I'm happy to have an excuse to use this cool picture of an F-35 fighter, but somebody should have told Congress last year that the Marines didn't really need so many of them after all.U.S. Air Force/ZUMA

Well now:

The Trump administration plans to sap money intended to build fighter jets, ships, vehicles and National Guard equipment in order to fund barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Pentagon told Congress on Thursday, a move certain to agitate Democrats headed into a new budget and spending cycle….The money will be drawn from a host of procurement accounts, many of which are popular on Capitol Hill. The move includes a cut of two Marine Corps F-35B fighter jets at a cost of $223 million; $100 million from the Army National Guard’s Humvee modernization program; $650 million cut from the Navy’s amphibious assault ship replacement; and $261 million from the Expeditionary Fast Transport ship. The reprogramming also trimmed two Air Force C-130J transport aircraft for a cut of $196 million and $180 million from the service’s light attack aircraft program.

For the past three years, Donald Trump has told us over and over that the US military was all but falling apart at the seams thanks to President Obama’s weak stewardship, and this was why it needed far higher funding. But I guess that was just another lie. They didn’t really need the money after all. We should probably all keep this in mind the next time we’re told the Pentagon is in dire shape.

Stefani Reynolds/CNP via ZUMA

From Sen. John Kennedy, after a confirmation hearing this morning for Judy Shelton:

Nobody wants anybody on the Federal Reserve that has a fatal attraction to nutty ideas.

I’m not so sure about that. Shelton is a crackpot and a partisan hack, but there are still plenty of Republicans who are apparently unconcerned about giving her a Fed seat.

But that’s business as usual. What’s not usual is that there are actually a few Republican senators who are uncomfortable with Shelton and may block her confirmation. If that happens, she’d be the fifth Trump Fed nomination to fail even though Republicans control the Senate.

What this means is that Republicans are willing to confirm practically anyone Trump nominates for anything except for seats on the Fed. For some reason, a few of them still take that seriously. Why?

Steve Benen wants an explanation for this:

You may offer your explanations for Trump’s flaccid performance in comments.

Stefani Reynolds/CNP via ZUMA

Are there any conservatives who are objecting to Trump’s interference with the Department of Justice? Over at The Corner, there’s not a single post about it. On National Review’s home page, there’s exactly one piece—but it takes Trump’s side. The Wall Street Journal has nothing. Townhall has one piece, but once again it takes Trump’s side. Breitbart is also taking Trump’s side. Both the Federalist and the American Thinker take Trump’s side. The Daily Caller has nothing. Etc.

I might have missed something in my brief search. But over on the right, the unanimous opinion seems to be that the prosecutors on the Stone case were a bunch of vindictive zealots upset about the failure of the Mueller investigation and determined to take it out on poor Roger Stone. Maybe Trump was a little over the top in his criticism, but waddayagonnado? That’s Trump. And he was totally justified in being angry.

Quite the different worldview, isn’t it? On the right, they believe that liberals have conducted a brutal three-year war against Trump and that Trump is fully justified in hitting back hard. The Stone case is merely the latest skirmish in that war.

This is Hoover Dam at sunset, taken from the Arizona side. It took me a couple of tries to finally get to this particular parking lot, but I eventually arrived there right on time and got several nice pictures of the dam sporting this delicate lavender hue. In the background you can see the newish bridge on Highway 93 that I posted a picture of last week. Note that although this makes a nice picture, if the water in Lake Mead were at normal levels it would reach about halfway between its current level and the top of the dam.

Rouelle Umali/Xinhua via ZUMA

Is this interesting or not?

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told the U.S. Tuesday that he was scrapping a 2-decade-old defense agreement, throwing one of Washington’s most important security alliances in Asia into disarray.

….The Pentagon sees its relationship with the Philippines as a bulwark against China’s growing military ambitions in Southeast Asia. Beijing has built naval installations in the contested waters of the South China Sea and expanded security cooperation with authoritarian governments in Thailand and Cambodia, among other countries.

“The American and Filipino defense establishments will be working frantically to prevent VFA expiration by trying to convince their respective leaders of its value,” said Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corp. “Without the VFA, countering China in the South China Sea and conducting combined counter-terrorism missions in the southern Philippines will be virtually impossible.”

I vote for “interesting,” partly because this comes out of the blue to those of us who haven’t followed this dispute closely. This means that I don’t know what to think about it. Is there a liberal party line on relations with the Philippines? A conservative party line? A neocon party line? A Trumpist party line?

