#T-rump administration: Orwellian nightmare

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*** That said, the $100 billion deficit in October doesn't do any favors for the Republicans who assured Americans that massive tax breaks for the wealthy will pay for themselves.What's more, as Democrats prepare to reclaim their majority in the House of Representatives, the monthly shortfall also serves as a fitting coda to Tea Party era. ***

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 ((( Which begs the question:  Why even interrogate this articulate, outspoken, incisive critic of the oppressive Saudi regime in the first place?  It’d be refreshing -- and unrealistic -- to expect this White Haus to challenge the Saudis. )))

*** The Washington Post columnist was last seen in public when he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in Turkey on October 2.     Previously, Saudi authorities had maintained Khashoggi left the consulate the same afternoon of his visit, but provided no evidence to support the claim.  Khashoggi's fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, who was waiting outside the consulate, says she did not see him re-emerge.    The disappearance created a diplomatic rift between Saudi Arabia and the West. Amid the fallout, international firms pulled out of a high-profile investment summit, the Future Investment Initiative conference, due to take place later this month in Riyadh. ***

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  ((( GOP vermin have no interest in playing by any rules whatsoever.  Dems act as if they’re not engaged in a war that began long ago. )))

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  *** Marjorie Pritchard, the deputy managing editor of the Globe and who oversees the paper's editorial page, first called on newspapers earlier this month to publish editorials pushing back against the pres-ident's rhetoric toward the media, which she dubbed a "dirty war."    More than 300 news organizations pledged to join the effort, The Associated Press reported, with papers like the Globe, The New York Times, New York Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, San Jose Mercury News. and Idaho Statesman publishing editorials on Thursday to condemn the pres-ident.    "To label the press 'the enemy of the people' is as un-American as it is dangerous to the civic compact we have shared for more than two centuries," the Globe wrote in its editorial. ***

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  *** On Friday, Judge Sabraw ordered the Justice Department to supply a preliminary list of young children who could possibly qualify for reunification, along with any explanation of obstacles to reunification.    The T-rump administration has “mapped” 86 parents to 83 children under age 5 who remain in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Justice Department attorney Sarah Fabian said during the court meeting Friday.    Of the 86 mapped parents, 46 remain in federal immigration detention, 19 have been deported, 19 have been released, and two have a criminal history that could potentially disqualify them from reunification, a Justice Dept attorney said.  It isn't clear how much the federal government knows about the whereabouts of "unmapped" parents for nearly 20 children under 5. ***

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  *** Families Belong Together, protest in June 2018, in Lynnwood, Washington, USA.  Few in number, strong in spirit.   *** Kids don’t belong in cages.   *** Baby Jesus was an undocumented immigrant.   *** Speak up, rise up, be heard.   *** Reunite the families.   *** Return the children now! ***    (((Domestic terrorism by any other name still is terrorism.)))

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*** On the surface, official foreign visits like these – known as “codels” (for “congressional delegations”) – are as routine as they beneficial. I’ve seen some suggestions that members shouldn’t be abroad during the 4th of July, but that doesn’t matter much to me. Lawmakers are out this week for the holiday, so it stands to reason that they’ll schedule international travel at a time when they won’t miss votes on Capitol Hill.  What’s far more alarming are the specific details of this particular trip.    At issue is seven Republicans traveling to an adversary’s capital less than two years after it launched an attack on our sovereignty. Did the Americans make the trip to take a firm stand against our attackers? Hardly. They had no interest in confronting Russian officials over their election interference, preferring instead to let bygones be bygones.        There was no reason for the delegation to be partisan, but it was. There was no reason for these Republicans to give the Kremlin a pass on its misdeeds, but they did. There was no reason for the GOP lawmakers to exclude election meddling and the fate of Crimea from their discussions, but they did that, too. ***

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USA Today news analysis.    *** While some ads focused on topics as banal as business promotion or Pokémon, the Russian-based Internet Research Agency consistently promoted ads designed to inflame race-related tensions. Some ads dealt with race directly; others dealt with issues fraught with racial and religious baggage such as ads focused on protests over policing, the debate over a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and relationships with the Muslim community.    The I.R.A. company continued to hammer racial themes even after the election. ***

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  *** In Bornstein’s account, he was not given a form authorizing him to release T-rump’s records. He said the men ... took the originals and copies of T-rump’s charts and lab reports, including records filed under fake names that the office used. Doctors who treat celebrities often use pseudonyms to further protect celebrities’ privacy. ...    Patients have a right to a copy of their medical records but the original physical record belongs to the doctor, said Dr. Matthew Wynia, director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado.  “If a patient wants a copy, they can have a copy, but they don’t get the original.  Patients can also ask for their records to be transferred to a new doctor, but that also involves making copies (i.e., transferring the information), not literally packaging up the originals and sending them off,” Wynia said in an email. ***

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  **** Manafort is currently facing two separate indictments. One, in Washington, focuses on money laundering and foreign lobbying. Another, in Alexandria, Virginia, involves tax fraud, bank fraud and failure to report overseas bank accounts. The 69-year-old Manafort could potentially spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted in either case.    Neither case appears to directly relate to the allegations of collusion between the T-rump campaign and Russia that are at the heart of Mueller's mandate, but it was revealed this week that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein specifically authorized the special counsel's team to pursue the financial and foreign lobbying allegations against Manafort.  ***

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*** The RNC and the Trump campaign previously acknowledged paying legal bills for Trump and others involved in the Russia investigation, including the president’s family members. In 2017, the RNC spent $230,000 to cover the president’s legal fees and spent close to $200,000 on Donald Trump Jr.'s legal fees.Neither had acknowledged paying bills on Hicks' behalf, and the new disclosure filed on Sunday with the Federal Election Commission did not name her. Such disclosures do not usually specify the clients or nature of the legal work at issue. ***

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  *** Politico writes that T-rump’s phone “isn’t equipped with sophisticated security features designed to shield his communications.” It’s not clear what that means.    In short order, though, we get to a bigger problem: The people on the other end.  It is well established that T-rump likes calling his friends and allies to sound them out about policy and personnel issues.  Last week, New York magazine reported that T-rump speaks to Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity on a near-nightly basis.  Even if T-rump’s phone were perfectly secured, if Hannity’s is not, T-rump’s calls are at risk. ***

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**** Mr. T-rump’s decision unravels the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, Barack Obama, isolating the United States among its allies and leaving it at even greater odds with its adversaries in dealing with the Iranians.    The United States is preparing to reinstate all sanctions it had waived as part of the nuclear accord — and impose additional economic penalties as well, the person said. *****

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 *** The exodus comes amid steep criticism of Pruitt, including calls for his ouster by at least 170 Democratic and four Republican lawmakers. There are at least 10 federal investigations into Pruitt, including probes of his rental of a Capitol Hill bedroom from a lobbyist for $50 a night under unusually generous terms, frequent taxpayer-funded travel to his home state of Oklahoma, questionable spending decisions at the EPA, and raises granted to two top aides over White House objections.  ***