The Commentariat -- September 12, 2017

Late Morning Update:

Dan Merica of CNN: "Hope Hicks, who was named interim White House communications director in August, will now hold the job on a permanent basis, a White House spokesperson told CNN Tuesday. Hicks, a longtime aide to ... Donald Trump who was one of the first staffers to join Trump's 2016 campaign, became the interim communications director after Anthony Scaramucci ... was ousted from the job in July." Mrs. McC(ynical): It was just within the week that we learned Robert Mueller's team plans to interview Trump & she's had to hire an attorney for the occasion; surely a promotion to a permanent position in a prominent role is Trump's way of hoping to ensure she lies about Trump's involvement in drafting the fake reason for Donnie Jr.'s meeting with Russian operatives.

Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump's Republican allies have always sought to discredit the Russia investigation by going on offense.... Their first attempt at offense focused on Barack Obama's national security adviser Susan Rice, who Republicans spent days attacking as a sinister 'unmasker,' until the charges against Rice quietly collapsed earlier this month. They have found a new target: the famous dossier on Donald Trump compiled by British intelligence agent turned private investigator Christopher Steele, which they hope to use to discredit former FBI director James Comey.... The dossier, left defenseless, became the 'salacious, unverified Steele Dossier,' the epitome of irresponsible speculation.... But unverified does not mean false. And ... several months of revelations have confirmed a number of Steele's findings.... The FBI reportedly used Steele's reporting in some capacity.... Working from the premise that Steele's dossier is discredited, Republicans hope to attach Comey to it, and thereby sink his reputation. But it's possible their argument will do something else entirely: They might prove Steele was right after all."

*****

Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has backed away from some of the most stringent penalties it had sought to impose on North Korea, in an apparent effort to draw Russian and Chinese backing for a new raft of sanctions over the country's nuclear weapons advances. Whether the administration will garner the support of Moscow and Beijing when the new sanctions come up for a vote Monday evening at the United Nations Security Council remains to be seen. More important, it is wholly unclear whether additional sanctions will persuade Pyongyang to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile tests." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "The United Nations Security Council on Monday ratcheted up sanctions yet again against North Korea, but they fell significantly short of the far-reaching penalties that the Trump administration had demanded just days ago. While the sanctions were described in Washington and other capitals as the most extensive yet, in the end they amounted to another incremental increase of pressure on the country, even after it detonated its sixth and most powerful nuclear device." ...

... What Trump's Russian Friends Are Doing to Help North Korea. Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "With international trade with North Korea increasingly constrained by U.N. sanctions, Russian entrepreneurs are seizing opportunities to make a quick profit, setting up a maze of front companies to conceal transactions and launder payments, according to U.S. law enforcement officials who monitor sanction-busting activity. Such trade could provide a lifeline to North Korea at a time when the United States is seeking to deepen Kim's economic and political isolation in response to recent nuclear and missiles tests.... The increase in [North Korean] trade with Russia was a primary reason for a series of legal measures announced last month by Justice and Treasury officials targeting Russian nationals accused of helping North Korea evade sanctions.... Russia, with its massive petroleum reserves and proven willingness to partner with un­savory regimes, could provide just enough of a boost to keep North Korea's economy moving, allowing it to again resist international pressure to give up its strategic weapons, the officials said.... The reports of Russian oil smuggling come as Moscow continues to criticize international efforts to impose more trade restrictions on North Korea. Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a joint news conference Wednesday with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in, pointedly refused to support new restrictions on fuel supplies for the North." ...

... MEANWHILE, Trump Has Another Secret Meeting with Russian Ambassador. David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement (Sept. 8): "... the White House has ... tried to hide a meeting Friday between Russia's new Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, and ... Donald Trump. The meeting was not listed on the president's official schedule, but Russian media reported the event, as Reuters now reports.... Two-and-a-half hours after the Reuters report was published, the White House released a list of eleven foreign ambassadors who presented their credentials to the President [Friday].

Trump Embraces Another Corrupt, Authoritarian "Leader." Washington Post Editors: "PRESIDENT TRUMP has made a habit of embracing authoritarian rulers he regards as friendly, without regard for their subversion of democratic norms or gross human rights violations. Yet his meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak at the White House on Tuesday sets a new low. Not only is Mr. Najib known for imprisoning peaceful opponents, silencing critical media and reversing Malaysia's progress toward democracy. He also is a subject of the largest foreign kleptocracy investigation ever launched by the U.S. Justice Department. U.S. investigators have charged that Mr. Najib and close associates diverted $4.5 billion from a Malaysian government investment fund for their own uses, including $730 million that ended up in accounts controlled by the prime minister. Justice first filed civil suits seeking the freezing of some $1.7 billion in assets in the United States.... President Barack Obama golfed with the prime minister and flattered him with the first visit by a U.S. president to Malaysia in nearly half a century."

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Florida emerged from Hurricane Irma on Monday as a landscape of blacked-out cities, shuttered gas stations, shattered trees and flooded streets, while the now-weakened storm kept sweeping northward. Major streets remained underwater in cities from Miami to Jacksonville, with even more roads snarled by debris. As many as nine million Floridians lost electricity at some point during the storm, and the chief executive of a major utility, Florida Power & Light, said that it could take weeks to restore full service. Officials were still assessing Irma's impact in the Florida Keys, which may have borne the worst of the storm. After a survey of the islands, Gov. Rick Scott told reporters that he had seen crippling damage there, including countless overturned trailers and many boats washed ashore. Recovery in the Keys would be a 'long road,' he said." ...

