The Commentariat -- September 12, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

** Matt Zapotosky & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe's legal team has been notified that the Justice Department authorized prosecutors to seek an indictment against him for lying to investigators, according to two people familiar with the matter, though it remains unclear whether McCabe will be charged. McCabe's team was notified of Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen's decision in a message Wednesday, which said, 'The Department rejected your appeal of the United States Attorney's Office's decision in this matter. Any further inquiries should be directed to theUnited States Attorney's Office,' one person familiar with the matter said. McCabe's team was told last month that line prosecutors had recommended charges, and later, that D.C. U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu had endorsed that decision, a person familiar with the matter said.... The notification comes as a federal grand jury investigating McCabe was suddenly recalled this week after a months-long hiatus -- an indication its members would likely be asked soon to consider bringing charges. But the panel left with no immediate signs of an indictment -- a sign they might have balked, been asked to return later or filed a determination under seal.... McCabe authorized the FBI to begin investigating President Trump and has long been a target of the commander in chief's ire." The USA Today story is here. Politico's story is here.

Tracy Jan of the Washington Post: "The Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development found no evidence of misconduct against Secretary Ben Carson in a $31,000 furniture order to replace a dining room set in his secretarial suite, according to a copy of the investigation obtained by The Washington Post. The investigation was launched more than a year ago following accusations that Carson had violated federal appropriations law in 2017 by ordering furniture worth more than $5,000 without notifying congressional appropriators. 'We found no evidence indicating that either Secretary or Mrs. Carson exerted improper influence on any departmental employee in connection with the procurement,' the 14-page report said. HUD officials had obligated $31,561 in agency funds to buy new dining room furniture for Carson's office suite in December 2017 and failed to notify congressional appropriations committees, as required by law, the inspector general said. But Carson ultimately canceled the order in March 2018 following media reports about the large purchase order.... Candy Carson declined to be interviewed during the inspector general's investigation." The Hill's story, based on a Fox "News" report, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course the IG found Doc Ben innocent. He said it was his wife's fault. "Carson insisted that he had the furniture order canceled 'immediately' after finding out about it...." Even though, uh, internal emails cast doubt on this story, which Ben Carson told to a House committee.

Thanks, GOP! Jeff Fox of CNBC: "The U.S. government&'s red ink for fiscal 2019 swelled past the $1 trillion mark in August, the first time that level has been eclipsed in seven years, the Treasury Department reported Thursday. The total shortfall rose to nearly $1.07 trillion, thanks to a difference between revenue and expenses of more than $214.1 billion in August. The government last saw that large of a fiscal deficit in 2012, when the gap was nearly $1.1 trillion. During his presidential campaign..., Donald Trump promised economic growth that would easily take care of the tax cuts and new spending he planned. His 2017 tax break for corporations and individuals has helped contribute to a deficit that has grown from $584.6 billion in 2016.... As the deficit has grown so has the national debt, which is now at $22.5 trillion, up 13% since Trump took office."

Joan Biskupic of CNN: "Chief Justice John Roberts cast the deciding vote against ... Donald Trump's attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, but only after changing his position behind the scenes, sources familiar with the private Supreme Court deliberations tell CNN." Mrs. McC: Don't kid yourself; Roberts is still an elite-white-guy-confederate jurist, but -- as Biskupic lays out -- he dislikes it when a shady Cabinet member lies about why he made his policy decisions.

Rebecca Shabad & Alex Moe of NBC News: "The House Judiciary Committee took a big step Thursday morning in its ongoing investigation into whether to recommend the filing of articles of impeachment against ... Donald Trump, passing a resolution that set procedures and rules for future impeachment investigation hearings. The resolution passed along party lines, 24-17." Update: The New York Times story is here.

Sad News. Yamiche Alcindor of PBS News: "Gregory Cheadle, the black man ... Donald Trump once described at a rally as 'my African American,' is fed up. After two years of frustration with the president's rhetoric on race and the lack of diversity in the administration, Cheadle told PBS NewsHour he has decided to leave the Republican party and run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representative as an independent in 2020. Now, the 62-year-old real estate broker, who supported the Republican approach to the economy, said he sees the party as pursuing a 'pro-white' agenda and using black people like him as 'political pawns.' The final straw for Cheadle came when he watched many Republicans defend Trump's tweets telling four congresswomen of color, who are all American citizens, to go back to their countries, as well as defend the president's attacks on Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and his comments that Cummings' hometown of Baltimore is 'infested.'" Mrs. McC: And it took Cheadle only three years to catch on.

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Thursday is expected to complete the legal repeal of a major Obama-era clean water regulation, which had placed limits on polluting chemicals that could be used near streams, wetlands and water bodies. The rollback of the 2015 measure, known as the Waters of the United States rule, has been widely expected since the early days of the Trump administration, when President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to begin the work of repealing and replacing it. Weakening the Obama-era water rule had been a central campaign pledge for Mr. Trump, who characterized it as a federal land-grab that impinged on the rights of farmers, rural landowners and real estate developers to use their property as they see fit. Environmentalists say Mr. Trump's push to loosen clean-water regulations represents an assault on the nation's streams and wetlands at a moment when Mr. Trump has repeatedly declared his commitment to 'crystal-clean water.'" The CBS News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's "commitment" to "crystal-clean water" is what I mean by Trump's assault on the language. He isn't merely overturning the meaning of the phrase; he's making it altogether meaningless. "Crystal-clean" then can mean "pure" and "pristine" and "rife with carcinogens" and "filthy." When words have no meaning, everything he says is "true." This is different from an ironical reversal when you say, for instance, "I love it!" when both you & the listener know you're being facetious, and from black code language, which originated in slave days as a subversive means to communicate without raising white suspicions (where, for instance, "cool" means "hot").

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "A team of Trump administration officials toured a California facility once used by the Federal Aviation Administration this week as they searched for a potential site to relocate homeless people, according to three government officials.... President Trump has directed aides to launch a major crackdown on homelessness in California, spurring an effort across multiple government agencies to determine how to deal with sprawling tent camps on the streets of Los Angeles and other cities, officials said.... It ... remains unclear how the federal government could accomplish getting homeless people off the streets of Los Angeles, or what legal authority officials would use to do so.... Some administration officials expressed skepticism that the federal government wanted to get in the business of operating a large homeless shelter in Los Angeles." ~~~

     ~~~ Jack Crosbie of Splinter summarizes the WashPo report & comments on it.

Will Steakin & Rachel Scott of ABC News: "... Donald Trump's campaign intends to counter-program the Democratic primary debate hosted by ABC News and Univision with an ad blitz that includes two full-page newspaper ads and flying a massive banner in the air tha blasts socialism just before candidates take the stage."

Daniel Lippman of Politico: "The U.S. government concluded within the last two years that Israel was most likely behind the placement of cell-phone surveillance devices that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, D.C., according to three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. But unlike most other occasions when flagrant incidents of foreign spying have been discovered on American soil, the Trump administration did not rebuke the Israeli government, and there were no consequences for Israel's behavior, one of the former officials said.... The devices were likely intended to spy on ... Donald Trump, one of the former officials said, as well as his top aides and closest associates -- though it's not clear whether the Israeli efforts were successful. President Trump is reputed to be lax in observing White House security protocols." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Why, it was just the other day we learned that Trump "has privately and repeatedly expressed opposition to the use of foreign intelligence from covert sources... [because] spies can damage relations with their host countries and undermine his personal relationships with their leaders." So Israel can spy on him, but he opposes spying on Israel because then Bibi might not like him.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race 2020

The third Democratic debate is tonight, beginning at 8 pm ET & airing on ABC & Univision. The 10 top-rated candidates -- that is, those who qualified under the DNC's rules -- will appear at this single-night debate.

They Persist. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Former Vice President Joe Biden's lead in the Democratic primary has been cut in half, according to a new poll out Wednesday, and while Biden still maintains his grip on front-runner status, the CNN poll shows Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders incrementally creeping up on him. The CNN poll shows a drop of 5 percentage points in support for Biden in the past three weeks, to 24 percent from 29 percent. The national survey of Democratic primary voters also saw Warren jump Sanders for second place, though the two are still within the margin of sampling error at 18 percent and 17 percent, respectively."

** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to bar most Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the United States, while the legal fight plays out in the courts. The Supreme Court, in a brief, unsigned order, said the administration may enforce new rules that generally forbid asylum applications from migrants who have traveled through another country on their way to the United States without being denied asylum in that country. The court's order was a major victory for the administration, allowing it to enforce a policy that will achieve one of its central goals: effectively barring most migration across the nation's southwestern border by Hondurans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans and others. Mexican migrants, who need not travel through another country to reach the United States, are not affected by the new policy.... Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissented, saying the court's action will 'upend longstanding practices regarding refugees who seek shelter from persecution.'" The AP story is here. ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: When one of the Supremes thinks a truck driver has an obligation to freeze to death if his supervisor tells him to do so, we can't expect his confederates to shut down other forms of persecution.

