The Commentariat -- September 8, 2019

Michael Crowley, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Saturday that he had canceled a secret meeting at Camp David with Taliban leaders and the president of Afghanistan and was calling off monthslong negotiations that had appeared to be nearing a peace agreement. Mr. Trump said ... in a series of tweets ... that 'in order to build false leverage,' the Taliban had admitted to a suicide car bomb attack on Thursday that had killed an American soldier and 11 others in the capital of Kabul. 'I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations,' he wrote.... Several people familiar with the diplomacy between the Trump administration and the Taliban puzzled over Mr. Trump's stated decision to cancel peace negotiations entirely in response to one American casualty, however tragic." Mrs. McC: The report discusses various aspects of the negotiations & cancellation, but I think the problem was that Trump had not found a vicious Taliban buddy. ~~~

~~~ Caroline Kelly & Kylie Atwood of CNN: "CNN military analyst John Kirby, a retired Navy rear admiral and former State Department and Pentagon spokesman, called the news 'stunning,' saying this would give the Taliban 'a boost of political legitimacy that they don't deserve at this stage in negotiations and would be a huge propaganda victory for them, not to mention a slap at the Afghan government and President Ghani.'... Despite Trump saying in his tweet Saturday that peace negotiations are called off, new dates are being discussed by the White House for a potential meeting with the Taliban and the Afghan government, the source says."

Mrs. McCrabbie: It looks as if the Turnberry Grift may be less problematic for Trump than suggested by the Politico story linked here yesterday:

~~~ Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "United States military personnel have occasionally stayed at the Trump Turnberry golf resort in Scotland while Defense Department planes stop over and refuel at the nearby airport, according to a person with direct knowledge of the arrangement.... Federal contract documents show that the Defense Department signed an agreement with the Prestwick airport to serve as a refueling location for military flights in August 2016, during the final months of the Obama administration. It could not be determined on Saturday if the department had contracts with the airport before then. The records also show that the first payments under this contract started in early October 2017 and that a total of 917 payments for 'liquid petroleum' have since been made at a total cost of $17.2 million.... There are more than two dozen hotels, guesthouses and inns just a few miles from the Prestwick airport, most of them much less expensive than the full advertised rate at Trump Turnberry.... Any profits from the stay, beyond covering basic services like housekeeping, are being paid back to the federal government, [a] Trump [Organization] representative said.... The Guardian ... reported [in 2018] that the Scottish government sought out the contract with the Defense Department to try to help increase revenue at the airport.... The Trump Organization announced in 2014 that it was teaming up with executives at the Prestwick airport to try to drive more traffic to its runways." ~~~

~~~ Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "The House Oversight Committee is investigating why a financially struggling airport near a Trump-owned golf course in Scotland has seen an uptick in expenditures by the U.S. military since President Trump took office." ~~~

~~~ Eric Lipton & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Staying at the Trump hotel or hosting an event in one of its ballrooms is hardly a guarantee of getting something in return from the Trump administration, or even getting on Mr. Trump's personal radar. But many people ... have learned that it also does not hurt.... To ethics lawyers, the most extraordinary aspect of the daily merging of Mr. Trump's official duties and his commercial interests both in Washington and around the world is that it has now become almost routine. Since Mr. Trump became president, there have been thousands of visits to his properties, not only by Mr. Trump himself, but by foreign leaders, lobbyists, Republican candidates, members of Congress, cabinet members and others with ties to the president. At least 90 members of Congress, 250 Trump administration officials and more than 110 foreign officials have been spotted at Trump properties since 2017, according to social media posts and counts by various watchdog groups." ~~~

~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "The fact that the press was able to convince most of the public that Hillary Clinton was the more dishonest of the two candidates in 2016, based on relentless coverage of [an] inane bullshit that wouldn't rank in the top 1,000 bad acts of Donald Trump's pre-presidential life, is ... remarkable."

Andrew Freedman, et al., of the Washington Post: "Nearly a week before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publicly backed President Trump over its own scientists, a top NOAA official warned its staff against contradicting the president. In an agencywide directive sent Sept. 1 to National Weather Service personnel, hours after Trump asserted, with no evidence, that Alabama 'would most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated,' staff was told to 'only stick with official National Hurricane Center forecasts if questions arise from some national level social media posts which hit the news this afternoon.' They were also told not to 'provide any opinion,' according to a copy of the email obtained by The Washington Post.... The agency sent a similar message warning scientists and meteorologists not to speak out on Sept. 4, after Trump showed a hurricane map from Aug. 29 modified with a hand-drawn, half-circle in black Sharpie around Alabama. Acting NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs was involved in drawing up the statement as was the NOAA director of public affairs, Julie Kay Roberts, who has experience in emergency management and worked on the president's campaign. The leadership of the Commerce Department, headed by Secretary Wilbur Ross, also approved the release, though Ross was out of the country at the time." ~~~

     ~~~ The Houston Chronicle has republished the WashPo story here. Oops! The Chron is also subscriber-firewalled & won't allow access thru incognito windows. So here's a Washington Examiner story. ~~~

~~~ Seth Borenstein of the AP: "Former top officials of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are assailing the agency for undermining its weather forecasters as it defends ... Donald Trump's statement from days ago that Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama. They say NOAA's action risks the credibility of the nation's weather and science agency and may even risk lives. Dismay came those who served under Republican and Democratic presidents alike as leaders in meteorology and disaster response sized up a sustained effort by Trump and his aides to justify his warning that Alabama, among other states, was 'most likely' to be hit hard by Dorian, contrary to forecasts showing Alabama was clear. That effort led NOAA to repudiate a tweet from the National Weather Service the previous weekend assuring Alabamans -- accurately -- that they had nothing to fear from the hurricane. The weather service is part of NOAA and the tweet came from its Birmingham, Alabama, office. 'This rewriting history to satisfy an ego diminishes NOAA,' Elbert 'Joe' Friday, former Republican-appointed director of the National Weather Service, said on Facebook.... Alabama had never been included in hurricane advisories and Trump's information, based on less authoritative graphics than an official forecast, was outdated even at the time.... Justin Kenney, who headed the agency's communications in the Obama administration, said 'by politicizing weather forecasts, the president ... puts more people -- including first responders -- in harm's way.'" ~~~

~~~ Tracy Connor of the Daily Beast: "The head of the union that represents federal weather workers said Friday that his members are 'shocked, stunned and irate' that the federal agency whose workers they represent put out a statement siding with President Trump in the increasingly bizarre dispute over whether Hurricane Dorian was on track to hit Alabama. 'Never ever before has their management thrown them under the bus like this,' said Dan Sobien, president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization, which represents 4,000 employees under the umbrella of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 'These are the people risking their lives flying into hurricanes and putting out forecasts that save lives. Never before has their management undercut their scientifically sound reasoning and forecasts,' Sobien told The Daily Beast." ~~~

~~~ Brian Stelter of CNN: "If, on Sunday, Trump actually believed that Alabama was at risk, it shows a shocking lack of knowledge about geography, science, and storms. Everyone watching TV on Sunday knew Dorian was a Bahamas, Florida, Georgia, and Carolinas storm. A single glimpse at a map showed that Alabama wasn't going to be 'hit.' So what does this episode tell us about Trump's critical thinking skills and his unwillingness to admit to mistakes?... Chris Hayes' answer on MSNBC Friday night: We're 'watching the president lose his mind.'... This week, the Trump administration distributed: -- Multiple tweets from the president that tried (and failed) to justify his incorrect claims that Alabama was, as of Sunday, at risk of being 'hit' by Hurricane Dorian. -- A misleading statement from Trump's homeland security adviser that attempted to justify Trump's falsehoods[.] -- An op-ed by Stephanie Grisham and Hogan Gidley attacking the Post. The op-ed contained multiple errors. -- A video from the president's Twitter account containing out-of-date info about Dorian, in an attempt to critique CNN, followed by an amateurish graphic of a CNN logo driving and crashing. All of this disinformation is taxpayer-funded." ~~~

