The Commentariat -- November 11, 2017

Afternoon Update:

The Washington Post story by Ashley Parker & David Nakamura, also linked below, has been updated several times. Here are a few additions: "On Saturday, Trump described former FBI director James Comey, who testified to Congress that Trump asked him to drop an investigation into his campaign's ties to Russian officials, as a proven 'liar' and 'leaker.' Trump called the former U.S. intelligence officials who concluded the Russians tampered -- including former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and former CIA director John Brennan -- 'political hacks.'... Of Putin, he added: 'He says that very strongly, he really seems to be insulted by it, and he says he didn't do it. He is very, very strong in the fact that he didn't do it. You have President Putin very strongly, vehemently, says he has nothing to do with that....'... Trump did not answer when asked during the flight to Hanoi whether he believed Putin's denial of the tampering.... Yet a Kremlin spokesman denied that the two leaders discussed election meddling, according to CNN." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump said that Putin spoke so strongly -- "He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did" -- and that our own intelligence agencies were run by liars and hacks. This implies, IMO, that the head of government of an adversarial nation is more believable & trustworthy than is U.S. intelligence. Whatever your political leanings, this is an alarming, anti-American statement. And it's coming from the President of the United States. ...

... Amber Phillips of the Washington Post has Trump's full remarks aboard AF1 to the press, annotated, here. Here's another comment Trump made about Putin: "And there are those that say, if he did do it, he wouldn't have gotten caught, all right? Which is a very interesting statement." ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump has issued two starkly contradictory calls on his trip to Asia this past week: The nations of the world must rally behind the United States to confront the nuclear threat from North Korea, but they should expect America to go its own way on trade. Reconciling those messages will be hard.... The contradictions also reflect a more fundamental disarray in the presidency's policy toward Asia. It seems caught between the geopolitical realism of Mr. Trump's diplomats and the economic nationalism of his political aides. These competing impulses have left allies and adversaries alike confused about America's motives and staying power. Over time, several experts said, the balancing act will be impossible to maintain."

Mark Hosenball & John Walcott of Reuters: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has questioned Sam Clovis, co-chairman of ... Donald Trump's election campaign, to determine if Trump or top aides knew of the extent of the campaign team's contacts with Russia, two sources familiar with the investigation said on Friday.... 'The ultimate question Mueller is after is whether candidate Trump and then President-elect Trump knew of the discussions going on with Russia, and who approved or even directed them,' said one source. 'That is still just a question.'" ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... it certainly appears that Cambridge Analytica was heavily involved with trying to get Clinton's stolen emails, and was aware that Russia had engineered their theft, and played an important role facilitating cooperation between Russia and the Trump campaign." Chait connects the known dots. There are quite a few of them. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... in [Mike] Flynn's case, if the allegations [about his $15MM deal with Turkey] are proved to be true, the scandal would ... resemble ... Teapot Dome (the 1920's scandal that took down former Interior Secretary Albert Fall for selling public oil leases), but with a dash of treason. That a presidential National Security Advisor would sell his influence to a foreign government so quickly and cheaply is a very big deal, which we need to linger over before returning to the rest of the issues Mueller is investigating."

Katie Mettler of the Washington Post: "... the version of Veterans Day we know now wasn't always so. It wasn't always a holiday, it wasn't always on Nov. 11 and, at first, it wasn't even called Veterans Day. The original intent, established in the wake of World War I, was to celebrate world peace. Then the wars never ended, so Veterans Day changed." ...

... Sudarsan Raghavan of the Washington Post: "The body of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four U.S. soldiers killed in an ambush by Islamist militants in Niger last month, was found with his arms tied and a gaping wound at the back of his head, according to two villagers, suggesting that he may have been captured and then executed. Adamou Boubacar, a 23-year-old farmer and trader, said some children tending cattle found the remains of the soldier Oct. 6, two days after the attack outside the remote Niger village of Tongo Tongo, which also left five Nigerien soldiers dead. The children notified him."

Ashley Parker & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin again denied his nation tampered in the U.S. presidential election last year, during brief conversations on the sidelines of an international summit. Trump told reporters that he and Putin had more than one informal discussion after crossing paths at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Danang, Vietnam, before Trump flew to Hanoi for a bilateral meeting Sunday with Vietnamese leaders. The conversations mostly centered on the war in Syria, Trump said, but he added that he pressed Putin on Moscow's role in attempting to tamper in the elections. 'He said he didn't meddle,' Trump said. 'I asked him again. You can only ask so many times.... He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did.'" Mrs. McC: Okay then, that's settled. When two autocrats agree that something didn't happen, then it didn't happen, no matter what "they are saying." Or what a mountain of evidence reveals. ...

     ... Read on. The story has been expanded since first published. Trump says "people will die" because Putin is so put out by the Russia investigations....

...Poor Vlady! BBC: "President Vladimir Putin felt insulted by allegations of Russian interference in the US election, Donald Trump has said after meeting him briefly at an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam.... Mr Putin later dismissed the allegations as 'political infighting'.... The US intelligence community has already concluded that Russia tried to sway the poll in favour of Mr Trump." --safari ...

... Guardian: "Vladimir Putin and Donald Trumphave said they see no military solution to the conflict in Syria and a political resolution was needed, according to a joint statement issued by Russia on Saturday.... 'We spoke intermittently during that roundtable. We seem to have a very good feeling for each other and a good relationship considering we don't know each other well,' Trump said, adding that he and Putin had two or three very short conversations." --safari ...

...Suspicious. Alec Luhn of the Telegraph: "The US embassy in Moscow is to be guarded by a company owned by a former head of KGB counter-intelligence who worked with British double agent Kim Philby and young Vladimir Putin, after cuts to US staff demanded by Russia. Elite Security, a private company ... was founded in 1997 by Viktor Budanov and his son Dmitry.... A 2002 article posted on the site of Russia's foreign intelligence service identified Mr Budanov as a major general in the agency who became a Soviet spy in 1966 and retired a year after the collapse of the USSR. His long work in Soviet and Russian intelligence could raise questions about whether the guard services contract poses a security or intelligence risk to the US mission.... Before his work in foreign intelligence Mr Budanov was the director of the KGB's counter-intelligence division, he has told Russian media." --safari

Ashley Parker: "President Trump delivered a fiery speech on trade [in Da Nang, Vietnam] Friday, declaring that he would not allow the United States to be 'taken advantage of anymore' and planned to place 'America first.' And then, less than 24 hours later, 11 Pacific Rim countries collectively shrugged and moved on without the U.S. On Saturday, the countries announced they had reached a deal to move ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact that Trump threw into question when he withdrew from it earlier this year. The agreement represents something of a rebuke of Trump, coming near the end of his five-country, 12-day swing through Asia, and reflects the willingness of other nations to proceed without the buy-in of the United States.... The decision to move ahead with the TPP agreement, minus the United States, reflects how Trump's decision to withdraw from the deal created a vacuum other nations are now moving to fill, with or without the president." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yes, but remember, Trump really showed President Obama.

How Cruel Is the Trump Administration? Liz Robbins of the New York Times: "Dozens of young immigrants mailed [DACA] renewal forms weeks before they were due. But their paperwork was delayed in the mail and [their applications were] denied for being late.... On Thursday, in a rare admission from a federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service took the blame..... But the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency said nothing more could be done; the decisions were final. Because DACA is an executive order, signed by President Barack Obama in 2012, and not a statute, applicants cannot appeal the decision.... Still, immigrants and their advocates viewed the agency's unwillingness to revisit their applications as harsh and unfair.... On Sept. 5..., Jeff Sessions announced after months of speculation that the Trump administration was canceling the program. Recipients were allowed to keep their permits until they expired at the end of the current two-year term. The administration also offered a brief renewal window for recipients whose permits were expiring before March 5, which set off a scramble across the country from legal service providers to assist applicants." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wherein Bob Mueller Moves from the Trump Campaign into the White House & Congress:

Sharon LaFraniere, et al., of the New York Times: Robert "Mueller's investigators are seeking to determine who -- if anyone -- in the Trump campaign [George] Papadopoulos told about the stolen [Clinton campaign] emails. Although there is no evidence that Mr. Papadopoulos emailed that information to the campaign, Mr. Papadopoulos was in regular contact that spring with top campaign officials, including Stephen Miller, now a senior adviser to President Trump.... The day before he learned about the hacked emails, Mr. Papadopoulos emailed Mr. Miller, then a senior policy adviser to the campaign, saying Mr. Trump had an 'open invitation' from Mr. Putin to visit Russia. The day after, he wrote Mr. Miller that he had 'some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right.' Those emails were described in court papers unsealed Oct. 30.... But the documents did not identify Mr. Miller by name, citing only a 'senior policy adviser.' During interviews with Mr. Mueller's investigators, former campaign officials now working at the White House have denied having advance knowledge of the stolen emails, according to an official familiar with those discussions. Mr. Miller was among those recently interviewed."...

