The Commentariat -- October 4, 2017

Late Morning Update:

Tillerson Tries to Appease Moronic Boss with Surprise News Conference. Louis Nelson of Politico: "Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that he has never considered resigning his position, disputing an NBC News report that he was on the verge of such a move over the summer. 'The vice president has never had to persuade me to remain as secretary of state because I have never considered leaving this post,' Tillerson said in remarks delivered from the State Department. Tillerson did not directly address whether he had called Trump a 'moron,' as NBC reported. 'We don't deal with that kind of petty nonsense,' he said when asked about the report." Mrs. McC: CNN said its reporters had confirmed the "moron" remark, which we all know is accurate. And, no, it isn't "petty nonsense" when the Secretary of State expresses his belief that the POTUS* is a moron. It's cause for international concern.

*****

Trump Plays Paper-towel Ball in Puerto Rico. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump ventured on Tuesday to a storm-ravaged American island territory where residents have felt neglected by their government, telling Puerto Rican officials that they should be proud that only 16 people were known to have died in Hurricane Maria. 'Sixteen versus in the thousands,' Mr. Trump said, comparing the storm's certified death toll to the 1,833 killed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. 'You can be very proud of all of your people, all of our people working together. Sixteen versus literally thousands of people. You can be very proud.'... The trip marked a well-worn routine for a president on his fourth visit to a disaster zone in two months: a pep rally-like briefing with officials in an aircraft hangar, a quick drive past twisted houses and uprooted trees and a brief, friendly encounter with victims of the destruction. And like his earlier travels, it had its peculiar moments: He also gently tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd that gathered to see him at Calvary Chapel, outside the island's capital, San Juan." ...

     ... Akhilleus's commentary, below, on the paper-towel toss is essential reading. ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Gosh, it looks like such fun. I'll bet destitute Puerto Ricans will get a kick out of that. Oh wait, -- they'll never see it because they don't have power, & even if they did, their entire homes, including the teevees, may have been destroyed. ...

... AP: "The death toll from Hurricane Maria has climbed to 34, the governor of Puerto Rico said Tuesday. The last estimate of the death toll was 16." At 8:15 pm Tuesday, this was a breaking story, to be updated. ...

... Louis Nelson of Politico: "The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, strongly denounced Donald Trump Tuesday night after the president visited the island, calling him the 'miscommunicator in chief.'... 'He was insulting to the people of Puerto Rico,' Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said Tuesday night on MSNBC hours after meeting Trump face-to-face at a briefing with Puerto Rican leaders and the president. Beyond the briefing, Trump also toured damaged areas and helped distribute supplies, flicking paper towels into a crowd with the motion of a jump shot in basketball. All of it, Cruz said, was disingenuous.... 'He kind of minimized our suffering here by saying that Katrina was a real disaster, sort of implying that this was not a real disaster because not many people have died here,' Cruz said. 'Well you know what? They're dying. They don't have the medical resources.'" ...

... Esme Cribb of TPM has a rundown of Trump's "most jaw-dropping remarks" from his Puerto Rican trip.

Brad Heath of USA Today: "Jared Kushner and ... Ivanka Trump re-routed their personal email accounts to computers run by the Trump Organization as public scrutiny intensified over their use of private emails to conduct White House business, internet registration records show. The move, made just days after Kushner's use of a personal email account first became public, came shortly after special counsel Robert Mueller asked the White House to turn over records related to his investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump associates. It also more closely intertwines President Trump's administration with his constellation of private businesses.... Lawyers and cybersecurity researchers said the move was puzzling. Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, said that while the emails Kushner and Trump sent and received through their personal accounts could well have been innocuous -- locating them on computers run by the Trump Organization 'certainly creates the appearance of potential impropriety.' Mariotti said the move raises questions about who at the Trump-owned company might have access to emails regarding White House business." ...

... of ProPublica: "In the spring of 2012, Donald Trump's two eldest children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., found themselves in a precarious legal position. For two years, prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's office had been building a criminal case against them for misleading prospective buyers of units in the Trump SoHo, a hotel and condo development that was failing to sell.... An indictment seemed like a real possibility. The evidence included emails from the Trumps making clear that they were aware they were using inflated figures about how well the condos were selling to lure buyers.... But in 2012, [Trump attorney Marc] Kasowitz donated $25,000 to the reelection campaign of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., making Kasowitz one of Vance's largest donors. [After a meeting between Kasowitz & Vance,] Vance overruled his own prosecutors. Three months after the meeting, he told them to drop the case.... Just before the 2012 meeting, Vance's campaign had returned Kasowitz's $25,000 contribution.... But less than six months after the D.A.'s office dropped the case, Kasowitz made an even larger donation to Vance's campaign, and helped raise more from others -- eventually, a total of more than $50,000. After being asked about these donations as part of the reporting for this article -- more than four years after the fact -- Vance said he now plans to give back Kasowitz's second contribution, too.

Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump's victory last November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Some of the Russian ads appeared highly sophisticated in their targeting of key demographic groups in areas of the states that turned out to be pivotal, two of the sources said. The ads employed a series of divisive messages aimed at breaking through the clutter of campaign ads online, including promoting anti-Muslim messages, sources said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: While it's certainly possible that the Trump campaign coordinated with Russian operatives on some of these efforts, it seems just as likely that the Kremlin could read published polls to determine for themselves whom to target with their ads & fake news screeds.

Pruitt Celebrates Earth Day with ALEC. Eric Lipton & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "For lunch on April 26, Scott Pruitt, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, dined with top executives from Southern Company, one of the nation's largest coal-burning electric utilities, at Equinox, a white-tablecloth favorite of Washington power brokers. That evening, it was on to BLT Prime, a steakhouse inside the Trump International Hotel in Washington, for a meal with the board of directors of Alliance Resource Partners, a coal-mining giant whose chief executive donated nearly $2 million to help elect President Trump. Before those two agenda items, Mr. Pruitt met privately with top executives and lobbyists from General Motors to talk about their request to block an Obama administration move to curb emissions that contribute to climate change. It was just a typical day for Mr. Pruitt.... Since taking office in February, Mr. Trump's E.P.A. chief has held back-to-back meetings, briefing sessions and speaking engagements almost daily with top corporate executives and lobbyists from all the major economic sectors that he regulates -- and almost no meetings with environmental groups or consumer or public health advocates, according to a 320-page accounting of his daily schedule from February through May, the most detailed look yet at what Mr. Pruitt has been up to since he took over the agency.... Even the revised schedule, however, does not provide the full details of Pruitt's activities. For example, the calendar shows that Pruitt attended 'Earth Day Events' in Dallas on April 22 and that afterward he flew to Tulsa. But EPA travel vouchers show that Pruitt's travel registry for that day indicate that he was to be in 'Tulsa to conduct meetings in the state and to serve as a keynote speaker for ALEC event.'"

Tillerson Says Trump Is a Moron. Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on the verge of resigning this past summer amid mounting policy disputes and clashes with the White House, according to multiple senior administration officials who were aware of the situation at the time. The tensions came to a head around the time ... Donald Trump delivered a politicized speech in late July to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization Tillerson once led.... Just days earlier, Tillerson had openly disparaged the president, referring to him as a 'moron,' after a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trump's national security team and Cabinet officials, according to three officials familiar with the incident. While it's unclear if he was aware of the incident, Vice President Mike Pence counseled Tillerson, who is fourth in line to the presidency, on ways to ease tensions with Trump, and other top administration officials urged him to remain in the job at least until the end of the year." Mrs. McC: Tillerson may be a lousy Secretary of State, but at least we know he understands the level of Trump's intellect.

Jennifer Medina, et al., of the New York Times: "Before he mowed down concertgoers from a perch high in a hotel tower, Stephen C. Paddock created a ring of surveillance around him, with video cameras in his suite and in the hallway, law enforcement officials said on Tuesday.... The cameras -- apparently intended to warn of approaching threats -- along with the 23 guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and other equipment found in the gunman's hotel suite, suggested a thought-out plan to have plenty of time to wreak carnage while holding the police at bay. Local and federal investigators were also eager to interview the gunman's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who had been in the Philippines. She arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday night and was met by the authorities.... Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said that at a minimum, she might shed some light on what was going through the mind of the gunman, who killed himself as the police prepared to enter his room." ...

