The Commentariat -- September 13, 2018

Afternoon Update:

The Mysterious Case of Brett Kavanaugh. Lissandra Villa, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have referred a letter concerning Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the FBI. The contents of the letter have been closely guarded by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as California Rep. Anna Eshoo, who originally received the letter and shared it with Feinstein, according to sources familiar with the matter. But whispers of what it contains have made the rounds across Capitol Hill over the past week. The attention on it burst into the public when The Intercept published a report on the rumors surrounding the letter on Wednesday. 'This matter has been referred to the FBI for investigation,' Sen. Dick Durbin told BuzzFeed News when asked about the letter on Thursday." Mrs. McC: Okay, so we're talking about a criminal matter, probably related to sexual assault, that young Bretty is alleged to have done in high school.

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "Before the National Rifle Association dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to flip a competitive, Democratic-held Senate seat, the gun-rights group's chief lobbyist apparently gave the race's Republican challenger a heads-up. Chris Cox, the top political strategist for the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), assured Montana Republican Matt Rosendale that the group would spend heavily to support his bid to unseat Sen. Jon Tester, Rosendale told attendees at a July event in Washington. PAY DIRT exclusively obtained audio of Rosendale's remarks, which good-government groups say raise serious questions of potentially illicit coordination between Rosendale and an independent political group supporting his campaign.... The NRA-ILA, a 501(c)(4) 'dark-money' group, is legally barred from coordinating its ad buys with a federal campaign."

Mark Stern of Slate: "On Jan. 8, 2019, a new governor of Florida will be sworn in. On that same day, three of the Florida Supreme Court's seven justices will complete their final terms. Based on those facts alone, you might assume that the new Florida governor will have the opportunity to select these justices' replacements. That, however, is not at all clear -- because current Republican Gov. Rick Scott has declared his intent to replace them hours before his term concludes. He is now moving forward with this plan to pack the court. And the only people who can stop him are the current justices themselves.... Scott insists that the justices' terms expire at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 8, but that his own term does not end until his successor is sworn in on that day, typically at noon."

Jason Hanna & Jennifer Selva of CNN: "Wednesday's shootings in which a gunman killed his former wife and four others before killing himself near Bakersfield, California, 'has implications of a domestic violence case,' Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said[.] The gunman and his ex-wife had been divorced four months, and she had just filed for a new hearing regarding child support and property values, Youngblood said Thursday. The gunman killed two females and three males in three locations in a span of 30 to 35 minutes, he said. Earlier, authorities said the gunman had killed one female and four males."

Primary Elections

New York State holds primary elections today for state offices.

Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's former top lieutenant approved an inflammatory flier that suggested his Democratic rival, Cynthia Nixon, was anti-Semitic, the campaign said on Wednesday. And it was another former aide to the governor who crafted the mailer's language, according to an email obtained by The New York Times. Lawrence S. Schwartz, the former secretary to the governor, inadvertently signed off on the flier after its language was drafted by David Lobl, a former special assistant to the governor who was volunteering with the re-election campaign, the campaign said. Mr. Lobl suggested the language for the mailer in an email to two campaign aides, who helped create the flier. The correspondence, dated Sept. 1, shows Mr. Lobl outlining text that was later replicated almost verbatim on the back side of the mailer, which was sent to 7,000 households shortly before Rosh Hashana and days before Thursday's primary.... [A spokeswoman for Cuomo's campaign] said Mr. Schwartz had not noticed the false claims on the reverse side [of the draft he approved]."

Rhode Island Results. Alexander Burns & Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island defeated a liberal challenger in a Democratic primary election on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press, reasserting herself as the party's leader in a state where she has battled criticism from activists on the left and intransigence from old-guard lawmakers in her own camp. Ms. Raimondo, 47, is expected to face a serious fight for re-election in November despite Rhode Island's Democratic lean and the difficult political climate for Republicans nationwide.... She will face Allan Fung, the Republican mayor of Cranston who also ran against her four years ago in November. Complicating matters for both parties, Joe Trillo, a former Republican state legislator who chaired Mr. Trump's campaign in Rhode Island, is also running for governor as an independent." (Mrs. McC: Sorry I missed this.)

     ... The New York Times' primary results for Rhode Island are here. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse bested challenger Spencer Dickinson in the Democratic Senate primary. Whitehouse will face Robert Flanders, who easily won the GOP Senate primary."

*****

I'm a very good dealmaker, believe me. -- Donald Trump

The wall will be paid for very easily, by Mexico. It will ultimately be paid for by Mexico. -- Donald Trump, August 28, 2018

The United States plans ... to pay Mexico. -- New York Times, September 13, 2018 ...

... Not Fake News. Gardiner Harris & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump has promised for years that Mexico would pay for a vast border wall, a demand that country has steadfastly refused. Now, in the Trump administration's campaign to stop illegal immigration, the United States plans instead to pay Mexico. In a recent notice sent to Congress, the administration said it intended to take $20 million in foreign assistance funds and use it to help Mexico pay plane and bus fare to deport as many as 17,000 people who are in that country illegally.... The money will help increase deportations of Central Americans, many of whom pass through Mexico to get to the American border." More on Trump's excellent anti-immigrant policy linked below.

