The Commentariat -- August 31, 2017

For the record, here is mike pence hugging a victim of Hurricane Harvey. Mission Clean-up-apres-Trump accomplished:

*****

Rex Is Off the Reservation Now. Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "The Trump administration is ordering Russia to shutter a consulate in San Francisco as well as annexes in Washington and New York, the State Department announced Thursday. The move was positioned as a response 'in the spirit of parity' to the Russian government's order that the United States cut down the number of diplomatic personnel in Russia, which a State spokesman described as 'unwarranted and detrimental.' Moscow is ordered to close the facilities by Saturday."

AP: "The United States flew some of its most advanced warplanes -- including two nuclear-capable bombers -- to South Korea on Thursday for bombing drills intended as a show of force against North Korea. A South Korean military official confirmed the joint operation to NBC News, adding that the aircraft later returned safely to their home bases."

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: You may want to look at the photographic "evidence" Trump provided to "prove" he "witness[ed] first hand the horror & devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey." ...

... MEANWHILE, meany-nitpicker Aaron Blake of the fake-news Amazon Washington Post begs to differ: "A reporter asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about this ["first-hand" claim] later Wednesday, and her answer was ... something: 'He met with a number of state and local officials who are eating, sleeping, breathing the Harvey disaster. He talked extensively with the governor, who certainly is right in the midst of every bit of this, as well as the mayors from several of the local towns that were hit hardest. And detailed briefing information throughout the day yesterday talking to a lot of the people on the ground. That certainly is a firsthand account.' No, it's not. That's a *second*hand account -- the very definition of one, in fact." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Besides, Aaron, a guy who gets all his briefings from Fox "News" instead of from the living, breathing briefers who come sit with him in the Oval every day (or every day he lets them in) is bound to think that looking at a real, big ole radar screen instead of the picture of one he sees on the teevee is "first hand."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump's public electoral threat Wednesday against Sen. Claire McCaskill during a speech in Missouri on tax reform triggered another round of questions about the administration's blurring the line between partisan politics and official business. Speaking at an industrial-fan factory in Springfield, Trump singled out McCaskill, a Democrat who is up for reelection next year in a state the president won decisively in 2016. 'We must -- we have no choice -- we must lower our taxes. And your senator, Claire McCaskill, she must do this for you, and if she doesn't do it for you, you have to vote her out of office,' Trump said to loud applause and whistling from the audience.... Trump is not covered by the Hatch Act, the federal law prohibiting politicking while on official duty, but White House officials are subject to the measure. 'The Office of Special Counsel should examine very closely if staffers were involved in the preparation of these remarks,' said Nick Schwellenbach, a former OSC official...."

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Eric Trump ripped negative media coverage of his father during a radio interview Wednesday, saying that a person 'would end up killing yourself out of depression' if they got as much negative coverage as the president.... 'It's the media, the mainstream media, who does not want [President Trump] to succeed. It's government who does not want him to succeed.... No matter what he does, he's going to get hit, and listen, I think you have to tune it out.' He added that his father wasn't being attacked by just the media, but by everyone in politics in general, including people 'in their marble offices.'" Mrs. McC: If I'm not mistaken, Trump Tower, where Eric helps run pop's vast empire, has pink marble glued to nearly every standing surface. Eric's efforts to sound like a populist ring a tad hollow, like the sound of cleats on pink marble floors.

Rebecca McCray of Slate: Joe "Arpaio’s tactics, while outrageous, aren't as anomalous as we'd like to think they are. In counties across the United States, elected sheriffs oversee their communities and jails using variations on the same methods. The difference is that they typically get less press coverage and that the courts rarely hold them accountable for their actions. The foremost example of an Arpaio-like figure is David Clarke. The Trump-endorsed author and sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, runs a jail system rife with abuse and fatalities...." McCray cites several other sheriffs. "This handful of examples includes a number of instances in which a sheriff was investigated. But investigations like these, much less guilty verdicts like Arpaio's, are atypical."

*****

AP, via digby: "... Donald Trump is promising billions to help Texas rebuild from Hurricane Harvey, but his Republican allies in the House are looking at cutting almost $1 billion from disaster accounts to help finance the president's border wall. The pending reduction to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief account is part of a spending bill that the House is scheduled to consider next week when Congress returns from its August recess. The $876 million cut, part of the 1,305-page measure's homeland security section, pays for roughly half the cost of Trump's down payment on a U.S.-Mexico border wall." (The AP story was a brief, & it's moved since Wednesday morning.) ...

... digby: "There's only 2.3 billion left in the disaster fund anyway, so they'll probably leave it alone. But Trump is going out on the stump to hold a rally for tax cuts as we speak. Today. While southeastern Texas is still drowning. He's running the country like one of his failed casinos." (Linked above.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Hey, digby, Trump went to Texas way back on Tuesday, remarked on how yuge the storm was, bragged about the great job his people were doing, cheered on a small crowd of supporters, & left. He's doesn't have time for drowning people. Tax cuts for Donald Trump -- now that's worth some effort. ...

After witnessing first hand the horror & devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey,my heart goes out even more so to the great people of Texas! -- Donald J. Trump August 30, 2017

Our reporting does not match claim that @POTUS witnessed any horror or devastation first hand. -- Todd Gillman of the Dallas Morning News, in a tweet

In the past, Trump has viciously attacked others for making similarly misleading claims. Most memorably, Trump and his supporters mercilessly went after former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams after a 2015 segment in which the reporter misrepresented events that happened during his 2003 Iraq War coverage. -- Caroline Orr of Shareblue ...

... Katie Leslie of the Dallas Morning News: "Vice President Mike Pence is heading for Texas on Thursday to survey Hurricane Harvey's destruction and meet with storm survivors.... Pence, notably, is expected to meet with people affected by the storm. According to the White House, he will travel with second lady Karen Pence and several Cabinet members, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the former Texas governor. Also traveling with Pence: Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke. In Corpus Christi they'll meet with Gov. Greg Abbott and Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi." Mrs. McC: All, except Pajama Boy Fahrenthold, have explicit instructions to hug & commiserate with flood victims & say they're hugging & commiserating for the President*. ...

... Anthea Butler, in a New York Times op-ed: "Before it began to rain in Houston last week, the spectacularly wealthy pastor Joel Osteen could have opened up his megachurch to ... evacuees.... Instead he wrote tweets like 'God's got this' and 'don't drift into doubt and fear ... stay anchored to hope.'... On Sunday, Mr. Osteen's church announced that it was inaccessible because of 'flooding.' But intrepid journalists proved otherwise. After Mr. Osteen was humiliated on social media, he finally opened the 16,800-seat church to the public on Tuesday. When asked about the delay, Mr. Osteen said that 'the city didn't ask us to become a shelter.' President Trump, too, revealed his morally bankrupt soul during the storm when he said that he timed his pardon of the racist former sheriff Joe Arpaio to coincide with the hurricane's landfall because he assumed that it would garner 'far higher' TV ratings than usual. Mr. Trump did visit Texas, but there was apparently no mention of dead or displaced Texans, and no expressions of sympathy. Mr. Trump and Mr. Osteen ... both enjoy enormous support among evangelicals, yet they lack a command of biblical scripture. Both are among the 1 percent.... Mr. Trump's and Mr. Osteen's brands are rooted in success, not Scripture. Believers in prosperity like winners.... Mr. Trump and Mr. Osteen unwittingly revealed its ugly underbelly: the smugness, the self-aggrandizing posturing. It has co-opted many in the Republican Party, readily visible in their relentless desire to strip Americans of health care, disaster relief and infrastructure funding." ...

... AND Then There's Mattress Mack. The Week: "On Sunday, Jim 'Mattress Mack' McIngvale, the owner of Gallery Furniture, opened the doors of his Houston-area furniture emporia to people flooded out of their homes by Tropical Storm Harvey. Since then, he and his employees, plus volunteers, have rescued, housed, and fed about 400 people, and also provided a place to unwind for a National Guard unit. His 24-foot furniture trucks 'picked up about 200 people,' McIngvale told ABC News on Wednesday. 'They were stranded on bridges, they were stranded in convenience stores, they were walking through the water with snakes and alligators, and we brought 'em out here.' When the flood evacuees arrived, McIngvale said, he told them to make themselves at home, on the twin theories that 'furniture's made to be sat on, slept on, laid on, whatever,' and 'to hell with profits, let's take care of people.' He still plans to sell the furniture when his store is just a store again. 'We'll have a Harvey floor model sale, or something -- I'll come up with some shtick,' he told ABC News. 'This is the right thing to do. That's the way I was brought up.'" ...

Our GF N FWRY & GF Grand PKWY stores are open for those in need. If you can safely join us, we invite you for shelter and food. God Bless. pic.twitter.com/IHHgjKmjMY

— MattressMack (@MattressMack) August 28, 2017

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm happy to say Melbar & I purchased a knock-off Lutyens bench from Mattress Mack when last we were in Houston.

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday pitched a sweeping tax overhaul that he said would unleash the American economy and growth to help ordinary people, promising that a vague recipe of large corporate tax cuts and individual tax reductions would boost the middle class. Wrapping his message in the populist rhetoric that powered his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump ... offered few specifics beyond a goal of a 15 percent corporate tax rate, down from 35 percent. The politically difficult legislation has yet to be drafted despite months of private negotiations between members of his administration and Republicans on Capitol Hill.... Democrats seized on the disconnect between Mr. Trump's tax-cutting message and the large reductions for businesses and high earners that he has championed, vowing to fight what they called a gift to the rich cloaked in populist language.... Many economists, too, rejected the premise underlying Mr. Trump's stated priorities, arguing that large corporate tax cuts would do relatively little -- particularly in the near term -- to boost wages or create jobs, instead helping the wealthiest Americans who can afford to invest.... The already long odds of completing a plan and signing it into law before year's end appear to be dwindling." ...

     ... Ms. McCrabbie: Donald Trump even outdoes the U.S.'s heretofore favorite flim-flam man Paul Ryan. Most of the time Trump doesn't know what he's talking about, but on taxes, he knows. Ergo, he's straight-out lying, not just making up phony stuff. ...

