Month: January 2018

Very Fine People 

by tristero

Murders By U.S. White Supremacists More Than Doubled In 2017:

White supremacists in the United States killed more than twice as many people in 2017 as they did the year before, and were responsible for far more murders than domestic Islamic extremists, helping make 2017 the fifth deadliest year on record for extremist violence in America, a new report states. 

The report, “Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2017,” published Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said extremists killed 34 people last year. Twenty of those victims — or 59 percent — were killed by right-wing extremists, a designation that includes white supremacists, members of the so-called “alt-right” and “alt-lite,” and members of the anti-government militia movement.  

Of the 34 people killed, 18 were murdered by white supremacists, marking a 157 percent increase over the 7 people killed by white supremacists in 2016.

The first word that comes to mind is “deplorable.” Utterly deplorable.

Eating Their Own Dog Food

by tristero

NY Times Washington Bureau Chief Elisabeth Bumiller today:

“It’s relentless, the unpredictability of it,” said Elisabeth Bumiller, the Washington bureau chief. “I knew it would be really wild and different, but I expected him to be somewhat different than the candidate Trump, and he really hasn’t been.”

Think about this for a second. The Washington Bureau chief of the New York Times – not some hack at a hack online pseudo-news source – actually thought that Trump would somehow change, like grow into the job or something. I can’t think of a single thing Trump did or said during the campaign that would serve as the basis for such an utterly ridiculous expectation.

In fact I know at least three highly respected nationally known journalists who truly expected Trump to pivot and become statesmanlike. That his staff would contain him. Uh huh.

Sounds to me like a lot of respected reporters have been eating too much of their own dog food. They’ve actually come to believe believed all that nonsense about coming together and pivoting to the center they try to feed the rubes.

Of course, I’m shocked by what has happened over the past year. But surprised? Not for an instant.
What happened last year was exactly what I expected to happen. And I fear that the white supremacist sitting in the White House with the power to order a nuclear holocaust is just getting started. “Scared” doesn’t begin to describe it.

In 2016 and even for part of 2017, the press, too busy telling itself that Trump wasn’t…well, you know, everything Trump is… failed miserably. Their naivete was breathtaking. And people with authoritarian tendencies – like those who dominate American politics – thrive on naivete.

Here’s hoping Bumiller et al are seeing things a bit more clearly now. And that it’s not too late.

Bannon knows thingsby digby

Did the White House force Bannon to stonewall the Intelligence Committee to prevent leaks of what he knows? You never know. After the trashing he gave to Kushner and Junior in the Wolff book they must be worried that they don’t know what he’s going to say.

The Daily Beast reports:

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon broke some bad news to House investigators on Tuesday, announcing that the White House has invoked executive privilege to keep him from answering many of their questions.

But executive privilege—the president’s right to keep certain information from the public so he can have frank conversations with aides—will not keep Steve Bannon from sharing information with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, according to a person familiar with the situation.

“Mueller will hear everything Bannon has to say,” said the source, who is familiar with Bannon’s thinking.

During a closed-door hearing before the House intelligence committee today, Bannon reportedly told lawmakers that President Donald Trump has invoked broad executive privilege for the purposes of Congressional inquiries. Because of that, Bannon refused to answer committee members’ questions about what happened during the presidential transition and in the White House.

This sweeping understanding of privilege will not impact what Bannon tells Mueller’s team, according to our source. (To be sure, Bannon isn’t known for being predictable, and it’s possible his team may still look for ways to dodge Mueller’s queries.)

But it means he isn’t answering many of Congress’s questions. A source familiar with Bannon’s interview told The Daily Beast that despite the subpoena—issued by Devin Nunes, the typically Trump-friendly chairman of the committee—Bannon refused to answer questions about events that happened after Election Day.

