' thought of the idea of prosecuting Kerry, making it sound as if he had broached the topic with somebody. That's important, because it suggests he may have floated the idea of prosecuting yet another of his political adversaries.... Just last week, Attorney General William P. Barr struggled with a question from Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) about whether Trump or the White House had requested any specific investigations.... [Trump's remark] 'brings the whole Michael Flynn situation rushing back -- and suggests Trump has pulled a 180 on the application and importance of the Logan Act.... At the time, Trump seemed largely unconcerned [that Flynn was negotiating with Russia during the transition. He] said: 'It certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if I thought he wasn't doing it.'"

Connor O'Brien, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump plans to nominate acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan to be the Pentagon's permanent chief, the White House announced Thursday, ending months of uncertainty following the abrupt resignation of Jim Mattis. The news came two weeks after the Pentagon's inspector general cleared Shanahan of allegations that he had shown preferential treatment toward Boeing, where he was an executive until 2017. But Shanahan's nomination did not come immediately -- or easily -- even after the probe ended. In fact, Shanahan traveled to the White House twice during the past two weeks thinking the president would nominate him, only to return to the Pentagon empty-handed, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. On one of those occasions, Trump instead reamed out Shanahan over the Pentagon's progress in building barriers on the Southern border. In the end, though, Shanahan developed a rapport with the president, who used to simply refer to him as 'the Boeing guy.'"

Lachlan Markay & Jackie Kucinich of The Daily Beast: "President Donald Trump on Wednesday weighed in [via Twitter] on an obscure piece of legislation granting rights to a Native American tribe seeking a casino in Massachusetts...while taking a jab at potential Democratic 2020 rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), whom he dubbed 'Pocahontas' and who has supported previous versions of the legislation.... His engagement on the casino legislation ... was a seemingly random aside.... But it may not have been random at all. At least two Trump-connected firms were hired this year to lobby on behalf of Twin River Management Group, which owns a casino in Rhode Island that would directly compete with one planned by the Mashpee Wampanoag.... One of those those firms is run by Trump adviser Matt Schlapp, who has, since January, been lobbying Congress and the White House." --s

Medlar's Sports Report. David Nakamura & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "It was an iconic baseball celebration: Boston Red Sox catcher Christian Vázquez leaping into the arms of pitcher Chris Sale after the final out of the World Series last fall, teammates in perfect unison. But on Thursday, the star players were far apart. Sale was at the White House, where the 2018 champions were honored by President Trump. Vázquez was home in Boston, one of at least 10 players, all Latino or African American, who elected not to attend.... What had once been feel-good ceremonies at the White House have become pitched moments of cultural reckoning. From famous sports heroes to lesser-known Olympians to the stars of the performing arts, the toxicity of the Trump era has led once apolitical entertainers to pick a side, and, in doing so, render a judgment on the president himself." ...

... Anyhow, Congrats to the Boston Red Socks, World Cup Series Champs. Andrew Joseph of USA Today: "Just hours after the official White House website listed its event between President Trump and the Boston Red Sox as the 'Red Socks,' the sports-challenged communications department made another blunder at Boston's expense. Apparently, the Red Sox had not only won the 2018 World Series but they were also the 2018 'World Cup Series Champions.' At least, that was how the official White House transcript referred to the World Series champs."

A painting of Jesus & young Dr. Carson, which Carson keeps in his home.They Really Don't Care, Do They? Ctd. Tracy Jan of the Washington Post: "The Department of Housing and Urban Development acknowledged that a Trump administration plan to purge undocumented immigrants from public housing could displace more than 55,000 children, all of whom are legal U.S. residents or citizens. The proposed rule, published Friday in the Federal Register, would tighten regulations against undocumented immigrants accessing federally subsidized housing to 'make certain our scarce public resources help those who are legally entitled to it,' HUD Secretary Ben Carson said last month. But the agency's analysis of the rule's regulatory impact concluded that half of current residents living in households potentially facing eviction and homelessness are children who are legally qualified for aid." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Carson would just admit he doesn't give a rat's ass about other people's children, I'd respect him more (but certainly not much) than I do when he spouts deceptive pap about "our scarce public resources" (why are they scarce, Ben?) & a Big Lie about "who are legally entitled to it." One thing Ben Carson has taught me: you don't have to be all that bright to be a world-famous brain surgeon. He's so Christian, isn't he? If that painting of Ben & Jesus is truly miraculous, it would be in the attic now, with Jesus hurling thunderbolts at a very-Dorian-Gray Carson.

Amanda Gomez of ThinkProgress: "The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill that would block the Trump administration from granting states the leeway to skirt Obamacare rules -- a measure designed to ensure that patients with pre-existing conditions continue to receive affordable robust coverage -- in a 236 to 183 vote.... 183 Republicans voted against it -- including members [Andy Barr (KY), Ted Budd (NC), and Scott Perry(PA)] who vowed in 2018 that they would protect people with pre-existing conditions." --s

** Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Despite several campaign promises to change the way Congress legislates and get things done, the U.S. Senate, under the leadership of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), has not had a recorded vote on a bill in more than a month.... A ThinkProgress review of the Senate's roll call votes reveals that, since an April 1 cloture vote on an appropriations bill, the chamber has devoted virtually all of its roll call votes to confirmation of Trump appointees.... On April 2 and 3, McConnell rammed through a rule change -- ... a procedural maneuver he previously decried ... -- to reduce the time allowed for debate before confirmation votes. Since then, the body has confirmed 11 lifetime judgeships and 11 executive branch nominees.... Senate Democrats have noticed that the place McConnell once called 'the greatest deliberative body in the world' has stopped deliberating about appropriations, immigration, health care, gun violence, infrastructure, entitlements, and everything else." --s

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd.