... New York Times: "Marilou Danley, the girlfriend of the gunman in the Las Vegas mass shooting, is expected to return from the Philippines to the United States for questioning, a federal law enforcement official said on Tuesday. The authorities are scouring the personal and financial history of the gunman, Stephen Paddock, 64, just days after one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States, which left 59 people dead and about 500 others injured. A law enforcement official said Mr. Paddock wired thousands of dollars to the Philippines and the F.B.I. was scrutinizing the transaction. At least one of the rifles the gunman had in his hotel suite on Sunday was outfitted with a 'bump stock,' a device that would enable it to fire hundreds of rounds per minute, according to law enforcement.... Bump stocks are legal and inexpensive, with some versions advertised for $99.... In 2013, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California proposed outlawing bump stocks, but Congress has not acted on her proposal. She proposed a ban again on Tuesday.... President Trump on Tuesday ... said that there would be some sort of discussion about gun legislation, but was not specific. 'We will be talking about gun laws as time goes by,' Mr. Trump said as he prepared to leave Washington for hurricane-battered Puerto Rico." Emphasis added. ...

... William Wan, et al., of the Washington Post have more on Paddock's background & some on his relationship with Danley. ...

... Bannon Supports Mass Murder. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "I asked Steve Bannon whether he could imagine Trump pivoting to the left on guns after the Las Vegas massacre. 'Impossible: will be the end of everything,' Bannon texted. When asked whether Trump's base would react worse to this than they would if he supported an immigration amnesty bill, Bannon replied: 'as hard as it is to believe actually worse.'... Trump's allies, both inside and out of the White House, are mostly sure he'll resist because he owes too much to the NRA and its supporters...."

McConnell's Idea of Gun Control: "Particularly Inappropriate." Burgess Everett of Politico: "Mitch McConnell did not want to discuss gun control on Tuesday. The Senate majority leader shut down all talk of legislative remedies to gun violence after a man killed 58 people in Las Vegas on Sunday night and injured hundreds more, mirroring the Tuesday morning remarks by his GOP counterpart in the House, Speaker Paul Ryan. McConnell declared this is simply not the time to be talking about legislation targeting firearms.... 'It's particularly inappropriate to politicize an event like this. It just happened within the last day and half. Entirely premature to be discussing about legislative solutions if any,' McConnell said." Mrs. McC: According to this 2016 report by Funny or Die, which followed McConnells's vote against modest gun control, McConnell had at the time received $1,261,874 in NRA campaign contributions bribes (thanks, Marvin S). ...

... Ryan's Idea of Gun Control. Mike DeBonis & Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Tuesday that Republican leaders have no plans to advance a bill that would make it easier for Americans to buy gun silencers. The focus on the legislation, which passed a House committee last month, was magnified Monday after the shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday night.... 'That bill is not scheduled now; I don't know when it's going to be scheduled,' said Ryan (R-Wis.). 'Right now we're focused on passing our budget.' The Las Vegas shooting is the latest incident of mass violence to put Republican lawmakers on the defensive over their opposition to new gun restrictions -- and, in some cases, their efforts to eliminate existing ones." According to Politico, Ryan received $336,597 in gun lobby money between 1990 & 2017. ...

... Thune's Idea of Gun Control. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Sen. John Thune (R-SD) on Tuesday responded to calls for increased gun control after the massacre in Las Vegas by telling reporters that shooting victims had a responsibility to protect themselves from gunfire.... 'I think people are going to have to take steps in their own lives to take precautions,' he opined. 'To protect themselves. And in situations like that, you know, try to stay safe. As somebody said -- get small.'" Mrs. McC: I guess we have to give Thune credit for taking blame-the-victim to a new level. Even Trump hasn't thought of this one. Thune, BTW, is 6'4", & many have remarked he looks presidenty. Maybe so, but this is one reprehensible SOB who has proved he really knows how to "get small." According to Funny or Die, Thune had received $628,645 in NRA bribes (thanks, Marvin S) as of 2016. ...

     ... I guess Scalise just didn't make himself small enough, his bad. -- Gloria, in today's thread

... Inhofe's Idea of Gun Control. Huh? Tara Golshan of Vox: "Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) on Tuesday reiterated a normal Republican talking point that gun laws don't affect gun violence, with a twist: It's the existence of 'sanctuary cities' that creates a lawless culture fostering mass shootings like the one in Las Vegas, he said. Two days after a lone white American gunman killed more than 58 people in Las Vegas, what is now considered one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern US history, Inhofe said the country is 'inundated with permissive laws' -- like those in 'sanctuary cities' where local law enforcement doesn't enforce all federal immigration laws -- perpetuating the 'cultural problem' behind mass shooting. 'That has a lot more to do with [mass shootings] than gun owners laws,' Inhofe told me. 'You can go ahead and break a law and you can come to a sanctuary city, and they wouldn't enforce the laws.'" Oddly, Inhofe had taken in a mere $65,191 from the NRA by 2016, according to the Funny or Die report. But Politico wrote that Inhofe received $121,100 from all gun lobbyists between 1990 & 2017. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There's a question as to whether or not the winger arm of the GOP considers Las Vegas a sanctuary city. Jeff Sessions designated it as such, but Las Vegas authorities argued with him in July, saying the city cooperated with ICE. Jeffbo said he'd look into it. Maybe this is what Inhofe is talking about, but who knows? These NRA retainers will say anything. Nevada, not surprisingly, has mighty permissive gun laws -- but that of course is not what Inhofe means by "permissive laws" that encourage mass shooting murders. Because Second Amendment. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: My Idea of Gun Control. Outlaw semi-automatic & automatic weapons & all devices that enhance firing rifles & pistols. Institute a required federal buy-back program. Severely limit the number of firearms any one person may own or access. Limit the amount of ammunition any one person may purchase. If a person wants to buy a new firearm, he must turn in the old one. To purchase a new long gun, the buyer must provide proof of purpose; e.g., a valid hunting license. Pass a federal law legalizing tasers. Look to countries like Great Britain for other means of gun limitations. Make gun-ownership difficult & undesirable but not impossible. Become a civilized nation.

... New York Times Editors: "Residents of Nevada voted in November to require background checks for most private gun sales, closing a loophole in federal law. But nearly a year after the ballot measure passed, these checks aren't being made because state officials have claimed, with little evidence, that there's no way to carry out the policy. Such background checks might not have prevented the massacre in Las Vegas on Sunday night; the gunman, Stephen Paddock, is not known to have a significant criminal record and appears to have bought at least some of his guns from dealers required to vet buyers. But it has been shown that requiring checks on private sales of guns, such as at gun shows and over the internet, makes it harder for felons and other prohibited people, like those who have been committed to mental institutions and drug addicts, to buy firearms." ...

... Khaled Beydoun, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Despite the scale of the attack and Paddock's being armed with more than 10 rifles, Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo immediately dismissed any ties to terrorism, classifying Paddock ... as a 'local individual' and a 'lone wolf.'... But if Paddock were Muslim, his status as a local individual would be entirely irrelevant, and the motive of 'Islamic terrorism' or 'jihad' would likely be immediately assumed, even without any evidence.... Trump continues to carry forward counter-radicalization policing -- the signature anti-terrorism program installed by former president Barack Obama -- which seeks to identify and arrest 'homegrown' Muslim radicals.... But why is one person 'homegrown' while someone else is a 'lone' or 'local wolf'? An extensive list of exemptions has become available to white culprits of mass violence, most notably 'lone wolf' or 'insane,' and the Las Vegas shooting adds the status of being 'a local individual' to the roster." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suppose we could classify terrorist attackers as being people who had social or political agendas, as opposed to attackers who simply chose victims of opportunity. If you're a victim, of course, it may seem a distinction without much difference. So if someone wants to kill black people -- Dylann Roof -- or Republicans -- James Hodgkinson -- then they're "terrorists." Still, it seems to me that many times, such terrorists, including those of the Muslim faith or with Middle Eastern roots, adopt agendas for the sake of convenience: they want to be infamous or they want to commit suicide by cop. Or whatever.