     ... Josh Marshall: "Miller's hands are all over the Comey firing. Now that we know he was in the loop for the Russia contacts, we know that in seeking to fire Comey he was at least in part seeking to kill an investigation into himself.... Miller came to Trump via Jeff Sessions.... We still don't have a terribly good explanation of how Jeff Sessions ... ended up having as multiple private conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak over the course of 2016, including one private meeting in Sessions' senate office in September. Miller seems like at least one likely conduit. At a minimum, Miller getting updated on Papadopoulos' adventures makes it much less credible that Sessions knew nothing about the channels opening up between the campaign and Russia." ...

... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The chief executive of Cambridge Analytica has confirmed that the UK data research firm contacted Julian Assange to ask WikiLeaks to share hacked emails related to Hillary Clinton at about the time it started working for the Trump campaign in summer 2016. Speaking at a digital conference in Lisbon, Alexander Nix said he had read a newspaper report about WikiLeaks' threat to publish a trove of hacked Democratic party emails, and said he asked his aides to approach Assange in early June 2016 to ask 'if he might share that information with us', according to remarks published by the Wall Street Journal. Assange, WikiLeaks's founder, has already acknowledged the approach by Cambridge Analytica and said WikiLeaks rejected the request. In Lisbon, Nix reportedly agreed that the overture had been rebuffed.... Robert Mercer, a Trump mega-donor, and his daughter, Rebekah, are major investors in Cambridge Analytica and Steve Bannon was a vice-president of the company before joining the Trump campaign...." ...

... Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Investigators for Special Counsel Robert Mueller are questioning witnesses about an alleged September 2016 meeting between Mike Flynn, who later briefly served as ... Donald Trump's national security adviser, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a staunch advocate of policies that would help Russia, two sources with knowledge of the investigation told NBC News. The meeting allegedly took place in Washington the evening of Sept. 20, while Flynn was working as an adviser to Trump's presidential campaign. It was arranged by his lobbying firm, the Flynn Intel Group. Also in attendance were Flynn's business partners, Bijan Kian and Brian McCauley, and Flynn's son, Michael G. Flynn, who worked closely with his father, the sources said. ...

... Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Mike Flynn and his son's alleged plot to kidnap a Muslim cleric living in the U.S. and hand him over to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars. The former national security adviser to ... Donald Trump and his son, Mike Flynn Jr., would have been paid up to $15 million for delivering Fethullah Gulen to the Turkish government, according to sources familiar with the investigation who spoke to the Wall Street Journal." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: So congratulations, folks! You are residents of a country in which the top national security advisor to the president is being investigated for kidnapping & rendition to a harsh foreign government. Unless, that is, your DACA renewal app was lost in the mail. In which case, you can't be a resident any more. ...

... Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, attended a breakfast meeting in January that Michael Flynn, then the incoming national security adviser, and Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, also attended.... Nunes' attendance at the event is newly relevant amid revelations that ... Robert Mueller is investigating a meeting that another congressman, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, took with Flynn in September 2016. Flynn had begun lobbying on behalf of Turkish government interests one month earlier. That lobbying work continued into the presidential transition and through December, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Friday. Mueller is scrutinizing an alleged plot involving Flynn to return an exiled Turkish cleric to the country, the report said.... On January 10, Flynn reportedly met with the national security adviser at the time, Susan Rice, and asked her to hold off on implementing an anti-ISIS plan that involved arming the Syrian Kurds. The Turkish government vehemently opposes any plan that would empower the Kurds...."

Noor Al-Sibai of the Raw Story: "In February..., Jared Kushner told an executive at CNN's parent company Time Warner that they should fire 20 percent of the cable news agency's staff. According to the Wall Street Journal, Kushner told Gary Ginsburg, Time Warner's executive vice president of corporate marketing and a former lawyer for the Clinton White House that 'CNN should fire [20] percent of its staff because they were so wrong in their analysis of the election and how it would turn out, people familiar with the matter say.' The White House now claims Kushner made the comments in jest -- but at 'Time Warner, it wasn't taken lightly.' The revelation of those comments came days after reports that the Department of Justice was pressuring Time Warner to sell CNN before approving the telecom giant's merger with AT&T."

Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "On pesticides, chemical solvents and air pollutants, [EPA Administrator Scott] Pruitt and his deputies are using industry figures to challenge past findings and recommendations of the agency's own scientists.... During his confirmation hearing before Congress in January, Pruitt testified at length about the need for credible science to guide the EPA's decision-making. 'If confirmed, it will be my privilege to work with EPA scientists,' he wrote in response to questions from Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Independent peer review 'is critical to ensuring the integrity of scientific research,' and 'sound, objective science must serve as 'the backbone' of EPA actions.' Detractors say his actions tell a different story." Mrs. McC: Obviously, "detractors" are right. ...

... Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "William Wehrum, an industry lawyer and lobbyist, has represented companies who regularly filed legal challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency's clean air regulations. Nonetheless, President Donald Trump nominated him to head the office at the EPA responsible for ensuring Americans have clean air. Senate Republicans agreed with the Trump administration that Wehrum was the right person for the job. On a party-line vote of 49 to 47, the Senate approved Wehrum on Thursday to lead the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation.... Wehrum 'has an astounding number of conflicts of interest given that he has regularly represented industry in their efforts to undermine clean air standards,' the Sierra Club said in response to his nomination ... Wehrum has spent his career ... working to roll back the EPA's clean air protections." --safari

Devin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The FBI's background-check system is missing millions of records of criminal convictions, mental illness diagnoses and other flags that would keep guns out of potentially dangerous hands, a gap that contributed to the shooting deaths of 26 people in a Texas church this week. Experts who study the data say government agencies responsible for maintaining such records have long failed to forward them into federal databases used for gun background checks -- systemic breakdowns that have lingered for decades as officials decided they were too costly and time-consuming to fix."

Jim Tankersley & Bel Casselman of the New York Times: "Mitch McConnell ... acknowledged on Friday that the Republican tax plan might result in a tax hike for some working Americans, saying he 'misspoke' days earlier when he said that 'nobody in the middle class is going to get a tax increase' under the Senate bill.... The Senate bill unveiled on Thursday would raise taxes on millions of middle-class families, according to a preliminary New York Times analysis. The plan would also disproportionately benefit high earners and corporations. Still, middle-class earners would fare better under the Senate proposal than its counterpart in the House, the analysis found.... The Times analysis, using the open-source software TaxBrain, found that roughly one-quarter of families in the middle class would see their taxes increase in 2018, by about $1,000 on average. By 2026, the share seeing an increase would rise slightly, to about one-third, and the average increase would rise to about $1,600."...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "Typically, the majority party in Congress will take pains to shield their most vulnerable members from difficult votes.... But the Trump-era GOP has done the opposite.... Now, with their tax bill, Republicans have found a way to hammer their at-risk House members even harder. Twenty-three House Republicans represent districts that went for Clinton. The bulk of these are heavily upper-middle-class suburbs in high-income states.... Republicans are constantly saying that they need to pass their tax plan in order to retain control of Congress next year. But when one looks at what their plan would actually do, it's hard not to reach the opposite conclusion." --safari

David Savage of the Los Angeles Times: "Brett J. Talley, President Trump's nominee to be a federal judge in Alabama, has never tried a case, was unanimously rated 'not qualified' by the American Bar Assn.'s judicial rating committee, has practiced law for only three years and, as a blogger last year, displayed a degree of partisanship unusual for a judicial nominee, denouncing 'Hillary Rotten Clinton' and pledging support for the National Rifle Assn. On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee, on a party-line vote, approved him for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. Talley, 36, is part of what Trump has called the 'untold story' of his success in filling the courts with young conservatives.... Civil rights groups and liberal advocates ... denounced Thursday's vote, calling it 'laughable' that none of the committee Republicans objected to confirming a lawyer with as little experience as Talley to preside over federal trials." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Always look on the bright side. I see this as a great opportunity for young Reality Chex readers. Take some community college class on business law or whatever, say something bad about Clinton or Obama & get a prestigious lifetime job. (I think you have to buy the robe, but then you can get away with wearing cheap outfits under it.) BTW, if the plan doesn't work out, try for Chief Justice of the Alabama State Supreme Court. They'll take anybody. ...

Senate Race

Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans scrambled on Friday to find a way to block Roy S. Moore's path to the Senate, exploring extraordinary measures to rid themselves of their own nominee in Alabama after accusations emerged that he had made sexual advances on four teenage girls when he was in his 30s.... Republican senators and their advisers, in a flurry of phone calls, emails and text messages, discussed fielding a write-in candidate, pushing Alabama's governor to delay the Dec. 12 special election or even not seating Mr. Moore at all should he be elected. In an interview, Senator Mitch McConnell ... declined to say whether he would agree to seat Mr. Moore should he win.... The Senate Republican campaign arm, which Mr. McConnell effectively oversees, withdrew Friday from a joint fund-raising agreement with Mr. Moore's campaign. And Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Steve Daines of Montana rescinded their endorsements of the candidate."

Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has requested to be removed from Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore's fundraising pitches after a Thursday investigative report from the Washington Post detailed accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct between a 32-year-old Moore and a minor.... The fundraising pitch attempted to discredit the allegations and included pictures of Lee, as well as Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.)." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's funny, because back when Lee already knew all the stuff that Alex Shephard mentions in the post linked below, Lee wrote, "Judge Moore's tested reputation of integrity is exactly what we need in Washington, D.C., in order to pass conservative legislation and protect the liberty of all Americans." So, um, kicking Muslims out of Congress would be "conservative legislation"; dating girls half your age is creepy? Making homosexuality illegal is "protecting the liberty of all Americans," but molesting a 14-year-old is over the line? Why don't you tell us where your line is, Mike? ...

