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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

Public Service Announcement

Zoë Schlanger in the Atlantic: "Throw out your black plastic spatula. In a world of plastic consumer goods, avoiding the material entirely requires the fervor of a religious conversion. But getting rid of black plastic kitchen utensils is a low-stakes move, and worth it. Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid." This is a gift link from laura h.

Mashable: "Following the 2024 presidential election results and [Elon] Musk's support for ... Donald Trump, users have been deactivating en masse. And this time, it appears most everyone has settled on one particular X alternative: Bluesky.... Bluesky has gained more than 100,000 new sign ups per day since the U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million users. It's enjoyed a prolonged stay on the very top of Apple's App Store charts as well. Ready to join? Here's how to get started on Bluesky[.]"

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

Wherein Michael McIntyre explains how Americans adapted English to their needs. With examples:

Beat the Buzzer. Some amazing young athletes:

     ~~~ Here's the WashPo story (March 23).

Back when the Washington Post had an owner/publisher who dared to stand up to a president:

Prime video is carrying the documentary. If you watch it, I suggest watching the Spielberg film "The Post" afterwards. There is currently a free copy (type "the post full movie" in the YouTube search box) on YouTube (or you can rent it on YouTube, on Prime & [I think] on Hulu). Near the end, Daniel Ellsberg (played by Matthew Rhys), says "I was struck in fact by the way President Johnson's reaction to these revelations was [that they were] 'close to treason,' because it reflected to me the sense that what was damaging to the reputation of a particular administration or a particular individual was in itself treason, which is very close to saying, 'I am the state.'" Sound familiar?

Out with the Black. In with the White. New York Times: “Lester Holt, the veteran NBC newscaster and anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News' over the last decade, announced on Monday that he will step down from the flagship evening newscast in the coming months. Mr. Holt told colleagues that he would remain at NBC, expanding his duties at 'Dateline,' where he serves as the show’s anchor.... He said that he would continue anchoring the evening news until 'the start of summer.' The network did not immediately name a successor.” ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “MSNBC said on Monday that Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary who has become one of the most prominent hosts at the network, would anchor a nightly weekday show in prime time. Ms. Psaki, 46, will host a show at 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, replacing Alex Wagner, a longtime political journalist who has anchored that hour since 2022, according to a memo to staff from Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC’s president. Ms. Wagner will remain at MSNBC as an on-air correspondent. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s biggest star, has been anchoring the 9 p.m. hour on weeknights for the early days of ... [Donald] Trump’s administration but will return to hosting one night a week at the end of April.”

 

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Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns

I have a Bluesky account now. The URL is https://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.

Tuesday
Dec102019

The Commentariat -- December 11, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Wednesday that a senior prosecutor failed to convince him that the FBI's 2016 investigation of President Trump's campaign was improperly opened, revealing new details about internal tension among senior officials over the politically explosive case. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Horowitz was asked by the panel's senior Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), if Attorney General William P. Barr or his hand-picked prosecutor on the issue, Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, offered anything to change the inspector general's view that the FBI had a valid reason to open the probe in July 2016. 'No, we stand by our finding,' said Horowitz, who said he met in November with Durham to discuss the findings in the inspector general's 434-page report released Monday. When the report was released, Durham issued an unusual public statement saying he did not agree with Horowitz's conclusion about the opening of the investigation. Horowitz told lawmakers that the disagreement stemmed from a difference of opinion about whether the FBI should have opened a preliminary investigation, which puts some limitations on the investigative steps that can be taken, or a full investigation. The FBI opened a full investigation, based on a tip from the Australian government." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So as nearly as I can tell from the WashPo report & from what I heard on the teevee, the "disagreement" Durham found with the IG report, which he did not specify in his "unusual"/political statement issued upon release of the report, was on whether or not the FBI should have opened a "full" investigation before they initiated a "preliminary" investigation. Or, IMO, big whup. ~~~

~~~ ** HOWEVER. David Sanger of the New York Times: The inspector general's "study amounted to the most searching look ever revealed about the government's secretive system for carrying out national-security surveillance on American soil. And what the report showed was not pretty.... Michael E. Horowitz, and his team uncovered a staggeringly dysfunctional and error-ridden process in how the F.B.I. went about obtaining and renewing court permission under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, to wiretap Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.... The inspector general found major errors, material omissions and unsupported statements about Mr. Page in the materials that went to the court. F.B.I. agents cherry-picked the evidence, telling the Justice Department information that made Mr. Carter look suspicious and omitting material that cut the other way, and the department passed that misleading portrait onto the court.... Most ... targets [of FISA-warranted surveillance] never learn that their privacy has been invaded, but some are sent to prison on the basis of evidence derived from the surveillance. And unlike in ordinary criminal wiretap cases, defendants are not permitted to see what investigators told the court about them to obtain permission to eavesdrop on their calls and emails." Read on.

Michael Horowitz, the DOJ's inspector general, is testifying before the the Senate Judiciary Committee, beginning at 10 am ET, on the oranges origins of the Russia election-meddling investigation. Lindsey Graham is the chairman. Looks as if CNN & MSNBC will carry the hearing live.

     ~~~ Mrs. McC Update: as the hearing begins, Graham starts whine-shouting about the terrible FBI agents who took the law in their own hands, blah-blah. Now he's reading Peter Strzok's & Lisa Page's disparaging remarks about Trump; you know, the kind of disparaging remarks Lindsey used to make about Trump. But Graham accidentally forgot to mention that Page had nothing to do with the opening of the case, & Strzok was not a decision-maker on whether or not to open an investigation. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times has a highlights blog here. Sorry their snark squad isn't on duty today. ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "President Trump is openly telegraphing that he fully expects his attorney general to validate one of his biggest lies: that the real crime in 2016 wasn't Russia's sabotaging of our election but rather the decision by law enforcement to investigate it. New public comments from William P. Barr provide Trump with ample grounds for being confident that Barr will deliver for him.... Barr's latest claims about the Russia investigation rest on a serious misrepresentation that has not gotten the focus it deserves -- and is more pernicious than it first appears.... [In his NBC interview, Barr implied] that the FBI's initial investigation was only motivated by what it had learned about the Trump campaign's intentions with regard to coordinating with Russia's electoral subversion effort.... [But] officials told the I.G. that the new information about the Trump campaign precipitated the investigation, but only on top of the fact that Russia was already 'targeting U.S. political institutions' and trying to manipulate the 'U.S. democratic process.'... Trump wants to make all of those facts disappear. And Barr is effectively using the power of law enforcement to help him do it." ~~~

~~~ Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "Walter Shaub, the former head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, on Tuesday called Attorney General William Barr a 'threat to democracy' and warned he may try to interfere in the 2020 presidential election to benefit ... Donald Trump. MSNBC's national affairs analyst John Heilemann issued a similar caution, while CNN's chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin described Barr as 'a Fox News bot.' In a lengthy Twitter thread, Shaub accused Barr of misleading the public after he rejected the Justice Department's inspector general report that found the FBI was not politically motivated in launching a probe into the Trump 2016 campaign's links to Russia."

"Off the Rails." Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... Donald Trump gave a speech at a campaign rally on Tuesday night in Hershey, Pennsylvania, that highlighted many of the reasons people feel that the country will struggle to withstand another year of this.... Over the course of a more than 90-minute delivery, Trum pushed conspiracy theories and blatant lies, trashed law enforcement officials that aren't blindly loyal to him, exhibited thuggish tendencies toward protesters, made misogynistic remarks, and demonstrated that he fundamentally misunderstands the Constitution. It was one of his most troubling performances in recent memory and served as a stark illustration of just how ugly Trump's reelection campaign will be."

Michael Gold & Ali Watkins of the New York Times: "An assailant involved in the prolonged firefight in Jersey City, N.J., that left six people dead, including one police officer, was linked on Wednesday to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, which has been designated a hate group, and had published anti-Semitic posts online, a law enforcement official said. The violent rampage on Tuesday took place largely at a kosher supermarket where three bystanders were killed. The authorities now believe that the store was specifically targeted by the assailants. The law enforcement official said the names of the two suspects were David Anderson and Francine Graham. Mr. Anderson appeared to have a connection to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, though the extent of his involvement in that group remains unclear, the official said. The Black Hebrew Israelites have no connection with mainstream Judaism. It has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center...." A Guardian story is here.

Time has named Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist, as person of the year.

AND Boris Johnson hid in a fridge to avoid an attempted ambush-interview by Piers Morgan. "When [a 'Good Morning Britain' producer] presses the prime minister, stating he was live on the show, Johnson replied 'I'll be with you in a second' and walked off, before Piers exclaims 'he's gone into the fridge'. Johnson walks inside a fridge stacked with milk bottles with his aides. One person can be heard saying: 'It's a bunker.' Conservative sources subsequently insisted that Johnson was 'categorically not hiding' in the fridge, from which Johnson emerged carrying a crate of milk bottles...."

~~~~~~~~~~

Bart Jansen & Christal Hayes of USA Today: "House Democrats plan to begin debating Wednesday two articles of impeachment accusing ... Donald Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.... The committee plans to begin debating the articles at 7 p.m. [ET] Wednesday and resume at 9 a.m. Thursday. No deadline was set for a final committee vote. If approved, the full House could vote on the articles as early as next week." Mrs. McC: The meeting is public, so I assume it will be on the teevee, on C-SPAN, if not on other outlets.

The New York Times publishes an annotated version of the House Judiciary Committee's proposed Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump. The annotations are pretty helpful. NPR has the articles here.

Amber Phillips of the Washington Post analyzes the proposed articles & puts them in historical context. ~~~

~~~ Here's a more detailed analysis by Scott Anderson & others in Lawfare.

Democrats Come to Jesus. John Bresnahan, et al., of Politico on why House Democrats sidelined the Mueller report in drawing up articles of impeachment. "Mueller's probe gets only a glancing reference in the articles of impeachment themselves. But Democrats -- including Pelosi -- have repeatedly leaned on the foundation Mueller built to help justify calls to remove Trump from office. In short, Mueller is the Old Testament of Trump scandals, Ukraine is the New Testament."

Kaitlan Collins & Phil Mattingly of CNN: "... there is a growing divide between ... Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ... over what [the Senate] trial should look like.... In conversations with the White House, the Kentucky Republican has made clear he hopes to end the trial as soon as he can, an effort to both get impeachment off his lap and protect his conference from potentially damaging votes should the process break out into partisan warfare. That will include a continuous whip count until McConnell feels he has the votes to acquit the President and end the show.... But the show is exactly what Trump wants. He's made clear to advisers privately that rather than end the trial as quickly as possible, he is hoping for a dramatic event, according to two people familiar with his thinking. He wants Hunter Biden, Rep. Adam Schiff and the whistleblower to testify. He wants the witnesses to be live, not clips of taped depositions. And he's hoping to turn it into a spectacle, which he thinks is his best chance to hurt Democrats in the election."

Nicole Gaouette, et al., of CNN: "Russia's top foreign diplomat attended high-level meetings in Washington Tuesday, creating the extraordinary spectacle of ... Donald Trump consulting with Moscow on the day House Democrats unveiled articles of impeachment underpinned partly by Trump's unusual relationship with Russia. Trump's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ... was their second Oval Office meeting. The first time they huddled, Trump boasted about firing his FBI director and revealed classified information.... The House impeachment inquiry examined Trump's efforts to leverage US military aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigations into a personal political rival and a theory that US intelligence services say was planted by Russia: that Ukraine and not Moscow interfered in the 2016 election.... At a news conference at the Russian embassy at the end of the day, the Russian diplomat wouldn't answer directly when asked about the White House claim that Trump had warned him about Russia interfering in the 2020 elections."​ ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I reckon Trump invited Lavrov over so the two could reminisce about how well things have been going since the last time they met in the Oval Office, the day after Trump fired Comey, thus beginning the long impeachment slog. Maybe they had a cake with candles while discussing Trump Tower Moscow. Will Lavrov get an apartment there? And ain't funny how Trump has time for Lavrov, a guy who represents a U.S. adversary & whose job is below Trump's pay grade, but none for the president of our ally at war with said adversary? Note to Zelensky: Oval Office photo ops are limited to whoever does my bidding.