... Damian Paletta & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Unlike his boisterous rallies, Trump rarely strayed from carefully worded remarks.... Trump closely followed the economic vision many Republicans have tried to advance for years -- namely that cutting corporate taxes will grow the economy, lead companies to pay workers higher wages, spur those workers to spend more money and help grow the economy.... The speech had Trump's trademark lofty promises -- he said numerous times the tax cut plan he envisioned would reshape the U.S. economy and the morale of workers who 'will love getting up in the morning. They will love going to work.'... On tax reform [unlike on repeal & replace], the White House is planning a series of pitches by Trump himself, building on his remarks Wednesday.... [Speaking in Missouri,] Trump ... [said] there could be political consequences for Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, who is up for reelection next November, if she doesn't support the bill.... Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that Democrats were open to discussing changes to the tax code but they would oppose any plan that is not squarely focused on the middle class and that would add to government debt, saying it would lead to Republicans later targeting programs such as Social Security or Medicare for savings." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Obviously, Trump is working on tax "reform" where he did nothing but whine about repeal & replace & never knew what was in the various abominable GOP proposals; he really, really wants that huge tax cut for himself & his family. Of course in both cases, let the public be damned. ...

... Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics. Glenn Kessler & Michelle Lee of the Washington Post lie-check Trump's speech. Mrs. McC: Evidently Trump's speechwriters & talking-points preparers are big fat liars, too. ...

... David Dayen in the Nation: "A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies shows [that] ... US companies are already paying minimal amounts in corporate taxes, and the ones most likely under Republican theory to pour tax savings into job creation have instead been more likely to cut their workforce over the past nine years. The data shows [sic.!] that low corporate tax rates more often lead to increases in CEO pay and boosts for shareholders.... 'If claims about the job creation benefits of lower tax rates had any validity,' report author Sarah Anderson writes, 'the 92 consistently profitable tax-dodging firms we identified would be among the nation's strongest job creators.' But the lower rates didn't correspond to job creation. Collectively, the 92 profitable corporations cut jobs by 0.74 percent over the period studied, from 2008-16. During that same time, the private sector added jobs at a 6 percent clip. So low-tax corporations did far worse on hiring than their counterparts." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: Yeah but those are factual statistics, & they have no place in any Republican brain, much less in any policy considerations.

This Is What Corruption Looks Like. Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "Donald Trump called a senior Republican senator from Iowa [Chuck Grassley] on Wednesday whose congressional committee is investigating his son, Donald Trump Jr, and promised him critical federal support for the biofuel ethanol, a key issue for the lawmaker. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee and a major advocate of the ethanol industry, announced on Twitter that he had received a phone call from Trump and had been assured by the US president that Trump was 'pro ethanol' and was 'standing by his campaign promise' to support the biofuel. The phone call came less than a day after CNN reported that Trump's eldest son had reached an agreement with the committee to appear in a private session and answer investigators' questions.... It is not clear, however, how Trump will make good on his promise to Grassley. Bloomberg reported in June that US ethanol producers were concerned that oil industry lobbyists who oppose important biofuel mandates could hold sway over Trump's Environmental Protection Agency...." ...

     ... Mrs McCrabbie: Yo, Chuck. You might want to take a look at Trump's spectacular record of breaking promises before you decide to jolly go lightly on Junior. ...

... Noor Al-Sibai of the Raw Story: "According to the Financial Times, Rinat Akhmetshin, the Russian lobbyist and former Soviet army official who attended the meeting in Trump Tower [with Donald Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner & other Russian operatives] last summer, has testified before [Robert] Mueller's grand jury. According to two sources close to the testimony, Akhmetshin testified for 'several hours' on August 11. Though Akhmetshin declined FT's requests for comment, the report claims his testimony centered around a 'dossier' provided by Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. The dossier reportedly contained information about 'how bad money ended up in Manhattan and that money was put into supporting political campaigns.' The report also noted that Akhmetshin is currently under investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee, who are looking into the circumstances surrounding his American citizenship, his role in the Soviet military and 'whether he improperly lobbied for Russian interests.'" ...

... Josh Dawsey of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is working with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on its investigation into Paul Manafort and his financial transactions, according to several people familiar with the matter. The cooperation is the latest indication that the federal probe into ... Donald Trump's former campaign chairman is intensifying. It also could potentially provide Mueller with additional leverage to get Manafort to cooperate in the larger investigation into Trump's campaign, as Trump does not have pardon power over state crimes. The two teams have shared evidence and talked frequently in recent weeks about a potential case, these people said. One of the people familiar with progress on the case said both Mueller's and Schneiderman's teams have collected evidence on financial crimes, including potential money laundering. No decision has been made on where or whether to file charges." ...

... Maggie Haberman & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "President Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, has given Congress a point-by-point rebuttal of a dossier alleging that he [Cohen] has deep ties to Russian officials -- an effort to clear his name as the Justice Department and congressional committees investigate Russia's attempts to disrupt last year's election.... Mr. Cohen's name appears throughout the dossier compiled by the retired British spy, Christopher Steele, who has deep expertise in Russia.... The dossier ... portrays Mr. Cohen as a central figure in the conspiracy. In an eight-page letter to the House Intelligence Committee, a lawyer for Mr. Cohen offered a full-throated rejection of any suggestion that Mr. Cohen was involved in an effort to work with Russia to disrupt the election." ...

... Andrew Roth of the Washington Post: Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin 's personal spokesman, "confirmed on Wednesday that he had received a request for assistance on a stalled Trump Tower real estate project in Moscow from a close aide [Michael Cohen] to President Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, but added that the Kremlin did not respond to the letter.... Peskov said that the email described a 'Russian company together with certain people [who] had the goal of creating a new skyscraper in Moscow city, but the deal is not moving forward, and they were asking for some recommendations and help advancing this deal.' Peskov said that he had seen the email but that it was not given to Putin." ...

... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "The Trump Organization's efforts to build in Moscow finally fell apart, in late January, 2016, because, according to the Post, 'they lacked the land and permits to proceed.' But, despite this failure, Trump's pursuit of the deal while he was campaigning on a platform of friendlier relations with the Russian President -- a foreign adversary who controlled the deal's fate -- is scandalous, even without any other context. And additional details, unearthed this week by the Times and the Post, about the Trump Organization's attempts to secure the deal make the scandal far worse.... First, Trump was taking a policy position -- one deeply at odds with his own party -- that would benefit him personally. It's a startling conflict of interest. Second, his statements and actions, and those of his subordinates and their associates pursuing the deal, may fuel the obstruction-of-justice inquiry against Trump that the special counsel, Robert Mueller.... The more it looks like Trump had something to cover up, the stronger an obstruction charge would be."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The United States has about 11,000 troops in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, acknowledging for the first time publicly that the total forces there are higher than formally disclosed in recent years. Previously, Defense Department officials had said 8,400 troops were in Afghanistan as part of NATO's Resolute Support mission. An additional 2,000 American troops, which military officials have not publicly acknowledged, are in Afghanistan to help local forces conduct counterterrorism missions. The new count includes covert as well as temporary units, defense officials said."

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Donald Trump appeared to rule out contacts with the North Korean regime in the wake of its missile test over Japan on Wednesday, declaring: 'Talking is not the answer.' Minutes later, however, the defense secretary, James Mattis, flatly contradicted the president's blanket statement, telling reporters: 'We[re never out of diplomatic solutions.' Such sharply conflicting statements have become a norm for the Trump administration, but it is unclear how they are being read by the regime in Pyongyang and US allies in the region."

EPA to Scientists (Again): "STFU." Valerie Volcovici of Reuters: "The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday rejected a contention by scientists that the historic rainfall from Tropical Storm Harvey was linked to climate change, calling it 'an attempt to politicize an ongoing tragedy.' Several scientists have said that factors related to global warming have contributed to increased rainfall from storms like Harvey, which struck the Texas coast as a major hurricane on Friday and has since triggered catastrophic flooding in Houston, killing at least 12 people and forcing tens of thousands from their homes."

Secrets & Lies. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "A Trump administration official said Wednesday that the administration wanted to stabilize health insurance markets, but refused to say if the government would promote enrollment this fall under the Affordable Care Act or pay for the activities of counselors who help people sign up for coverage. The official also declined to say whether the administration would continue paying subsidies to insurance companies to compensate them for reducing deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for low-income people. Without the subsidies, insurers say, they would sharply increase premiums. The administration, the official suggested, will do the minimum necessary to comply with the law, which Mr. Trump has called 'an absolute disaster' and threatened to let collapse.... Asked if the Trump administration wanted the public marketplaces to succeed, the official did not answer directly.... The Trump administration official spoke to about 20 journalists on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity, evidently because major decisions had not been made." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: How is the administration supposed to meet this claimed desire to "stabilize health insurance markets" when it won't say what its plans are, suggests there are no plans, & the spokesperson is so secretive she won't even allow publication of her name?

David Kocieniewski & Caleb Melby of Bloomberg look down the huge financial hole Jared Kushner dug for Kushner Companies. It isn't entirely clear how much Kushner Companies actually owns of some "Kushner" properties. "Even after selling big sections of 666 Fifth [-- the biggest albatross in the Kushner zoo --] in 2011, they have increased their own vulnerability by borrowing more money for other deals, people close to the company say. After a refinancing, the deed to 666 Fifth sits in an escrow account, ready to be seized by lenders in a default, an action indicating their trust has grown thin.... Under some dire circumstances, guarantees in the refinancing agreement could even give lenders the ability to go after the family's other assets -- many of which are also underpinned by debt."

This Also Is What Corruption Looks Like. John Bresnahan of Politico: "Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez allegedly starting taking bribes from a wealthy donor shortly after he entered the Senate in 2006, federal prosecutors assert in a new document. Menendez's bribery and corruption trial is set to begin next week. In preparation for that, Justice Department prosecutors filed a new document Wednesday laying out their case against the New Jersey senator, as well as Dr. Salomon Melgen, his alleged co-conspirator. Melgen has already been convicted in a separate case of bilking Medicare but has not been sentenced yet. Menendez's fate -- and the what happens to his Senate seat if convicted -- is part of the drama surrounding the high-profile case. Menendez has denied all allegation of wrongdoing, and he has denied any talk of a plea deal with the Justice Department." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: If Menendez is convicted, there's a good chance he would resign or the Senate would kick him out. (It takes a 2/3rds vote.) If a conviction occurs in the next five months, Chris Christie would replace him with a Republican. Christie has denied he would appoint himself.