.@RepAdamSchiff: White House directed Steve Bannon not to answer House Intel Committee's questions about transition or his time in the administration #inners pic.twitter.com/V8Xy1y3ml5— All In w/Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) January 17, 2018

“This was characterized as a result of his being there voluntary; he’s there of his own volition and could refuse to answer questions based on what the White House instructed him to do,” Schiff added. “We then were able to be promptly provide him with a subpoena and they went back to the White House and got the same instruction back again, basically: We don’t care whether it’s under compulsory process or voluntary basis, we’re instructing you to effectively put in place a gag rule.”

It probably wasn’t all that wise to trash Bannon and get him fired before he testified before the Grand Jury, was it? He’s no longer a friend. Maybe they can keep him from talking to the congress. But they can’t stop him from talking to Special Prosecutor.

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One group of voters really can’t stand Trump. It’s a very big group.by digby

New Quinnipiac poll:

Wide gender, racial and political gaps leave American voters divided on whether President Donald Trump is “mentally stable,” as 45 percent say he is stable and 47 percent say he is not stable, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released today.

President Trump is stable, men say 53 – 40 percent, while women say 53 – 39 percent that he is not, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University Poll finds. White voters say 51 – 43 percent he is stable, as black voters disagree 71 – 15 percent. Republicans say 89 -9 percent that Trump is stable. Democrats say 80 – 10 percent he is not stable. Independent voters are divided as 46 percent say he is stable and 45 percent say he is not stable.

American voters disapprove 57 – 38 percent of the job President Trump is doing.

Trump is doing more to divide the nation than to unite the nation, voters say 64 – 31 percent. Every listed party, gender, education, age and racial group says the president is dividing the nation except Republicans, who say 70 – 24 percent that he is doing more to unite the nation, and white voters with no college degree, who are divided 48 – 46 percent.

Trump does not respect people of color as much as he respects white people, voters say 59 – 38 percent. Republicans, white voters with no college degree and white men are the only listed groups who say he respects people of color as much as white people.

“President Donald Trump can’t seem to improve his approval rating, perhaps because of the troubling fact that half of the voters we spoke to think he is mentally unstable,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

“The president is a divider, not a uniter, say an overwhelming number of voters, an assessment made even more disturbing by his perceived lack of respect for people of color.”

American voters say 58 – 35 percent the comments President Trump allegedly made about immigrants from certain countries are racist.

American voters are divided on the way Trump is handling the economy, as 48 percent approve and 46 percent disapprove. He gets negative marks on handling other key issues:

36 – 60 percent on foreign policy;
33 – 60 percent on health care;
38 – 60 percent on immigration;
42 – 51 percent on taxes.

Ron Brownstein offers another look from different data:

Previously unpublished results from the nonpartisan online-polling firm SurveyMonkey show Trump losing ground over his tumultuous first year not only with the younger voters and white-collar whites who have always been skeptical of him, but also with the blue-collar whites central to his coalition.

Trump retains important pillars of support. Given that he started in such a strong position with those blue-collar whites, even after that decline he still holds a formidable level of loyalty among them—particularly men and those over 50 years old. What’s more, he has established a modest but durable beachhead among African American and Hispanic men, even while confronting overwhelming opposition from women in those demographic groups.

Together, the results crystallize the bet Trump is making for his own reelection in 2020, and for his party’s chances in November’s election: that he can mobilize enough support among older and blue-collar (as well as rural and evangelical) whites to offset the intense resistance he’s provoked from groups that are all growing in the electorate: Millennials, minorities, and college-educated whites—particularly the women among them.

These findings emerge from a cumulative analysis of 605,172 interviews SurveyMonkey conducted with Americans in 2017 about Trump’s job performance. At my request, Mark Blumenthal, SurveyMonkey’s head of election polling, calculated Trump’s average approval rating over the last year among groups of voters segmented simultaneously by their race, gender, education level, and age. That extra level of detail, not available in conventional polls because their samples are too small, offers a more precise picture of Trump’s coalition.

