Psychographic Honeypots

Legal Shuffle:  Last week when the New York Times reported that Trump was considering adding another lawyer to his legal team, he shot back at the paper, questioning the capabilities of Times reporter Maggie Haberman and calling the article another example of Fake News.  That was last week, the only thing wrong about the article was its timing.  Trump is taking a much more aggressive stance towards the Russia investigation which he has now started to refer to as the Mueller investigation and is in the process of shuffling his legal team, adding frequent Fox commentator Joseph diGenova to the mix. DiGenova, a former US Attorney, is a deep state conspiracy theorist who told Fox News that the Mueller investigation is a “brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn’t win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime.” At different times diGenova has also attacked or called for the arrest of the recently fired Andrew McCabe, James Comey, Rod Rosenstein, Sally Yates and Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch. DiGenova’s wife and law partner, Victoria Toensing, is one of the advancers of the Uranium One conspiracy theory.  Though Trump has considered firing him, Ty Cobb, the legal team member who until last weekend managed to moderate Trump’s outbursts by keeping Mueller’s name out of criticisms of the Russian investigation, is still on board, for now. It’s also been reported that John Dowd, the Trump lawyer whose calls for the Mueller investigation to end raised a number of eyebrows last weekend,  is considering quitting.  At least for now both lawyers are in place and deny that they are going anywhere, but we’ve heard that refrain many times before.  Trump’s shift to a more aggressive legal team reflects his very valid concern that the Mueller investigation is closing in on him and his family and also reflects his reality show roots.  If you can’t win in the courts, go for the drama and win over the public.  He may not be winning over all of the public but he is in all likelihood confusing a lot of people while further solidifying his base. 

Data Shenanigans:  Facebook and Cambridge Analytica’s problems continue to mount.  Alexander Nix, the head of Cambridge Analytica, was caught on camera, explaining to a British Channel 4 undercover investigative team that in addition to providing data analytics and proprietary “psychographic” services, his firm could also arrange and videotape compromising honeypot traps and land for money swaps in order to provide blackmail material that could then be used to advance the political aims of their fictional Sri Lankan client. Nix bragged “that we have a long history of working behind the scenes,” by scenes he meant between the covers.  UK investigators were already looking into Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s data harvesting techniques, as a result of the investigative report, which aired in the UK and is available in its entirety on the Internet, both of the company’s problems have just grown significantly.  Facebook’s woes, especially its loosey goosey attitude towards user data, are also disturbing the equity markets.  The company’s stock dropped 6.8% yesterday, leading a major market sell-off. Investors are concerned that Facebook’s problems could lead to increased oversight and regulation of the industry and those concerns might be valid.  Virginia’s Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, spoke for many when he said  “I think it’s time for the CEO, Mr. [Mark] Zuckerberg, and other top officials to come and testify and not tell part of the story, but tell the whole story of their involvement -- not only with the Trump campaign but their ability to have their platform misused by the Russians.” Alex Stamos, Facebook’s Chief Information Security officer will be leaving by August.  The NY Times reports that Stamos had advocated for greater transparency about Facebook’s Russia problem but had lost out to those within Facebook who thought that there was little need to really come clean.   

    

Another Budget Deadline:  Here’s one you’ve heard before, if Congress doesn’t get its act together and pass an omnibus spending bill, the government could shut down again at the end of the week.  During the last go round Congress agreed upon the size of the bill and the size of the increases for defense and domestic spending.  At this point a number of critical issues remain unresolved, and with this crowd, little gets done without a bit of controversy or a last minute fight.  Among the still open items are health insurance subsidy payments, the ones that Trump cancelled in a fit of pique as part of his effort to gut Obamacare last year.  In exchange for her vote on the tax bill, Trump promised Maine Senator Susan Collins that he would support the Alexander-Murray insurance subsidy payment fix.  Despite that promise and another one from Senate Leader McConnell, the subsidy fix remains up in the air.  House Republicans have thrown abortion politics into the mix, they want a provision prohibiting subsidy payments to any insurer also providing abortion coverage, that would significantly extend the already existing Hyde Amendment prohibitions against government funding of abortion.  For some inexplicable reason, Collins who holds herself out as a supporter of women’s reproductive rights doesn’t have a problem with that but Democrats who view the provision as just another attempt to reduce women’s services and defund Planned Parenthood aren’t buying it.  It’s also unlikely that the bill won’t include a DACA fix.  Trump has proposed an extension to DACA in exchange for $25 billion in wall funding but his plan does not include a path to citizenship for the Dreamers so again the Democrats aren’t interested since, at least for now, the courts have given the DACA program a reprieve removing the pressure for any less than satisfactory compromise.  Notably, several Koch Brothers funded conservative groups have come out in support of the DACA recipients and believe that any legislation should provide a path to citizenship.  That message hasn’t made it to Trump or his anti-immigration whisperer, Steven Miller.  Though it’s still being discussed, Trump’s threat to veto any bill that includes funding for the hugely important New York-New Jersey Hudson River tunnel has likely killed any chance of it being included in the bill.  Also uncertain is the inclusion of the Fix NIX gun legislation, the bare bones bill that does little more than fix the existing gun background check system.           

Midterm Update:  Yesterday the Supreme Court denied Republican efforts to block the new Pennsylvania redistricting map.  As a result, the new districting will take effect in time for the upcoming midterms.  This is significant because the prior map heavily advantaged the State’s Republican candidates; as a result of the redistricting, Democrats are expected to pick up four to six of the key seats needed to take back the House.  One of those seats will probably go to Conor Lamb, the unofficial winner of the recent Pennsylvania 18 special election. His new district will include more Democrats making it highly likely that he will achieve another victory in November.  Though he isn’t running in the midterms, Trump is already running for reelection.  Yesterday he went to New Hampshire, the early primary state he previously called a “drug-infested den.” After an brief introduction by the frequently absent Melania, Trump delivered a speech that was billed as an overview of his solution to the opioid crisis.  He mostly avoided details but did stick to his usual themes.  He called for more health care services, but little in the way of funding, called for more punishments including the death penalty for drug traffickers, a policy unlikely to pass court muster and of course he called for more restrictions on immigration.  He also praised a program that makes Narcan, an opioid overdose antidote, more available in colleges and universities.  Apparently he was unaware that the program he touted was made possible because of a partnership with the Clinton Foundation.