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Rudolph W. Giuliani ... said Tuesday that the president has asked him to brief the Justice Department and Republican senators on his findings from a recent trip to Ukraine ahead of a likely Senate impeachment trial. 'He wants me to do it,' Giuliani said in a brief interview. 'I'm working on pulling it together and hope to have it done by the end of the week.' However, it is unclear whether GOP senators or Justice Department officials want information from Giuliani, whose meetings in Europe last week with Ukrainian sources drew condemnation from Democratic lawmakers and winces even from some Republicans. In a recent interview, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said he had no plans for Giuliani to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has launched an inquiry into former vice president Joe Biden and his communications with Ukrainian officials. Attorney General William P. Barr has counseled Trump in general terms that Giuliani has become a liability and a problem for the administration, as The Washington Post previously reported." An AP story is here.

Chris Wray: "Don't Listen to Trump." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "As with so many other conspiracy theories favored by President Trump, [the accusation that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election] was initially shunned by his allies, but then it became necessary to embrace in order to defend him.... Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is even lending legitimacy to the argument. FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, though, isn't playing along.... In an interview with ABC News, Wray declared there was 'no indication' that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election. And ... he urged people to be savvier consumers of news.... 'Well, look, there's all kinds of people saying all kinds of things out there. I think it's important for the American people to be thoughtful consumers of information and to think about the sources of it and to think about the support and predication for what they hear.'... And I think part of us being well-protected against malign foreign influence is to build together an American public that's resilient, that has appropriate media literacy and that takes its information with a grain of salt,' Wray said.... Wray's comments came when he was asked about 'politicians' pushing the Ukraine conspiracy theory, not Trump specifically. But to be clear, chief among those politicians is Trump."

As the Gaslight Burns

Trump Continues Tradition of Blatantly Lying to Supporters. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump spent a large part of a campaign rally Tuesday evening hailing a new Justice Department Inspector General report and blasting House Democrats' impeachment inquiry. Trump claimed the newly released report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz showed that the FBI 'spied' on his presidential campaign during the 2016 election. He suggested the bureau launched an investigation into associates of his campaign to 'hurt us politically,' despite Horowitz's inquiry finding agents were not motivated by political bias in the decisions they made investigating links between the campaign and Moscow.... Trump also mocked ex-FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, claiming text messages exchanged between the two showed that agents who worked on the Russia probe were motivated by bias -- directly refuting Horowitz's findings.... Trump claimed without evidence on Tuesday that the FBI deliberately 'hid' exonerating evidence against him in order to continue the investigation." ~~~

~~~ Josh Feldman of Mediaite: “President Donald Trump unloaded on 'scum' at the FBI at his rally in Pennsylvania tonight, following yesterday's IG report from DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz.... Trump accused officials of hiding a 'frame-up' so 'they could keep it going on, thinking they were going to hurt us politically.'"

** Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Attorney General William Barr said he still believes the FBI may have operated out of 'bad faith' when it investigated whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, and he contends the FBI acted improperly by continuing the investigation after Donald Trump took office. In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Barr essentially dismissed the findings of the Justice Department's inspector general that there was no evidence of political bias in the launching of the Russia probe, saying that his hand-picked prosecutor, John Durham, will have the last word on the matter.... Barr argued that [IG Michael] Horowitz didn't look very hard [for evidence of FBI wrongdoing], and that the inspector general accepted the FBI's explanations at face value.... Barr said he stood by his assertion that the Trump campaign was spied on, noting that the FBI used confidential informants who recorded conversations with Trump campaign officials. 'It was clearly spied upon,' he said. 'That's what electronic surveillance is ... going through people's emails, wiring people up.'... Barr's blistering criticism of the FBI's conduct in the Russia investigation, which went well beyond the errors outlined in the inspector general report, is bound to stoke further debate about whether the attorney general is acting in good faith, or as a political hatchet man for Trump." Includes video of part of the interview of Barr. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I wonder what will happen if Durham's report doesn't reveal that Jim Comey & Andy McCabe were hanging out in the basement of Comet Pizza with Hillary Clinton & John Brennan conspiring to ruin Trump's perfect presidency*. ~~~

~~~ Eileen Sullivan & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr took aim at the F.B.I. on Tuesday, reiterating attacks on former bureau officials and contradicting the agency's director, Christopher A. Wray, a day after an independent watchdog concluded that agents were justified in opening an investigation into Russia's possible ties with the Trump campaign.... Mr. Wray had said on Monday that he concurred with the Justice Department inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, who found that political bias did not influence investigative decisions, directly undercutting the president's yearslong accusations.... Standing in disagreement with the president and the attorney general, Mr. Wray will now have to decide how to lead the agency while his bosses promulgate the inaccurate narrative that the F.B.I. plotted to sabotage Mr. Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.... In an early Twitter post, Mr. Trump snapped at Mr. Wray for not agreeing with his interpretation of the watchdog report's findings.... Mr. Barr ... repeated a longtime refrain of Mr. Trump and his allies, saying the F.B.I. improperly used counterintelligence tools to spy on a presidential campaign. In an interview with NBC News, Mr. Barr said there were 'gross abuses' and 'inexplicable behavior that is intolerable in the F.B.I.'... 'I think our nation was turned on its head for three years based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by a completely irresponsible press,' Mr. Barr said on Tuesday."

From a civil liberties standpoint, the greatest danger to our free system is that the incumbent government used the apparatus of the state, principally the law enforcement agencies and the intelligence agencies, both to spy on political opponents, but also to use them in a way that could affect the outcome of the election. -- Bill Barr, claiming that is what the FBI did in 2016 (but accidentally describing what Trump did this year), NBC interview, Tuesday ~~~

~~~ Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "... the sheer chutzpah of Barr's comments is staggering.... What president might be doing something like that, right now, and getting impeached for it?... Barr's move here is disturbingly Orwellian. He correctly identified the abuse of power to influence elections as a threat to American democracy, but then argued that the people who investigated Trump are the ones who are actually guilty of it. The criminal becomes the victim, the authoritarian the guarantor of our freedoms."

Barr: It's deeply offensive to our civil liberties for a presidential administration to investigate its potential successors and/or try to interfere in an election. Also Barr: The President was absolutely within his rights to ask Ukraine for help digging up dirt on the Bidens. -- Steve Vladeck, UT law professor, in a tweet

If Barr were consistent, he would argue Obama using the FBI to interfere with the election (didn't happen) is fine just like Trump extorting Ukraine is fine, because the president can do what he wants. That's not his position. His position is *Trump* can do whatever he wants. -- Adam Serwer of the Atlantic, in a tweet

Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "The IG report knocked down the various claims that Trump and his allies have made, one by one.... There is ... no 'deep state' anti-Trump conspiracy, no network of perfidious liberals in the FBI seeking to take down Trump. There is, however, voluminous evidence of reprehensible behavior by the president, first taking advantage of a foreign attack on the 2016 election for personal and political profit, seeking to obstruct the investigation into that interference, and then falsely concocting an elaborate conspiracy theory to avoid accountability for his actions.... The belief that Trump is the victim of a vast and ongoing conspiracy is a crucial element of the president's enduring appeal to his supporters. If the allegations against the president are all completely false, then his supporters can continue to back him..., because anything and everything negative they hear about the president must be false.... Barr's handpicked investigator, U.S. Attorney John Durham..., will be under a tremendous amount of pressure from Barr to indict one of the president's chosen enemies, if only to have a scapegoat to feed the right-wing propaganda machine and deter federal law enforcement from ever looking into criminal activity by the president or his allies again."

David Corn of Mother Jones: "This is how it works. The big lie. The endless spin. The outright denial of facts. Again and again and again. The complete destruction and devaluation of truth for political gain. Overwhelm reality with fiction, concoctions, and false narratives. Embrace deceit and duplicity. For rogues, scoundrels, tyrants, princes and princesses of corruption -- and their henchmen -- the truth is a threat. It must be crushed. It must be vanquished. Abuse of power cannot exist alongside accountability.... Following the release of the Justice Department inspector general's report on the origins and management of the Trump-Russia investigation, Attorney General William Barr went into full Oceania war-is-peace mode to erase truth in order to protect and soothe his dear leader, Donald Trump." Corn posits that in order to legitimize Trump's presidency* -- which is in part an artifact of Russian interference -- Barr must delegitimize the Russia investigation.

Mrs. McCrabbie: Several teevee pundits have pointed out that last week Barr made a speech warning people who live in certain "communities" to show respect for law enforcement or forget about their protection, and this week he's showing deep disrespect for law enforcement officers. AND ~~~

Mrs. McCrabbie P.S. In fairness to Roseanne, she is trying: "Roseanne Barr will headline a Super Bowl gala at Mar-a-Lago for the Trumpettes." ~~~

~~~ AND contributor Jeanne figured out that Bill Barr reminds her of Mr. Mucus of the Mucinex ads (see today's Comments). There's no doubt Bill is a huge, slimy booger. Still, I think I've found strong evidence Baby Barr broke out of a hard-shelled egg: Big Bill Barr bears a striking resemblance to Baby Sinclair, IMO:

Julia Arciga of the Daily Beast: "Former FBI attorney Lisa Page on Tuesday sued the FBI and the Justice Department over the leaking of her text messages that prompted a barrage of public attacks from lawmakers and ... Donald Trump himself. 'I sued the Department of Justice and FBI today,' she wrote on Twitter. 'I take little joy in having done so. But what they did in leaking my messages to the press was not only wrong, it was illegal.' The lawsuit accuses both agencies of violating the Privacy Act when reporters were given access to her messages with former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok.... Page alleges that DOJ officials -- including former spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores -- invited a group of reporters in Dec. 2017 to view a 90-page document containing 375 text messages between her and Strzok. Senior department officials allegedly signed off on the move, and the journalists were told to not source the information back to the department." ~~~