The SurveyMonkey results put Trump’s total approval rating for 2017 at 42 percent, with 56 percent disapproving. That’s slightly higher than, but within range of, other major public surveys.

In the 2016 election, exit polls found that Trump’s best group was whites without a four-year college degree; he carried 66 percent of them. But his approval among them in the 2017 SurveyMonkey average slipped to 56 percent. In 2016, whites with at least a four-year college degree gave Trump 48 percent of their votes. But in the 2017 average, just 40 percent approved of Trump’s performance, while a resounding 60 percent disapproved.

Layering in gender and age underscores voters’ retreat. Trump in 2016 narrowly won younger whites. But he now faces crushing disapproval ratings ranging from 62 percent to 76 percent among three big groups of white Millennials: women with and without a college degree, and men with a degree. Even among white Millennial men without a degree, his most natural supporters, Trump only scores a 49-49 split.

Trump’s support rapidly rises among blue-collar white men older than 35 and spikes past two-thirds for those above 50. But his position has deteriorated among white women without a college degree. Last year he carried 61 percent of them. But in the new SurveyMonkey average, they split evenly, with 49 percent approval and 49 percent disapproval. His approval rating among non-college-educated white women never rises above 54 percent in any age group, even those older than 50. From February through December, Trump’s approval rating fell more with middle-aged blue-collar white women than any other group.

Women really, really don’t like him.

I wonder why?

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The calm before the Stormyby digby

We’re all about to hear details of Trump in bed. Oh my God:

There are credible allegations that the President of the United States engaged in an affair with an adult film actress, paid her over $100,000 to keep quiet about it weeks before the election, and is now actively engaged in an elaborate cover-up.

On January 12, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump, through his lawyer Michael Cohen, had paid Stephanie Clifford $130,000 one month before the election to buy her silence about an affair she had with Trump in 2006. Clifford is an adult film actor who performs under the name Stormy Daniels. The affair allegedly took place shortly after Trump’s third wife, Melania, gave birth to his son Barron.

Cohen then released a letter — purportedly by Daniels and dated two days before the story published — denying she ever had a sexual relationship with Trump.

The letter directly contradicts the contemporaneous account of another adult film actor, Alana Evans, who said she talked to Trump on the phone when he was with Daniels and he invited her to come over and “party.” Evans says Daniels later told her she had sex with Trump.

It also contradicts an interview Daniels gave to In Touch in 2011, according to a new report from the magazine. “[Sex with Trump] was textbook generic. I actually don’t even know why I did it, but I do remember while we were having sex, I was like, ‘Please, don’t try to pay me,” Daniels said, according to In Touch.

This scandal had not garnered the intense media coverage one might expect of a story about a porn actor’s affair with a president: At yesterday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders did not receive a single question about the alleged affair with Daniels or the payment.

It’s going to explode soon because In Touch is going to release the full 5,500 word interview with Daniels from 2011 in which she describes sex with Trump in excruciating detail.

I’m getting my brain bleach ready.

Think Progress points out that this is a bigger story than just Trump having affairs. First of all, it shows that he lies about his sexual escapades. Stop the presses. But it also shows that he has been subject to blackmail and that his protestations that he couldn’t possibly have done what the Steele dossier said he did because he’s a germophobe are overblown.

Daniels says he didn’t use protection.

And then there’s this:

The story suggests Trump is vulnerable to blackmail and extortion.
According to reports, Daniels was able to extract a $130,000 payment to keep quiet about her affair with Trump. How many other women have stories about Trump that he does not want told? This is potentially a very dangerous predicament for a sitting president. In the unverified Steele dossier, there is an allegation that Russian officials have information about Trump’s interactions with sex workers in Moscow that Russian agents are using as leverage. There is not evidence that this is true (although Trump’s bodyguard confirmed he was offered the sexual attention of prostitutes) but Daniels’ story suggests similar circumstances may be possible. Trump, reportedly, has things to hide and is willing to go to substantial lengths to hide them.