Alan Rappeport & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Republican leaders are backing away from a proposal to fully repeal an expensive tax break used by more than 40 million tax filers to deduct state and local taxes amid pushback from fellow lawmakers whose residents rely on the popular provision. The state and local tax deduction is estimated to cost $1.3 trillion over the next decade and its repeal is central to paying for a sweeping tax rewrite unveiled last week by Republican lawmakers and administration officials. But elimination of the provision has emerged as a flash point in the nascent debate over the plan, with Republicans in high-tax states worried about backlash from residents who could see their tax bills rise.... The state and local tax deduction has its fair share of critics, including conservative lawmakers who argue it is an unfair federal subsidy of wealthier states with high taxes. They also argue that it tends to benefit wealthy taxpayers who itemize deductions on their tax returns.... Bruised by criticism that their tax plan could prove costly to many middle class Americans, Republican leaders in Congress have assailed [a Tax Policy Center] study as inaccurate and they continued to lash out at it on Tuesday." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Our friend Sen Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, of Graham-Cassidy infamy, is all for repeal of the state-and-local tax deduction. He said it was unfair to Louisianans to have to "subsidize wealthy taxpayers in California who write off the state's high taxes." Really? According to this analysis by WalletHub, California gets back less than a dollar for every dollar it pays into the federal government; Louisiana gets back more than three dollars. That is, California is a "giver" or "donor" state, while Louisiana is a big "taker" state. "Wealthy Californians" are heavily subsidizing Louisiana. Not sure if Cassidy has been taking lying lessons from Trump & Ryan or if he was already a very, very good BS artiste.

Burgess Everett & Seung Min-Kim of Politico: "There's a growing faction inside the Senate Republican Conference, and it looks like bad news for Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump: The devil-may-care caucus. Unbeholden to Republican orthodoxy and freed from the burdens of imminent reelection campaigns, more GOP senators are flexing their independence...." "Members" include] John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Rand Paul and Bob Corker.

News Lede

Washington Post: "Biophysicists Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for inventing new and better ways to see molecules. The Nobel committee praised the trio in its announcement Wednesday 'for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution.' Cryo-electron microscopy is 'a cool method for imaging the materials of life,' said Nobel committee member Göran K. Hansson from Stockholm. The development allows scientists to visualize proteins and other biological molecules at the atomic level. Dubochet, 75, a Swiss citizen, is a professor at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Frank, 77, born in Germany and now a U.S. citizen, is a Columbia University professor in New York. Henderson, 72, of Scotland, works at Cambridge University in Britain."

The Commentariat -- October 3, 2017

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "In the frustrated anguish of Puerto Rico, we can see the real-world consequences of Donald Trump's flagrant incompetence. A little more than eight months ago, the United States inaugurated one of its worst people as president, a nasty showbiz huckster whose own staffers speak of him as if he were a malevolent toddler.... Under any president, Hurricane Maria would have been disastrous, but it seems clear that Trump's inattention made the fallout worse.... According to The [Washington] Post, it was only when Trump started seeing Puerto Rico coverage on cable television that a sense of urgency kicked in. Maria should be a lesson: We need a working executive branch. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services both lack permanent leadership. The State Department has been hollowed out, and Trump undercuts his own secretary of state while threatening war with North Korea. America has largely survived eight months of Trump. That's no guarantee we'll survive eight months more." ...

... Steve Benen: Despite all of Trump's bad behavior, Paul Ryan gave the presidunce a thumbs-up on CBS's "Face the Nation." "His heart's in the right place," Ryan said. Benen: "Reasonable people can debate whether that core goodness exists or not, but the significance of the answer pales in significance to the president's actions." ...

     ... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Here was the question 'FTN' host John Dickerson asked Ryan: "A year ago we talked about race relations in the country and -- and you said you hoped candidate -- then-candidate Trump would be inclusive.... It's been a year now. How would you rate his ability to bring this country together, which has clearly [been] -- an issue[.]" This is apparently the new, popular, euphemistic way "journalists" handle the question of Trump's racism & his other biases. They don't say he's a racist, sexist, etc., bigot, or ask such a question of the interviewee. No, the "issue" isn't racism or whatever; the "issue" is whether or not Trump "can bring the country together." What bull! President Obama couldn't "bring the country together," either, but it surely wasn't because he was a racist or some other "ist." It was because powerful forces were bigots who would not accept him.

... Timothy O'Brien of Bloomberg: "... 'POTUS vs. the media' is ... of note because of the fear that animates the president's attacks.... Trump is waging a war on the press because of the role it plays in recording, sometimes imperfectly, what occurs in real time all around us and during harrowing events, such as those in Puerto Rico. The president is waging a war on the media as part of his war on the public;s collective memory.... Pushed back on his heels by criticism about how quickly he recognized and called attention to the crisis in Puerto Rico, Trump is trying to hide by reshaping any criticism as an attack on first responders and the military.... As Martin Dempsey, a retired U.S. Army general and former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pointed out on his Twitter feed on Sunday: 'Great leaders are motivated by results not reviews, accomplishments not accolades, humility not hubris.'" ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dhrumil Mehta of 538: "... compared to the other natural disasters of the past few weeks, Hurricane Maria has been relatively ignored. Data from Media Cloud, a database that collects news published on the internet every day, shows that the devastation in Puerto Rico is getting comparatively little attention. U.S. Top Online News' collection, which looks at 49 top online news sources as of 2015 according to Pew/Comscore. This includes newspapers like The New York Times and digital-native sites like Vox." ...

... Alvin Chang of Vox: "But even with the dismal levels of coverage, there's one particular media outlet that has neglected Puerto Rico more than everyone else -- and it happens to be the most-watched cable news outlet in the country. That is, of course, Fox News.... And it's not just the volume of coverage but also the content. Both CNN and MSNBC spent a lot of time talking about the resource shortages in Puerto Rico -- the lack of fresh water, food, electricity, and gas. This is the kind of coverage that reiterates that Puerto Ricans are both part of the American tribe and facing a dire situation. It's the kind of coverage that humanizes a disaster. But Fox News didn't dwell on this aspect of the story[.]... It focused on what Trump was doing, like waiving the Jones Act, saying there are 'tremendous strides' being made, and, of course tweeting.... There was also a brief focus on how the mainstream media is politicizing Puerto Rico."

Fred Kaplan of Slate: "What to make of President Trump's slap-down of his top diplomat's back-channel overture to North Korea? 'I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,' Trump tweeted early Sunday morning, adding one minute later, 'Save your energy, Rex, we'll do what has to be done!'... We were witnessing the stumbling interaction between a secretary of state who doesn't get diplomacy and a president who doesn't want it.... Normally taciturn to the point of cloistered, he told reporters traveling with him in Beijing on Saturday -- on the record -- that he had 'a couple, three channels' of communication going on with North Korean officials.... Tillerson doesn't seem to realize that the whole point of ... 'back channels' ... is to explore intentions and possibilities out of the limelight away from political pressure.... Tillerson had the right idea. There need to be direct talks.... Too bad that Tillerson doesn't know how to do this sort of thing. And worse still that we have a president who doesn't want to back him up, whether because he;d rather solve the problem militarily or because he really believes that acting 'crazy' will sire a better deal." Mrs. McC: As usual, I like Kaplan's analysis better than my own -- in this case, one I made a few days ago.

Jonathan Chait: "Republicans Angry at Economists for Finding Their Tax Cuts Go to the Rich. Friday, the Tax Policy Center published an analysis of the Republican tax-cut plan, finding that nearly 80 percent of its benefits would accrue to the highest-earning one percent of the public. Asked about these findings, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney called the center the 'National Tax Center,' erroneously charged that a former economic adviser to Joe Biden works there, and used this imagined fact to discredit its calculations[.]... The [Wall Street] Journal dismisses the Tax Policy Center's findings as 'propaganda,' arguing that the Republican plan is not completely finished." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... How to Manage Inconvenient Facts -- Erase Them & Lie Like Hell. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: In 2012, Treasury's Office of Tax Analysis "released a paper explaining ... that 82 percent of corporate taxes were borne by capital owners, and 18 percent were borne by labor.... The answers these Treasury staffers produced are not so far from those of most other major nonpartisan tax crunchers, including the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Tax Policy Center. The Treasury paper ... [was] generally ignored. Until now. That's because Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has been lately claiming that nearly all of the corporate tax burden is passed on to workers. It's an argument that he has to make if he hopes to sell the administration's tax cuts ... as a helping hand for the Forgotten Man. On Fox News, Mnuchin claimed that 'most economists believe that over 70 percent of corporate taxes are paid for by the workers.' At an event in Kentucky, he declared that 'over 80 percent of business taxes is borne by the worker.'... Tax watchers and interviewers began pointing out that Mnuchin's claims were at odds not only with most credible estimates but also with those of his own staff. Which clearly annoyed Mnuchin. So Treasury took the unusual -- unprecedented? -- step of quietly deleting the inconvenient findings from its website." Rampell suggests that Mnuchin can't get his own lies straight, even in a single conversation. ...