     ~~~ Nicole Lafond of TPM: "The suit mentions the inspector general report that was released Monday, which cleared Page of having a bias that impacted decisions made at the launch of the Russia probe. In the suit, Page said the DOJ IG's decision 'came too late.'" ~~~

~~~ Lauren Egan of NBC News: At his rally in Hershey, Pa., Tuesday, "Trump ... mocked former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, frequent targets of the president's, baselessly claiming that Page filed a restraining order against Strzok. 'Did I hear they needed a restraining order after this whole thing to keep him away from Lisa?,' Trump said, adding 'I don't know if it's true.'"


Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors on Tuesday recommended that former deputy Trump campaign chairman Rick Gates serve no prison time, citing his 'extraordinary assistance' in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia investigation, according to a new court filing. Prosecutors said his cooperation is continuing, without making details public." (Also linked yesterday.)


Niv Elis of the Hill: "House Democrats and the White House have struck a deal on a historic trade deal to update the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Tuesday. Pelosi announced the deal on a head spinning day in Washington just one hour after she joined Democrats in setting out two articles of impeachment against Trump." Mrs. McC: Pelosi emphasized that the deal was much better for American workers than the deal Trump struck a year ago, and she thanked AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka for his assistance throughout the process. "The AFL-CIO announced Tuesday it would back the trade agreement...." The New York Times report, which has far more detail, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ David Lynch of the Washington Post: "House Democrats took credit Tuesday for rewriting key parts of President Trump's new North American trade deal to include new protections for workers' rights and to scrap a provision they said would have led to high prescription drug prices. 'There is no question that this trade agreement is much better than NAFTA. It is infinitely better than what was initially proposed by the administration,' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking hours before representatives of the U.S., Mexico and Canada are expected to sign the revised deal at a meeting in Mexico City. 'We're declaring victory for the American worker.' In a major win for the Trump administration, the nation's largest labor federation backed the compromise.... [AFL-CIO President Richard] Trumka called the revised accord 'a vast improvement over both the original NAFTA and the flawed proposal brought forward in 2017.' The agreement is the first to include 'enforceable labor standards,' which will include inspections of suspect manufacturing sites in Mexico, he said. In a series of Twitter posts Tuesday, Trump hailed the breakthrough." Mrs. McC: ... with his usual ridiculous hyperbole. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Megan Cassella of Politico: "Getting to yes required negotiations with an ideologically diverse coalition that included congressional Democrats, organized labor and Mexico's private sector, Canadian ministers and Trump's hard-charging U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer.... [Nancy] Pelosi's demand to ... Mexican officials [that they implement labor protections] in September had pushed labor demands to the forefront and unified Democrats behind a possible deal.... Lighthizer held dozens of meetings on the Hill to narrow down the list of concerns from Democrats on everything ranging from seasonal produce to duty-free thresholds. That's when Democrats focused their demands for changes on four central issues: enforcement, labor and environmental standards and drug pricing provisions.... '... we stayed on this, and we ate their lunch,' Pelosi told Democrats at a closed-door caucus meeting Tuesday."

Michael Sisak of the AP: "... Donald Trump is paying up after conceding that he used his charitable foundation at times as a personal piggy bank. Trump has wired $2 million to pay a court-ordered fine for misusing the Trump Foundation in part to further his business interests and 2016 presidential run, New York Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday. The money will be distributed to eight charities. About $1.8 million left in the Trump Foundation's bank account was also split among the nonprofits getting fine money, along with $11,525 that Trump paid back for spending foundation money on sports memorabilia and champagne at a charity gala. New York state Judge Saliann Scarpulla imposed the penalty last month after Trump admitted to a series of abuses outlined in a lawsuit brought against him last year by James' office."

Do as I Say, Not as I Do. Matthew Lee & Jill Colvin of the AP: "... Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday targeting antisemitism on college campuses, the White House said. The order, which is likely to draw criticism from free speech advocates, will broaden the federal government's definition of antisemitism and instruct it to be used in enforcing laws against discrimination on college campuses, according to three U.S. officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly preview the move. Trump has been accused of trafficking in anti-Semitic tropes, including comments about Jews and money. But he has also closely aligned himself with Israel, including moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and taking a hard line against Iran." The New York Times story is here.

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in El Paso on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration's plan to pay for border barrier construction with $3.6 billion in military funds, ruling that the administration does not have the authority to divert money appropriated by Congress for a different purpose. The Trump administration was planning to use those funds to build 175 miles of steel barriers, and the court's permanent injunction is a setback for Trump's pledge to erect 450 linear miles of fencing by the end of next year. District Court Judge David Briones, a Bill Clinton appointee, said in his ruling that the administration's attempt to reprogram military construction funds by emergency proclamation was unlawful and that the plaintiffs in the case were entitled to a permanent injunction halting the government." A CNN report is here.

Courtney Kube & Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "The Pentagon inspector general has launched a review to determine whether the U.S. military deployment to the southern border is legal, according to a Department of Defense memo obtained by NBC News. The review was opened three months after 30 members of Congress requested an investigation into whether the deployment violates a law that prohibits active duty military troops from carrying out law enforcement duties inside the U.S.... Troop levels at the border, including both active-duty military and the National Guard, have at times surpassed 5,000 since ... Donald Trump began deploying them there in the fall of 2018. The current tally is 6,500, a number that will drop once a troop transition is complete, a Pentagon spokesman said."

Wesley Morgan of Politico: "The Navy has grounded more than 300 Saudi military exchange students from flight training, the service said Tuesday. The move comes after a Saudi student pilot killed three U.S. sailors at Naval Air Station Pensacola, the Florida base where he was training.... While the pause in flight operations is of unknown duration, the classroom portion of their training 'will resume this week,' [a Navy spokesperson] said." ~~~

~~~ Jana Winter & Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News: "More than six months before the Dec. 6 shooting at a naval base in Pensacola, Fla., where a Saudi gunman used a weapon obtained using a hunting license exemption, the FBI issued a report warning about precisely this loophole. The FBI warning, dated May 22 ... encouraged businesses to be aware that 'extremists and other criminal actors could exploit the federal statutory exception that allows non-immigrant visa holders' who normally can't buy firearms or ammunition to legally purchase them 'with a valid hunting license or permit.'"

Presidential Race 2020. Elena Schneider of Politico: "Pete Buttigieg released a list of nine clients, including corporations and government agencies, he worked for during his tenure at McKinsey and Company, as his campaign tries to suppress attacks on his brief business record.... During his two and a half years at McKinsey, Buttigieg's clients included Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the state's largest private health insurance provider. Other clients were Loblaws, a Canadian supermarket chain; the electronics retailer Best Buy; the Energy Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, two environmental nonprofits; and several government agencies: the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Postal Service." A New York Times story is here.

Congressional Race 2020. O No, No Yoho! Chandelis Duster of CNN: "Florida Republican Rep. Ted Yoho announced on Tuesday he will not seek another term, saying he will 'pass the baton onto a new generation' and honoring his campaign promise not to serve more than four terms." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Monday
Dec092019

The Commentariat -- December 10, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

O No, No Yoho! Chandelis Duster of CNN: "Florida Republican Rep. Ted Yoho announced on Tuesday he will not seek another term, saying he will 'pass the baton onto a new generation' wortand honoring his campaign promise not to serve more than four terms."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors on Tuesday recommended that former deputy Trump campaign chairman Rick Gates serve no prison time, citing his 'extraordinary assistance' in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia investigation, according to a new court filing. Prosecutors said his cooperation is continuing, without making details public."

Niv Elis of the Hill: "House Democrats and the White House have struck a deal on a historic trade deal to update the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Tuesday. Pelosi announced the deal on a head spinning day in Washington just one hou after she joined Democrats in setting out two articles of impeachment against Trump." Mrs. McC: Pelosi emphasized that the deal was much better for American workers than the deal Trump struck a year ago, and she thanked AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka for his assistance throughout the process. "The AFL-CIO announced Tuesday it would back the trade agreement...." Update: The New York Times report, which has far more detail, is here. ~~~

~~~ David Lynch of the Washington Post: "House Democrats took credit Tuesday for rewriting key parts of President Trump's new North American trade deal to include new protections for workers' rights and to scrap a provision they said would have led to high prescription drug prices. 'There is no question that this trade agreement is much better than NAFTA. It is infinitely better than what was initially proposed by the administration,' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking hours before representatives of the U.S., Mexico and Canada are expected to sign the revised deal at a meeting in Mexico City. 'We're declaring victory for the American worker.' In a major win for the Trump administration, the nation's largest labor federation backed the compromise.... [AFL-CIO President Richard] Trumka called the revised accord 'a vast improvement over both the original NAFTA and the flawed proposal brought forward in 2017.' The agreement is the first to include 'enforceable labor standards,' which will include inspections of suspect manufacturing sites in Mexico, he said. In a series of Twitter posts Tuesday, Trump hailed the breakthrough." Mrs. McC: ... with ridiculous hyperbole.

~~~~~~~~~~

** Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "House Democratic leaders announced on Tuesday that they would move ahead this week with two articles of impeachment against President Trump charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, accusing him of violating the Constitution when he pressed Ukraine for help in the 2020 election. Speaking from a wood-paneled reception room just off the floor of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and leaders of several key committees said that Mr. Trump's actions toward Ukraine, and his efforts to block Congress's attempt to investigate, had left them no choice but to pursue one of the Constitution's gravest remedies. The move will bring a sitting president to the brink of impeachment for only the fourth time in American history."

Andrew Desiderio, et al., of Politico: "House Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment, accusing ... Donald Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Judiciary Committee is slated to vote on the articles later this week, setting up a full House vote next week.In a news conference announcing the articles Tuesday morning, Democrats said Trump put his personal political interests over U.S. national security by pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rivals." This is a breaking update of an earlier report. The breaking Washington Post story is here.

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "House Democrats delivered a scathing summation of their impeachment case against President Trump on Monday, arguing that the president's conduct posed a 'clear and present danger' to the 2020 election and national security. In a contentious hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Democratic lawyers told lawmakers drafting impeachment articles that the evidence against Mr. Trump was overwhelming and urgent. Summarizing the findings of a two-month investigation by the Intelligence Committee, they asserted that the president had put his personal political interests above those of the nation in soliciting re-election help from Ukraine, and then tried to conceal his actions from Congress.... The presentations by [Intel Committee lawyer Daniel] Goldman and a Democratic lawyer for the Judiciary Committee will form the basis for a debate in the committee, expected to begin as soon as Wednesday, over articles of impeachment charging a president with high crimes and misdemeanors...."

Rachel Bade, et al., of the Washington Post: "Democrats are expected to unveil two articles of impeachment against President Trump on Tuesday that will focus on abuse of power and obstructing Congress and would be voted on by the full House next week, according to three officials familiar with the matter. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and other committee chairmen Monday night after a nine-hour hearing in which a Democratic counsel laid out the party's case against Trump. The three officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks, cautioned that the plan had not been finalized. Leaving a meeting with Pelosi, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) told reporters that he and the chairmen of other House committees would announce specific articles at a news conference at 9 a.m. Tuesday." The AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "The Judiciary Committee plans to vote on the articles on Thursday, setting up a vote on the House floor next week to make Trump the third president in history to be impeached. The markup will be the last major step before the House votes to formally impeach Trump."

Jonathan Chait: "The House Republican impeachment defense of President Trump has been an experiment in pointillistic surrealism, in which disconnected pieces of information -- some true, some false -- are slushed together into a dreamlike haze in which nothing is certain. The most emblematic moment in this defense came during Monday's impeachment hearings when Steve Castor, the Republican lead counsel, answered a series of simple, obvious questions about President Trump's motives to discredit Joe Biden. Or at least the questions were expected to be simple and obvious. In Castor's hands, they were rendered obtuse and enigmatic. 'Would you agree that Joe Biden was a leading contender to face President Trump in 2020?,' asked the Democratic lawyer. Castor shook his head, 'I wouldn't agree with that.'... Castor refused even to concede that Trump had asked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens." Mrs. McC: Castor was testifying under oath.

MEANWHILE, in the Gallery.... Melissa Quinn of CBS News: "An Infowars host interrupted the opening minutes of the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearing on Monday, accusing Chairman Jerry Nadler and other Democrats of committing 'treason' while declaring President Trump innocent. The protester, Owen Shroyer, began shouting just seconds after Nadler gaveled in the hearing and posted live video of the interruption to his Twitter feed.... Shroyer is the host of 'The War Room' on Infowars, the fringe outlet that traffics in right-wing conspiracy theories." Mrs. McC: Shame on the Gestapo-style capitol police for violating Shroyer's First Amendment rights & all. In fairness, they did give him copy for his show.