This is what’s important I think. I don’t care what Trump does with porn stars and I really don’t want to know the details. But it is important that he was worried enough about it that he paid them off. And it is important that his excuse that he couldn’t have done anything untoward in Russia because he’s a germophobe.

It makes you wonder just what were the “dark whispers” about Trump’s longtime former bodyguard Keith Schiller to which Michael Wolff referred in “Fire and Fury.” He’s the guy who knows about this stuff.

It may be that there’s nothing to the kompromat rumor. I tend to believe it’s unlikely. But this new scandal makes it seem a little less unlikely than it was before.

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He’s just dumbby digby

Jonathan Chait on the president being cleared of charges of mental deterioration:

A recent Washington Post story chronicled the rise of Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, who has gained special influence with President Trump. McCarthy’s methods include obsequiousness, attention to detail, and an ability to bring the discussion down to a sub-literate level so Trump can follow it. At Camp David, McCarthy gave a presentation on the midterm elections. “According to two people familiar with the presentation, Trump appreciated McCarthy’s use of pictures and charts rather than a memo. It was a basic and ‘foundational’ presentation that explained midterm politics to Trump, in the words of one senior White House official.”

Note that McCarthy was not walking the president through a complex technical policy requiring expertise in a field like science or economics. He was trying to explain the elections. He had to use pictures. It has been publicly known since last year that Trump cannot read a memo longer than a page, and any written material must be in bullet-point form. Trump himself admitted (or bragged) a year and a half ago that he does not read. “I never have. I’m always busy doing a lot. Now I’m more busy, I guess, than ever before.” By this point it is simply taken as a matter of course that people wishing to communicate with the president must treat him as though he is suffering a severe mental impairment.

Trump is not actually suffering a severe mental impairment. White House doctor Ronny Jackson, who has served in the post since 2013, informed reporters on Wednesday that the president is in fine physical and mental health. The report comes as the national media has discussed whether Trump’s functional near-illiteracy, minuscule attention span, and narcissistic pathos are the symptoms of dementia or some other kind of cognitive incapacitation. We should take Jackson’s diagnosis at face value. Trump is just an idiot.

Personally, I never bought the idea that there was ever a more intelligent Trump and it’s just age that’s made him incapable. People point to his older videos and show that he sounded more fluent and had a better vocabulary. I don’t see it. He looked more normal, he sounded younger, but if you stop to actually listen to what he is saying rather than the sound of his younger voice, you’ll see that he was just as much of an imbecile then. In fact, he said exactly the same things. He has never evolved even a tiny bit from what he thought back in the 1980s. He was shallow and arrogant and completely full of shit, blathering on stupidly about crime, foreigners (who are always “laughing at America”) under-funding the military yadda, yadda. In recent years he got on the Muslim and immigration train but that’s just an extension of his inherent xenophobia and racism.

He hasn’t changed. He’s always been a fucking moron.

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Betraying Huckleberryby digby

I wrote about the sad state of the Trump-Graham relationship for Salon today:

Poor Lindsey Graham. The “maverick” senator from South Carolina had spent the last two years expressing his scorn for Donald Trump, calling him “unfit” and “a kook.” Then, sometime in the late summer, Graham apparently reconciled himself to the fact that Trump wasn’t capable of growing or “pivoting” into the job, so he took it upon himself to cultivate the mercurial manchild, perhaps in the vainglorious belief he could influence Trump to become a mainstream conservative and stamp out the rapidly burning fuse that was going to blow up the presidency and likely the entire Republican Party.

Graham played golf with his president, he complimented him on his swing, he flattered his intelligence and he even agreed to throw some red meat at the base on Trump’s behalf by taking up the ridiculous crusade to jail Hillary Clinton. He cajoled and he petted and he whispered the sweet nothings that the president needs to hear to make him feel powerful. Graham thought Trump trusted him and looked to him for guidance. He thought he could speak for the president in negotiations.