** Jason Sattler, in a CNN opinion piece, explains the rules of etiquette Republican apply to their support for white supremacists & how Trump exposed the plot by breaking those rules: "Perhaps Republicans know they get away with policies that enforce white supremacy through voting restrictions and mass incarceration, but to do this, they must reject public displays of bigotry. This unstated compromise is the heart of a strategy that has helped the party accumulate more political power than at any time since the Great Depression.... The Republican approach to white identity politics that has been reinforced in the last decade by adding new voting restrictions and more effective racial gerrymandering on top of felon disenfranchisement that combine to diminish the power of non-white voters. But it has been stoked for generations by an assault on public services that has fed by the dog whistle that 'government' equaled 'coddling of nonwhites.'"

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Wednesday tore into President Trump's voter commission for reneging on a promise to fully disclose public documents before a July 19 meeting, ordering the government to meet new transparency requirements and eliciting an apology from administration lawyers. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of Washington said the Election Integrity Commission released only an agenda and proposed bylaws before its first meeting at the White House complex last month. But once gathered, commissioners sat with thick binders that included documents the public had not seen, including a specially prepared report and a 381-page 'database' purporting to show 1,100 cases of voter fraud, both from the Heritage Foundation, and also received a typed list of possible topics to address from the panel vice chairman, Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach. Kollar-Kotelly said the panel's after-the-fact argument was 'incredible' when it said it did not believe documents prepared by individual commissioners for the July meeting had to have been posted in advance."

Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "A federal judge in San Antonio on Wednesday blocked Texas from enforcing its ban on so-called sanctuary cities, questioning the constitutionality of a law that has pitted Republican state leaders against several Democratic-leaning cities. The judge's ruling was only temporary, and prevents the law from taking effect on Friday while a suit against it goes forward. But the decision, which Texas said it would appeal, served as a legal blow to one of the toughest state-issued immigration laws in the country and puts the brakes on a measure backed by the Trump administration that critics had called anti-Latino.... A number of the state's biggest cities, including Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Dallas, all of which are run by Democrats, joined a lawsuit against Texas seeking to strike down the law, which was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by the Republican governor, strong>Greg Abbott, in May."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd.

Reuters: "Arkema SA expects chemicals to catch fire or explode at its heavily flooded plant in Crosby, Texas in the coming days, and has no way to prevent that from happening, the chief executive officer of the company's North America unit said on Wednesday. The company evacuated remaining workers on Tuesday and Harris County ordered the evacuation of residents in a 1.5-mile radius of the plant that makes organic chemicals.... The Federal Aviation Administration has temporarily barred flights over the area near the plant because of the risk of fire or explosion.... Richard Rowe, CEO of the North America unit, told reporters that chemicals on the site will catch fire and explode if they are not properly cooled, and that Arkema expects that to happen within the next six days as temperatures rise. He said the company has no way to prevent that because the plant is swamped by about six feet of water.... The plant is near a section of Interstate 90 that has been underwater and closed. The plant has been without electric service since Sunday. Back-up generators have largely been inundated with water, the company said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Medlar can't understand why Arkema didn't have a hurricane/flood plan to prevent such an outcome, which the CEO now says is certain to happen. Seems to me government regulations, by the state and/or feds, could have prevented this impending disaster. Here's an idea: maybe don't put the generators on the first floor. But then, what's to worry? -- the exploding chemicals are organic. ...

... Adam Raymond of New York: "The plant, one of five operated by Arkema in Texas, produces peroxides that are used to make plastics and rubbers. Those volatile peroxides, along with the number of homes near the plant, resulted in it landing on a list of Houston-area industrial sites with the highest potential for catastrophe in the event of a natural disaster. Still, [CEO Richard] Rowe sought to reassure reporters that after the plant blows, worries about any long-term environmental impact should be 'minimal.'" Mrs. McC: Okay then. Could be safe-ish to live in & around Crosby in 25 years or so. ...

... UPDATE. Pam Wright of the Weather Channel: "Multiple explosions were reported at the flooded Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, early Thursday morning just a day after the company's CEO warned of an unpreventable, imminent explosion. One deputy was rushed to the hospital after inhaling fumes and nine others hospitalized themselves after the explosion, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said. There are no more details on their condition at this time.... KHOU reported that two explosions happened at roughly 2 am local time. "

Matt Egan of CNN: "Wells Fargo has uncovered up to 1.4 million more fake accounts after digging deeper into the bank's broken sales culture. The findings show that Wells Fargo's problems are worse than the bank previously admitted to when the scandal began almost a year ago. Wells Fargo ... now says it has found a total of up to 3.5 million potentially fake bank and credit card accounts, up from its earlier tally of approximately 2.1 million."

Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "Open Markets, a division at the public policy think tank the New America Foundation, had been an intellectual force in progressive circles in recent years, leading to a heightened awareness of the damaging effects that monopolization is having on both consumers and businesses.... Where it really stirred things up was by targeting America's giant tech companies, particularly Amazon, Facebook, and Alphabet (the umbrella company for Google). Now, Google has apparently struck back, revealing a growing divide between progressives and an industry that has long claimed a home in the Democratic Party. On Wednesday, The New York Times's Ken Vogel reported that New America had parted ways with Open Markets following complaints from Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Alphabet, a major New America donor. (Schmidt has also made personal donations to New America, and was its chairman until 2016.)... It appears the nail in the coffin was when Open Markets praised the $2.7 billion antitrust fine the European Union levied against Alphabet in June.... The scandal is also an indictment of the relationship between public policy think tanks and corporations. Think tanks have downplayed the role that large corporate donors play in their research, but the situation at New America suggests that donors like Schmidt expect something in return for their money. On the right, this has been obvious for years...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The only "scandal" I see is that well-intentioned liberals are so foolish they think people who fund them will keep sending money when the well-intentioned point out the existential flaws of their benefactors. When you heard your ne'er-do-well nephew was bad-mouthing you, did you keep sending him rent money? I didn't think so.

Alison Flood of the Guardian: "The cartoonist who created Pepe the Frog has taken legal action to force the author of a self-published children's book that uses the character to espouse 'racist, Islamophobic and hate-filled themes' to give all of his profits to a Muslim advocacy organisation. Pepe, created by Matt Furie in the early 2000s as a 'peaceful frog-dude' with the catchphrase 'feels good man', was adopted as a symbol by supporters of the US 'alt-right' last year. He has since been designated by the Anti-Defamation League as a hate symbol, but Furie has been attempting to end the association, even killing off the character in one comic strip and subsequently launching a Kickstarter to raise money to 'save Pepe'.... Furie's lawyers have also successfully stopped the distribution of Eric Hauser's children's book The Adventures of Pepe and Pede. According to the Washington Post, the book sees Pepe and 'his best friend Centipede' -- centipede is a term for Trump supporters -- as they attempt to 'bring freedom back to Wishington Farm', battling an alligator named 'Alkah' with buds from 'the honesty tree'. Hauser was an assistant principal at a Texas middle school until details of the book became public." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Who knew frog legs were just desserts? BTW, I think we know now why Trump made Mitt Romney eat frogs legs.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Sarah Jones of the New Republic Wants to Know: "Why is The New York Times op-ed page publishing Erik Prince's sales pitch for more mercenaries? Prince, whose notorious company Blackwater was responsible for the deaths of Iraqi and Afghan civilians and epitomized the folly of the Bush administration's attempts to outsource U.S. military operations to the private sector, has a brilliant plan for Afghanistan, which you can read about it in the op-ed section of the Times.... It is a sales pitch, written by a very well-connected operator (his sister is Betsy DeVos) who has privately tried to convince the Trump administration to send contractors to Afghanistan — a story that was broken by the Times's reporting desk. He has written a version of this op-ed before, for The Wall Street Journal, arguing that corporations can operate 'cheaper and better than the military.' The conflicts of interest are glaring, and yet this advertisement was given pride of place in the opinion section. What's worse, however, is the product the Times has allowed Prince to shill: mercenaries that, under Prince, committed war crimes in Iraq."

Contributor MAG points to this video of a CNN "reporter" doing standard if-it-bleeds-it-leads "reporting" -- i.e., asking disaster victims, "How do you feel now that you've lost everything?" -- & accidentally hitting on a media critic. The hapless interviewee, who probably knew she was supposed to give a canned response like, "I thank God for saving my children & me. I know he has a higher purpose for us," goes another way:

Medlar's Sports Report

John Branch of the New York Times: Ed Cunningham, a color analyst for ABC Sports & ESPN college football games, "resigned from one of the top jobs in sports broadcasting because of his growing discomfort with the damage being inflicted on the players he was watching each week. The hits kept coming, right in front of him, until Cunningham said he could not, in good conscience, continue his supporting role in football's multibillion-dollar apparatus.... 'In its current state, there are some real dangers: broken limbs, wear and tear,' Cunningham said. 'But the real crux of this is that I just don't think the game is safe for the brain. To me, it's unacceptable.' Football has dominated Cunningham's life, he said, since he began playing as a freshman in high school. He was captain of the University of Washington's 1991 national championship team and a third-round draft choice in the N.F.L., where he was an offensive lineman for five seasons. He has been a broadcaster since.... He was in the prime of his career as a broadcaster, and most likely could have continued to make a comfortable living doing it for decades.... A football broadcaster leaving a job because of concerns over the game's safety appears to have no precedent." Mr. McC: No, Bea, color analysts are not personal style consultants. But yes, Cunningham did something gutsy & principled here.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The rain from Harvey is in a class of its own. The storm has unloaded over 50 inches of rain east of Houston, the greatest amount ever recorded in the Lower 48 states from a single storm. And it’s still raining." ...

... Washington Post: "ExxonMobil acknowledged Tuesday that Hurricane Harvey damaged two of its refineries, causing the release of hazardous pollutants. The acknowledgment, in a regulatory filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, follows repeated complaints on Twitter of an 'unbearable' chemical smell over parts of Houston. However, it was not immediately clear what caused the smell.... A variety of ... chemicals was emitted during the shutdown of the plants.... Most of the other facilities belonging to major companies also filed notices with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality." ...