~~~ Matt Stieb, et al., of New York: "Though he's proven himself incapable of working eight-hour days or maintaining a consistent story about why he fired his FBI director, President Trump has shown remarkable focus and dedication when it comes to proving certain minor and irrelevant points.... Though most Americans probably missed Trump's false claim on Sunday that Alabama was likely to be hit by Hurricane Dorian, he spent the rest of the week highlighting his own embarrassing mistake.... Here's a recap of this week's dumbest saga, which now seems poised to outlast the hurricane itself."

This should silence you cynics who thought Trump was too self-absorbed to care for a pet. Thanks to unwashed for the photo.Frank Rich: "To call Trump erratic right now is a compliment. He makes Roseanne Barr look like Theresa May.... Sharpiegate is only one offering in the past week or so's 24/7 repertory of White House Looney Tunes. Not even another mass killing in Texas could distract our president from a public feud with his long-ago fellow NBC primetime star Debra Messing, of Will & Grace. There's also the bagatelle of his tweeting out a classified surveillance photo of an Iranian missile site, yet another in an endless series of moves to undermine American intelligence agencies. But there may be more of a method to the madness of Trump's 'congratulations' to Poland on the 80th anniversary of the German invasion. Far from being one of his typical displays of utter historical and geopolitical ignorance, this tweet may have been a heartfelt expression of his genuine conviction that there are very fine people on both sides' when Nazis launch a blitzkrieg."

Craig Howie of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday took aim at two Washington Post reporters.... 'The Washington Post's @PhilipRucker (Mr. Off the Record) & @AshleyRParker, two nasty lightweight reporters, shouldn't even be allowed on the grounds of the White House because their reporting is so DISGUSTING & FAKE,' the president tweeted at 7:09 a.m. The tweet linked to an op-ed by White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham and Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley rebutting a Washington Post story published earlier this week that highlighted the president';s missteps amid the administration's policy stumbles over the summer. But the White House op-ed inaccurately claimed the Washington Post didn't report stories that it actually did cover."

Sam Brodey & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Corey Lewandowksi, Donald Trump's 2016 campaign manager and a key figure in his political orbit, is set to appear before the House Judiciary Committee where he will be questioned in a public hearing on Sept. 17, according to two sources familiar with the discussions. Lawmakers are interested in pressing Lewandowski for more information on the instances of possible obstruction of justice by the president that were outlined in Robert Mueller's report. Though Lewandowski did not hold a White House job, he figures prominently in Volume 2 of the report, which found that Trump asked his former campaign chief to press then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to curb the special counsel's investigation. In August, Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) issued a subpoena for testimony from Lewandowski, who has publicly said he'd be happy to testify and, as he put it during a Fox News radio interview, 'remind the American people that these guys are on a witch hunt, right?'... Lewandowski will answer questions in an open hearing with the cameras rolling -- making him the first Trump associate to do so before Nadler's committee."

Presidential Race 2020

Trent Spiner & Holly Otterbein of Politico: "The 1,280 most influential Democrats in [New Hampshire] hosted 19 presidential hopefuls on Saturday for the party's annual convention. Joe Biden found little mojo for his candidacy among Democratic Party insiders at their state convention here Saturday, despite leading the polls in the first-in-the-nation primary state. A striking number of party activists said they were undecided as 19 presidential candidates delivered stump speeches over seven hours at the SNHU Arena, according to interviews with 100 delegates by Politico. Elizabeth Warren led the way among the surveyed delegates who had made up their minds, followed by Bernie Sanders in second and Biden in third." ~~~

~~~ Love Thy Neighbors. Annie Linskey & Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post: "It took until midafternoon [in Manchester, New Hampshire] for Democrats in the first-in-the-nation primary state to start showing some real enthusiasm for their presidential candidates who traveled here for the party convention. When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took the stage Saturday, a huge roar came from the left bleachers, where his supporters had packed the stadium seats at the SNHU Arena. And later, when the name of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was announced, the entire area erupted, with thousands banging together inflatable 'thunder sticks' emblazoned with the slogan: 'Win With Warren.'... While Sanders and Warren, who are the most liberal in the field, don't lead in early polls, the overwhelming response suggested some blend of superior organization from the campaigns and untapped excitement from the most plugged-in voters and party activists who attended Saturday's event. It also doesn't hurt that both are from states that border New Hampshire."

Reid Wilson of the Hill: "The South Carolina Republican Party appeared to violate its own rules on Saturday when the party's executive committee voted to cancel next year's primary election. The executive committee voted nearly unanimously to cancel the primary, state party chairman Drew McKissick said, because President Trump had drawn 'no legitimate primary challenger.' Trump has drawn two former Republican elected officials as challengers. Former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) -- who served two terms as governor of South Carolina -- is also considering joining the field. Any of those candidates may decide to sue the South Carolina GOP, some Republican insiders said, because Saturday's vote ran contrary to the state party's rules. The rule that governs South Carolina's presidential preference primary allows the state party to cancel the primary only by a vote at the state party convention, within two years of the subsequent primary. South Carolina Republicans did not vote to cancel the primary at either of its last two conventions." ...

... Meg Kinnard of the AP: "Republican leaders in Nevada, South Carolina and Kansas have voted to scrap their presidential nominating contests in 2020, erecting more hurdles for the long-shot candidates challenging ... Donald Trump. 'What is Donald Trump afraid of?' asked one of those rivals, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. Canceling primaries, caucuses and other voting is not unusual for the party of the White House incumbent seeking a second term."

Marc Tracy & Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "The director of M.I.T.'s prestigious Media Lab [Joichi Ito] stepped down on Saturday after an outcry over his financial ties with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, whose contributions to the proudly contrarian lab roiled and divided its members.... Mr. Ito ... stepped down less than a day after an article in The New Yorker described the measures that officials at the lab took to conceal its relationship with Mr. Epstein.... Mr. Ito ... was a board member of The New York Times Company since 2012, but on Saturday, the company announced that he had resigned from the board." the Hill story is here. ~~~

~~~ Ronan Farrow of the New Yorker: "The M.I.T. Media Lab, which has been embroiled in a scandal over accepting donations from the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, had a deeper fund-raising relationship with Epstein than it has previously acknowledged, and it attempted to conceal the extent of its contacts with him. Dozens of pages of e-mails and other documents obtained by The New Yorker reveal that, although Epstein was listed as 'disqualified' in M.I.T.'s official donor database, the Media Lab continued to accept gifts from him, consulted him about the use of the funds, and, by marking his contributions as anonymous, avoided disclosing their full extent, both publicly and within the university. Perhaps most notably, Epstein appeared to serve as an intermediary between the lab and other wealthy donors, soliciting millions of dollars in donations from individuals and organizations, including the technologist and philanthropist Bill Gates and the investor Leon Black.... The effort to conceal the lab's contact with Epstein was so widely known that some staff in the office of the lab's director, Joi Ito, referred to Epstein as Voldemort or 'he who must not be named.'... On Wednesday, Ito disclosed that he had separately received $1.2 million from Epstein for investment funds under his control, in addition to five hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars that he acknowledged Epstein had donated to the lab." ~~~

~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "I mean, yes, serial child rape sounds bad, but the Director of Development and Strategy could really use a second secretary and perhaps an Associate Director for Leveraging Synergistic Liaisons, and I could go on like this for a while, so you can see the dilemma they had.... We can be confident there are many more such scandals to come. Epstein's ability to purchase the appearance of respectability is really 2019 America in a nutshell."