... Update: Scott Pruitt Is Still a Phony Prick. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, says it is insensitive to discuss climate change in the midst of deadly storms.... 'To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced,' Mr. Pruitt said to CNN in an interview ahead of Hurricane Irma, echoing similar sentiments he made when Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas two weeks earlier. 'To use time and effort to address it at this point is very, very insensitive to this people in Florida,' he added.... For scientists, drawing links between warming global temperatures and the ferocity of hurricanes is about as controversial as talking about geology after an earthquake.... Ben Kirtman, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Miami..., said he believes failing to discuss climate change hurts Florida and the entire country.... President Trump has derided climate change as a hoax. Mr. Pruitt has declared that carbon dioxide emissions from cars, power plants and other sources are not the primary contributor to global warming, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. The E.P.A. has removed many mentions of climate change from its website and is rolling back regulations aimed at curbing carbon dioxide emissions." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Science, & reality in general, are still left-wing conspiracies as far as wingers are concerned. See also Jonathan Chait's post, linked yesterday. Anyway, I'm more than happy to have Pruitt remind folks I'm "insensitive." Update: As MAG pointed out in yesterday's thread, actually Pruitt is a "real prick." I stand corrected. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Gene Robinson: "No rational U.S. administration would look at the devastation from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and seek to deny climate change. At present, however, there is no rational U.S. administration. We have instead a president and an Environmental Protection Agency chief who refuse to acknowledge the obvious.... As deniers frequently point out, no individual weather event can be definitively blamed on climate change. But the World Meteorological Organization released a statement concluding that 'the rainfall rates associated with Harvey were likely made more intense by anthropogenic climate change.' And regarding Irma, the WMO cited models showing that 'hurricanes in a warmer climate are likely to become more intense.' There are established linkages between a storm's severity and factors such as sea levels, ocean temperatures and the position of prevailing currents such as the jet stream. Global warming has altered all of those parameters. This is precisely the moment when scientists at the EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Weather Service, NASA and other agencies ought to be laser-focused on climate change." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... thanks to Trump's electoral victory, know-nothing, anti-science conservatives are now running the U.S. government. When you read news analyses claiming that Trumps deal with Democrats to keep the government running for a few months has somehow made him a moderate independent, remember that it's not just Pruitt: Almost every senior figure in the Trump administration dealing with the environment or energy is both an establishment Republican and a denier of climate change and of scientific evidence in general.... Today's right-wing intellectual universe, such as it is, is dominated by hired guns who are essentially propagandists rather than researchers.... When people like [Rush] Limbaugh imagine that liberals are engaged in a conspiracy to promote false ideas about climate and suppress the truth, it makes sense to them partly because that's what their friends do.... We are now ruled by people who are completely alienated not just from the scientific community, but from the scientific idea -- the notion that objective assessment of evidence is the way to understand the world. And this willful ignorance is deeply frightening. Indeed, it may end up destroying civilization." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Robinson & Krugman think they're so smart, but they both failed to figure in the scientific impact of fossil-fuel industry campaign contributions. These contributions tend to require climate-change denial, or as Gloria insisted in yesterday's thread, global-warming denial. So gas up, people (uh, unless you live in Florida or parts of Houston where fuel-carrying trucks can't get thru flooded streets & neither can you). And clean coal forever! Blast those mountain tops. As Rand Paul said once, "I don't think anybody's going to be missing a hill or two here and there." Flattening a hill or two, after all, & reclaiming the land makes it more attractive for real-estate development.

Joshua McElwee of the National Catholic Reporter: "Pope Francis has questioned ... Donald Trump's commitment to pro-life values, suggesting that his administration's recent decision to end a program protecting undocumented young people from deportation is contradictory.... The pope said he is especially worried about young people who become detached from their roots and lose hope in the future.... Francis also said during the press conference that political leaders have a moral responsibility to follow scientists' recommendations and reduce carbon emissions in order to stem the effects of climate change. The pope said that whoever denies that humans are contributing to the warming of the planet 'needs to go visit the scientists and ask them.'" Mrs. McC: Francis is somewhat confused about the effects rescinding DACA would have on families, but it will certainly break up families. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Anita Kumar of McClatchy News: "A major construction company owned by the Chinese government was hired to work on the latest Trump golf club development in Dubai despite a pledge from Donald Trump that his family business would not engage in any transactions with foreign government entities while he serves as president. Trump's partner, DAMAC Properties, awarded a $32-million contract to the Middle East subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation..., according to news releases.... The companies' statements do not detail the exact timing of the contract except to note it was sometime in the first two months of 2017, just as Trump was inaugurated and questions were raised about a slew of potential conflicts of interest between his presidency and his vast real estate empire." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brandon Carter of the Hill: "Several of President Trump's lawyers advised him earlier this summer that White House adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner should step down from his role over potential legal complications with the ongoing Russia investigation, according to The Wall Street Journal. Sources familiar with the matter told the Journal that some of Trump's lawyers were concerned about Kushner, who had several meetings with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign, and brought those concerns to Trump himself. Press aides to Trump's legal team allegedly even went so far as to draft a statement explaining why Kushner was leaving the White House. The statement, meant to be issued by Kushner, blamed a toxic political environment for turning Kushner's meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign into an attack on Trump.... The president's lawyers also expressed concern over Kushner's federal disclosure forms, which the senior adviser has updated multiple times since his initial filing, adding more than 100 names to a list of foreign individuals he has had contact with." Trump & his own top lawyer disagreed with the attorneys' concerns; Trump thought Kushner had done nothing wrong. ...

     ... Update: Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post now has a story up on the proposed Kushner ouster. "In a statement Monday night, White House lawyer Ty Cobb blamed the disclosure of the internal debate on former White House staffers seeking to tarnish Kushner.... 'Those whose agendas were and remain focused on sabotaging him and his family for misguided personal reasons are no longer around,' said Cobb, who was brought aboard in July to specialize in the Russia inquiry. 'All clandestine efforts to undermine him never gained traction.'" Leonnig suggests the person with "misguided person reasons" was Steve Bannon, though Trump's lawyers would not confirm that.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Paul Waldman: "... this past weekend, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press all responded to Trump siding with Democrats over a relatively minor procedural matter -- whether to increase the debt ceiling for a three-month period, as they wanted, or an 18-month period, as Republicans were pushing for, as part of an agreement that included aid for victims of Hurricane Harvey and a bill to keep the government functioning -- in nearly the same way. Trump was showing that he's a true independent, unmoored from party loyalty.... The idea that Trump has governed as an independent is utterly laughable. While it's true that he arrived in office without the complement of ideological and partisan commitments most presidents carry with them, he has governed like the hardest of hard-right Republicans." ...

... Digby in Salon on "the Big Bipartisan Deal of last week that has the mainstream media exclaiming once again that Trump has made a pivot, this time to being an 'independent' in the mode of Teddy Roosevelt. This is all because he agreed to raise the debt ceiling and pass an emergency relief package with the help of Democrats.... It's utter nonsense.... Trump may not act like a Republican president. But he doesn't act like a Democratic or an Independent president either. He doesn't act like a president at all. It's long past time for the media to stop trying to fit him into some familiar groove that they can understand. While he's busy with his weird demagogic performance art, his administration is working as quickly as possible to enact the most racist, most right-wing Republican agenda in history. He is fine with that, as long as he gets the credit."