The Justice Department's Inspector General's Report

Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the Washington Post: "A long-awaited Justice Department inspector general's report examining the FBI's investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia rebuts allegations of illegal spying and that political bias played a role in the probe begun ahead of the 2016 election, but finds serious faults in other areas, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Washington Post. The inspector general concludes that the FBI had an 'authorized purpose' to initiate the investigation and that the bureau's use of confidential informants was in compliance with the rules. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said the inspector general had 'completely demolished' some of conservatives' assertions about the origins of the probe, though his investigators did find some problems.... In particular, he said the inspector general had rebutted claims that Trump campaign advisers were illegally surveilled or entrapped, or that political motive was 'in any way a factor.' But the report also faults the FBI for 'significant inaccuracies and omissions' in the FBI's applications to secretly monitor a former Trump campaign adviser [Carter Page] and asserts that agents 'failed to meet the basic obligation' to ensure the applications were 'scrupulously accurate.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ A pdf of the report, via the Justice Department, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Charlie Savage & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A long-awaited report by the Justice Department's inspector general released on Monday sharply criticized the F.B.I.'s handling of a wiretap application used in the early stages of its Russia investigation but exonerated former bureau leaders of President Trump's accusations that they engaged in a politicized conspiracy to sabotage him. Investigators uncovered 'no documentary or testimonial evidence' of political bias behind official actions related to the investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, said the report, which totaled more than 400 pages. The F.B.I. had sufficient evidence in July 2016 to lawfully open the investigation, and its use of informants to approach campaign aides followed procedures, the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, determined.... The findings on the wiretap application showed that when it mattered most -- with the stakes the greatest and no room for error -- F.B.I. officials still made numerous and serious mistakes in wielding a powerful surveillance tool. Mr. Horowitz's discovery calls into question the bureau's surveillance practices in routine cases without such high-stakes political implications." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Politico's Headline: "Watchdog report rips FBI handling of Russia probe." Josh Gerstein: "A highly anticipated Justice Department review of the origins of the federal investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia found no direct evidence of political bias in the launching of the probe, but identified an embarrassing slew of inaccuracies and omissions by the FBI that marred requests for court-ordered surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser. The report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz also revealed for the first time that the FBI used a confidential source to approach an unidentified high-level Trump campaign official in September 2016 who was never the subject of any investigation. The approach revealed nothing of value to the probe, the review found." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

Bill Barr's Hail Trump

     ~~~ AND Bill Barr really did not care for Horowitz's main conclusion. Gerstein: "Attorney General Bill Barr endorsed Horowitz's critique of the FBI's handling of the surveillance process, but rejected the inspector general's conclusion that the FBI had an adequate 'predicate' for the decision to launch the investigation into the Trump campaign in July 2016. 'The Inspector General's report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken,' Barr said in a statement. 'It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory. Nevertheless, the investigation and surveillance was pushed forward for the duration of the campaign and deep into President Trump's administration.'" Mrs. McC: IOW, "I'm pissed off Horowitz doesn't back up my fake 'spying' claim." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Barr's full statement is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ AND Barr Swats at Christopher Steele. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr recently approved making public new details about a former F.B.I. informant at the heart of conservatives' allegations about the Russia investigation, deciding to release information that had been blacked out in ... [the] inspector general's report.... A representative from the office of the Justice Department inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, told the former F.B.I. informant, Christopher Steele, on Sunday that the Justice Department had decided to allow for the release of the information, two people briefed on the situation said late on Sunday. Mr. Steele was given no details about the information itself, nor was he told how it would affect the report's portrayal of him, the people said.... The notice to Mr. Steele on the eve of the report's release was highly unusual. Like the other witnesses interviewed for the inspector general's report, Mr. Steele had earlier reviewed the findings that are pertinent to him, and he was given a chance to comment on them. In this case, Mr. Horowitz's office did not detail for him the additional information and gave him no opportunity to respond for the report to be released on Monday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Julia Macfarlane of ABC News: "In 2007, Ivanka Trump met [Christopher] Steele at a dinner and they began corresponding about the possibility of future work together.... The following year, the two exchanged emails about meeting up near Trump Tower, according to several emails seen by ABC News. And the two did meet at Trump Tower.... The inspector general's report mentions a meeting with a 'Trump family member' there. They suggest Ivanka Trump and Steele stayed in touch via emails over the next several years. In one 2008 exchange they discussed dining together in New York at a restaurant just blocks from Trump Tower. Ivanka Trump worked as an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, managing a range of foreign real estate projects, including in parts of the world where Steele's firm, Orbis Business Intelligence touted expertise.... In his discussion with investigators from the inspector general'office, Steele cited his past cordial relationship with Ivanka Trump as reason to believe that he was not biased against her. 'If anything he was "favorably predisposed" towards the Trump family before he began his research,' he told the investigators, the report says." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Mr. Barr's willingness to side with Mr. Trump over law enforcement, even when it contradicts his own department's assessments, illustrates why he is one of Mr. Trump's most important allies.... John H. Durham, a federal prosecutor whom Mr. Barr appointed to run a separate criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, backed Mr. Barr's findings in his own highly unusual statement. 'Last month we advised the inspector general that we do not agree with some of the report's conclusions as to predication and how the F.B.I. case was opened,' Mr. Durham said.... Christopher A. Wray, the director of the F.B.I., said that he accepted all of the report's findings, including that officials had enough reason to open the investigation, as did other F.B.I. defenders." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In his statement, Durham also said, "Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report's conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened." You might want to read Benner's respectful "highly unusual" characterization (in both her reports linked above) as "highly politicized." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

AND Trump (Of Course) Claims that White Is Black and Down Is Up. Shannon Pettypiece of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said Monday that a new Justice Department report that found a solid legal basis for the original FBI investigation of his 2016 campaign had actually documented an 'attempted overthrow' of the government that was 'far worse than I ever thought possible.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Re: safari's comment below, here's video of Trump's, Bondi's & Conway's responses to the IG report.

** Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: DOJ Inspector general Michael Horowitz's report "debunked a number of conspiracy theories advanced by the president or his allies over the last several years. Here are some of the top claims refuted by Horowitz's report. The Steele dossier didn't play a role in opening the Russia probe.... Neither did Lisa Page or Peter Strzok.... [President] Obama never wiretapped Trump Tower.... The FBI didn't implant spies in Trump's campaign.... Joseph Mifsud was never an FBI informant[.]"

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Justin Wise of the Hill: "Former FBI Director James Comey said Monday that 'Fox & Friends' canceled his scheduled appearance on the show after the release of a watchdog report that concluded FBI agents were not motivated by political bias when they launched investigations into associates of President Trump during the 2016 campaign. Comey said on Twitter that he had offered to appear on the morning program to answer all of the hosts' questions related to the highly anticipated Justice Department inspector general report. 'They booked me for tomorrow at 8 am. They just cancelled. Must have read the report,' said Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017.... A Fox News spokesperson denied Comey's allegation, saying in a statement to The Hill that he 'was not booked and was never confirmed to appear on Fox & Friends.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Comey has an op-ed in the Washington Post lauding the report. Mrs. McC: I anticipated Comey's take would be a pile of gloat, but he actually makes good points. For instance: "Unfortunately, it appears that Barr will continue his practice of deriding the Justice Department when the facts don't agree with Trump's fiction. Pointing to his personally commissioned 'review' of the FBI's case-opening, Barr has declared it is too soon to conclude that the FBI was right to start an investigation. If his goal is simply to support the president's conspiracy theories, it will always be too soon to acknowledge the facts."

** The Remarkably Ephemeral Deep-State Conspiracy against Donald Trump. Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: “President Trump and his allies spent months promising that a report on the origins of the F.B.I.'s Russia investigation would be a kind of Rosetta Stone for Trump-era conspiracy enthusiasts -- the key to unlocking the secrets of a government plot to keep Mr. Trump from being elected in 2016. On that point, the report by the Justice Department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, did not deliver, even as it found serious problems with how F.B.I. officials justified the surveillance of a Trump campaign aide to a federal court. But by the time it was released, the president, his attorney general, his supporters in Congress and the conservative news media had already declared victory and decamped for the next battle in the wider war to convince Americans of the enemies at home and abroad arrayed against the Trump presidency. They followed a script they have used for nearly three years: Engage in a choreographed campaign of presidential tweets, Fox News appearances and fiery congressional testimony to create expectations about finding proof of a 'deep state' campaign against Mr. Trump. And then, when the proof does not emerge, skew the results and prepare for the next opportunity to execute the playbook." ~~~

~~~ Josh Kovensky of TPM: "Attorney General Bill Barr scrambled on Monday to keep a main anti-DOJ conspiracy theory going, after Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a 476-page report finding that the FBI was justified in opening its Trump-Russia investigation." ~~~

~~~ Paul Waldman & Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "... the Trump argument has been that the entire investigation was built on top of deeply nefarious motives -- that is, that the 'deep state' was corruptly conspiring to prevent Trump from being elected president -- and that it all was illegitimate. This was the argument of the president of the United States: that a law enforcement investigation into a foreign attack on our democracy was a 'hoax' and a 'witch hunt.'... [that] the real crime wasn't Russian sabotage of our election but the effort to investigate it. The inspector general report just wrecked numerous claims that Trump and his propagandists have made to justify that narrative. Perhaps this is why Attorney General William P. Barr, who has been himself working to invalidate that investigation, rushed to Trump's rescue.... There is no need to grant Barr even the slightest presumption of good faith...."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "FBI Director Christopher Wray said Monday that the bureau is implementing more than 40 'corrective steps' in response to a Department of Justice inspector general report on the investigation into the Trump campaign and 2016 election interference. The report found the FBI's decision to launch and carry out the investigation targeting four Trump campaign officials was not affected by political bias, a conclusion Wray highlighted while also noting the bureau fully cooperated with the nearly two-year internal review by Inspector General Michael Horowitz. The report was, however, critical of certain aspects of the FBI's handling of the investigation[.]" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Pierre Thomas & Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "In a ... broadcast interview with ABC News, [FBI Director Christopher] Wray lamented 'actions described in this report that [he] considered unacceptable and unrepresentative of who we are as an institution.' But, he said it was 'important that the inspector general found that, in this particular instance, the investigation was opened with appropriate predication and authorization.'" Mrs. McC: So far, Wray is the only Trump administration official who has responded appropriately to the IG's report. ~~~

     ~~~ So Naturally.... Allan Smith of NBC News: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted his 'current' FBI Director Christopher Wray -- whom the president appointed -- after the bureau head accepted the key finding of the Justice Department inspector general's report into the origins of the investigation into Trump's campaign and Russia.... 'I don't know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn't the one given to me,' tweeted Trump.... 'With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!'" ~~~

     ~~~ John Wagner & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post on Trump's knocking Chris Wray. "In earlier tweets Tuesday, Trump selectively highlighted findings from the inspector general's report by quoting Fox News commentators who said it documented 'very serious misconduct.'"

Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "The FBI had barely closed a politically volcanic investigation into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when it got a troubling tip about her rival's presidential campaign. On July 28, 2016, the bureau received information from an Australian diplomat, who said a Donald Trump campaign aide had 'suggested the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia' that Moscow could anonymously release damaging information about Clinton, according to the long-awaited Justice Department inspector general's report released Monday. The tip, vague as it was, shook senior FBI officials, who were already investigating suspected Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, including the theft of emails from the Democratic National Committee. Three days later, the FBI took the momentous decision to open a counterintelligence investigation of a presidential campaign, as the election season entered the home stretch.... Andrew McCabe, then the FBI's deputy director, said it was a 'tipping point' in the investigation of Russian interference. The decision to open Crossfire Hurricane, on July 31, was unanimous, McCabe said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: But here's a question: is the FBI investigating Trump's meddling in the 2020 election? If not, why not? Bill Barr? We know DOJ & FBI are investigating the Three Stooges, but what about the guy who directed their operation? We also know DOJ shut down one inquiry into Trump's phone call with President Zelensky, but there's more to the scheme/conspiracy than the narrow matter DOJ rejected. Trump's jerking around Ukraine is essentially an extension of his cooperation with Russia in the 2016 election, and it has all the hallmarks of 2016 intervention, only worse, because this time Trump used the levers of the federal government to carry out his Ukraine scam.


