;)
The Commentariat -- September 3, 2017
Julie Pace of the AP: "After a summer of staff shake-ups and self-made crises..., Donald Trump is emerging politically damaged, personally agitated and continuing to buck at the confines of his office, according to some close allies. For weeks, the West Wing has been upended by a reorganization that Trump has endorsed and, later, second-guessed, including his choice of retired Marine Gen. John Kelly as chief of staff. The president recently lashed out at Kelly after a boisterous rally in Phoenix, an incident relayed by a person with knowledge of the matter. In private conversations, Trump has leveled indiscriminate and harsh criticism on the rest of his remaining team. Seven months into his tenure, Trump has yet to put his mark on any signature legislation and his approval ratings are sagging. Fellow Republicans have grown weary of his volatility, and Trump spent the summer tangling with some of the same lawmakers he'll need to work with in the coming weeks to pass a government funding bill, raise the country's borrowing limit and make a difficult bid for tax overhaul legislation."
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: No matter how many times we hash over Trump's personality disorders, his mental condition, his ignorance, etc., it is still impossible not to reflexively ask,
... What's Wrong with This Man?
Glenn Thrush & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "President Trump urged onlookers at a Houston shelter to 'have a good time' on Saturday -- and appeared to take his own advice during a daylong Gulf Coast tour that blurred the line between bucking up a battered region and taking an early victory lap. During a half-dozen events in Texas and Louisiana, Mr. Trump exchanged hugs with survivors of Hurricane Harvey, viewed the historic damage firsthand, conferred with emergency management officials and personally imprinted the Trump brand on a recovery effort expected to take years and cost $100 billion or more. Mr. Trump, who had traveled to the area four days before and was criticized for not meeting with victims of the storm, sought on Saturday to project a sense of empathy during the series of media-friendly stops. 'They're really happy with what's going on,' he told reporters after talking with local residents at the NRG Center, a convention building serving as a temporary shelter for nearly 1,200 people. 'It's something that's been very well received. Even by you guys, it's been very well received.'... 'The cameras are blazing,' he noted during one of the many photo ops...." ...
... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The brief encounters Trump had with storm victims seemed to consist of exchanging pleasantries, smiling for photos and sharing presidential words of encouragement. Trump also talked of his electoral victory, as he often does. When Trump shook hands with a few uniformed military members at the evacuee shelter in Houston, one of the men told him, 'We voted for you.' 'You better,' Trump said playfully. 'Who didn't in your world? Who didn't?'" ...
... Alice Ollstein of TPM: "In a visit toone of Houston's designated emergency refuge areas, the NRG Center, Trump told reporters he is seeing 'a lot of happiness.' 'It's been really nice,' he said, according to the traveling press pool. 'It's been a wonderful thing. As tough as this was, it's been a wonderful thing, I think even for the country to watch it and for the world to watch. It's been beautiful.' The president also said of the children he visited who had been displaced by the storm, 'They're doing great.' When asked about the devastating flooding still covering much of the region, he replied: 'The flooding? Oh, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of water, but it's leaving pretty quickly. But there's a lot of water, a lot of water, but it's moving out.' While handing out meals to survivors of the flood, Trump paused to inform the press that his hands were too big for the sanitary plastic gloves.... In a subsequent visit to the First Church of Pearland in the Houston suburbs, Trump reminded flood survivors that he had declared Sunday a national day of prayer. 'So go to your church and pray and enjoy the day,' he said. Trump's light-hearted tone contrasted sharply with reports from the ground, where the death toll continues to climb." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's video of Trump speaking to reporters for a minute as he was leaving the NRG Center. I'm guessing he's trying to follow White House staff instructions to talk about storm victims. This is the best he could do -- talk about how happy they were at the job his people were doing to help them. BTW, the White House uploaded this video to YouTube, so staff too thought he was "doing great":
... "Enjoy the Day." Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "Hurricane Harvey has resulted in Houston's petrochemical industry leaking thousands of tons of pollutants, with communities living near plants damaged by the storm exposed to soaring levels of toxic fumes and potential water contamination. Refineries and chemical plants have reported more than 2,700 tons, or 5.4m pounds, of extra air pollution due to direct damage from the hurricane as well as the preventive shutting down of facilities, which causes a spike in released toxins.... Fourteen plants, operated by firms including Shell and Dow Chemical, have also reported wastewater overflows following the hurricane.... Residents living near the sprawling industrial facilities that dominate Houston's ship channel said they have experienced pungent smells and respiratory issues in the wake of the hurricane.... Houston has not met national air quality standards since the introduction of the Clean Air Act in 1970 and the sudden surge in pollution has caused deep concern among public health advocates. ...