Crooks Like Trump. Ben Scheckinger in Politico Magazine: Last month, [John] Lambert, co-founder of Students for Trump, was arrested "on charges of wire fraud. According to the federal government, at the same time he was building a nationwide political network and serving as one of the most visible young faces of Trump's populist movement, Lambert was also posing online as a high-powered New York lawyer, eventually making off with tens of thousands of dollars in fees he stole from unwitting clients seeking legal services. Lambert's rise to prominence and recent indictment offer a cautionary tale of an ambitious young man caught up in Trump's allure -- a get-rich-quick fantasy of the American dream -- who allegedly managed to create his own reality on the internet, only to have the real world come barging in. It also shines a spotlight on the chaos and confusion of Trump's ramshackle 2016 campaign, and the cast of characters who sought fame and fortune by riding in his slipstream. Trump ran as a 'law and order' candidate. But time and again, the mogul has drawn outlaws and alleged outlaws into his fold.... Despite Lambert's personal problems, and the campaign's disavowal, the group he launched continues to enjoy the president's seal of approval."

Ben Popken of NBC News:"A co-founder of Facebook called for the government to break up the tech giant in an op-ed article Thursday in The New York Times. 'The Facebook that exists today is not the Facebook that we founded in 2004,' Chris Hughes, who started Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg in their Harvard dorm, told NBC News after the op-ed was published. 'And the one that we have today I think is far too big. It's far too powerful. And most importantly, its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is not accountable,' Hughes said of his former business partner.... In response to the op-ed article, Nick Clegg, the company's vice president of global affairs..., [said,] 'Accountability of tech companies can only be achieved through the painstaking introduction of new rules for the internet. That is exactly what Mark Zuckerberg has called for. Indeed, he is meeting Government leaders this week to further that work.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Facebook Creates Extremist Content. Desmond Butler & Barbara Ortutay of the AP: "... a confidential whistleblower's complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained by The Associated Press alleges [that Facebook] ... is inadvertently making use of propaganda by militant groups to auto-generate videos and pages thatcould be used for networking by extremists.... The AP found that as of this month, much [supposedly] banned content ... -- an execution video, images of severed heads, propaganda honoring martyred militants — slipped through the algorithmic web and remained easy to find on Facebook.... Facebook also faces a challenge with U.S. hate groups. In March, the company announced that it was expanding its prohibited content to also include white nationalist and white separatist content -- previously it only took action with white supremacist content. It says that it has banned more than 200 white supremacist groups. But it's still easy to find symbols of supremacy and racial hatred."

TurboTax Stiffs Taxpayers It Cheated. Justin Elliott & Meg Marco of ProPublica: "The makers of TurboTax have long been luring customers into paying for a service that they promised the government they'd give away for free. Now they're lying to customers to avoid giving refunds. We've heard from 16 people who say they were denied refunds and told that the truly free version -- Free File -- is a government product that's not run by TurboTax. Ten others reported being told that ProPublica's stories were inaccurate, or that our coverage is 'fake news' or 'fictitious.' None of that is true.... Several people gave us recordings of their calls.... TurboTax's Free File product is created and run by the company. It is offered as part of a deal between the tax software industry and the government. The deal is specifically designed to keep the IRS from creating its own free online filing system." Includes audio.

Josh Kovensky of TPM: "... beneath the surface, [the NRA] is in turmoil. New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into alleged financial mismanagement at the NRA, while the group is embroiled in a messy lawsuit with its longtime image-maker, Ackerman McQueen ... as part of an apparent internal investigation into whether the firm has been siphoning money out of the gun lobby, allegations that Ackerman denies. Then there's Carry Guard. The program -- which offers combat training and liability insurance for shootings carried out in 'self-defense' -- was founded in 2017 to keep money flowing into the NRA's dwindling coffers after President Trump's surprise election.... Multiple states have banned the program and are investigating whether the NRA violated state law regarding the marketing and sale of insurance.... The [NRA] group adds without the [Carry Guard insurance] coverage, it would be unable 'to continue its existence as a not-for-profit organization and fulfill its advocacy objectives.'" --s

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "The Alabama Senate on Thursday postponed debate on a proposal to outlaw most abortions in the state, delaying a measure that is intended to serve as a direct challenge to the Supreme Court's holding that a woman has a constitutional right to end a pregnancy. Faced with a procedural dispute and open divisions among Republicans over how far the abortion ban should go, the Senate abruptly adjourned until Tuesday. As the chaos played out on the Senate floor, where lawmakers clashed over whether the state should allow abortions in cases of rape or incest, supporters and critics alike acknowledged that the bill, the most far-reachin effort in the nation this year to curb abortion, was still likely to become law.... On Thursday, in a maneuver that set off a chorus of shouts and screams in the Senate, some Republicans sought to abandon a provision -- backed by other Republicans -- that would have allowed exceptions to the abortion ban in cases of rape or incest.... The House has already passed the measure without those exceptions....