     ... Update: Late yesterday, Lee unendorsed Moore. ...

... Gail Collins: "... as a politician [Mitt] Romney would pander to a guppy. But this week he was a veritable profile in courage by Republican standards. He told his party to drop the 'if true' hedge when they were talking about charges that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore once sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl. 'Innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections,' Romney said. 'I believe Leigh Corfman. Her account is too serious to ignore. Moore is unfit for office and should step aside.' Simple and straightforward. Election to high office is an honor, not a right.... (John McCain was one of the first to demand that Moore drop out; Jeff Flake was telling the world what a terrible person Moore was even before the sex accusations came up.)" ...

... Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "...Roy Moore (R) pushed back on reports that he pursued sexual relationships with teenagers in a Friday interview on Sean Hannity's radio show, telling the host that he did 'not generally' date women in their teens.... 'I don't know [Leigh] Corfman from anybody,' Moore told Hannity. 'I've never talked to her, never had any contact with her. Allegations of sexual misconduct with her are completely false. I believe they're politically motivated....' He acknowledged knowing and being friendly with the parents of two of the other accusers, Debbie Wesson Gibson and Gloria Thacker Deason. Moore used the phrase 'good girl' to describe both women, who said that he kissed them and took them on dates when they were in their late teens and he was in his early 30s. Moore denied any sort of misconduct and said he didn't 'remember dating any girl without the permission of her mother.'" ...

... Allan Smith of Business Insider: "Moore began the interview by saying the allegations were 'completely false and misleading.' But he seemed to waver throughout the interview.... Moore ... said [dating teenagers] 'would be out of my customary behavior' and that he 'never' would have dated a teen without her mother's permission." Mrs. McC: In case you didn't notice, Moore is admitting here that he did date teenaged girls, but he claims that then 14-year-old Leigh Corfman was not one of them. Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out last night that at one point in the interview, Moore uses two of the girls cited in the WashPo story as character witnesses -- he noted that they both said he did not go beyond kissing them. ...

... Michael Scherer & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "When asked about [Gloria Thacker] Deason's claim that he provided her wine on dates when she was 18, Moore said: 'In this county, it's a dry county. We never would have had liquor.' Alcohol sales began in Etowah County in 1972, years before the alleged encounter, and The Post confirmed that wine was for sale at the time at the pizzeria where Deason remembered Moore taking her when she was under the legal drinking age of 19.... After a Friday event with military veterans, Gov. Kay Ivey (R) told reporters that 'the people of Alabama deserve to know the truth,' but she didn't hint at any particular actions she could take. One reporter followed up, asking if the word of the women could be trusted. 'Why wouldn't it be?' she asked." ...

...Ed Kilgore: "Moore is clearly digging in, and only time will tell if he's digging his own political grave. At this point it's mostly a question of whether you believe Leigh Corfman made the whole thing up, or that Moore is hiding something. He's clearly hoping Alabama voters trust him enough to believe he may be a fanatic and a hate-monger but not a sexual predator. But his evasiveness and the creepy habits he's not denying very convincingly make him vulnerable, particularly with so many national Republicans giving him a wide berth." --safari." --safari ...

... Luckily, Some Alabama Lawmakers Are Sensitive & Sensible. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Republican Alabama State Representative Ed Henry said on Friday that he wanted someone to bring charges against the women who accused GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore of making sexual advances on them when they were teenagers.... 'If they believe this man is predatory, they are guilty of allowing him to exist for 40 years,' Henry fumed. 'I think someone should prosecute and go after them. You can't be a victim 40 years later, in my opinion.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe we should mention here that Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress, under pressure from Democrats -- including Nancy Pelosi & Barack Obama -- and he is now in jail, serving time for doing virtually what Roy Moore (allegedly) did person-to-person. ...

... Here's a lesson from Steve M. that we all know by heart: "Don't believe Republicans when they sound reasonable. They inevitably defer to those on their side who aren't. That's how we got our president." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times: "The comedian Louis C.K. admitted on Friday that he had engaged in sexual misconduct with several women. His acknowledgment came as a film distributor canceled the release of his forthcoming comedy and as media companies cut ties with him in response to a New York Times report in which the women detailed his behavior toward them. In a statement on Friday, Louis C.K. said, 'I want to address the stories told to The New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not.... These stories are true.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Even tho Louis waited till after his career started to tank, at least he has more guts than Trump, Weinstein, Ailes, O'Reilly, Spacey, Moore, et al., who variously lied, "forgot," threatened, intimidated, hushed up, paid off, demeaned or implicitly blamed the gay for sexually abusing women & young men. The POTUS doesn't have the decency of a crude comedian.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Sebastian Rotella of ProPublica in the Atlantic: "At a time when Russian intelligence and criminal activities have become an urgent concern in the United States and Europe, the Spanish investigations of [Gennady] Petrov and other Russians offer a remarkable view of the way that some of the most powerful mafia bosses have operated, both in Russia and abroad.... But the blurring lines between state and criminal activities have taken on new significance as Russia has worked more aggressively to undermine its adversaries in Europe and the United States.... Interviews with more than 20 Western law-enforcement and intelligence officials -- including Spanish investigators who spoke publicly and in detail about the Russian cases for the first time -- as well as a review of thousands of pages of court files and investigative documents, show the interplay of gangsters, spies, magnates, and politicians in Russian power networks at home and abroad. The mafias' ties to the Russian government, and particularly to the security services, have led Spanish officials to fear for their national security as well as law and order." A long read. --safari

Peter Beaumont of the Guardian: "Israel[s political and military leadership appears to have concluded that a conflict with Lebanon's Hezbollah is becoming increasingly likely, despite months of growing warnings that a third Lebanese war would be more dangerous and deadly than the last war in 2006.... Amid threats by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that Israel would intervene rather than allow Iran or Iranian-backed groups to establish themselves on Israel's border, the sense of growing risk of conflict has been given added impetus in the recent convergence of Israeli, Saudi Arabian and US rhetoric against Iran." --safari

The Commentariat -- November 10, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Mike Flynn and his sons alleged plot to kidnap a Muslim cleric living in the U.S. and hand him over to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars. The former national security adviser to ... Donald Trump and his son, Mike Flynn Jr., would have been paid up to $15 million for delivering Fethullah Gulen to the Turkish government, according to sources familiar with the investigation who spoke to the Wall Street Journal." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: So congratulations, folks! You are residents of a country in which the top national security advisor to the president is being investigated for kidnapping & rendition to a harsh foreign government. Unless, that is, your DACA renewal app was lost in the mail. In which case, you'll have to leave. ...

... How Cruel Is the Trump Administration? Liz Robbins of the New York Times: "Dozens of young immigrants mailed [DACA] renewal forms weeks before they were due. But their paperwork was delayed in the mail and [their applications were] denied for being late.... On Thursday, in a rare admission from a federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service took the blame..... But the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency said nothing more could be done; the decisions were final. Because DACA is an executive order, signed by President Barack Obama in 2012, and not a statute, applicants cannot appeal the decision.... Still, immigrants and their advocates viewed the agency's unwillingness to revisit their applications as harsh and unfair.... On Sept. 5, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced after months of speculation that the Trump administration was canceling the program. Recipients were allowed to keep their permits until they expired at the end of the current two-year term. The administration also offered a brief renewal window for recipients whose permits were expiring before March 5, which set off a scramble across the country from legal service providers to assist applicants."

Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has requested to be removed from Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore's fundraising pitches after a Thursday investigative report from the Washington Post detailed accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct between a 32-year-old Moore and a minor.... The fundraising pitch attempted to discredit the allegations and included pictures of Lee, as well as Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.)." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's funny, because back when Lee already knew all the stuff that Alex Shephard mentions in the post linked below, Lee wrote, "Judge Moore's tested reputation of integrity is exactly what we need in Washington, D.C., in order to pass conservative legislation and protect the liberty of all Americans." So, um, kicking Muslims out of Congress would be "conservative legislation"; dating girls half your age is creepy? Making homosexuality illegal is "protecting the liberty of all Americans," but molesting a 14-year-old is over the line?  Why don't you tell us where your line is, Mike? ...

... Here's a lesson from Steve M. that we all know by heart: "Don't believe Republicans when they sound reasonable. They inevitably defer to those on their side who aren't. That's how we got our president." ...

... Luckily, Some Alabama Lawmakers Are Sensitive & Sensible. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Republican Alabama State Representative Ed Henry said on Friday that he wanted someone to bring charges against the women who accused GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore of making sexual advances on them when they were teenagers.... 'If they believe this man is predatory, they are guilty of allowing him to exist for 40 years,' Henry fumed. 'I think someone should prosecute and go after them. You can't be a victim 40 years later, in my opinion.'" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe we should mention here that Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress, under pressure from Democrats -- including Nancy Pelosi & Barack Obama -- and he is now in jail, serving time for doing virtually what Roy Moore (allegedly) did person-to-person.