AND Somebody is Drugging Trump  -- Alex Jones. Travis Gettys of the Raw story: "Alex Jones admitted ... Donald Trump seems mentally impaired in the evening, but he floated a wild conspiracy theory to explain it away. The Trump-backing broadcaster claimed Monday on his 'InfoWars' radio program that 'high-level sources' had confirmed a plot to control the president through sedative drugs -- although Jones never explained who was doing that, reported Media Matters.... 'The president needs his blood tested by an outside physician he trusts.... I've talked to people, multiple ones, and they believe that they are putting a slow sedative that they're building up that's also addictive in his Diet Cokes and in his iced tea, and that the president by 6 or 7 at night is basically slurring his words and is drugged,' Jones said. '...I've talked to people that talk to the president now at 9 at night.... It's known that most presidents end up getting drugged.'" The same thing happened to Ronald Reagan, Jones said.

Dear Dingbat News "Analysts": No, Donald Trump Is Not Bipartisan. Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "A vivid example of the right-wing hegemony in the Trump Administration will be on display today, when the Presidential Advisory Commission on Voter Integrity convenes for the second time. It is difficult to imagine a more cynical enterprise than this commission, which Trump appointed after he claimed (falsely) that the casting of illegal votes last November accounted for his loss of the popular vote, which Hillary Clinton won by a margin of nearly three million. Trump named Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, who has been the nation's leading advocate for restrictions on voting rights, as the vice-chair of the commission. (Vice-President Mike Pence is the chair.) Kobach will preside at today's meeting, which will convene in Manchester, New Hampshire.... In-person voter fraud -- cases of people intentionally voting in elections in which they are not entitled to participate -- is a miniscule, if not nonexistent, problem in the United States. The real agenda [of the commission] is to make it harder for Democrats to vote and thus to make it easier to Republicans to win elections."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Back in March, when President Trump released the first draft of his budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, he asked lawmakers for deep cuts to one of their favorite institutions, the National Institutes of Health -- part of a broad reordering of priorities, away from science and social spending, toward defense and border security. Six months later, Congress has not only rejected the president's N.I.H. proposal; lawmakers from both parties have joined forces to increase spending on biomedical research -- and have bragged about it.... In identical language, the House and Senate bills explicitly prohibit the Trump administration from changing the formula used for decades to calculate and pay indirect costs."

Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "Key lawmakers on Monday demanded a detailed accounting of the security systems of Equifax, a leading credit-rating agency, following a hack that gave criminals access to sensitive information of up to 143 million American consumers in one of the most troubling corporate computer breaches ever disclosed. A sternly worded letter from the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee included a list of 13 questions intended to illuminate the murky circumstances surrounding the breach, including what data was exposed, how the hack was detected and whether the company has systems adequate for detecting and thwarting such intrusions."

Another Super-Scrooge Prize for the GOP. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Once again, [Republicans have] found an innovative way to punish the poor and simultaneously increase budget deficits -- all with one nifty trick! To pull off this impressive twofer, they would put every American applying for the earned-income tax credit (EITC) through a sort of mini-audit before getting their refund. This would both place huge new burdens on the working poor and divert scarce Internal Revenue Service resources away from other audit targets, such as big corporations, that offer a much higher return on investment.... Troubling language in the budget resolution committee report proposes decreasing 'improper' EITC payments by requiring verification of all income before benefits go out. The language ... appears to refer to a Heritage Foundation proposal that would require the IRS to 'fully verify income through a review of Form W-2, Form 1099, business licensing or registration, and relevant invoices' before dispensing any refunds.... As noted in a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, conducting mini-audits of all 28 million EITC claimants would be an astonishingly laborious task, both for tax filers and for the IRS.... At a time when Republicans are flogging tax simplification, this would make tax preparation infinitely more complicated. Unless, of course, the goal is to discourage poor people from applying for the EITC in the first place." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You can't tell me that Republicans & so-called conservatives -- like the great thinkers at the Heritage Foundation -- aren't purposely cruel to low-income Americans. This is one more way they plan to separate the haves from the have-nots. The haves -- people like them with incomes too high to earn EITC credits -- will get any tax refunds due them timely; the have-nots will have to jump through hoops to get their Treasury checks.

Congress Set to Protect "Our Outdoor Heritage." Dana Milbank: "On Tuesday, a House panel takes up the 'Sportsmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act of 2017,' which promises 'to protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting, fishing and shooting.' Among these recreational enhancements: Allowing people to bring assault guns and other weapons through jurisdictions where they are banned. Rolling back decades-old regulations on the use of silencers [a/k/a the 'Hearing Protection Act' & the 'Destruction of Records' provision]. Protecting the use of armor-piercing bullets. Easing importation of foreign-made assault rifles. Protecting the practice of baiting birds with grain as they migrate and then mowing them down. The House Natural Resources Committee was to have had a hearing on the bill in June, before the baseball-practice shooting that seriously wounded House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) led to its cancellation. But the National Rifle Association was not to be denied. In a statement last week, the gun lobby's director applauded the revival of the bill, which, he said, 'will protect America's hunters and recreational shooters and help preserve our outdoor heritage.'" Mrs. McC: Read on. This is INSANE.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) became the fourth co-sponsor of Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) 'Medicare for all' health-care bill Monday. In doing so, he joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.). What do those four senators have in common? Well, they just happen to constitute four of the eight most likely 2020 Democratic presidential nominees, according to the handy list I put out Friday. And another senator in my top 8, Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), last month came out in favor of the idea of 'Medicare for all' -- though not this specific bill (yet). This is about as far from a coincidence as you can get. And it suggests the dam is breaking when it comes to the Democratic Party embracing government-run health care, also known as single-payer."

Bryan Schott of UtahPolicy.com: "Sources tell UtahPolicy.com that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is preparing to run for Senate in 2018 if Sen. Orrin Hatch decides to retire.... So far, Hatch has not made up his mind as to whether he'll run for an eighth term in 2018. He has previously said he was planning on running as long as his and his wife's health holds up." Mrs. McC: I'm pretty sure Steve Bannon can come up with a raging winger alternative to Romney. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Monday granted the Trump administration's request to temporarily lift restrictions on the president's travel ban. In a one-page order signed by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court temporarily blocked the part of last week's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that barred the government from prohibiting refugees that have formal assurances from resettlement agencies or are in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program from entering the U.S. Kennedy said that part of the decision is stayed pending the receipt of a response from the state of Hawaii. That response that is due by noon on Tuesday. The Supreme Court's decision came less than two hours after Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall filed a request for a stay." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dave Weigel of the Washington Post reviews Hillary Clinton's What Happened. ...

... Here's a review by Jennifer Senior of the New York Times. ...

