Here are a few suggestions of things to read today.
Top of my list, a piece by Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes in Lawfare Blog, “What We Know, and Don’t Know, About the Firing of Andrew McCabe“.
This is a pretty even-handed assessment of the McCabe case. The authors point out that we just don’t know enough yet to determine whether the evidence compiled and the nature of the offense warranted firing.
But even if the findings did support firing, there are independent reasons that firing McCabe in this way is disturbing.
They write:
…even if McCabe’s firing proves to be justified on the merits, the question is what could have possibly justified breaking it off from the larger probe and rushing it to completion and adjudication in time to beat the deadline of McCabe’s retirement—particularly in context of presidential demands for his removal and Trump’s broader assault on independent and apolitical law enforcement.
[The column reprints one of the president’s tweets about the firing.]
In the end, such conduct necessarily taints the merits of the action against McCabe. Even if the Justice Department’s process proves pure as the driven snow and the case against McCabe proves compelling, who is going to believe—in the face of overt presidential demands for a corrupt Justice Department—that a Justice Department that gives the president what he wants is anything less than the lackey he asks for? The Justice Department career officials involved in this action know this. They know they are being made to look like lackeys, which may be reason to assume that they will have dotted every “i” and crossed every “t” in this instance—and that the facts against McCabe must be bad. But the politicization of law enforcement takes place either way—the latest and perhaps one of the most extreme instances of politicization in a chain of events that has embroiled the FBI in partisan politics since the beginning of the Clinton email investigation. If this action is the political attack that McCabe says it is, everyone involved is responsible for a terrible smear and a horrific abuse of a longtime public servant. But if the dismissal is absolutely justified and the public doesn’t believe that, the integrity of law enforcement suffers as well.
In any case, it’s worthwhile reading.
Then check out Shelly Palmer’s “Build Your Own Troll Farm“.
This is a step-by-step tour through the system that, according to the best assessment of American and international intelligence agencies, was exploited by Russia in Trump’s favor during the 2016 presidential campaign. For those of us who aren’t well versed in the techniques described, it’s quite enlightening.
And if you need a quick refresher on why we’re concerned about Russian trolls, you might want to check out these two NPR stories:
How A Russian Troll Factory Waged An Aggressive Campaign To Disrupt The U.S. Election, February 22, 2018.
Russian Trolling Continued After Election, March 17, 2018.
Finally, something a bit lighter from the travel site, Kayak.com, “Where Travelers from Your State are Going for Spring Break.”
It’s a state by state breakdown of trending destinations, presumably based on an analysis of Kayak searches.
Top destination for those in Hawaii? Bangkok, Thailand.
Share what you find most suprising in their list.