... New York Times: "As one of the most destructive storms in the nation's history pummeled southeast Texas for a fourth day, forecasts on Monday called for still more rain, making clear that catastrophic flooding that had turned neighborhoods into lakes was just the start of a disaster that would take years to overcome. Local, state and federal officials conceded that the scale of the crisis was so vast that they were nowhere near being able to measure it, much less fully address it. Across a region that is home to millions of people and includes Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city, no one has a clear idea how many people are missing, how many evacuated, how many hunkered down or were trapped in their waterlogged homes, or how many inundated houses and vehicles are beyond saving.... Local officials reported 10 deaths possibly related to the storm, six of them in Harris County, which includes Houston. But the painstaking and heartbreaking work of clearing streets, going door to door, assessing damage — and finding victims -- has not yet begun."

The Commentariat -- August 30, 2017

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "President Trump landed in storm-brushed Corpus Christi on Tuesday morning to see for himself some of the damage caused by Tropical Storm Harvey and demonstrate his personal commitment to a region still in the grips of a historic natural disaster. Mr. Trump ... pushed aides to schedule a visit to Texas as early as possible after Harvey made landfall near Rockport, Texas, on Friday night as a Category 4 hurricane.... 'It's a real team, and we want to do it better than ever before,' Mr. Trump said of the response effort during a meeting with officials from local, state and federal agencies in a Corpus Christi firehouse." ...

... But, Really, It's All about Trump. Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "As rescuers continued their exhausting and heartbreaking work in southeastern Texas on Tuesday afternoon, as the rain continued to fall and a reservoir near Houston spilled over, President Trump grabbed a microphone to address hundreds of supporters who had gathered outside a firehouse near Corpus Christi and were chanting: 'USA! USA! USA!' 'Thank you, everybody,' the president said, sporting one of the white 'USA' caps that are being sold on his campaign website for $40. 'I just want to say: We love you. You are special.... What a crowd. What a turnout.' Yet again, Trump managed to turn attention on himself. His responses to the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey have been more focused on the power of the storm and his administration's response than on the millions of Texans whose lives have been dramatically altered by the floodwaters. He has talked favorably about the higher television ratings that come with hurricane coverage, predicted that he will soon be congratulating himself and used 16 exclamation points in 22 often breathless tweets about the storm. But as of late Tuesday afternoon, the president had yet to mention those killed, call on other Americans to help or directly encourage donations to relief organizations.... At a news conference Monday, Trump continued to gush over the storm. 'I've heard the words, "epic." I've heard "historic." That's what it is,' he said, adding that the hurricane will make Texas stronger and the rebuilding effort 'will be something very special.' By focusing on the historic epicness of the hurricane, Trump has repeatedly turned attention to his role in confronting the disaster -- a message reinforced by comments and tweets praising members of his administration.... The president's comments, which lasted mere minutes, angered many of those who served in President Barack Obama's administration and could not imagine their former boss ever acting like this. 'It's not a time for crowing about crowds,' said Alyssa Mastromonaco, a former deputy chief of staff of operations for Obama." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Diane & MAG both make excellent comments on Trump's response to the storm crisis in Texas at the top of today's Comments. (Although, in fairness, Medlar said you all should have given John Kelly some credit for talking Trump out of his original plan, which was to go down there & sell #MAGA inflatable boats, #MAGA waders & #MAGA ponchos, $10 discounts for anyone wearing other #MAGA gear.) ...

... David Axelrod, in a CNN opinion piece: "Hurricane Harvey was Donald Trump's first major test in [the] role [of consoler-in-chief]. Trump flew to Texas on Tuesday to meet with state officials and disaster response coordinators.... [for] another dispiriting display of obtuse self-puffery. Seated at a table between Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and first lady Melania Trump, the President launched into a monologue about the epic nature of Harvey ... with hosannas to his team -- and by extension, himself -- for the job they're doing in meeting it.Turning to FEMA Director Brock Long, Trump gushed, 'a man who's really become very famous on television over the last couple of days.' And in wrapping up his remarks, he started to congratulate the group for their proficient handling of the storm, even as Houston and the surrounding region continued to be pounded by rain and floods. Glimpsing the awkward reaction on the faces around him, the President quickly caught himself, adding, 'We'll congratulate each other when it's all finished,' but leaving little doubt that mutual congratulations eventually would be due.The President then got a short, pro forma briefing for the benefit of the cameras and the group adjourned.... Startlingly, he did not utter one syllable about those who have lost their lives, their homes or businesses in the floods that are still swelling over southeast Texas, overwhelming the heroic first responders and volunteers who are straining to meet its demands. He had no solace for the tens of thousands of evacuees, some of whom were separated from their families in the storm and are now warehoused in arenas...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie cautionary note to Brock Long: That "become very famous on television" is a kiss-off. You could ask Jim Comey. ...

... Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "... not too long ago, the president proposed a budget calling for cuts to some of the federal government's most consequential efforts to prepare states and local communities and help them recover from catastrophic events such as Harvey. Congress is likely to approve a Harvey recovery bill, as it has after past disasters, to cover the huge cost of storm damages. The cuts proposed by the Trump administration would slice away funding for long-term preparedness efforts, many of them put in place to address the sluggish federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The proposed cuts would include programs run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose new administrator was praised by Trump in a tweet last weekend for 'doing a great job'; the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which helps rebuild homes, parks, hospitals and community centers; the National Weather Service, which forecasts extreme storms; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose research and community engagement help coastal residents prepare for disaster. 'The president has definitely sent a signal with his budget that emergency management is not of interest,' said Scott Knowles, a historian at Drexel University...." ...

... Washington Post Editors: "PRESIDENT TRUMP assured the nation over the weekend that he is 'closely monitoring' the disaster in Texas. 'We have an all out effort going, and going well!' he tweeted. No, the president and his administration do not. Since they entered office, they have tried to enhance the risk of the sort of devastation on display in Texas.... Houston is an example of what happens when public officials ignore experts and refuse to take natural risks seriously. As the country's fourth-largest city expanded, replacing prairie with impermeable surfaces such as pavement and concrete, the land was rendered less and less capable of absorbing floodwater. Without proper adaptive measures, this made an already flood-prone place more vulnerable.... A ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation found last year that those who have overseen Houston's flooding issues discounted scientists' warnings as 'anti-development.' In the coming months and years, the city may pay a high price for such shortsightedness. Those officials had the fate of only one city in their hands. Mr. Trump has the fate of the whole world." ...

... Greg Sargent: Hopes that his Hurricane Harvey response will allow Trump to "reset" his presidency have been greatly exaggerated. "Just yesterday, Trump reaffirmed his pardon o Joe Arpaio.... Trump effusively praised Arpaio.... This is an implicit endorsement of the very conduct for which Arpaio was held in criminal contempt of court (defying a judge's command that he remain constrained by the Constitution from violating the rights of Latino immigrants)..... Incredibly, Trump also defended the pardon by recalling that the crowd at his rally in Arizona 'went absolutely crazy' when he spoke up for Arpaio. Trump has now essentially confirmed that he pardoned Arpaio, at least in part, because he agreed with the goals of Arpaio's abuses and flouting of the Constitution and because his base cheered him over it.... Whatever Trump achieves in the way of a reset, it will soon come under immense strain from the same old megalomaniacal and racially divisive impulses that have rotted away at his presidency all along." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Even before the devastation from Harvey, southeastern Texas was enduring a year unlike any before. The daily surface temperature of the Gulf of Mexico last winter never dropped below 73 degrees.... How many previous times that had happened: Zero. This sort of heat has a specific effect on storms: Warmer weather causes heavier rainfall.... When the seas warm, more moisture evaporates into the air, and when the air warms -- which has also been happening in Texas -- it can carry more moisture. The severity of Harvey, in other words, is almost certainly related to climate change.... In Houston's particular case, a lack of zoning laws has led to an explosion of building, which further worsens flooding. The city added 24 percent more pavement between 1996 and 2011.... Add up the evidence, and it overwhelmingly suggests that human activity has helped create the ferocity of Harvey." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday claimed the U.S. had been paying 'extortion money' to North Korea. 'The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years,' Trump tweeted. 'Talking is not the answer!'... North Korean state media on Tuesday called its recent missile launch over Japan a 'prelude' to military operations directed at Guam." Mrs. McC: Hard to tell, but I guess Trump means talk = extortion. ...

... Max Greenwood of the Hill: "A U.S. warship successfully shot down a medium-range ballistic missile in a test launch off the coast of Hawaii Wednesday, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said. The USS John Paul Jones detected and tracked the missile, which had been launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, before firing SM-6 guided missiles to intercept it, the agency said."

Tuomas Forsell of Reuters: Finland's "President Sauli Niinisto on Tuesday denied that Finland was buying new fighter jets from American planemaker Boeing, following remarks by ... Donald Trump.... 'One of the things that is happening is you're purchasing large amounts of our great F-18 aircraft from Boeing and it's one of the great planes, the great fighter jets,' Trump said on Monday at a news conference with his Finnish counterpart in the White House. Niinisto, who was standing next to Trump, looked surprised but did not follow up on the comment. He later denied the deal with Boeing on his Twitter account and on Tuesday in Washington." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: "Large amounts of ... aircraft"? No, Donald, nobody buys "large amounts" of planes. They may buy large amounts of sugar or fuel, but they buy large numbers of planes. Can't you at least make your lies grammatical?

It's really quite amazing when you think that freedom of the press, not only sort of a cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution but very much something that the United States defended over the years is now itself under attack from the President. It's sort of a stunning turnaround. And ultimately the sequence is a dangerous one.... To call [the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN] 'fake' does tremendous damage and to refer to individual journalists in this way, I have to ask the question is this not an incitement for others to attack journalists? -- Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, today ...