... Paul Krugman: "Last week the Trump administration and its congressional allies working on tax reform ... released a tax plan -- or, actually, a vague sketch of a plan — that manages both to add trillions to the deficit and to raise taxes on a large fraction of the population. That takes talent. But like the G.O.P.'s terrible, no good, very bad health plans, this tax debacle was years in the making. On taxes, as with health, leading Republicans have been lying for years. And now the fraud has caught up with the fraudsters.... Almost 60 percent of households between the 80th and 90th percentiles of the income distribution would face tax increases.... Did I mention that many of those facing tax hikes vote Republican?... In broad outlines, the tax story is a lot like health care. In both cases, Republicans have spent years getting away with big promises backed by lies. Now, with real policy to be made, the lies won't work anymore. And they can't handle the truth."

Ben Lefebvre of Politico: "The Interior Department;s inspector general's office has opened an investigation into Secretary Ryan Zinke's use of taxpayer-funded charter planes, a spokeswoman said Monday.... The secretary has flown on government-owned or -chartered aircraft several times this year, including one $12,000 trip from Las Vegas to an airport near his hometown in Montana and another trip in the Caribbean, as Politico reported last week. The Las Vegas trip has attracted particular scrutiny, because Zinke was appearing at an event affiliated with a major campaign donor that kept him from catching a commercial flight to Montana."

William Wan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Before he opened fire late Sunday -- killing at least 50 people at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip -- the gunman Stephen Paddock lived a quiet life for years in a small town outside Las Vegas. A retired man, Paddock, 64, would disappear for days at a time, frequenting casinos as a professional gambler with his longtime girlfriend, neighbors said. Relatives also said Paddock had been quietly living out his retirement years, visiting Las Vegas to gamble and take in concerts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "Before he opened fire late Sunday, killing at least 58 people at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, gunman Stephen Paddock was living out his retirement as a high-stakes gambler in a quiet town outside Las Vegas. Paddock, 64, would disappear for days at a time, frequenting casinos with his longtime girlfriend, neighbors said. Relatives also said Paddock had frequently visited Las Vegas to gamble and take in concerts." ...

... Ken Belson, et al., of the New York Times: "The police said they found 23 firearms in [Paddock's hotel] suite. And when they searched the attacker’s house, they discovered an additional 19 firearms and, according to Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, 'some explosives, and several thousand rounds of ammo.' He added that they also found ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer sometimes used in making bombs, in the gunman's car. The sheriff said some rifles found in the hotel room may have been modified to make them fully automatic. Automatic rifles, which fire multiple rounds with a squeeze of a trigger, are highly regulated, and on videos posted online by witnesses, the rapid-fire sound indicated that at least one weapon was fully automatic.... [Paddock] brought in more than 10 suitcases during his stay [at the Mandalay Bay hotel], but no one saw anything amiss, the sheriff said." ...

... Odd. Ed Kilgore: "After expressing shock that his brother, 'just a guy' who liked to go to Vegas and gamble and see some shows and 'eat burritos,' had gone on a murder spree from the window of his room at Mandalay Bay hotel, Eric Paddock disclosed something else about Stephen Paddock's background. '...their father was Patrick Benjamin Paddock, a bank robber who he says was on FBI Most Wanted list.' citing Peter Alexander.].... There was indeed in the late 1960s and early 1970s a bank robber, an escaped federal prisoner, and eventually a fugitive by that name (and others) who made the Most Wanted list. The FBI poster ([pictured in the story]) from 1969 notes that Paddock the Elder had been 'diagnosed as psychopathic, has carried firearms in commission of bank robberies' and 'reportedly has suicidal tendencies and should be considered armed and very dangerous.'... Paddock apparently stayed on the lam until 1978, when he was 'captured in 1978 in Oregon where he was running a bingo parlor.'" Mrs. McC: Several news outlets have confirmed the report. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Trump's Ability to Stiffly Read Scripted Speech Awes CNN. Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "There was nothing glorious about President Trump's short speech Monday morning in reaction to the massacre that unfolded Sunday night in Las Vegas. There was plenty of language that has become grimly standard in situations like this one.... Nor was there anything embarrassing or dismal about the presentation. No big blunders, though the speech had that hollow feel that accompanies scripted presentations from Trump.... On CNN, though, it was a marvel of possibly historic proportions. 'Look, pitch perfect from the president right there,' said John King.... Poppy Harlow said, 'This is the time to bring the country together -- that is exactly, John King, what the president did with those remarks. This is not a time for politics, nor did he inject them at all in those remarks.' Jeff Zeleny said, 'The president clearly, as John said, striking a pitch-perfect tone.' And analyst David Chalian: 'That's everything you would want to hear from a president of the United States, everything that you wanted to hear there. I agree with what John and Jeff were saying -- this was certainly pitch perfect.'... Speeches provide journalists from mainstream organizations a remarkable opportunity to render a positive judgment on a man who is patently unfit to discharge the duties of his office." ...

... John Bresnahan, et al., of Politico: "A controversial bill to loosen restrictions on purchasing gun silencers won't be reaching the House floor anytime soon after a horrific mass shooting in Las Vegas that left at least 59 dead and hundreds more wounded, according to GOP sources. A bill to allow concealed-carry permit holders to take their guns with them to another state could also be affected after the tragedy, the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.... [The silencer] bill, introduced by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), has been approved by the Natural Resources Committee and was expected to be on the House floor soon though it had not yet been scheduled for a vote. Consideration of the bill was postponed earlier this year after Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) was shot in June at a congressional baseball practice." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: And that's what passes for "gun control" in GOP circles: delaying votes on reprehensible bills to loosen gun restrictions for a short period of time following mass shootings perpetrated by white people. I'm sure these bills would have gone sailing thru Congress if the shooters had been called Ahmed & Mohammed. ...

... Former Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), in a New York Times op-ed: "In the wake of one the deadliest mass shooting in our nation's history, perhaps the most asked question by Americans is, 'Will anything change?' The simple answer is no. The more vital question is, 'Why not?' Congress is already doing what it sees as its part. Flags have been lowered, thoughts and prayers tweeted, and sometime this week it will perform the latest episode in the longest-running drama on C-Span: the moment of silence. It's how they responded to other mass shootings in Columbine, Herkimer, Tucson, Santa Monica, Hialeah, Terrell, Alturas, Killeen, Isla Vista, Marysville, Chapel Hill, Tyrone, Waco, Charleston, Chattanooga, Lafayette, Roanoke, Roseburg, Colorado Springs, San Bernardino, Birmingham, Fort Hood and Aurora, at Virginia Tech, the Washington Navy Yard, and the congressional baseball game practice, to name too many.... [After Sandy Hook,] I heard my colleagues turn this into a debate over the rights of gun owners instead of the right to life of children." Read on. Israel describes the craven self-interests of members of Congress, the righty-right-wing NRA & the willingness of "responsible" citizens to vote for members the NRA has captured...." ...

     ... When will Trump lash out against Jimmy Kimmel? ...

... Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "The lead guitarist of a country music band playing Route 91 Harvest festival, where a gunman murdered 58 people on Sunday night, has said the horrific experience of the attack has changed his views on gun laws in America. 'I've been a proponent of the [second] amendment my entire life,' Caleb Keeter posted on Twitter. 'Until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was.'... But Keeter went further, describing the deadliest shooting in modern US history as a revelation. He said that members of the band's crew have concealed handgun licenses, and legal firearms on the bus. 'They were useless,' he said. 'We couldn't touch them for fear police might think that we were part of the massacre and shoot us. A small group (or one man) laid waste to a city with dedicated, fearless police officers desperately trying to help, because of access to an insane amount of firepower. Enough is enough.... 'We need gun control RIGHT. NOW.... My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn't realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it.'" ...

... Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "If the ... [mass murderer] was someone who had, even once, communicated with or been radicalized by ISIS, no matter how remote or long-distance that radicalization, or if he was merely a Muslim from a Muslim country, then a massive act of terrorism would have been committed and a militant response, including travel bans and broad suspensions of rights, would be essential. If it was just one more American 'psycho,' then all we can do is shrug and, as the occupant of the Oval Office put it, send 'warmest condolences and sympathies...' President Trump, deprived from birth by some genetic accident of all natural human empathy ... speaks empathy as a foreign language and makes the kinds of mistakes we all make in a second language that we have barely mastered.... Between the consolidated power of the pro-gun right, and the truth that gun control has slipped down the agenda of even anti-violence liberals, this means that the only American response to regular mass gun killings will be a shrug and faked sympathy." ...

... The Right-Wing Lynch Mob. Abby Ohlheiser of the Washington Post: "Geary Danley was not the gunman in Las Vegas who killed at least 50 people late Sunday. But for hours on the far-right Internet, would-be sleuths scoured Danley's Facebook likes, family photographs and marital history to try to 'prove' that he was. Danley, according to an archived version of a Facebook page bearing that name, might have been married to a Marilou Danley[, the woman who reportedly lived with the actual shooter].... The briefest look at the viral threads and tweets falsely naming Geary Danley as the attacker makes it easy to guess why a bunch of right-wing trolls latched on to him: His Facebook profile indicated that he might be a liberal.... [The far right's] That phony story quickly embedded itself into the algorithms of Google and Facebook, where sites promoting the rumor remained at the top of the results for anyone searching for Danley's name." ...

... Cale Weissman of Fast Company: Facebook & Google algorithms have pushed numerous alt-right conspiracy theories to the top of the "news." The spread of misinformation remains a huge problem for large platforms like Facebook and Google, which rely on algorithms to push the most engaged stories to the top. ...

... Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Wayne Allyn Root "could not wait to weigh in on Sunday's mass shooting in Las Vegas. On Twitter, he jumped to the conclusion that the shooter must be Muslim, before police had identified him.... Several hours later, police identified the gunman as a Nevada man named Stephen Paddock, who Las Vegas police described as a white man. Root, however, was not ready rule out a connection to Islamic terrorism. In fact, he argued that 'liberals' are the ones rushing to judgment by assuming the shooter is not a Muslim.... Root is not alone in spreading the idea that Islamist terrorism was behind the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history on Sunday -- despite the absence of evidence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ryan Broderick of BuzzFeed lists 19 hoaxes being spread on the Internet about the Las Vegas mass shooting. Mrs. McC: I'm sure Broderick's report will be quite outdated by the time you read it.

Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "Associates of President Trump and his company have turned over documents to federal investigators that reveal two previously unreported contacts from Russia during the 2016 campaign.... In one case, Trump's personal attorney and a business associate exchanged emails weeks before the Republican National Convention about the lawyer possibly traveling to an economic conference in Russia that would be attended by top Russian financial and government leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with the correspondence. In the other case, the same Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, received a proposal in late 2015 for a Moscow residential project from a company founded by a billionaire who once served in the upper house of the Russian parliament.... The previously unreported inquiry marks the second proposal for a Trump-branded Moscow project that was delivered to the company during the presidential campaign...." ...

... Mike Isaac & Scott Shane of the New York Times: "The Russians who posed as Americans on Facebook last year tried on quite an array of disguises. There was 'Defend the 2nd,' a Facebook page for gun-rights supporters, festooned with firearms and tough rhetoric. There was a rainbow-hued page for gay rights activists, 'LGBT United.' There was even a Facebook group for animal lovers with memes of adorable puppies that spread across the site with the help of paid ads. Federal investigators and officials at Facebook now believe these groups and their pages were part of a highly coordinated disinformation campaign linked to the Internet Research Agency, a secretive company in St. Petersburg, Russia, known for spreading Kremlin-linked propaganda and fake news across the web. They were described to The New York Times by two people familiar with the social network and its ads who were not authorized to discuss them publicly. Under intensifying pressure from Congress and growing public outcry, Facebook on Monday turned over more than 3,000 of the Russia-linked advertisements from its site over to the Senate and House intelligence committees, as well as the Senate Judiciary Committee." ...

... Elizabeth Dwoskin, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russian operatives set up an array of misleading Web sites and social media pages to identify American voters susceptible to propaganda, then used a powerful Facebook tool to repeatedly send them messages designed to influence their political behavior, say people familiar with the investigation into foreign meddling in the U.S. election. The tactic resembles what American businesses and political campaigns have been doing in recent years to deliver messages to potentially interested people online. The Russians exploited this system by creating English-language sites and Facebook pages that closely mimicked those created by U.S. political activists." ...

... Adam Entous, et al., of the Washington Post: "One of the Russian-bought advertisements that Facebook shared with congressional investigators on Monday featured photographs of an armed black woman 'dry firing' a rifle -- pulling the trigger of the weapon without a bullet in the chamber, according to people familiar with the investigation. Investigators believe the advertisement may have been designed to encourage African American militancy and, at the same time, to stoke fears within white communities.... The apparent tactic underscores how the Russians used U.S.-based technology platforms to target Americans with highly tailored and sometimes-contradictory messages to exploit divisions in American society over the past two years.... The Russian campaign frequently sought to widen existing fractures in American society, while also helping to boost Republican Donald Trump's presidential campaign.... In addition to sharing the ads, Facebook is providing information to lawmakers about which users those ads targeted, the views and clicks the ads received, and the methods of payment used by the Russian operatives, said people familiar with the investigation. The ads were viewed tens of millions of times...."

To Nanny Yulia: Mr. Kushner and I are going on a secret visit to Russia next Tuesday to deliver a top-secret message from Daddy to a friend in the Kremlin Moscow. Best not to tell the kids or your boyfriend Boris. I'm sure we can count on your discretion. Ivanka ...

... E-mails! Javanka, Oh My. Josh Dawsey & Andrea Peterson of Politico: "White House officials have begun examining emails associated with a third and previously unreported email account on Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's private domain, according to three people familiar with the matter. Hundreds of emails have been sent since January from White House addresses to accounts on the Kushner family domain, these people said. Many of those emails went not to Kushner's or Ivanka Trump's personal addresses but to an account they both had access to and shared with their personal household staff for family scheduling. The emails which include ... some official White House materials -- were in many cases sent from Ivanka Trump, her assistant Bridges Lamar and others who work with the couple in the White House. The emails to the third account were largely sent from White House accounts but occasionally came from other private accounts, one of these people said. The existence of additional accounts ... raises new questions about the extent of personal email use by the couple during their time as White House aides. Their use of private email accounts for White House business also raises concerns about the security of potentially sensitive government documents which have been forwarded to private accounts."

NEW. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Tuesday in a case that could reshape American democracy. The justices will consider whether extreme partisan gerrymandering -- the drawing of voting districts to give lopsided advantages to the party in power -- violates the Constitution. The Supreme Court has never struck down an election map on the ground that it was drawn to make sure one political party wins an outsize number of seats. The court has, however, left open the possibility that some kinds of political gamesmanship in redistricting may be too extreme."

Typed on my HP Computer:

Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Joel Schectman, et al., of Reuters: "Hewlett Packard Enterprise allowed a Russian defense agency to review the inner workings of cyber defense software used by the Pentagon to guard its computer networks, according to Russian regulatory records and interviews with people with direct knowledge of the issue. The HPE system, called ArcSight, serves as a cybersecurity nerve center for much of the U.S. military, alerting analysts when it detects that computer systems may have come under attack. ArcSight is also widely used in the private sector. The Russian review of ArcSight's source code, the closely guarded internal instructions of the software, was part of HPE's effort to win the certification required to sell the product to Russia's public sector, according to the regulatory records seen by Reuters and confirmed by a company spokeswoman." Mrs. McC: Just un-fucking-believable.

