The Commentariat -- October 8, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll let Akhilleus report this one: "The Dauphin, le petit mikey pence, walked out of an NFL football game today, just as fast as his little legs could carry him, because he can't stand African American players advocating for their rights." ...

     ... Akhilleus goes on to reiterate how senseless mikey's own little protest is. Unfortunately, Akhilleus just doesn't get it. Behaving or dressing in a way confederates deem "patriotic" applies only to black people. Remember how riled everybody -- including ABC "News" -- by the fact that then-Sen. Obama often left the house without wearing a flag pin in his lapel? I checked the Googles & found dozens of photos of der Trumpus dressed in a suit with no flag pin in sight. Yet no one ever questioned his patriotism because of his shockingly flagless lapel. Nevah. ...

     ... Here, BTW, is what Obama said in 2007 regarding display of a flag pin:

I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead I'm gonna' try to tell the American people what I believe what will make this country great and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.... Somebody noticed I wasn't wearing a flag lapel pin and I told folks, well you know what? I haven't probably worn that pin in a very long time. I wore it right after 9/11. But after a while, you start noticing people wearing a lapel pin, but not acting very patriotic. Not voting to provide veterans with resources that they need. Not voting to make sure that disability payments were coming out on time. My attitude is that I'm less concerned about what you're wearing on your lapel than what's in your heart. And you show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who served. You show your patriotism by being true to our values and our ideals and that's what we have to lead with is our values and our ideals

Antibiotic Apocalypse. Robin McKie of the Guardian: "Scientists attending a recent meeting of the American Society for Microbiology reported they had uncovered a highly disturbing trend...[R]esistance to [antibiotics] is spreading across the globe...The danger, say scientists, is one of the greatest that humanity has faced in recent times. In a drug-resistant world, many aspects of modern medicine would simply become impossible." Read on. --safari

Trump Says He Doesn't Care Much about Health Care. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "President Trump praised health care block grants on Saturday, saying they allow the states to focus on health care, but said he would rather focus his energy on tensions with North Korea than 'fixing somebody's back or their knee.'" Mrs. McC: That is, Trump seems to think medical care is rather superfluous & pretty much all about chiropractic. he'd rather focus on calling Little Kim names and/or maybe starting a nuclear war. Way more fun.

Philip Rucker & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Sen. Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, on Sunday called the White House 'an adult day care center' after President Trump attacked him in a morning Twitter tirade. Trump alleged in a trio of tweets that Corker 'begged' him for his endorsement, did not receive it and decided to retire because he 'didn't have the guts' to run for reelection next year. In response, Corker (Tenn.) tweeted, 'It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.'... Trump's public lashing of a fellow Republican comes after Corker made headlines last week when he starkly suggested that the national security team provides the president with badly needed adult supervision." Thanks to Marvin S. for the lead.

Connor O'Brien of Politico: "In an interview on ABC's "This Week," FEMA administrator Brock Long brushed off criticism from San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who has slammed the Trump administration's response to Hurricane Maria.... 'We filtered out the mayor a long time ago. We don't have time for the political noise,' Long said." Mrs. McC: Yeah, there really is no reason to listen to a woman, even one who knows what she's talking about because she's been there & seen it. A valuable female official would be one who stayed inside the air-conditioned hurricane center & got coffee for the men having meetings.

Rod Nordland of the New York Times: "More than a thousand Islamic State fighters ... fled their crumbling Iraqi stronghold of Hawija. Instead of the martyrdom they had boasted was their only acceptable fate, they had voluntarily ended up ... in [an] interrogation center of the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq. For an extremist group that has made its reputation on its ferociousness, with fighters who would always choose suicide over surrender, the fall of Hawija has been a notable turning point. The group has suffered a string of humiliating defeats in Iraq and Syria, but the number of its shock troops who turned themselves in to Kurdish officials at the center in Dibis was unusually large, more than 1,000 since last Sunday."

*****

Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "President Trump continued to make vague threats toward North Korea on Saturday.... 'Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid ... hasn't worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work! Trump tweeted in two messages on Saturday afternoon." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Clearly, Trump thinks agitating another thin-skinned loon with control over a nuclear arsenal -- you know, someone just like Trump -- is a great strategy.

Politico: "Trump on Saturday said he and [Rex] Tillerson have had some disagreements at times but that they have 'a very good relationship.' He added, however, that 'sometimes I'd like him to be a little bit tougher.'" ...

... Brent Griffiths of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday continued to criticize NBC News over the network's reporting that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called him a 'moron' earlier this summer, and its subsequent reporting on chaos that engulfed the administration in its wake. '"More.@NBCNews is so knowingly inaccurate with their reporting,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'The good news is that the PEOPLE get it, which is really all that matters! Not #1'" ...

... Thin-skinned Loon Can't Take the Late-Nite Heat. It's So Unfaaaair! Daniel Politi of Slate: "... Donald Trump is sick and tired of the 'anti-Trump' bend of late-night hosts and he went on a little Twitter rant against them on Saturday morning.... 'Late Night host are dealing with the Democrats for their very "unfunny" & repetitive material, always anti-Trump! Should we get Equal Time?' [AND] ... 'More and more people are suggesting that Republicans (and me) should be given Equal Time on T.V. when you look at the one-sided coverage?'... It seems Trump was referring to the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to present different points of views on controversial issues. But that rule was eliminated by the Federal Communications Commission in 1987. And it's actually something that Republicans like.... . Late Night host Seth Meyers wrote back on Twitter: 'We'd love to have you! Studio located at 15 Penguin Avenue, Antarctica.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, wouldn't you love to see Fox "News" being subjected to the Fairness Doctrine? Roger Ailes would rise from the grave in protest.

Mike Allen of Axios: "President Trump telephoned Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday in an effort to revive health-care legislation, Republican sources said. Trump was seeking 'a path forward on health care,' a GOP source said." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "... Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Saturday he told President Trump that Democrats would be open to stabilizing the health-care system, but that another push to repeal and replace ObamaCare was 'off the table.' 'The president wanted to make another run at repeal and replace and I told the president that's off the table,' Schumer said in a statement on his call with Trump on Friday, news of which the president confirmed in a tweet. 'If he wants to work together to improve the existing health care system, we Democrats are open to his suggestions. A good place to start might be the Alexander-Murray negotiations that would stabilize the system and lower costs, Schumer added." (Also linked yesterday.)

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Stymied in his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump is poised to issue an order that could ease some federal rules governing health insurance and make it easier for people to band together and buy coverage on their own, administration officials said Saturday. One official said the directive could move the president a step closer to one of his longstanding goals: allowing consumers to buy health insurance across state lines." ...

... Peter Orszag of Bloomberg (March 2017) explained numerous reasons that allowing groups to buy insurance across state lines would not lower costs, or as Trump claimed during the campaign, result in "great health care for a fraction of the price." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: One difference between Trump & Mussolini is that Mussolini actually delivered on his promises. He did not just "make the trains run on time," he literally "drained the swamp(s)" & initiated yuge physical infrastructure & social welfare programs. If you look back at Trump's constantly repeated promises to different groups that "We're going to take care of you," you see a pattern of a guy who tries to imitate Mussolini but has no interest in actually delivering on Il Duce's public programs. Il Donaldo is nothing but a wannabe Benito. Trump is really only interested in achieving the extreme downsides of Fascism. Think about that.