*****

Andrew Restuccia & Michael Tatarski of Politico: "... Donald Trump Friday delivered a broadside against unfair trade practices, warning of a coming crackdown from the United States on 'violations, cheating or economic aggression.' But in a bid to avoid souring his blossoming relationship with China and other nations in the region, he stopped short of placing the blame for everything from product dumping to currency manipulation and predatory industrial policies on other countries. 'The current trade imbalance is not acceptable. I do not blame China or any other country -- of which there are many -- for taking advantage of the United States on trade,' Trump said during a speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit [in Da Nang, Vietnam]. I wish previous administrations in my country saw what was happening and did something about it. They did not, but I will.'... During his speech, Trump roundly rejected multilateral trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which he withdrew from on his third day in office."

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: All hat, no cattle. So far, all Trump has "done" is to undo Obama's work on trade negotiations with Asia-Pacific countries. While many groups found fault with the TPP, when what Trump does is less than nothing, I doubt many of his listeners were all skeert they'd lose any economic advantages over the U.S. Trump isn't a do-nothing president*. He's an undo-everything president*. ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "On his way to Asia last weekend, President Trump told reporters that he planned to meet with his favorite autocrat, Vladimir Putin, specifically to seek out the Russian's help with North Korea. The tête-à-tête was meant to take place in Vietnam, where both leaders donned peculiar shirts on Friday to attend the annual APEC trade summit. But White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that no formal meeting had been planned between the two, citing 'scheduling conflicts.'... Sanders left open the possibility that the two would 'bump into each other and say hello,' which, judging by past experience, may be code for 'have a long, private conversation that isn't disclosed until days later.'"

** Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "The same political research firm that prepared a dossier on Trump campaign ties to Russia had unrelated information on Clinton Foundation donors that a Russian lawyer obtained and offered to ... Donald Trump's eldest son last year, three sources familiar with the matter said.... The sources told Reuters that the negative information that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya wanted to give to Republican Trump's campaign at a June 2016 meeting in New York had been dug up by Fusion GPS in an unrelated investigation.... Glenn Simpson, one of Fusion GPS' founders, met with Veselnitskaya about that litigation before and after her meeting with Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort, according to a source familiar with the matter. However, a source familiar with 10 hours of testimony Simpson gave the Senate Judiciary committee in August said he told investigators he did not know of Veselnitskaya's Trump Tower meeting until reports of it appeared in the media." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Hilarious. As Trump whines about how horrible it was for Clinton to pay a British intelligence operative for digging up dirt on him, his son was eagerly encouraging Russian nationals to give the Trump campaign dirt on Clinton prepared by the same firm -- but financed by a hostile foreign interest (thus illegal under U.S. Law). And then Junior hinted at a quid pro quo for the hostile nation in return for the Clinton dirt. You always know that when Trump accuses an opponent of something, he has done the same thing -- and then some. This story, so far, is getting no traction in the popular press. But it should. ...

... Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller has been interviewed as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The interview brings the special counsel investigation into ... Donald Trump's inner circle in the White House. Miller is the highest-level aide still working at the White House known to have talked to investigators. Miller's role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey was among the topics discussed during the interview as part of the probe into possible obstruction of justice, according to one of the sources." ...

... Ken Dilanian & Jonathan Allen of NBC News: "After a business meeting before the Miss Universe Pageant in 2013, a Russian participant offered to 'send five women' to Donald Trump's hotel room in Moscow, his longtime bodyguard told Congress this week, according to three sources who were present for the interview. Two of the sources said the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, viewed the offer as a joke, and immediately responded, 'We don't do that type of stuff.' The two sources said Schiller's comments came in the context of him adamantly disputing the allegations made in the Trump dossier, written by a former British intelligence operative, which describes Trump having an encounter with prostitutes at the hotel during the pageant. Schiller described his reaction to that story as being, "Oh my God, that's bull----," two sources said.... One source noted that Schiller testified he eventually left Trump's hotel room door and could not say for sure what happened during the remainder of the night. Two other sources said Schiller testified he was confident nothing happened.... Schiller was grilled about the Moscow trip as part of four hours of testimony before the House Intelligence Committee." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: IMO, Schiller just verified the first half of the Steele dossier's "golden rain" story. We won't ever know what happened next, but Schiller's testimony gives a great deal of credence to the possibility that Trump did have some kind of "room service" at the Moscow Ritz, courtesy of Kremlin pimps. As such, Schiller's testimony is both surprising & useful. ...

... Ryan Nakashima & Barbara Ortutay of the AP: "Disguised Russian agents on Twitter rushed to deflect scandalous news about Donald Trump just before last year's presidential election while straining to refocus criticism on the mainstream media and Hillary Clinton's campaign, according to an Associated Press analysis of since-deleted accounts. Tweets by Russia-backed accounts such as 'America_1st_' and 'BatonRougeVoice' on Oct. 7, 2016, actively pivoted away from news of an audio recording in which Trump made crude comments about groping women, and instead touted damaging emails hacked from Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta."

John Kelly Really Is a Nasty, Racist Prick. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "On Monday, as the Department of Homeland Security prepared to extend the residency permits of tens of thousands of Honduran immigrants living in the United States, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly called Acting Secretary Elaine Duke to pressure her to expel them, according to current and former administration officials. Duke refused to reverse her decision and was angered by what she felt was a politically driven intrusion by Kelly and Tom Bossert, the White House homeland security adviser, who also called her about the matter, according to officials with knowledge of Monday's events, who spoke on the condition of anonymity...." Also worth reading is the part about DHS Secretary nominee Kirstjen Nielsen. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn's background as a Goldman Sachs executive leaves him more experienced in the art of talking t really rich people than communicating with the public. That ends up making this interview with CNBC's John Harwood, published this morning, an extraordinary document, because when Harwood pushes him on a few points, Cohn ends up basically surrendering and admitting the plain truth about the Republican tax plan: that it's a bonanza for big businesses and the rich, whose main benefit for normal people is a vague hope that prosperity will trickle down from those at the top." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... AND here's Gary Cohn telling John Harwood that repealing the estate tax "benefits a lot of different people." Mrs. McC: Yes, in that Gary Cohn and Donald Trump and (poor) Wilbur Ross and David Koch and Charles Koch are "a lot of different people." Cohn's assertion was in response to Harwood's question, "Are you seriously saying with a straight face that getting rid of the estate tax is about farmers and not about very wealthy families?" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Okay, so that and the trickle-down stuff has broken the last of my stash of finely-calibrated Bullshitometers, BUT then Cohn says to Harwood, "The most excited group out there are big CEOs, about our tax plan." "This," as Jonathan Chait admits, "is 100 percent true." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jim Tankersley, et al., of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans outlined their vision on Thursday for overhauling the tax code, proposing a one-year delay in President Trump's top priority of cutting the corporate tax rate while reinstating some prized tax breaks used by middle-class families. The Senate bill differs significantly from the House version approved by the Ways and Means committee on Thursday: It would preserve some popular tax breaks, including ones for mortgage interest and medical expenses, and would maintain a bottom tax rate of 10 percent for lower earners. But it would also jettison the state and local tax deduction entirely and delay the enforcement of a 20 percent corporate tax rate until 2019, which could rankle the White House and mute the economic growth projections that Republicans are counting on to blunt the cost of the tax cuts." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Why does the Senate bill eliminate the state & local tax deduction? Because there are no GOP senators from blue states (while there are GOP House members from blue states), & blue states have high state & local taxes. So the Senate bill is a transfer of wealth not just from the middle class to the rich, but also from blue states to red. Of course this adds insult to injury inasmuch as blue states -- in general -- already are among the biggest donor states while red states -- in general -- are more likely to be takers. As for Medlar & me, we're going to get hit hard. I resent giving more of my money to the Koch brothers. ...

... However, as Todd Frankel of the Washington Post points out, even red states are home to thousands of upper-middle-class voters who will be the goats of GOP tax "reform." Frankel cites, for instance, residents of Atlanta suburbs who balance their family budgets on "deductions for mortgage and student loan interest and state and local taxes.... Both the House version, which passed out of a critical committee Thursday, and the Senate version, released Thursday, target this group of upper-middle-class Americans to raise revenue to offset other tax cuts. The tax push illustrates the political risks of attacking provisions favored by prosperous but far-from-rich suburbanites, a powerful voting bloc that often faces the financial stress of living in increasingly pricey neighborhoods. Many in the GOP already are worried about losing their grip on this important group after Tuesday's result in the Virginia governor's race, where Democrat Ralph Northam crushed Republican Ed Gillespie by running up votes in the dense areas outside cities." ...

... Noah Lanard of Mother Jones: "On Thursday, Senate Republicans released a tax cut plan that closely tracks the business-friendly bill introduced last week in the House. But that bill has little chance of becoming law in its current form thanks to a Senate rule that requires 60 votes for legislation that adds to the deficit beyond 10 years. In the past five days, three different studies have found that the House bill would provide nearly half of its benefits to the top 1 percent of Americans, while raising taxes on tens of millions of middle-class families. The Senate bill generally sticks to that approach...." ...