Trump Is Nuts, Ctd. James Walker of Newsweek: "... Donald Trump put out more than 100 tweets on Sunday, sharing attacks on the impeachment inquiry with his 67 million followers. The commander-in-chief tweeted a total of 105 times yesterday, or a little more than four times per hour on average, with most of his activity taking place between 10 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. The majority of his posts were retweets of content posted by other Twitter users. Trump's tweets and re-posts on the platform were largely aimed at the impeachment process and Democrats leading the inquiry, but CNN and MMA fighter Tito Ortiz were also mentioned by the president." Mrs. McC: I think I've found the 400-pound man sitting on his bed. He's not in New Jersey; he's in Washington, D.C., and he's not hacking; he's tweeting. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Is a Bigot, Ctd. Paul Krugman: "On Saturday Donald Trump gave a speech to the Israeli American Council in which he asserted that many in his audience were 'not nice people at all,' but that 'you have to vote for me' because Democrats would raise their taxes. Was he peddling an anti-Semitic stereotype, portraying Jews as money-grubbing types who care only about their wealth? Of course he was. You might possibly make excuses for his remarks if they were an isolated instance, but in fact Trump has done this sort of thing many times.... This particular anti-Semitic cliché -- that Jews are greedy, and that their political behavior is especially driven by their financial interests -- is empirically dead wrong. In fact, American Jews are much more liberal than you might expect given their economic situation.... The Trump administration is, beyond any reasonable doubt, an anti-democratic, white nationalist regime. And while it is not (yet) explicitly anti-Semitic, many of its allies are...."

Party on, Bill Barr. Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "Attorney General William P. Barr had planned to hold a 200-person holiday party at the Trump hotel in Washington Sunday night, but the event was rescheduled, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman. The spokeswoman declined to say when the event would take place but said it would still be at the Trump International Hotel, a choice that prompted critics to question Barr's independence from Trump, who still profits from his business while in office. Barr has been a key defender of President Trump, including Monday when he criticized an inspector general's report examining the FBI's investigation into possible coordination between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. Twice this week, Justice Department attorneys are defending Trump in court against suits claiming the president illegally benefits from his business while in office." Mrs. McC: Bill Barr is giving the middle finger to every single American who has at least a vague belief that the legal underpinnings of our system of government, however imperfectly executed, is what sets the U.S. apart from banana republics.

Maggie Miller of the Hill: "The National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) published a draft report addressed to President Trump this week that found cyber threats to critical infrastructure pose an 'existential threat' to national security, and recommended 'bold action' in response. The NIAC, which is made up of industry officials and those from state and local governments involved in critical infrastructure, including former National Security Agency Deputy Director Richard Ledgett, strongly urged Trump to take action to protect energy, communications, and financial critical infrastructure.... The report found that China, Iran, and Russia have the ability to launch disruptive cyber attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, with [former Director of National Intelligence Dan] Coats noting specifically that 'Moscow is mapping our critical infrastructure with the long-term goal of being able to cause substantial damage.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race 2020

Reid Epstein & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Mayor Pete Buttigieg will disclose his management consulting clients, open his fund-raisers to reporters and reveal the names of people raising money for his presidential campaign, his campaign announced Monday, a series of significant concessions toward transparency for a candidate under increasing pressure to release more details about his personal employment history and campaign finances. announcements follow several days of intense questioning surrounding Mr. Buttigieg's work for McKinsey & Company, the management consulting firm that was his first post-college employer. The company said on Monday that it would allow Mr. Buttigieg to disclose the clients he worked for at the firm from 2007 to 2009, acceding to a request the Buttigieg campaign made last month and the candidate himself amplified in public last week."

Joe Can't Handle the Truth. Eric Levitz of New York: Hunter Biden's "work in Ukraine is unquestionably undermining his father's campaign. President Trump sees Burisma as the 'emails' of 2020: A story of mundane impropriety around which right-wing media can build an elaborate, incendiary conspiracy theory that energizes the GOP base and conveys a vague impression of Democratic corruption to low-information swing voters.... Yet [Joe] Biden has not bothered to prepare credible, coherent answers to those questions. In fact, the Democratic front-runner can't even respond to the most predictable queries on the issue without flying into a barely concealed rage.... The fact that Biden still can't answer reasonable questions about his candidacy's chief liability is completely disqualifying.... As the Democratic Party's standard-bearer, reciting polite, polished talking points about Hunter and Burisma will be a core responsibility of Biden's job. And by all appearances, he is unable or unwilling to do that." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's worth reading the whole post to get a handle on just how bad are Joe Biden's "answers" to questions about Hunter's Ukraine gambit. Levitz's post is akin to what P.D. Pepe & I discussed in the Comments last week, although Levitz goes further in arguing that Joe's lame responses are disqualifying. Joe Biden did not run for president in 2016 because of his sorrow over his son Beau's death. He should not run in 2020 because of his love for his son Hunter. And Barack Obama should do the right thing & urge Joe to drop out of the race. Step up, Barry.

Marianne Williamson, on the Other Hand, Is So Qualified. Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "Marianne Williamson took to Twitter early on Monday morning to express her horror at what she called President Trump's latest 'deeply sinister move. 'There is something deeply sinister about Trump pardoning Charles Manson, even posthumously,' the self-help guru and Democratic presidential candidate tweeted to her 2.8 million followers. 'Dog whistles of the very worst possible kind ...' -- excep that it never happened. In fact, since the murderous cult leader, who died in 2017, was convicted of California state criminal charges, Trump couldn't issue him a pardon even if he wanted to. Williamson later posted a follow-up tweet apologizing and noting that she was 'Glad To have been wrong.' But she soon deleted both the original tweet and the apology." Mrs. McC: It is so sexist & wrong to call women ditzy. Williamson is ditzy.

Congressional Races, Republican Style

Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: Businessman Omar Navarro, "a perennial Republican House candidate whose doomed bids against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) have become a cause celebre on the right, was arrested Saturday on three felony charges.... San Francisco police arrested Navarro on Saturday night, after he was allegedly seen near ex-girlfriend DeAnna Lorraine Tesoriero's apartment. Tesoriero, a self-styled MAGA relationship expert who is running a quixotic congressional run of her own against Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), told The Daily Beast that she saw Navarro skulking outside her home late at night. Tesoriero said she then received a text from an unknown number with the message, 'Bitch, I came to see you.'... Navarro complained that, by calling the police on him, Tesoriero had violated Ronald Reagan's '11th Commandment,' an often-cited GOP precept warning Republicans not to criticize one another publicly." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course it's wrong to "criticize" a stalker. And you wonder why Republicans can't win in California. The best they've got are junior spy & walking nuisance-suit Devin Nunes & criminal Duncan Hunter. Just out of curiosity, why hasn't House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, another sterling California GOP rep, forced Hunter to resign? Katie Hill resigned under less serious circumstances, & Pelosi sure didn't beg her to stay on.

Patrick Spivek of the Texas Tribune: "Ronny Jackson, the former White House doctor and ... Donald Trump's onetime nominee to be secretary of veterans affairs, is running to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon[, Texas]. With hours until the filing deadline, Jackson, a former Navy rear admiral, arrived at the Texas GOP headquarters in Austin on Monday afternoon to submit paperwork for the seat. Trump nominated Jackson last year to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, but he withdrew from consideration amid allegations of professional misconduct, including drinking on the job and overprescribing medication. He called the accusations 'completely false and fabricated.' After the nomination debacle, Jackson continued to work for the White House medical unit but not as the president's personal doctor. Jackson previously served as physician to Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama. Jackson retired from the Navy earlier this month, according to CNN, which said the retirement came even as the Defense Department's inspector general was still probing the allegations against him.... Jackson is at least the 13th candidate to enter the Republican primary for the ruby-red seat...." Jackson does not live in the Congressional district in which he is running.


Supremes Uphold Kentucky Law that Doctors Must Shame & Harass Women. David Li of NBC News: "The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a Kentucky law, mandating doctors perform ultrasounds and show fetal images to patients before they can perform abortions. The high court declined, without comment, to hear an appeal brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the state's lone abortion clinic. The Kentucky law, which requires a doctor to describe an ultrasound in detail while a pregnant woman hears the fetal heartbeat, was passed in 2017.... The ACLU had argued that the Kentucky statute had no medical basis and was designed only to coerce a woman into opting out of having an abortion." Mrs. McC: And that's your Trump/Roberts Supreme Court.

** Ben Holland of Bloomberg, republished in Yahoo! News: "Support for write-offs has been driven by Democratic presidential candidates. Elizabeth Warren says she'd cancel most of the $1.6 trillion in U.S. student loans. Bernie Sanders would go further -- erasing the whole lot, as well as $81 billion in medical debt. But it's coming from other directions too. In October, one of the Trump administration's senior student-loan officials resigned, calling for wholesale write-offs and describing the American way of paying for higher education as nuts.... The idea that debt can grow faster than the ability to repay, until it unbalances a society, was well understood thousands of years ago, according to Michael Hudson, an economist and historian. Last year he published 'And Forgive Them Their Debts,' a study of the Near East in biblical times and even earlier. That's where the tradition known as a 'jubilee' -- wiping the debt-slate clean -- has its roots. Rulers weren't motivated by charity, Hudson says. They were being pragmatic -- trying to make sure that citizens could meet their own needs and contribute to public projects, instead of just laboring to pay creditors. And it worked, he says. 'Societies that canceled the debts enjoyed stable growth for thousands of years.'"

Binyamin Appelbaum & Robert Hershey of the New York Times: "Paul A. Volcker, who helped shape American economic policy for more than six decades, most notably by leading the Federal Reserve's brute-force campaign to subdue inflation in the late 1970s and early '80s, died on Sunday in New York. He was 92.... MrVolcker, a towering, taciturn and somewhat rumpled figure, arrived in Washington as America's postwar economic hegemony was beginning to crumble. He would devote his professional life to wrestling with the consequences. As a Treasury Department official under Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon, Mr. Volcker waged a long, losing struggle to preserve the postwar international monetary system established by the Bretton Woods agreement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Emily Holden, et al., of the Guardian: "Executives at one of the world's largest utilities companies knew that families in Flint, Michigan, might be at risk of being poisoned by lead in their tap water months before the city publicly admitted the problem, according to internal company emails. Email exchanges in February 2015 between executives at Veolia and a city contractor show some senior employees were aware that lead from the city's pipes could be leaching into drinking water. They argued that city officials should be told to change Flint's water supply to protect residents. But the company never made that recommendation public. At the time, Veolia was exploring other lucrative contracts with the city."

New York. Oh. Josh Barro of New York: "There have been an awful lot of unwarranted victory laps in the last few days by opponents of New York's Amazon HQ2 subsidy deal. They point to the new lease Amazon has signed for office space on the West Side of Manhattan and ask, What would have been the point of giving Amazon $3 billion when it was going to do it for free all along? For the record, I didn't favor the Amazon subsidy deal, either.... But I still realize that what we're getting now is not at all what we would have gotten if the deal had gone through. This is a lease for about 300,000 square feet in an existing building to support 1,500 jobs in Manhattan. Under the subsidy proposal, Amazon intended to develop approximately 4 million square feet of new office space in Queens. It would have had to create 25,000 jobs to unlock the full subsidy package."