R.I.P. Sam Stein & Gideon Resnick of the Daily Beast (September 6): "ThinkProgress, the influential news site that rose to prominence in the shadow of the Bush administration and helped define progressivism during the Obama years, is shutting down. The outlet, which served as an editorially independent project of the Democratic Party think tank Center for American Progress (CAP), will stop current operations on Friday and be converted into a site where CAP scholars can post.... [Navin] Nayak, [director of the CAProgress Action Fund] did say that ClimateProgress, which started as an independent blog before merging with ThinkProgress, will be taken over by its founder, Joe Romm." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I sure hope Ian Millhiser, among others, finds a soft landing place. I have found his legal analysis to be very helpful. Update: In a tweet, Millhiser says he'll be starting a new job next week, TBA.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Iran. Nasser Karimi & Jon Gambrell of the AP: "Iran on Saturday said it now uses arrays of advanced centrifuges prohibited by its 2015 nuclear deal and can enrich uranium 'much more beyond' current levels to weapons-grade material, taking a third step away from the accord while warning Europe has little time to offer it new terms. While insisting Iran doesn't seek a nuclear weapon, the comments by Behrouz Kamalvandi of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran threatened pushing uranium enrichment far beyond levels ever reached in the country. Prior to the atomic deal, Iran only reached up to 20%, which itself still is only a short technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%."

U.K. BBC News: "Amber Rudd has quit Boris Johnson's Cabinet, with an outspoken attack on the way the government is managing the Brexit process. The ex-work and pensions secretary said the government was having no 'formal negotiations' with the EU about a new Brexit deal, only 'conversations'. Instead, 80-90% of its time was spent preparing for an 'inferior' no-deal option, she said."

The Commentariat -- September 7, 2019

Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "The House Judiciary Committee is preparing to take its first formal vote to define what Chairman Jerry Nadler calls an ongoing 'impeachment investigation' of ... Donald Trump, according to multiple sources briefed on the discussions. The panel could vote as early as Wednesday on a resolution to spell out the parameters of its investigation. The precise language is still being hammered out inside the committee and with House leaders. A draft of the resolution is expected to be release Monday morning."

The Most Corrupt President* in U.S. History, Ctd.

** The Turnberry Grift. Natasha Bertrand & Bryan Bender of Politico: "In early Spring of this year, an Air National Guard crew made a routine trip from the U.S. to Kuwait to deliver supplies. What wasn't routine was where the crew stopped along the way: ... Donald Trump's Turnberry resort, about 50 miles outside Glasgow, Scotland. Since April, the House Oversight Committee has been investigating why the crew on the C-17 military transport plane made the unusual stay -- both en route to the Middle East and on the way back -- at the luxury waterside resort, according to several people familiar with the incident. But they have yet to receive any answers from the Pentagon. The inquiry is part of a broader, previously unreported probe into U.S. military expenditures at and around the Trump property in Scotland. According to a letter the panel sent to the Pentagon in June, the military has spent $11 million on fuel at the Prestwick Airport -- the closest airport to Trump Turnberry -- since October 2017, fuel that would be cheaper if purchased at a U.S. military base. The letter also cites a Guardian report that the airport provided cut-rate rooms and free rounds of golf at Turnberry for U.S. military members. Taken together, the incidents raise the possibility that the military has helped keep Trump's Turnberry resort afloat -- the property lost $4.5 million in 2017, but revenue went up $3 million in 2018.... The potential involvement of the military takes the issue to a different level.... Prestwick Airport has long been debt-ridden. The Scottish government bought it in 2013 for £1, but it has continued to lose money in the years since. In June, the government announced its intent to sell the airport, which the panel's letter described as 'integral' to the success of the Turnberry property, 30 miles away."

The Doonbeg & Doral Grifts. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "House Democrats, furious over President Trump's continued promotion of his branded properties for government business, said on Friday that they would scrutinize whether two recent cases would violate the Constitution's ban on presidents profiting from domestic or foreign governments. Two chairmen acting in tandem [-- Elijah Cummings of the House Oversight Committee & Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee --] sent letters to the White House, the Secret Service and the Trump Organization asking for documents and communications related to Vice President Mike Pence's decision to stay this week at Mr. Trump's resort in Ireland during an official visit, as well as Mr. Trump's recent statements promoting Trump National Doral, near Miami, as a possible site for the Group of 7 summit of world leaders next year.... The Constitution's emoluments clauses prohibit presidents from accepting any payment from federal, state or foreign governments beyond their official salary.... Nadler ... said his committee was considering potential violations of the ban on profiting from the presidency as part of its impeachment investigation." ...

... Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "House Democrats are investigating Vice President Mike Pence's stay at ... Donald Trump's golf resort in Ireland, as well as Trump's recent promotion of another property he owns as a possible venue for the next G-7 summit. In letters made public Friday, leaders of two Democrat-led House committees requested documents and other information from the White House, the Secret Service and the Trump Organization about the two matters. Both committees raised concerns about possible violations of the Constitution's so-called emoluments clauses, which bar federal officials from accepting payments from foreign governments or profiting beyond their salaries." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Elizabeth Warren Is Still Doing Her Day Job. Kimberly Atkins of WBU Boston: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren is demanding the State Department disclose its role in Vice President Mike Pence's trip this week to meet with Irish leaders in Dublin, which included a stay at the Trump International Hotel in Doonbeg, some 175 miles away. 'This is only the latest instance in which government officials, companies or special interest groups have patronized the President's hotels - enriching the President and his family - in numerous cases, with taxpayer funds,' Warren wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, obtained by WBUR." (Also linked yesterday.)

** The Ukraine Shakedown. Worse than RussiaGate. Washington Post Editors: Despite his sweeping plan to instate pro-Western reforms, Ukraine's new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, "has so far failed to win the backing of President Trump.... Mr. Trump ... has suspended the delivery of $250 million in U.S. military aid to a country still fighting Russian aggression in its eastern provinces. Some suspect Mr. Trump is once again catering to Mr. Putin, who is dedicated to undermining Ukrainian democracy and independence. But we're reliably told that the president has a second and more venal agenda: He is attempting to force Mr. Zelensky to intervene in the 2020 U.S. presidential election by launching an investigation of the leading Democratic candidate, Joe Biden. Mr. Trump is not just soliciting Ukraine's help with his presidential campaign; he is using U.S. military aid the country desperately needs in an attempt to extort it.... The White House claims Mr. Trump suspended Ukraine's military aid in order for it be reviewed. But, as CNN reported, the Pentagon has already completed the study and recommended that the hold be lifted. Yet Mr. Trump has not yet acted."