... Sabrina Siddiqui & David Smith of the Guardian write a joint book report.

... NEW. Audio & a written transcript of Clinton's interview with NPRs' Rachel Martin is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Sheila Kaplan & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "Floodwaters in two Houston neighborhoods have been contaminated with bacteria and toxins that can make people sick, testing organized by The New York Times has found. Residents will need to take precautions to return safely to their homes, public health experts said. It is not clear how far the toxic waters have spread. But Fire Chief Samuel Peña of Houston said over the weekend that there had been breaches at numerous waste treatment plants. The Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday that 40 of 1,219 such plants in the area were not working.... Water flowing down Briarhills Parkway in the Houston Energy Corridor contained Escherichia coli, a measure of fecal contamination, at a level more than four times that considered safe."

Way Beyond

Nick Cumming-Bruce of the New York Times: "The United Nations' top human rights official accused Myanmar on Monday of carrying out 'a textbook example of ethnic cleansing' against Rohingya Muslims, hundreds of thousands of whom have crossed into Bangladesh since late August to escape a military crackdown. Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said the military's 'brutal' security campaign was in clear violation of international law, and cited what he called refugees' consistent accounts of widespread extrajudicial killings, rape and other atrocities. Mr. al-Hussein said the crackdown 'resembles a cynical ploy to forcibly transfer large numbers of people without possibility of return,' noting that Myanmar had progressively stripped its Rohingya minority of civil and political rights for decades.... Some [criticism] has singled out Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of the elected civilian government, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her resistance to the military dictatorship. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi does not control Myanmar's military, but she has yet to criticize its crackdown on the Rohingya." ...

... Nicholas Kristof (Sept. 10) of the New York Times calls Suu Kyi "chief apologist for this ethnic cleansing, as the country oppresses the darker-skinned Rohingya and denounces them as terrorists and illegal immigrants. And 'ethnic cleansing' may be an understatement. Even before the latest wave of terror, a Yale study had suggested that the brutality toward the Rohingya might qualify as genocide."

News Ledes

Weather Channel on the results of Hurricane Irma: "More than 6.7 million people in Florida are without power as of Monday afternoon. At least nine deaths have been reported in the U.S. Water is rising in the downtown area of Jacksonville as the winds switch to the south, prompting a flooding emergency.... A flash flood emergency was declared for downtown Jacksonville Monday as Irma continued to batter Florida with damaging winds, heavy rain and storm surge. Martin Senterfitt, emergency management director for Morgan County, said a 'humanitarian crisis' is looming in the middle and upper Florida Keys." ...

... The Miami Herald's liveblog has 13 million Floridians without power. Mrs. McC: The Weather Channel 6.7 million, tho it doesn't say so, could be an estimate of the number of power company customers without power rather than the number of people. A customer can represent any number of people or even a negative number of people. That is, there may be a number of people living in a home that represents one customer. At the same time, one person may be a customer at more than one location.

The Commentariat -- September 11, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has backed away from some of the most stringent penalties it had sought to impose on North Korea, in an apparent effort to draw Russian and Chinese backing for a new raft of sanctions over the country's nuclear weapons advances. Whether the administration will garner the support of Moscow and Beijing when the new sanctions come up for a vote Monday evening at the United Nations Security Council remains to be seen. More important, it is wholly unclear whether additional sanctions will persuade Pyongyang to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile tests."

Update: Scott Pruitt Is Still a Phony Prick. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, says it is insensitive to discuss climate change in the midst of deadly storms.... 'To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced,' Mr. Pruitt said to CNN in an interview ahead of Hurricane Irma, echoing similar sentiments he made when Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas two weeks earlier. 'To use time and effort to address it at this point is very, very insensitive to this people in Florida,' he added.... For scientists, drawing links between warming global temperatures and the ferocity of hurricanes is about as controversial as talking about geology after an earthquake.... Ben Kirtman, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Miami..., said he believes failing to discuss climate change hurts Florida and the entire country.... President Trump has derided climate change as a hoax. Mr. Pruitt has declared that carbon dioxide emissions from cars, power plants and other sources are not the primary contributor to global warming, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. The E.P.A. has removed many mentions of climate change from its website and is rolling back regulations aimed at curbing carbon dioxide emissions." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Science, & reality in general, are still left-wing conspiracies as far as wingers are concerned. See also Jonathan Chait's post, linked below. Anyway, I'm more than happy to have Pruitt remind folks I'm "insensitive." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... thanks to Trump's electoral victory, know-nothing, anti-science conservatives are now running the U.S. government. When you read news analyses claiming that Trump's deal with Democrats to keep the government running for a few months has somehow made him a moderate independent, remember that it's not just Pruitt: Almost every senior figure in the Trump administration dealing with the environment or energy is both an establishment Republican and a denier of climate change and of scientific evidence in general.... Today's right-wing intellectual universe, such as it is, is dominated by hired guns who are essentially propagandists rather than researchers.... When people like [Rush] Limbaugh imagine that liberals are engaged in a conspiracy to promote false ideas about climate and suppress the truth, it makes sense to them partly because that's what their friends do.... We are now ruled by people who are completely alienated not just from the scientific community, but from the scientific idea -- the notion that objective assessment of evidence is the way to understand the world. And this willful ignorance is deeply frightening. Indeed, it may end up destroying civilization."

Joshua McElwee of the National Catholic Reporter: "Pope Francis has questioned ... Donald Trump's commitment to pro-life values, suggesting that his administration's recent decision to end a program protecting undocumented young people from deportation is contradictory.... The pope said he is especially worried about young people who become detached from their roots and lose hope in the future.... Francis also said during the press conference that political leaders have a moral responsibility to follow scientists' recommendations and reduce carbon emissions in order to stem the effects of climate change. The pope said that whoever denies that humans are contributing to the warming of the planet 'needs to go visit the scientists and ask them.'" Mrs. McC: Francis is somewhat confused about the effects rescinding DACA would have on families, but it will certainly break up families.

Anita Kumar of McClatchy News: "A major construction company owned by the Chinese government was hired to work on the latest Trump golf club development in Dubai despite a pledge from Donald Trump that his family business would not engage in any transactions with foreign government entities while he serves as president. Trump's partner, DAMAC Properties, awarded a $32-million contract to the Middle East subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation..., according to news releases.... The companies' statements do not detail the exact timing of the contract except to note it was sometime in the first two months of 2017, just as Trump was inaugurated and questions were raised about a slew of potential conflicts of interest between his presidency and his vast real estate empire."