Franco Ordoñez of McClatchy News: "Congressional leaders fear ... Donald Trump's staff are exploiting the president's busy schedule to push their own agenda and undermine his pledge to protect Dreamers. According to four political operatives working closely with Republicans, leaders in both the House and Senate characterized some of the White House's demands, which have yet to go public, as 'poison pills,' saying they are impossible to achieve and that the White House staffers' intent is to scuttle the deal for political gain. The focus of their ire is on Stephen Miller, Trump's senior policy adviser, who drafted the principles and has been behind several other controversial White House initiatives, including the ban on travel from several Muslim-majority nations. He is one of the few hard-right conservatives remaining in the White House after the departure of Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon. 'We use to joke about President Bannon. Now it's President Miller,' one senior lawmaker said in a meeting about the White House's immigration and border security demands." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yo, DiJiT, are you listening? This story is a plant. Republicans are telling you they want Miller to go. He used to work for that nice fellow Jeff Sessions. I'm sure JeffBo can find him a place at DOJ. Maybe infiltrating white supremacist groups. Should be easy; Miller already has all his charter-membership cards. ...

... Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Carl Bernstein described the Trump administration as 'unlike anything I have seen in 50 years in Washington' while reporting that Republicans are privately assessing ... Donald Trump as unfit for office.' 'What there is a sense of, people I talk to in the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill, is that the wheels are coming off this presidency,' Bernstein told CNN New Day anchors Poppy Harlow and Chris Cuomo. 'In the White House, there is an attempt by those closest to the President -- especially [Chief of Staff John] Kelly, especially the military leaders -- to try to constrain the president from his own inclinations to say wild things, to act irresponsibly. It's almost as if there's a protectorate around the President,' explained Bernstein.... Bernstein said the 'big story right now' is Republican members of congress and military leaders and the intelligence community, 'many of them have lost confidence in this president.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: What could happen within months is that John Kelly rounds up Cabinet members, GOP Congressional leaders & mike pence & urges a 25th Amendment solution. Since Trump has insulted all of them except pence (who is already prepping for the top job), I don't think this will be a tough call.

Matt Apuzzo & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "White House officials once debated a scorched-earth strategy of publicly criticizing and undercutting Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian efforts to disrupt last year's election. Now, President Trump's lawyers are ... cooperating with the special counsel in the hope that Mr. Mueller will declare in the coming months that Mr. Trump is not a target of the Russia inquiry. Mr. Trump has long sought such a public declaration. He fired his F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, in May after Mr. Comey refused to say openly that Mr. Trump was not under investigation. The president's legal team is working swiftly to respond to requests from Mr. Mueller for emails, documents and memos, and will make White House officials available for interviews. Once Mr. Mueller has combed through the evidence, Mr. Trump's lawyers plan to ask him to affirm that Mr. Trump is not under investigation, either for colluding with Russian operatives or for trying to obstruct justice." ...

... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Nine months after its first appearance, the set of intelligence reports known as the Steele dossier, one of the most explosive documents in modern political history, is still hanging over Washington, casting a shadow over the Trump administration that has only grown darker as time has gone by. It was reported this week that the document's author, former British intelligence official, Christopher Steele, has been interviewed by investigators working for the special counsel on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The Senate and House intelligence committees are, meanwhile, asking to see Steele to make up their own mind about his findings. The ranking Democrat on the House committee, Adam Schiff, said that the dossier was 'a very important and useful guide to help us figure out what we need to look into'. The fact that Steele's reports are being taken seriously after lengthy scrutiny by federal and congressional investigators has far-reaching implications.... As every passing month brings more leaks, revelations in the press, and more progress in the investigations, the Steele dossier has generally gained in credibility, rather than lost it."

Most Depressing Op-ed of the Weekend. Doug Sosnik in a Washington Post op-ed: "More than half of Americans don't think Donald Trump is fit to serve as president, yet he has a clear path to winning reelection. If Trump isn't removed from office and doesn't lead the country into some form of global catastrophe, he could secure a second term simply by maintaining his current level of support with his political base." Sosnik is a Democratic strategist. (Also linked yesterday.)

A Demented World of Their Own. Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) still seems swayed by the 'false flag' theory of the white supremacist violence [at Charlottesville]. In an interview with Vice News that aired Thursday night, Gosar suggested that the rally was 'created by the left' and carried out by an 'Obama sympathizer. The congressman also brought up a thoroughly refuted claim that [George] Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew who survived Nazi occupation during World War II, had collaborated with the Third Reich, prompting a strongly worded condemnation from a Soros spokeswoman. Gosar's remarks also drew a stream of criticism on Twitter. 'Will other Republicans rebuke him,' asked Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard. 'If not, is this a party to which one can belong?' 'That drip-drip-drip of anti-Semitism,' wrote science writer Steve Silberman." (Also linked yesterday.)

April Glaser of Slate: "More than 90 percent of people on the island of Puerto Rico don't have power, and more than 80 percent don't have access to wireless cell service, according to the most recent advisories from FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission.... On Friday, the FCC gave Alphabet, Google's parent company, permission to launch its internet balloon project over Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Dubbed Project Loon, the idea is that by flying massive balloons over the islands, Loon will beam down emergency internet service and help get people back online. Loon has permission to fly 30 of its balloons for up to six months over the affected areas."

Beyond the Beltway

"Very Fine People." Julia Manchester of the Hill: "White nationalists returned to Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday less than two months after one person was killed and dozens were injured when violence broke out after the 'Unite the Right' rally. White nationalist leader Richard Spencer led a group of roughly 30 white nationalists, who gathered at Emancipation Park, according to the Charlottesville's CBS affiliate.... The group carried tiki torches and chanted 'You will not replace us,' by a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the park. They also reportedly said, 'we will be back.'... 'The left wing establishment is built around anti-white policies,' Spencer told the group. The group also chanted 'The South will rise again' and 'Russia is our friend.'"

Way Beyond

Nicola Slawson & Ben Quinn of the Guardian: "Eleven people have been injured after a minicab driver struck pedestrians outside the Natural History Museum in west London, sparking a major security alert. Scotland Yard said nine of those hurt were taken to hospital after the incident in Exhibition Road, South Kensington, at about 2.20pm on Saturday. No injuries were thought to be life-threatening or life-changing. Those taken to hospital included the driver of the the black Toyota Prius, who is under arrest and in custody at a north London police station. Police said the incident was a road traffic investigation and not a terrorist-related incident."

News Lede

CNN: Hurricane "Nate weakened to a tropical storm early Sunday as it moved farther inland over Mississippi and Alabama, the National Hurricane Center said.The storm had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph and "rapid weakening is anticipated," the center said. Nate made its second US landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi, shortly after midnight local time Sunday as a Category 1 hurricane.... Just hours earlier, Nate had made its first US landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River in southeast Louisiana, with winds of 85 mph the National Hurricane Center reported Saturday night."

The Commentariat -- October 7, 2017

Late Morning Update:

Mike Allen of Axios: "President Trump telephoned Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday in an effort to revive health-care legislation, Republican sources said. Trump was seeking 'a path forward on health care,' a GOP source said." ...

... Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "... Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Saturday he told President Trump that Democrats would be open to stabilizing the health-care system, but that another push to repeal and replace ObamaCare was 'off the table.' 'The president wanted to make another run at repeal and replace and I told the president that's off the table,' Schumer said in a statement on his call with Trump on Friday, news of which the president confirmed in a tweet. 'If he wants to work together to improve the existing health care system, we Democrats are open to his suggestions. A good place to start might be the Alexander-Murray negotiations that would stabilize the system and lower costs, Schumer added."

Most Depressing Op-ed of the Day. Doug Sosnik in a Washington Post op-ed: "More than half of Americans don’t think Donald Trump is fit to serve as president, yet he has a clear path to winning reelection. If Trump isn't removed from office and doesn't lead the country into some form of global catastrophe, he could secure a second term simply by maintaining his current level of support with his political base." Sosnik is a Democratic strategist.

A Demented World of Their Own. Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) still seems swayed by the 'false flag' theory of the white supremacist violence [at Charlottesville]. In an interview with Vice News that aired Thursday night, Gosar suggested that the rally was 'created by the left' and carried out by an 'Obama sympathizer. The congressman also brought up a thoroughly refuted claim that [George] Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew who survived Nazi occupation during World War II, had collaborated with the Third Reich, prompting a strongly worded condemnation from a Soros spokeswoman. Gosar's remarks also drew a stream of criticism on Twitter. 'Will other Republicans rebuke him,' asked Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard. 'If not, is this a party to which one can belong?' 'That drip-drip-drip of anti-Semitism,' wrote science writer Steve Silberman.'

*****

Our Coy Warmonger. Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday kept the public wondering about his cryptic warning regarding a 'calm before the storm.' 'You'll find out,' Trump told reporters at the White House when asked what he meant by his comment. The president left many people scratching their heads after he offered mysterious remarks before a Thursday dinner with military leaders." ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: 'On Friday, reporters once again asked Trump to clarify his remark. Once again, the president replied, 'You'll find out' -- only this time, while winking. Moments later, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Trump's 'calm before the storm' prediction was 'extremely serious,' and that the president was definitely not just 'messing with the press.'... Meanwhile, several White House aides told the New York Times that they had no idea what Trump was referring to Thursday night.... Arms-control expert Jeffrey Lewis has warned that if Kim Jong-un has reason to believe that the U.S. might be on the verge of making a first strike against his regime, then he has an incentive to 'go first, if he is to go at all.'" ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I hate to find myself agreeing with Chris Cillizza, but I guess every responsible person would agree with this: On Trump's remarks at the Thursday night dinner with top generals: "... Trump didn't have to say anything. Reporters shout questions at these photo-ops all the time. Presidents ignore them all the time. So he did this on purpose. He wanted to say this -- so he did. And then he did it again!... As a reality TV star and producer..., the goal is always to stoke drama, always try to keep people watching.... Cliffhangers are the best way to do that.... The stakes of a reality TV show are roughly zero. The stakes of diplomacy with rogue nations pursuing nuclear weapons are incredibly high. What's not clear at the moment is whether Trump understands that difference." ...

... John Bowden of the Hill: In Puerto Rico, "Vice President Pence reportedly dodged questions from reporters on Friday about President Trump's remark about a 'calm before the storm,' referring questions to the White House."...

...Juan Cole: "Trump is a blowhard and you can't pay too much attention to his bluster or you'd never get any sleep. But what is worrying is that Trump's poll numbers are cratering in a way unprecedented for any modern president...The conjuncture of these two pieces of news -- Trump making cryptic but dire threats and Trump's astonishing unpopularity -- creates the threat of a wag the dog scenario. Americans rally around the flag when the US goes to war, and presidents know this.... Trump is having the kind of fall from grace politically that typically tempts presidents into some sort of military action. And that is why we should take his 'calm before the storm' threat seriously." --safari...

...Reuters: "North Korea is preparing to test a long-range missile which it believes can reach the west coast of the United States, according to a Russian lawmaker who has just returned from a visit to Pyongyang.... In Washington, a US official said that there had been indications that North Korea could be preparing for a missile test on or around 10 October, the anniversary of the founding of the ruling Korean Workers party. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not disclose the type of missile that could be tested and cautioned that North Korea in the past has not staged launches despite indications that it would." --safari

Juan Cole lists 5 signs that your President might be a fucking moron. -- safari: Cole's being generous only listing 5....

...Seth Meyers lambasts our "fucking moron". --safari

Today in Administration Bigotry: the Right to Discriminate Rule. Dominic Holden & Zoe Tillman: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed federal agencies and attorneys on Friday to protect religious liberty in a broad, yet vague, guidance memo that critics fear could give people of faith -- including government workers and contractors -- a loophole to ignore federal bans on discrimination against women and LGBT people. The guidance says the government cannot unduly burden people or certain businesses from practicing their faith, noting, 'The free exercise of religion includes the right to act or abstain from action in accordance with one's religious beliefs.' The policy does not create new law, but rather interprets how the government should construe the Constitution and existing federal law. It comes on the heels of the Justice Department weighing in on a religious liberty case, in which lawyers under Sessions argued in a brief to the US Supreme Court that a Christian baker had a First Amendment right to deny a gay couple a cake for their wedding." ...

... Matt Zapotosky & Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "Sessions articulated 20 sweeping principles about religious freedom ... among them that freedom of religion extends to people and organizations; that religious employers are allowed to hire only those whose conduct is consistent with their beliefs; and that grants can't require religious organizations to change their character.... [The guidelines triggered] an immediate backlash from civil liberties groups who asserted the nation's top law enforcement officer was trying to offer a license for discrimination.... They could have a broad negative impact, permitting religious groups to impinge on the rights of LGBT people and others, said civil liberties advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Equality Federation and others.... The most immediate effect seemed to be on the Affordable Care Act's contraception coverage mandate. On Friday, the Trump administration issued a rule -- which the ACLU said it would sue over, but groups like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said they support -- allowing a much broader group of employers and insurers to exempt themselves from covering contraceptives, such as birth control pills, on religious or moral grounds." ...

This is a direct attack on women's rights. The Trump administration is using the guise of religious liberty to carry out their ideological agenda to deprive women of basic reproductive health care. -- Vanita Gupta, CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights ...

... Keep 'em Barefoot & Pregnant. Here's the new lede on Robert Pear's NYT story, linked yesterday: "The Trump administration on Friday moved to roll back the federal requirement for employers to include birth control coverage in their health insurance plans, vastly expanding exemptions for those that cite moral or religious objections." ...

... Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn of Mother Jones: "The ACLU, along with at least three other organizations, announced today that they will file a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's new rule gutting Obamacare's contraception mandate. Trump's rule ... greatly expands the type of employers that can opt out of covering birth control as part of their insurance plans. Previously, only religious organizations were exempt from the mandate and they needed to file paperwork in order to qualify, which in turn trigg[er]ed separate contraception coverage for employees. Now, any employer can claim a religious or moral objection to the mandate and choose to opt out.... Moreover, insurance companies themselves can now opt out, as can higher educational institutions that arrange insurance for their students. The administration's move would affect an estimated 62.4 million women who have free birth control coverage through the Affordable Care Act benefit, according to the National Women's Law Center." ...