Way Beyond

Russia/Ukraine. Vladimir Isachenkov, et al., of the AP: "The presidents of Ukraine and Russia agreed Monday to revive the peace process on the bloody separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine and exchange all their prisoners, but they failed to resolve crucial issues such as a timeline on local elections and control of the borders in the rebel-held region. At the first meeting between new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the two leaders failed to find a compromise to bring an end to the 5-year-old war that has killed 14,000 people, emboldened the Kremlin and reshaped European geopolitics. But they did agree to try again in four months to find new solutions, said French President Emmanuel Macron, who mediated the talks along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and called them 'fruitful' in that it brought all four leaders together." The Washington Post story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Gee, why wasn't the leader of Ukraine's great ally, the U.S.A., at the table cheering on Zelensky?

Russia. Paul MacInnes of the Guardian: "Russia has been handed a four-year ban from international sporting competition for a doping cover-up that means the country will not feature at the Tokyo Olympics next summer or the 2022 football World Cup in Qatar. An emergency meeting of the World Anti-Doping Agency on Monday unanimously voted to exclude Russia and also prevent it from hosting or bidding to host any global tournaments. The ban was imposed by Wada's executive committee after Russia was found to have tampered with laboratory data handed over to Wada as a condition for ending a previous three-year ban for state-sponsored doping." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

NJ.com: "A shooting in Jersey City[, New Jersey,] has left multiple people dead, including a police officer, following an hours-long standoff at a food store. Two suspects and three civilians are dead in addition to the police officer, a 40-year-old married father of several children. The shooting is not believed to have been a terrorism attack. 'We have no inkling what the motive was yet,' Jersey City Police Chief Michael Kelly said at a Tuesday evening press conference. 'Our officers were under fire for hours.' Kelly said the civilians killed inside the store were killed by the suspects."

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Sunday
Dec082019

The Commentariat -- December 9, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the Washington Post: "A long-awaited Justice Department inspector general's report examining the FBI's investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia rebuts allegations of illegal spying and that political bias played a role in the probe begun ahead of the 2016 election, but finds serious faults in other areas, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Washington Post. The inspector general concludes that the FBI had an 'authorized purpose' to initiate the investigation and that the bureau's use of confidential informants was in compliance with the rules. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said the inspector general had 'completely demolished' some of conservatives' assertions about the origins of the probe, though his investigators did find some problems.... In particular, he said the inspector general had rebutted claims that Trump campaign advisers were illegally surveilled or entrapped, or that political motive was 'in any way a factor.' But the report also faults the FBI for 'significant inaccuracies and omissions' in the FBI's applications to secretly monitor a former Trump campaign adviser [Carter Page] and asserts that agents 'failed to meet the basic obligation' to ensure the applications were 'scrupulously accurate.'" ~~~

~~~ A pdf of the report, via the Justice Department, is here. ~~~

~~~ Charlie Savage & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A long-awaited report by the Justice Department's inspector general released on Monday sharply criticized the F.B.I.'s handling of a wiretap application used in the early stages of its Russia investigation but exonerated former bureau leaders of President Trump's accusations that they engaged in a politicized conspiracy to sabotage him. Investigators uncovered 'no documentary or testimonial evidence' of political bias behind official actions related to the investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, said the report, which totaled more than 400 pages. The F.B.I. had sufficient evidence in July 2016 to lawfully open the investigation, and its use of informants to approach campaign aides followed procedures, the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz determined.... The findings on the wiretap application showed that when it mattered most -- with the stakes the greatest and no room for error -- F.B.I. officials still made numerous and serious mistakes in wielding a powerful surveillance tool. Mr. Horowitz's discovery calls into question the bureau's surveillance practices in routine cases without such high-stakes political implications." ~~~

~~~ Politico's Headline: "Watchdog report rips FBI handling of Russia probe." Josh Gerstein: "A highly anticipated Justice Department review of the origins of the federal investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia found no direct evidence of political bias in the launching of the probe, but identified an embarrassing slew of inaccuracies and omissions by the FBI that marred requests for court-ordered surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser. The report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz also revealed for the first time that the FBI used a confidential source to approach an unidentified high-level Trump campaign official in September 2016 who was never the subject of any investigation. The approach revealed nothing of value to the probe, the review found." ~~~

     ~~~ AND Bill Barr really did not care for Horowitz's main conclusion. Gerstein: "Attorney General Bill Barr endorsed Horowitz's critique of the FBI's handling of the surveillance process, but rejected the inspector general's conclusion that the FBI had an adequate 'predicate' for the decision to launch the investigation into the Trump campaign in July 2016. 'The Inspector General's report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken,' Barr said in a statement. 'It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory. Nevertheless, the investigation and surveillance was pushed forward for the duration of the campaign and deep into President Trump's administration.'" Mrs. McC: IOW, "I'm pissed off Horowitz doesn't back up my fake 'spying' claim." ~~~

     ~~~ Barr's full statement is here. ~~~

~~~ AND Barr Swats at Christopher Steele. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr recently approved making public new details about a former F.B.I. informant at the heart of conservatives' allegations about the Russia investigation, deciding to release information that had been blacked out in ... [the] inspector general's report.... A representative from the office of the Justice Department inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, told the former F.B.I. informant, Christopher Steele, on Sunday that the Justice Department had decided to allow for the release of the information, two people briefed on the situation said late on Sunday. Mr. Steele was given no details about the information itself, nor was he told how it would affect the report's portrayal of him, the people said.... The notice to Mr. Steele on the eve of the report's release was highly unusual. Like the other witnesses interviewed for the inspector general's report, Mr. Steele had earlier reviewed the findings that are pertinent to him, and he was given a chance to comment on them. In this case, Mr. Horowitz's office did not detail for him the additional information and gave him no opportunity to respond for the report to be released on Monday." ~~~

     ~~~ Julia Macfarlane of ABC News: "In 2007, Ivanka Trump met [Christopher] Steele at a dinner and they began corresponding about the possibility of future work together.... The following year, the two exchanged emails about meeting up near Trump Tower, according to several emails seen by ABC News. And the two did meet at Trump Tower.... The inspector general's report mentions a meeting with a 'Trump family member' there. They suggest Ivanka Trump and Steele stayed in touch via emails over the next several years. In one 2008 exchange they discussed dining together in New York at a restaurant just blocks from Trump Tower. Ivanka Trump worked as an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, managing a range of foreign real estate projects, including in parts of the world where Steele'firm, Orbis Business Intelligence touted expertise.... In his discussion with investigators from the inspector general's office, Steele cited his past cordial relationship with Ivanka Trump as reason to believe that he was not biased against her. 'If anything he was "favorably predisposed" towards the Trump family before he began his research,' he told the investigators, the report says."

~~~ Katie Benner: "John H. Durham, a federal prosecutor whom Mr. Barr appointed to run a separate criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, backed Mr. Barr's findings in his own highly unusual statement. 'Last month we advised the inspector general that we do not agree with some of the report's conclusions as to predication and how the F.B.I. case was opened,' Mr. Durham said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In his statement, Durham also said, "Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report's conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened." You can read Benner's respectful "highly unusual" characterization (in both her reports linked above) as "highly politicized." ~~~

     ~~~ AND Trump Claims that White Is Black and Down Is Up. Shannon Pettypiece of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said Monday that a new Justice Department report that found a solid legal basis for the original FBI investigation of his 2016 campaign had actually documented an 'attempted overthrow' of the government that was 'far worse than I ever thought possible.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "FBI Director Christopher Wray said Monday that the bureau is implementing more than 40 'corrective steps' in response to a Department of Justice inspector general report on the investigation into the Trump campaign and 2016 election interference. The report found the FBI's decision to launch and carry out the investigation targeting four Trump campaign officials was not affected by political bias, a conclusion Wray highlighted while also noting the bureau fully cooperated with the nearly two-year internal review by Inspector General Michael Horowitz. The report was, however, critical of certain aspects of the FBI's handling of the investigation[.]" Mrs. McC: So far, Wray is the only Trump administration official who has responded appropriately to the IG's report.

Trump Is Nuts, Ctd. James Walker of Newsweek: "... Donald Trump put out more than 100 tweets on Sunday, sharing attacks on the impeachment inquiry with his 67 million followers. The commander-in-chief tweeted a total of 105 times yesterday, or a little more than four times per hour on average, with most of his activity taking place between 10 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. The majority of his posts were retweets of content posted by other Twitter users. Trump's tweets and re-posts on the platform were largely aimed at the impeachment process and Democrats leading the inquiry, but CNN and MMA fighter Tito Ortiz were also mentioned by the president." Mrs. McC: I think I've found the 400-pound man sitting on his bed. He's not in New Jersey; he's in Washington, D.C., and he's not hacking; he's tweeting.

Maggie Miller of the Hill: "The National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) published a draft report addressed to President Trump this week that found cyber threats to critical infrastructure pose an 'existential threat' to national security, and recommended 'bold action' in response. The NIAC, which is made up of industry officials and those from state and local governments involved in critical infrastructure, including former National Security Agency Deputy Director Richard Ledgett, strongly urged Trump to take action to protect energy, communications, and financial critical infrastructure.... The report found that China, Iran, and Russia have the ability to launch disruptive cyber attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, with [former Director of National Intelligence Dan] Coats noting specifically that 'Moscow is mapping our critical infrastructure with the long-term goal of being able to cause substantial damage.'"

Binyamin Appelbaum & Robert Hershey of the New York Times: "Paul A. Volcker, who helped shape American economic policy for more than six decades, most notably by leading the Federal Reserve's brute-force campaign to subdue inflation in the late 1970s and early '80s, died on Sunday in New York. He was 92.... Mr. Volcker, a towering, taciturn and somewhat rumpled figure, arrived in Washington as America's postwar economic hegemony was beginning to crumble. He would devote his professional life to wrestling with the consequences. As a Treasury Department official under Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon, Mr. Volcker waged a long, losing struggle to preserve the postwar international monetary system established by the Bretton Woods agreement."

Paul MacInnes of the Guardian: "Russia has been handed a four-year ban from international sporting competition for a doping cover-up that means the country will not feature at the Tokyo Olympics next summer or the 2022 football World Cup in Qatar. An emergency meeting of the World Anti-Doping Agency on Monday unanimously voted to exclude Russia and also prevent it from hosting or bidding to host any global tournaments. The ban was imposed by Wada's executive committee after Russia was found to have tampered with laboratory data handed over to Wada as a condition for ending a previous three-year ban for state-sponsored doping."

~~~~~~~~~~

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... the House Judiciary Committee begins to hear evidence [today] from both sides while Democrats draft proposed articles of impeachment charging him with high crimes and misdemeanors for pressuring Ukraine to help him against his domestic political rivals.... the ... Committee begins to hear evidence from both sides while Democrats draft proposed articles of impeachment charging him with high crimes and misdemeanors for pressuring Ukraine to help him against his domestic political rivals.... The morning proceedings start at 9 Eastern in the House Ways and Means Committee chambers. They will most likely last until late in the afternoon." An NPR story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Times snark analysis is here. Good Start: Rogers: "There's a protester accusing Nadler of treason right now. 'We voted for Donald Trump and they're trying to remove him because they don't like him!' the man yells." Fandos: "'Jerry Nadler and the Democrats on this committee are committing treason,' the protester yelled. This is the first time we have seen someone interrupt the proceedings like this. The police just promptly removed him." Includes video live feed. ~~~

     ~~~ ** Update. The Times is reporting the afternoon portion of the hearing here.