He was wrong — and it was proven in classic Trump fashion last week. Like so many of Trump’s close confidantes before him, Graham was stabbed in the back by the man he thought he was guiding. He was outmaneuvered by other “guides” who understand the dark impulses that drive their leader much better than Graham ever will.

Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., along with a few others, have been working for months on a bipartisan immigration deal that would save the young DACA recipients from being deported by Trump’s ICE agents after his abrupt cancellation of their program. In a televised meeting last Tuesday, this group all believed they had received guidelines from the president. By Thursday, they came up with a tentative compromise deal. Graham and Durbin called Trump at 10 a.m. He sounded enthusiastic and told the two senators to come up to the White House at noon to talk about it.

When the bipartisan duo got there, the room had been stacked with hardline anti-immigration right-wingers, led by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Sen. David Perdue of Georgia, whom staffers had hurriedly called to get to the meeting and help run interference.

According to The Washington Post, Chief of Staff John Kelly (a well-known anti-immigrant zealot from way back) got in the president’s ear and worked him up so much that when Graham and Durbin showed up to find they’d been sandbagged, he was already fuming. That’s when he went off about not wanting any more immigrants from “shithole” countries. Graham and Durbin tried to fight for their deal, but they had been outplayed.

It turns out that Graham’s not the only one who is trying to manipulate this president. The old-guard Breitbart “base whisperers” Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka have been supplanted by Kelly and professional hard-right extremists like Cotton, Perdue, Stephen Miller and Jeff Sessions, with backup from Trump’s “candyman,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. They were more than willing to appeal shamelessly to Trump’s racist id to get what they wanted. They knew it was what he really wanted too.

This bunch evidently told Trump “the base” would be thrilled if he rejected “shithole” immigrants, and he was so proud of himself for doing it, at least at first, that he called up his friends to see how they thought it was playing. It was only later that he realized he’d caused an international incident and destroyed the best hope of a bipartisan deal.

What happens now is anybody’s guess. The deadline to fix this DACA problem is fast approaching and the government will shut down at the end of the week if the Congress fails to act on a budget. At the moment it’s a standoff, with Republicans (and some members of the press) absurdly insisting that the Democrats will be responsible for a shutdown if they hold out for the DACA fix, even though the Republicans control both houses of Congress and the White House and can pass any bill they actually agree on. If the government turns off the lights this week, the GOP leadership needs to talk to the Republicans who refuse to vote for their own bill.

The other important question for the country is how we can preserve our democracy when one of the major parties has decided that it would rather accommodate and manipulate an unfit, unqualified and unstable president in pursuit of its white nationalist agenda than do its constitutional duty.

That’s what’s known as selling your soul. It would be one thing if “shithole” was the only offensive racist comment Trump has ever made. But it isn’t even close.

Trump is also wholly corrupt, making millions of dollars servicing his “brand” as president. He refuses to release any information about his finances and is under intense scrutiny by the press and possibly law enforcement for past dealings that look an awful lot like money laundering for foreign criminals.

He’s got absolutely no knowledge of policy, or ability to learn about it, and his nepotistic, amateurish White House is in a constant state of chaos. Trump acts belligerent toward America’s allies and weirdly friendly toward many of its adversaries. He uses his Twitter feed to spew juvenile insults and, in some cases, alarming threats of nuclear war.

Trump has been credibly accused of sexual assault by nearly 20 women and was revealed just this week to have paid porn stars to keep silent about his sexual escapades with them, possibly lending credence to charges that he was a potential target of blackmail.

He is the subject of the first counterespionage investigation ever launched against a president over suspicions that he conspired with the Russian government to win the presidential election. There is ample evidence that he has obstructed justice trying to stop the probe.

If Republican officials have decided to overlook all that, it’s hard to imagine what it would take to get them to do their duty.