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump took issue Thursday with the number of deaths attributable to Hurricane Maria, falsely saying a higher count had been generated by Democrats to 'make me look as bad as possible.' A sweeping report from George Washington University released last month estimated there were 2,975 'excess deaths' in the six months after the storm made landfall in Puerto Rico in September 2017. Trump said on Twitter that 'they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths' at the time he visited the island after the storm. 'As time went by it did not go up by much,' Trump wrote. 'Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000.... This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!'... Trump's tweets -- which came as a highly dangerous Hurricane Florence churned toward the Carolinas -- brought an immediate rebuke from Democrats in Congress. 'Only Donald Trump could see the tragedy in Puerto Rico and conclude that he is the victim,' said Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.). 'May God bless the souls of the nearly 3,000 Americans that died in Puerto Rico and may he take pity on your soul, Mr. President.'" ...

... Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "'We got A Pluses for our recent hurricane work in Texas and Florida (and did an unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico, even though an inaccessible island with very poor electricity and a totally incompetent Mayor of San Juan),' [President Trump] wrote Wednesday on Twitter. It's a frequent tactic of the president -- elevate a widely perceived failure or mistake and defend it as a great triumph while attacking his critics.... Aides say that Trump's tendency to focus on and defend his perceived failures is fueled by a mix of potent factors. He obsesses over negative news coverage sometimes long after the topic has changed. He often marvels that he can make the cable news chyrons change. And he is constantly selling himself -- regardless of who is in front of him and no matter the topic. Sometimes, he is trying to preempt criticism that he knows is likely to revive itself, like before this week's hurricane. And he tells senior aides that his supporters will believe his version of events." ...

... Danielle McLean of ThinkProgress: "More than 1,000 Puerto Ricans, displaced by last year's hurricanes, have been living temporarily in hotels and motels throughout the country while they await more permanent housing alternatives -- major repair to their own homes, for example, or help finding a new place to live. But they are now bracing for the likelihood they will become homeless this week. A federal judge in Massachusetts on August 30 allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to stop funding its Transitional Shelter Assistance (TSA) program, which allows hurricane-displaced people to live in hotels or motels throughout Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland.... The federal judge who authorized FEMA to end the program, urged the agency to work with the people enrolled in the program to find alternative housing so they are not left homeless. However, according to the civil rights advocacy group LatinoJustice PRLDEF, which represents the hurricane survivors enrolled in the program in court, the federal agency has not done that."

Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Sept. 7, President Trump woke up in Billings, Montana, flew to Fargo, N.D., visited Sioux Falls and eventually returned to Washington. He spoke to reporters on Air Force One, held a pair of fundraisers and was interviewed by three local reporters. In that single day, he publicly made 125 false or misleading statements -- in a period of time that totaled only about 120 minutes. It was a new single-day high. The day before, the president made 74 false or misleading claims, many in a campaign rally in Montana. An anonymous op-ed article by a senior administration official had just been published in the New York Times and news circulated about Bob Woodward's insider account of Trump's presidency. Trump's tsunami of untruths helped push the count in The Fact Checker's database past 5,000 on the 601st day of his presidency. That's an average of 8.3 claims a day, but in the past nine days -- since our last update -- the president has averaged 32 claims a day."

Annie Gearan & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump issued a new order Wednesday authorizing additional sanctions against countries or individuals for interfering in upcoming U.S. elections, but lawmakers of both parties immediately said the effort does not go far enough. The order would allow Trump to sanction foreigners who interfere in the midterm elections to be held in less than two months. It covers overt efforts to meddle in election infrastructure, such as vote counts, as well as 'propaganda' and other attempts to influence voting from abroad, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats told reporters. The harshest sanctions outlined in the order would be up to the president's discretion. 'This is intended to be a very broad effort to prevent foreign manipulation of the political process,' national security adviser John Bolton said during a briefing Wednesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: In other words, "Russia, if you're listening, come on back." What I predict Trump will do is sanction countries or individuals who appear to help Democrats & accidentally forget to notice any who help Republicans. Fox "News" will be guarding the henhouse.

Alexandre Tanzi & Rich Miller of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump's unpopularity is unprecedented given the strength of the economy. That's according to a Bloomberg analysis of polling data. It shows that Trump is the first U.S. leader dating back to at least Ronald Reagan whose approval rating is consistently low and lagging consumers' favorable assessment of the economy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Was Always a Nasty SOB. Barbara Res, a former Trump Org. vice-president, in a New York Daily News op-ed: "On this particular day, the architect had come to Donald Trump's office to show him what the interior of the residential elevator cabs would look like. Trump looked at the panels where the buttons you push to reach a floor were located. He noticed that next to each number were some little dots. 'What's this?' Trump asked. 'Braille,' the architect replied. Trump told the architect to take it off, get rid of it. 'We can't,' the architect said, 'It's the law.' 'Get rid of the (expletive) braille. No blind people are going to live in Trump Tower. Just do it,' Trump yelled back, calling him weak. The more the architect protested, the angrier Trump got. Donald liked to pick on this guy. As a general rule, Trump thought architects and engineers were weak as compared to construction people. And he loved to torment weak people...."