     ~~~ Politico is reporting developments here. Includes live video feed. ~~~

~~~ Devan Cole, et al., of CNN: "With sources telling CNN a vote in the Judiciary Committee to impeach ... Donald Trump is expected as soon as this week, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said Sunday that he sees the Ukraine evidence as part of 'a pattern' of conduct by the President. But, in an interview Sunday with CNN's Dana Bash on 'State of the Union,' Nadler would not commit to including the evidence of obstruction of justice outlined in Robert Mueller's special counsel report as part of the articles of impeachment. Nadler said he was confident in Democrats' 'solid' case for impeachment, expressing optimism about the matter as the party moves closer to drafting articles. He thinks his party's case 'if presented to a jury would be a guilty verdict in about three minutes flat.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

State of the Union Denial. Zachary Basu of Axios: "Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) falsely claimed on CNN's 'State of the Union' Sunday that President Trump did not ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rival on a July 25 phone call.... As CNN's Dana Bash points out, President Trump specifically asked Zelesnky on the July 25 phone call to investigate Joe Biden, who was at that point seen as the likely frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic primary. Trump did not raise any broader concerns about corruption in Ukraine.... The leading Trump ally's defense illustrates the degree to which House Republicans will dispute key facts in the impeachment inquiry...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "... last week I posed a question to legal experts: If the House were going to forget about political tactics and impeach Trump strictly on the merits, how many articles of impeachment would there be? I think the answer is eight -- eight thematic areas, most of which include more than one violation.' Mrs. McC: My favorite -- and one that would probably be thrown out if proposed -- is the last one Leonhardt suggests: "Conduct grossly incompatible with the presidency." "... the 'grossly incompatible' phrase comes from a 1974 House Judiciary Committee report justifying impeachment. It also captures Trump's subversion of the presidency.”

Jacob Knutson of Axios: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' Sunday that Ukraine 'blatantly interfered' in the 2016 election, repeating a conspiracy theory that experts warn has been promoted by Russian intelligence services." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The laughter you hear near the top is not canned. AND on a news & opinion show, it's mighty unusual. ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has spent his entire adult life touting the West's defeat of communism in the Cold War.... [Cruz harshly criticized President Obama for not having harsher words for Russia's attack on Ukraine.] Cruz, Cold Warrior, Obama critic and anti-Putin hawk..., now declares there is evidence of Ukraine interference in our election because an op-ed was written criticizing Trump's campaign rhetoric about Ukraine. This is what Cruz is now reduced to -- making excuses for a president willing to stab Ukraine in the back to the utter delight of Putin.... Cruz, like virtually every other Republican in Congress is a coward, is afraid of a tweet or of the Trump mob. The formerly tough-on-defense Republican Party would rather contribute to the Kremlin propaganda machine and enable Trump (Putin's best friend) than incur the wrath of the right wing.... In comparison to [Trump & Cruz], Obama was Winston Churchill." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ What? Ted's not sleazy enough for you? Well, how about Rudy? ~~~

Jim Dwyer, et al., of the New York Times: Not long ago, Rudy Giuliani thought he would become secretary of state. "Three years on, Mr. Giuliani never got the job he believed he had coming -- 'a bitter disappointment,' his now-estranged wife says -- but in his five decades as a public figure, he has never been more prominent in national affairs. Step by step, he has escorted President Trump to the brink of impeachment. Mr. Giuliani himself is now under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in the very office where he enjoyed his first extended draughts of fame nearly four decades ago. The separate troubles he has gotten his client and himself into are products of the uniquely powerful position he has fashioned, a hybrid of unpaid personal counsel to the president and for-profit peddler of access and advice." ~~~

~~~ Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "In the three years since Trump took office, Giuliani has expanded his lucrative foreign consulting and legal practice, taking on clients that span the globe, from Turkey to Venezuela to Romania to Ukraine. Along the way, he also has used his singular perch to try to influence U.S. policy and criminal investigations -- at times pushing the interests of foreign figures who could benefit him financially.... Since the start of the administration, his actions have caused persistent alarm among Trump's advisers, who worry that it is often not clear who Giuliani is representing -- the president, his private clients or his own foreign policy views -- in his meetings at the White House and in foreign cities.... In several conversations in recent months, Attorney General William P. Barr has counseled Trump in general terms that Giuliani has become a liability and a problem for the administration.... In one discussion, the attorney general warned the president that he was not being well-served by his lawyer...." The story outlines Rudy's "robust work overseas." Robust, indeed. CNN has a related story, citing the WashPo. ~~~

~~~ Natasha Bertrand & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico take on Rudy Giuliani and Bill Barr, but their emphasis is on Barr. Best recommendation for Barr comes from Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor: "He is a historically terrible attorney general, but he's not a criminal." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Might be some split-screen cable news today, as the Justice Department's IG report is to be released today AND the House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on impeachment. ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian is liveblogging whatever happens with the IG's report.

Jerry Lambe of Law & Crime: "In an attempt to exonerate President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani has been working with right-wing media outlet One America News Network (OAN) to produce a television special featuring a string of current and former Ukrainian officials defending Trump's conduct.... According to OAN, the special, which will include the officials testifying 'under oath' (though without any penalty for lying), is a two-part exclusive event in which Giuliani 'debunks the impeachment hoax and exposes Biden family corruption in Ukraine.' But the sordid list of 'witnesses' taking part in the Giuliani-led effort, for the most part, appears to be laundry list of corrupt or otherwise extremely impeachable public figures. Of particular note is a former parliamentarian [Andrii Artemenko] who was expelled from the country after proposing Crimea be rented to Russia, according to a Saturday report from The Daily Beast." -s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Useful summary of must-not-see teevee.

One Day in July. Marshall Cohen & Will Houp of CNN put together a timeline of what we know happened July 25, the day Trump asked Zelensky for a favor, though, after Zelensky said Ukraine wanted to purchase Javelin missiles. Would be nice to know exactly what Pompeo, Bolton & Mulvaney, for instance, were up to that day.

David Corn of Mother Jones: "[A]s Trump is under scrutiny for pressing Ukraine to influence the 2020 race, it's a good time to review all the ways that Trump aided and abetted a foreign adversary's scheme to subvert a US election the last time the nation was choosing a president." A list follows. --s

** Jeff Seldin of VOA: "Russian efforts to weaken the West through a relentless campaign of information warfare may be starting to pay off, cracking a key bastion of the U.S. line of defense: the military.... The second annual Reagan National Defense Survey, completed in late October, found nearly half of armed services households questioned, 46%, said they viewed Russia as ally. Overall, the survey found 28% of Americans identified Russia as an ally, up from 19% the previous year. Generally, the pollsters found the positive views of Russia seemed to be 'predominantly driven by Republicans who have responded to positive cues from [U.S.] President [Donald] Trump about Russia,' according to an executive summary accompanying the results. While a majority, 71% of all Americans and 53% of military households, still views Russia as an enemy, the spike in pro-Russian sentiment has defense officials concerned." --s


Dahlia Lithwick of Slate on how it is often women who stand up to Donald Trump & his minions of male sneering, screaming meemies. Lithwick singles out among them, Prof. Pamela Karlan, a constitutional scholar who testified before the House Judiciary Committee last week: "Her presentation was so effective and so crystal clear that House Republicans, of whom all but two were men, were too afraid to question her on history or doctrine, opting for personal threats and shouting instead." Thanks to Anonymous for the link. ~~~

~~~ ** Peggy Drexler on CNN: "Saturday night..., at a State Department event celebrating the year's Kennedy Center honorees, of which [singer Linda] Ronstadt is one..., [Mike] Pompeo [quipped during his pre-dinner address], 'Ms. Ronstadt..., I will say my job, as I travel the world, I just want to know when I will be loved?'... Later, when Ronstadt ... [took] the microphone, she ... looked straight at Pompeo's table and said, 'I'd like to say to Mr. Pompeo, who wonders when he'll be loved, it's when he stops enabling Donald Trump.'" Mrs. McC: Mike should have known Linda Ronstadt has never been shy. Contributor Hattie seems to think that a more apropos Ronstadt classic to dedicate to Pompeo than "When Will I Be Loved" is this one:

~~~ AND Nancy Got a Standing O. Peter Marks of the Washington Post: "'Sesame Street' was one of the five honorees at the 42nd celebration of the [Kennedy Center Honors], along with rock singer Linda Ronstadt, Oscar winner Sally Field, maestro Michael Tilson Thomas and the R&B group Earth, Wind & Fire.... Political stars were more in view than in recent years, too, despite the continued absence of President Trump and first lady Melania Trump.... In attendance this year [were] Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and five other members of Trump's Cabinet; and 40 members of Congress. But the audience's most boisterous reaction came when Rubenstein acknowledged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The announcement of her name drew a standing ovation and a magnitude of sustained applause that appeared to startle her." Mrs. McC: The event will be broadcast on PBS on Dec. 15. Alas, dinner is not included.


Patricia Mazzei, et al., of the New York Times: "Officials said on Sunday that federal investigators were working on the presumption that the attack in Pensacola on Friday was an act of terrorism. Sailors from Alabama, Florida and Georgia were killed, and eight others were injured.... Rachel Rojas, the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Jacksonville field office, said on Sunday that the presumption of terrorism allows law enforcement agencies to more quickly identify and eliminate any potential threats to the community. None have [has!] been identified so far, she said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Brendan Farrington & Mike Balsamo of the AP: "The Saudi gunman who killed three people at the Pensacola naval base had apparently gone on Twitter shortly before the shooting to blast U.S. support of Israel and accuse America of being anti-Muslim, a U.S. official said Sunday as the FBI confirmed it is operating on the assumption the attack was an act of terrorism. Investigators are also trying to establish whether the killer, 2nd Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, of the Royal Saudi Air Force, acted alone or was part of a larger plot." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Toluse Olorunnipa & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Trump's defense of the Saudi government, which began just hours after Friday's shooting, steadily became a more isolated position over the weekend as more information trickled out about the gunman and other Saudi nationals who were receiving training at the base.... Some of Trump's staunchest supporters have called for a tougher stance with the Saudis, a position that has gained strength in the wake of Friday's shooting.... Earlier Sunday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), normally a staunch Trump ally, was among several officials from the state pushing for more stringent scrutiny of foreigners who come to the United States for military training. Gaetz, who earlier called the killing an act of terrorism, also suggested the incident should change America's relationship with Saudi Arabia.... Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R), who immediately labeled the shooting terrorism, has called for a halt in the military program that brings hundreds of foreign nationals to U.S. bases to train alongside American troops.... Trump has yet to make a public call for full cooperation by the Saudis." ~~~

~~~ Darlene Superville of the AP: "A top Republican ally of ... Donald Trump went a step further than the White House on Sunday by calling for Saudi Arabia to be suspended from an American military training program after a student pilot from the kingdom shot and killed three sailors at a U.S. naval base in Florida. Trump had called for the program to be reviewed but Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he wanted more. 'We need to suspend the Saudi program until we find out what happened here,' he said, adding that he likes the idea of training foreign pilots and helping them understand how the U.S. system works." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Max Boot in the Washington Post: "President Trump has long held a double standard when it comes to terrorist attacks: When the perpetrator is a white supremacist, he offers anodyne expressions of sympathy for the victims (often 'thoughts and prayers'), while typically failing to label the attack an act of terrorism. When the perpetrator is a Muslim, however, he is vitriolic in his denunciations and his calls for a massive response, such as stopping all Muslims from entering the United States.... It turns out that Trump actually has a triple standard, because he treats attacks by Saudis differently than those from other Muslim nations.... Instead of expressing outrage or vowing vengeance [for the Pensacola attack], or even waiting for all the facts to come in, Trump sounded as if he were auditioning for the job of press secretary at the Saudi Embassy.... This is, of course, only the latest example of Trump's suspicious partiality to Saudi Arabia -- the site of his first trip abroad as president.... Trump's suspicious relationship with Saudi Arabia is merely another example of what happens when a president decides to run the U.S. government as if it were a family-owned business whose only objective is to benefit his bottom line." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Donald Trump Is Making America Insignificant Again. Tim Sullivan of the AP: "Three years into Donald Trump's presidency, America's global influence is waning. In interviews with The Associated Press, diplomats, foreign officials and scholars from numerous countries describe a changing world order in which the United States has less of a central role.... Once-close allies -- France, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mexico, Turkey, Germany and more -- have quietly edged away from Washington over the past three years.... For generations, America saw itself as the center of the world. For better or worse, most of the rest of the world has regarded the U.S. as its colossus -- respecting it, fearing it, turning to it for answers.... China has been delighted by what it sees as the voluntary abdication of U.S. leadership, particularly on free trade and climate change."