Tuesday’s Senate testimony by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had poor Lindsey Graham lamenting:

[Last] Tuesday we had a president who I was proud to golf with, call my friend, who understood immigration had to be bipartisan . . . but he also understood the idea that we had to do it with compassion. I don’t know where that guy went. I want him back.

That guy never existed. The president of the United States is a man named Donald Trump. He is a racist and a xenophobe, and the vast majority of the Republican Congress doesn’t have a problem with that. In fact, they’ve eagerly signed on to the Trump crusade.

Who’s manipulating whom?

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Stunningly unpopularby digby

It’s not getting any better:

This is a record not to be coveted: Donald Trump is wrapping up a year in office with the lowest average approval rating of any elected president in his first year.

That’s according to polling by Gallup, which shows that Trump has averaged just a 39 percent approval rating since his inauguration. The previous low was held by Bill Clinton, whose first-year average stood 10 points higher than Trump’s, at 49 percent.

Recent surveys show most Americans view Trump as a divisive figure and even question his fitness for office. One relative bright spot for Trump is his handling of the economy, though even there his ratings are not as high as might be expected given a relatively strong economy.

What the polls show about how Americans view their president a year into his term:

UNUSUAL UNPOPULARITY

Trump’s current approval rating in Gallup’s weekly poll is comparable to his average rating, standing at just 38 percent, with 57 percent saying they disapprove.

The persistence of Trump’s first-year blues is unprecedented for a president so early in his term. Americans usually give their new presidents the benefit of the doubt, but Trump’s “honeymoon period,” to the extent he had one, saw his approval rating only as high as 45 percent.

Since then, Trump has spent more time under 40 percent than any other first-year president.

Presidents have recovered from periods of low popularity before. For example, Clinton’s rating fell to just 37 percent in June 1993 before quickly regaining ground, and he went on to win re-election. Harry S. Truman held the approval of less than 40 percent of Americans for significant chunks of his first term and was also re-elected. He went on to set Gallup’s lowest-ever approval mark, at just 22 percent in 1952.

Trump’s lowest point in Gallup’s weekly polling — 35 percent — remains higher than those of several earlier presidents. Truman, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter all had their ratings dip under 30 percent.

STRONG SUITS

There aren’t many bright spots for Trump, but there are some. For one, most Republicans continue to approve of him — 83 percent of registered voters who identify as Republicans, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll.

The same poll found that most voters overall find Trump to be intelligent and a strong person.

And positive ratings for Trump’s handling of the economy have tended to run higher than his overall job ratings.

In a December poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Trump’s rating on handling the economy was 8 percentage points higher than his overall approval, though even that stood at just 40 percent in the survey, which was a particularly negative one for Trump.

In the Quinnipiac poll, voters were more likely to say Trump is helping the economy than hurting it, 37 percent to 29 percent. On the other hand, more said President Barack Obama deserves the credit than Trump does, 49 percent to 40 percent.

ON THE ISSUES

Aside from the economy, surveys have suggested few policy bright spots for Trump.

Health care has been a consistent low point. Seven in 10 Americans in the December AP-NORC poll said they disapproved of Trump’s handling of the issue, even as 85 percent called the issue very important to them personally.

In another AP-NORC poll conducted late in 2017, just 23 percent of Americans said he has kept the promises he made while running for president, while 30 percent said he’s tried and failed and 45 percent said he has not done so at all. More than half said the country is worse off since Trump became president.

That poll was conducted before the passage of a tax bill that Trump signed into law in late December, but there’s little sign that the law will have an immediate positive impact. A Gallup poll conducted in January found that just 33 percent of Americans approved of the legislation.

CHARACTER CONCERNS

But it may be character more than policy that’s driving negative opinions of Trump. In the January poll by Quinnipiac University, most voters said Trump is not level-headed, honest or even fit to serve as president.

And the AP-NORC poll conducted in December found that two-thirds of Americans thought the country has become even more divided as a result of Trump’s presidency.