I had seen him do this kind of thing before and would again. He would say whatever came into his head. Ordering an underling to do something that was impossible gave Trump the opportunity to castigate a subordinate and also blame him for anything that 'went wrong' in connection with the unperformed order later. A Trump-style win-win.... So when I saw the snippets of Bob Woodward's book and the anonymous Op-Ed piece, I wasn't surprised. To an extent, Trump has always relied on people not to follow his most ridiculous orders.... Off the record, staffers tell reporters that Trump is out of control. But what have they done to try to control him?... The self-aggrandizing Anonymous wants the world to know that there are adults in the room. Really? What the hell are they doing?

Follow the Money. Anthony Cormier & Jason Leopold of BuzzFeed News: "... secret documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal a previously undisclosed aspect of the [infamous June 2016 Trump Tower] meeting: a complex web of financial transactions among some of the planners and participants who moved money from Russia and Switzerland to the British Virgin Islands, Bangkok, and a small office park in New Jersey. The documents show Aras Agalarov, a billionaire real estate developer close to both and Donald Trump, at the center of this vast network and how he used accounts overseas to filter money to himself, his son, and at least two people who attended the Trump Tower meeting.... Now, four federal law enforcement officials told BuzzFeed News, investigators are focused on two bursts of transactions that bank examiners deemed suspicious: one a short time after the meeting [on the same day Paul Manafort became Trump's campaign manager!] and another immediately after the November 2016 presidential election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

John Santucci & Matthew Mosk of ABC News: "... Paul Manafort has been in ongoing negotiations with special counsel Robert Mueller's office over potential plea agreement, sources familiar with the negotiations tell ABC News.... Sources tell ABC News that Mueller's office is seeking cooperation from Manafort for information related to ... Donald Trump and the 2016 campaign. Manafort, however, is resisting and his team is pushing prosecutors for a plea agreement that does not include cooperation, at least as related to the president, sources said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds as if Manafort knows some bad stuff about Trump. But the story, more generally, sounds to me like a guilty man putting out signals to the pardoner-in-chief. ...

... Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel: "But the reason why Mueller isn't just going to let Manafort plead to some of the DC charges without cooperating is because that would mean giving up the considerable leverage -- $30 million worth -- that Mueller built into place a year ago. While it hasn't gotten a lot of attention, both Manafort indictments include forfeiture provisions, meaning the government will seize his ill-gotten gains. And because Manafort had a shit-ton of ill-gotten gains, there's a whole lot of stuff that the government can now seize, starting with his ostrich skin suits.... Having been found guilty of charges 25 and 27 in his EDVA trial, for example, the government will seize the funds from the $16 million loan Manafort got by lying to Federal Savings Bank.... In the DC case..., Manafort stand to lose the proceeds of his influence peddling, the laundered proceeds of which the indictment says amount to $30 million.... And it's not clear that a presidential pardon prevents [forfeiture] from happening (and bmaz suggests that even if Trump managed the pardon deftly enough to prevent that, DOJ could seize it all civilly anyway, especially since the pardon would amount to admission of guilt)."

Donnie Junior, Tough Guy. Erin Kelly of USA Today: "Donald Trump Jr. said Tuesday he is not afraid of going to jail as the result of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. 'I'm not because I know what I did, and I'm not worried about any of that,' the president's eldest son said during an interview on ABC's 'Good Morning America'. 'That doesn't mean they won't try to create something, I mean, we've seen that happen with everything. But, again, I'm not.' He said he would 'deal with it as it comes.'" ...

... MEANWHILE, the Other Brother. David Badash in the Raw Story: "Eric Trump is lashing out at veteran Watergate journalist Bob Woodward, and his remarks are drawing accusations of anti-Semitism. Wednesday morning the president's son charged the author of 'Fear' -- the latest bombshell book exposing the Trump administration as inept and corrupt -- with writing it 'to make 3 extra shekels.' The shekel is both an ancient and modern-day form of currency in Israel, but it can also evoke ugly old bigoted and anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jewish people.... On social media, many expressed disgust over Eric Trump's remarks, while others directly accused him of anti-Semitism." Akhilleus discussed this is a comment yesterday. He was not amused.

Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "Even though hundreds of children separated from their families after crossing the border have been released under court order, the overall number of migrant children under detention has exploded to the highest ever recorded -- a significant counternarrative to the Trump administration's efforts to reduce the number of undocumented families coming to the United States.... [There are] 12,800 [children in custody] this month. There were 2,400 such children in custody in May 2017. The huge increases, which have placed the federal shelter system near capacity, are due not to an influx of children entering the country, but a reduction in the number being released to live with families and other sponsors, the data collected by the Department of Health and Human Services suggests [sic. s/b "suggest"].... Most of the children crossed the border alone, without their parents.... Despite the Trump administration's efforts to discourage Central American migrants, roughly the same number of children are crossing the border as in years past. The big difference, said those familiar with the shelter system, is that red tape and fear brought on by stricter immigration enforcement have discouraged relatives and family friends from coming forward to sponsor children. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Make American Great, my ass. Trump's motto should be "Making America Worse, One Disaster at a Time."

Carla Herreria of the Huffington Post: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday was on the losing end of a lawsuit accusing the Department of Education of illegally delaying regulations set by the Obama administration to protect student loan borrowers from predatory colleges. Attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit against DeVos after her department began rolling back the so-called borrower defense rules, which were set to take effect on July 1, 2017.U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss ruled in favor of the attorney generals, calling DeVos' attempts to delay the Obama-era rule from its start date 'unlawful,' 'arbitrary and capricious' and 'procedurally invalid,' according to the opinion.... Moss has scheduled a hearing for Friday to address remedies for the situation." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.