The Plot Thickens. Mulvaney's Fingerprints Found at the Scene. Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "The White House was directly involved in pressing a federal scientific agency to repudiate the weather forecasters who contradicted President Trump's claim that Hurricane Dorian would probably strike Alabama, according to several people familiar with the events. Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, told Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, to have the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publicly disavow the forecasters' position that Alabama was not at risk. NOAA, which is part of the Commerce Department, issued an unsigned statement last Friday in response, saying that the Birmingham, Ala., office was wrong to dispute the president's warning.... The White House had no immediate comment on Wednesday, but [a] senior administration official said Mr. Mulvaney was interested in having the record corrected because, in his view, the Birmingham forecasters had gone too far and the president was right to suggest there had been forecasts showing possible impact on Alabama." The Hill summarizes the NYT story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ ** New Lede: "President Trump, seeking to justify his claim of a hurricane threat to Alabama, pressed aides to intervene with a federal scientific agency, leading to a highly unusual public rebuke of the forecasters who contradicted him, according to people familiar with the events." ~~~

~~~ Andrew Freedman, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump told his staff that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration needed to deal with a tweet that seemed to contradict his statement that Hurricane Dorian posed a significant threat to Alabama as of Sept. 1, in contrast to what the agency's forecasters were predicting at the time, senior administration officials said. This led chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to call Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to tell him to fix the issue, the officials said.... Mulvaney then called Ross but did not instruct him to threaten any firings or make any punitive threats, officials said. He simply told Ross that the agency needed to fix the matter immediately, leading to a new statement that was issued Friday, Sept. 6. The New York Times reported some elements of these events earlier Wednesday." Mrs. McC: The WashPo broke the news of Trump's involvement several hours before the Times nailed that down. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

     ~~~ Suspected AlabamaGate "Mastermind" Professes Innocence. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump denied that his chief of staff Mick Mulvaney was acting on his orders when Mulvaney reportedly directed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to pressure a federal agency to rebuke scientists who had contradicted Trump's hurricane claims. 'No, I never did that -- I never did that,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, dismissing the entire scandal as 'a hoax by the fake news media.'... On Wednesday, House Democrats piled on when they announced an investigation into reports that [NOAA] had come under pressure by Ross to issue a statement disavowing the NWS Birmingham tweet. Democrats on the House Science Committee and its oversight subcommittee on Wednesday

Sheila Kaplan of the New York Times: "Trump administration officials said on Wednesday they want to ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes, at a time when hundreds of people have been sickened by mysterious vaping-related illnesses. Sitting in the Oval Office with Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of Health and Human Services, and Dr. Ned Sharpless, the acting Food and Drug Administration commissioner, President Trump acknowledged that there was a vaping problem, and said, 'We're going to have to do something about it.' Mr. Azar said that the F.D.A. would outline a plan within the coming weeks for removing most flavored e-cigarettes from the market." The Politico story is here.

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday savaged former national security adviser John Bolton one day after unceremoniously dismissing him via Twitter -- blasting his hawkish ex-aide's hard-charging brand of diplomacy and partly blaming him for launching the Iraq War. In a winding assessment of his tenure atop the White House's National Security Council, delivered to reporters assembled in the Oval Office [for the vaping photo spray], Trump alternated between vicious criticism of Bolton and an insistence that they had maintained a warm working relationship." ~~~

I have five people that want it very much. I mean, a lot more than that would like to have it. But there are five people that I consider very highly qualified, good people I've gotten to know over the last three years, and we'll be announcing somebody next week. -- Donald Trump, on the search for a fourth national security advisor ~~~

~~~ Kylie Atwood, et al., of CNN: "Just one day after ... Donald Trump dismissed national security adviser John Bolton, administration officials are discussing the possibility of replacing Bolton with his chief rival, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Under this scenario, the country's top diplomat would absorb the national security adviser role and do both jobs, according to a senior administration official and a source familiar with the possibilities. That would make Pompeo the second person in history to have both jobs at the same time. The first, Henry Kissinger, was already President Richard Nixon's national security adviser when he was appointed secretary of state in 1973, and filled both roles for two years." ~~~

     ~~~ Steve Holland of Reuters: "Three top aides to former national security adviser John Bolton submitted their resignations on Wednesday, a day after Bolton and ... Donald Trump parted ways. Garrett Marquis, Bolton's top spokesman, Sarah Tinsley, his communications director, and scheduler Christine Samuelian all resigned in what an administration source called an amicable fashion." ~~~

     ~~~ One Bolton Sidekick Who Did Not Resign ... Eliza Relman of Business Insider: "After ... Donald Trump announced that he had fired his national security adviser, John Bolton, on Tuesday, the White House named Charles Kupperman, the deputy national security adviser, to temporarily fill the key post.... Civil rights groups have raised alarms about Kupperman's association with the right-wing Center for Security Policy (CSP), a DC-based think tank that has long promoted anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, including that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the US government. Kupperman, 68, served on CSP's board from 2001 to 2010.... Kupperman is a longtime adviser to Bolton and reportedly aligns with the outgoing official's hawkish orientation toward foreign policy and intervention." Mrs. McC: I'd guess Kupperman's bigotry was what made Trump decide to keep him around for awhile.

Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump drew ire on Twitter Wednesday morning with the way he marked the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Trump shared a photograph of himself and first lady Melania Trump, their backs to the camera, with the caption: 'We Will Never Forget.' However, it wasn't his first post of the day. That honor went to a rant about China and his trade war. Critics on Twitter also called out Trump's now-canceled plan to meet with Taliban leaders close to the anniversary of 9/11, and recalled his history of making insensitive and untruthful statements about the attacks. 'Except when we invited the Taliban over for a photo op,' tweeted attorney George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and a frequent Trump critic." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ And Then ... Chris Cillizza of CNN: "Once Trump got to the Pentagon to lay a wreath at the site of the memorial to those lost when a plane hit the building 18 years ago, he quickly turned the subject to himself.... It's striking the extent to which the President of the United States -- speaking to a group of victims' families -- looked inward. Yes, he talked about what he was doing that day. What he was watching on TV. What he thought had happened. But then, his latest drama on how he decided to cancel the talks with the Taliban."

Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump has left the impression with foreign officials, members of his administration, and others involved in Iranian negotiations that he is actively considering a French plan to extend a $15 billion credit line to the Iranians if Tehran comes back into compliance with the Obama-era nuclear deal. Trump has in recent weeks shown openness to entertaining President Emmanuel Macron's plan, according to four sources with knowledge of Trump's conversations with the French leader.... Ironically, during his time in office, President Barack Obama followed a not-dissimilar approach to bring the Iranians to the negotiating table, throttling Iran's economy with sanctions before pledging relief for talks. The negotiations resulted in the Iran nuke deal that President Trump called 'rotten' -- and pulled the U.S. out of during his first term." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Also ironically, not only did Trump repeatedly criticized President Obama for the "rotten deal," but he also said, "The Democrats and President Obama gave Iran 150 Billion Dollars and got nothing...," and other assertions to that effect. The claim is false. For one thing, "The deal ... lifted a freeze on Iran's assets that were held largely in foreign, not U.S., banks. And, to be clear, the money that was unfrozen belonged to Iran."

Karen d'Uva & Meg Cunningham of ABC News: "Yujing Zhang, the Chinese woman detained in March for trespassing at Mar-a-Lago -- ... Donald Trump's Florida country club -- was found guilty of lying to federal agents and for entering a restricted area.... On March 30, she was mistakenly allowed in by Mar-a-Lago staff. In addition to the purported trespassing, prosecutors alleged that she lied to Secret Service officers as she was let through the checkpoints. She was only discovered when a receptionist realized her name was not on the access list for the club.... When Zhang was detained, investigators said they found several electronic devices on her and in her room at a local hotel, purportedly including a device to detect hidden cameras."

Up at the Big House. Adam Reiss of NBC News: "The former personal attorney for ... Donald Trump has entered into an agreement with New York City prosecutors to provide information about the president's business operation, a source familiar with the situation told NBC News Wednesday. The Manhattan District Attorney's office is investigating the possibility that the Trump Organization falsified business records, the source said. Representatives from the District Attorney's office met with [Michael] Cohen on Aug. 20 at Otisville Prison, in upstate New York, where he's serving a three-year sentence, according to the source."

Crossing the Old Sod in Style. Matthew Chapman of RawStory: "On Tuesday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) discovered, via a search of government records, that the government spent nearly $600,000 in limousines to ferry Vice President Mike Pence and his fellow travelers across Ireland. The cost was so expensive because although Pence was officially visiting Dublin, he insisted on staying at ... Donald Trump's property in Doonbeg -- on the other side of the island." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Kovensky of TPM: "Where in the world is Rudy Giuliani? With news that three House Committees are investigating the Trump attorney's efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to look for dirt on Joe Biden, it's a question worth asking.... TPM has gathered reporting on Giuliani's foreign adventures since taking office, consolidating them in one map that reveals the extent of his global peddling." Includes map. --s (Also linked yesterday.)

After Dorian, U.S. Makes Travel from Bahamas Harder. Brianna Sacks of BuzzFeed News: "US policy had previously allowed Bahamians to travel to the US using only a passport and evidence of a clean police record if they were traveling on a flight or ship directly from the Bahamas. On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security released updated information about visa restrictions, which tightened rules for those arriving by sea. 'Bahamians arriving to the United States by vessel must be in possession of a valid passport AND valid travel visa,' it reads. CBP insists that the rules are simply a clarification of established policies and procedures and that port directors still have the discretion to evaluate people arriving on a case-by-case basis. But a Baleària Caribbean staffer told BuzzFeed News that the company guidelines for Bahamians coming over to the US for a short visit -- before the hurricane it ran ferries between Freeport and Fort Lauderdale multiple times a week on the 2.5-hour trip -- said no visa was required." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is the "kick 'em when they're down" policy, which is so popular with confederates that the Supremes just made it federal law with regard to asylum-seekers.

Justin Baragona of The Daily Beast: "During a Monday morning Fox News appearance, former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland reacted to the Trump administration's scuttled peace talks with the Taliban by suggesting the United States shouldn't be concerned with 'civilian deaths' in Afghanistan in the future, calling for a large-scale bombing campaign if any Americans are killed 'anywhere in the world.'... McFarland's desire to see Afghanistan civilian deaths comes on the heels of Fox News contributor Joey Jones calling for the execution of detainees any time an American soldier is killed overseas. 'The first thing I would do today, is every time one of our soldiers dies overseas during these talks, I would go down to Guantanamo and I would execute a Taliban captive,' he said during a Fox & Friends appearance on Saturday." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "The Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing on Wednesday for Steven Menashi, one of ... Donald Trump's most controversial nominees for a lifetime seat on a U.S. appeals court. It didn't go that well. Neither of his home-state senators from New York supports his nomination, so Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced Menashi. And the nominee spent most of his time angering Republicans and Democrats by refusing to provide details about what he's worked on in his current role as a White House legal adviser (yes, Trump nominated one of his own aides to be a federal judge).... Dozens of protesters clogged the walkways and led loud chants as the hearing was underway.... Progressive groups are opposed to Menashi's nomination because of his long record of opposing and undermining equality for communities of color, women and LGBTQ people. As CNN reported, Menashi has complained about 'gynocentrists' participating in Take Back the Night marches, accused the Human Rights Campaign of having 'incessantly exploited the slaying of Matthew Shepard' for political benefit, and claimed that a Dartmouth fraternity wasn't being racist when it held a 'ghetto party' attended by white partygoers wearing Afro wigs and carrying toy guns. He has also denounced women's marches as sexual assault, opposed the 'radical abortion rights advocated by campus feminists and codified in Roe v. Wade,' and spread the Islamophobic myth that Gen. John Pershing executed Muslim prisoners in the Philippines in 1913 with bullets dipped in pig fat." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: To give you an even better idea of the quality of Trump's judicial nominees, Rachel Maddow pointed out that Trump tapped this bigoted little turd to fill the Appeals Court seat formerly held by Thurgood Marshall.

Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times: "In a direct and urgent call to address gun violence in America, the chief executives of some of the nation's best-known companies sent a letter to Senate leaders on Thursday, urging an expansion of background checks to all firearms sales and stronger 'red flag' laws.... The letter -- which urges the Republican-controlled Senate to enact bills already introduced in the Democrat-led House of Representatives -- is the most concerted effort by the business community to enter the gun debate, one of the most polarizing issues in the nation and one that was long considered off limits.... The letter signers on Thursday include the leaders of Airbnb, the Gap, Pinterest, Lyft, the Brookfield Property Group and Royal Caribbean. Missing from the list, however, are some of America's biggest financial and technology companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, some of which debated internally whether to sign the letter." CNN's story is here. Mrs. McC: Mark Zuckerberg & Jamie Dimon are skeert of the NRA??

David Kay Johnston of DCReport: "While White House reporters investigate who added a Sharpie line to a hurricane map, a huge global story is developing that bodes badly for the economic welfare of Americans for decades to come. China is using Trump's gratuitous trade war to expand its economic, diplomatic and military influence. And it is succeeding, diminishing America's influence, especially in the Western Pacific and India. The long-term cost to America in lost opportunities and ultimately diminished economic growth will be catastrophic.... Trumpian efforts to decouple the world's two largest economies has become a hot topic in Asia. The simple truth is that China no longer needs America to buy its goods." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Lee Fang of The Intercept: "In recent years, Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist megadonor to Republicans and libertarian causes, has carefully recalibrated his public image, releasing a variety of statements to assert that he supports immigration and opposes President Donald Trump's blatant scapegoating of undocumented immigrants and foreigners. At the same time, however, Koch's sprawling political network's in-house technology company has mined consumer data to motivate Republican voters with dehumanizing messages that depict immigrants as an invading army of criminals and potential terrorists." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Emanuel Stoakes of the Guardian: "Leaked communications suggest that the UN's migration agency is censoring itself on the climate crisis and the global compact on migration, following pressure from the US government." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "Purdue Pharma and its owners, members of the Sackler family, have tentatively reached the first comprehensive settlement with lawyers representing thousands of municipal governments, tribes and states nationwide that are suing the pharmaceutical industry for the devastation resulting from the opioid epidemic. The company is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy imminently. The settlement, which was described by two people involved in the negotiations, involves the dissolution of Purdue Pharma as it now exists, the formation of a new company that will continue to sell its signature opioid, OxyContin, with the proceeds going to a public beneficiary company that will pay the plaintiffs. Purdue Pharma also will donate 'rescue' drugs, several of which are in development, for addiction treatment and overdose reversal. The Sackler family will pay $3 billion in cash over seven years. The settlement does not include a statement of wrongdoing." The Washington Post story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) CNN's story is here.

Brandon Ambrosino in Politico Magazine: "One day after Politico published a piece in which Jerry Falwell Jr. denied visiting a Miami Beach nightclub in July 2014 and alleged that any images showing such were 'photo-shopped,' a new trove of photos showing Falwell at the club has been released. Seth Browarnik, the owner of World Red Eye, a photography company that documents Miami's bustling nightlife scene, says he was unaware how many photos he had of Falwell until Falwell alleged that his site's images were manipulated -- prompting Browarnik to explore his photo archive to prove otherwise. On Tuesday, Browarnik published the newly unearthed photos on his website, WorldRedEye.com, along with a strongly worded 'rebuke' of Falwell's claim of photoshopping." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

North Carolina. Lateshia Beachum of the Washington Post: "While North Carolina Democrats were remembering the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001, their Republican colleagues took advantage of their absence and voted to override the governor's budget veto Wednesday morning. North Carolina House Republicans called for a 'surprise vote' while Gov. Roy Cooper (D) and many House members were attending a 9/11 memorial event, Cooper said at a news conference.... House Democratic leader Darren Jackson told reporters that he told his caucus members they didn't need to be in attendance, and that state Rep. David Lewis (R) gave Jackson his word that there would be no votes, according to the News and Observer." The CBS-17 Raleigh-Durham report, also linked yesterday afternoon, is here. ~~~

~~~ Rep. Deb Butler (D) did show up & -- oh, I don't know -- seemed to object to the Republicans' trick:

~~~ Raleigh News & Observer Editors: "North Carolina's Republican legislative leaders -- not actually leaders, but connivers -- are beyond shame. In a stunning display of contempt for democracy, House Speaker Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican, called a surprise vote to overturn Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of the state budget just after a session opened at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Democratic lawmakers and the media had been told by Republican leaders that there would be no vote in the morning. Most Democrats were absent. Enough Republicans, aware of the secret plan, were there.... With only 64 of the House's 120 members present, the vote to override passed 55-9.... This is a case of breaking faith with the people of North Carolina.... Not only was the House vote dishonest, it was carried out by a Republican majority that courts have repeatedly found to have gained seats through illegal gerrymandering. It was an illegitimate majority acting in an unethical way."

Way Beyond

Japan. Justin McCurry of the Guardian: "The operator of the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will have to dump huge quantities of contaminated water from the site directly into the Pacific Ocean, Japan's environment minister has said -- a move that would enrage local fishermen. More than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water has accumulated at the plant since it was struck by a tsunami in March 2011[.]" --s (Also linked yesterday.)

U.K. BBC News: "Boris Johnson's suspension of the UK Parliament is unlawful, Scotland's highest civil court has ruled. A panel of three judges at the Court of Session found in favour of a cross-party group of politicians who were challenging the prime minister's move. The judges said the PM was attempting to prevent Parliament holding the government to account ahead of Brexit. A UK government appeal against the ruling will be heard by the Supreme Court in London next week." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- September 11, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The Plot Thickens. Mulvaney's Fingerprints Found at the Scene. Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "The White House was directly involved in pressing a federal scientific agency to repudiate the weather forecasters who contradicted President Trump's claim that Hurricane Dorian would probably strike Alabama, according to several people familiar with the events. Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, told Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, to have the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publicly disavow the forecasters] position that Alabama was not at risk. NOAA, which is part of the Commerce Department, issued an unsigned statement last Friday in response, saying that the Birmingham, Ala., office was wrong to dispute the president's warning.... The White House had no immediate comment on Wednesday, but [a] senior administration official said Mr. Mulvaney was interested in having the record corrected because, in his view, the Birmingham forecasters had gone too far and the president was right to suggest there had been forecasts showing possible impact on Alabama." The Hill summarizes the NYT story. ~~~

     ~~~ Suspected "Mastermind" Professes Innocence. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump denied that his chief of staff Mick Mulvaney was acting on his orders when Mulvaney reportedly directed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to pressure a federal agency to rebuke scientists who had contradicted Trump's hurricane claims. 'No, I never did that -- I never did that,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, dismissing the entire scandal as 'a hoax by the fake news media.'... On Wednesday, House Democrats piled on when they announced an investigation into reports that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had come under pressure by Ross to issue a statement disavowing the NWS Birmingham tweet. Democrats on the House Science Committee and its oversight subcommittee on Wednesday demanded the White House and Commerce Department turn over any documents relating to an unattributed Sept. 6 statement put out by NOAA in which the agency chastised NWS Birmingham...." ~~~

     ~~~ ** Update. "Mastermind" Nabbed! Andrew Freedman, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump told his staff that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration needed to deal with a tweet that seemed to contradict his statement that Hurricane Dorian posed a significant threat to Alabama as of Sept. 1, in contrast to what the agency's forecasters were predicting at the time, senior administration officials said. This led chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to call Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to tell him to fix the issue, the officials said.... Mulvaney then called Ross but did not instruct him to threaten any firings or make any punitive threats, officials said. He simply told Ross that the agency needed to fix the matter immediately, leading to a new statement that was issued Friday, Sept. 6. The New York Times reported some elements of these events earlier Wednesday."

Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump drew ire on Twitter Wednesday morning with the way he marked the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Trump shared a photograph of himself and first lady Melania Trump, their backs to the camera, with the caption: 'We Will Never Forget.' However, it wasn't his first post of the day. That honor went to a rant about China and his trade war. Critics on Twitter also called out Trump's now-canceled plan to meet with Taliban leaders close to the anniversary of 9/11, and recalled his history of making insensitive and untruthful statements about the attacks. 'Except when we invited the Taliban over for a photo op,' tweeted attorney George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and a frequent Trump critic."

Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "Purdue Pharma and its owners, members of the Sackler family, have tentatively reached the first comprehensive settlement with lawyers representing thousands of municipal governments, tribes and states nationwide that are suing the pharmaceutical industry for the devastation resulting from the opioid epidemic. The company is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy imminently. The settlement, which was described by two people involved in the negotiations, involves the dissolution of Purdue Pharma as it now exists, the formation of a new company that will continue to sell its signature opioid, OxyContin, with the proceeds going to a public beneficiary company that will pay the plaintiffs. Purdue Pharma also will donate 'rescue' drugs, several of which are in development, for addiction treatment and overdose reversal. The Sackler family will pay $3 billion in cash over seven years. The settlement does not include a statement of wrongdoing." The Washington Post story is here. Mrs. McC: This is a breaking story, and I can't find a firewall-free story but will look again later.

Brandon Ambrosino in Politico Magazine: "One day after Politico published a piece in which Jerry Falwell Jr. denied visiting a Miami Beach nightclub in July 2014 and alleged that any images showing such were 'photo-shopped,' a new trove of photos showing Falwell at the club has been released. Seth Browarnik, the owner of World Red Eye, a photography company that documents Miami's bustling nightlife scene, says he was unaware how many photos he had of Falwell until Falwell alleged that his site's images were manipulated -- prompting Browarnik to explore his photo archive to prove otherwise. On Tuesday, Browarnik published the newly unearthed photos on his website, WorldRedEye.com, along with a strongly worded 'rebuke' of Falwell's claim of photoshopping."

CBS 17 Raleigh-Durham: "North Carolina House Republicans called a surprise vote and overrode Gov. Roy Cooper's budget veto on Wednesday morning, Cooper said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. The vote was taken while Cooper was at a 9/11 memorial event. According to a tweet by State Sen. Jeff Jackson (D-Mecklenburg), almost half of the House members were absent when the vote was taken, which resulted in a 55-9 tally. Jackson said Democrats were specifically told by Republicans that no votes would be held in Wednesday's morning session." Emphasis added.

Morgan Winsor of ABC News: "In commemoration of the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., the victims and survivors, as well as the first responders and volunteers who risked their lives to save others, will be honored Wednesday at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, which was built where the twin towers once stood. All those who lost their lives in the attacks will have their names read starting around 8:40 a.m. local time during a ceremony at the museum that is only open to victims' families but will be streamed online. There will also be six moments of silence throughout the ceremony: two for the moments when the planes hit each tower, two for when each tower collapsed, one for the moment when a third hijacked plane struck the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and another for when a fourth plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania."