... EPA MIA. Jason Dearen & Michael Biesecker of the the AP: "Long a center of the nation's petrochemical industry, the Houston metro area has more than a dozen Superfund sites, designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as being among America's most intensely contaminated places. Many are now flooded, with the risk that waters were stirring dangerous sediment.... The Associated Press surveyed seven Superfund sites in and around Houston during the flooding. All had been inundated with water, in some cases many feet deep. On Saturday, hours after the AP published its first report, the EPA said it had reviewed aerial imagery confirming that 13 of the 41 Superfund sites in Texas were flooded by Harvey and were 'experiencing possible damage' due to the storm. The statement confirmed the AP's reporting that the EPA had not yet been able to physically visit the Houston-area sites, saying the sites had 'not been accessible by response personnel.'" ...
... David Atkins of the Washington Monthly: "Since his election, Trump has been doing all he can to sabotage the EPA and render it unable to do its job. Part of this sabotage has been its willfully ignorant neglect toward nearly every department of government. But the EPA has come under particular scrutiny under a president who disbelieves in climate science and views environmental regulations as obstacles to his favorite industries like oil and coal. So Trump's industry-friendly EPA director Scott Pruitt has been busily dismantling the organization from the inside, firing employees, cutting funding and generally wrecking the place however he can.... The EPA exists for a reason. As with so much else, it would have been nice if Trump knew what it was before he got elected and started dismantling it." ...
... Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post (Sept. 1): "A couple of weeks ago President Trump scrapped Obama-era rules, intended to reduce the risks posed by flooding, that established new construction standards for roads, housing and other infrastructure projects that receive federal dollars. Trump derided these restrictions, which were written in response to growing concerns over the impact of climate change, and other federal rules as useless red tape holding back the economy.... But now, in the wake of the massive flooding and destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey along the Gulf Coast, the Trump administration is considering whether to issue similar requirements to build higher in flood-prone areas as the government prepares to spend billions of dollars in response to the storm. This potential policy shift underscores the extent to which the reality of this week's storm has collided with Trump officials' push to upend President Barack Obama's policies and represents a striking acknowledgment by an administration skeptical of climate change that the government must factor changing weather into some of its major infrastructure policies.... Earlier in his tenure, Trump eliminated other policies and institutions aimed at incorporating projected climate impacts such as sea level rise and more frequent, intense storms into infrastructure planning." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What we're probably seeing here is a clash between climate realists & climate deniers, the latter group led of course by the Reality Denier-in-Chief. Harvey has given the realists a lift, which may last as long as Donald Trump enjoys making new friends in flood-ravaged Texas. ...
... Lobbyists Are Awesome. Zachary Warmbrodt & Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "The catastrophic weather in Texas has thrown the spotlight on the federal government's troubled flood insurance program, which is nearly $25 billion in debt after huge payouts following Katrina, Sandy and other devastating hurricanes. But as Houston starts the long process of recovering, lobbyists in Washington have already maneuvered to slow lawmakers efforts' to overhaul the National Flood Insurance Program and protect their industries' profits. The powerful home builders’ lobby helped kill a proposal that would have phased out coverage for new construction in high-risk areas. The National Association of Realtors blocked an attempt to rein in discounted insurance rates that homeowners can get when their flood risk increases. And the American Bankers Association has warned of a 'regional foreclosure crisis' if Congress axes coverage for homes with excessive claims."
Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "President Trump has instructed advisers to prepare to withdraw the United States from a free-trade agreement with South Korea, several people close to the process said, a move that would stoke economic tensions with the U.S. ally as both countries confront a crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Withdrawing from the trade deal would back up Trump's promises to crack down on what he considers unfair trade competition from other countries, but his top national security and economic advisers are pushing him to abandon the plan, arguing it would hamper U.S. economic growth and strain ties with an important ally. Officials including national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and National Economic Council director Gary Cohn oppose withdrawal, said people familiar with the process.... Although it is still possible Trump could decide to stay in the agreement to renegotiate its terms, the internal preparations for terminating the deal are far along, and the formal withdrawal process could begin as soon as this week, the people said." ...
... Josh Delk of the Hill: "Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) blasted the Trump administration on Saturday for having '18th-century views of trade' after it was reported that President Trump was preparing to withdraw the U.S. from its free trade agreement with South Korea. 'The president and Nebraska have a basic disagreement about trade,' Sasse said in a statement. 'His Administration holds 18th-century views of trade as a zero-sum game. I side with our farmers and ranchers who are feeding the world now,' the conservative senator added." ...
... AND There's This. Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North Korea said on Sunday that it has developed a hydrogen bomb 'with super explosive power' [link fixed] to be mounted on its intercontinental ballistic missile. The North's official Korean Central News Agency offered no evidence for the claim, other than photos of Kim Jong-un ... inspecting what it said was the weapon. The report said Mr. Kim had visited the Nuclear Weapons Institute, which the news agency said had recently 'succeeded in a more developed nuke' and in 'bringing about a signal turn in nuclear weaponization.'" ...
... ** NEW LEDE: "North Korea carried out its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in an extraordinary show of defiance against President Trump on Sunday, saying it had detonated a hydrogen bomb that could be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile. The test, which the North called a 'complete success,' was the first to clearly surpass the destructive power of the bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.... Still, it was unclear whether the North had in fact detonated such a weapon, a far more powerful type of nuclear device than the atomic bombs it has tested in the past. And analysts were skeptical that Pyongyang had really developed the capability to mount one on an ICBM." ...
... Philip Rucker: "In a pair of tweets issued Sunday morning, Trump wrote: 'North Korea has conducted a major Nuclear Test. Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States ... North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success.' Trump also delivered a scolding to South Korea, a longtime U.S. ally, stating that 'appeasement with North Korea will not work' and suggesting that more severe steps must be taken to influence Kim Jong Un's government.' In a third Sunday morning tweet, the president wrote, 'South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!' This comes amid escalating economic tensions with South Korea, a democratic nation and a longtime economic and diplomatic partner with the United States. Trump is considering withdrawing the United States from a free-trade agreement with South Korea."
New York Times Editors: "The policy objective [of the tax-cut bill Congress & the White House are working on] is to steeply cut tax rates for businesses and wealthy individuals. The political aim, and the point of President Trump's speech last Wednesday, is to persuade ... the Trump working-class base that a tax cut for the wealthy would be good for them, too. It would not be, and to pretend otherwise, as Mr. Trump did, is to substitute propaganda for discourse.... Wages have long stagnated, despite tax cuts in the 1980s and 2000s, while profits, shareholder returns and executive pay have soared.... Then, too, there is the budget issue. Mr. Trump has proposed cutting the top corporate rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, a point he emphasized on Wednesday despite warnings from his economic advisers that a cut that sizable would cause the deficit to explode. Separately, he and his advisers have also proposed ending taxation on the foreign profits of American corporations, even though such profits are often actually earned in the United States and simply relabeled as foreign through the use of complex accounting maneuvers.... Over all, the cuts, paired with loophole closers, would cost at least $3.4 trillion in revenue in the first 10 years and $5.9 trillion over the following decade."
Kimberly Kindy, et al., of the Washington Post: "On June 3, 2014, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. restarted a long-dormant domestic terrorism task force created after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. A former Ku Klux Klan leader had just murdered three people near a Jewish Community Center in a Kansas City suburb and yelled 'Heil Hitler' as police took him into custody. For too long, Holder said, the federal government had narrowly focused on Islamist threats and had lost sight of the 'continued danger we face' from violent far-right extremists. But three years later, it is unclear what, if anything the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee has done [in this regard].... As President Trump continues to suffer political backlash for his response to the deadly Charlottesville protests led by white supremacists, analysts who follow far-right groups say generations of neglect by multiple administrations has allowed them to proliferate and strengthen.... Since 9/11, there have been 95 deaths in the United States linked to Islamist militant violence, while 68 people have died at the hands of the far right during the same time, according to the nonpartisan think tank New America.... Federal authorities are also dealing with an emerging problem from an increasingly confrontational and sometimes violent leftist extremist group known as antifa."