Sheila Kaplan & Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "Warning that teenage use of electronic cigarettes has reached 'an epidemic proportion,' the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday gave Juul Labs and four other makers of popular vaping devices 60 days to prove they can keep them away from minors. If they fail, the agency said, it may take the flavored products off the market. The order was part of a sweeping action that targeted both makers and sellers of e-cigarettes. The agency said it was sending warning letters to 1,100 retailers -- including 7-Eleven stores, Walgreens, Circle K convenience shops and Shell gas stations -- and issued another 131 fines, for selling e-cigarettes to minors. In addition, the F.D.A. commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a briefing that the agency would look closely at the manufacturers' own internet storefronts. He flagged what he called 'straw purchases' -- bulk orders of the devices, which buyers in turn used to sell to minors." Mrs. McC: Yeah, and they could give gun manufacturers 60 days to prove they can keep guns away from minors. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Intrigue. Frances Robles of the New York Times: "At least five Cuban-Americans in Miami ... who have opposed a trade embargo with Cuba and promoted better relations with the communist government in Havana, said they received surprise visits in the past week from federal agents. The law enforcement representatives were vague about their intentions, gave only their first names, and asked questions that seemed intended to learn about contacts with Cuban diplomats, Dr. [Julio] Ruiz[, whom the FBI visited,] said.... Some of those contacted said they feared that they were being targeted as part of President Trump's moves to curtail travel to Cuba and roll back new openings with Havana that had been enacted by the Obama administration.... The activists had an emergency meeting over the weekend with the American Civil Liberties Union, which encouraged them to file Freedom of Information Act requests for their F.B.I. files. One of the people approached said he was presented with his F.B.I. file, complete with photos."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "In 2006, Brett Kavanaugh told a Senate committee that he wasn't 'primarily' involved in shepherding the nomination of controversial circuit court nominee Charles Pickering when Kavanaugh worked in the George W. Bush White House. But emails released Wednesday show that Kavanaugh conducted meetings with Republican senators and was closely engaged in Pickering's nomination. Democrats are now arguing that Kavanaugh was not forthright under oath during his confirmation hearings to be a circuit court judge more than a decade ago, and are zeroing in on his work on behalf of Pickering. The Mississippi judge faced questions at the time about his record on civil rights and was blocked by the Senate after Bush nominated him.... The White House said Noel Francisco, now the U.S. solicitor general, was the lead White House lawyer on the Pickering nomination. But Democrats question why Kavanaugh was sometimes the only associate counsel included on emails about Pickering's confirmation; Francisco is not always copied in the newly released emails, though he is included on a handful of them."

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh on Wednesday described in detail how he regularly bought Washington Nationals tickets and split the cost with friends -- purchases the White House has said led Kavanaug to accrue tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. ... The issue arose in written follow-up questions submitted by members of the committee, and Kavanaugh submitted his answers in writing late Wednesday.... Kavanaugh wrote in his responses [to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)] that he has never reported a gambling loss to the Internal Revenue Service or accrued gambling debt.... Asked by [Sen. Dick] Durbin [D-Ill.] whether he agreed with Trump's statement that the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is 'an illegal investigation,' Kavanaugh declined to respond directly." ...

... Richard Hasen in Slate: "On Monday, Sen. Susan Collins accused political opponents of Judge Brett Kavanaugh of attempted 'bribery.' The charge itself is without any legal merit whatsoever.... Collins labeled as a 'bribe' a fundraising plan by two progressive Maine groups, aided by the company Crowdpac, to raise funds for Collins' eventual opponent in 2020. People are pledging to give money via Crowdpac to that unknown future opponent, but donors will only be charged for the donation if Collins votes 'yes' on Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. As of Tuesday night, the groups reported pledged donations of more than $1 million, with a $1.3 million goal.... As Adam Smith noted, although Sen. John Cornyn boosted Collins' bribery complaints, back in January he was urging the Koch brothers to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to reward the Republican Party for tax cuts benefiting wealthy donors. This came after big donors threatened to withhold money until Republicans got that tax bill passed." ...

... Ryan Grim of the Intercept: "Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have privately requested to view a Brett Kavanaugh-related document in possession of the panel's top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, but the senior California senator has so far refused, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. The specific content of the document, which is a letter from a California constituent, is unclear..., but the one consistent theme was that it describes an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman while they were in high school.... The woman who is the subject of the letter is now being represented by Debra Katz, a whistleblower attorney who works with #MeToo survivors."