Matthew Chapman of RawStory: "On Tuesday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) discovered, via a search of government records, that the government spent nearly $600,000 in limousines to ferry Vice President Mike Pence and his fellow travelers across Ireland. The cost was so expensive because although Pence was officially visiting Dublin, he insisted on staying at President Donald Trump's property in Doonbeg -- on the other side of the island." --s

Justin Baragona of The Daily Beast: "During a Monday morning Fox News appearance, former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland reacted to the Trump administration's scuttled peace talks with the Taliban by suggesting the United States shouldn't be concerned with 'civilian deaths' in Afghanistan in the future, calling for a large-scale bombing campaign if any Americans are killed 'anywhere in the world.'... McFarland's desire to see Afghanistan civilian deaths comes on the heels of Fox News contributor Joey Jones calling for the execution of detainees any time an American soldier is killed overseas. 'The first thing I would do today, is every time one of our soldiers dies overseas during these talks, I would go down to Guantanamo and I would execute a Taliban captive,' he said during a Fox & Friends appearance on Saturday." --s

Josh Kovensky of TPM: "Where in the world is Rudy Giuliani? With news that three House Committees are investigating the Trump attorney's efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to look for dirt on Joe Biden, it's a question worth asking.... TPM has gathered reporting on Giuliani's foreign adventures since taking office, consolidating them in one map that reveals the extent of his global peddling." Includes map. --s

Lee Fang of The Intercept: "In recent years, Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist megadonor to Republicans and libertarian causes, has carefully recalibrated his public image, releasing a variety of statements to assert that he supports immigration and opposes President Donald Trump's blatant scapegoating of undocumented immigrants and foreigners. At the same time, however, Koch's sprawling political network's in-house technology company has mined consumer data to motivate Republican voters with dehumanizing messages that depict immigrants as an invading army of criminals and potential terrorists." --s

David Kay Johnston: "While White House reporters investigate who added a Sharpie line to a hurricane map, a huge global story is developing that bodes badly for the economic welfare of Americans for decades to come. China is using Trump's gratuitous trade war to expand its economic, diplomatic and military influence. And it is succeeding, diminishing America's influence, especially in the Western Pacific and India. The long-term cost to America in lost opportunities and ultimately diminished economic growth will be catastrophic.... Trumpian efforts to decouple the world's two largest economies has become a hot topic in Asia. The simple truth is that China no longer needs America to buy its goods." --s

Emanuel Stoakes of the Guardian: "Leaked communications suggest that the UN's migration agency is censoring itself on the climate crisis and the global compact on migration, following pressure from the US government." --s

Justin McCurry of the Guardian: "The operator of the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will have to dump huge quantities of contaminated water from the site directly into the Pacific Ocean, Japan's environment minister has said -- a move that would enrage local fishermen. More than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water has accumulated at the plant since it was struck by a tsunami in March 2011[.]" --s

BBC News: "Boris Johnson's suspension of the UK Parliament is unlawful, Scotland's highest civil court has ruled. A panel of three judges at the Court of Session found in favour of a cross-party group of politicians who were challenging the prime minister's move. The judges said the PM was attempting to prevent Parliament holding the government to account ahead of Brexit. A UK government appeal against the ruling will be heard by the Supreme Court in London next week."

~~~~~~~~~~

Allyson Chiu of the Washington Post: "After hosting a rally in North Carolina with Vice President Pence earlier this week and then blasting out endorsements for two GOP candidates running in special elections there, President Trump closely tracked the returns on Tuesday night. When it became clear that both men vying for open House seats had won, the president took to Twitter in triumph. In a flurry of tweets sent well into early Wednesday morning, Trump celebrated the 'TWO BIG VICTORIES' and boasted about his influence on the results -- while also taking time to bash the 'Fake News' and share a photo suggesting a third term for himself." The Hill's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Oops! I didn't know there were two open House seats in North Carolina to be decided Tuesday. Washington Post: "Two special elections [were] held Tuesday in North Carolina to fill the state's vacant U.S. House seats -- one in North Carolina's 3rd District, the other in the 9th District. The 3rd District covers most of North Carolina's coastline, including the Outer Banks. The 9th District stretches along the South Carolina border, including portions of the Charlotte and Fayetteville metro areas. Both districts voted for Donald Trump in 2016." Results are on the linked page. Politico has the results here. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: The Republican Dan Bishop is the winner in the 9th District. The AP has declared Republican Greg Murphy the winner in the 3rd District. WashPo: "The 3rd District seat became vacant in February, when Rep. Walter Jones (R) died at age 76. He had represented the state since 1995; his father, Walter B. Jones Sr., was a House member from North Carolina from 1966 until his death in 1992." Jones Sr. was a Democrat. ~~~

     ~~~ Richard Fausset & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Dan Bishop, a Republican state senator, scored a narrow victory on Tuesday in a special House election in North Carolina that demonstrated President Trump's appeal with his political base but also highlighted his party's deepening unpopularity with suburban voters. Mr. Bishop defeated Dan McCready, a moderate Democrat, one day after Mr. Trump made a full-throated plea for support for the Republican at a rally on the conservative end of a Charlotte-to-Fayetteville district, which the president carried by nearly 12 points in 2016. With most votes counted on Tuesday night, Mr. Bishop was ahead by about two percentage points, according to The Associated Press.... Mr. Bishop's win came only after outside Republican groups poured over $5 million into the district.... Mr. Bishop, 55, a Charlotte lawyer, is perhaps best known statewide for sponsoring the so-called bathroom bill that required transgender people to use restrooms that corresponded with the gender on their birth certificate. He boasted of his ndorsement from the National Rifle Association, and he repeatedly attacked Mr. McCready by lumping him with the more left-leaning elements of the Democratic Party." The Charlotte Observer story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Republican state Rep. Greg Murphy is projected to win the special election Tuesday in North Carolina's 3rd District for a seat vacated following the death of Republican Rep. Walter Jones Jr. earlier this year. Murphy bested Democrat Allen Thomas, the former mayor of Greenville, in the coastal North Carolina district by about 20 points with 75 percent of the district's precincts reporting. The district, which backed President Trump over Hillary Clinton by over 23 points in 2016, was expected to remain in Republican hands."

You Can't Fire Me; I Quit. As the Mustache Curls ... Trump Lies Again. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Tuesday that he had fired John R. Bolton, his third national security adviser, amid fundamental disagreements over how to handle major foreign policy challenges like Iran, North Korea and most recently Afghanistan. 'I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service.' Mr. Bolton offered a different version of how the end came in his own message on Twitter shortly afterward. 'I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, "Let's talk about it tomorrow,"' Mr. Bolton wrote, without elaborating. Responding to a question from The New York Times via text message, Mr. Bolton said it was his initiative. 'Offered last night without his asking,' he wrote. 'Slept on it and gave it to him this morning.'" The NPR report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... two key things call into question [Trump's] version of how it went down.... Just an hour before the announcement, the White House announced that Bolton would be appearing at a 1:30 p.m. news conference alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. If Bolton was on his way out as of Monday night, why did the White House press office not seem to know about it at 11 a.m. Tuesday? [Bolton's] tweets Monday night and Tuesday didn't indicate anything had changed, and shortly after Trump's tweets, he chimed in by saying, 'I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, "Let's talk about it tomorrow."'... After [the Daily Beast] quoted White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who backed up Trump's account, Bolton responded in a text: '[White House] press secretary statement is flatly incorrect.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Brian Bennett of Time: "As ... Donald Trump prepared in recent weeks to meet in person with Taliban negotiators at Camp David and with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in New York later this month, National Security Advisor John Bolton grew increasingly frustrated. And on Monday, during a conversation between Bolton and the President, the two men reached their limit with one another.... Bolton, a life-long hawk, had tried to steer the President toward a hard-line foreign policy. As Trump embraced the idea of meeting with two of America's most ardent adversaries, Bolton objected increasingly vocally, according to several administration sources familiar with their discussions. Then on Monday, Trump and Bolton spoke to try to clear the air. Bolton brought up the fact that he was left out of a meeting on the Afghanistan negotiations.... As the discussion progressed, it began to spiral outward into Bolton's broader questions about Trump's willingness to meet with Iran's president." ~~~

~~~ John Hudson of the Washington Post: "The ouster of national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday removes a hawkish ideologue whose mastery of bureaucracy and disdain for the foreign policy establishment empowered President Trump to make some of his most dramatic policy shifts and undo President Barack Obama's most prized national security achievements.... When it came to unwinding previous U.S. policies Trump viewed as a nuisance, Bolton eagerly executed for the president over the objections of career diplomats and defense officials.... But ... Bolton's appetite for military confrontation and regime change clashed repeatedly with the views of Trump.... During Bolton's tenure, Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and held a high-profile summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.... But the president's desire to end America's long-standing military conflicts and strike deals with longtime U.S. adversaries ... exposed sharp differences between the two men.... In June, following Trump's decision not to order a military attack on Iran after it downed an unmanned U.S. drone, Bolton was 'devastated,' said one U.S. official familiar with the matter.... Days before his resignation, Bolton had argued harshly against an emerging deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. troops in exchange for a promise that the militant group would not allow the country to become a staging ground for terrorist attacks on the United States." ~~~

~~~ When Outsized Egos Collide. Eliana Johnson of Politico: "Ultimately, it was hearing media accounts about how Bolton had advised the president to scuttle a meeting with Taliban leaders at Camp David that proved a breaking point for Trump, according to sources in and out of the administration. In the president's telling, he had taken his own counsel in arriving at the decision to call off the meeting and end the negotiations, and he was infuriated to hear Bolton credited with influencing his decision." ~~~

~~~ Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "As ... Donald Trump began losing confidence in national security adviser John Bolton, whom he fired on Tuesday, he reached out to the man he had fired to give Bolton the job: retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. In phone calls to McMaster -- the first of which took place last fall -- Trump told his second national security adviser that he missed him, according to two people familiar with the conversations. It's a sentiment the president has also expressed to White House aides, they said. Trump has solicited McMaster's advice on various national security challenges, even asking McMaster whom he should nominate to lead the Pentagon, they said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: "Regardless of who has advised Mr. Trump on foreign affairs ... all have proved powerless before a zest for chaos.... Even when Mr. Trump has pursued worthy goals -- trying to persuade North Korea's dictator to give up his nuclear weapons, negotiating with the Taliban so American troops can leave Afghanistan -- his mercurial, impatient, crisis-driven approach has often backfired, no matter who was advising him.... Mr. Boltons departure seems unlikely to make the American national security apparatus any less dysfunctional, with many top positions vacant and allies confused about whom to deal with.... The White House may be in turmoil, alliances may be trembling and adversaries may be seeking advantage, but that all just amounts to more drama, more suspense, more television coverage -- all of it with Donald Trump at the center." ~~~

~~~ Tucker Unmasks Bolton! Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "Fox News' Tucker Carlson has been publicly critical of John Bolton on numerous occasions, so it's no surprise that he opened his show [Tuesday] night declaring that his leaving the White House is 'great news for America.'" At some point during his monologue, Carlson said, "... Bolton himself fundamentally was a man of the left. There was not a human problem John Bolton wasn't totally convinced could be solved with the brute force of government. That's an assumption of the left, not the right. Don't let the mustache fool you. John Bolton was one of the most progressive people in the Trump administration. By the way, naturally, once he was ensconced there, Bolton promoted Obama loyalists within the National Security Council...." Thanks to Ken W. for the lead. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Hard to know if this is just plain ole Charles Boyer gaslighting or if Tucker is delusional & thinks everyone who disagrees with him must be a leftist or if he is knowingly trying to erase the meanings of common political labels.