... It's All Hilarious. Kaili Gray of Shareblue: "Donald Trump has utterly failed to deliver on his threat to repeal Obamacare and harm the millions of men and women who have health care because of it. So he's going to punish women directly instead.... Asked by Fox Business Network correspondent Blake Burman to respond to the millions of women who will lose their access to basic health care because of the Trump administration's vengeful decision..., Sarah Huckabee Sanders's response was appalling. She laughed -- laughed -- and then dared to suggest anyone who disagrees with the decision does not support the Constitution the way Donald Trump does.... in between her chuckles, Sanders also stated something that is simply untrue. The Supreme Court has not validated this decision even once, let alone 'many times over.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Unfortunately, the Supremes will very likely give their high-holy blessings to everything Sessions & Trump do to curb the rights of women, gays & minorities. No wonder Sarah is chuckling. I hope she gets pregnant & is caught sneaking into an abortion clinic. ...

... New York Times Editors: "Under the guise of protecting religious freedom and moral sensibilities, the Trump administration is making it harder for women to get access to birth control. On Friday, it rolled back an Obama-era rule requiring most employers to provide their employees with birth control coverage without co-payments. The mandate, established under the Affordable Care Act, has helped millions of women avoid unwanted pregnancy by eliminating out-of-pockets costs for contraception.... The Trump administration says, with no evidence whatsoever, that its new rules will have no effect on 'over 99.9 percent of the 165 million women in the United States.'... President Trump's assault on the birth control mandate is like his broader attack on the Affordable Care Act, filled with spite, based on falsehoods and fueled by vindictiveness toward his predecessor. And both will hurt millions of people." ...

... Gail Collins: "How can you fight against both abortion and contraception? There are only two possible explanations. One is that you're a hypocritical politician trolling for right-to-life votes without any personal convictions whatsoever. The suddenly retiring congressman from Pennsylvania, Tim Murphy, would appear to fit into that category.... Let's call the second category Many Variations on the Little Sisters of the Poor. They're people of sincere religious conviction, trying to impose their own personal theology on Americans who don't share it. Some of them claim, with no scientific backing, that birth control involves fertilized eggs being expelled from the uterus and is therefore abortion. Others just believe that it's immoral for a woman to have sex without accepting the possibility of pregnancy.

Today in Administration Bigotry (Part II): Fomenting Fear. Matt Shuham of TPM: "In August, the FBI's counterterrorism division published a report warning law enforcement across the country of a new threat. It called the threat 'Black Identity Extremism.' It appears to be an invented label, Foreign Policy reported. The publication revealed the existence of the counterterrorism memo Friday and briefly posted the actual document on its website before removing it. According to the FBI, 'it is very likely some BIEs are influenced by a mix of anti-authoritarian, Moorish sovereign citizen ideology, and BIE ideology.'... Counterterrorism and homeland security experts interviewed by Foreign Policy expressed skepticism at the new label. Michael German, a former FBI agent turned Brennan Center fellow, said: 'Basically, it's black people who scare them.'" --safari: An important step in Making America Great (for white men) Again.

Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence operative who authored a 35-page dossier alleging that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia, has been in talks with the Senate Intelligence Committee about speaking to its leaders, three sources familiar with the situation told NBC News. In a development first reported on 'The Rachel Maddow Show' on Thursday night, the sources disputed the characterization of the situation by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the chairman of the intelligence committee. Burr said this week that Steele had flatly declined the committee's offer to speak to him, and the committee thus had 'hit a brick wall' in its attempts to investigate the dossier.... [Two sources] said that one of the sticking points was Steele's unwillingness to discuss who underwrote his work." ...

...Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Nine months after its first appearance, the set of intelligence reports known as the Steele dossier, one of the most explosive documents in modern political history is still hanging over Washington, casting a shadow over the Trump administration that has only grown darker as time has gone by.... The fact that Steele's reports are being taken seriously after lengthy scrutiny by federal and congressional investigators has far-reaching implications...But as every passing months bring more leaks, revelations in the press, and more progress in the investigations, the Steele dossier has generally gained in credibility, rather than lost it." --safari...

... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "... the [Senate] Judiciary Committee is not, in fact, running a Trump-Russia investigation -- at least, not a full-fledged one. A staffer for [chair Chuck] Grassley, speaking on the condition of anonymity..., told The Daily Beast that the committee is instead engaged in routine oversight of the Justice Department -- though under extraordinary circumstances.... Grassley has primarily used his bully pulpit to rip an opposition-research firm and the FBI.... The Grassley staffer told The Daily Beast that the Judiciary Committee's investigators are focused on the FBI.... Besides suggesting that the FBI could be responsible for the Trump/Russia troubles, Grassley has also dedicated significant resources into investigating Fusion GPS, an opposition-research firm that compiled the so-called Steele dossier." ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones: "At a packed press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) ... provided a progress report on his panel's investigation of the Trump-Russia scandal.... Burr tried to make some points that appeared designed to limit ... Donald Trump's political vulnerabilities.... First, Burr declared that ... he could confidently state that the Russian meddling in the 2016 election resulted in no changes to the vote tallies.... And second, Burr said that Russia's use of Facebook ads during the presidential campaign seemed 'indiscriminate' and not designed to help a particular candidate.... Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-Ore.), a feisty member of the intelligence committee, says both assertions are bunk. Wyden pointed out that the Department of Homeland Security has noted that its assessment that there was no finagling with the vote count was made with only 'moderate confidence.'... Wyden also said that Burr erred in declaring that the Russian Facebook ads -- some of which targeted swing states -- did not favor a presidential candidate. (Presumably Wyden has seen or been briefed on the content of the ads.) 'That's one reason why the ads need to be released to the American people,' Wyden remarked, 'so Americans can make up their minds.'"

Celeste Katz of Newsweek: "Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are still cleaning up after Hurricane Maria — and some say Vice President Mike Pence is still cleaning up after Donald Trump. Pence headed to the storm-devastated islands Friday to comfort victims and promise lasting government help with recovery. He donned cowboy boots and an empathetic mien while on a mission that exemplified the marked contrast between his style and that of his boss ... yet again. 'What you're seeing is the difference between a professional, retail politician who understands the personal touch and a celebrity billionaire who's been largely removed (and remains that way) from citizens,' political consultant Reed Galen summed up for Newsweek." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd say pence is rehearsing for his 25th Amendment debut. Good work, Mr. Acting President in Waiting.

Jonah Shepp of New York writes a useful piece on how Rex Tillerson has been busy undermining Trump's insane, dangerous "foreign policy" plans.

Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general acknowledged plans Friday to expand its inquiry into Administrator Scott Pruitt's travel habits, marking the latest Trump Cabinet member to face scrutiny from his own agency for taxpayer-funded trips. The move came after recent disclosures that Pruitt had taken at least four noncommercial and military flights since mid-February, costing taxpayers more than $58,000 to fly him to various parts of the country...." Mrs. McC: And what about that $25,000 phone booth?...