... Stephanie Nebehay of Reuters: "... Donald Trump[s criticism of journalists amounts to an attack on the freedom of the press and could provoke violence against reporters, the United Nations' human rights chief said on Wednesday. Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said Trump had also made worrying remarks about women, Mexicans and Muslims and went on to question the president's approach to immigration and decision to pardon former Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio." ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Sarah Jones of the New Republic: "For now, Trump TV is a small operation, cheaply produced and disseminated through Facebook. But the creation of an official broadcast in which Trump mouthpieces repeat the Trumpian line is just one of several developments that suggest the Trump era has brought conservative media to its evolutionary endpoint: sheer propaganda, stripped even of the veneer of professional journalism that traditional Republican Party organs like Fox News ('Fair and Balanced') have cultivated since the end of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. It can be seen in the National Rifle Association's new video channel, where the conservative provocateur Dana Loesch calls on followers to come together in a 'clenched fist of truth' to defeat America's liberal enemies. It can be seen in the growing Sinclair Broadcast Group, whose viewers are breathlessly updated about threats to the homeland through its 'Terrorism Alert Desk.' And it can be seen in a constellation of right-wing websites -- Breitbart, The Federalist, The Daily Caller, Townhall — that traffic in xenophobia, homophobia, racism, and social Darwinism. Most influentially, it is evident in the way the White House uses the bully pulpit and social media to make direct appeals to supporters.... All of this has contributed to an environment that bears the hallmarks of a budding propaganda state...."

Sam Thielman of TPM: "... Donald Trump's erstwhile lawyer, Michael Cohen, said this week in a statement provided to congressional investigators that Trump signed a letter of intent during the campaign to develop a tower in Moscow with a firm that appears to have partnered with two Russian banks under U.S. sanctions. Real estate news outlet The Real Deal was first to surface news of the apparent associations between the Moscow-based firm, I.C. Expert Investment, and VTB and Sberbank. The firm's website lists both VTB and Sberbank as partner banks.... [Felix] Sater told Cohen that he'd arranged financing for the project with VTB, according to emails that were provided to the House Intelligence Committee and reviewed by the New York Times. Sberbank and VTB were both sanctioned in the wake of Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, and the U.S. Treasury specifically disallows them from issuing the kinds of financing used in real estate transactions to 'U.S. persons or within the United States.'... The day before Trump's inauguration, the president of VTB called on Trump to lift those same sanctions." ...

... Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "President Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has agreed to sit down for a transcribed interview with the Senate judiciary committee, as investigators continue to dig into his attendance at a 2016 meeting where he was promised Russian dirt on the Clinton campaign.The committee and Trump Jr. have agreed on a date to be interviewed by the panel in private, according to Taylor Foy, spokesman for committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, after Trump Jr.'s lawyers have been in discussions with the panel and turned over documents. Trump Jr. will be interviewed by senior committee staff, and senators could also attend, Foy said. After the Senate judiciary committee invited him to attend a July hearing to testify in public, Trump Jr. instead cut a deal with the committee to avoid that session. It's unclear if he will eventually testify publicly, but committee leaders have said an open session with Trump Jr. is still on the table." ...

... Evan Perez of CNN: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller has issued subpoenas to a former lawyer for Paul Manafort and to Manafort's current spokesman, an aggressive tactic that suggests an effort to add pressure on the former Trump campaign chairman. The subpoenas seeking documents and testimony were sent to Melissa Laurenza, an attorney with the Akin Gump law firm who until recently represented Manafort, and to Jason Maloni, who is Manafort's spokesman, according to people familiar with the matter. Manafort is under investigation for possible tax and financial crimes, according to US officials briefed on the investigation."

Tom Vanden Brook of USA Today: "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis late Tuesday announced that transgender troops will be allowed to continue serving in the military pending the results of a study by experts. The announcement follows an order from President Trump -- first announced in a tweet -- declaring that transgender service members can no longer serve in the military, effectively reversing an Obama administration policy. The order also affects the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Coast Guard. 'Once the panel reports its recommendations and following my consultation with the secretary of Homeland Security, I will provide my advice to the president concerning implementation of his policy direction,' Mattis said in the statement. 'In the interim, current policy with respect to currently serving members will remain in place.'" ...

... Mark Stern of Slate: "Mattis did not 'freeze' the trans ban, and he is not 'buy[ing] time' in some potentially insubordinate effort to buck Trump. In reality, the secretary is doing exactly what Trump directed him to do in a recent memo.... Reports of a 'freeze' on the ban ... serve the administration's narrative in two ways: They legitimize a 'study' that is designed to reach a foregone conclusion, and they falsely portray the ban as more lenient or unsettled than it really is. Absent court intervention, the trans ban will take effect next year. And unless Trump changes his mind, there is virtually nothing Mattis can do to stop it."

Rene Marsh of CNN: "The EPA's Office of Inspector General announced Monday it is beginning a 'preliminary investigation' into Administrator Scott Pruitt's travel after a hotline complaint and congressional requests which 'expressed concerns' about frequent travel to Oklahoma -- his home state -- 'at taxpayer expense.'... In late July, the watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project said travel records from a Freedom of Information Act request show that Pruitt spent 48 of 92 days in March, April and May traveling -- including 43 days on trips that included stops in his home state of Oklahoma." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

An Imposter Did It! Another Loony Right-Wing Trump Appointee. Andrew Kaczynski & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "... Donald Trump's appointee to a Department of Energy post says inflammatory comments that appeared to have been made by him online were the result of 'cyber attacks and Internet crimes' committed against him over the past several years by 'imposters in social media.' William C. Bradford, Trump's appointee to head the Energy Department's Office of Indian Energy, made the claim in response to significant evidence uncovered by CNN's KFile that suggests an account on the online commenting service Disqus belongs to him.... In the comments section of a September 2016 article on the conservative new site Daily Wire, the Disqus user wrote: 'Well, it is a fact: Obama is the son of a fourth-rate p[orn]n actress and w[hor]re." The comment is an apparent reference to an unfounded right-wing conspiracy that Obama's mother posed for nude photos.... In another comment from January 2016, the Disqus account propagated the debunked claim that Obama's birth certificate was a fake and included a photoshopped picture of the former president's birth certificate.... As recently as this January, Bradford himself said in a radio interview that he was 'agnostic' on whether Obama was an American citizen and repeated the claim that his birth certificate was a fake."

Tara Pameri of Politico: "Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer finally got an audience with the pope, after being cut out of a White House delegation with the Holy Father in May [Mrs. McC: by the cruelest, most vindictive president* in recent U.S. history]. Spicer returned to Rome over the weekend as part of a group of legislators and politicians affiliated with the International Catholic Legislators Network who met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Spicer, who resigned on July 21, has remained in the White House to help with the transition for his successor.... His last day is slated for August 31." Mrs. McC: Good thing Spicer didn't schedule his papal visit for a weekday. Trump would never have given him the day off.

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "The White House will shut down an Obama-era rule that would have required businesses to track how much they pay workers of varying genders, races and ethnicities according to a new report. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Trump officials will stay the rule, which would have gone into effect in the spring, because it created a burden for employers. 'It's enormously burdensome,' Neomi Rao, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, told The Journal. 'We don't believe it would actually help us gather information about wage and employment discrimination.' The Obama rule would have required employers with 100 or more employees to hand over data on wages to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with the goal of preventing pay discrimination. Ivanka Trump, who ... has pushed for equal pay for women, said in a statement that the 'policy would not yield the intended results.'" Mrs. McC: Quite right, Ivanka, dear. Since Daddy-O & his administration will ignore the results, which certainly will demonstrate pay inequities, why the hell keep incriminating records? Which brings us to ...

... Today in More Republican Racism

Michael Kiefer & Yvonne Wingett Sanchez of the Arizona Republic: "U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton canceled former Sheriff Joe Arpaio's upcoming sentencing hearing for his criminal contempt-of-court conviction, telling attorneys not to file replies to motions that were pending before his recent presidential pardon. However, Bolton on Tuesday stopped short of throwing out the conviction based solely on Arpaio's request. Instead she ordered Arpaio and the U.S. Department of Justice, which is prosecuting the case, to file briefs on why she should or shouldn't grant Arpaio's request. Arpaio's attorneys asked Bolton on Monday to vacate Arpaio's conviction in light of ... Donald Trump's Friday pardon. Bolton has scheduled oral arguments on the matter for Oct. 4, the day before Arpaio was supposed to be sentenced. There is case law that says a pardon implies an admission of guilt, and that will have to be argued in open court." ...

... Rebecca Savransky: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday he would not have pardoned Former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio. During an interview on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' Christie called the pardon power an 'extraordinary power' for any executive. 'My understanding has always been that one of the prerequisites you look for in giving a pardon is contrition for what you were convicted of,' he said. 'I didn't see that in Sheriff Arpaio.' When pressed on whether he would have pardoned Arpaio, Christie said: 'This is not one that I would have done.'" Mrs. McC: Christie is a former (controversial) U.S. Attorney.

Jorge Rivas of Splinter: "Immigration officials have received preliminary approval to destroy detainee records, including evidence that relates to in-custody deaths and sexual assault cases after a 20 year period. A July 14, 2017 notice published by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) -- the agency in charge of archiving materials created by the federal government -- states that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking permission to destroy 'records related to detainees, including incidents of sexual abuse and assault, escapes, deaths while in agency custody, telephone rates charged to detainees, alternatives to detention, logs and reports on status of detainees and detention facilities, and location and segregation of detainees.'... NARA['s] ... preliminary approval ... comes during an era when ICE has abruptly stopped sharing data with researchers and limited information available to attorneys -- all while the administration has increased enforcement and detained more undocumented immigrants than ever before."

Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "A Georgia Republican lawmaker warned a Democratic former colleague who criticized his support for Civil War monuments on Facebook that she won't be 'met with torches but something a lot more definitive' if she continues to call for the removal of statues in south Georgia. State Rep. Jason Spencer, a Woodbine Republican, also wrote former state Rep. LaDawn Jones that 'people in South Georgia are people of action, not drama' and suggested some who don't understand that 'will go missing in the Okefenokee.' 'Too many necks they are red around here,' he wrote. 'Don't say I didn't warn you about 'em.' Jones, who represented an Atlanta-based district from 2012 to 2016, responded that she saw his remarks as a 'threat of physical violence' but said she was confident that future generations will abandon a 'we are better than them' mentality." Jones is black. Spencer is a fat white guy.

Jonathan Chait: "Republicans confuse the Electoral College with 'the American people.'... 2.9 million more American people voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump. The Electoral College has turned two of the last five Republican national-vote defeats into victories. The Republican Party has developed a very convoluted way of suppressing this strange reality. The larger part of their response consists of constant implicit or explicit equations of the election result with the will of the voting public.... States that benefit from the Electoral College are whiter than average, which means the system gives white voters more influence over presidential elections. As Andrew Gelman and Pierre-Antoine Kremp calculate, 'whites have 16 percent more power than blacks once the Electoral College is taken into consideration, 28 percent more power than Latinos, and 57 percent more power than those who fall into the "other" category.'" Mrs. McC: You'll have to you read Chait's piece to see why this fits into the "Republican Racism" category.