~~~ MEANWHILE.... Robert Legare of CBS News: "Michael Flynn, President Trump's former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI..., was back in federal court Tuesday, with his legal team accusing federal prosecutors of engaging in 'egregious government misconduct' that warranted their dismissal from his case.... Against the wishes of Flynn's attorney Sidney Powell, Judge Emmet Sullivan set a sentencing date for December 18, exactly a year after Sullivan first delayed Flynn's sentencing to allow for further cooperation with the government." ~~~

     ~~~ Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News has more on Tuesday's court proceedings.

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has ordered White House officials to conduct a sweeping crackdown on homelessness in California, citing the state's growing crisis, according to four government officials aware of the effort. The talks have intensified in recent weeks. Administration officials have discussed using the federal government to get homeless people off the streets of Los Angeles and other areas and into new government-backed facilities, according to two officials briefed on the planning. But it is unclear how they could accomplish this and what legal authority they would use. It is also unclear whether the state's Democratic politicians would cooperate with Trump, who has sought to embarrass them over the homeless crisis with repeated attacks on their competency." The CBS Los Angeles story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Charles Pierce of Esquire: "First of all, there is absolutely no way this is a federal issue. As the Post points out, this is part of the administration*'s re-election strategy to delegitimize those places guaranteed to vote against him in 2020. The rubes at the rallies love horror stories about The Big Bad Cities and The Big Bad People who live there.... The administration* is putting together a re-election strategy aimed at convincing people that large portions of this country should not count, and many of those people do not need much convincing. It is developing a list of Shithole Cities and Shithole States that it can use to scare the good country people out of their votes, their health care, and, ultimately, the money. The cynicism of this is almost breathtaking." ~~~

~~~ digby has an excellent post in which she reminds us of the history of Trump's impetus -- Tucker Carlson! -- to clean up the "filth" in U.S. cities. digby predicted a few months back that Trump would demonize the urban "liberal establishment" to frighten his base voters. In case you weren't aware of it, "Trump cleaned up homelessness in Washington, D.C." Just ask him.

Weird News. Jim Sciutto & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "... Donald Trump has privately and repeatedly expressed opposition to the use of foreign intelligence from covert sources, including overseas spies who provide the US government with crucial information about hostile countries, according to multiple senior officials who served under Trump. Trump has privately said that foreign spies can damage relations with their host countries and undermine his personal relationships with their leaders, the sources said. The President 'believes we shouldn't be doing that to each other,' one former Trump administration official told CNN. In addition to his fear such foreign intelligence sources will damage his relationship with foreign leaders, Trump has expressed doubts about the credibility of the information they provide. Another former senior intelligence official told CNN that Trump 'believes they're people who are selling out their country.' Even in public, Trump has looked down on these foreign assets, as they are known in the intelligence community. Responding to reports that the CIA recruited Kim Jong Un's brother as a spy, Trump said he 'wouldn't let that happen under my auspices.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the link. See also Ken's comment in today's thread. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I suppose this is reflects Trump's disdain for the U.S. intelligence community, but it could be something more sinister: he doesn't want U.S. spies to find out what he is doing to curry favor with strongmen around the world -- shades of Christopher Steele. As Ken suggests, it's a head-scratcher.

Marc Bennetts, et al., of the Guardian: "The CIA Russian spy drama currently gripping Washington has taken a new turn as Russian media reported that a suspected US mole inside the Kremlin was a member of Vladimir Putin's administration who disappeared in 2017 and was initially thought to have been murdered. Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed the man, Oleg Smolenkov, had worked for the Kremlin but played down his importance, insisting he was a low-level employee who had been fired two years ago."

The Trump White House Screws up Everything. Alanda Goodman & Steven Nelson of the Washington Examiner: "One of the people President Trump honored for his heroism during a mass shooting in an El Paso Walmart last month was arrested by the Secret Service during his visit to the White House on Monday due to an outstanding criminal warrant, law enforcement officials told the Washington Examiner. Police say his tale of heroics does not match video evidence. Chris Grant, 50, was shot in the ribs and a kidney during the Aug. 3 rampage that claimed 22 lives. He was not present for a White House ceremony Monday, but his mother Minnie Grant, 82, accepted a signed certificate on his behalf. Grant said in a series of interviews that he sought to spare fellow shoppers by picking up bottles and throwing them at the gunman, with at least one hitting or nearly striking him. A Gofundme account raised $16,917 on his behalf.... 'Nobody bothered to check with us,' said El Paso police spokesman Sgt. Enrique Carrillo. 'They would have been informed, as I am telling you now, that our detectives reviewed hours of video and his actions did not match his account.... His statements were inconsistent with what was revealed on video,' Carrill said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Patricia Mazzei & Frances Robles of the New York Times: "A former top administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was arrested on Tuesday in a major federal corruption investigation that found that the official took bribes from the president of a company that secured $1.8 billion in federal contracts to repair Puerto Rico's shredded electrical grid after Hurricane Maria. Federal authorities arrested Ahsha Tribble, FEMA's former deputy administrator for the region that includes Puerto Rico, and Donald Keith Ellison, the former president of Cobra Acquisitions, prosecutors in Puerto Rico announced. They were accused of conspiring to defraud the federal government, among other charges. A second FEMA employee, Jovanda R. Patterson, who worked as a deputy chief of staff in Puerto Rico under Ms. Tribble and was later hired by Cobra, was also arrested, said Rosa Emilia Rodríguez Vélez, the United States attorney for Puerto Rico. Ms. Tribble and Mr. Ellison had a 'close personal relationship,' Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said, in which Mr. Ellison lavished Ms. Tribble with gifts in exchange for her to use her influence inside FEMA to give Cobra an advantage.... Mr. Ellison and Ms. Tribble traveled together and stayed in the same room, Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said.... President Trump has repeatedly cast Puerto Rico's leaders as incompetent and corrupt. Tuesday's arrests, however, did not involve any Puerto Ricans, but rather a longtime federal employee now serving under the Trump administration." The Hill has a summary of the Times report here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

AP: "The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) appeared close to tears on Tuesday, as he both defended the administration and thanked a local weather office that contradicted Donald Trump's [Mrs. McC: false] claims about Hurricane Dorian threatening Alabama. Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator, told a meteorology group a Noaa statement that criticized the Birmingham-area forecast office after it disagreed with the president was meant to clarify 'technical aspects' about Dorian's potential impact. 'What it did not say, however, was that we understood and fully support the good intent of the weather office, which was to calm fears in support of public safety,' said Jacobs.... 'This is hard for me,' said Jacobs, his voice choked." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Since Jacobs chose not to resign, he at least should have included his support for fellow meteoroligists in his initial statement. Instead, he knocked them: "The Birmingham National Weather Service's Sunday morning tweet spoke in absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available at the time."

Last year, Matt Ford of the New Republic suggested that the Trump Organization be nationalized: "Only by placing the Trump family business in public hands, I argued, could lawmakers restore some confidence in the integrity of American governance." Alas, it turns out that here in Upside-down World, the Trumpies more or less turned Ford's suggestion on its head: "Trump's business properties now operate as de facto outposts of the U.S. government.... The Trump Organization and the federal government blend together in some sort of unholy corporate merger. It may be the most successful hostile takeover in history."

Rick Newman of Yahoo! Finance: "President Trump says he is 'winning big time, against China.' But his trade war is causing measurable damage to the U.S. economy, with the pain likely to worsen. Forecasting firm Moody's Analytics estimates that Trump's trade war with China has already reduced U.S. employment by 300,000 jobs, compared with likely employment levels absent the trade war. That's a combination of jobs eliminated by firms struggling with tariffs and other elements of the trade war, and jobs that would have been created but haven't because of reduced economic activity. The firm's chief economist, Mark Zandi, told Yahoo Finance that the job toll from the trade war will hit about 450,000 by the end of the year, if there's no change in policy. By the end of 2020, the trade war will have killed 900,000 jobs, on its current course. The hardest-hit sectors are manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and retail."

As a group, the smartest political observers in the U.S. are black women. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

>Trump's approval rating among black women in today's new @CNNpoll is 3% (!) -- Ryan Struyk, in a tweet

#MoscowMitch. Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last month blocked a measure that would have used Treasury Department funds marked for Appalachian development to help pay for coal miners' health care and pensions in his home state of Kentucky. But just a few months earlier, McConnell successfully steered near-identical Treasury funds for Appalachia to bankroll a Kentucky aluminum plant connected to an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.... [That is,] McConnell worked to keep money out of coal miners' hands -- even as h maneuvered to steer federal funds to the Russian-linked plant."

Presidential Race 2020. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday lashed out at a new Washington Post-ABC News poll showing him trailing five Democratic presidential candidates, dismissing it as a 'phony suppression poll.' The president sent three tweets complaining about the poll just minutes before he was scheduled to participate in a moment of silence marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.... The president also claimed he 'hasn't even started campaigning yet,' despite the fact that he's held several rallies in recent months in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, North Carolina and elsewhere and officially launched his reelection with a rally in Florida in June.... Wednesday's poll showed former Vice President Joe Biden leading Trump in a hypothetical matchup by 16 percentage points among adults surveyed. It also showed Trump trailing Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) by 12 points, 11 points and 10 points, respectively. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) leads Trump by 6 percentage points, according to the poll."

Congressional Race 2020. Griffin Connolly of Roll Call: "Former Rep. Darrell Issa signaled over the weekend that he intends to run for Congress in Rep. Duncan Hunter's district if he is not confirmed to a position in the Trump administration by winter. Issa and Hunter are both Republican. Issa, 65, represented San Diego County for 18 years before retiring at the end of his ninth term earlier this year. His 49th District seat flipped to the Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections, with Rep. Mike Levin handing GOP candidate Diane Harkey a 12 percentage point loss. With Hunter facing trial in January on federal corruption and campaign finance crimes just weeks before the California primaries, Issa has told the California Report that he intends to run for Hunter's seat in the 50th District to prevent the Democrats from picking up another longtime GOP stronghold in Southern California. 'There's nothing wrong with his voting,' Issa said of Hunter. 'But he is injured in a way that, according to most polls I've seen -- all polls I've seen -- he cannot win reelection. And as a Republican, I don't want to lose a seat that is clearly a seat that we need to have to get back in the majority.'..."

Rachana Pradhan of Politico: "The number of Americans lacking health insurance ticked up slightly last year, marking the first annual increase in the uninsured rate in nearly a decade, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The uninsured rate rose from 7.9 percent in 2017 to 8.5 percent last year, as experts said the Trump administration's efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act were partly to blame." Thanks, Trump! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

It's a Conspiracy! Hill: "Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. told Hill.TV on Tuesday that he has begun sharing information with the FBI in what he alleged was a criminal conspiracy against him by former board members at the school. Falwell said ... that in the coming days the FBI will review university documents at the Lynchburg, Va., campus. He accused former colleagues of stealing school property in the form of emails and then sharing them with reporters in an effort to damage his reputation. 'Our attorneys have determined that this small group of former board members and employees, they're involved in a criminal conspiracy, are working together to steal Liberty property in the form of emails and provided them to reporters,' Falwell Jr. said. The accusation follows a Politico story published Monday that detailed a 'culture of fear and self-dealing at the largest Christian college in the world.' The story cited internal Liberty University emails, which Falwell Jr. and his attorney's allege were stolen in a coordinated effort."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Kate Conger & Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "California legislators approved a landmark bill on Tuesday that requires companies like Uber and Lyft to treat contract workers as employees, a move that could reshape the gig economy and that adds fuel to a yearslong debate over whether the nature of work has become too insecure. The bill passed in a 29 to 11 vote in the State Senate and will apply to app-based companies, despite their efforts to negotiate an exemption. California's governor, Gavin Newsom, endorsed the bill this month and is expected to sign it after it goes through the State Assembly, in what is expected to be a formality. Under the measure, which would go into effect Jan. 1, workers must be designated as employees instead of contractors if a company exerts control over how they perform their tasks or if their work is part of a company's regular business. The bill may influence other states." The Business Insider story is here.

Way Beyond

Israel/Palestine. David Halbfinger of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Tuesday that he would move swiftly to annex nearly a third of the occupied West Bank if voters returned him to power in the election next week, seizing what he called a historic opportunity from a sympathetic White House to give Israel 'secure, permanent borders.' His plan to annex territory along the Jordan River would reshape the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and would reduce any future Palestinian state to an enclave encircled by Israel. Mr Netanyahu's rivals on the left and right largely greeted the announcement, made in the heat of a campaign in which he is battling for survival, as a transparent political ploy." CNN's story is here.

News Lede

Dallas Morning News: "T. Boone Pickens, legendary energy executive, philanthropist, ardent Oklahoma State University supporter and one of America's most famous entrepreneurs, died peacefully Wednesday of natural causes at his home in Dallas. He was 91." Pickens' New York Times obituary is here.

The Commentariat -- September 10, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

You Can't Fire Me; I Quit. As the Mustache Curls ... Trump Lies Again. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Tuesday that he had fired John R. Bolton, his third national security adviser, amid fundamental disagreements over how to handle major foreign policy challenges like Iran, North Korea and most recently Afghanistan. 'I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service.' Mr. Bolton offered a different version of how the end came in his own message on Twitter shortly afterward. 'I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, "Let's talk about it tomorrow,"' Mr. Bolton wrote, without elaborating. Responding to a question from The New York Times via text message, Mr. Bolton said it was his initiative. 'Offered last night without his asking,' he wrote. 'Slept on it and gave it to him this morning.'" The NPR report is here. ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... two key things call into question [Trump's] version of how it went down.... Just an hour before the announcement, the White House announced that Bolton would be appearing at a 1:30 p.m. news conference alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. If Bolton was on his way out as of Monday night, why did the White House press office not seem to know about it at 11 a.m. Tuesday? [Bolton's] tweets Monday night and Tuesday didn't indicate anything had changed, and shortly after Trump's tweets, he chimed in by saying, 'I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, "Let's talk about it tomorrow."'... After [the Daily Beast] quoted White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who backed up Trump's account, Bolton responded in a text: '[White House] press secretary statement is flatly incorrect.'" ~~~