...Swamp Creatures. Natasha Geiling of ThinkProgress: "The White House announced Thursday that President Donald Trump has officially nominated Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, to be deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Until recently, Wheeler was a registered lobbyist for Murray Energy; he de-registered as a lobbyist on August 11...As deputy administrator, Wheeler would oversee offices and programs charged with regulating the coal industry." --safari

Rachel Bade, et al., of Politico: "Rep. Tim Murphy, a staunch anti-abortion advocate, thought he could withstand the media furor that engulfed him after reports that he'd encouraged his extramarital lover to end her apparent pregnancy. He was wrong.... Murphy's swift collapse came ... because of ... fears among senior Republicans about a potential wave of negative stories on how Murphy ran his congressional office.... The Post-Gazette had reported on a June 2017 memo in which Murphy's longtime chief of staff, Susan Mosychuk, warned the Pennsylvania Republican that he was mistreating and 'harassing' staff, causing 100 percent turnover. But Mosychuk is a source of controversy herself.... Ex-aides said the combination of Murphy and Mosychuk -- who had a close personal relationship, according to GOP lawmakers and staffers -- made the situation intolerable.... According to these aides, Mosychuk regularly engaged in brutal verbal abuse of lower-ranking aides, from calling aides 'worthless' and their work 'garbage' to asking derisively, 'Do you or do you not have a fucking college degree?' Ex-staffers said Mosychuk kept white noise machines throughout Murphy's congressional office so constituents waiting in the front room couldn't hear her screaming." And so forth. Mrs. McC: Have we mentioned that Dr. Murphy was supposed to be a mental health expert?

Cameron Joseph of TPM: "Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore's top supporter is a hardline Confederate sympathizer with longtime ties to a secessionist group. ;Michael Anthony Peroutka ... has given Moore, his foundation and his campaigns well over a half-million dollars over the past decade-plus. He's also expressed beliefs that make even Moore's arguably theocratic anti-gay and anti-Muslim views look mainstream by comparison. Chief among them: He's argued that the more Christian South needs to secede and form a new Biblical nation." Read on --safari: I say let 'em take Alabama, fill it with their fundamentalist brethren, and then build a giant, beautiful wall around it. A see-through wall, of course.

Boeing in Bed with the Moron. Clive Irving of The Daily Beast: "[T]he Commerce Department's latest and enlarged proposal that a 300 percent tariff should be slapped on every one of the 75 Bombardier C Series jets ordered by Delta Airlines is effectively locking the Canadians out of the U.S. market...[T]he move would jeopardize the whole project and immediately sour relations between America and two long-standing allies whose economies are interdependent with ours: Canada and Great Britain..." --safari

Megan Twohey & Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "The Weinstein Company struggled to perform damage control on Friday amid allegations of rampant sexual harassment by its co-chairman Harvey Weinstein and turmoil among its ranks. One-third of the company's all-male board resigned, while board members who remained hired an outside law firm to investigate the allegations and announced that Mr. Weinstein would take an indefinite leave of absence immediately."

Joseph Bernstein of BuzzFeed has a long piece on Breitbart & Steve Bannon as agents of the neo-Nazi, white supremacist, alt-right movements. ...

... For a shorter version, Martin Longman obliges in the Washington Monthly: "Milo Yiannopoulos uses 'Kristall' (in reference to Kristallnacht) and 'LongKnives1290' (in reference to The Night of the Long Knives and the year King Edward I expelled the Jews from England) as his passwords. He has to be reminded repeatedly by a generally sympathetic editor-in-chief, Alex Marlow, not to 'flirt with okay-ing Nazi memes,' do podcasts with white supremacists, or make Holocaust-oven jokes. He does karaoke while Richard Spencer and other white supremacists give him the Nazi salute.... The Mercer family is completely behind this ideology and so is Steve Bannon. That's clear from the email threads that BuzzFeed obtained. Together, they turned Milo into a sensation. And when they had to fire him for making comments sympathetic to pedophilia, that didn't prevent them for quietly supporting him and helping him plan for the next phase of his career[.]... The thing that really hit home for me, though, was the part of the article that described the editorial process Breitbart used when working on their feature piece: An Establishment Conservative's Guide To The Alt-Right. Since I have an editorial role at the Washington Monthly, I am accustomed to the practice of sending around drafts of articles to people both on and off the official editorial staff. And I just can't wrap my head around the idea of working in an organization where article drafts are sent out to white nationalists for comment and annotation." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's hope the FBI has Bannon, the Mercers & Breitbart in its sites. Meanwhile, we must "never forget" that these are Trump's people. ...

Yahoo! News has a documentary film that provides a "firsthand account of the drama that unfolded during Oct. 7-9, 2016, from the release of the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape to the second presidential debate -- and everything in between."

(Way) Beyond the Beltway<

How Convenient. Jon Henley of the Guardian: "The current prime minister of Iceland [Bjarni Benediktsson] sold almost all his remaining assets in a major Icelandic bank's investment fund on the day the government seized control of the country's collapsing financial sector at the peak of the 2008 crash.... While he denies any wrongdoing and the Guardian has seen no evidence he broke any laws, the revelations could be embarrassing: Benediktsson faces elections on 28 October after his coalition collapsed last month over an alleged attempt to cover up a scandal involving the prime minister's father and a convicted child sex abuser.... The leaked documents ... suggest he enjoyed a privileged relationship with [the bank]...." --safari

News Lede

New York Times: "Hurricane Nate, the 14th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, gained strength on Saturday in the Gulf of Mexico and was speeding toward this low-lying stretch of coast, threatening to come ashore somewhere between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., as a Category 2 storm, forecasters said. The governors of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi declared states of emergency ahead of the storm, and counties along the coast issued curfews, ordered evacuations and braced for winds that the National Hurricane Center said could reach up to 105 miles an hour."

The Commentariat -- October 6, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Keep 'em Barefoot & Pregnant. Here's the new lede on Robert Pear's NYT story, linked earlier today: "The Trump administration on Friday moved to roll back the federal requirement for employers to include birth control coverage in their health insurance plans, vastly expanding exemptions for those that cite moral or religious objections."

Rachel Bade, et al., of Politico: "Rep. Tim Murphy, a staunch anti-abortion advocate, thought he could withstand the media furor that engulfed him after reports that he&'d encouraged his extramarital lover to end her apparent pregnancy. He was wrong.... Murphy's swift collapse came ... because of ... fears among senior Republicans about a potential wave of negative stories on how Murphy ran his congressional office.... The Post-Gazette had reported on a June 2017 memo in which Murphy's longtime chief of staff, Susan Mosychuk, warned the Pennsylvania Republican that he was mistreating and 'harassing' staff, causing 100 percent turnover. But Mosychuk is a source of controversy herself.... Ex-aides said the combination of Murphy and Mosychuk -- who had a close personal relationship, according to GOP lawmakers and staffers -- made the situation intolerable.... According to these aides, Mosychuk regularly engaged in brutal verbal abuse of lower-ranking aides... Ex-staffers said Mosychuk kept white noise machines throughout Murphy's congressional office so constituents waiting in the front room couldn't hear her screaming." And so forth. Mrs. McC: Have we mentioned that Dr. Murphy is supposedly a mental health expert?

*****

Mark Landler & David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump has approved a broad strategy to crack down on Iran for its ballistic missile program and support for militant groups throughout the Middle East, according to a senior administration official, although he has yet to formally sign off on 'decertifying' the nuclear accord negotiated by the Obama administration. Mr. Trump has been expected to withdraw certification of the nuclear deal since he declared at the United Nations General Assembly two weeks ago that the agreement was 'embarrassing to the United States,' and that he had made up his mind what to do about it. But the president has not yet signed a decision memo on the deal itself, the official said. Even if the president takes that step, it would fall short of scrapping the accord because the White House would kick the deal to Congress to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran." ...