Still Crazy After All These Days. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "The president on Friday continued to defend his misleading prognostication for the path of Hurricane Dorian, assailing the news media and in the process, digging in and reviving the controversy for a sixth day. 'The Fake News Media was fixated on the fact that I properly said, at the beginnings of Hurricane Dorian, that in addition to Florida & other states, Alabama may also be grazed or hit.' Trump said in a series of tweets. 'They went Crazy, hoping against hope that I made a mistake (which I didn't). Check out maps. This nonsense has never happened to another President,' he continued, complaining that he'd been subjected to 'four days of corrupt reporting, still without an apology. But there are many things that the Fake News Media has not apologized to me for, like the Witch Hunt, or SpyGate!'... Despite Trump's assertion that he'd originally suggested Alabama could be 'grazed or hit,' the nearly weeklong controversy originated in a Sunday tweet that declared Alabama was among a handful of Southeastern states that 'will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.' The National Weather Service almost immediately debunked the president's claim, but he repeated the assertion twice more that day...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Update. The NOAA Strong-arm. Peter Baker & Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times: "Late Friday afternoon, the parent agency of the National Weather Service issued a statement declaring that its Birmingham, Ala., office was wrong to dispute the president's warning that Alabama 'will most likely be hit' by the hurricane despite forecasts to the contrary. '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,' the parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, said in the statement. Neither the White House nor NOAA responded to inquiries about whether the statement was issued at the direction or in consultation with the president's aides. But it followed a concerted effort by Mr. Trump and his team to use the levers of government to back up a presidential claim that has been widely discredited and ridiculed, including posting outdated weather maps and having his homeland security adviser issue a statement backing him." ...

     ... Justine Coleman of the Hill: "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a statement Friday evening disavowing a days-old tweet from the National Weather Service that contradicted President Trump over the reach of Hurricane Dorian. The NOAA statement ... was unsigned and posted to the agency's website on Friday...." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: NOAA is an agency within the Commerce Department. I'd say Wilbur Ross bowed to His Dimwittedness. And if you think the "deep state" -- a/k/a ordinary public servants -- won't bend to political pressure, then read the next linked story about the DOJ's "inquiry" into auto companies agreeing to meet California's emissions standards. ...

     ... Jason Samenow, et al., of the Washington Post: "The federal agency that oversees the National Weather Service has sided with President Trump over its own scientists in the ongoing controversy over whether Alabama was at risk of a direct hit from Hurricane Dorian.... The NOAA statement Friday makes no reference to the fact that when Trump tweeted that Alabama was at risk, it was not in the National Hurricane Center's 'cone of uncertainty,' which is where forecasters determine the storm is most likely to track. Alabama also had not appeared in the cone in days earlier, and no Hurricane Center text product ever mentioned the state.... Many meteorologists, recognizing Alabama was at no risk, expressed their ire on Twitter, stating Trump should have instead focused on communicating Dorian's hazards to the Southeast coast and dispensed with his preoccupation with Alabama."

The DOJ Bootlick. Hiroko Tabuchi & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has opened an antitrust inquiry into the four major automakers that struck a deal with California this year to reduce automobile emissions, according to people familiar with the matter, escalating a standoff over one of the president's most significant rollbacks of climate regulations. In July, four automakers -- Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen of America, Honda and BMW -- announced that they had reached an agreement in principle with California on emissions standards stricter than those being sought by the White House. The announcement came as an embarrassment for the Trump administration, which assailed the move as a' P.R. stunt.'... The investigation comes amid a battle over the Trump administration's effort to drastically roll back Obama-era rules intended to reduce emissions from cars and light trucks that contribute to global warming, a rollback that major automakers have publicly opposed.... Legal experts and people close to the Trump administration agreed that the investigation was meant as a show of force to companies that have displeased the president." ...

     ... Joe Nocera of Bloomberg: "I don't know how else you can characterize the news, reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, that the DOJ is investigating four major automakers that agreed to abide by California's stringent tailpipe-emissions standards -- and chose to ignore less onerous rules the Trump administration has proposed.... The sad degradation of the Department of Justice's antitrust division continues. An agency charged with upholding the nation's antitrust laws, without fear or favor, has become just another tool ... Donald Trump uses to reward his friends and punish his enemies in corporate America.... It could well be true that the White House wasn't consulted before the antitrust division acted. Before he was the named the Justice Department's antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim was the deputy counsel for the Trump White House. Maybe he doesn't have to talk to the White House to intuit what Trump wants. He knows who butters his bread. ...

... MEANWHILE. Jana Winter & Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News: "The FBI is monitoring groups on the border that are protesting U.S. immigration policy, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News.... The note, which was produced by the FBI office in Phoenix and sent to other law enforcement and government agencies, said there are indications these groups are 'increasingly arming themselves and using lethal force to further their goals.' However, almost all of the evidence cited in the report involved nonviolent protest activity. The intelligence collected and cited in the FBI document, dated May 30, 2019, is worrisome to activists and civil rights advocates who say that the government is classifying legitimate government opposition and legally protected speech as violent extremism or domestic terrorism.... The FBI intelligence note described the border protest activity as coming from 'anarchist extremists.'" --s ...

... MEANWHILE. "Twitter's Own Uriah Heep." Virginia Heffernan of the Los Angeles Times: "Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general once known for setting the Trump-Russia investigation in motion, retired in May. After a long career as a public servant, he wanted to spend more time with Twitter.... [T]he Rosenstein who shows up on Twitter is the accomplice who stood behind Barr on April 18, immobile and glassy-eyed as Barr extravagantly lied about Mueller's findings.... His tweets have become a punctilious, prickly and mean-spirited, as if he had something to prove, decisions to justify, a guilty conscience.... He's Twitter's own Uriah Heep, insisting he's nothing but a humble servant of justice, all while hitting Trump's enemies with the chops-licking gusto of a partisan hack." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Rosenstein's Twitter account is here. As Heffernan writes, "To censure [Jim] Comey for sharing a memo about a dangerous president is to miss a galaxy-sized forest for a few twigs." Also, if you don't have an LA Times subscription & don't want to waste one of the few "free articles" on Heffernan, David Choi of Business Insider, in an August 29 post, discusses & links to the Rosenstein-to-Grassley letter re: Comey that features on Heffernan's column. Rosenstein appears to be one of those people who manages to sound like the voice of reason as he violates common sense & marches to the tune of whoever has the loudest band. That's a dangerous skill. Do remember that Rosenstein cut his teeth as a staffer on Ken Starr's investigation of Bill Clinton.