~~~ Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "As ... Donald Trump began losing confidence in national security adviser John Bolton, whom he fired on Tuesday, he reached out to the man he had fired to give Bolton the job: retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. In phone calls to McMaster -- the first of which took place last fall -- Trump told his second national security adviser that he missed him, according to two people familiar with the conversations. It's a sentiment the president has also expressed to White House aides, they said. Trump has solicited McMaster's advice on various national security challenges, even asking McMaster whom he should nominate to lead the Pentagon, they said."

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has ordered White House officials to conduct a sweeping crackdown on homelessness in California, citing the state's growing crisis, according to four government officials aware of the effort. The talks have intensified in recent weeks. Administration officials have discussed using the federal government to get homeless people off the streets of Los Angeles and other areas and into new government-backed facilities, according to two officials briefed on the planning. But it is unclear how they could accomplish this and what legal authority they would use. It is also unclear whether the state's Democratic politicians would cooperate with Trump, who has sought to embarrass them over the homeless crisis with repeated attacks on their competency." The CBS Los Angeles story is here.

Weird News. Jim Sciutto & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "... Donald Trump has privately and repeatedly expressed opposition to the use of foreign intelligence from covert sources, including overseas spies who provide the US government with crucial information about hostile countries, according to multiple senior officials who served under Trump. Trump has privately said that foreign spies can damage relations with their host countries and undermine his personal relationships with their leaders, the sources said. The President 'believes we shouldn't be doing that to each other,' one former Trump administration official told CNN. In addition to his fear such foreign intelligence sources will damage his relationship with foreign leaders, Trump has expressed doubts about the credibility of the information they provide. Another former senior intelligence official told CNN that Trump 'believes they're people who are selling out their country.' Even in public, Trump has looked down on these foreign assets, as they are known in the intelligence community. Responding to reports that the CIA recruited Kim Jong Un's brother as a spy, Trump said he 'wouldn't let that happen under my auspices.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the link. See also Ken's comment in today's thread. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suppose this is a reflection of Trump's disdain for our intelligence community, but it could be something more sinister: he doesn't want U.S. spies to find out what he is doing to curry favor with strongmen around the world -- shades of Christopher Steele. As Ken suggests, it's a head-scratcher.

The Trump White House Screws up Everything. Alanda Goodman & Steven Nelson of the Washington Examiner: "One of the people President Trump honored for his heroism during a mass shooting in an El Paso Walmart last month was arrested by the Secret Service during his visit to the White House on Monday due to an outstanding criminal warrant, law enforcement officials told the Washington Examiner. Police say his tale of heroics does not match video evidence. Chris Grant, 50, was shot in the ribs and a kidney during the Aug. 3 rampage that claimed 22 lives. He was not present for a White House ceremony Monday, but his mother Minnie Grant, 82, accepted a signed certificate on his behalf. Grant said in a series of interviews that he sought to spare fellow shoppers by picking up bottles and throwing them at the gunman, with at least one hitting or nearly striking him. A Gofundme account raised $16,917 on his behalf.... 'Nobody bothered to check with us,' said El Paso police spokesman Sgt. Enrique Carrillo. 'They would have been informed, as I am telling you now, that our detectives reviewed hours of video and his actions did not match his account.... His statements were inconsistent with what was revealed on video,' Carrillo said."

Patricia Mazzei & Frances Robles of the New York Times: "A former top administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was arrested on Tuesday in a major federal corruption investigation that found that the official took bribes from the president of a company that secured $1.8 billion in federal contracts to repair Puerto Rico's shredded electrical grid after Hurricane Maria. Federal authorities arrested Ahsha Tribble, FEMA's former deputy administrator for the region that includes Puerto Rico, and Donald Keith Ellison, the former president of Cobra Acquisitions, prosecutors in Puerto Rico announced. They were accused of conspiring to defraud the federal government, among other charges. A second FEMA employee, Jovanda R. Patterson, who worked as a deputy chief of staff in Puerto Rico under Ms. Tribble and was later hired by Cobra, was also arrested, said Rosa Emilia Rodríguez Vélez, the United States attorney for Puerto Rico. Ms. Tribble and Mr. Ellison had a 'close personal relationship,' Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said, in which Mr. Ellison lavished Ms. Tribble with gifts in exchange for her to use her influence inside FEMA to give Cobra an advantage.... Mr. Ellison and Ms. Tribble traveled together and stayed in the same room, Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said.... President Trump has repeatedly cast Puerto Rico's leaders as incompetent and corrupt. Tuesday's arrests, however, did not involve any Puerto Ricans, but rather a longtime federal employee now serving under the Trump administration." The Hill has a summary of the Times report here.

Rachana Pradhan of Politico: "The number of Americans lacking health insurance ticked up slightly last year, marking the first annual increase in the uninsured rate in nearly a decade, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The uninsured rate rose from 7.9 percent in 2017 to 8.5 percent last year, as experts said the Trump administration's efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act were partly to blame." Thanks, Trump!