Bryan Schott of UtahPolicy.com: "Sources tell UtahPolicy.com that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is preparing to run for Senate in 2018 if Sen. Orrin Hatch decides to retire.... So far, Hatch has not made up his mind as to whether he'll run for an eighth term in 2018. He has previously said he was planning on running as long as his and his wife's health holds up." Mrs. McC: I'm pretty sure Steve Bannon can come up with a raging winger alternative to Romney.

Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Monday granted the Trump administration's request to temporarily lift restrictions on the president's travel ban. In a one-page order signed by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court temporarily blocked the part of last week's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that barred the government from prohibiting refugees that have formal assurances from resettlement agencies or are in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program from entering the U.S. Kennedy said that part of the decision is stayed pending the receipt of a response from the state of Hawaii. That response that is due by noon on Tuesday. The Supreme Court's decision came less than two hours after Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall filed a request for a stay."

*****

Jennifer Peltz of the AP: "While the U.S. contends with the destruction caused by two ferocious hurricanes in three weeks, Americans also are marking the anniversary of one of the nation's most scarring days. Thousands of 9/11 victims' relatives, survivors, rescuers and others are expected to gather Monday at the World Trade Center to remember the deadliest terror attack on American soil."

Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "In his first extended interview since he left the White House last month, Stephen K. Bannon was unsparing in his criticism: calling out top Republicans, West Wing staff, the 'pearl-clutching mainstream media,' special counsel investigators and the Roman Catholic Church. He even singled out President Trump, labeling his firing of James B. Comey ... the biggest mistake in 'modern political history.' Pressed by the interviewer, Charlie Rose, Mr. Bannon said that had Mr. Comey not been fired, the Justice Department investigation into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia's election interference would not have been handed over to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. The assertion, made in an online-only segment of a wide-ranging '60 Minutes' interview that aired on Sunday night, was perhaps the most extraordinary of many criticisms made by Mr. Bannon.... Mr. Bannon said he planned to be the president's 'wingman outside for the entire time' he is in office." ...

... Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump's former chief strategist who left the White House in August -- declared war Sunday against the Republican congressional leadership, called on Gary Cohn, Trump's top economic adviser, to resign, and outlined his views on issues ranging from immigration to trade. [Steve] Bannon, in an interview on CBS's '60 Minutes,' accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) of 'trying to nullify the 2016 election.'... He blamed them for failing to repeal and replace former president Barack Obama's signature health-care law and made clear that he would use his Breitbart perch to hold Republicans accountable for not helping Trump push through his agenda.... He also seemed to criticize the president's recent decision to rescind protections for 'dreamers' -- those 690,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the country as young children -- while giving Congress six months to devise a legislative solution. The move, he said, could cost Republicans the House in the 2018 election." ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Bannon described embracing the GOP Establishment as the 'original sin of the administration,' explaining that the Trump team felt in the days after the election that they would need their help to govern. However, their deal with congressional leaders to spend Trump's first year in office repealing Obamacare, enacting tax reform, and passing an infrastructure bill quickly went off the rails." ...

... Here's a tiny portion of the interview. What's the matter with Bannon's eyes?:

... Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump's closest allies are planning a slate of primary challenges against Republican senators, potentially undermining the party's prospects in 2018 and further inflaming tensions between GOP leaders and the White House. The effort is being led by Steve Bannon, Trump's bomb-throwing former chief strategist, who is launching an all-out war against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican establishment. Bannon has begun holding private meetings with insurgent challengers, vowing his support. He's coordinating with conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer, who is prepared to pour millions of dollars into attacks on GOP incumbents. Bannon has also installed a confidant at an outside group that is expected to target Republican lawmakers and push the Trump agenda." Among the GOP lawmakers Bannon hopes to "primary" are Senators Dean Heller (Nev.), Jeff Flake (Az.), Bob Corker (Tenn.) Roger Wicker (Miss.) & Luther Strange (Ala.). ...

... Manu Raju of CNN: Bob Corker hasn't decided whether or not to stand for re-election.

Evangelical Trump. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration opened the door to allowing more firearms on federal lands. It scrubbed references to 'L.G.B.T.Q. youth' from the description of a federal program for victims of sex trafficking. And, on the advice of religious leaders, it eliminated funding to international groups that provide abortion. While these initiatives lacked the fanfare of some of President Trump's high-profile proclamations -- like his ban on transgender people in the military -- they point to a fundamental repurposing of the federal bureaucracy to promote conservative social priorities.... The overhaul is unfolding behind the scenes in Washington at agencies like the Health and Human Services Department, where new rules about birth control are being drafted, and in federal courtrooms, where the Justice Department has shifted gears in more than a dozen Obama-era cases involving social issues. The turnabout stems in part from lobbying by evangelical Christians and other conservative groups. In interviews, these groups said they have regular discussions on domestic and foreign policy with the administration -- more so than during the presidency of George W. Bush...." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This from an administration where the Top Guy said he was impressed by two Corinthians & occasionally consumes "little crackers" during the Eucharist.

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has told associates he wants to put the entire National Security Council staff through a lie detector test to root out leakers. It's unclear whether this will ever happen, but Sessions floated the idea to multiple people, as recently as last month. Sessions' idea is to do a one-time, one-issue, polygraph test of everyone on the NSC staff. Interrogators would sit down with every single NSC staffer (there's more than 100 of them), and ask them, individually, what they know about the leaks of transcripts of the president's phone calls with foreign leaders. Sessions suspects those leaks came from within the NSC, and thinks that a polygraph test -- at the very least -- would scare them out of leaking again." ...

     ... Margaret Hartmann: "Sessions wouldn't be the first Trump administration staffer to resort to desperate measures to crack down on leakers. In February then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer performed an unannounced phone check on his staff. They got back at him by informing the press of the incident."

White House Shares Fake Irma "News." Because These People Are Really Stupid. Abby Ohlheiser of the Washington Post: "The viral hoaxes targeting those looking for information about Irma online began early, with a viral map last week that showed the hurricane following Hurricane Harvey's path, headed straight toward Houston.... Dan Scavino, the White House's director of social media, has been re-posting videos and photos he appears to have pulled from social media showing the destruction in Miami all day.... One isn't from Irma, or Miami[.]... The airport replied to Scavino within minutes, letting him know he was wrong[.]... This video ... [is] at least a few weeks old. Here it is on a YouTube channel -- one that, it's worth noting, has been known to re-use old footage for new disasters before -- from August. That video claims to be from Mexico City's airport. Scavino's tweet suggested he had shared videos like this one with President Trump and Vice President Pence. Scavino later deleted the tweet." Ohlheiser lists some other fake viral stories that Scavino missed.