... Damian Paletta & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans on Thursday plan to propose delaying a cut in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent until 2019, four people briefed on the planning said, a major departure from President Trump's insistence on immediate changes that he says are necessary to spur the economy.... The one-year delay would lower the cost of the tax cut bill by more than $100 billion, and negotiators are trying to preserve as much revenue as they can for other changes. But it could also delay decisions by companies to move back to the United States from overseas or have companies hold off on other decisions as they wait for the corporate rate to fall." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Josh Delk of the Hill: "Prosecutors have told Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to expect federal charges to be filed against his longtime neighbor for his violent attack on Paul, sources told Fox News on Thursday. The Saturday attack, which left Paul with six broken ribs, is believed to have been politically motivated, Fox says.... [The neighbor Rene] Boucher has pleaded not guilty to a fourth-degree assault charge."

Matt Friedman of Politico: "A juror who was excused Thursday afternoon [because of a previously-scheduled vacation] from U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's federal corruption trial said that if she had stayed on, she would have found Menendez 'not guilty on every charge.' Evelyn Arroyo-Maultsby also said other jurors' feelings about the case are mixed and she believes the result may be a hung jury."

John Cassidy of The New Yorker: "Trumpism didn't collapse on Tuesday. It did get a bloody nose, however. And, for many Democrats, the Trump backlash that was evident from Maine to Virginia raised hopes of a much bigger victory in next year's midterm elections.... In the first big set of votes since Trump became President, the America that reviles him and his backward-looking, monochromatic vision of the country stood up and made itself heard.... If he were a bigger, better person, he'd take heed of Tuesday's results and adopt a more tolerant and inclusive stance. That won't happen, of course. Trump and Trumpism won't go away of their own accord: their opponents will have to defeat them. And, in that pursuit, they have taken an encouraging first step." --safari

Senate Race

Let's see how things are going for ole Shalt-Not-Covet-Thy-Neighbors'-Daughters Roy Moore:

Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "A growing chorus of Senate Republicans including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have called on Senate candidate Roy Moore to withdraw from a special election in Alabama if allegations prove true that the former judge initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl nearly four decades ago.... Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called on Moore to step aside as well -- and without couching his statement with 'if true' language.... The state Republican Party has the power to disqualify Moore from the election, though it is too late to remove his name from the ballot, according to the Alabama secretary of state.... Alabama state law does allow write-in votes to be cast in general elections, as long as the names are for living people and written in without using a rubber stamp or stick-on label. Despite a state law barring candidates from appearing twice on ballots in the same election cycle, Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.), who lost in the primary to Moore, would be an eligible write-in candidate, said John Bennett, an official at the state secretary of state's office." ...

... Adam Raymond of New York: "Ohio Sen. Rob Portman ... added that Moore's accusers 'are on the record, so I assume' their allegations are true." ...

... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: Republicans' endorsements of Roy Moore "are particularly shameful in the wake of the Post's reporting. But they were shameful from the beginning." Shephard points to a few reasons why: "Moore believes that homosexuality should be illegal. He believes that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in Congress. He does not believe in evolution. He believes that there are communities in the United States living under Sharia law. He believes that 9/11 was divine retribution for the nation's sins. He believes that Barack Obama was not born in America. He was suspended from Alabama's Supreme Court for refusing to recognize gay marriage. He installed a 5,280-pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments on the lawn of Alabama's judicial building."

Like most Americans the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person's life. However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside. -- Sarah Sanders, in a statement to the Daily Beast ...

... As the Beast notes, "By putting the ball in Moore's hands, Trump does not go nearly as far as many other Senate Republicans who have demanded that Moore withdraw from the race." Mrs. McC: What do you expect from someone who has repeatedly bragged about sexually abusing women, then dismissed his boasts as "locker-room talk" while saying women he did allegedly abuse were liars & threatening to sue them?

** Stephanie McCrummen, et al., of the Washington Post: Four women who were then between the ages of 14 and 18 "interviewed by The Washington Post in recent weeks say [Roy] Moore [who is the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in an Alabama special election] pursued them when ... he was in his early 30s, episodes they say they found flattering at the time, but troubling as they got older. None of the women say that Moore forced them into any sort of relationship or sexual contact." However, he kissed them & one woman, who was 14 at the time, says Moore removed her close & engaged in sexual touching. All four women are named in the story. "In a written statement, Moore denied the allegations. 'These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,' Moore, now 70, said. The campaign said in a subsequent statement that if the allegations were true they would have surfaced during his previous campaigns, adding 'this garbage is the very definition of fake news.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

God-Approved. There is nothing to see here. The allegations are that a man in his early 30s dated teenage girls. Even the Washington Post report says that he never had sexual intercourse with any of the girls and never attempted sexual intercourse. Also, take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus. -- Jim Ziegler, Alabama state auditor, defending 30-something Roy Moore's sexual advances on a 14-year-old girl (not satire)

... Steve M.: "I'm guessing that more women will come forward and charge that Moore pursued them as teenagers. I imagine Moore will deny those allegations as well. It's quite possible that none of this will stick to him, that he'll be widely defended in the right-wing media, and that he'll still win his election in December. This should be awkward for conservatives, because they've tried to portray the recent wave of sexual predation stories as a massive liberal scandal. Even though Hollywood and media predators have been exposed exclusively by non-conservative journalists, and even though the predators have been made extremely unwelcome after their exposure, the party line on the right has been that liberals have coddled sex criminals." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Thanks to his long record of hypercontroversial statements compounded by not one but two occasions on which he lost his gavel as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for defiance of federal law, Moore was already more vulnerable than Republicans usually are in Alabama statewide races. The current RealClearPolitics polling average gives him only a six-point lead over Democrat Doug Jones. If the new allegations aren't dispelled very quickly, Moore could be in enough trouble to convince Democrats to make a major investment in Jones, and then anything could happen.... If Moore craters, reducing the GOP Senate margin to 51/49, Democrats could have a real chance of winning back the Senate next year, despite only eight Republican seats being up for reelection." ...

... BUT. digby: Despite his harassment of teenaged beauty contestants, "Trump won Alabama with 62% of the vote. I suspect these sort of things aren't something the state's Republicans particularly care about. Unless it's a Democrat in which case they would be banging on their Bibles and speaking in tongues." ...

... Rachel Maddow puts the Roy Moore story in its pathetic context:

... Sophie Tatum of CNN: "... Steve Bannon compared the allegations of sexual misconduct with teens against ... Roy Moore to the bombshell 'Access Hollywood' tape that was released during the 2016 election, accusing The Washington Post of targeting both Moore and Donald Trump politically. 'The Bezos Amazon Washington Post that dropped that dime on Donald Trump is the same Bezos Amazon Washington Post that dropped the dime this afternoon on Judge Roy Moore,' Bannon said Thursday night. 'Now is that a coincidence? That's what I mean when I say opposition party, right?'" ...

... So, naturally ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "No one wants to defend Roy Moore for allegedly courting underage girls. Except Breitbart. In an article today, Breitbart pre-emptively prepared its readers for The Washington Post's explosive report that the Alabama Republican senatorial candidate had relationships with four teenage girls when he was in his 30s. Breitbart had been provided with a letter the Post sent to Moore outlining the charges, which the right-wing web site then presented in the most benign terms imaginable. This was supplemented with attacks on Moore's opponent, Democrat Doug Jones, and the Post (for various sins of liberalism, globalism, and association with Jeff Bezos). ...

     ... Update. Margaret Hartmann documents other right-wing media responses, many of which followed Breitbart's lead. As Akhilleus predicted, Hannity did manage to partially blame President Obama. "On Fox News, Tucker Carlson [who] ... covered the Harvey Weinstein scandal extensively..., devoted only 46 seconds to the Moore allegations."

... MEANWHILE. Andrew Kaczynski & Chris Massie of CNN: "Roy Moore ... ruled in a 1990s divorce case that a woman who had a lesbian affair couldn't visit her children unsupervised or with her partner, writing that the 'minor children will be detrimentally affected by the present lifestyle' of the mother. Moore, then a circuit judge, was ultimately removed from the case by an Alabama appeals court after the woman and her attorneys argued that he couldn't be impartial because of his views on homosexuality, according to public court documents reviewed by CNN's KFile." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Melena Ryzik, et al., of the New York Times: "Now, after years of unsubstantiated rumors about [comedian] Louis C.K. masturbating in front of associates, women are coming forward to describe what they experienced. Even amid the current burst of sexual misconduct accusations against powerful men, the stories about Louis C.K. stand out because he has so few equals in comedy. In the years since the incidents the women describe, he has sold out Madison Square Garden eight times, created an Emmy-winning TV series, and accumulated the clout of a tastemaker and auteur, with the help of a manager who represents some of the biggest names in comedy. And Louis C.K. built a reputation as the unlikely conscience of the comedy scene, by making audiences laugh about hypocrisy -- especially male hypocrisy.... [In his act,] he has all but invited comparison between his private life and his onscreen work, too: In 'I Love You, Daddy,' which is scheduled to be released next week, a character pretends to masturbate at length in front of other people, and other characters appear to dismiss rumors of sexual predation." ...