Mariel Padilla of the New York Times: "The United States ambassador to Denmark [Carla Sands] barred an American NATO expert critical of President Trump from speaking at an international conference hosted by the American embassy and a Danish think tank, prompting the event's cancellation, organizers said. The expert, Stanley R. Sloan, was scheduled to give a keynote speech at the conference, which was celebrating the 70th anniversary of NATO, on Tuesday. Mr. Sloan, a visiting scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont, a fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, planned to speak about the future of trans-Atlantic relations. One day before he was set to leave for Copenhagen, Mr. Sloan was informed that the United States Embassy in Copenhagen had vetoed his participation because of his previous criticisms of President Trump, Mr. Sloan said on Facebook on Saturday.... In his book, 'Defense of the West,' published in 2016, Mr. Sloan discussed the impact that the Trump administration could have on the deterioration of trans-Atlantic relations, given its questionable support for NATO, its relationship with Russia and its response to threats from the Islamic State." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Are we supposed to ignore the fact that it appears Sloan was 100 percent right?

Nicole Acevedo of NBC: "Democratic lawmakers Thursday accused the Trump administration of 'illegally withholding' funding for hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after missing a legally required deadline to kick off the process three months ago.... Congress had mandated the housing agency [HUD, under Ben Carson] to issue funding notices to 18 disaster-stricken states and territories no later than Sept. 4. They published all the notices except Puerto Rico's. The publication of the notice would have allowed island officials to start drafting a plan that would create the structures needed to manage $10.2 billion in much-needed recovery funds." --s

BUT We Say "Merry Christmas" in Donald's USA. Tim Stelloh of NBC News: "A Southern California church is displaying a nativity scene depicting Jesus, Mary and Joseph as a family separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. A photo posted Saturday on Facebook by a senior minister at Claremont United Methodist Church, east of Los Angeles, showed the Holy Family inside three chain link cells topped with razor wire. In a statement posted by the minister, Karen Clark Ristine, the church said that after fleeing a tyrant king, Jesus, Mary and Joseph became 'the most well-known refugee family in the world.' 'What if this family sought refuge in our country today?' the church said. 'Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center.' Inside the church, the family is reunited in a separate nativity scene, the statement said."

Nahal Toosi of Politico: "In his Twitter bio, Chinese diplomat Lijian Zhao says he wants to 'spread the voice of China.' That voice apparently has a lot of nasty things to say about the United States.... Zhao is the most glaring example of a new trend in Chinese diplomacy: using social media, mainly Twitter, in an aggressive, decidedly undiplomatic manner. He and other Chinese officials are swinging in particular at the U.S., which under ... Donald Trump -- himself famous for mean tweets -- has taken a combative stance toward the ruling Chinese Communist Party.... The new Chinese effort appears to rely heavily on an old tactic, used extensively by the Soviets during the Cold War, called 'whataboutism': pointing out another nation's problems as a way to deflect from one's own." --s

Presidential Race 2020

Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) earned nearly $2 million working as a consultant for corporations and financial firms while she was a law professor at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and other law schools, according to records her campaign abruptly released Sunday evening. Warren's consulting work often involved companies dealing with bankruptcy, which was her specialty as an academic. Her campaign had been asked repeatedly for the information and had declined to release it multiple times. Her work for some of the companies doesn't fit neatly with her current presidential campaign brand as a crusader against corporate interests. For instance, the documents released Sunday show that Warren made about $80,000 from work she did for creditors in the energy company Enron's bankruptcy and $20,000 as a consultant for Dow Chemical, a company that was trying to limit the liability it faced from silicone breast implants that were made by a connected firm."

Margaret Talev of Axios: "Former Vice President Joe Biden, in an interview with 'Axios on HBO,' promised to prohibit his son Hunter, and other family members, from cashing in on his name and position overseas if he wins the presidency.... Biden told Axios' Mike Allen that Hunter did nothing wrong -- but that he has not dug into what Hunter actually did while working in Ukraine. 'I don't know what he was doing. I know he was on the board. I found out he was on the board after he was on the board and that was it,' Biden told us. Asked whether he wants to get to the bottom of it, Biden said, "No. Because I trust my son.'"

Trump Trots Out Pardoned Soldiers at Campaign Event. Samantha Gross & David Smiley of the Miami Herald: "... during a closed-door speech to Republican Party of Florida donors at the state party's annual Statesman's Dinner..., [Donald Trump brought] on stage Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who[m] Trump pardoned last month for cases involving war crimes.... The dinner ... raised $3.5 million for the state party...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Al Vicens of Mother Jones: "Lorance was serving a 19-year prison sentence for murder after ordering soldiers to open fire on three unarmed Afghan men in 2012, killing two. Golsteyn had been charged with premeditated murder after admitting to shooting a detained, unarmed Afghan man in 2010. Golsteyn killed the prisoner off-base and buried his body, only to dig it up later, bring it back to the base, and burn it in a pit used to dispose of trash, according to the Washington Post." Mrs. McC: Are these guys really great campaign props? Did they get a standing O at the "Statesman's" Dinner? I'd like to think at least some dyed-in-the-wool Republicans think "convicted/accused war criminal" is not an admirable descriptor. (Also linked yesterday.)


** Michael Gordon of Business Insider: "Today, representative democracy is on the brink as our government demonstrates an unprecedented disconnect from public opinion.... We see time and time again that even overwhelmingly popular public views don't translate to policy. That's because our three branches of government live under minority rule.... The GOP['s] ... desperation to lock in unpopular Republican policies is the basis for their embrace of Trump, their efforts to pack the federal courts, their embrace of the Electoral College system that advantages them (for now), and their gerrymandering. Given these moves, Democrats must make minority rule the rallying cry for 2020 and beyond. Democratic arguments and ideas reflect the majority of Americans' views, and Democrats need to make the case that voters should be outraged by the disconnect between public opinion and public policy." --s

** Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable. The documents ... include more than 2,000 pages of previously unpublished notes of interviews with people who played a direct role in the war, from generals and diplomats to aid workers and Afghan officials.... With a bluntness rarely expressed in public, the interviews lay pent-up complaints, frustrations and confessions, along with second-guessing and backbiting.... With most speaking on the assumption that their remarks would not become public, U.S. officials acknowledged that their warfighting strategies were fatally flawed and that Washington wasted enormous sums of money trying to remake Afghanistan into a modern nation. The interviews also highlight the U.S. government's botched attempts to curtail runaway corruption, build a competent Afghan army and police force, and put a dent in Afghanistan's thriving opium trade."

Mehdi Hasan of the Intercept writes an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg: "Mark, how does it feel to be complicit in an actual genocide? I'm talking of course about the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.... Your company has, basically, admitted to it. In November 2018, your own product policy manager, Alex Warofka, acknowledged that ... Facebook had not done enough 'to help prevent our platform from being used to foment division and incite offline violence' in Myanmar.... How about the Muslims of Sri Lanka?...[Despite] multiple examples of inflammatory and Islamophobic videos and posts on Facebook -- including a post declaring, 'Kill all Muslims, don't even save an infant' -- ... nearly every complaint... 'got the same response: the content did not violate Facebook's standards.'... The sad reality is that ... far-right nationalists are being aided and abetted, whether directly or indirectly, by self-styled liberals in Silicon Valley. By Facebook. By you, Mark." --s

Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "Oxygen in the oceans is being lost at an unprecedented rate, with 'dead zones' proliferating and hundreds more areas showing oxygen dangerously depleted, as a result of the climate emergency and intensive farming, experts have warned.... [T]here are also at least 700 areas where oxygen is at dangerously low levels, up from 45 when research was undertaken in the 1960s." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan/Canada. Bisma Parvez of the Detroit Free Press: "A Detroit property contaminated with uranium and other dangerous chemicals partially collapsed into the Detroit River on Nov. 26, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has confirmed.... The news is especially concerning because the Detroit drinking water intake lines are nearby downriver.... Member of Canadian Parliament Brian Masse of Windsor West ... hand-delivered a letter to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, calling for an immediate binational investigation into the Revere Copper Site dock collapse, according to a public statement." --s

Mississippi. Adam Ganucheau & Bobby Harrison of Mississippi Today: "State Rep. Ashley Henley, a Southaven Republican, is asking the GOP-led Mississippi House to overturn the results of the election she narrowly lost to Democrat Hester Jackson-McCray. Jackson-McCray won the Nov. 5 general election by 14 votes, according to election results certified this week by the Secretary of State's office.... In an interview on Thursday, Henley told Mississippi Today she was challenging the election results because of what she called 'voter irregularities' in House District 40, located in northern DeSoto County. Jackson-McCray said Thursday that Henley's challenge 'is much to do about nothing.'" --s

Way Beyond

Finland. Tarmo Virki of Reuters: "Finland's transportation minister Sanna Marin was selected by her Democratic party on Sunday to become the country's youngest prime minister ever, taking over after the resignation of Antti Rinne. The 34-year-old Marin, whose party is the largest in a five-member governing coalition, will be the world's youngest serving prime minister when she takes office in the coming days. Rinne resigned on Tuesday after a party in the coalition, the Centre Party, said it had lost confidence in him following his handling of a postal strike."

U.K. Clint Hendler of Mother Jones: "With less to a week to go before the United Kingdom heads to the polls on Thursday for a nearly unprecedented December parliamentary election, the race has been rocked by suspicions that Russia was involved in spreading secret leaked records that have become central to the debate. The chain of events raises the possibility that, just as in the United States in 2016, online forces linked to the Kremlin are working to shape the information landscape as a national election of enormous consequence unfolds." --s ~~~

~~~ Shanti Das & Andrew Gregory of The Times: "Amazon has been handed the keys to a trove of NHS data it can use to develop products to sell internationally without paying a penny to the UK. A government contract [was] revealed under freedom of information laws.... The $863bn company can access 'all healthcare information' gathered by the NHS at the UK taxpayers' expense[.]" Article is firewalled. --s ~~~

~~~ Toby Helm of the Guardian: "Data about millions of NHS patients has been sold to US and other international pharmaceutical companies for research, the Observer has learned, raising new fears about America's growing ambitions to access lucrative parts of the health service after Brexit.... America appears to be pressing for unrestricted access to Britain's 55 million health records, which are estimated to have a total value of £10bn a year." --s

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