Lisa Friedman, et al., of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is in discussions to work as a consultant to the Kentucky coal mining tycoon Joseph W. Craft III, according to two industry executives familiar with the plans.... Mr. Craft, the chief executive of Alliance Resource Partners and a major Republican donor, enjoyed a close relationship with the E.P.A. during Mr. Pruitt's tenure. Mr. Craft met with Mr. Pruitt at least seven times in Mr. Pruitt's first 14 months at the agency and in December provided him with courtside seats at a University of Kentucky basketball game, a school where Mr. Craft is a prominent supporter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "Scott Pruitt ... faced mounting financial pressures as he sought to balance his personal obligations in Oklahoma with his new role as a member of President Trump's Cabinet in Washington, new documents show. Pruitt, who made $189,600 a year as EPA administrator, incurred between $115,000 and $300,000 in legal fees last year, according to financial disclosure forms released Wednesday. He sold off tens of thousands in investments during that same period. The documents highlight the financial pressures facing the former administrator, who enlisted the help of staff to help his wife find work and to perform personal tasks for him. The form does not specify what the legal work was for: as Pruitt's spending and management practices came under increasing scrutiny starting last fall he eventually hired private attorneys to represent him and established a legal-defense fund." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "The foreign-born population in the United States has reached its highest share since 1910, according to government data released Thursday, and the new arrivals are more likely to come from Asia and to have college degrees than those who arrived in past decades. The Census Bureau's figures for 2017 confirm a major shift in who is coming to the United States. For years newcomers tended to be from Latin America, but a Brookings Institution analysis of that data shows that 41 percent of the people who said they arrived since 2010 came from Asia. Just 39 percent were from Latin America. About 45 percent were college educated, the analysis found, compared with about 30 percent of those who came between 2000 and 2009."

Binyamin Appelbaum & Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The income of the median American household has finally rebounded from the damage caused by the 2008 financial crisis, a significant milestone in the nation's painfully slow economic recovery. Median household income reached $61,372 in 2017, the Census Bureau reported on Wednesday, a number that it said was statistically indistinguishable from the median on the cusp of the crisis, in 2007. The Trump administration, in a statement released by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, hailed the report as an indication of a strengthening American economy.... But the details of the report raised questions about whether middle-class households -- which have experienced an economic 'lost decade' -- are now likely to see actual income gains or if they will simply tread water. One reason for concern is that income growth slowed in 2017, to 1.8 percent. Median income had grown more rapidly in previous years, by 5.2 percent in 2015 and 3.2 percent in 2016. The gains in income were also driven by increased employment, rather than increased pay." ...

... Nicholas Schwartz of the New York Times: "... the scars of the financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession are still with us, just below the surface. The most profound of these is that the uneven nature of the recovery compounded a long-term imbalance in the accumulation of wealth. As a consequence, what it means to be secure has changed. Wealth, real wealth, now comes from investment portfolios, not salaries. Fortunes are made through an initial public offering, a grant of stock options, a buyout or another form of what high-net-worth individuals call a liquidity event.... The proportion of family income from wages has dropped from nearly 70 percent to just under 61 percent. It's an extraordinary shift, driven largely by the investment profits of the very wealthy.... The financial crisis ... also put an end to a fundamental belief of the middle class: that owning a home was always a good idea because prices moved in only one direction -- up.... Bankers, shareholders and investors were ... bailed out [of their financial crisis losses]. For homeowners, there wasn't much of a rescue package from Washington, and eight million succumbed to foreclosure." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... See also, linked yesterday, David Dayen's post on that weasel Tim Geithner. Mrs. McC: Among the things he slow-walked was the homeowners' mortgage recovery program. I thought the Obama administration was going to help my friends with underwater mortgages. It didn't, because Geithner.

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The Senate passed a bipartisan spending package Wednesday paying for veterans affairs, military construction and other programs for 2019 -- a big step forward as congressional leaders maneuver to avoid a government shutdown at month's end. The vote was 92 to 5. The legislation is expected to pass the House on Thursday and then go to President Trump, who is expected to sign it. The measure would mark the first batch of spending bills for 2019 to be signed into law, and comes with time running out for Congress to finalize all the must-pass bills before government funding expires Sept. 30. It's progress for lawmakers who are trying to avoid a repeat of what happened in March, when Trump threatened to veto a massive $1.3 trillion spending package for 2018 that arrived at his desk months late. Trump ultimately signed the 'omnibus' bill but vowed never to sign another one like it. This time lawmakers have wrapped the spending bills into smaller 'minibus' packages to be able to move them more quickly."

2018 Elections

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Former President George W. Bush is hitting the fundraising circuit for a handful of Republican House and Senate candidates, joining the party's push to maintain its congressional majorities. Bush has maintained a low profile since leaving office in 2009. Yet as the midterm campaign season enters its final weeks and the party braces for the prospect of a Trump-fueled wave, Bush -- who has been critical of the president -- is putting his muscle behind Republicans in heated races." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... OR, as Jonathan Chait puts it, "George W. Bush, who declined to endorse Donald Trump (or anybody) in 2016, and made muttered elliptical criticisms of the 45th president, has thrown himself into the task of covering up Trump's many crimes. Bush, reports Politico, is raising money for candidates who are committed to maintaining the cover-ups.... For the most part, the entire party has closed ranks around the no-oversight agenda.... This very much includes the parts of the party that see themselves as quietly resisting Trump." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Texas Senate Race. Joseph Hudak of Rolling Stone: "Willie Nelson will headline a rally for Beto O'Rourke.... While Nelson has performed for politicians in the past -- most famously for President Jimmy Carter on the South Lawn of the White House on September 13th, 1980 -- the O'Rourke rally will mark his first-ever public performance on behalf of a political candidate. The concert, featuring guests Joe Ely, Carrie Rodriguez, Tameca Jones, and Nelson's sons Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson, is set for September 29th at Auditorium Shores."