... Katherine Shaffstall of the Hollywood Reporter: "The New York premiere of Louis C.K.'s upcoming film, I Love You, Daddy, set for Thursday, has been canceled. Reps for the premiere, due to take place at the Paris Theatre, initially cited 'unexpected circumstances.' A source tells The Hollywood Reporter that New York Times story on the comedian is about to break, and the premiere was canceled in case it is damaging. Additionally, Louis C.K.'s planned appearance on CBS' The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was also canceled...."

Medlar's Sports Report. Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post: "Aaron Hernandez suffered the most severe case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy ever discovered in a person his age, damage that would have significantly affected his decision-making, judgment and cognition, researchers at Boston University revealed at a medical conference Thursday. Ann McKee, the head of BU's CTE Center, which ha studied the disease caused by repetitive brain trauma for more than a decade, called Hernandez's brain 'one of the most significant contributions to our work' because of the brain's pristine condition and the rare opportunity to study the disease in a 27-year-old."

The Commentariat -- November 9, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Let's see how things are going for ole Shalt-Not-Covet-Thy-Neighbors'-Daughters Roy Moore:

Stephanie McCrummen, et al., of the Washington Post: Four women who were then between the ages of 14 and 18 "interviewed by The Washington Post in recent weeks say [Roy] Moore [who is the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in an Alabama special election] pursued them when ... he was in his early 30s, episodes they say they found flattering at the time, but troubling as they got older. None of the women say that Moore forced them into any sort of relationship or sexual contact." However, he kissed them & one woman, who was 14 at the time, says Moore removed her close & engaged in sexual touching. All four women are named in the story. "In a written statement, Moore denied the allegations.'These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,' Moore, now 70, said. The campaign said in a subsequent statement that if the allegations were true they would have surfaced during his previous campaigns, adding 'this garbage is the very definition of fake news.'" ...

... MEANWHILE. Andrew Kaczynski & Chris Massie of CNN: "Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for Senate in Alabama, ruled in a 1990s divorce case that a woman who had a lesbian affair couldn't visit her children unsupervised or with her partner, writing that the 'minor children will be detrimentally affected by the present lifestyle' of the mother. Moore, then a circuit judge, was ultimately removed from the case by an Alabama appeals court after the woman and her attorneys argued that he couldn't be impartial because of his views on homosexuality, according to public court documents reviewed by CNN's KFile."

John Kelly Really Is a Nasty, Racist Prick. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "On Monday, as the Department of Homeland Security prepared to extend the residency permits of tens of thousands of Honduran immigrants living in the United States, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly called Acting Secretary Elaine Duke to pressure her to expel them, according to current and former administration officials. Duke refused to reverse her decision and was angered by what she felt was a politically driven intrusion by Kelly and Tom Bossert, the White House homeland security adviser, who also called her about the matter, according to officials with knowledge of Monday's events, who spoke on the condition of anonymity...." Also worth reading is the part about DHS Secretary nominee Kirstjen Nielsen.

Damian Paletta & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans on Thursday plan to propose delaying a cut in the corporate tax rate ... until 2019, four people briefed on the planning said, a major departure from President Trump's insistence on immediate changes that he says are necessary to spur the economy.... The one-year delay would lower the cost of the tax cut bill by more than $100 billion, and negotiators are trying to preserve as much revenue as they can for other changes. But it could also delay decisions by companies to move back to the United States from overseas or have companies hold off on other decisions as they wait for the corporate rate to fall." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember that the reason Senate Republicans are trying to "lower the cost of the tax cut bill" is not that they're all concerned about balancing revenue & spending; rather, it's because the bill must be "revenue-neutral" -- that is, not raise the deficit -- if it's to pass under the majority-rule budget "reconciliation" law. A bill that raises the deficit would require 60 votes to get to the floor. ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn's background as a Goldman Sachs executive leaves him more experienced in the art of talking to really rich people than communicating with the public. That ends up making this interview with CNBC's John Harwood, published this morning, an extraordinary document, because when Harwood pushes him on a few points, Cohn ends up basically surrendering and admitting the plain truth about the Republican tax plan: that it's a bonanza for big businesses and the rich, whose main benefit for normal people is a vague hope that prosperity will trickle down from those at the top." ...

... AND here's Gary Cohn telling John Harwood that repealing the estate tax "benefits a lot of different people." Mrs. McC: Yes, in that Gary Cohn and Donald Trump and (poor) Wilbur Ross and David Koch and Charles Koch are "a lot of different people." Cohn's assertion was in response to Harwood's question, "Are you seriously saying with a straight face that getting rid of the estate tax is about farmers and not about very wealthy families?" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Okay, so that and the trickle-down stuff has broken the last of my stash of finely-calibrated Bullshitometers, BUT then Cohn says to Harwood, "The most excited group out there are big CEOs, about our tax plan." "This," as Jonathan Chait admits, "is 100 percent true."

*****

More Election News:

Mary Jordan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Women racked up victories across the country on Tuesday, and are being credited with the Democrats' big night overall. It is a testament to the remarkable explosion of women candidates who have entered the political stage since Donald Trump was elected president one year ago. The wave is likely to continue. In 2018, 40 women are already planning to run for governor. Dozens more are considering congressional and other statewide office bids. And Tuesday's result has already become a rallying cry for activists.... It was a night of historic wins for women and minorities across the nation."

Virginia. Michael Martz of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Virginia Democrats are poised to claim at least a share of control of the House of Delegates after erasing a 32-seat Republican advantage in a 'tsunami election,' with control of the chamber likely to be ultimately decided by vote recounts." ...

... Ari Berman of Mother Jones: "Virginia was one of four states that blocked ex-felons from voting -- disenfranchising 1 in 5 black Virginians -- until Gov. Terry McAuliffe restored voting rights to 168,000 ex-felons over the past year and a half.... Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie sharply criticized McAuliffe and his lieutenant governor, Ralph Northam, for this policy. But Northam's victory in the governor's race on Tuesday means that Virginia will continue to restore voting rights to ex-offenders. It's just one way that Democratic victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and Washington yesterday could lead to an expansion of access to the ballot." --safari ...

... Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Two years after his 24-year-old girlfriend was shot and killed on live television, a Virginia Democrat on Tuesday defeated an opponent who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association for a seat in the State Legislature. Chris Hurst, a former news anchor whose girlfriend and colleague, Alison Parker, was killed on air in 2015, overtook Joseph Yost to win the 12th House District seat in the state's Legislature. He will be one of two Democrats to represent the state's deeply conservative southwest region in the House."

New Jersey. Freeholder Now Has Time to Cook His Own Damned Dinner. AP: "A New Jersey politician who shared a meme on Facebook during January's Women's March in Washington asking whether the protest would be 'over in time for them to cook dinner' is eating his words. Democrat Ashley Bennett, a first-time candidate who was angered by Republican John Carman's remarks, defeated him Tuesday as he tried to win a second term as an Atlantic County freeholder. The board oversees government in Atlantic County, a region of about 275,000 people that includes the struggling Atlantic City seaside gambling resort."

Montana. Thomas Plank of the Helena Independent Record: "Wilmot Collins will be Helena's new mayor, unseating incumbent Jim Smith in a close race Tuesday. Collins, 54, will be the city's first new mayor in 16 years after running a long campaign based in progressive principles."

Maine Update. Reuters, via RawStory: "Maine Republican Governor Paul LePage said on Wednesday he will not expand the state's Medicaid program under Obamacare, ignoring a ballot initiative widely backed by voters, calling it 'ruinous' for the state's budget. Maine looked set to become the first state in the nation to expand Medicaid by popular vote. About 60 percent of voters in Maine approved the ballot proposal in Tuesday's election, according to the Bangor Daily News newspaper.... LePage said he will not implement the expansion until it is fully funded by the Maine legislature." --safari

Philip Lewis & Willa Frej of the Huffington Post provide a list of "historic victories" in Tuesday's elections.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Fox "News" Goes Dark on Election Results. Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate: "The biggest political story of the hour is that Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie went down big in Virginia after running a Trump-esque campaign fixated on inflammatory culture-war issues, losing to Democrat Ralph Northam by what looks like it will end up as a ine-point margin. It's the biggest story of the hour, that is, unless you're watching Fox News: As observed by political writer Chris Hooks, Donald Trump's favorite network spent more than 90 minutes in prime time on Tuesday -- Election Night! -- between discussions of election results. Just before 9 p.m., Tucker Carlson read an update about the loss in Virginia and another Democratic gubernatorial win in New Jersey. At 9, Sean Hannity took over and slipped in a comment about why said Republican losses don't really count: 'Those results in New Jersey and Virginia -- not states Donald Trump won.'" ...

     ... Here's a chyron that ran on Fox "News" to explain Virginia's gubernatorial election results: "Republican Gillespie loses VA governor's race after failing to fully embrace Trump".