I don’t know, but it’s all part of a tightrope the US can’t walk forever. We want to maintain a serious military and diplomatic influence in southeast Asia, but it’s pretty obvious to everyone involved that China is the preeminent power in the region—if not quite now, then certainly in the very near future. Not only is the US obviously farther away and preoccupied with other problems, but President Trump’s attitude toward mutual defense treaties is making China look even more dominant. There’s a price to be paid for crossing China, while Trump is actively pushing back on maintaining treaty obligations. To resurrect a hoary old cliche, will the Philippines be the first domino to fall in an inevitable loss of US influence in Asia?

Alternatively, of course, Duterte is just bluffing and everything will work out fine over the next couple of months. Maybe this is just a routine nothingburger. Wait and see.

Back in the day, if you got caught interfering with the Justice Department it was a big deal. No longer. The Trump strategy is to do it all in public:

BREAKING: AG Barr is taking control of legal matters of interest to President Trump, including the Roger Stone sentencing, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. https://t.co/TR87t1U1DW

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 12, 2020

Trump is thrilled and wants the whole world to know about it:

Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought. Evidence now clearly shows that the Mueller Scam was improperly brought & tainted. Even Bob Mueller lied to Congress!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2020

This is not even a major headline in most newspapers, just a bit of routine news out of the White House. What’s coming next?

CNN

As we all know, the key to winning the media race is to do “better than expected.” By that measure, Amy Klobuchar blew away the competition in New Hampshire tonight. She went from 9 percent in the weekend polls to 12 percent in the final polls to 20 percent in the actual voting. That’s a helluva surge.

Still, Sanders and Buttigieg remain the frontrunners, and it’s not clear how much support Klobuchar has in the upcoming contests in Nevada and South Carolina. Or, rather, it is clear, and the answer right at this moment is “not much.” But her surprise finish in New Hampshire could change that overnight. It could also change her fundraising just in time for Super Tuesday in three weeks. I’ll let you know if I start seeing Amy For America ads here in California.

It looks to me like Joe Biden is dead in the water. The worst possible thing for an electability candidate is to lose, and Biden has now lost twice in spectacular fashion. Will his “firewall” of South Carolina stick with him now that he doesn’t seem so electable after all? I doubt it.

There are still some votes to count in New Hampshire, but probably not enough to change things much. It looks like this is how the evening will end.

Here’s our timeline for the day. At 1:48 am President Trump tweets his displeasure with the 7-9 year prison sentence that prosecutors are recommending for his pal Roger Stone:

This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice! https://t.co/rHPfYX6Vbv

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 11, 2020

11:40 am: Word leaks that DOJ plans to override its prosecutors and reduce their recommended sentence:

The DOJ is changing its sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, according to a Senior DOJ official.
“The Department finds seven to nine years extreme, excessive and grossly disproportionate,” the source said, adding the DOJ will clarify its position on sentencing later today

— Jake Gibson (@JakeBGibson) February 11, 2020

1:56 pm: DOJ spokesman says they had not even seen Trump’s tweet when they made this decision. It was solely because the sentence seemed excessive.

3:01 pm: One of the prosecutors withdraws from the case and resigns as Assistant US Attorney for Washington DC:

Aaron Zelinsky, who had been a prosecutor in the special counsel’s office, has moved to withdraw from Roger Stone’s case. pic.twitter.com/3mHkuvgHhz

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) February 11, 2020

3:59 pm: Another prosecutor withdraws from the case and resigns from DOJ:

New: Another prosecutor in Roger Stone’s case has withdrawn after DOJ said it was reconsidering its sentencing recommendation. Jonathan Kravis “has resigned as an Assistant United States Attorney and therefore no longer represents the government in this case.” pic.twitter.com/eXbBjhXNFW

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) February 11, 2020

4:40 pm: Yet another prosecutor on the Stone team withdraws:

A THIRD Stone prosecutor has now dropped out of the case: Adam Jed. pic.twitter.com/vLzMxJi5Z7

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 11, 2020

5:33 pm: The fourth and final member of the prosecution team is out:

MARANDO OUT pic.twitter.com/cG8uS2tjbo

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) February 11, 2020

The corruption just keeps rolling along. Stay tuned for more.

This is a patch of moss phlox along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Also known as creeping phlox, moss pink, and mountain phlox. According to Wikipedia, it smells like marijuana, though I didn’t notice that myself. Otherwise it appears to be entirely unexceptional. Just scatter a few seeds around and it will grow forever with no effort. My kind of flower!