Jeet Heer: "Congressman Steve King keeps retweeting racists with minimal GOP pushback. [Yesterday King retweeted Lana Lokteff.' Lokteff is a promoter of Holocaust denial and white nationalism. She once said a country 'can never, ever, ever be too white. It's never white enough.'"

Chris Johnson of the Washington Blade: "In an exchange with high school students that was caught on tape, a Republican congressman from New Jersey was tongue-tied over the prospect of same-sex couples adopting children and suggested kids would be better off in orphanages than with LGBT families. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) made the remarks May 29 when addressing student constituents in the auditorium of Colts Neck High School. They asked the congressman about his opposition to adoption by same-sex couples, according to a source familiar with the recording. A source familiar with the tape, who delivered the recording on Monday exclusively to the Washington Blade, said it was obtained in recent days."

Alexandra Alter of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, St. Martin's Press announced that it will publish [Stephanie] Clifford's memoir, 'Full Disclosure,' (pun likely intended) this October, just before the midterm elections. In a news release, the publisher said Ms. Clifford [a/k/a Stormy Daniels] will tell 'her whole story for the first time,' including how she came to be a successful actress and director in the adult film business, her alleged affair with Mr. Trump and 'the events that led to the nondisclosure agreement and the behind-the-scenes attempts to intimidate her.'" Mrs. McC: Not your usual bodice-ripper.

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Facing an uproar over revelations that he mismanaged past cases of clerical sexual abuse, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, sent a letter informing his priests on Tuesday that he plans to discuss his resignation with Pope Francis in Rome. Cardinal Wuerl has faced calls for his resignation by some of his priests and parishioners since the release of a bombshell grand jury report last month in Pennsylvania. Cardinal Wuerl previously served as the archbishop of Pittsburgh, and the report included accounts of his allowing several priests accused of sexually abusing children to remain in ministry, after relying on the advice of psychologists who had assessed the priests." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

William Branigin of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis has ordered an investigation of Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va., in connection with sexual harassment charges and accepted his resignation, church officials announced Thursday. The pope instructed Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore to conduct a probe into allegations that Bransfield, 75, sexually harassed 'adults,' the Archdiocese of Baltimore said in a statement. Church officials and witnesses in court cases previously said Bransfield was accused of molesting teenage boys. Bransfield has denied the allegations."

Jackson McHenry of New York: "Jeff Fager, the executive producer of 60 Minutes who was accused of promoting a culture of sexual harassment alongside Les Moonves within CBS's news division, is leaving the company.... CBS News [president] David Rhodes ... claims that Fager's departure is 'not directly related to the allegations surfaced in press reports' though he 'violated company policy.' The investigations into CBS and CBS News, one of which started after allegations against Charlie Rose surfaced and another after reports on Moonves, will continue. Fager initially denied the allegations against him, which included claims that he touched women inappropriately at parties and shielded men beneath him who were accused of misconduct. In The New Yorker's later report, on which Fager declined to comment, Sarah Johansen, a former intern, said Fager groped her at a work party." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Fager Threatened a Reporter. CBS News: "Jeff Fager, the longtime executive producer of '60 Minutes' who was fired on Wednesday, sent a text message to CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan with a warning over the network's coverage of the sexual harassment accusations against him. On Sunday, Duncan reached out to Fager for his response to allegations in The New Yorker that he had groped or touched CBS employees at company parties.... Fager replied, 'Be careful. There are people who lost their jobs trying to harm me and if you pass on these damaging claims without your own reporting to back them up that will become a serious problem.'... Fager said in a statement that his contract was terminated early 'because I sent a text message to one of our own CBS reporters demanding that she be fair in covering the story.'... 'One such note should not result in termination after 36 years, but it did.' Duncan revealed the contents of the text message on the 'CBS Evening News' on Wednesday, 'since Jeff Fager publicly referred to our exchange today.'" ...

... James Stewart in the New York Times: "In the end, it was the evidence that [Les] Moonves had misled his board -- even more than the allegations of abuse from multiple women -- that doomed him." Mrs. McC: Some board members really didn't care a whit about the women Moonves allegedly abused: "I don't care if 30 more women come forward and allege this kind of stuff. Les is our leader and it wouldn't change my opinion of him," said board member Arnold Kopelson.

Tennis Umps Get Their Fee-Fees Hurt. Des Bieler of the Washington Post: "Stung by what they perceive as a lack of institutional support for the chair umpire who gave Serena Williams a game penalty late in the U.S. Open women's final, which set off a firestorm of criticism, other umpires are reportedly discussing the possibility of boycotting her matches. Top umpires are also considering the formation of a union, according to a report Tuesday, in part because they are not allowed to discuss specific matches. Williams was free to speak her mind after losing, 6-2, 6-4, Saturday to Japan's Naomi Osaka, and she accused chair umpire Carlos Ramos of sexism. He had given her a warning for coaching, then a point penalty for smashing her racket and, after she repeatedly expressed frustration, including calling him a 'thief,' Ramos levied the game penalty for verbal abuse." Mrs. McC: See what happens when you question the authority of authority figures? They really can't take it. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Michael Birnbaum & Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "European lawmakers voted Wednesday to initiate sanctions proceedings against the Hungarian government for what they said was backsliding on democracy, an extraordinary censure for a nation that was once a beacon of post-Communist transformation. The vote, which required a two-thirds supermajority of the European Parliament to pass, declared that there was a 'clear risk of serious breach' of European values by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. It was the first step in a process that could ultimately strip Hungary of its voice in decision-making in the European Union. Orban has lost many of his protectors in his ambitious quest to remake the continent in his model of 'illiberal democracy' -- a bloc that would be closer to Russia, less open to migration, and less concerned about independent judiciaries, a free press and minority rights." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, but Trumpy likes him. Of course.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "A series of gas explosions tore through several Massachusetts communities Thursday, setting numerous homes on fire and forcing evacuations in at least three towns. Following reports of between 60 and 100 fires, state police ordered residents of Lawrence, North Andover and Andover to leave their homes. Highways have been closed to aid in the evacuation. Massachusetts State Police say troopers have been dispatched to Lawrence, Andover and North Andover to secure the areas and help traffic snarled by panicked residents fleeing their neighborhoods during the evening rush hour. The cause wasn't immediately clear."