Julie Davis & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The White House is considering a plan that would keep most refugees who are fleeing war, persecution and famine out of the United States, significantly cutting back a decades-old program, according to current and former administration officials. One option that top officials are weighing would cut refugee admissions by half or more, to 10,000 to 15,000 people, but reserve most of those spots for people from a few countries or from groups with special status, such as Iraqis and Afghans who work alongside American troops, diplomats and intelligence operatives abroad. Another option, proposed by a top administration official [-- John Zadrozny, in the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services --], would reduce refugee admissions to zero, while leaving the president with the ability to admit some in an emergency. Both options would all but end the United States' status as a leader in accepting refugees from around the world.... In a letter to Mr. Trump on Wednesday, some of the nation's most distinguished retired military officers implored the president to reconsider the cuts, taking up the national security argument that [former Defense Secretary Jim] Mattis made when he was at the Pentagon." Mrs. McC: The xenophobes will get together this coming Tuesday to make their decision.

Sam Levin of the Guardian: "Jose Segovia Benitez survived two tours of duty with the US Marine Corps, a bomb blast, and a traumatic brain injury. But the US is not helping him recover. On the contrary, the government may be leading him to his death...The 38-year-old veteran is [in ICE detention] facing deportation to El Salvador, a country he left when he was three years old and where his loved ones fear he could be killed...During his 21 months of detention in the southern California facility, Ice has failed to provide adequate care for Segovia's serious heart condition, denied him proper treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and repeatedly placed him in isolation, according to the former marine and his lawyers. The consequences, they fear, could be fatal." --s

Caroline Kelly & Jim Acosta of CNN: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would defend funding for a new middle school in his home state of Kentucky after it was selected as one of the military projects the Trump administration will delay in order to fund border wall construction.... 'Senator McConnell recently talked to Secretary [of Defense Matt] Esper regarding the issue and is committed to protecting funding for the Ft. Campbell Middle School project,' a spokesman for McConnell said in a statement....The Kentucky Republican voted to support Trump's national security declaration in March, which allowed the President to use military funding for border wall projects. The spokesman for McConnell blamed the delayed military construction projects -- a funding decision made by Trump to secure his long-sought-after funding for a border wall -- on Democrats." Mrs. McC: Sorry for any delay in linking the story. I've been running around the room trying to catch my hypocrisy meter, which is bouncing off everything.

Jeremie Richard of Truthout: "[F]or the first time in recorded history, Alaska's sea ice has melted completely away. That means there was no sea ice whatsoever within 150 miles of its shores, according to the National Weather Service, as the northernmost state cooked under record-breaking heat through the summer." --s

Presidential Race 2020

Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Beto O'Rourke's presidential campaign sent letters to major technology companies Friday morning imploring them to do more to root out disinformation ahead of the 2020 election. The pointed appeals, from campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon, came after a conspiracy theory falsely linking the former Texas congressman to the gunman who killed seven people in two west Texas towns on Saturday was allowed to spread on social media this week, garnering thousands of shares.... Among those who amplified the deceptive claim, which appeared to originate on Twitter with the charge that the gunman was a democratic socialist with an O'Rourke sticker on his truck, were Anthony Shaffer, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer and member of an advisory board whose mission is to promote President Trump, and Sebastian Gorka, who worked briefly in the White House." Mrs. McC: That figures. The CBS News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Four states are poised to cancel their 2020 GOP presidential primaries and caucuses, a move that would cut off oxygen to Donald Trump's long-shot primary challengers. Republican parties in South Carolina, Nevada, Arizona and Kansas are expected to finalize the cancellations in meetings this weekend, according to three GOP officials who are familiar with the plans. The moves are the latest illustration of Trump's takeover of the entire Republican Party apparatus. They underscore the extent to which his allies are determined to snuff out any potential nuisance en route to his renomination -- or even to deny Republican critics a platform to embarrass him." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nikita Richardson of New York: "Howard Schultz Reminds Nation He Was Running for President by Dropping Out." (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Texas AG Ken Paxton (R) Ignored Explicit Threats to Murder Latinos. Nicole Goodkind of Newsweek: "A [totally firewalled] report out Wednesday by the San Antonio Express-News found that a gun owner in Texas had sent more than 100 pages of racist and violent letters to the Texas Attorney General's office threatening to kill undocumented immigrants over the course of a year and a half, and that nothing was done to stop him or to communicate the threat to local authorities. 'We will open fire on these thugs,' the white man who allegedly sent the messages wrote in an email to the office. 'It will be a bloodbath.' Over the same period, local officers in San Antonio responded to 911 calls made by and about the man, and visited his house, on at least 35 occasions. However, because he had never seemingly committed a crime, police did not arrest him or take legal action. Nearby neighbors told the Express-News that the man's home is covered in security cameras and that he often emerged holding a shotgun. When alerted by a reporter at the Express-News of the threats made to the Attorney General's Office, the police force did respond. 'Since you've made us aware of those threats, our fusion center and our mental health unit have reached out to the AG's office and are trying to work something to make a case against [the alleged suspect Ralph] Pulliam,' Sargent Michelle Ramos told the paper. 'They're going to investigate that.' The threats and lack of communication by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to local police takes on a new light in the wake of two mass shootings in Odessa and El Paso." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Makes you wonder how many other similar threats Paxton & other Texas GOP officials have ignored. If a Latino had written such threats against "white people," would Paxton have kept quiet? There's something really, really wrong here. Think the FBI will investigate Paxton? Uh, maybe not.

Way Beyond

** China/Iran. Make China Great Again. Juan Cole: "Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in Beijing recently for what turns out to have been the biggest triumph of his career. China ... has decided to incorporate Iran into its One Belt, One Road plan with investments totaling some $400 billion. I suspect Iran would rather have had this deal with Europe, but Trump ... has been bullying big European firms.... Iran had to seek its economic future with China, whether it likes it or not. To guard the China-built oil and gas facilities, China will put 5,000 People's Liberation Army troops into Iran. This troop presence ... will be as big as the US military footprint in today's Iraq.... It is likely meant as a deterrent ... as any major US military strike on or action against Iran would risk hitting Chinese army personnel and spiking tensions with a nuclear power." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a good example of why the next real president will not be able to just waltz into the Oval & sign a pile of executive orders undoing or reversing Trump's horrible policies to get the U.S. back to the status quo.

France, Earth. Rym Montaz of Politico: "... Donald Trump may have upended the international world order, but it's French President Emmanuel Macron who has turned America First to his advantage. In recent months, Macron has become increasingly active on the world stage. He played a key role in brokering an agreement over EU top jobs, launched a risky diplomatic initiative on Iran, reinvigorated efforts on Ukraine and hosted a G7 summit that at least managed to preserve the unity of the seven, unlike its two predecessors." (Also linked yesterday.)

Hungary. Shaun Walker of the Guardian: "Procreate or face extinction: that is the message from central European leaders to their shrinking populations, as across the region rightwing governments implement so-called 'family first' policies to incentivise childbearing. Hungary's ... nativist prime minister, Viktor ... Orbán, who has based his political campaigns in recent years on anti-refugee and anti-migration sentiment, said other European politicians saw immigration as the solution, but he firmly rejected this, tapping into the far-right 'great replacement' theory." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Several years back, the American Papal Nuncio Ross Douthat & some of his "reasonable, conservative" cronies were pushing tax "reform" aimed at further privileging taxpaying families with lots of children. I didn't get it then, but I do now: this was their way of not only raising the U.S. birth rate but also ensuring that the U.S. didn't have to rely on immigrants to boost the economy.