Time to Check in with Some Real Presidents:

Citizen Barack. Steve Schmadeke & Elvia Malagon of the Chicago Tribune: President "Obama was one of 168 people who showed up for jury duty [at the Daley Center in Chicago's Loop] and assigned to one of 16 panels. Eight of those panels, including Panel 6 which Obama sat on, were randomly selected to be sent home around lunchtime. A media scrum followed Obama's every move in the morning -- from departing from his South Side home in the Kenwood neighborhood to his 10 a.m. arrival at the downtown Chicago court complex.... Obama was a hit in the jury assembly room, shaking hands with would-be jurors and signing copies of his books that some brought, [Timothy] Evans, the chief judge, told reporters later."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday expressed concern that President Trump's rhetoric reflects the same values as dictators around the world. Clinton said on the late night show 'Conan', that the world's dictators all want to blur the line between fact and fiction. 'They figure if you don't know what's true and you don't think you can ever know that, pretty soon everybody will accept the fact that democracy is no longer possible,' Clinton told host Conan O'Brien. 'Are you talking about foreign countries now or here?' O'Brien asked. 'That chilled me to the bone for a second.' Clinton hesitated. 'You just said a lot by saying nothing,' O'Brien said." With video.

Bully Grovels Before More Powerful World Leader. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump heaped praise on President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday, saying he was confident China would help defuse the threat from North Korea and reduce its trade deficits with the United States, which he blamed on his own predecessors, not the Chinese.... Congratulating Mr. Xi on his consolidation of power at a recent Communist Party congress, Mr. Trump said, 'Perhaps now more than ever we have an opportunity to strengthen our relationship.' Mr. Xi did not return the favor."

Jonathan Chait: Tuesday "President Trump spoke by phone with a dozen Democratic senators, in a bid to win their support for his tax-cut plan. You might think his private arguments would be at least marginally more sophisticated than the crude lies he has told in public. You would be wrong.... 'The deal is so bad for rich people, I had to throw in the estate tax just to give them something,' Trump said, per 'multiple people in the room who heard the president on the phone,' reports the Washington Post. This is a bizarre case to make, for several reasons. First, it is verifiably false.... Second, Trump is inviting questions about his own tax returns, which he refuses to disclose.... And third, there is the curious moral logic. Trump is arguing that a plan that forces rich people to pay more would be unfair.... Did he somehow think he was briefing the Koch Brothers?" ...

     ... MEANWHILE, Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn explains that the House bill is really a middle-class tax break because ... trickle-down!

Happy Anniversary, Donald. Hehehe. Gail Collins: "Donald Trump has been trying to celebrate his one-year anniversary as president, and all he gets is terrible political news. His party got skunked in Tuesday's elections, his associates keep getting tied to the Russians and the Republicans in Congress are flailing around like a bunch of panicked gerbils. Hehehehe."

** Make America Weak Again. Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The US has lost more than half its career ambassadors and a significant proportion of other senior diplomats since Donald Trump took office, the head of the foreign service association has said. Barbara Stephenson, a former ambassador to Panama and charge d’affaires in London, said that the top ranks of US diplomacy were being 'depleted at dizzying speed', and the state department was under 'mounting threats'. Stephenson pointed to a hiring freeze that has reduced the intake into the foreign service from 366 in 2016 to an expected 100 in 2018, and a cut in the number of promotions.... The depletion ... has been highlighted during Trump's Asia trip. Despite the urgency of the looming confrontation on the Korean peninsula, the administration has yet to nominate an ambassador to Seoul.... The administration has announced it wants to cut the state department and international aid budget by nearly a third. Congressional leaders have rejected that proposal and ordered spending to be sustained at last year's levels. But the secretary of state,Rex Tillerson, has gone ahead with his retrenchment plans." --safari

Michael de la Merced, et al., of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has called on AT&T and Time Warner to sell Turner Broadcasting, the group of cable channels that includes CNN, as a potential requirement for approving the companies' pending $85.4 billion deal.... The other possible way for the merger to win approval would be for AT&T to sell its DirecTV division, two of these people added.... If the Justice Department formally makes either demand a requisite for approval, AT&T and Time Warner would almost certainly take the matter to court to challenge the government's legal basis for blocking the transaction.... Because the proposed deal is a 'vertical' merger -- meaning that neither company competes directly against the other -- [the companies] believe there is little legal basis to block it. President Trump has long accused CNN of harboring a bias against him. Separately, Mr. Trump ... argued [during the campaign] that 'deals like this destroy democracy' and cited it as 'an example of the power structure' that he was fighting." ...

... Steven Overly of Politico: "Even critics of AT&T's proposed mega-merger with Time Warner expressed alarm Wednesday at allegations that ... Donald Trump's Justice Department is intervening in the deal for political reasons -- namely his oft-expressed complaints about CNN. 'Any indication that this administration is using its power to weaken media organizations it doesn't like would be a profoundly disturbing development,' Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said.... Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told Politico that the DOJ's reported actions 'merit investigation,' and that senators should ask Attorney General Jeff Sessions about it next week." ...

... Derek Thompson of the Atlantic: "There are two fishy details about the DOJ's objections. First, Makan Delrahim, Trump's hand-picked head of antitrust at the Justice Department, had previously announced that this merger would be acceptable.... Second, it's doubly startling for a Republican administration to suddenly reverse several decades of party leniency on just these sort of mergers, particularly with the president's favorite target, CNN, hanging in the balance.... For Trump to use the Justice Department to throttle his enemies would be a horrifying prospect, and it's one that he has publicly mused about. But ... another disconcerting possibility ... is that ... it could co-opt the news media's disgust toward the president to distribute a pro-merger narrative that would drown out the Justice Department's reasonable objections to its acquisition." ...

... Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "On Oct. 22, 2016, Donald J. Trump made his own history in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he was holding a campaign rally.... 'AT&T is buying Time Warner, and thus CNN,' he told his audience, calling the proposed merger an example of a media 'power structure' that was working to suppress his vote and the voices of his supporters. It was, he said, 'a deal we will not approve in my administration.' [The DOJ's move on AT&T] raised the chilling possibility that Mr. Trump was making good on his threatening statements.... Adding to the chill was the lack of a compelling legal justification for the department's conditions, which appeared to come out of the blue.... The tussle over the merger details brings a new level of seriousness to Mr. Trump's virulent, anti-press speech, raising fresh concerns that it could result in real-world, governmental action." ...

... Charles Pierce: "Is there anybody who doubts that the president* would tell his Department of Justice to knuckle CNN's parent company because Jake Tapper was mean to him? Or that Sessions would wag his tail -- thanks, Kate -- and go right to work on this?"

Linda Greenhouse: The Departments of Justice & Health & Human Services have become centers for anti-abortion policy. AND of course they pick on the most vulnerable victims.

** More Morons. Travis Gettys of RawStory: "Eric Trump's brother-in-law has been promoted to help oversee a Department of Energy agency that once carried out President Barack Obama's climate change agenda. Kyle Yunaska, whose sister is married to the president's son, is now chief of staff for the department's Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis, reported E&E News. He served as part of the transition team's 'beachhead' of temporary political appointees and stayed on in a permanent role starting in February. Yunaska doesn't appear to have a background in energy policy." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: No, no, safari. All the best people! This is another of Trump's "performance" appointments, his way of openly making farces of essential government functions. The nepotistic touch is a nice twist!

Dana Milbank: "President Trump's billionaire commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross ... is apparently not a billionaire. Forbes magazine, keeper of the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, reports that it dropped Ross from its list this year because of a 'phantom $2 billion' that Ross claimed he had but apparently does not exist. Instead of the $3.7 billion Ross claimed he was worth (Forbes last year put it at $2.9 billion), his financial disclosures showed -- gasp -- less than $700 million in assets.... Ross was disgraced, and mad. He claimed to Forbes that he transferred $2 billion into trusts for his children and others but offered no proof, and this claim was contradicted by his own staff.... It probably won't help that news of Ross's missing $2 billion comes just after the discovery from leaked documents that he invested some of the precious millions he does have in a venture with people very close to Vladimir Putin." Milbank figures Trump will fire Ross -- it's what he does to mere multi-millionaires. ...

... Reuters: "U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has divested his interests in oil tanker company Diamond S Shipping and is in the process of selling off his holdings in another shipping firm, Navigator Holdings, a Trump administration official said on Tuesday. Ross had originally intended to retain his shipping interests following his confirmation in February." --safari: This limpdick needs to resign, not inconventiently divest.

Miles Weiss & Jennifer Dlouhy of Bloomberg: "Federal investigators have issued subpoenas for information on Carl Icahn's efforts to change biofuel policy while serving as an informal adviser to President Donald Trump, according to regulatory filings. The U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York is 'seeking production of information' pertaining to Icahn's activities regarding the Renewable Fuel Standard, according to a Form 10-Q that Icahn Enterprises LP filed on Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The investigators also want information on Icahn's role as an adviser to the president." --safari

GOP: Party of Putin. Sam Stein & Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "Since last spring, Senate Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee have been privately investigating Russian meddling in Eastern Europe without the assistance of committee Republicans. Their efforts have been spearheaded by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the committee's ranking member, and have involved outreach to foreign diplomats from countries that have been targeted by the Kremlin.... It's unclear when the report will be formally released to the public. A sources told The Daily Beast that Republicans were asked to be involved in its crafting." --safari

** The Derp Is Strong. Duncan Campbell & James Risen of The Intercept: "CIA director Mike Pompeo met late last month with a former U.S. intelligence official [William Binney] who has become an advocate for a disputed theory that the theft of the Democratic National Committee's emails during the 2016 presidential campaign was an inside job, rather than a hack by Russian intelligence.... A senior intelligence source confirmed that Pompeo met with Binney to discuss his analysis, and that the CIA director held the meeting at Trump's urging.... Binney said that Pompeo asked whether he would be willing to meet with NSA and FBI officials to further discuss his analysis of the DNC data theft. Binney agreed and said Pompeo said he would contact him when he had arranged the meetings." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I blame Donna Brazile!