Former Sen. Bob Graham in a Washington Post op-ed: Congressional investigative committees are not nearly prepared to adequately investigate the Trump/Russia scandal. "The nation's best option is for [Robert] Mueller to continue his investigation until it ends, wherever it leads. Should Trump find some way to remove him, it would spark a constitutional crisis unlike anything since Watergate; Congress must be ready for this worst-case scenario. In our system of checks and balances, it has the right and duty to exercise full oversight. Now is the time to start preparing for that responsibility."
Deirdre Walsh of CNN: "The Justice Department said in a court filing Friday evening that it has no evidence to support ... Donald Trump's assertion in March that his predecessor, Barack Obama, wiretapped the phones in Trump Tower before last year's election. 'Both FBI and NSD confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets,' the department's motion reads. NSD refers to the department's national security division. The motion came in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by a group pushing for government transparency, American Oversight.On March 4, Trump tweeted: 'Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!' 'How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process,' Trump also tweeted. 'This is Nixon/Watergate.' Then-FBI Director James Comey told Congress in March there was no evidence to support the contention that Trump Tower had been wiretapped.... American Oversight said in a statement following the Justice Department's motion: 'The FBI and Department of Justice have now sided with former Director Comey and confirmed in writing that President Trump lied when he tweeted the former President Obama "wiretapped" him at Trump Tower.'" ...
... Chas Danner of New York: "The episode, as well as Trump and the White House's subsequent refusal to provide any evidence to back up the claim, was one of the most-outrageous early events of Trump's presidency. The most likely explanation for Trump's tweets is that someone passed him a Breitbart article writing up accusations against Obama made by conservative radio host Mark Levin, who based his claims based on dubious British media reports. In other words, a right-wing game of conspiracy-theory telephone resulted in the president of the United States accusing his predecessor of a politically-motivated criminal act via tweetstorm, which in turn kicked off one of the biggest, most-distracting scandals of Trump's early presidency."
Friday Night News Dump. Kenneth Chang of the New York Times: "Representative Jim Bridenstine, Republican of Oklahoma, will be nominated by President Trump to serve as NASA's next administrator, the White House said on Friday night. Mr. Bridenstine, a strong advocate for drawing private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin more deeply into NASA's exploration of space, had been rumored to be the leading candidate for the job, but months passed without an announcement. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Bridenstine, 42, would be the first elected official to hold that job." ...
... Marc Caputo of Politico: "Florida’s senators are voicing opposition to ... Donald Trump's pick for NASA administrator, Oklahoma Congressman Jim Bridenstine, saying a 'politician' shouldn't lead the nation's space program. Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Bill Nelson wouldn't say whether they'd buck the president and vote against Bridenstine, who was nominated Friday. But they suggested the GOP congressman's political past would needlessly spark a partisan fight in the Senate that could ultimately damage NASA.... The bipartisan pushback against Trump's nominee for NASA administrator underscores the importance of the agency to Florida, home of the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.... Nelson serves as the ranking member on the Senate's Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, which oversees NASA and would hear Bridenstine's nomination.... Bridenstine was harshly critical of Rubio during the GOP presidential primary when the Oklahoma representative supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz." ...
... Joe Romm of Think Progress: "Bridenstine is a politician without any scientific credentials, unlike previous NASA chiefs.... NASA scientists have led the way in documenting the scientific reality of climate change. But in 2013, Bridenstine not only gave a speech on the House floor filled with standard denier talking points, he actually ended his remarks with a demand that President Obama apologize for funding research into climate science.... Although Bridenstine serves on the House science committee, those remarks were in contradiction to well-established science at the time -- and indeed to NASA's own research." ...