Bill Vlasic & Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "In a push to produce cars powered by batteries or fuel cells, General Motors on Monday laid out a strategy to vastly expand the number of electric models in the marketplace. G.M. said it would introduce two new all-electric models within 18 months as part of a broader plan toward what the company says is its ultimate goal of an emissions-free fleet. The two models will be the first of at least 20 new all-electric vehicles that G.M. plans to bring out by 2023. The announcement came a day before a long-scheduled investor presentation by Ford Motor that was also expected to emphasize electric models. After the G.M. news emerged, Ford let loose its own plan, saying it would add 13 electrified models in the next several years."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Raphael Minder of the New York Times: "A day after a referendum on independence for Catalonia that was marred by clashes between supporters and police officers, the Spanish region's leaders were meeting on Monday to determine how to convert the vote into a state free from the rest of the country. Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan leader, said late Sunday that Catalans had won the right to have their own state and that he would soon present the result of the referendum to the regional Parliament to make it binding." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes:

Washington Post: "Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne have won the 2017 Nobel Prize in physics. The three are members of the LIGO-Virgo detector collaboration that discovered gravitational waves. The prize was awarded 'for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves,' the committee said in a news release. 'This year's prize is about a discovery that shook the world,' said the Nobel committee representative Göran K. Hansson during a conference in Stockholm on Tuesday. Albert Einstein had predicted that distortions in gravity would ripple through space-time like a shockwave. It took nearly a century to confirm these distortions exist. One half of the prize went to Weiss, born in Berlin and now a U.S. citizen, who is a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The other half was split by Barish, a Nebraska native, and Thorne, who was born in Utah. Both work at the California Institute of Technology."

New York Times: "Tom Petty, a songwriter who melded California rock with a deep, stubborn Southern heritage, died on Monday after suffering cardiac arrest. He was 66 and had lived in Los Angeles." ...

... Petty's Rolling Stone obituary is here.

The Commentariat -- October 2, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Cristiano Lima of Politico: "White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday said now was not the time for a debate on gun control, but rather that today was 'a day of reflection, a day of mourning' for the victims in Sunday's deadly Las Vegas shooting." Mrs. McC: Somehow, there's never a good time, is there, Sarah? ...

... Cristiano Lima: "Democratic lawmakers called for swift congressional action in response to the Las Vegas shooting that left at least 58 dead -- the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history — with Sen. Chris Murphy saying it is 'time for Congress to get off its ass and do something' on gun control. Murphy, who led a filibuster on the Senate floor last June in protest of legislative inaction following the Pulse club shooting, called it 'cruelly hollow' for politicians to not back up their words of sympathy with a governmental response." ...

... William Wan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Before he opened fire late Sunday -- killing at least 50 people at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip -- the gunman Stephen Paddock lived a quiet life for years in a small town outside Las Vegas. A retired man, Paddock, 64, would disappear for days at a time, frequenting casinos as a professional gambler with his longtime girlfriend, neighbors said. Relatives also said Paddock had been quietly living out his retirement years, visiting Las Vegas to gamble and take in concerts." ...

... Odd. Ed Kilgore: "After expressing shock that his brother, 'just a guy' who liked to go to Vegas and gamble and see some shows and 'eat burritos,' had gone on a murder spree from the window of his room at Mandalay Bay hotel, Eric Paddock disclosed something else about Stephen Paddock's background. '...their father was Patrick Benjamin Paddock, a bank robber who he says was on FBI Most Wanted list.' citing Peter Alexander.].... There was indeed in the late 1960s and early 1970s a bank robber, an escaped federal prisoner, and eventually a fugitive by that name (and others) who made the Most Wanted list. The FBI poster ([pictured in the story]) from 1969 notes that Paddock the Elder had been 'diagnosed as psychopathic, has carried firearms in commission of bank robberies' and 'reportedly has suicidal tendencies and should be considered armed and very dangerous.'... Paddock apparently stayed on the lam until 1978, when he was 'captured in 1978 in Oregon where he was running a bingo parlor.'" Mrs. McC: Several news outlets have confirmed the report. ...

... Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Wayne Allyn Root "could not wait to weigh in on Sunday's mass shooting in Las Vegas. On Twitter, he jumped to the conclusion that the shooter must be Muslim, before police had identified him.... Several hours later, police identified the gunman as a Nevada man named Stephen Paddock, who Las Vegas police described as a white man. Root, however, was not ready rule out a connection to Islamic terrorism. In fact, he argued that 'liberals' are the ones rushing to judgment by assuming the shooter is not a Muslim.... Root is not alone in spreading the idea that Islamist terrorism was behind the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history on Sunday -- despite the absence of evidence."

Jonathan Chait: "Republicans Angry at Economists for Finding Their Tax Cuts Go to the Rich. Friday, the Tax Policy Center published an analysis of the Republican tax-cut plan, finding that nearly 80 percent of its benefits would accrue to the highest-earning one percent of the public. Asked about these findings, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney called the center the 'National Tax Center,' erroneously charged that a former economic adviser to Joe Biden works there, and used this imagined fact to discredit its calculations[.]... The [Wall Street] Journal dismisses the Tax Policy Center's findings as 'propaganda,' arguing that the Republican plan is not completely finished."

Raphael Minder of the New York Times: "A day after a referendum on independence for Catalonia that was marred by clashes between supporters and police officers, the Spanish region's leaders were meeting on Monday to determine how to convert the vote into a state free from the rest of the country. Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan leader, said late Sunday that Catalans had won the right to have their own state and that he would soon present the result of the referendum to the regional Parliament to make it binding."

*****

Gerry Mullany & Russell Goldman of the New York Times: "A gunman firing from a Las Vegas hotel rained a rapid-fire barrage on a huge outdoor concert festival on Sunday night, sending thousands of people fleeing until SWAT units found and killed him. More than 50 victims died, and at least 200 others were wounded, officials said, making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in United States history. Online video of the attack outside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino showed the country singer Jason Aldean performing outside at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, a three-day country music event, interrupted by the sound of automatic gunfire. The music stopped, and concertgoers ducked for cover.... Several SWAT teams were sent to the hotel immediately after the first reports of the shooting at 10:08 p.m., and officers overheard on police radio reported being pinned down by gunfire. Shortly before midnight the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reported that 'one suspect is down,' and soon thereafter the police said they did not believe there were any more active gunmen.... Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of Clark County told reporters early Monday morning that more than 50 people were killed and more than 200 injured. He identified the gunman as Stephen Paddock, 64. He said the police were seeking 'a companion' named Marilou Danley...." ...

     ... New Lede: "A gunman on a high floor of a Las Vegas hotel rained a rapid-fire barrage on an outdoor concert festival on Sunday night, killing at least 58 people, wounding hundreds of others, and sending thousands of terrified survivors fleeing for cover, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history." Ken Belson has been added to the byline. Mrs. McC: Cable news is reporting that at least 500 were injured. ...

     ... Goldman (update: and Liam Stack) are live-updating here. Police "said they were 'confident' they had located a female person of interest described as [the gunman's] 'companion' and 'roommate.'" ...

... The Los Angeles Times report, by David Montero & Alene Tchekmedyian, is here.

... The Las Vegas Sun report is here. ...

... The AP has a running account of developments here. ...

... Heavy has some sketchy information about the shooter. "Sheriff Joe Lombardo, when asked by a reporter if it was an 'act of terrorism,' said 'no, not at this point. We believe it was a local individual. He resides here locally. I'm not at liberty to give you his place of residence yet, because it's an ongoing investigation, we don't know what his belief system was at this time.... Right now we believe he is the sole aggressor at this point and the scene is static.'" Mrs. McC: Not sure what Lombardo thinks an "act of terrorism" is if it's not shooting, killing & maiming hundreds of people attending a concert.

What a Real President does when a hurricane hits while he's on vacation:

Photo by Pete Souza.While on vacation on Martha's Vineyard in 2011, President Obama, with Homeland Security Advisor John Brennan and others, waits to start a conference call with mayors and governors affected by Hurricane Irene. The President cut short his vacation to monitor the situation from Washington as the Category 2 storm moved its way up the eastern seaboard. -- Pete Souza ...

... Thanks to Exalto for reminding us of Pete Souza's Instagram account. ...