Jonathan Chait: "The only problem in American politics is the Republican party" because it has sealed itself off from reality. Either party could be captured by its extremists, as the GOP has been. "But the fact is that the Democratic Party is fundamentally accountable to the mainstream news media. And that media play try to follow rules of objectivity that the right-wing alternative media does not bother with."

Ian Kullgren of Politico: "In his first nationally televised interview since his diagnosis in July, [Sen. John] McCain discussed with CNN's Jake Tapper some of the details of his battle against glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain cancer. At times, the 81-year-old, sixth-term senator was somber, upbeat and reflective about his storied career, which has included two presidential runs and more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam after his Navy jet was shot down. 'You know, every life has to end one way or another,' he said.... 'I'm facing a challenge,' the Arizona Republican said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'But I've faced other challenges, and I'm very confident about getting through this one as well.'"

CBS News has more on Jane Pauley's interview of Hillary Clinton. She was so confident she would win, "the Clintons had acquired the house next door [to their Chappaqua, New York, home], to accommodate White House staff and security during a second Clinton Administration. At a dining room table in that house, she wrote about 'What Happened.'" ...

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Hunter Walker & Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News: "The FBI recently questioned a former White House correspondent for Sputnik, the Russian-government-funded news agency, as part of an investigation into whether it is acting as an undeclared propaganda arm of the Kremlin in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). As part of the probe, Yahoo News has learned, the bureau has obtained a thumb drive containing thousands of internal Sputnik emails and documents -- material that could potentially help prosecutors build a case that the news agency played a role in the Russian government 'influence campaign' that was waged during last year's presidential election and, in the view of U.S. intelligence officials, is still ongoing. The emails were turned over by Andrew Feinberg, the news agency's former White House correspondent, who had downloaded the material onto his laptop before he was fired in May. He confirmed to Yahoo News that he was questioned for more than two hours on Sept. 1 by an FBI agent and a Justice Department national security lawyer at the bureau's Washington field office.... It is not clear whether the agent and prosecutor who questioned Feinberg were acting as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's broader investigation into Russian efforts to disrupt the 2016 election and possible links to the Trump campaign."

Lucia Graves of the Guardian: "Dozens of reporters, editors, and copy staff have left the [Wall Street Journal] in the past year, an exodus attributable to a combination of buyout incentives, poaching and frustration with management.... The talented staff that remain still produce memorable journalism. But when it comes to covering Trump -- according to interviews with 18 current and former Journal staffers, some of whom have provided the Guardian with previously unpublished emails from [Editor-in-Chief Gerry] Baker -- many say this is no thanks to management. 'The Journal has done a lot of good work in covering the Trump administration, but not nearly as much as it should have,' another recent departee said. 'I lay almost all of that at Gerry's doorstep. Political editors and reporters find themselves either directly stymied by Gerry's interference or shave the edges off their stories in advance to try to please him (and, by extension, [publisher Rupert] Murdoch).'"

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: For decades, the Journal was well-known for having an excellent newsroom & horrifying right-wing editorial pages. Graves' reporting makes crystal-clear the editorial view has forced its way into the newsroom. That's a real loss for journalism. And there's this: Gerry Baker is a British subject, not a U.S. citizen. Murdoch became a U.S. citizen in 1985 (so he could buy U.S. media outlets). At the time, he gave up his Australian passport because neither country allowed dual citizenship. But both countries allow dual citizenship now, so it's possible Murdoch has quietly regained his Australian citizenship. In any event, since Baker is at least in theory running the show, maybe the WSJ should be covered by the U.S.'s foreign agents registration law.

Way Beyond the Beltway

"Echoes of Charlottesville." Katie Shepherd of Willamette Week (Portland, Oregon): "Police in Vancouver [B.C.] [Sunday] afternoon arrested a man after a Patriot Prayer rally when he nearly ran his truck into a crowd of antifascist counter-protesters.... A black Chevy Silverado with Oregon plates and two large American flags and several small flags hanging from its windows (along with a Confederate flag decal displayed on the back window of the cab) drove up to the marchers.... As the crowd parted to clear the way..., protesters filled the street behind it and started throwing rocks and water bottles at the truck. The driver suddenly put his vehicle in reverse and accelerated toward the protesters. As he sped up, people jumped out of the street.... The protesters ... changed their path to escape the truck.... However, the truck re-appeared cutting the marchers off.... After the man was arrested, a group called the 'Proud Boys' drove down Columbia Ave and sprayed pepper spray out their windows at protesters in the street. The counter-protesters lobbed rocks at their truck. Police stopped the Proud Boys, but did not detain them.... Reporters nearby say the Proud Boys [later] crashed into a police vehicle." The march was originally planned for Portland.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Hurricane Irma brought ripping winds, tornadoes and storm-surge flooding to much of Florida's lower half on Sunday, as its slow-moving core battered the state's west coast from Key West to Tampa. The massive storm -- which had menaced Florida for days, and triggered evacuation orders covering 5.6 million people -- made two official landfalls on Sunday before being downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane Monday. The first landfall, at about 9:10 a.m., was over the Florida Keys, an isolated string of islands that had rarely felt more alone than on Sunday. Irma hit them as a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds near 130 miles per hour."

The Miami Herald's Hurricane Irma page is here. ...

... Links to Tampa Bay Times stories are here ...

The Commentariat -- September 10, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Henry Fountain of the New York Times: "Engineers stopped releasing water from Lake Okeechobee on Saturday, confident that they had lowered levels enough to keep the dike and the towns around it safe as Hurricane Irma swept into southern Florida. But the dike, built seven decades ago and named for Herbert Hoover, was not the only major piece of Florida infrastructure that had officials concerned as the hurricane approached. Airports, sewage treatment plants, flood control systems and other facilities could be overrun by heavy rains or flooding from storm surge, as Irma's winds amass ocean water and push it ashore. The impacts of climate change -- especially sea level rise, which is already bringing more tidal flooding in Miami Beach -- could make matters worse, as any storm surge from Irma would be on top of an already higher baseline. And Florida, like every state in an era of tightening budgets, has deferred costly maintenance on much of its infrastructure, said Addie Javed, a former president of the Florida section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.... As South Florida's population has swelled in recent decades, its roads, water and sewage treatment plants and other facilities have struggled to keep pace. Much of the state’s infrastructure is now nearing the end of its useful life...." ...