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Congressional Race 2019. If you live in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, vote today. ~~~

~~~ Steven Shepard & Anita Kumar of Politico: "... Donald Trump traveled [to Fayetteville, N.C.] on Monday for an election-eve rescue mission in a neck-and-neck congressional race -- and to boost his own standing in a key 2020 swing state. Trump touted Republican Dan Bishop, the party's nominee in Tuesday's do-over election in the state's 9th District, calling on residents to vote 'to stop the radical left.'... 'We had a very, very special day in 2016,' he told the crowd of thousands early in a speech that lasted well over an hour. 'It was very special, very special. ... 2020 is essentially just as important, because they'll try to take it away.' Bishop, a GOP state senator, is tied in the polls with Democrat Dan McCready in Tuesday's race."

Lies of the Grifter

I know nothing about an Air Force plane landing at an airport (which I do not own and have nothing to do with*) near Turnberry Resort (which I do own) in Scotland, and filling up with fuel, with the crew staying overnight at Turnberry (they have good taste!). NOTHING TO DO WITH ME. -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, Monday

I had nothing to do with the decision of our great @VP Mike Pence to stay overnight at one of the Trump owned resorts in Doonbeg, Ireland. Mike's family has lived in Doonbeg for many years, and he thought that during his very busy European visit, he would stop and see his family! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, Monday

How to tell Trump is lying: he says he knows nothing about either grift.* -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

* Update. Another Way We Know Trump Is Lying. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "But documents obtained from Scottish government agencies show that the Trump Organization, and Mr. Trump himself, played a direct role in setting up an arrangement between the Turnberry resort and officials at Glasgow Prestwick Airport. The government records, released through Scottish Freedom of Information law, show that the Trump organization, starting in 2014, entered a partnership with the airport to try to increase private and commercial air traffic to the region. As part of that arrangement, the Trump Organization worked to get Trump Turnberry added to a list of hotels that the airport would routinely send aircrews to, even though the Turnberry resort is 20 miles from the airport, farther away than many other hotels, and has higher advertised prices."

* Martyn McLaughlin of the Scotsman: "As previously detailed by The Scotsman's sister title, Scotland on Sunday, the Trump Organisation formed what it described as an 'official partnership' and 'strategic alliance' with the airport in 2014 - two years before Mr Trump became president - with the two parties holding unminuted discussions over 'potential partnership opportunities' and the 'integration' of their businesses.... A spokesman for the Scottish Government-owned airport said [Mon]day that it regularly arranges overnight accommodation for visiting aircrew at Turnberry.... A new extended deal between Prestwick's parent company and the [US Defence Logistics Agency], known as a EUCOM Into-Plane contract, will come into force next month and last until September 2024. It will allow for the supply of around 12.4 million gallons of aviation fuel, approximately three million more than the current arrangement."

Martyn McLaughlin (Sept. 7): "... The Scotsman detailed how Prestwick's parent company had received more than £9.02m for 644 orders to refuel US Armed Forces aircraft between October 2017 and March 2019. Scotland on Sunday can reveal that in the six months since, further refuelling orders have netted Prestwick another £4.8m. The deal with the US Defence Logistics Agency, which manages the supply chain for the US armed forces, is by far the airport's biggest revenue stream." ~~~

~~~ Conor O'Brien of Politico: "Democrats in the House are doubling down on proposed legislation to block military funds from being spent at properties owned by ... Donald Trump, following reports that Air Force personnel stayed at the president's Turnberry resort in Scotland. The House voted in July to bar the Defense Department from spending money at nearly five dozen Trump properties worldwide -- including Trump Turnberry -- as part of annual defense policy legislation.... The provision blocks the Pentagon from spending money at 57 specific Trump properties. Under the provision, Trump could waive the ban if he reimburses the Treasury Department for the expenses.... The leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are poised hammer out a compromise defense bill later this month."

AlabamaGate, Ctd.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: On September 7, I wrote, "NOAA is an agency within the Commerce Department. I'd say Wilbur Ross bowed to His Dimwittedness." Not exactly an oracular prophecy, BUT ~~~

~~~ Christopher Flavelle, et al., of the New York Times: "The Secretary of Commerce [Wilbur Ross] threatened to fire top employees at NOAA on Friday after the agency's Birmingham office contradicted President Trump's claim that Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama, according to three people familiar with the discussion. That threat led to an unusual, unsigned statement later that Friday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disavowing the office's own position that Alabama was not at risk. The reversal caused widespread anger within the agency and drew criticism from the scientific community that NOAA, a division of the Commerce Department, had been bent to political purposes.... Mr. Ross ... intervened ... early last Friday, according to the three people familiar with his actions. Mr. Ross phoned Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator of NOAA, from Greece where the secretary was traveling for meetings and instructed Dr. Jacobs to fix the agency's perceived contradiction of the president. Dr. Jacobs objected to the demand and was told that the political staff at NOAA would be fired if the situation was not fixed, according to the three individuals.... On Monday, the National Weather Service director, Louis W. Uccellini, got a standing ovation from [weather industry] conference attendees when he praised the work of the Birmingham office and said staff members there had acted' with one thing in mind, public safety' when they contradicted Mr. Trump's claim that Alabama was at risk." digby republishes much of the NYT story. ~~~

~~~ Samantha Grasso of Splinter: NWS Director Louis "Uccellini said at Monday's meeting that the Birmingham forecasters didn't know Trump had been behind the report of Dorian heading for Alabama when they had tweeted out the alert. He also said the forecasters used 'an emphasis they deemed essential to shut down what they thought were rumors.... Only later, when the retweets and politically based comments started coming to their office, did they learn the sources of this information.'" ~~~

~~~ Kayla Epstein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's acting chief scientist said in an email to colleagues Sunday that he is investigating whether the agency's response to President Trump's Hurricane Dorian tweets constituted a violation of NOAA policies and ethics. Also on Monday, the director of the National Weather Service broke with NOAA leadership over its handling of President Trump's Dorian tweets and statements[.] In an email to NOAA staff that was obtained by The Washington Post, the official, Craig McLean, called the agency's response 'political' and a 'danger to public health and safety.'" The Hill's summary of the WashPo report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: The full text of McLean's email is here, via TPM. Thanks to Keith H. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "The US secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross, is facing calls for his resignation after it was reported that he had threatened to fire senior staff at a federal agency unless they sided publicly with Donald Trump in the rumbling dispute dubbed 'Sharpiegate'.... The head of the environmental group the Sierra Club, Michael Brune, called on Ross to resign to 'maintain the dignity of the federal government'.... And late on Monday, the New York Times amended its story to report that the commerce department's own Office of Inspector General has launched an inquiry into that official statement and whether it breached departmental rules."

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday claimed he plans on releasing an 'extremely complete' report of his financial record, but he offered no specifics and a murky timeline. Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House, Trump suggested that the promised release would dispel the notion that his real estate empire is in need of the taxpayer money and business driven there throughout his presidency." Here's a sneak-peak:

Claudia Grisales of NPR: "Signaling a widening gap between Democratic leadership and the House Judiciary Committee, the panel will vote this week on whether to install new procedures for its impeachment inquiry and illustrate its intensifying efforts in the probe. The move -- which will culminate in a vote before the committee on Thursday -- will allow staff to question witnesses for extended periods and let the panel accept evidence behind closed doors to further protect sources, among other changes. It also shows the growing divide between progressives pushing for impeachment and moderate Democrats in the House and their leadership, which is largely opposed to any formal action now. Despite House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's public comments supporting the panel's investigation, privately she has told members that the issue is a loser without strong public sentiment. On Monday, Pelosi downplayed the move, saying the committee's investigation has been ongoing for 'a very long time,' and expressed support. She also said other legislation is a top priority, such as approving new gun restrictions." ~~~

~~~ Olivia Beavers of the Hill: "House Democrats are launching a broad investigation into whether President Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others sought to exert pressure on the Ukrainian government to help Trump get reelected in 2020 by targeting a possible political opponent, former vice president Joe Biden. Three House committees -- Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs -- sent joint letters to the White House and State Department demanding documents related to whether Trump and Giuliani sought to pressure Ukraine to target Biden, a 2020 Democratic White House hopeful. 'A growing public record indicates that, for nearly two years, the President and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, appear to have acted outside legitimate law enforcement and diplomatic channels to coerce the Ukrainian government into pursuing two politically-motivated investigations under the guise of anti-corruption activity,' the committee's chairmen wrote in a statement." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ ** Jonathan Chait: Donald Trump "is slowly learning how to control the [bureaucratic] machine that has stymied him. is slowly learning how to control the machine that has stymied him." Chait links Trump's "persuading" NOAA to issue a statement covering for his "Alabama hurricane" flub, the DOJ's "preposterous" antitrust investigation into automakers negotiating to meet California's emission standards, his extortion of Ukraine to pressure the country into "investigating" Joe Biden; and Republicans "boasting of the quid pro quo arrangement" they have with Trump & his businesses. "A corrupt miasma has slowly enveloped Washington.... The norm of bureaucratic professionalism and fairness is a pillar of the political legitimacy and economic strength of the American system, the thing that separates countries like the U.S. from countries like Russia. The decay of that culture is difficult to quantify, but the signs are everywhere. Trump's stench is slowly seeping into every corner of government." (Also linked yesterday.)