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "A federal judge has tossed out Sarah Palin's lawsuit against the [New York Times] for claiming in an editorial that her political action committee was connected to the murderous 2011 rampage of Jared Lee Loughner near Tucson, Ariz. 'Negligence this may be; but defamation of a public figure it plainly is not,' wrote Judge Jed S. Rakoff in Tuesday's ruling.... The newspaper issued corrections and an apology to readers, though it failed to apologize directly to Palin. She sued just weeks after the editorial was published. From the beginning, Palin faced a high bar in her civil action. As a public figure, she needs to prove 'actual malice' on [the] part of the New York Times, meaning that it acted with knowledge of the falsity of its claims, or at least with reckless disregard thereof.... In his ruling, Rakoff said that Palin and her lawyers had failed to show evidence that they could ever meet the 'actual malice' standard. 'The complaint fails on its face to adequately allege actual malice, because it fails to identify any individual who possessed the requisite knowledge and intent and, instead, attributes it to the Times in general. This will not suffice,' wrote Rakoff."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Emergency workers rescued many more soaked and frightened people in southeast Texas on Tuesday as floodwaters continued to rise and officials counseled patience, warning that conditions would not improve soon. The slow-moving, record-shattering tropical storm Harvey battered the region for a sixth straight day and began to move into southwest Louisiana, where it made its second landfall early Wednesday morning. With hundreds of thousands of people under evacuation orders, shelters in Houston filled to bursting.... Local officials in Texas have reported at least 30 confirmed and suspected flood-related deaths. [Houston Mayor Sylvester] Turner imposed a curfew in Houston from midnight to 5 a.m. until further notice." ...

... Washington Post: "The devastating path of Harvey made landfall Wednesday for a second time since it roared ashore last week, as the biggest rainstorm in the history of the continental United States finally began to move away from Houston and carried its fury to Louisiana. Now a tropical storm, Harvey's immediate effects are not expected as devastating as a Category 4 hurricane that first blasted Houston and other parts of Texas beginning last Friday. But it still packed potentially deadly and disastrous torrents of rain that have left Texas with a punishing toll: at least 22 people known dead and possibly more, tens of thousands left homeless and storm-ravaged areas that could take months or longer to bounce back." ...

... Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Harvey made its final landfall, but its swath of torrential rain has triggered more massive flooding in east Texas, and will continue to produce torrential rain the next few days from Louisiana to parts of the Ohio Valley, while record-breaking, catastrophic river flooding continues in southeast Texas. Harvey made its third and final landfall around 3:30 a.m. CDT Wednesday morning near Cameron, Louisiana, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. While the heaviest rain had ended in flood-plagued Houston, Harvey's most torrential rain turned its sights on areas near Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas. With rain rates as high as 3.87 inches per hour, inundating rain immediately to the west of Harvey's center of circulation crushed the southeast Texas counties near the Louisiana border Tuesday into early Wednesday." ...

...New York Times: "If you're outside the affected area, here are options to help. (If you're in Texas and displaced by the storm, here's how to get help.)"

The Commentariat -- August 29, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Greg Sargent: Hopes that his Hurricane Harvey response will allow Trump to "reset" his presidency have been greatly exaggerated. "Just yesterday, Trump reaffirmed his pardon of Joe Arpaio.... Trump effusively praised Arpaio.... This is an implicit endorsement of the very conduct for which Arpaio was held in criminal contempt of court (defying a judge's command that he remain constrained by the Constitution from violating the rights of Latino immigrants)..... Incredibly, Trump also defended the pardon by recalling that the crowd at his rally in Arizona 'went absolutely crazy' when he spoke up for Arpaio. Trump has now essentially confirmed that he pardoned Arpaio, at least in part, because he agreed with the goals of Arpaio's abuses and flouting of the Constitution and because his base cheered him over it.... Whatever Trump achieves in the way of a reset, it will soon come under immense strain from the same old megalomaniacal and racially divisive impulses that have rotted away at his presidency all along." ...

... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Even before the devastation from Harvey, southeastern Texas was enduring a year unlike any before. The daily surface temperature of the Gulf of Mexico last winter never dropped below 73 degrees.... How many previous times that had happened: Zero. This sort of heat has a specific effect on storms: Warmer weather causes heavier rainfall.... When the seas warm, more moisture evaporates into the air, and when the air warms -- which has also been happening in Texas -- it can carry more moisture. The severity of Harvey, in other words, is almost certainly related to climate change.... In Houston's particular case, a lack of zoning laws has led to an explosion of building, which further worsens flooding. The city added 24 percent more pavement between 1996 and 2011.... Add up the evidence, and it overwhelmingly suggests that human activity has helped create the ferocity of Harvey."

Rene Marsh of CNN: "The EPA's Office of Inspector General announced Monday it is beginning a 'preliminary investigation' into Administrator Scott Pruitt's travel after a hotline complaint and congressional requests which 'expressed concerns' about frequent travel to Oklahoma -- his home state -- 'at taxpayer expense.'... In late July, the watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project said travel records from a Freedom of Information Act request show that Pruitt spent 48 of 92 days in March, April and May traveling -- including 43 days on trips that included stops in his home state of Oklahoma."

*****

Matt Apuzzo & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A business associate of President Trump promised in 2015 to engineer a real estate deal with the aid of the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, that he said would help Mr. Trump win the presidency. The associate, Felix Sater, wrote a series of emails to Mr. Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, in which he boasted about his ties to Mr. Putin. He predicted that building a Trump Tower in Moscow would highlight Mr. Trump's savvy negotiating skills and be a political boon to his candidacy.... The emails show that, from the earliest months of Mr. Trump's campaign, some of his associates viewed close ties with Moscow as a political advantage.... Mr. Sater, a Russian immigrant, said he had lined up financing for the Trump Tower deal with VTB Bank, a Russian bank that was under American sanctions for involvement in Moscow's efforts to undermine democracy in Ukraine.... "Mr. Trump, however signed a nonbinding 'letter of intent' for the project in 2015. Mr. Cohen said he discussed the project with Mr. Trump three times.... Mr. Sater was a broker for the Trump Organization for several years, paid to deliver real estate deals." ...

... Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "A top executive from Donald Trump's real estate company emailed Vladimir Putin's personal spokesman during the U.S. presidential campaign last year to ask for help advancing a stalled Trump Tower development project in Moscow, according to documents submitted to Congress Monday. Michael Cohen, a Trump attorney and executive vice president for the Trump Organization, sent the email in January 2016 to Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's top press aide.... Cohen's email marks the most direct interaction yet documented of a top Trump aide and a similarly senior member of Putin's government. The email shows the Trump business official directly seeking Kremlin assistance in advancing Trump's business interests, in the same months when Trump was distinguishing himself on the campaign trail with his warm rhetoric about Putin.... Cohen has been one of Trump's closest aides for more than a decade. He did not take a formal role in the campaign however sometimes spoke to reporters on Trump's behalf and appeared on television as a surrogate while Trump was running.... [Cohen] said he abandoned the project because he lost confidence the Moscow developer would be able to obtain land, financing and government approvals to complete the project." ...

... Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "... let's just try to remember why Trump denied having business deals in Russia. He denied it because he demonstrated an abnormal tendency to praise Vladimir Putin that was hard to understand absent some financial incentive for doing so. That he either had Russian deals that were vulnerable or wished to pursue Russian deals and didn't want to jeopardize them was such an obvious inference that it didn't need to be explained to anyone. He was asked if these were the explanations for his behavior and he said the whole idea was made up and ludicrous. But people's suspicions were 100 percent accurate. He was lying the entire time." ...

... Charles Pierce: "Oh, Felix Sater. Summon for us all The Volga Bagmen.... He's spent his entire career in the shadowy netherworld of politics and money, with an occasional sidetrip into the shadowy netherworld of the international intelligence trade. Trump continued to have a relationship with this guy, and ... here's where you may have to sit down again, the story indicates that the president* may not be an entirely honest fellow.... So much of what the president* has said about his relationship with this guy has been a lie because everything the president* has said about his business dealings in Russia has been a lie. There's so much of it now, and we're only seeing the drip-drip-drip details that are leaking out piecemeal. This is where I become almost convinced that the key to this presidency* is that nobody, including the president* himself, ever thought he'd win. He could continue to do business with shady characters because, after November, who really would care? Now, he knows what's out there and he's really stuck." ...

     ... Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Tuesday said President Trump never expected to win the White House. 'Donald Trump never thought he was going to win the presidency,' Scarborough said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.' 'This was all a money-making scam. He thought Jeb Bush was going to beat him.' Scarborough said Trump was going to 'take the money and run.' 'So let me [Trump] use the position I'm in right now and try to get that tower in Moscow, Scarborough said." Mrs. McC: Scarborough actually knows Trump, so Pierce's assumption looks correct. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... we have a series of denials by a wide array of figures in Trump's orbit about their connections to Russia. The denials keep crumbling, one by one. There is no reason to assume the pattern will stop any time soon." ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post has a useful timeline of what is known publicly about Trump's dealings with Russia. Mrs. McC: Quite a few commentators have accused Trump of lying about his dealings with Russia. They are likely right, but mostly because of stuff we don't know. But based on Bump's timeline & other reporting, I'm not sure Trump was lying in July & October of 2016 when he said, using the present tense, that he had no business dealings in Russia. Other than renewing some Russian trademarks on election day 2016, I haven't seen any evidence that Trump still has business in Russia or that he had at the times he said he hadn't. (Often the reason for preserving trademarks is so others can't use them & doesn't necessarily imply you're planning to use them yourself.) ...

... Julia Ainsley & Tom Winter of NBC News: "Federal investigators working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller are keenly focused on ... Donald Trump's role in crafting a response to a published article about a meeting between Russians and his son Donald Jr., three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. The sources told NBC News that prosecutors want to know what Trump knew about the meeting and whether he sought to conceal its purpose.... At the time, the White House confirmed that Trump had 'weighed in' as the response to the Times report [of Junior's meeting] was drafted aboard Air Force One on July 8 as the president returned to the U.S. from the G20 meeting in Germany. The Washington Post reported that Trump had 'dictated' the response.... A person familiar with Mueller's strategy said that whether or not Trump made a 'knowingly false statement' is now of interest to prosecutors. 'Even if Trump is not charged with a crime as a result of the statement, it could be useful to Mueller's team to show Trump's conduct to a jury that may be considering other charges.'" ...

