Not Quite Out The Door Yet

Chelsea Manning is among Obama's pardons and commutations, though she won't be released until May.

The commutation gives Judith Miller the chance to... be Judith Miller. Tweeting—

"Obama commutes sentence of Chelsea Manning. How many people died because of manning' leak?"

Scott Lemieux—

As far as I can tell, there is no evidence that the materials Manning leaked led to the death of anyone. The same, however, most certainly cannot be said for the senseless war Miller helped bring about by dutifully transcribing whatever fallacious Bush administration propaganda came down the pike.

Kremlin Cash-in

Adam Khan, on some visitors to Russia, last January: "Flynn–Obama fired him–ex-head of intel agency, and Stein at Putin's table was strategic, warning message to Obama, Clinton".

Khan's notations here—

Khan adds—

RT founder's blunt-force-trauma-heart-attack just days before Flynn, Stein pop up at RT dinner with Putin...

Lesin, as founder of RT/top Putin aide had skinny on Putin's grooming of Assange, how much he was paid for RT show

Palace Scribes

Also, The Hill: JUST IN: Trump to meet Putin in first foreign trip as president: report

Schooley: "Don't want to trust that tape to a courier."

One-Stop Shopping

Marine Le Pen paid a visit to Trump Tower this morning, where she was photographed in the coffee shop.

As reported last month, the Comrades' financing of her campaign had fallen through. It seemed she must have come for some multi-tasking; advice from Bannon combined with a visit to whomever has become money-launderer in residence.

Some other details emerged tonight, in a report from Gideon Resnick—

The leader of France's right-wing extremist party was with three other men, including Guido (George) Lombardi. To the reporters on-site, Lombardi described himself as a friend and neighbor of Trump—and nothing more.
...

This was not an official rendezvous, Lombardi assured them. Just a chit-chat between like-minded people. In December, Lombardi described himself to Politico as a liaison between Trump and far-right parties in Europe.

"I'm in contact with just about everybody," he told Politico. In that same article, the National Front’s American representative, Denis Franceskin, said that Lombardi was a "go-between." "He is part of the [Trump] network."

And during the campaign—

Besides relaying messages from European well-wishers, Lombardi's main role, he said, was to run an unofficial, guerilla-style social media operation that aimed to amplify the candidate's message online. At its height, Lombardi said the operation included sites and Facebook pages for many niche groups of Trump supporters such as "Bikers for Trump," "Latinos for Trump" and "Veterans for Trump."

Or this social media maestro farmed the work out, perhaps to Macedonian teenagers? Politico's photo, that of an elderly fascist, suggests he didn't exactly create the "500 online groups" he claimed to be "curating."

Lombardi told Resnick

... "by coincidence" Le Pen was taking a few days off before her presidential campaign and called [Lombardi] to say that she was coming to New York.

After the call, Lombardi cleared the meeting with Bannon. He also told Resnick that the real business had been conducted the night before the press sighting—

Lombardi told The Daily Beast that he offered to have a party for Le Pen in Trump Tower on Wednesday evening.

"We organized a little drink," he said. "There were about 35 people. International guys. Some that live in the building, some that came from outside. A couple people that came from the United Nations. They wanted to support her candidacy. We had a few drinks and spent a couple of hours together."

Tower Zero for international guys, it would seem.

Reviews Are In

Had PEEOTUS jokes not forced him to show up yesterday, for the previously scheduled "press conference," Boss Tweet would have canceled this one, too.

No cancellation? No problem; stage managing the event was easy enough. Safe space secured, supplicant journos went to Trump Tower. The place was packed with The Help, who'd been assembled to cheer the boss. Transparent props were also on hand—though strictly hands-off, to journalists.

"Not only are they blank, but if this were my set I would fire the propmaster for lack of realism. They are that fake."

Amy Berg

In what seems to have been another unpresidented first, the "press conference" was preceded by warmup speeches from supporting cast members.

The Star's subsequent ramblings (three paragraphs' worth, in the NYT transcript) were full of extraordinary tells ("...I have a no-conflict situation because I'm president, which is — I didn't know about that until about three months ago, but it's a nice thing to have. But I don't want to take advantage of something. I have something that others don't have, Vice President Pence also has it....")

Then Trump interrupted his own riffing on I can run my company plus the country with my hands tied-but I don't want to do that- my sons will run my company and they won't discuss anything with  me... he interrupted himself (or was it an attempt at questioning?) to introduce someone he pays to make this "credible." A previously unseen lawyer (not the lawyer who's never been in Prague). This particular mouthpiece soon was found to be a partner in an award-winning firm...

To that, Adam Khan adds, "Sherri Dillon of Trump's law firm Morgan Lewis forgot to mention Trump + her firm were hit with $1B fraud lawsuit by Holocaust survivors."

Alexey Kovalev's review is in—

A message to my doomed colleagues in the American media

Congratulations, US media! You’ve just covered your first press conference of an authoritarian leader with a massive ego and a deep disdain for your trade and everything you hold dear. We in Russia have been doing it for 12 years now — with a short hiatus when our leader wasn't technically our leader — so quite a few things during Donald Trump's press conference rang my bells....

Vladimir Putin's annual pressers are supposed to be the media event of the year. They are normally held in late December, around Western Christmas time... Which probably explains why Putin's pressers don't get much coverage outside of Russia, except in a relatively narrow niche of Russia-watchers. Putin's pressers are televised live across all Russian TV channels, attended by all kinds of media — federal news agencies, small local publications and foreign reporters based in Moscow — and are supposed to overshadow every other event in Russia or abroad.