In a July Gallup poll that asked those who disapproved of Trump for their reasons why, most cited his personality or character over issues, policies or overall job performance. That stood in stark contrast to Gallup’s polling on Obama in 2009 and George W. Bush in 2001, when far fewer cited such concerns about personality or character as reasons for their negative opinions.

You have been served
by Tom Sullivan

So that went well. Former White house chief strategist Steve Bannon stonewalled the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday when asked questions regarding his part in the Trump transition team and in the White House, reports The Hill:

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday night slammed what he described as a “gag order by the White House” following testimony from President Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon before the panel amid its Russia probe.

Bannon refused to answer questions regarding his time in the White House in a hearing lasting ten hours. Sources told The Hill the meeting was a “total free-for-all.” “He doesn’t have any friends in that room,” another said.

Bannon’s appearance yesterday was voluntary. His next won’t be.

In conversation with Bannon’s attorney, the White House “doubled down” on its demand Bannon answer no questions.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders characterized the White House stance as “fully cooperative.”

“This was effectively a gag order by the White House,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters. Politico reports:

Tensions flared early in the proceedings after Bannon informed the committee that he was refusing to answer any questions about his time in the White House or on the post-election transition, infuriating Democrats and Republicans on the panel, who subpoenaed him on the spot, according to a source familiar with the interview.

It wasn’t Bannon’s first. Special counsel Robert Mueller issued a subpoena last week for Bannon to testify before the grand jury in the Russia investigation. The subpoena suggests Bannon is not personally a subject of Mueller’s inquiry, the New York Times explained:

The move marked the first time Mr. Mueller is known to have used a grand jury subpoena to seek information from a member of Mr. Trump’s inner circle. The special counsel’s office has used subpoenas before to seek information on Mr. Trump’s associates and their possible ties to Russia or other foreign governments. The subpoena could be a negotiating tactic. Mr. Mueller is likely to allow Mr. Bannon to forgo the grand jury appearance if he agrees to instead be questioned by investigators in the less formal setting of the special counsel’s offices about ties between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia and about the president’s conduct in office, according to the person, who would not be named discussing the case. But it was not clear why Mr. Mueller treated Mr. Bannon differently than the dozen administration officials who were interviewed in the final months of last year and were never served with a subpoena.

Appearing under a subpoena, Bannon will have cover for telling all. The White House has already telegraphed that it doesn’t want that to happen, making the prospect all that more tantalizing. If this were a Trump reality show, that would be good marketing. But when it’s Robert Mueller posing questions, maybe not.

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Request a copy of For The Win, my county-level election mechanics primer, at tom.bluecentury at gmail.

Oh Sarahby digby

In this moment of growing feminist awareness and solidarity it would be a mistake to think that everything has changed:

During a White House event on Tuesday entitled “A Conversation with the Women of America,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders advised women to ask their husbands and boyfriends to buy them jewelry. And things got even stranger from there.

Sanders plug for jewelry came after she introduced a woman named Sharon who told panelists — including White House staffer Ivanka Trump and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao — that she’s a business owner.

“I’m a jewelry store owner of more than 20 years in the Atlanta area, so I’m ecstatic about the tax reform bill,” Sharon said, at which point Sanders jumped in with some advice.

“Give your husbands, your boyfriends her contact information,” Sanders said, with Ivanka Trump adding, “We’re going to have to send some people your way… my secret skill, matchmaking.”

Women can buy their own jewelry these days. Maybe Sarah hasn’t heard.

The next thing you know, Sarah’s going to be holding Tupperware parties in the West Wing. (Not that there’s anything wrong with selling Tupperware. Just that Huckabee Sanders probably ought to stick to her own business…)

In case you were wondering:

Since taking office, the Trump administration has taken steps to stop monitoring the wage gap, worked to dismantle legislation that prevents sex and gender discrimination in education, and made it easier for employers to stop covering contraceptive coverage, among other measures that have made life more difficult for women.