Weather Channel: "Hurricane Florence is making its final approach to the Carolinas, with landfall possible either overnight tonight or Friday, kicking off an agonizing crawl through the Southeast into early next week, producing catastrophic inland rainfall flooding, life-threatening storm surge and destructive winds. As of early Thursday morning, Florence's eye was located about 200 miles east-southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, moving northwestward. Outer rainbands are already pushing ashore in eastern North Carolina, only the beginning of what could be a record wet siege from a tropical cyclone...." ...

... Washington Post Update: "The outer bands of Hurricane Florence, a large and dangerous Category 2 storm, landed on the North Carolina coast Thursday. The storms has already unloaded up to a half a foot of rain, winds have gusted to nearly 90 mph and sea water is surging ashore along the Outer Banks, washing over roads. In southeastern N.C., rivers have started to spill into towns. Thursday marks the beginning of a prolonged assault from wind and water, which -- by the time it's over -- is likely to bring devastating damage and flooding to millions of people in the Southeast."

The New York Times is providing free access to its Hurricane Florence coverage. The Times front page is here. "The [Washington] Post has removed article limits on coverage of Hurricane Florence to make these stories available without a subscription." The Post has links to several Florence-related stories on its front page. the (South Carolina) State home page is here. The State is granting free access to its site during the storm. The Raleigh News & Observer home page is here.

Comments

[PD Pepe]

Today we have two B's front and center: One is the real deal, the other is a bad deal. Beto and Betsy, the contrast couldn't be greater.

Beto: the fact that he has not taken any pack money, any corporate money and is neck and neck with Cruz is quite astounding. A more impressive political figure would be hard to find. And yeah, politics is a lot like Punk Rock. Play on, young whipper snapper–-play on.

Betsy: News today that she lost a lawsuit over Obama's Student Loan rules is so delicious that I might just take a walk in the rain. A well heeled woman whose Christian piety clouds any semblance of accomplishments in the education department is par for the course. Unfit for the job should have been clear from the start but then Trump's picks weren't picked for those reasons, were they.

Here's the skinny on the lawsuit:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/betsy-devos-loses-student-loan-lawsuit_us_5b99dee7e4b05092ceed040f

[PD Pepe]

"Trump’s tsunami of untruths helped push the count in The Fact Checker’s database past 5,000 on the 601st day of his presidency. That’s an average of 8.3 claims a day, but in the past nine days – since our last update – the president has averaged 32 claims a day."

AND SO??? If confronted with this number––will someone tell him? Will he hear it on Fox? Will he fume? Will he tweet "fake news"? Will someone ask Kellyanne about this? Can she spin it? I mean, IS SOMETHING GOING TO BE DONE?

"Twas brillig, and the slitby toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
all mimsy were the borogoves,
and the mome raths outgrabe.

The poor White King "looked puzzled and unhappy and struggled... but Alice was too strong for him, and at last he panted out."

We seem to be in the land of Jabberwocky ––and the King is indeed unhappy and struggling but so far not "panted out." We wait with baited breath. Where are our Alice's?

[Marvin Schwalb]

PD, telling him won't help. This is proof of complete delusion. And his WH people know it and do nothing. My frustration is when is the term mentally ill going to come up seriously.

[Akhilleus]

Six Dead, and Not Counting.

The little dictator has declared that all those deaths in Puerto Rico stemming from A. Hurricane Maria, and B. His terrifically awful response, are all a fantasy.

According to Trump, there were only 6 deaths. Reports of nearly 3,000 dead are being bandied about purely to "make me look bad".

Because it's always all about Trump.

Never mind that thousands are dead. Those are lies spread by Democrats to make him look bad. There's no WAY 3,000 people died there. Why, last time he was there, everyone was fine and they were all cheering him for tossing them a couple of rolls of Bounty.

He allows that 6 people were killed, maybe as many as 18, but that's it. He bases this on his only regular source of information, besides the insides of Sean Hannity's tiny brain pan: himself. If he says it, it must be true.

Because the truth is only ever employed to make him look bad.

Well....

[Marvin Schwalb]

AK, let's be fair. The majority of those deaths came from medical emergencies with no access to care. So a good number was due to the storm itself. Of course the quality of the response played a major part so to be fair Trump only killed about 1500 people.

[safari]

Our country's "leader"* trivializes the deaths of thousands of American citizens as a political "hit job" and everyone is so stretched thin from the continual chaos and hate stew that the best we can do is a group shoulder shrug.