... Wait, Wait. It Gets Worse. Ken Ward of the Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail: "... Donald Trump on Saturday indicated he has chosen as the nation's top mine safety official the former chief executive of Rhino Resources, a coal company that repeatedly clashed with federal regulators when the Obama administration Labor Department tried to step up industry-wide enforcement in the wake of the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in a generation. The White House announced that Trump intended to nominate David G. Zatezalo, of Wheeling, [West Virginia,] as assistant secretary of labor for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration."
Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... White House chief of staff John Kelly has sought to put a dent in the influence of one of ... Donald Trump’s most famous advisers: Omarosa Manigault. The former Apprentice co-star -- who currently serves as the communications director for the Office of Public Liaison -- has seen her direct access to the president limited since Kelly took the top White House job in late July, sources tell The Daily Beast. In particular, Kelly has taken steps to prevent her and other senior staffers from getting unvetted news articles on the president's Resolute desk -- a key method for influencing the president's thinking, and one that Manigualt used to rile up Trump about internal White House drama.... 'When Gen. Kelly is talking about clamping down on access to the Oval, she's patient zero,' a source close to the Trump administration said.... Manigault would [bring negative press reports] to Trump, often on a phone or printed out, [which] would often enrage the president, and resulted in him spending at least the rest of the day fuming about it."
Beyond the Beltway
Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "A bar in Minneapolis, Minn., shut its doors Friday after it was revealed the owner had donated to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke's failed Senate campaign, The Star Tribune reported. Club Jäger closed down Friday, with staff protesting after local newspaper City Pages revealed that owner Julius De Roma had made a $500 donation to Duke's Senate bid last year. Entertainers at the bar and staffers quit after the story about De Roma's campaign donation to the former KKK grand wizard emerged. Employees said the decision to close the business was made by those who ran the bar, not the owner, according to the Star Tribune. De Roma defended his donation to local television station WCCO this week as 'free speech.' 'Well, whatever,' De Roma said. 'What do you expect? It's basically something that is blown up beyond what it should be.'"
News Lede
Los Angeles Times: "Hundreds of firefighters fought for control over a 5,800-acre brush fire Saturday in the Verdugo Mountains north of downtown Los Angeles that forced the evacuations of hundreds of homes and shut down a nine-mile stretch of the 210 Freeway. The La Tuna fire was believed to be one of the largest in L.A. city history in terms of sheer acreage, officials said. The blaze destroyed three homes in Tujunga, but no injuries were reported. The fire, which shrouded the sky with plumes of white smoke, was only 10% contained late Saturday. It broke out a day earlier, with shifting winds sending flames in multiple directions. Fire crews confronted the same erratic conditions on Saturday, Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said."
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Reader Comments (9)
Trump's Dept. of Justice declares that Trump is a delusional, lying idiot. When is enough enough!
Usually Sundays are slow news days but today we have a plethora of ACTUAL news, although some mighty fake folks are prominent players, like Zatezalo and Bridenstine who if confirmed for their nominated positions will cause Democrats and I hope some Republicans to cry havoc–– but then what...?? and of course we have Omarosa who has been chastised by Kelly for playing her game of apprentice tactics. And at the head is the man who would be King telling the flood victims, "don't worry, be happy and aren't I doing a bang up job"
And I find it ironic that we have been in a war forever trying to get rid of the bad guys while we have had a large group of bad guys right here in River City (see Eric Holder above).
Meanwhile another little jerk in North Korea is dreaming of bombs and ballistic missiles.
But it's Sunday––always a good time to reflect on the heavenly aspects of life––as long as your house isn't under water.
I keep thinking about that ER nurse who got manhandled by the cop. This doesn't make sense at all. Cops and nurses interact all the time in ER's. Some ER's have cops on duty on the late shifts, especially in big cities. They respect each other, and generally get along well. From the way the nurse was talking, it was clear she had previously refused the request for blood, and because the cop had persisted, she was having the interaction documented with the administrator on the video as well. Nurses know procedure, cops know procedure. The cop must have known he was wrong, but went ahead and grabbed her anyway. I wonder if they made the cop get a blood test; his judgment and behavior was that far off.