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "As Hurricane Dorian made landfall along North Carolina's Outer Banks as a Category 1 storm Friday morning, powerful winds and storm surge had major impacts on the coastline, especially on Ocracoke Island, where serious flooding inundated buildings and stranded residents who chose to ride out the storm. The worst impacts were reported on Ocracoke and in Hatteras, where the storm made landfall. 'Finally Hurricane Dorian has left North Carolina,' Gov. Roy Cooper said in an evening press conference. 'We're getting a look at the damage it brought. The hurricane has left behind destruction where storm surge inundated Ocracoke Island. Currently the island has no electricity and many homes and buildings are under water.' Earlier, Cooper said hundreds were believed to be stuck on Ocracoke Island. North Carolina National Guard Maj. Gen. James Ernst said the Guard had flown six missions to Ocracoke as of 4:30 p.m. One of those missions was an airlift for a 79-year-old man with a medical emergency. The other missions included reconnaissance and dropping off communications equipment and medical personnel. Search and rescue teams were en route to check houses and buildings."

... The front page of the Weather Channel links Dorian stories. ...

... NBC News: "The number of confirmed dead after Hurricane Dorian rose to 43 Friday, and the figure was expected to grow 'significantly' as recovery efforts continued in the devastated Bahamas, the prime minister's office said. Some 70,000 people are in need of aid on Abaco and Grand Bahama islands, and thousands are desperately trying to find loved ones, with many gathering on social media and one main website in hopes of finding any news." CNN's story is here. ...

... Washington Post: "With time running out to save stranded survivors of Hurricane Dorian, Bahamian and U.S. rescue crews combed through rubble in the hardest-hit areas Friday and braced for the death toll to rise. Five days after the storm made landfall in the Bahamas as a Category 5 hurricane, authorities said it was unclear how many people were in need of assistance and how many had died. Officials and aid organizations struggled to reach remote towns in the sprawling island nation, with logistical issues preventing the deployment of rescue boats and aircraft."

The Commentariat -- September 6, 2019

This site will be down for up to 48 hours. Mrs. McCrabbie: I had to update my DNS settings, which of course I did with my usual technical wizardry. (That is, a GoDaddy techie walked me through every single step.) At any rate, apparently the DNS settings can take up to 48 hours to reset (but possibly much less time), so Reality Chex will be down for the count. ...

     ... Update: It's been 24 hours since I said the site could be down for 48 hours. So now I'm thinking it won't go down at all. We'll see. But don't be shocked if it's down.

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Still Crazy After All These Days. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "The president on Friday continued to defend his misleading prognostication for the path of Hurricane Dorian, assailing the news media and in the process, digging in and reviving the controversy for a sixth day. 'The Fake News Media was fixated on the fact that I properly said, at the beginnings of Hurricane Dorian, that in addition to Florida & other states, Alabama may also be grazed or hit.' Trump said in a series of tweets. 'They went Crazy, hoping against hope that I made a mistake (which I didn't). Check out maps. This nonsense has never happened to another President,' he continued, complaining that he'd been subjected to 'four days of corrupt reporting, still without an apology. But there are many things that the Fake News Media has not apologized to me for, like the Witch Hunt, or SpyGate!'... Despite Trump's assertion that he'd originally suggested Alabama could be 'grazed or hit,' the nearly weeklong controversy originated in a Sunday tweet that declared Alabama was among a handful of Southeastern states that 'will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.' The National Weather Service almost immediately debunked the president's claim, but he repeated the assertion twice more that day...."

Elizabeth Warren Is Still Doing Her Day Job. Kimberly Atkins of WBU Boston: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren is demanding the State Department disclose its role in Vice President Mike Pence's trip this week to meet with Irish leaders in Dublin, which included a stay at the Trump International Hotel in Doonbeg, some 175 miles away. 'This is only the latest instance in which government officials, companies or special interest groups have patronized the President's hotels - enriching the President and his family - in numerous cases, with taxpayer funds,' Warren wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, obtained by WBUR." ...

     ... Update. Warren Is Not Alone. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "House Democrats are investigating Vice President Mike Pence's stay at ... Donald Trump's golf resort in Ireland, as well as Trump's recent promotion of another property he owns as a possible venue for the next G-7 summit. In letters made public Friday, leaders of two Democrat-led House committees requested documents and other information from the White House, the Secret Service and the Trump Organization about the two matters. Both committees raised concerns about possible violations of the Constitution's so-called emoluments clauses, which bar federal officials from accepting payments from foreign governments or profiting beyond their salaries."

Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Beto O'Rourke's presidential campaign sent letters to major technology companies Friday morning imploring them to do more to root out disinformation ahead of the 2020 election. The pointed appeals, from campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon, came after a conspiracy theory falsely linking the former Texas congressman to the gunman who killed seven people in two west Texas towns on Saturday was allowed to spread on social media this week, garnering thousands of shares.... Among those who amplified the deceptive claim, which appeared to originate on Twitter with the charge that the gunman was a democratic socialist with an O'Rourke sticker on his truck, were Anthony Shaffer, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer and member of an advisory board whose mission is to promote President Trump, and Sebastian Gorka, who worked briefly in the White House." Mrs. McC: That figures. The CBS News story is here.

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Four states are poised to cancel their 2020 GOP presidential primaries and caucuses, a move that would cut off oxygen to Donald Trump's long-shot primary challengers. Republican parties in South Carolina, Nevada, Arizona and Kansas are expected to finalize the cancellations in meetings this weekend, according to three GOP officials who are familiar with the plans. The moves are the latest illustration of Trump's takeover of the entire Republican Party apparatus. They underscore the extent to which his allies are determined to snuff out any potential nuisance en route to his renomination -- or even to deny Republican critics a platform to embarrass him."

Rym Montaz of Politico: "... Donald Trump may have upended the international world order, but it's French President Emmanuel Macron who has turned America First to his advantage. In recent months, Macron has become increasingly active on the world stage. He played a key role in brokering an agreement over EU top jobs, launched a risky diplomatic initiative on Iran, reinvigorated efforts on Ukraine and hosted a G7 summit that at least managed to preserve the unity of the seven, unlike its two predecessors."