... Austin Wright of Politico: "Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) is pushing an amendment to severely curtail special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. DeSantis has put forward a provision that would halt funding for Mueller's probe six months after the amendment's passage. It also would prohibit Mueller from investigating matters that occurred before June 2015, when Trump launched his presidential campaign.... Several House Democrats are pushing amendments to protect the Mueller probe." ...

... Robert Bauer in a Washington Post op-ed: "Since January, examples have piled up of a pattern of recklessness, impropriety and perhaps outright obstruction in President Trump's oversight of federal law enforcement. And now, with the pardoning of Joe Arpaio, we have the first exercise of that power in a different context, perhaps serving for Trump as a test run for shutting down the investigation into ties between his campaign and Russia.... The instances of Trump's warped approach to the law are legion.... Trump's record on 'rule of law' issues, now including this pardon, weakens his defenses in the Mueller probe -- and in any future debate over impeachment.... There is a line that distinguishes a pardon from direct interference with the administration of justice. Trump has crossed it.... Trump seems to believe that the pardon power is so 'complete' that it is his ace in the hole, his ultimate protection. But it will be of no use to him if the time comes ... that Congress must consider impeaching him.... At that time, the Arpaio pardon is sure to be part of the story of this presidency and, very conceivably, of how it came to an end." ...

So I stand by my pardon of Sheriff Joe and I think the people of Arizona who really know him best would agree with me. -- Donald Trump, at a press conference Monday

The people who "really know" Sheriff Joe are lawless racists, too, because no decent person would have anything to do with him. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump defended his controversial pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio on Monday, saying his decision to announce it during Hurricane Harvey likely earned it 'far higher' ratings. Speaking at a joint news conference with the president of Finland, Trump made his first comments on Arpaio since his decision to pardon the Arizona lawman Friday.... 'He's done a great job for the people of Arizona, he's very strong on borders, very strong on illegal immigration, he is loved in Arizona,' Trump said. 'I thought he was treated unbelievably unfairly when they came down with their big decision to go get him, right before the election voting started.'... The president concluded that Arpaio, whom Trump described as 'a great veteran of the military' and a 'great law enforcement person,' still had his support." ...

... David Smith of the Guardian: "Trump said he had anticipated Monday’s question and proceeded to read, from some pre-prepared notes, a list controversial pardons and commutations by previous presidents. It included Bill Clinton's pardon of commodities trader and fugitive Marc Rich, who was wanted for tax evasion and whose ex-wife donated to the Clintons, and 'dangerous criminals' such as Weather Underground bomber Susan Rosenberg. He continued: 'You've heard the word leaker. President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who leaked countless sensitive and classified documents to WikiLeaks, perhaps and others. But horrible, horrible thing that he did, commuted the sentence and perhaps pardoned.'... Trump also continued to insist that Mexico will pay for his long-promised border wall. 'One way or the other Mexico will pay for the wall,' he said, arguing that, while the project may initially be funded by US taxpayers, 'ultimately' Mexico will pay through reimbursement.... Yet again he seemed reluctant to criticise Russia, which borders Finland. Asked if Russia poses a security threat, he replied: 'I consider many countries as a security threat.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: President Clinton did not pardon Rosenberg; he commuted her sentence after she had served 16 years of a 58-year sentence. And President Obama did not "possibly pardon" Manning; he commuted her sentence, ending her seven years in jail this past May. But facts, schmacks, who cares? ...

... ** Andrew Cohen in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "Even if we stipulate that a president's pardon power is absolute, the justifications offered by the White House are risible. That Arpaio devoted his life to 'protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration' surely comes as news to those Maricopa County residents who were the victims of sex crimes that weren't adequately investigated by Arpaio's deputies. And it comes as news to those victimized by the intentional racial discrimination Arpaio orchestrated against Latino residents. The truth is that 'America's toughest sheriff,' as Arpaio liked to call himself, was an incompetent buffoon, a sour mash of cruelty and inattention that cost his county hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, fees and legal settlements. The only thing he accomplished in his decades in power was to become, first, a national symbol of brutality toward jail inmates and, later, a poster child for anti-immigrant racism." Cohen explais of the huge differences between Trump's pardon of Arpaio & President Obama's commutations of many decades-long sentences. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Trump, he is way too stupid to understand these differences. ...

... Esme Cribb of TPM: "... Donald Trump on Monday pledged that Texas will get recovery funding in the wake of massive flooding and destruction after Hurricane Harvey, despite his conflicts with Republican leaders in Congress and his threat to shut down the government to secure funding for his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border." ...

... Jeff Stein of Vox: "... despite being asked twice, Trump wouldn't back away from his threat to shut down the government -- a decision that would enormously complicate federal agencies' ability to help Texas's besieged cities." ...

... Blonde Chicks All Look Alike. Madeleine Aggeler of New York: "One week after President Trump laughed in the face of science and defiantly turned his naked eyes toward the sun, his eclipse blindness seems to be setting in. During a press conference with Finnish president Sauli Niinistö on Monday, Trump confused two blonde, female Finnish journalists who were sitting next to each other. As the press conference was wrapping up, Niinistö took a last question from one of the journalists. 'Again? You're going to give her the same one?' Trump asked. 'No, she is not the same lady,' Niinistö answered. 'They are sitting side by side.' 'We have a lot of blonde women in Finland,' the journalist added as she took the mic."

Rebecca Savransky: "President Trump said early Tuesday that all options are 'on the table' after North Korea fired a missile that flew over Japan's airspace. Trump said in a statement the world has received North Korea's latest message 'loud and clear.' 'This regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior,' Trump said.... His comments come after the Pentagon confirmed late Monday that North Korea fired a missile that flew over Japan's airspace.... The White House early Tuesday said Trump discussed the missile during a call with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday." ...

... Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North Korea fired a ballistic missile early Tuesday that soared over Japan, the South Korean military said. It was the second time in four days that the North Korean authorities, defying an escalation in international sanctions and warnings from President Trump, had launched a missile. Three short-range missiles were launched on Saturday.... The Japanese government sent a text alert to citizens about the launch and advised them to take protective cover. A short time later, Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, called the launch 'an unprecedented, serious and grave threat to ou nation. The missile flew over Hokkaido island in northern Japan, South Korean and Japanese officials said. It was the first time a North Korean projectile had crossed over Japan since North Korea launched rockets over Japan in 1998, and again in 2009. . At the times, the North claimed that both rockets were carrying a satellite payload.... In a statement, [Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe said the launch was 'an unprecedented, serious, grave threat' and that his government 'was prepared to take all the measures to protect people's lives.'" ...

** NEW. Will CIA Director Mike Pompeo Say "Slam, Dunk!"? Julian Borger of the Guardian: "US intelligence officials are under pressure from the White House to produce a justification to declare Iran in violation of a 2015 nuclear agreement, in an echo of the politicisation of intelligence that led up to the Iraq invasion, according to former officials and analysts. The collapse of the 2015 deal between Tehran, the US and five other countries -- by which Iran has significantly curbed its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief -- would trigger a new crisis over nuclear proliferation at a time when the US is in a tense standoff with North Korea."

Le Petit, Petty, Petty Prince. Jennifer Jacobs & Kevin Cirilli of Bloomberg: When Trump first arrived at the Phoenix Convention Center last week, the crowd was still sparse, but it filled in before Trump came out to speak. The empty seats, which were visible on TV feeds, steamed Trump, so he "later had his top security aide, Keith Schiller, inform [long-time aide George] Gigicos[, who organized the event,] that he'd never manage a Trump rally again, according to three people familiar with the matter." Mrs. McC: Here again, Trump didn't have the guts to fire Gigicos directly, but sent a henchman to do it. And do notice Trump's high regard for his followers. Not only do they have to stand in line for hours -- this time in the stifling Phoenix heat -- which is necessary for any large public event, but they must be cheering in the stands for a good hour preceding the Teeny, Tiny Prince's appearance. If not, at least one head will roll. No wonder Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio; both are good with meting out cruel & unusual punishment to masses of innocent people.

Peter Kramer & Sally Satel, in a New York Times op-ed: "If the time comes that Congress finds Mr. Trump unable to discharge his duties, its members should appoint a bipartisan commission dominated by respected statesmen to set the removal process in motion. Obviously, if a president's health deteriorates drastically, medical consultants should be called in. But when the problem is longstanding personality traits, a doctor-dominated commission simply provides cover for Congress -- allowing legislators, presumably including those in the majority, to arrange for the replacement of the president while minimizing their responsibility for doing so." Thanks to Marvin S. for the lead. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Kramer & Patel, both psychiatrists, are right. To a great extent, Trump won votes because he is crazy. Millions of voters preferred his grotesque personality disorders to Clinton's steady hand. As much as I despise the guy & as much as I think he should be removed from office posthaste, his mental unfitness for any job in which he has to interact with others should not be cause for his removal from elected office. Rather, his bad acts, or even threats of bad acts, which of course are products of his mental instability, should be the rationale. I have been trying to think of a job for which Trump is fit, and it might be mail sorter in the basement of Manhattan's Trump Tower, though we can no longer be sure his sun-staring eyes can read the names of the addressees.

Sheila Kaplan & Denise Grady of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration announced a crackdown on dangerous stem cell clinics on Monday, while at the same time pledging to ease the path to approval for companies and doctors with legitimate treatments in the growing field. The agency reported actions against two large stem cell clinics and a biotech company, saying that it was critical to shut down 'unscrupulous actors' in regenerative medicine, a broad umbrella that includes stem cell and gene therapies and immunotherapies.... Public health advocates praised the F.D.A. for moving against the companies, but said it should have happened sooner, given the widespread knowledge of public harm."

Abby Phillip & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Trump's senior aides are increasingly airing their private disagreements publicly, exposing a widening rift between the president and key members of his administration over his handling of racial divisions exposed by white supremacist violence in Charlottesville.... Over the weekend, [Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson suggested that Trump 'speaks for himself' rather than for the country's values in his reaction to Charlottesville. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also counseled U.S. troops to 'hold the line until our country gets back to respecting each other' and is able to 'get the power of inspiration back.' And [top economic advisor Gary] Cohn sharply criticized the president's handling of the situation in an interview with the Financial Times last week." ...