I can't remember any more whether this is the "new normal" or "business as usual".

[Akhilleus]

Marvin,

1,500. Just a tad over 6. So many of these Trumpisodes come off like a bad SNL sketch, maybe for a regular routine called "Bad President".

"Mr. President! 3,000 dead in Puerto Rico!"

"What? No freakin' way."

"Really? That's what the researchers say."

"Well, they don't know diddly. It was six."

"Six?"

"Yeah. Any word from Kim on our Bowling for Nukes show?"

"Our what?"

"Yeah, we're gonna have our own reality TV show. I call it Bowling for Nukes. It'll be tremendous. The winner gets to nuke the country of his choice. I'm going with Canada."

Okay. Not funny. But not far off from what's really happening.

[NiskyGuy]

At least the jokes about W's ignorance made him seem to have a heart:

"President W, I have bad news. A UN peacekeeping compound was attacked. Three Canadians and two Brazilians were killed in the fighting."

W starts sobbing uncontrollably.

"Sir, I know this is tragic, but let's keep the big picture in mind here."

W replies: "Don't you know how many people two brazilian is?"

[safari]

I'll never forget flipping through the glossy pages of my history book in junior high school while learning about the civil rights movement. The pictures were both fascinating and repulsive. The "forbidden fruit" photos in particular have never left my mind. Being from Kansas we talked a great deal about Brown v Board of Education. I use to pour over the faces in the pictures of the lonely "Little Rick Nine" walking to school, being swarmed by screaming bigots every step of the way. I spent half the lesson looking over each and every one of the fanatical whites, from their faces twisted into scowls to the types of clothes they wore. And those nicely-dressed white folks smiling for the camera around a burned, lynched body still make my stomach churn.

The majority of the lesson was rightly centered on justice and progress with a message of hope and courage. Fighting for what's right. But it also came with a little asterisk of ceitical thinking reminding us that they were just products of their time; they didn't know better and it would be unfair to judge them with today's values without taking that into account.

Okay. That's a legitimate argument even though most people knew better than to go out and harass kids trying to go to school or attending lynchings as a dress-up, social event. But what about Trump supporters now? He's blatantly white nationalist, to the point where he won't bad mouth David Duke and even supported Neo-Nazis live on national teevee. He's the poisoned head, but the rot goes deep into the GOP's core.

Shouldn't Trump supporters be judged by today's values, which have been steeped in the lessons of the civil rights era? I can't help but transplant all of the faces that appear at his Hate and Whine rallies onto those pictures from the 1950s and 60s. And the faces of his administration and inner circle, KellyAnne ConRag and Stohen KKK Miller starting down Linda Brown as she walks with her books.

I always thought of those pictures as some of the ugliest of our country's past, but now I know it's still our present. Surely, progress has been made. Donny Jr. can't hang anybody from a tree for political points, but I've seen his face in those pictures. And the whole GOP machinery is working its damnedest to grind our social progress into the same ash covering the countless trees across our country with stories too terrible to tell.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's still difficult, 2 years on, to realize that so many living, breathing Americans still show up to have their pictures taken next to our demogague-in-chief. And I wonder what the next generations will think when they peruse their glossy photos in their history books, recounting the gloomy years of the Trump administration.

[Jeanne]

Safari—your conclusion is so telling—. I can’t wrap my head around that either. Who are these idiots??

[Victoria]

“Blackkklansman” addresses some of the issues raised by Safari and Jeanne.

[Jeanne]

Victoria: I have to confess I have never heard of that movie... I don't keep up much with movies, as mostly they are things I don't care about (action, cartoons, end of the world, juvenile romances etc.)but I was curious about this one and read a review. I think I grew up untouched by racism that I knew of, even in Kentucky, knowing no black or Jewish or even Catholic people. Seems odd, but my mom and pop were extremely liberal and I assumed everyone was. Imagine my surprise to find out horrible things were happening on the national stage, and I was still untouched. I think a lot of people are like me, shocked to hear things voiced that one just didn't hear in polite company, having assumed things were "better." Now I feel like it is a raw nerve, and I don't understand the people who did not know exactly what trumpster dumpster and his cult are from the outset. So, I am still shocked and helpless and angry that we are in this untenable situation.

[Akhilleus]

Jeanne,

Most of those voting for the Trumpster Dumpster (or Dumbster) as you put it, knew exactly what that cult was from the outset.

They voted for him precisely because of that. And they all benefited from the right-wing media echo chamber that pretended that Trump voters were just simple, patriotic Americans with no interest in bigoted, racist, hate-filled ideologies.

Fox, insisting that Trumpers were nothing but Great Americans, gave them all permission to let their freak flags fly with no responsibility for things like the Charlottesville murder or the repulsive separation of moms and dads from their babies, perhaps for a lifetime. These are people who pride themselves on their Christianity, but have no problem siding with a lying, cheating, pussy-grabbing, treasonous crook.

It's truly astounding. But once you realize that these people would rather attach themselves to a repulsive liar and crook than go along with allowing non-whites a decent status in America, it all becomes clear.

They knew exactly what they were voting for. Up Christian whites, down everyone else.

And not just down, but imprisonment of their enemies, torture, family dissolution, and eradication of voting rights.

These people are not, in any way, shape, or form, Americans who would be recognized as such by a single one of the founders they so regularly praise.