A Good Day for Headlines. Nikita Richardson of New York: "Howard Schultz Reminds Nation He Was Running for President by Dropping Out."

~~~~~~~~~~

I feel sorry for the president, and that is not the way we should feel about the most powerful figure in this country.... I don't know if he felt it necessary to pull out a sharpie and change the map. I don't know if it was one of his aides believed they had to do that in order to protect his ego.... No matter how you cut it, this is an unbelievably sad state of affairs for our country. If our presidency is not in good shape, then our country is not in good shape. And on one level it's laughable, on another it is exactly why we got to do something different. -- Pete Buttegieg on CNN today ...

... Trump Is Still Crazy. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "As Hurricane Dorian unleashed torrential rains on the Carolinas on Thursday morning, President Trump continued to push his erroneous contention from the weekend that Alabama could have been affected by the life-threatening storm. In his first tweets of the morning, Trump insisted that what he first said in a Sunday tweet was accurate at the time and attacked the news media. 'What I said was accurate! All Fake News in order to demean!' Trump wrote." The Hill story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Update to WashPo report linked above: "[Trump] later returned to the topic, sharing a tweet in which the Alabama National Guard had said that Dorian was 'projected to reach southern Alabama by the early part of the week.'" Mrs. McC: The National Guard tweet Trump cited was posted August 30 @ 10:11 am, two days before Trump said Alabama would be hit harder than expected. Later that day, the account tweeted, "Models are becoming more consistent with keeping Dorian (and major impacts) east of Alabama next week. There is still some guidance that suggests Dorian could get into the eastern Gulf before turning back to the north-northeast." On August 31, the same National Guard Twitter account tweeted, "Over the weekend, projections for #HurricaneDorian have continually skewed further north and east, leaving Alabama outside the anticipated path." Emphasis added. The August 31 tweet included a weather map showing the storm headed away from Alabama. Your tax dollars are going to staff whose time is devoted to combing tweets for outdated warnings that might appear to back up Trump's false claim.(Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... The WashPo story has been updated again, with Felicia Sonmez added to the byline: "The White House also issued a statement from Coast Guard Rear Adm. Peter Brown, Trump's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, defending the president's comments about Alabama. The statement prompted some to question the White House's priorities as Dorian was wreaking devastation in the southeast.... On Thursday evening, [Trump] tweeted more maps from last week. Those maps projected that parts of Alabama had at least a 5 percent chance of receiving tropical-storm-force-winds." ...

     ... Jake Tapper of CNN: "A White House source told CNN on Thursday that Trump personally directed [Coast Guard Rear Adm. Peter] Brown to issue the statement. Brown reports to national security adviser John Bolton but Bolton did not ask Brown to release the statement....

     ... More from Tapper's report: "Fox News senior White House correspondent John Roberts had just finished his 3 p.m. live shot on Thursday when ... Donald Trump beckoned him into the Oval Office. The President had one argument to make, according to an internal Fox email Roberts sent about the meeting provided to CNN. 'He stressed to me that forecasts for Dorian last week had Alabama in the warning cone,' Roberts wrote.... Roberts' analysis of the meeting was that the President was 'just looking for acknowledgment that he was not wrong for saying that at some point, Alabama was at risk -- even if the situation had changed by the time he issued the tweet' on Sunday morning, in which he said the state 'will most likely be hit.' The President also provided Roberts with graphics to make his points.... A White House aide familiar with the Oval Office meeting with Roberts said that Trump also voiced his displeasure about Fox News anchor Shepard Smith's skeptical reporting about the Alabama map. The President summoned Roberts 'to hit back at Shepard Smith,' the White House aide said." ...

... Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "... Fox News anchor Shepard Smith took the president to task on Thursday afternoon for his days-long obsession of insisting he's right over obviously inaccurate information. 'Why would the president of the United States do this?' Smith wondered aloud. 'He decries fake news that isn't and disseminates fake news that is. Think China pays the tariffs. The wall is going up. Historic inauguration crowds. The Russia probe was a witch hunt. You need an ID to buy cereal. Noise from windmills causes cancer. It's endless!'... Smith would then bring on White House correspondent John Roberts, who gave the White House's latest explanation for how Trump ended up sharing an outdated and altered hurricane map, stating that the map had been left in the Oval Office after a briefing and had been written on by someone during the meeting." Mrs. McC: Uh-huh. ...

     ... Update. Toluse Olorunnipa & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "It was Trump who used a black Sharpie to mark up an official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map, which he displayed during an Oval Office briefing on Wednesday, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.... As Hurricane Dorian battered the Carolinas with torrential rain and wind Thursday, President Trump remained fixated on sunny Alabama -- a state he falsely claimed was in the storm's crosshairs long after it was in the clear. For a fourth straight day, Trump's White House sought to clean up the president's mistaken warnings to Alabama from Sunday, seeking to defend Trump's tweets by releasing statements, disseminating alternative hurricane maps and attacking the media."

... Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Again and again, government officials have wheeled into action in an effort to make Trump's lies, errors and obsessions into truths, in some cases issuing 'official' information explicitly shaped or doctored to do so.... This has happened at least seven times: In January 2017, after the media reported on Trump's paltry inaugural crowd size, resulting in enraged but preposterous pushback from Trump, he dispatched then-press secretary Sean Spicer to tell multiple lies buttressing his stance.... After Trump repeatedly alleged widespread fictitious voter fraud in 2016, the White House set up an official commission to 'study' the issue...." And so forth. "Some time ago, Dana Milbank noted that in multiple cases such as these, government officials are using federal resources in vain attempts to turn the president's lies into truth.'" ...

... digby sees an ominous ulterior motive: Trump "made a simple slip of the tongue, and he knows it and his advisers know it.... He (and his cronies) are not letting this go because it enables them to test how powerful his ability is to manufacture truth is to his base.... Learning how many people continue to believe Trump no matter documentary evidence to the contrary will provide the GOP a good idea of how much they can capitalize on Trump's lies in the upcoming campaign. A lot of people actually believe that whatever he says has to be true simply because he said it. If that number is high enough, it doesn't matter whether Trump actually loses the election. He will simply declare himself the winner and they will never, ever accept the Democrat as the legitimate president.... As I see it, this is not a joke, this is not mental illness, and this is not 'having to be right.' This is deliberately capitalizing on a simple mistake in order to quantify Trump's capacity to set the truth terms of the public discourse even in the most absurd circumstances. It is very, very ominous." ...

... Adam Raymond of New York has posted #sharpiegate memes that show the world as Trump would prefer it. Funny. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jill Colvin of the AP: "On Thursday, [mike pence] ... met with embattled British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at No. 10 Downing Street, where the vice president tiptoed through the Brexit fury that has engulfed the region. Wrapping up a week in Europe, Pence spent about a half-hour with Johnson, whose determination to lead Britain out of the European Union on Oct. 31 faces intense opposition from lawmakers.... The Brexit drama was mostly a whisper as the two exchanged pleasantries and Johnson cracked jokes that largely went over the heads of members of the traveling U.S. delegation.... Pence largely stuck to script..., saying the president had asked him to assure Johnson that 'the United States supports the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union.' The vice president said Trump also wanted him to convey that the U.S. 'is ready, willing and able to immediately negotiate a free trade agreement with the U.K.' once it leaves the EU, which he predicted could multiply trade between the nation three or four times. 'Fantastic,' Johnson responded.... The exchange glossed over the long and arduous process involved in negotiating a free trade deal, although Johnson did make note that 'you guys are pretty tough negotiators.'"

Jim Tankersley, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled a long-awaited plan to end federal control of two mortgage giants that had been bailed out by taxpayers during the 2008 financial crisis and return them to the private sector. The administration's 49 recommendations to overhaul America's housing finance system are unlikely to find an eager audience in Congress, which has been deeply divided on the issue and is now consumed with other fights in the run-up to the 2020 elections. But the proposal could accelerate the administration's attempts to privatize the mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which continue to play an outsize role in the housing market. Together, the two entities collectively backstop a little less than half of the nation's $11 trillion mortgage market." The CNBC story is here.