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The federal judge overseeing the criminal trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and business partner Rick Gates imposed a gag order Wednesday in the case ordering all parties, including potential witnesses, not to make statements that might prejudice jurors.... U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington ... barred any prejudicial statements 'to the media or public settings' to safeguard the defendants receiving a fair trial, 'and to ensure that the Court has the ability to seat a jury that has not been tainted by pretrial publicity.'" ...

     ... Judge Jackson is a real card. You know she's just taunting President Shoots-off-Mouth. I see a contempt-of-court citation in Trump's future. ...

... George Papadopoulos, International Man of Mystery. Anthony Zurcher of the BBC: Besides meeting with Russians, George Papadopoulos also met a British Foreign Office official, two months before the US presidential election, for a 'working level' meeting.... The fact that Papadopoulos was presenting himself to the government of one of the US's closest allies as a representative of the Trump campaign undercuts the White House's recent assertion that Papadopoulos was a campaign volunteer of little importance.... Word of the Papadopoulos sit-down in London was first reported by Scott Stedman, a California university student, in a post on the website Medium. He writes that the Trump adviser met 'an unidentified, high-ranking member of the UK's department that handles foreign affairs'."

Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Tuesday night his 'memory has been refreshed' regarding his email exchange with Carter Page in which the former foreign policy adviser requested Lewandowski's permission to travel to Moscow.... 'To the best of my recollection, I don't know Carter Page. To the best of my knowledge, Carter Page ... had no formal role in the campaign,' Lewandowski said. The former Trump campaign manager had similarly told Fox News in March that he 'never met Carter Page.'" Mrs. McC: Amazing what a paper trail will do. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Lewandowski: I couldn't remember Carter Page because ... Father's Day. Also, it turns out I was about to get fired.

Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "The gunman who committed the massacre in a rural Texas church fired continuously for several minutes, methodically shooting his victims -- including small children -- in the head, execution-style, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said on Wednesday. A video camera captured the blood bath inside the church, which left 26 people dead and 20 wounded -- the worst mass shooting in Texas history -- and state and federal investigators have reviewed that gruesome footage. The official estimated that the shooting in the video lasted about seven minutes. The church routinely recorded its services, and often posted the resulting videos online." ...

... Shaila Dewan & Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "The case of [Devin Kelley, the Sutherland Springs shooter,] shows one of the [National Instant Criminal Background Check] system's biggest problems: a simple failure to forward records. At the Pentagon this week, the military services were scrambling to examine whether they had been reporting the convictions of military personnel of crimes like assault to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which maintains the three databases that make up the system. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis asked the Pentagon's inspector general's office to investigate the Air Force's failure to report Mr. Kelley's conviction. Mr. Mattis, traveling in Helsinki, Finland, said that the inspector general needed to 'define what the problem is.' The problem dates back decades. In 1996, the inspector general found that the Army, Navy and Air Force were failing to report the vast majority of convictions to the F.B.I. Federal agencies, unlike state and local ones, are required by law to report criminal records to the F.B.I. But in 2014, the inspector general found that the Defense Department still was not doing so.... In 2015, the inspector general found that the armed forces (the study excluded the Army) were still failing to report 30 percent of convictions."

Tom Roeder of the Colorado Springs Gazette: "An Air Force Academy cadet candidate once thought the victim of racial slurs at the preparatory school on campus was actually the vandal who scrawled the threatening messages across the note boards outside his room and the dwellings of classmates. The academy confirmed that finding Tuesday afternoon, and stood by a stern speech given by its top general in the wake of the incident. Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria gathered cadets and staff members for a speech that has gone viral in videos posted across the internet. He said that those who can't respect others 'need to get out.'... The cadet candidate involved, whose name was not released, is no longer enrolled at the school.... Several sources say the cadet candidate ... committed the act in a bizarre bid to get out of trouble he faced at the school for other misconduct." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The incident was, to say the least, unfortunate, but it's good to know the academy isn't harboring a bunch of racist cadets. Anyway, this is a story for white supremacists to savor.

John Bowden of the Hill: "Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) released an update on his medical condition Wednesday via Twitter, writing that a new X-ray found six broken ribs and a buildup of fluid around his lungs. Paul has been in the hospital since Saturday, when he was assaulted while doing yard work." ...

... Thomas Novelly of the Louisville Courier Journal: "The history between U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and his accused attacker is filled with years of angst and petty arguments over misplaced lawn trimmings and branches, the neighborhood's developer said. 'I think this is something that has been festering,' said Jim Skaggs, the developer of the Rivergreen gated community in Bowling Green, where the two men live.... There have been disagreements in the past, Skaggs said, over lawn clippings or who should cut down a tree branch when it stretched over a property line.... Skaggs, a longtime Republican activist and a member of the GOP's state executive committee,& described [Pauls attacker Rene] Boucher as a 'near-perfect'" neighbor, but he said ... Paul 'was probably the hardest person to encourage to follow the (home owner's association regulations) of anyone out here because he has a strong belief in property rights.'... Even from the start of Paul's residence in Rivergreen, Skaggs said Paul has been difficult to work with." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This doesn't surprise me one bit. Li'l Randy just does not play well with others. Someone who occasionally must work with him recently told me how Paul interacts with, well, everybody & described him as "the most thoroughly unlikable little shit." ...

... His Old Kentucky Home. Margaret Hartmann of New York: "... Breitbart and Washington Examiner articles Paul and [& his staffer Doug] Stafford posted dispute [the lawn maintenance] notion at length. No less than seven neighbors insist that the Pauls are actually exceptional neighbors and citizens, who hold their lawn to the very highest standards.... We still don't know why Boucher pummeled Paul, but this recent unpleasantness should not dissuade anyone looking to purchase a home in the most idyllic gated community in all of Kentucky." ...

... The photo below, via Bing maps, purports to be of Chez Paul. The front lawn looks to me as if it could use a little Weed 'n Feed. Just sayin'. See also Akhilleus' comment in today's thread.

There's another photo here, from 2010, in which the lawn appears to be unmowed & overgrowing the walk, & the foundation plantings pretty scrufty.

Ben Collins of the Daily Beast: "On Tuesday, Twitter gave its preferred status, a verified check mark, to Jason Kessler, the creator of the white supremacist Charlottesville rally in August that left one dead. Kessler's new verified status comes just 26 days after CEO Jack Dorsey again recommitted to eliminating 'hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence' from its platform. Kessler previously deleted his Twitter account in August after he tweeted that Heather Heyer, the woman who was killed protesting the white nationalist rally he created, 'was a fat, disgusting Communist' and that her death 'was payback time.' Kessler blamed the tweet on taking too many prescription drugs mixed with alcohol." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I've continued to use the Constant Weader's old Twitter account. I guess I'm going to have to rethink that.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha, Ctd. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "Bill O'Reilly's lawyers knew him well. According to testimony from an executive with 21st Century Fox, a contract for the fallen King of Cable News contained a helpful provision stating that he 'could not be dismissed on the basis of an allegation unless that allegation was proved in court.'... Analyses have shown that well above 90 percent of all civil cases are settled or dismissed before they reach a trial. Not only that, but a wealthy man like O'Reilly can use his assets to ensure that he'd never face a proven claim of sexual harassment.... Recent investigations have shown that sexual harassment is a media-wide phenomenon. The New Republic, NPR and ABC News are among the outlets where sexual harassment has taken place. Fox News stands apart, however, for the institutional sanction accorded to the creepy office pursuit of innocent and hard-working women." ...

AND. Cristiano Lima: "Fox News has hired Sebastian Gorka, the former Trump aide who left the administration earlier this year, two representatives for the network told Politico Wednesday. The move was first announced by Fox News host Sean Hannity on his daily radio program during an interview with Gorka, in which Hannity unveiled Gorka's new role as a 'national security strategist' for the network. Fox representatives did not confirm the title." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I know Fox publishes some ultra-right-wing online rag called "Fox Nation," but do the powers-that-be actually think they're a sovereign nation which needs a national security strategist? Are they mounting an army? Who's the secretary of state? Hannity?

CBS News Boston: "Former Boston television news anchor Heather Unruh said actor Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted her teenage son ... in July 2016 on Nantucket when her son was drunk at the Club Car restaurant." ...

... Mike Fleming of Deadline: "In an unprecedented bold move, director Ridley Scott ... [has] decided to remove Kevin Spacey from their finished movie All The Money In The World. Christopher Plummer has been set to replace Spacey in the role of J Paul Getty. Re-shoots of the key scenes are expected to commence immediately. Scott is also determined to to keep the film's December 22 release date."