... Brent Griffiths of Politico: "... Donald Trump said on Saturday that his administration continues to monitor Irma as the Category 3 hurricane heads for a projected collision with southern Florida on Sunday. 'We're as prepared as you can be for such an event,' Trump said during a meeting with members of his cabinet at Camp David, the Maryland presidential retreat. 'This is a storm of enormous destructive power and I ask everyone in the storm's path to heed all instructions, get out of its way.'... The White House said the president and his team also received a briefing on Hurricane Jose, a Category 4 storm that is projected to move away from the Caribbean Islands, but could still cause flooding in certain areas. Trump also commended federal agencies for 'remaining focused on Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts in Texas and Louisiana,' according to a White House readout from the summit." ...

... Katie Paris of Shareblue: "At [Saturday's] cabinet meeting, Trump made sure every cabinet member present knew that the hurricane means a 'speed up' in delivering on his 'tax reform' agenda. Despite the populist rhetoric, the reality of Trump's push for tax cuts could not be more clear: massive tax breaks for corporations and the nation's millionaires and billionaires.... 'To create prosperity at home we'll be discussing our plan for dramatic tax cuts and tax reform. And I think now with what's happened with the hurricane, I'm gonna ask for a speed up. I wanted a speed up any way, but now we need it even more so. So we need to simplify the tax code, reduce taxes very substantially on the middle class. And make our business tax more globally competitive. We're the highest anywhere in the world right now.' As PolitiFact has noted repeatedly, 'By all metrics we looked at, the United States is far from the most taxed nation overall and for businesses.'" Emphasis original. ...

... Brandon Carter of the Hill: "A Florida sheriff is warning citizens not to shoot guns at Hurricane Irma as the monster storm approaches Florida. 'To clarify, DO NOT shoot weapons @ #Irma,' the Pasco County, Fla. sheriff tweeted. 'You won't make it turn around & it will have very dangerous side effects.'" Mrs. McC: Apparently the sheriff is aware that what goes up must come down. See related story linked below. ...

... Cruel People Tricks. Merris Badcock of WPTV West Palm Beach: "As Hurricane Irma's outer bands inch closer to Palm Beach County, animal control officers say they are hustling to rescue abandoned animals. And these aren't pets who are just being left inside, Director of Animal Care Diane Suave said. 'They are left in a yard, in a pen they cannot escape from or tethered to trees or poles,' she said. Palm Beach County Animal Care reports animal control officers have rescued 49 dogs and two cats in the last 48 hours. This latest update comes just one day after local animal officials reported finding dozens of dogs chained to trees and parked cars."

Julia Manchester of the Hill: "... Hillary Clinton said in an interview broadcast Sunday that while she is 'done' being a candidate, she is not leaving politics. 'Is your political career over?' Jane Pauley asked Clinton on 'CBS Sunday Morning.' 'Yes,' Clinton responded. 'As an active politician, it's over. I am done with being a candidate,' she added. 'But I am not done with politics, because I literally believe that our country's future is at stake.'"

Say What? Ruth Eglash of the Washington Post: "Israeli leaders and political commentators reacted with anger and bewilderment Sunday after Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, posted a classic anti-Semitic meme on his Facebook page. Neo-Nazi groups in the United States and Holocaust denier David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, liked the post, however. 'Yair Netanyahu is a total bro,' wrote Andrew Anglin in the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer. 'Next he's going to call for gassings.'... The image posted over the weekend by the younger Netanyahu, who goes by the name 'Yair Hun' on Facebook, appears to be a local take on a classic anti-Semitic meme suggesting that Jews control the United States. It has appeared widely on extreme alt-right websites. In this instance, it depicts his father's perceived foes: American Jewish billionaire philanthropist and investor George Soros, outspoken former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, activist Eldad Yaniv and Meni Naftali, a former housekeeper for the Netanyahu's who successfully sued them for mistreatment. Netanyahu captioned the meme 'the food chain.'"

*****

** Ta-Nehisi Coates, of the Atlantic, in an essay adapted from his new book We Were Eight Years in Power: "It is insufficient to state the obvious of Donald Trump: that he is a white man who would not be president were it not for this fact. With one immediate exception, Trump's predecessors made their way to high office through the passive power of whiteness.... It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If you don't have time to read anything else this week, carve out 20 minutes to read Coates' essay. His takedown of white, liberal politicians & pundits is particularly effective.

David Smiley of the Miami Herald: "Miami's Republican mayor called on ... Donald Trump and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency Friday to acknowledge that climate change is playing a role in the extreme weather that has slammed his city and the continental U.S. this summer. Speaking from Miami's Emergency Operations Center in downtown, where the city's senior public safety and political authorities will ride out Category 4 Hurricane Irma this weekend, Mayor Tomás Regalado told the Miami Herald that he believes warming and rising seas are threatening South Florida's immediate and long-term future. 'This is the time to talk about climate change. This is the time that the president and the EPA and whoever makes decisions needs to talk about climate change,' said Regalado.... 'If this isn't climate change, I don't know what is. This is a truly, truly poster child for what is to come.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you read yesterday's Commentariat, then you know Scott Pruitt said just the opposite -- that it's wrong to talk about climate change when you should be out rescuing people. This is about as cogent an argument as telling the cop who stopped you for speeding that s/he should be out "catching the real criminals." ...

... Paul Krugman: "Lots of people are having fun with Rush Limbaugh's insistence that warnings about Irma were a liberal plot.... (He evacuated his Palm Beach mansion soon afterwards.)... Crazy conspiracy theorizing about climate change isn't an aberration on the right, it's the norm. Almost every senior figure in energy and environmental policy within the Trump administration is a climate change denier, with most of them having expressed the view that the science is a hoax. And in this case Trump isn't bypassing the GOP establishment: these people are the party's establishment.... The paranoid style in policy debates is pretty much universal on the modern right."

Bryan Bender of Politico: "The Trump administration is considering proposing smaller, more tactical nuclear weapons that would cause less damage than traditional thermonuclear bombs.... A high-level panel created by ... Donald Trump to evaluate the nuclear arsenal is reviewing various options for adding a more modern 'low-yield' bomb, according to sources involved in the review, to further deter Russia, North Korea or other potential nuclear adversaries. Approval of such weapons -- whether designed to be delivered by missile, aircraft or special forces -- would mark a major reversal from the Obama administration, which sought to limit reliance on nuclear arms and prohibited any new weapons or military capabilities. And critics say it would only make the actual use of atomic arms more likely."