... Aide Further Distances Tillerson from Trump. Zachary Cohen, et al., of CNN: "Rather than walk back eyebrow-raising comments made by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday, an aide told CNN Monday that ... Donald Trump speaks for himself when it comes to American values 'because the Constitution speaks for the country.' The Tillerson aide said the secretary of state was not criticizing Trump in the remarks. 'The secretary and President have expressed different points of view. He isn't being critical, but more so re-establishing without confusion what are known American values,' the aide said. 'The values start from the Constitution. The President's job is to uphold those values. Did he do the best job ever responding to Charlottesville? Nope. But that doesn't mean America changes.' The aide added, 'That is why the President speaks for himself because the Constitution speaks for the country.'" ...

... Josh Dawsey, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump is not happy with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, for publicly criticizing his response to violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. But it appears there is little he is planning to do about it, according to people who have spoken to him." ...

... Over at the political gossip site Axios, Mike Allen & Jonathan Swan are predicting Tillerson's exit.

Carolyn Holmes, in the Washington Post, on how South Africa dealt with "beautiful statues" of apartheid leaders: "Right after apartheid fell and was replaced by multiracial democracy, during the early 1990s, the South African government removed many statues of apartheid-era leaders from city parks and government buildings, giving them to private heritage organizations. Some are now on display in private museums or in private sculpture gardens. From the mid-1990s onward, the African National Congress-run government has used a different strategy: construct new monuments alongside the old ones. For instance, Pretoria's Voortrekker monument celebrates the Afrikaner pioneers of the mid-1800s. About a mile away, the government built Freedom Park, a monument to the anti-apartheid struggle. While this strategy has met with mixed reactions, the idea was that the new South Africa would have monuments for everyone. Rather than destroying the past, it would be peacefully transformed into a multiracial present.... Two factors appear to have been critical: 1) how close a relationship the figure in the monument had to the apartheid and colonial governments; 2) who supported the statues. Depictions of apartheid-era leaders, especially those associated with the most repressive periods of apartheid, were quickly removed -- but statues of leaders before apartheid were often left standing."

Federal Aid for Me but Not for Thee. Ashley DeJean of Mother Jones: "Before Hurricane Harvey hit this weekend, Texas senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn sent a letter to the president urging him to sign the major disaster declaration that had been requested by Gov. Greg Abbott, so the state could access key federal resources as swiftly as possible.... The irony of this request was not lost on lawmakers from states that had been devastated by hurricane Sandy in 2012. At that time, Texas lawmakers overwhelmingly voted against recovery assistance for New York and New Jersey. When asked about that hypocrisy today on MSNBC, Cruz dodged the question. 'There's time for political sniping later,' he said. 'I think our focus needs to be on this crisis and this disaster.'"

The problem with that particular bill is it became a $50 billion bill that was filled with unrelated pork. Two-thirds of that bill had nothing to do with Sandy. -- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), interview with NBC's Katy Tur, August 28

Every time Ted Cruz pulls his sneering snout out of the trough, it seems he does so in order to display his highly developed ability, an especially notable tendency in the species politicianus republicanus, for forming the most unctuous, pharisaical flights of self-serving flimflam. His latest painful casuistry, why those with 'New York' attitudes don't deserve any assistance after a natural disaster, while those who cook bacon by wrapping it around the barrel of a machine gun should be doled out billions is a pristine example of this talent. If the guy ever once exhibited a sliver of artless decency, mountains would split asunder and birds drop out of the sky. -- Akhilleus, in today's Comments

Cruz is repeating a number of myths about the funding for Sandy disaster relief. The vast majority of the spending was for Hurricane Sandy, including elements (such as Smithsonian repairs) that some lawmakers incorrectly believed were unrelated to the storm. The slow rate of projected spending that Cruz had criticized at the time was actually based on how quickly the government had spent funds after previous major storms. As we noted, we suspect Cruz misspoke about the 'two-thirds.' Still, it is wildly incorrect to claim that the bill was 'filled with unrelated pork.' The bill was largely aimed at dealing with Sandy, along with relatively minor items to address other or future disasters. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

Some Would Be Heroes. Emily Wax-Thibodeuex of the Washington Post: "... the 'Cajun Navy,' a volunteer online grass-roots effort..., along with the 'Cajun Coast Search and Rescue Team,' roared into Pasadena, Tex., on Sunday. They came in high-clearance pickup trucks with bass boats and pirogues like the Cajun Cavalry, ready to help search and rescue efforts alongside first responders who were inundated with thousands of calls across the region.... [These volunteers are] part of an armada of private boats that have descended on the Houston area after authorities asked for help from those who could potentially navigate the treacherous floodwaters across a massive swath of southeast Texas in search of residents. Many boaters from east Texas and west Louisiana streamed to the outskirts of the disaster until they could drive no more, switching over to boats to go door to door seeking out the stranded."

Senate Races

Steve M.: "The Washington Examiner reports that Joe Arpaio might run for Jeff Flake's Senate seat.... [Flake] already has a challenger who's beating him by double digits in an early poll: state senator Kelli Ward, who has the support of the pro-Trump Great America PAC. It seems very likely that Flake would lose a one-on-one primary against Ward. But against Ward and Arpaio? Flake could easily win a plurality. And if I understand correctly, that would be sufficient to send him to the general election under Arizona rules. Hey, Arizona GOP, go ahead and turn this race into a three-way brawl, with the likely result being a bruised, weakened, cash-strapped nominee." ...

... Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones: "In early October, Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kelli Ward will be headlining a dinner at the annual convention of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons in Tucson. Despite its dull name, AAPS isn't some stodgy medical organization. It's actually a fringe doctors' group whose medical journal over the years has featured a host of discredited theories, including arguments that abortion causes breast cancer, HIV doesn't cause AIDS, vaccines cause autism, and illegal immigrants caused a leprosy outbreak in the United States. AAPS was the key source of internet rumors that Hillary Clinton was suffering from a major illness during last year's presidential campaign. Years ago, it went to the US Supreme Court to demand the release of postmortem photos of former Clinton Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster, who committed suicide in 1993. The group claimed it needed the photos to ensure Foster hadn't been murdered, a classic anti-Clinton conspiracy theory. Ward, a former Arizona state senator, knows a thing or two about conspiracy theories. She's perhaps most famous for holding a town hall meeting on chemtrails, those long plumes of condensation that appear behind jet planes, but which conspiratorially minded Arizonans believe are a government tool for spreading mind-control chemicals.... Ward isn't the only politician to associate with AAPS. Its members have included former Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), now Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R)." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So Jeff Flake, who is mighty conservative himself, may have two challengers, one who is a lawless, sadistic racist & the other who is batshit crazy. Thanks, Arizona!

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Steve Bannon is breaking from ... Donald Trump in the closely watched Alabama Senate special election. During a closed-door meeting with powerful conservatives in Washington last week, Bannon declared that he's supporting former state Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore over Trump-endorsed incumbent Sen. Luther Strange, according to two people who were present. Bannon ... said that he is looking to activate the conservative base to Moore's cause."

Beyond the Beltway

Pitiful White Guy Makes up Black Attack. Sam Levin of the Guardian: "A Colorado man who claimed that someone had stabbed him because he looked like a 'neo-Nazi' fabricated the story after he accidentally cut his hand with a knife, according to police. Joshua Witt, who has been arrested on false reporting charges, admitted to law enforcement in Sheridan, Colorado, that he lied to officers when he alleged that a black man had attacked him for having a haircut associated with white supremacists, police officials said Monday.... As Witt's mugshot reveals, at the time of the alleged attack, he did not have a haircut resembling the side fade that has recently become associated with neo-Nazis. In his Facebook profile photo, however, his hair was styled that way.... Witt's original allegations went viral on social media this month, garnering press coverage across the globe, particularly from conservative newspapers that cited the stabbing as an example of violent leftwing activists attacking white people." Mrs. McC: What do you do if you're a careless, racist twit, you buy a new knife, & you're so incompetent you cut yourself trying to get it out of the package? Why, blame a black guy for attacking you, of course, then Facebook the fake attack.

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "The death toll from Harvey climbed to at least 29 Wednesday, just as officials in Houston said they planned to get various city operations back up and running. In Harris County, officials confirmed there had been at least four new deaths. The victims included a man who stepped on a live electrical wire in floodwaters and an evacuee who was discovered unresponsive on a charter bus, the Associated Press reports. Houston's bus service and light rail system are set to resume on a limited basis Thursday, according to AP. Trash collection services resumed Wednesday with heavy trash pickup. Regular trash pickup is scheduled to begin Thursday. Mayor Sylvester Turner said he wanted to ensure trash removal resumed as soon as possible because 'there will be a lot of debris.' Operations at both Houston's Hobby Airport and the George Bush International Airport had been closed for days, but Wednesday officials at both terminals announced they would be resuming flights, ABC13.com reports. The airports announced via Facebook that limited domestic airline passenger service has been resumed and they expect to have full service by the weekend.... Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that 'the worst is not yet over' for the southeastern part of the state, where widespread flooding continues. The Federal Emergency Management Administration says nearly one million people have registered for assistance, while the Texas Department of Public Safety says more than 48,700 homes have been affected by flooding and other damage since Friday." ...

... Washington Post: "The remnants of Hurricane Harvey carried its wrath eastward on Wednesday, submerging coastal Texas towns in a deluge of rain, ravaging rural Louisiana and pushing a chemical plant to the brink of explosion. As Houstonians saw signs of relief in the blue sky and slowly draining waters, the flood was rising 100 miles east in the town of Orange as the tropical storm made a second landfall at daybreak." ...

... The New York Times' main story is here.

New York Times: "Jeannie de Clarens, an amateur spy who passed a wealth of information to the British about the development of the V-1 and V-2 rockets during World War II and survived stays in three concentration camps for her activities, died on Aug. 23 in Montaigu, southeast of Nantes, France. She was 98.... Getting wind of a secret weapons project, she made it her mission to be on hand when the topic was discussed by the Germans, coaxing information through charm and guile."