... What a President* does when a hurricane hits during his $3MM weekend vacations:

Trump at Bedminster. Not Photoshopped (but, okay, shot in November 2016).Thanks to Old McDonald for reminding us what a complete dick he is. ...

On behalf of all of the people of Texas, and all of the people -- if you look today and see what is happening, how horrible it is but we have it under really great control -- Puerto Rico and the people of Florida who have really suffered over this last short period of time with the hurricanes, I want to just remember them. And we're going to dedicate this trophy to all of those people that went through so much that we love -- a part of our great state, really part of our great nation. -- Donald Trump. at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City

You don’t give a shit about Puerto Rico! -- A shout-out from a person in the crowd at the Jersey City golf club 

... Daniel Politi of Slate: "After a weekend of picking Twitter fights with the mayor of Puerto Rico's capital ... from the comfort of his own golf resort in Bedmnister, N.J...., Donald Trump seemed to know exactly what those suffering from the devastation left behind by Hurricane Maria needed: the dedication of a golf trophy. Trump's offer of goodwill wasn't just for Puerto Rico though, as the commander in chief also dedicated the Presidents Cup Golf Tournament trophy to the victims of the recent hurricanes that struck Texas and Florida as well." ...

... Mary Shelbourne of the Hill: "The number of Puerto Ricans without access to drinking water has risen sharply [to 55 percent], the Defense Department announced on Saturday.... The military said last week that 44 percent of the island did not have access to drinking water." ...

... Following are a few representative stories from reporters on the ground around Puerto Rico. Either these reporters are terrific fabulists or Donald Trump is a liar. ...

... ¿Dónde está FEMA? A. J. Vicens of Mother Jones: "As two Puerto Rican journalists and I walked through Ciales, a mountain town hit hard by Hurricane Maria..., at least a dozen residents approached us with the same question: Are you from FEMA? Earlier in the day..., Donald Trump had slammed San Juan Mayor Yulín Cruz on Saturday for 'such poor leadership ability,' boasting that federal efforts to assist in hurricane recovery were robust. '10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job,' he tweeted from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. But according to residents, none of those 10,000 federal workers have made it to Ciales, just 45 minutes from San Juan. The storm in this town of 19,000 knocked out the power grid, destroyed entire blocks, and filled streets and homes with a pervasive chocolate-brown mud. Everyone we talked to in Ciales -- young and old, residents of public housing and private homes, and even the mayor -- complained about the local, Puerto Rican, and federal response to the disaster." ...

... Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times: "... in places like rural, southwestern Lajas..., locals said they are ... helping each other. But there is only so much they can do.... Lajas Mayor Marcos Irizarry Pagán arranged for [two families] to stay at a hotel..., because he feared they couldn't survive at the [town's] shelter. 'These are elderly people sick due to a lack of oxygen, diabetes -- it's a lot of complications and they can't resist it. We want to help them, but our hands are tied,' he said. FEMA sent its first shipment to Lajas on Friday. Police picked it up from a nearby city under guard, concerned about looting. The shipment contained 200 boxes of food and 786 24-packs of water for a town of 25,000.... The mayor was issued a satellite phone to contact FEMA in San Juan, but he said the agency never calls back. He has started using the phone to let residents call worried relatives on the U.S. mainland.... About 100 people died in the three days after the storm in the Lajas region, twice the typical rate, according to a local funeral director. Eight elderly people have died in Lajas since the storm, at least one directly related to a shortage of medical supplies." ...

... Ingrid Arnesen of the Daily Beast: "Twenty-eight U.S. Army reservists answered the call of duty ... and reported to an abandoned base on the eastern tip of the island. Then they waited for orders. And waited. It was one week before the soldiers heard from the outside world. That is how desperate, how disorganized, the situation in Puerto Rico has been. Try as he may to deflect blame for the response to Hurricane Maria..., Donald Trump is the commander-in-chief of these soldiers who were marooned while their countrymen needed all the help they could get." ...

We've spent the entire weekend, as we have last weekend, working on Puerto Rico, making sure we're out saving lives, sustaining lives. And making sure everyone in Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, is taken care of. The United States has gone through extraordinary efforts to delivery goods to the islands. -- Gary Cohn, White House economic advisor, on Fox "News" Sunday (Also linked yesterday.)

Great! Apparently composing nasty tweets running down media coverage & local Puerto Rican efforts is "work." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... David Jackson of USA Today: "President Trump defended his administration's response to the humanitarian disaster in Puerto Rico, dismissing any critics of his relief efforts as 'fake news' and 'politically motivated ingrates.' 'We have done a great job with the almost impossible situation in Puerto Rico,' Trump said. 'Outside of the Fake News or politically motivated ingrates ... people are now starting to recognize the amazing work that has been done by FEMA and our great Military.'... In a third tweet on Sunday morning, Trump had kind words for Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, thanking him and 'all of those who are working so closely with our First Responders. Fantastic job!'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: John Kelly needs to hire a cold-hearted no-texting nanny to babysit Terribly Trumpy on the weekends. ...

... Chas Danner of New York: "White House budget director Mick Mulvaney joined [Trump] in the attack on Cruz on Sunday morning. 'My understanding is that as of yesterday, she had not even been to the FEMA operation center in her own city,' Mulvaney said on CNN.... Also on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on NBC's Meet the Press that Cruz's comments 'were unfair, given what the federal government has done.'... Mulvaney and Mnuchin's criticism follows a White House official's anonymous statement on Saturday suggesting that Cruz has been 'too busy doing TV' to properly gauge federal relief efforts." ...

... Mike Allen of Axios: "In contrast to dire reports from the island, White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert sent West Wing colleagues an unusually upbeat update -- leaked to Axios -- that points to a rapid recovery no one on the ground is witnessing. Bossert, back from a trip to Puerto Rico earlier in the week, says it's 'still an urgent situation,' but that the administration has "a strong ground game in place on the island with military leadership[.]... The White House's sunny plan comes as TV reports 'increasingly echo those after Katrina a dozen years ago in sounding the alarm for a desperate population frustrated by the pace of relief efforts,' AP's David Bauder points out[.]" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

The President is personally retweeting himself about PR instead of personally overseeing PR relief. He struggles with basics of being POTUS.... Part of being President is driving federal agencies to work together and get the job done. Another part is moral leadership. - Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), in tweets (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "For the first nine months of his administration, observers have had occasion to wonder ... how exactly Donald Trump would manage to handle a real crisis imposed by external events rather than his own impulsiveness. The answer is now apparent in the blackened streets of San Juan and the villages of interior Puerto Rico that more than a week after Hurricane Maria struck remain without access to food or clean water. To an extent, the United States of America held up surprisingly well from Inauguration Day until September 20th or so. The ongoing degradation of American civic institutions, at a minimum, did not have an immediate negative impact on the typical person's life. But the world is beginning to draw a straight line from the devastation in Puerto Rico straight to the White House. Trump's instinct so far is to turn the island's devastation into another front in culture war politics, a strategy that could help his own political career survive." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Charles Blow: "The subtext [of Trump's tweets disparaging Mayor Yulín Cruz of San Juan & Puerto Ricans in general] -- or perhaps the actual text -- was to blame the victim and berate them as a group: These brown people want/need help, but won't/can't help themselves because their community/culture is inferior/ineffective. It was a revolting, racialized attack, but one delivered in much the same way that his racialized attack on the N.F.L. players was delivered: by using hijacked glory. He used the nobility of veterans and active service member to shield his ignoble attack on the N.F.L. players, and he used the nobility of first responders to shield his ignoble attack on Puerto Ricans.... As Jelani Cobb brilliantly observed last week in The New Yorker, 'Ungrateful is the new uppity.'" ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "President Trump is not one to let a controversy fade away, so on Saturday he made sure to fan the embers of his standoff with the NFL.... 'Very important that NFL players STAND tomorrow, and always, for the playing of our National Anthem. Respect our Flag and our Country!' [Trump tweeted.]... However, Trump was clearly more invested in his new beef with the mayor of storm-ravaged San Juan; over the weekend, he posted more than a dozen tweets defending his administration's response to Hurricane Maria. The NFL scaled back its response as well. A few teams -- including the Baltimore Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New Orleans Saints, and the Jacksonville Jaguars -- took a knee as a team before the anthem, then stood for the song. Jacksonville players announced before the game that they would would kneel in prayer 'for change, progress and equality for everyone who calls the United States their homes.'"