@ Victoria: I agree. The cop claimed that his supervisor told him to arrest nurse Alex Wubbels, but I'm not sure he has much credibility on this because Wubbels let her go after manhandling her & detaining her in his squad car in the hospital parking lot for only 20 minutes. Why the relatively sudden change of heart? It would seem that some law enforcement person -- tho not necessarily the one who allegedly told the cop to arrest Wubbels -- told him to let her go.
There are other reasons the cop's actions don't make sense. Not only was it made doubly clear to him that Wubbels was acting on hospital policy, as you write, but also that the policy was one that had been worked out between the SLC police department & the hospital. That is, it wasn't just hospital policy; it was also police policy. And I assume the policy was devised on the basis of legal precedent based on the Fourth Amendment's guarantee of due process.
Moreover, what was the big rush to draw the victim's blood? He was unconscious, & the driver of the car that hit his semi died in the accident. Therefore, we have to assume the victim was not going to be walking out of the hospital before the police could obtain a warrant to draw blood, if a judge deemed it legal. If there was some hold-up in obtaining a warrant (unlikely), the cop could have just asked the hospital to retain a portion of the blood the hospital certainly already had drawn for medical purposes until such time as he could obtain a warrant.
Also, did Wubbels, her supervisor & the hospital get apologies right away? Since she wasn't charged, it seems pretty certain the cops knew they had made a big mistake. I'm not saying the apologies weren't promptly forthcoming, but it seems likely that it was the national attention paid to the video that elicited the police chief's & SLC mayor's apologies weeks later.
And why was Wubbels the only hospital employee the cop arrested? Why not her supervisor -- a man -- who also said no to the blood test? The supervisor was ultimately more responsible than was Wubbels for the decision not to draw the victim's blood & turn it over the law enforcement.
I also wonder WTF hospital security was doing during this incident, which lasted for some time. The hospital was University Hospital, a state institution which probably has some kind of state cops working security. In the video, you can see three uniformed cops mostly standing around while the SLC cop forces Wubbels into cuffs & pushes her outside.
Because of the publicity, there's going to be at least one investigation.
Try this on:
-- the police phlebotomist is getting ready to retire
-- he makes a deal with Wubbels' husband to execute the scenario, since unconscious people come into the ER often. Nurse Wubbels buys in
-- Wubbels sues SLC and makes big bucks, which she and her husband then share with the phlebotomist who has by then retired to Mexico
It seems that outraged wingers are demanding that everyone treat Queen Melania with the courtesy and respect due the First Lady. They're angry because her choice of haute couture clothing for a visit to hurricane ravaged Houston earned her some snickers on Twitter and in some media stories.
You know, they're right. We can all learn a lesson in respect and courteous behavior from the same people who called Michelle Obama fat and stupid and traded pictures of her looking like a gorilla. They're also the same ones who called Hillary Clinton an uppity bitch, and a lot worse) when she was First Lady, and were running around saying that she had people murdered. More recently they were wearing "Fuck Hillary" t-shirts and demanding that she be locked up as their Glorious Candidate was suggesting that someone shoot her.
Respect is important. The right is here, once again, to show us all the high road to civil behavior. Because making fun of someone's poor choice of shoes is so much worse than threatening to kill someone or portraying them using hateful racist imagery.
Wow! Hurricane Trump, the first hurricane in history that's fun!
Another shock in the making?
https://thinkprogress.org/white-house-walks-back-trumps-promise-to-give-1-million-of-his-personal-money-to-harvey-victims-4691cf5e6dd6
As they say, stay tuned.
My money (not a million) says that this time the Pretender will cough up. Maybe he'll donate his salary to FEMA, dribbling his promised contribution out over time, but one way or another this is one hasty promise the Blowhard-in-Chief have to keep.
The fake news I rely on won't let this one go, so if he doesn't, even the Trumpbots will know and perhaps even frown.
About that nurse. The fetal speeding car crash was instigated by Utah cops and was against department policy. The blood draw was an effort by the cops to muddy any possible effort by the unconscious victim to sue the Utah cops. The phlebotomist was assigned to police blood draw department and had to know of Scotus decision of one year ago that so impacted his department. They did not attempt to get a warrant because they knew no judge would grant one. Source is Josh Marshall's twitter thread.