These things are carefully choreographed, typically last no less than four hours, and Putin always comes off as an omniscient and benevolent leader tending to a flock of unruly but adoring children. Given that Putin is probably a role model for Trump, it's no surprise that he's apparently taking a page from Putin’s playbook. I have some observations to share with my American colleagues. You're in this for at least another four years, and you'll be dealing with things Russian journalists have endured for almost two decades now. I'm talking about Putin here, but see if you can apply any of the below to your own leader.

Welcome to the era of bullshit.

Facts don't matter. You can't hurt this man with facts or reason. He'll always outmaneuver you. He'll always wriggle out of whatever carefully crafted verbal trap you lay for him. Whatever he says, you won't be able to challenge him. He always comes with a bag of meaningless factoids (Putin likes to drown questions he doesn't like in dull, unverifiable stats, figures and percentages), platitudes, false moral equivalences and straight, undiluted bullshit. He knows it's a one-way communication, not an interview. You can't follow up on your questions or challenge him. So he can throw whatever he wants at you in response, and you'll just have to swallow it. Some journalists will try to preempt this by asking two questions at once, against the protests of their colleagues also vying for attention, but that also won't work: he'll answer the one he thinks is easier, and ignore the other. Others will use this opportunity to go on a long, rambling statement vaguely disguised as a question, but that's also bad tactics. Non-questions invite non-answers. He'll mock you for your nervous stuttering and if you're raising a serious issue, respond with a vague, non-committal statement ("Mr President, what about these horrible human rights abuses in our country?" "Thank you, Miss. This is indeed a very serious issue. Everybody must respect the law. And by the way, don't human rights abuses happen in other countries as well? Next question please").

But your colleagues are there to help you, right? After all, you're all in this together?

Wrong.

Don't expect any camaraderie.

These people are not your partners or brothers in arms. They are your rivals in a fiercely competitive, crashing market and right now the only currency in this market is whatever that man on the stage says. Whoever is lucky to ask a question and be the first to transmit the answer to the outside world wins. Don't expect any solidarity or support from them. If your question is stonewalled/mocked down/ignored, don't expect a rival publication to pick up the banner and follow up on your behalf. It's in this man's best interests to pit you against each other, fighting over artificial scarcities like room space, mic time or, of course, his attention....
...

Also, some people in the room aren't really there to ask questions.

Expect a lot of sycophancy and soft balls from your "colleagues"...
...

This man owns you. He understands perfectly well that he is the news. You can't ignore him. You're always playing by his rules — which he can change at any time without any notice. You can't — in Putin's case — campaign to vote him out of office. Your readership is dwindling because ad budgets are shrinking — while his ratings are soaring, and if you want to keep your publication afloat, you'll have to report on everything that man says as soon as he says it, without any analysis or fact-checking, because 1) his fans will not care if he lies to their faces; 2) while you're busy picking his lies apart, he'll spit out another mountain of bullshit and you'll be buried under it.

In the Dead of Night

Pierce, on the stealth overnight "Vote-a-Rama"—

...around one o'clock in the morning, the actual mugging occurred, and millions of Americans awoke to the news that their newly acquired healthcare—and the newly acquired peace of mind that came with it—was going up in smoke.

HuffPo—

Repealing Obamacare would give 400 of the richest families in America a tax cut worth an average of $7 million each, even as it yanks health insurance away from low- and middle-income Americans.
...
Meanwhile, the total revenue loss from giving a tax cut to those 400 families comes to $2.8 billion a year. According to the center, that's about what it costs to finance tax credits for 800,000 people living in the District of Columbia and 20 of the smallest states.

The GOP has had to make haste, what with all those children and chronically ill people to be thrown to the wolves.

Or, should that be, thrown to the death panels...

Confederates Win Civil War

It's mere SOP to the GOP that those who would destroy a government department be named to run it. A Trump/Heritage Foundation/Big Oil cabinet will be the most extreme illustration to date, but it was inevitable: once Republicans gained control of all branches, new heights of klepto-kakistocracy were there for the grabbing.

For all that, the Jefferson Beauregard Nathan Bedford Forrest Sessions nomination is especially offensive, when his history is so long and familiar. Someone whose record was so terrible, even  Republicans under Reagan rejected him for a federal judgeship.

Since then, he has been a Senate fixture of the Confederate caucus. An early backer who became part of Trump's inner circle, he attended "Lock Her Up" rallies. Certainly, Sessions was well-positioned to encourage Twitler's rants about voter fraud. Sessions' reward (and his payback for 1986) will be the power to pound last nails in the coffin of voting rights. That's along with overseeing the FBI; anything related to federal enforcement of "justice" will be the purview of the anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-woman, anti-police accountability Sessions.

There will at least be historical witness to this. John Lewis has also lived long enough to remain a link to the struggle for civil rights. There's no forgetting that the near-lethal beating he survived in 1965 was at the hands of those who were the ideological allies of Jeff Sessions.Rep. Lewis testified against the nomination, as did Cory Booker; both spoke in a rare break from the usual displays of congressional collegiality.

Regarding Sessions' past abuses of power, an old "disgrace to his race" issued this statement.

Also introduced: a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King, sent to, and then suppressed by, Judiciary Committee chair Strom Thurmond. Mrs. King wrote that the prospect of Sessions on the federal bench—

...raises serious questions about his commitment to the protection of the voting rights of all American citizens.

Anyone who has used the power of his office as United States Attorney to intimidate and chill the free exercise of the ballot by citizens should not be elevated to our courts....Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters. For this reprehensible conduct, he should not be rewarded with a federal judgeship.

The irony of Mr. Sessions' nomination is that, if confirmed, he will be given a life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished twenty years ago with clubs and cattle prods...

And so: history on one side.

On the other: Southern Strategy. Jeff Stein at Vox tweeted this morning:

Trump team at the Sessions hearing just passed out a dossier citing an article about "how black Democrats stole votes"