Trumpty-Dumpty Dumps on Diplomacy. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump seemed to undercut his own secretary of state on Sunday as he belittled the prospect of a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear-edged crisis with North Korea even as the administration was seeking to open lines of communication. In the latest Twitter messages from his New Jersey golf club, where he was spending the weekend, Mr. Trump diminished Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson's outreach to Pyongyang and its autocratic leader, Kim Jong-un. On a visit to China, Mr. Tillerson acknowledged on Saturday that he was trying to open talks. 'I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,' Mr. Trump wrote, using the derogatory nickname he has assigned to Mr. Kim. 'Save your energy Rex,' he added, 'we'll do what has to be done!'" Thanks to MAG for the lead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Clio Chang of the New Republic writes "An Oral History of the Trump Administration as told through anonymous quotes from White House and Republican officials.... Over the course of a young presidency composed of nothing but disasters and scandals, a torrent of anonymous backstabbing and grumbling has found its way into the mainstream media. Taken together, these quotes show what it is like to work for a mercurial boss who is painfully unqualified to hold the office -- a mosaic that depicts the experience of living within the whirlwind.... What emerges from this anonymous stew is an ongoing record of the Republican failure to speak up in public, while the president wreaks havoc both here and abroad. It is a story about a rotting GOP, as told by the greatest cowards of the Trump era." Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link.

Lyin' Ryan & Mendacious Mnuchin Go on Teevee to Lie about Tax "Reform." Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "Republican leaders on Sunday were unable to guarantee tax cuts for all middle-class workers as a part of a tax plan that GOP leaders have pledged to produce by the end of the year. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defended the newly released GOP tax plan as a boon for the middle class amid accusations from Democrats and some outside groups that it is primarily a chance to cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy. The pair argued that such accusations are based on faulty information and lack of details. 'The entire purpose of this is to lower middle-class taxes,' Ryan said in an interview on CBS's 'Face the Nation.' 'So yes, people are going to get tax cuts. How big are those tax cuts? That depends on the individual.'"

** Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: "Advocates for children's health started worrying months ago that congressional incompetence would jeopardize the nation's one indisputable healthcare success -- the Children's Health Insurance Program, which has reduced the uninsured rate among kids to 5% from 14% over the two decades of its existence. Their fears turned out to be true. Funding for CHIP runs out on Saturday, and no vote on reestablishing the program's $15-billion appropriation is expected for at least a week, probably longer.... The consequences will be dire in many states, which will have to curtail or even shut down their children's health programs until funding is restored. Hanging in the balance is care for 9 million children an pregnant women in low-income households. What happened? The simple answer is that congressional Republicans' last harebrained attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act got in the way." Thanks, Graham, Cassidy, et. al! Mrs. McC: Republican incompetence is often a good thing; in this case, it's life-threatening.

Peter Baker & Robert Pear of the New York Times discuss the possible Trump nominees to replace Tom Jet-Setter Price as head of Health & Human Services. Also, see commentary in yesterday's thread on making Mitt Rmoney HHS secretary. Funny -- and realistic. (Also linked yesterday.)

Zuckerberg's Yom Kippur Atonement. Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "On Saturday night, the end of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jewish people, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg went on his social-media platform and apologized. 'For those I hurt this year, I ask forgiveness and I will try to be better,' he wrote in a brief post. 'For the ways my work was used to divide people rather than bring us together, I ask for forgiveness and I will work to do better.' He did not say anything specific in his most recent post, but Zuckerberg's mea culpa came in the face of mounting evidence that Russians had used the social-media platform he created more than a decade ago to spread propaganda and influence voter sentiment -- all to tip the U.S. presidential election in Donald Trump's favor."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court, which was short-handed and slumbering for more than a year after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, is returning to the bench on Monday with a far-reaching docket that renews its central role in American life. The new term is studded with major cases likely to provoke sharp conflicts. One of them, on political gerrymandering, has the potential to reshape American politics. Another may settle the question of whether businesses can turn away patrons like gay couples in the name of religious freedom.... 'There's only one prediction that's entirely safe about the upcoming term,' Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said last month at Georgetown's law school. 'It will be momentous.'" Mrs. McC: Naturally, this sickens me, because we do have an idea how the "moment" will go.

Benghazi, Reality Edition. Charlie Savage & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "... beginning on Monday in a federal courthouse in Washington, prosecutors will put forward an account [of the Benghazi attack on Americans in September 2012] that focuses ... squarely on the attacks themselves and a man they say bears direct responsibility: Ahmed Abu Khattala.... The trial will serve as the latest test of the civilian court system's ability to handle foreign terrorism suspects captured by Special Operations commandos under battlefield conditions, rather than subjecting them to military detention and prosecution.... Prosecutors are expected to portray Mr. Khatalla as a ringleader of a local militia of Islamic extremists who was angry about the American presence in Benghazi and played a leading role in directing the attacks."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ralph Minter & Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "Catalonia's defiant attempt to stage an independence referendum descended into chaos on Sunday, with hundreds injured in clashes with police in one of the gravest tests of Spain's democracy since the end of the Franco dictatorship in the 1970s. National police officers in riot gear, sent by the central government in Madrid from other parts of Spain, used rubber bullets and truncheons in some places as they fanned out across Catalonia, the restive northeastern region, to shut down polling stations and seize ballot boxes.... Voting went ahead in many towns and cities, with men and women ... singing and chanting as they lined up for hours to cast ballots. Just after midnight, the Catalan government said that the referendum had been approved by 90 percent of some 2.6 million voters. Those figures could not be independently confirmed. The Spanish government declared that the referendum had been disrupted. More than 750 people were injured in the crackdown, Catalan officials said, while dozens of Spanish police officers were hurt, according to Spain's interior ministry." ...

... William Booth of the Washington Post: "Just minutes after the first boisterous voters entered the polling station at an elementary school here on Sunday, dozens of National Police officers in riot gear smashed through the front window and began searching for the ballot boxes. But the activists who organized this controversial vote on independence for the Catalan region were two steps ahead. As the police forced their way through shouting crowds into the polling station, the organizers spirited away the ballots and hid them in the classrooms amid coloring books and crayons. An hour later, after police had driven away in their big black vans, under a hail of insults, the ballot boxes reemerged and the voting recommenced. The pattern was repeated again and again across hundreds of polling stations Sunday in the Catalan region of northeast Spain, where a secessionist movement is pushing ahead with a disputed referendum on independence that the central government in Madrid, backed by the courts, has called illegitimate and illegal." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... The Guardian is running live updates. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Looks a little like a preview of U.S. election day in "urban areas" November 3, 2020.

Jonny Wakefield & Paige Parsons of the Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) Journal: "Edmonton police say a suspect accused of going on a rampage with two vehicles Saturday night has been arrested to face several charges, including terror charges, attempted murder and dangerous driving. Police chief Rod Knecht said at a Sunday afternoon news conference that the man, who came to the attention of law enforcement in 2015 for 'espousing extremist ideology' is believed to have acted alone. Sources confirmed the identity of the man as Abdulahi Hasan Sharif. RCMP K-Division[s assistant commissioner Marlin Degrand said the man is a Somali national. The public safety minister's office has said he is a refugee. Knecht said four injured pedestrians suffered injuries ranging from broken limbs to brain bleeds. Two remain in hospital, the most serious with a fractured skull...."

News Lede

Washington Post: "Three Americans -- Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young -- have won the 2017 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work on molecular mechanisms that control circadian systems. Hall was born in New York, Rosbash in Kansas City, and they both worked at Brandeis University. Michael Young was born in Miami and worked at Rockefeller University.... In announcing the winner in Stockholm on Monday, the prize committee said the scientists elucidated how a life-form's 'inner clock' can fluctuate to optimize our behavior and physiology. 'Their discoveries explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth's revolutions.' Working with fruit flies, the scientists isolated a gene that is responsible for a protein that accumulates in the night but is degraded in the day. Misalignments in this clock may play a role in medical conditions and disorders, as well as the temporary disorientation of jet lag that travelers experience when crisscrossing time zones."