... Anne Gearan & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "President Trump is expected to announce next week that he will 'decertify' the international nuclear deal with Iran, saying it is not in the national interest of the United States and kicking the issue to a reluctant Congress, people briefed on the White House strategy said Thursday. The move would mark the first step in a process that could eventually result in the resumption of U.S. sanctions against Iran, potentially derailing a deal limiting Iran's nuclear activities reached in 2015 with the United States and five other nations. But Trump would hold off on recommending that Congress reimpose sanctions, which would constitute a clearer break from the pact, according to four people familiar with aspects of the president's thinking." ...

... The Lone Rager Rides Again. Karen DeYoung & Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "More than any other issue that has threatened transatlantic cohesion this year, President Trump's decision to decertify Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal could start a chain of events that would sharply divide the United States from its closest traditional allies in the world.... None of the three [allies] -- Britain, France and Germany -- believes Iran is in violation, and each has said publicly it will not renegotiate the nuclear agreement." ...

... Wherein Trump casually suggests to reporters that he'll soon be taking the country to war with ... some country. ...

... Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post now has a story up on the Josh Marshall post linked directly above: "As President Trump posed for a formal photo with his top military commanders and their spouses in the State Dining Room at the White House on Thursday evening, Trump pointed to the leaders gathered around him and asked the small group of reporters standing before him: 'You guys know what this represents?' 'Tell us,' shouted out one of the reporters unexpectedly summoned to witness this photo session. 'Maybe it's the calm before the storm,' the president replied. Reporters asked the president what he was talking about, what storm was coming. 'Could be the calm before the storm,' he said a second time."

Brian Stelter of CNN: "President Trump's disregard for a free press just reached a new low: He's urging the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate American news outlets for publishing 'fake' stories.... 'This is the kind of statement one expects to hear from a despot, not from an American president,' said Jameel Jaffer, the director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.... Preet Bharara, one of the former U.S. attorneys who was fired by Trump earlier this year, tweeted this interpretation of Trump's statement: 'POTUS desperately wants to direct who should be investigated & who should be immune. He wants scrutiny for adversaries, amnesty for allies.'" ...

... Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Despite the self-parodic actions of some college students, the greatest threats to free speech in the United States are on the right.... I understand that for a lot of young leftists, it doesn't make sense to equate what they see as hate speech with the speech of the oppressed. It's harder for me to understand why they think that if First Amendment protections are weakened, the left -- and not, say, the Trump administration -- will be allowed to define what is hateful and what is not.... When disputes about free speech are adjudicated not according to broad principles but according to who has power, the left will mostly lose."

Paul Waldman: "Perhaps someday Trump will sit down to write a book detailing his leadership secrets, offering up another trove of penetrating insight and inspiring prose. Until then, here are some tips we can glean from watching Trump's unrivaled performance as president. 1. Force your underlings to praise you in public.... 2. Publicly denigrate the work of your staff, just so they don't forget who's boss.... 3. Encourage high turnover.... 4. The most competent employees can be found in your own family.... 5. When people for whom you're responsible suffer unexpected hardship, take the opportunity to insult them.... 6. Encourage people to find the silver lining.... 7. The public trust is permission to live large.... 8. Absorb criticism with maturity and thoughtfulness, by trying to destroy anyone who criticizes you.... 9. It's all about you." You'll enjoy reading the examples from which Waldman draws his "leadership secrets."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Trump administration is poised to roll back the federal requirement for employers to include birth control coverage in their health insurance plans, vastly expanding exemptions for those that cite moral or religious objections. The new rules, which could be issued as soon as Friday, fulfill a campaign promise by President Trump and are sure to touch off a round of lawsuits on the issue. More than 55 million women have access to birth control without co-payments because of the contraceptive coverage mandate, according to a study commissioned by the Obama administration. Under the new regulations, hundreds of thousands of women could lose birth control benefits they now receive at no cost under the Affordable Care Act." ...

... So we know Trump and most Republican men hate women who have sex with men other than themselves. But surely Trump will treat his own Iowa farmer-boy/reliable GOP voters better.... Oops, no:

... Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "For months, officials in Republican-controlled Iowa had sought federal permission to revitalize their ailing health-insurance marketplace. Then President Trump read about the request in a newspaper story and called the federal director weighing the application. Trump's message in late August was clear, according to individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity...: Tell Iowa no.... In addition to trying to cut funding for the ACA, the Trump administration also is hampering state efforts to control premiums.... And with the fifth enrollment season set to begin Nov. 1, advocates say the Health and Human Services Department has done more to suppress the number of people signing up than to boost it." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Like the presidunce, I have a limited vocabulary. I can't think of words horrible enough to describe him. ...

... Speaking of Horrible Human Beings.... Josh Dawsey, et al., of Politico: "The White House is finalizing a plan to demand hard-line immigration reforms in exchange for supporting a fix on the DACA program, according to three people familiar with the talks -- an approach that risks alienating Democrats and even many Republicans, potentially tanking any deal. The White House proposal is being crafted by Stephen Miller, the administration's top immigration adviser, and includes cutting legal immigration by half over the next decade, an idea that's already been panned by lawmakers in both parties.... Miller was upset after Trump's dinner last month with [Chuck] Schumer and [Nancy] Pelosi and has been working since to bring the president back to the tougher stance he took during his campaign."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has flown on military aircraft seven times since March at a cost of more than $800,000, including a $15,000 round-trip flight to New York to meet with President Trump at Trump Tower, according to the Treasury Department's Office of Inspector General. The inquiry into Mr. Mnuchin's air travel, prompted by an Instagram posting by his wife, found he broke no laws in his use of military aircraft but lamented the loose justification provided for such costly flights. 'What is of concern is a disconnect between the standard of proof called for' by the Office of Management and Budget 'and the actual amount of proof provided by Treasury and accepted by the White House in justifying these trip requests,' the inspector general wrote.... Treasury secretaries generally take commercial flights except in extenuating circumstances because of the exorbitant costs of using military planes. For instance, Mr. Mnuchin's June flight to Miami ... cost $43,725.50. While the flight was approved, the Treasury Department's travel office sent a note to Mr. Mnuchin's assistant that a round-trip commercial flight would cost just $688." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND of course we mustn't forget the aborted plans for an all-expense-paid European honeymoon. Medlar & I will be paying our federal income taxes today, & we'll be thinking of the portion that we'll be contributing to this multi-millionaire's extravagances. Not to mention contemplating the higher taxes we'll pay in 2018 if the arrogant, self-serving flyboy gets his way on tax "reform." (Of course, his tax own obligation will plummet under his so-called middle class tax plan.)

Homeland Security? Not So Much. Josh Dawsey, et al., of Politico: "White House officials believe that chief of staff John Kelly's personal cellphone was compromised, potentially as long ago as December, according to three U.S. government officials. The discovery raises concerns that hackers or foreign governments may have had access to data on Kelly's phone while he was secretary of Homeland Security and after he joined the West Wing. Tech support staff discovered the suspected breach after Kelly turned his phone in to White House tech support this summer complaining that it wasn't working or updating software properly. Kelly told the staffers the phone hadn't been working properly for months, according to the officials.... Kelly has since begun using a different [personal] phone..., though he relies on his government phone when he's inside the White House.... The document triggered concern throughout the West Wing about what information might have been exposed...." Mrs. McC: Yeah, like that time Kelly told a friend Trump was a moron. ...

... Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, abruptly scrapped plans to travel with ... Donald Trump on Wednesday so he could try to contain his boss's fury and manage the fallout from new revelations about tensions between the president and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, according to six senior administration officials. Kelly summoned Tillerson, and their ally Defense Secretary James Mattis, to the White House, where the three of them huddled to discuss a path forward, according to three administration officials.... Trump was furious when he saw the NBC News report, which was published shortly before 6 a.m. Wednesday. For the next two hours the president fumed inside the White House, venting to Kelly, officials said.... Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, was fuming in Phoenix, where he was traveling, seven officials told NBC News. He and Tillerson spoke on the phone before the secretary's public appearance on Wednesday morning.... Pence was incensed upon learning from the NBC report that Tillerson's top spokesman had said he once privately questioned the value of Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.... [R.C. Hammond, Tillerson's] spokesman, publicly apologized for his comments about Pence and Haley, saying he 'spoke out of line about conversations I wasn't privy to.' The secretary's refusal to deny that he had called the president a 'moron' in his opening statement and in his responses to questions from reporters stoked Trump's anger and widened the rift between the two men, officials said." ...

... Gene Robinson: "One of the most appalling aspects of the Trump presidency is the sycophancy he requires of the officials who serve him. Trump demands not just loyalty but flattery, too. He insists that his courtiers treat his pronouncements, however absurd or offensive, as infallible holy writ. Members of his Cabinet have made a humiliating bargain: humor him, suck up to him, and maybe -- just maybe -- he will leave you alone and let you make policy.... The president loosed a flurry of tweets claiming the whole thing was 'fake news,' culminating in a demand Thursday for a congressional investigation of news outlets whose reporting he does not like." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Presumably almost everybody who works for Trump considers him a moron.... But the trick of working for a powerful moron is not to say that they're a moron in front of them or anybody who has an incentive to convey your comments to them. And if you are caught, you probably need to make a convincing denial, so that the president is not left in the awkward position of having a Secretary of State who is publicly known to have called him a moron. This is just the kind of basic principle of diplomacy that ought to be familiar to, say, the United States government's head diplomat." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump has made speeches where he asserted, "I'm, like, a very smart person.... Wharton School, blah blah." But he's never made a speech where he asserted, ala Nixon, "I am not a moron." I look forward to that.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to take the position in court cases that transgender people are not protected by a civil rights law that bans workplace discrimination based on sex. The move was the Trump administration's latest contraction of the Obama-era approach to civil rights enforcement. The dispute centers on how to interpret employment protections based on 'sex' in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In December 2014, the attorney general at the time, Eric H. Holder Jr., ordered the Justice Department to view 'sex' as encompassing gender identity, extending protections to transgender people. But in a two-page memo to all United States attorneys and other top officials, Mr. Sessions revoked Mr. Holder's directive. The word 'sex' in the statute, Mr. Sessions said, means only 'biologically male or female,' so the Civil Rights Act does not ban 'discrimination based on gender identity per se, including transgender status.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here again, Congress could fix this. But it won't. BTW, let's not assume JeffBo is a smarmy little bigot. Maybe he is just taking advantage of the opportunity to write "sex" in an official document.

Hope You Can Read Spanish. Jenna Johnson: "As of Wednesday, half of Puerto Ricans had access to drinking water and 5 percent of the island had electricity, according to statistics published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on its Web page documenting the federal response to Hurricane Maria. By Thursday morning, both of those key metrics were no longer on the Web page. FEMA spokesman William Booher noted that both measures are still being reported on a website maintained by the office of Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, www.status.pr. According to that website, which is in Spanish, 9.2 percent of the island now has power and 54.2 percent of residents have access to drinking water. Booher said that these measures are also shared in news conferences and media calls that happen twice a day, but he didn't elaborate on why they are no longer on the main FEMA page." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I thought Republicans' idea of being a "real American" required fluency in English (not that the POTUS is particularly fluent), but gave no demerits for speaking English only. Nice to know the Trump administration is encouraging "real Americans" to learn Spanish!

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday nominated Andrew R. Wheeler, a coal lobbyist with links to outspoken deniers of established science on climate change, to help lead the Environmental Protection Agency. In announcing Mr. Wheeler, a former aide to Senator James M. Inhofe, to be deputy administrator of the agency, the White House tapped an experienced legislative hand reviled by environmental activists but hailed by industry as having the know-how to dismantle Obama-era fossil fuel regulations." Mrs. McC: Hey, not as bad as nominating a gerbil who has never been outside a climate-controlled lab. But close.

Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators met this past summer with the former British spy whose dossier on alleged Russian efforts to aid the Trump campaign spawned months of investigations that have hobbled the Trump administration, according to two people familiar with the matter.... CNN has learned that the FBI and the US intelligence community last year took the [Christopher] Steele dossier more seriously than the agencies have publicly acknowledged.... The intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA, and the FBI took Steele's research seriously enough that they kept it out of a publicly-released January report on Russian meddling in the election in order to not divulge which parts of the dossier they had corroborated and how. This contrasts with attempts by ... Donald Trump and some lawmakers to discredit Steele and the memos he produced."

Wonders Never Cease. New York Times: "The National Rifle Association on Thursday endorsed tighter restrictions on devices that allow a rifle to fire bullets as fast as a machine gun -- a rare, if small, step for a group that for years has vehemently opposed any new gun controls.... On Capitol Hill, support appeared to grow for a ban on the bump stock devices, either through regulation or legislation, as Republicans -- who for decades have rejected any form of gun restrictions -- began increasingly to speak out. Several leading Republicans, including Senator John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, have raised serious questions about the devices. In the House, Representative Carlos Curbelo, Republican of Florida, has drafted a measure banning bump stocks, which he said he planned to introduce on Thursday. He said his office had been 'flooded' with calls from dozens of fellow Republicans who wanted to sign on." ...

... Oh, Not So Wonder-ful. Rachel Bade, et al., of Politico: "The National Rifle Association on Thursday called on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to review whether 'bump stocks' -- similar to the devices used in Sunday's Las Vegas shooting massacre -- comply with federal law. 'The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,' NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and Executive Director Chris Cox added in a joint statement. The move by the [NRA]..., which often stifles any legislation that might be interpreted as curbing Second Amendment rights, is designed to head off a messy gun control debate in Congress. Officials with the group have told Capitol Hill Republicans and Trump administration officials they would prefer a new rule or regulations from ATF, rather than hastily cobbled together legislation." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So the idea here is to squelch legislation, after all, & to urge the ATF to "review" the sale of bump stocks. Even if the ATF soon decides bump-stock sales do not comply with current law, the agency would be issuing a regulation, & regulations are usually easier to change than are laws. Also, by asking anonymous ATF personnel to "review" its regulations, the NRA is getting its paid Congresscritters off the hook on what, for many of them, would be a controversial vote.

... Lorraine Woellert of Politico: "The firing range at the National Rifle Association headquarters, like many ranges across the nation, bans the use of bump fire systems such as the one used by Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, according to firearms experts. Bump stocks increase the speed at which bullets are fired and cause the entire weapon to move back and forth in the shooter's grip. While the devices are said to convert semiautomatic weapons into fully automatic ones, they also decrease accuracy and are less safe, the experts say." ...

... Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "Sales of the firearm accessory that the Las Vegas gunman used to modify his rifles jumped this week, causing some companies to sell out of the so-called bump stocks even as Walmart and Cabela's stripped them from their websites. The products -- conversion kits that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire hundreds of rounds per minute, similar to an automatic weapon -- were once relatively obscure specialty items aimed at gun enthusiasts who own semiautomatic rifles. But since the massacre on Sunday, when the gunman fired on a music festival crowd from the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, killing dozens and injuring more than 500, interest in the accessory has surged. Officials said that 12 of the rifles found in the gunman's suite were outfitted with bump stocks." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Every person who buys a bump stock should be put on the terrorist watch list, & armed ATF & FBI agents should pay a call on each one of them. ...

... Tim Egan describes the poorly-worded Second Amendment as "the cancer in the Constitution." "... the Second Amendment became a cancer because lawmakers stopped making laws to match the technological advances of weaponry. They did it to appease a lobby of gunmakers. And that cowering to a single special interest shows how the cancer has spread to the democracy itself, making it nearly impossible for majority will to be exercised. A majority of Americans -- indeed, a majority of gun owners -- want laws to keep lunatics and terrorists from committing mass homicide. But what is the response of our elected officials? I'll let President Trump explain. As he told the N.R.A. after the election, 'You came through big for me, and I am going to come through for you.'" ...

... ** It Isn't Just the Second Amendment. It's the Whole Constitution. E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post, Norm Ornstein & Thomas Mann: "Why does our political system make it impossible even to consider solutions to gun violence? After the massacre in Las Vegas that has so far taken nearly 60 lives and left more than 500 injured, the first reaction of the many politicians who carry water for the gun lobby was to declare it 'premature' to discuss measures to keep guns out of the wrong hands.... But something else is at work here. As we argue in our book, 'One Nation After Trump,' the United States is now a non-majoritarian democracy. If that sounds like a contradiction in terms, that's because it is. Claims that our republic is democratic are undermined by a system that vastly overrepresents the interests of rural areas and small states. This leaves the large share of Americans in metropolitan areas with limited influence over national policy. Nowhere is the imbalance more dramatic or destructive than on the issue of gun control."

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "A senior House Democrat said Thursday that it's time for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and two top lieutenants to prepare to step down and make way for the next generation of lawmakers in her caucus. The comments by Rep. Linda T. Sánchez (Calif.), who as vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus ranks fifth in the 194-member body, are the most explicit by a senior congressional Democrat and a member of the California congressional delegation about Pelosi's political future."

Adios, Timbo. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Rep. Tim Murphy said Thursday that he will resign from Congress this month, a day after the eight-term Pennsylvania Republican announced that he would not seek reelection amid a personal scandal.... Murphy's decision to resign within weeks, rather than remain in Congress for an additional 15 months, came amid pressure from top Republican leaders to remove himself as a distraction as the GOP House tackles a major tax bill and other legislative priorities. 'I've spoken with Tim quite a bit the last couple of days,' [Speaker Paul] Ryan said at a news conference shortly before Murphy's resignation was announced. 'I think it's appropriate that he moves on to the next chapter of his life. And I think he agrees with that.'... The resignation of Murphy, a clinical psychologist, comes after a news report claimed that the married Republican had asked a woman with whom he had an extramarital affair to get an abortion." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You see how civilized & polite & all Ryan is? Instead of yelling "You're fired," as would the Moron-in-Chief, Ryan shows a guy the door while urging him to "move on to the next chapter of your life." Sweet. Anyhow, so long, Tim, you despicable, misogynistic hypocrite.

Greg LaRose of the New Orleans Times-Picayune: "A federal judge in Virginia has thrown out the most substantial charges against former congressman William Jefferson of New Orleans and ordered 'his immediate release' from prison while his new sentence is determined. He is five years into a 13-year term for corruption, but seven of the 10 charges against him have been thrown out on appeal. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III of Virginia issued the order Wednesday (Oct. 4).... The most damning evidence investigators found in the case were bundles of cash totaling $90,000 kept in a refrigerator at Jefferson's home.... Jefferson's lawyers exhausted their first avenue of appeal, getting one of his convictions removed, but they renewed their efforts full force following the Supreme Court's 2016 ruling in the United States v. McDonnell. The case involved former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell, who had been convicted on a federal bribery charge for accepting gifts from a businessman who was seeking help to promote his company. Justices ruled that it was difficult to define that what McDonnell did in response to the gifts comprised an 'official act.' Federal prosecutors chose not to retry McDonnell, leading to a flood of new appeals from convicted politicos. Jefferson's new appeal was based on the same argument as McDonnell's, and Ellis agreed with most of its points."

Beyond the Beltway -- Men Behaving Badly Edition

Sarah Parvini, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "After the dean of USC's medical school resigned last year amid long-running complaints about his drinking and boorish treatment of colleagues, university leaders assured students and faculty that his successor would be worthy of respect. The man USC chose, however, had a black mark on his own personnel record: A finding by the university 15 years ago that he had behaved inappropriately toward a female medical school fellow. USC formally disciplined the dean, Dr. Rohit Varma, in 2003 following allegations that he sexually harassed the young researcher while he was a junior professor supervising her work.... As The Times was preparing to publish a story disclosing the case, USC announced Thursday afternoon that Varma was no longer dean." Mrs. McC: USC should take a look at who-all they're putting on their search committees.

Brad Schrade of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "A south Georgia grand jury indicted Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby on Tuesday for sexual battery, false imprisonment and violation of oath of office after he ordered a school-wide search of hundreds of high school students. Deputies allegedly touched girls' vaginas and breasts and groped boys in their groin area during the search at the Worth County High School April 14. Two of Hobby's deputies were also indicted Tuesday in connection with the case. The controversial search drew national attention because of its scope and how deputies conducted it under the guise of a drug search that produced no drugs or arrests."

Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey of the New York Times: "An investigation by The New York Times found previously undisclosed [sexual harassment] allegations against [film producer Harvey] Weinstein stretching over nearly three decades, documented through interviews with current and former employees and film industry workers, as well as legal records, emails and internal documents from the businesses he has run, Miramax and the Weinstein Company. During that time, after being confronted with allegations including sexual harassment and unwanted physical contact, Mr. Weinstein has reached at least eight settlements with women, according to two company officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.... In public, he presents himself as a liberal lion, a champion of women and a winner of not just artistic but humanitarian awards." ...

... Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter: "On the heels of The New York Times' bombshell exposé published Thursday about 'decades of harassment' on the part of Harvey Weinstein, the mogul's attorney Charles Harder says he's preparing a lawsuit against the paper.... Harder is perhaps most famous as the lawyer who represented Hulk Hogan in the litigation that brought down Gawker."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "After killing at least 22 people in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, intensifying Tropical Storm Nate is on a collision course with the northern U.S. Gulf Coast. Southeast Louisiana, including vulnerable New Orleans, lies in the path. The storm, which is predicted to strengthen into a hurricane, should make landfall between late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. Damaging winds and flooding threaten the region from roughly Morgan City, La., to Pensacola, Fla."

Washington Post: "The U.S. economy lost 33,000 jobs in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma last month, the first decline in six years. But the unemployment rate declined slightly to 4.2 percent. Analysts had been expecting job growth to slump in September after the one-two punch from the hurricanes. But this was worse than expected."

New York Times: "In a year when threats from nuclear weapons seemed to draw closer, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to an advocacy group behind the first treaty to prohibit them. The group, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a Geneva-based coalition of disarmament activists, was honored for its efforts to advance the negotiations that led to the treaty, which was reached in July at the United Nations."