Karen DeYoung, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Monday that negotiations with the Taliban 'are dead' and indicated that he had no further interest in meeting with the group over an end to the Afghanistan war. 'I'm not looking to discuss it,' he said. 'I'm not discussing anything.' Trump appeared to provide the definitive response to at least one question officials across his administration were struggling to answer in the wake of his abrupt cancellation, by way of Twitter on Saturday evening, of a Camp David meeting with Taliban and Afghan government leaders to finalize an agreement. The meeting had been scheduled for the next day. Before Trump's comments, made to reporters as he left for a campaign rally in North Carolina, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was said to be hopeful that there was still a flicker of life in the Taliban talks and that a way to restart them would emerge. In Sunday talk show interviews, Pompeo said the negotiations were off 'for the time being' but emphasized the progress that had been made." The Reuters story is here. ~~~

~~~ Kevin Liptak & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "Even opposition from within his own national security team, including Vice President Mike Pence, could not deter Trump from pressing forward with his plan to host Taliban leaders at [Camp David]....Trump eventually scrapped the event after a Taliban car bomb killed a US soldier and 11 others last week. But that decision came after heated debate within the administration over the venue for the summit -- an outgrowth of larger, more substantial disagreements over the wisdom of negotiating with the Taliban at all. The talks have pitted Trump's hawkish national security adviser John Bolton against the nation's chief diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Robin Wright of the New Yorker: SFC Elis Angel Barreto Ortiz's "death may have served as a face-saving excuse [for Trump's cancelling Camp David talks with the Taliban]. Fifteen other Americans have been killed this year, during nine rounds of the most serious diplomacy between the U.S. and the Taliban since 2001. Both sides have used military pressure as leverage in the final run-up to a deal -- and both sides expected it. In the previous ten days, the United States had killed more than a thousand Taliban, [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo boasted on a round of Sunday talk shows."

Brett Samuels & Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump said Monday that the United States needs to be 'careful' in making sure everyone entering the country from the Bahamas has proper documentation, suggesting dangerous individuals could sneak into the U.S. along with those seeking refuge following Hurricane Dorian. 'We have to be very careful. Everybody needs totally proper documentation. Because look, the Bahamas has some tremendous problems with people going to the Bahamas who weren't supposed to be there,' Trump told reporters on the South Lawn at the White House." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, how many people who have lost everything from their toothbrushes to their livelihoods to their entire community managed to grab "totally proper documentation" commonly used to travel abroad? ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Early Monday afternoon, acting Customs and Border Protection head Mark Morgan offered some peace of mind to Bahamians seeking humanitarian relief in the United States in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, following the news that some were turned away for not having visas. 'This is a humanitarian mission,' Morgan assured. 'If your life is in jeopardy and you're in the Bahamas .. you're going to be allowed to come to the United States, whether you have travel documents or not.' He said the processing would be handled expeditiously. Then President Trump offered a very different message. In a later Q&A with reporters, Trump emphasized that 'very bad people ... and very bad gang members' ... could exploit the process and warned against welcoming Bahamians.... So, shortly after Morgan said people didn't need to have documents, Trump said they did. And shortly after Morgan emphasized a quick process, Trump suggested it would need to be very thorough.... The Bahamas, notably, contain many people of Haitian descent -- as many as 1 in 10 residents -- and they tend to be among the island nation's poorest residents. Trump has in the past privately referred to Haiti as a 'shithole country' while deriding protections for immigrants from it." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: What did Trump mean when he said he "doesn't want to let people who weren't supposed to be in the Bahamas come into the US"? Ali Velshi of MSNBC offered a helpful translation: "dark-skinned people from Haiti."

Dear-Leader-for-Life. Arren Kimbel-Sannit of Politico: Trump joked -- again -- about extending his term of office beyond eight years. Mrs. McC: Oh, he's serious. Come to think of it, President Obama should have declared a national emergency on November 9, 2016 & extended his own term while we figured out a way to get a real president.

** Jim Sciutto of CNN: "In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN. A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that ... Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy. The decision to carry out the extraction occurred soon after a May 2017 meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump discussed highly classified intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. The intelligence, concerning ISIS in Syria, had been provided by Israel.... The secret removal of the high-level Russian asset has left the US without one of its key sources on the inner workings of the Kremlin and the plans and thinking of the Russian president." The CIA had considered the "exfiltration" of the asset prior to Trump's blabbing, but did not remove him/her until "wide concern [grew] in the intelligence community about mishandling of intelligence by Trump and his administration." It appears Mike Pompeo, then CIA director, approved the operation. "White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, 'CNN's reporting is not only incorrect, it has the potential to put lives in danger.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ ** Update: Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "As American officials began to realize that Russia was trying to sabotage the 2016 presidential election, [a Russian] informant [the CIA had cultivated for decades] became one of the C.I.A.'s most important -- and highly protected -- assets. But when intelligence officials revealed the severity of Russia's election interference with unusual detail later that year, the news media picked up on details about the C.I.A.'s Kremlin sources.... [Extracting the informant from Russia] brought to an end the career of one of the C.I.A.'s most important sources. It also effectively blinded American intelligence officials to the view from inside Russia as they sought clues about Kremlin interference in the 2018 midterm elections and next year's presidential contest.... The Moscow informant was instrumental to the C.I.A.'s most explosive conclusion about Russia's interference campaign: that President Vladimir V. Putin ordered and orchestrated it himself.... The source was also key to the C.I.A.'s assessment that he affirmatively favored Donald J. Trump's election and personally ordered the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.... Former intelligence officials said there was no public evidence that Mr. Trump directly endangered the source.... Some former intelligence officials said the president's closed-door meetings with Mr. Putin and other Russian officials, along with Twitter posts about delicate intelligence matters, have sown concern among overseas sources." ~~~

~~~ Shane Harris & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The exfiltration [of the CIA source] took place sometime after an Oval Office meeting in May 2017, when President Trump revealed highly classified counterterrorism information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador, said the current and former officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation. That disclosure alarmed U.S. national security officials, but it was not the reason for the decision to remove the CIA asset, who had provided information to the United States for more than a decade, according to the current and former officials. U.S. officials had been concerned that Russian sources could be at risk of exposure as early as the fall of 2016, when the Obama administration first confirmed that Russia had stolen and publicly disclosed emails from the Democratic National Committee and the account of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta." ~~~

     ~~~ Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "A former senior Russian official is living in the Washington area under U.S. government protection, current and former government officials tell NBC News. NBC News is withholding the man's name and other key details at the request of U.S. officials, who say reporting the information could endanger his life. Yet the former Russian government official, who had a job with access to secrets, was living openly under his true name. An NBC News correspondent [Mrs. McC: that was Dilanian] went to the man's house in the Washington area and rang the doorbell. Five minutes later, two young men in an SUV came racing up the street and parked immediately adjacent to the correspondent's car. The men, who identified themselves only as friends of the Russian, asked the correspondent what he was doing there. A former senior national security official said the men were likely U.S. government agents monitoring the Russian's house." Mrs. McC: Dilanian reported later in the day, on air, that the CIA was moving the informant from his current residence. He said he was not reporting that the asset he approached was the same individual cited in the CNN report. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So the CIA's idea of "protecting" a vulnerable Russian defector is to move him & his family to a D.C.-area home under his own name, to the point that a reporter can more or less look him/her up in the phone book & stop by the person's house for a chat.

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and members of his caucus are tiptoeing toward legislation addressing gun violence amid deep anxiety over eroding GOP support in suburbs across the country. Expanded background checks and other modest proposals to address gun violence have strong support among swing voters in the suburbs, whom McConnell sees as crucial to keeping control of Republican-held swing Senate seats. Republican sources close to McConnell say he sees a political benefit to moving a bipartisan measure in response to a spate of mass shootings this year, and that he acknowledges the politics surrounding expanded background checks have shifted in recent months."

Chris Rodrigo of the Hill: "A federal judge in California on Monday reinstated a ban on a Trump administration policy that would restrict migrants' ability to apply for asylum at the southern border. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar had issued a nationwide injunction in July blocking the rule, which would make most asylum-seekers who pass through another country before reaching the U.S. ineligible for asylum, with exceptions for victims of trafficking and migrants who have been denied asylum in the countries they traveled through. The rule would primarily effect Central American immigrants crossing through Mexico. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Tigar's initial ruling but narrowed the injunction to only border states within its jurisdiction -- California and Arizona -- before sending the question back to Tigar. Tigar said Monday that the injunction should apply nationwide because the asylum rule represents a case where 'such breadth is necessary to remedy a plaintiffs harm.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2020. Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday dismissed his trio of challengers for the Republican presidential nomination as 'a laughingstock,' and defended the decisions by GOP leaders in a handful of states to scrap their 2020 primaries and caucuses. 'The three people are a total joke. They're a joke. They're a laughingstock,' Trump told reporters outside the White House before departing for a rally in North Carolina.... Asked whether he was willing to debate the Republicans running against him, Trump responded, 'I don't know them' --; going on to mock their polling numbers and tout his significant support among GOP voters. 'I guess it's a publicity stunt,' Trump said of his rivals' campaigns, adding: 'To be honest, I'm not looking to give them any credibility. They have no credibility.' Trump also contended he had 'nothing to do with' Republican officials in Arizona, Kansas, Nevada and South Carolina moving in recent days to abandon their nominating contests next year, which he criticized as 'very expensive' for state parties."

Congressional Races 2020

Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Former congressional candidate Jon Ossoff said he will challenge Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue and 'mount a ruthless assault on corruption in our political system' that's prevented Congress from addressing urgent issues. The Democrat told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he would 'raise a grassroots army unlike any this state has ever seen' by expanding the network of supporters who helped him raise roughly $30 million in a 2017 special election he narrowly lost."

This is a real campaign ad for Valerie Plame. She's running in the primary for New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District:

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Attorneys general for 50 U.S. states and territories on Monday officially announced an antitrust investigation of Google, embarking on a wide-ranging review of a tech giant that Democrats and Republicans said may threaten competition, consumers and the continued growth of the web.... Only California and Alabama have not signed onto the probe[.]" The CNBC story is here.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast: "Disgraced political pundit Mark Halperin was very unhappy when MSNBC brass nixed his attempt to repair his career through a possible collaboration with the stars of Morning Joe. So he picked up the phone and called network chief Phil Griffin. It did not go well. Multiple sources tell The Daily Beast that the conversation earlier this year became acrimonious, with Halperin dishing up vague threats against his former boss.... MSNBC insiders said Griffin was furious about the conversation and wouldn't likely take Halperin's calls in the future. The hostile exchange was a sign of Halperin's frustration that his dream of returning to the punditry business -- almost two years after numerous women came forward with stories of sexual misconduct -- has been thwarted at each turn.... The Game Change author has privately told friends that he wants to return to cable news, and he has lobbied various media outlets for a second chance." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suppose this advice will be lost on the arrogant Mr. Halperin, but usually threatening the guy you're asking for a job is a poor interview technique. Wilbur Ross, who is trying to keep his gig, has a better method: threaten the jobs of the guys who cross the boss.

Beyond the Beltway

Alaska. Surprisingly, it appears This Marriage Cannot Be Saved. Michelle Boots of the Anchorage Daily News: "Todd Palin appears to have filed for divorce from former Alaska governor and one-time vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, his wife of 31 years. In a document filed Friday in Anchorage Superior Court, Todd Palin, 55, asked to dissolve the marriage, citing an 'incompatibility of temperament between the parties such that they find it impossible to live together as husband and wife.' The divorce filing uses initials rather than full names, but identifies the couple's marriage date and the birth date of their only child who is a minor, Trig Palin. The filing asks for joint legal custody of the child."

Way Beyond

~~~ U.K. Another Bad Hair Day for Boris. Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson shut down parliament amid chaotic scenes in the early hours of Tuesday following his sixth parliamentary defeat in six days, as MPs voted to block a snap election and to force the publication of No 10's secret preparations for a no-deal Brexit. MPs on the opposition benches shouted: 'Shame on you' at Conservative MPs as they filed out behind the Speaker, John Bercow, during the start of proceedings to prorogue parliament until 14 October, while others held up signs saying 'silenced'. Renditions of Red Flag, Jerusalem, Flower of Scotland and Bread of Heaven were also sung. Bercow told the Commons 'this is not a standard or normal prorogation' and that the move represented 'an act of executive fiat'. Opposition MPs tried to physically stop Bercow from leaving his chair to go to the House of Lords to finish the prorogation formalities."

~~~ Rowena Mason: "John Bercow has said he will step down as the Speaker of the House of Commons after a decade in the job in which he has handed more power to backbench MPs, including moves that allowed parliament to block a no-deal Brexit. Bercow said he would leave his role by 31 October at the latest, but he could stand down sooner if MPs vote for an early election." (Also linked yesterday.)