Ashley Parker & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "In agreeing to tie Harvey aid to a three-month extension of the debt ceiling and government funding [proposed by Democratic leaders], Trump burned the people who are ostensibly his allies. The president was an unpredictable -- and, some would say, untrustworthy -- negotiating partner with not only congressional Republicans but also with his Cabinet members and top aides. Trump saw a deal that he thought was good for him -- and he seized it. The move should come as no surprise to students of Trump's long history of broken alliances and agreements. In business, his personal life, his campaign and now his presidency, Trump has sprung surprises on his allies with gusto. His dealings are frequently defined by freewheeling spontaneity, impulsive decisions and a desire to keep everyone guessing -- especially those who assume they can control him. He also repeatedly demonstrates that, while he demands absolutely loyalty from others, he is ultimately loyal to no one but himself." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You might want to read about Mnuchin's "contributions" to the meeting. Unless he was giving a lecture for Trump's benefit, his lecture was an insult to the long-serving Congressional leaders in the room. They all know a helluva a lot more about the history & effects of the debt limit than he does. Although the leaders didn't boo him the way Congressional confederates did, his approach was probably as welcome as his pitch to the confederates: "Do it for me." And it didn't work on Trump, anyway; he thought Chuck & Nancy were more fun & "energetic" than his "subdued" Cabinet members.

Mike Allen of Axios: "A Trump adviser says that after a tumultuous seven months in office, it had finally dawned on the president: 'People really f[uck]ing hate me.' For someone who has spent his life lapping up adulation, however fake, it was a harsh realization. This is a man with an especially acute need for affirmation. This week's bear hug of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer opened Trump's eyes to one solution: Stop doing things that people hate, and start striking deals. Who knows if this will stick. But there's reason to think it might, according to Trump's friends and aides."

Washington Post Editors: "Unfortunately but predictably, an effort that would have forced release of Mr. Trump's tax information was shut down last week by House Republicans. In a party-line vote Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee rejected a resolution that would have directed the Treasury Department to turn over the tax returns of Mr. Trump and his many businesses. A law enacted in 1924 after the Teapot Dome scandal allows the Way and Means Committee, along with the Senate Committee on Finance and the Joint Committee on Taxation, to request tax information for review in a closed session with possible public disclosure.... 'How can we debate tax reform proposals without seeing the president's tax returns?' asked Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.), who sponsored the resolution.... It appears Republicans ... need to be reminded that Congress's job is not to provide slavish political cover for the executive, but rather independent oversight."

AND if you think about this preacher's amazing theory -- adapted from the Bible -- you'll realize that God is a big fan of the Electoral College. On the other hand, couldn't God be punishing us for being so stupid? Medlar & I don't suppose any heavenly beings are paying attention to U.S. politics, but for believers in supernatural interference in worldly matters, Theory B sounds as likely as Theory A. -- Mrs. McCrabbie ...

... THIS TOO. Some 46,000 Floridians have found a brilliant way to confront Hurricane Irma. They plan to shoot at it. ...

... Some of The Hurricane Shootists Probably Voted for These Two Guys. Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "As Irma churned toward the Florida coast, two Republican lawmakers from the state voted against a $15 billion hurricane relief bill, saying that although they want aid to storm victims, they have concerns about other provisions of the measure.GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz and Ted Yoho ... stuck to their principles of fiscal conservatism despite calls from fellow Florida lawmakers to support the bill. The two, who are among the 90 House Republicans who voted against the bill, do not represent parts of the state that are likely to feel Irma's immediate impact as the massive storm makes landfall on mainland United States this weekend.... Both lawmakers had voted for a stand-alone bill that would provide nearly $8 billion in hurricane relief for FEMA.... 'I have a pretty strident view that I will only vote to raise the debt limit if that vote is accompanied with reductions in entitlement spending,' Gaetz said, according to the Miami Herald." Mrs. McC: And I have a pretty strident view that Gaetz doesn't have a clue what the debt limit is about. It doesn't raise spending AT ALL, nor does it in any way justify "entitlement" cuts. Yahoo Yoho says he still expects FEMA to be there for residents of his district.

Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times on the Equifax breach: "We really have no good way, in public policy, to exact some existential punishment on companies that fail to safeguard our data.... Experts said it was highly unlikely that any regulatory body would shut Equifax down over this breach.... Consumers also have piddling rights over how Equifax may continue to use their credit data. 'There's nothing in any statute or anything else that allows you to ask Equifax to remove your data or have all your data disappear if you say you no longer trust it,' said John Ulzheimer, a consumer credit expert who worked at Equifax in the 1990s. But wait, it gets worse. You also can't prevent Equifax from getting any more of your data."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The extremely dangerous Category 4 Irma crashed into the Florida Keys on Sunday morning, unleashing violent wind gusts and storm-surge flooding. Florida's western coast next faces Irma's wrath, and forecasters fear this storm will go down as one of the worst in the state's history.... Coastal waters could rise 10 to 15 feet above normally dry land, inundating homes, businesses and roads, an 'imminent danger,' according to the National Hurricane Center. 'The Keys through Tampa will likely experience the worst storm surge event that area has seen in generations,' said Bill Read, a former Hurricane Center director." ...

... Here are the WashPo's live updates. ...

... Washington Post: "... Hurricane Irma is so strong and its pressure is so low, it's sucking water from its surroundings into the core of the storm." ...

     ... Marie: My neighbor just sent a photo of his riverside yard & wrote that I have 100 feet of beach beyond my seawall right now where there is normally river. Our houses are several miles in from the coast, but the temporary "beach" will send all that water back to haunt us in the surge. ...

... Miami Herald: "Irma's fierce eyewall battered the Lower Keys early Sunday as the record-breaking hurricane descended on the low-lying chain of islands curling off South Florida. The north side of Irma's eye, about 23 miles wide, began brushing Key West at daybreak, hammering the islands with waves and gusty winds. Landfall, which is not officially declared until half the eye comes ashore, is expected any time. Social media posts showed white-topped waves rushing across streets and trees whipping in the wind. At 8 a.m., Irma was located 20 miles southeast of Key West, with sustained winds still reaching 130 mph, National Hurricane Center forecasters said. Irma's eye should move over the Lower Keys shortly, forecasters said, before the storm rolls up Florida's Gulf Coast. Hurricane-force winds extend 80 miles, likely guaranteeing widespread damage. Tropical storm force winds reach another 220 miles from Irma's center." ...

... CNN: "Hurricane Jose is moving away from a string of Caribbean islands -- a welcome reprieve to the area, which was already pummeled earlier this week by Hurricane Irma."