James Hohmann of the Washington Post: Wednesday "night, the Pentagon finally released to the public a list of the 127 construction projects that stand to lose funding to free up $3.6 billion for 175 miles of fencing and other barriers on the southern border. These are spread across 23 states, three U.S. territories and 20 countries. Here are some of the most notable projects that Trump is raiding: 1) Puerto Rico will lose out on more than $400 million of planned projects.... 2) Another $770 million is being diverted from projects that have been approved to help American allies deter attacks from a revanchist Russia. This is the bulwark of the European Deterrence Initiative.... 3) Nine of the projects on the list involve renovating or replacing schools for the children of U.S. troops. 4) Utah will lose $54 million.... 5) ... GOP senators who supported Trump's emergency declaration didn't get spared.... 6) In the long term, the greatest damage from the diversions could be the fundamental break that it represents with the founding fathers' conception of the separation of powers." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has republished Hohmann's story.

... Raleigh News & Observer Editors: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) "had a bad political day Wednesday.... But as with many Tillis difficulties, most of the blame is his." First, he accepted undeserved credit for asking Donald Trump to declare a state of emergency for North Carolina. Then, "Late in the afternoon, news broke that $80 million worth of construction projects at North Carolina military bases were being cut to shift funds to building the president's wall on the Mexican border.... Tillis announced in February that he would vote against the president's effort to circumvent Congress and pay for the wall by declaring a national emergency at the southern border. Three weeks later, he backed down and gave his blessing and vote to the president's overreach. Now that decision will doubly haunt him.... Don't trust this president. Donald Trump will not hesitate to burn anyone -- including people who've previously helped him -- to get a political victory. And also -- when you buy political favor in exchange for your principles, the bill is always more than you thought it would be."

** Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "... Trump has successfully made the U.S. government more like a branch of the Trump Organization, where the only real principle is fealty to the boss. Once upon a time, executive branch leadership encouraged the FBI to prosecute such organizations, rather than imitate them.... The president has successfully purged [FBI] officials he perceives as hostile to the agency, at least one of whom is facing prosecution.... The ongoing reality-show-style fight between [James] Comey and Trump seems petty, but the great significance of the IG report is that it establishes that bureau officials' highest loyalty should not be to the Constitution or to the public but to the boss.... The sanction Comey received was absurd: The IG concluded that Comey, fired by a president who was publicly seeking to cripple an investigation into a foreign hacking and disinformation campaign that helped put him in office, should have kept silent. That standard would not only incentivize presidential corruption, but establish that government officials who witness such corruption should not warn the public but adhere to a mafia-like Omerta."

Wait. I Thought Jared Wrote the Peace Plan. Barak Ravid of Israel's Channel 13 in Axios: "White House special envoy for the Middle East peace process Jason Greenblatt will be leaving the Trump administration in the next several weeks to return to the private sector..... Greenblatt is a key member of the White House Middle East 'peace team,' which consists of Jared Kushner, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Kushner deputy Avi Berkowitz. In June, the White House rolled out the economic component of its peace plan. It has yet to reveal the political component due to upcoming Israeli elections.... A senior U.S. official said Greenblatt will stay at the White House another few weeks.... The U.S. official said Greenblatt's decision was mainly for personal and family reasons.... most of his assignments and authorities will be transferred to Berkowitz, who was a main player in drafting the White House peace plan and has worked side by side with Greenblatt since January 2017." Mrs. McC: Say, is there is Palestinian person on Jared's "peace team"? This kinda looks like the result is going to be just as effective as the Treaty of Versailles. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jonathan Chait: "One of President Trump's most absurd personnel moves was appointing his real-estate lawyer Jason Greenblatt as special envoy to the Middle East. Greenblatt had no serious foreign policy experience, a fairly serious drawback when the task involves resolving one of the most famously intractable foreign policy challenges in the world.... Axios reports most of Greenblatt's responsibilities will be transferred to Avi Berkowitz.... A 2017 Business Insider profile ... describes Berkowitz as '[Jared] Kushner's 28-year-old protégé,' which is one of the funnier thumbnail résumé descriptions you'll ever see.... He's a 29-year-old Jared Kushner friend who graduated from law school in 2016 [and went on to become Kushner's administrative assistant].... And now he is reportedly in charge of diplomacy between Israel and the Palestinians!" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Berkowitz's appointment insults both Israel & the Palestinians. It just screams, "You pesky people are inconsequential to us. We are literally putting the coffee boy in charge."

Tom Krisher & Ellen Knickmeyer of the AP: "The Trump administration is moving forward with a proposal to revoke part of California's authority to set its own automobile gas mileage standards, a government official said Thursday, confronting a state that has repeatedly challenged the administration's environmental rollbacks. The Environmental Protection Agency was preparing paperwork for the White House for the move, meant to help the administration set a single, less rigorous mileage standard enforceable nationwide, according to the official, who is familiar with the regulatory process and spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public.... Donald Trump has pushed for months to weaken Obama-era mileage standards nationwide and has targeted California’s decades-old power to set its own mileage standards as part of that effort."

Kate Sullivan of CNN: "The president of United Mine Workers of America said Wednesday that the coal industry is not 'back,' despite ...Donald Trump's claims. Cecil Roberts said at an event in Washington that his message to Trump and others running for president in 2020 is: 'Coal's not back. Nobody saved the coal industry.' He said coal-fired plants are closing all over the country, calling it a 'harsh reality.'... More coal-fired power plants have closed under Trump than during former [President] Obama's first term, largely because of free-market forces."

Thanks, Betsy! Cory Turner of NPR: "A new report from a government watchdog, first obtained obtained by NPR, says an expanded effort by Congress to forgive the student loans of public servants is remarkably unforgiving. Congress created the expansion program last year in response to a growing outcry. Thousands of borrowers -- nurses, teachers and other public servants -- complained that the requirements for the original program were so rigid and poorly communicated that lawmakers needed to step in. But ... [99] percent of loan-forgiveness requests under that new Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF) were rejected during the program's first year, from May 2018 to May 2019. According to the review out Thursday, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, the U.S. Department of Education processed roughly 54,000 requests and approved just 661. It spent only $27 million of the $700 million Congress set aside for the expansion." (Also linked yesterday.)

Anthony Adragna of Politico: "The Trump administration violated federal laws when it tapped entrance fees to keep the nation's national parks open during the 35-day shutdown earlier this year, according to a legal opinion from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. GAO said the Interior Department moved money between accounts without authorization from Congress, in violation of federal law. The agency must report the violation to Congress, identify the officials responsible for it and explain steps it will take to prevent similar violations. It said any subsequent actions in the future would be 'knowing and willful violations,' subjecting officials to penalties. Interior did not cooperate with GAO's investigation, according to the report.... 'The Secretary of Interior seems to think the rule of law doesn't apply to the Trump administration,' Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), chairwoman of the House Appropriations Interior-Environment Subcommittee, said in a statement.... Her Senate counterpart, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), said: 'Their assurances at the time that their actions were legal have proven false, and there should be consequences for this violation.'"

Fred Imbert of CNBC: "Stocks surged on Thursday after the U.S. and China agreed to meet next month in Washington to discuss trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 372.68 points, or 1.4% to 26,728.15. The S&P 500 climbed 1.3% to close at 2,976, led by a 2.1% gain in the tech sector, and closed around 1.7% from its record high. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.75% to 8,116.83." " (Update to a story linked yesterday.) ...

... Paul Krugman: "With each passing week it becomes ever clearer that Donald Trump's trade war, far from being 'good, and easy to win,' is damaging large parts of the U.S. economy.... But Trump has an answer to his critics: It's not me, it's you. Last week he declared that businesses claiming to have been hurt by his tariffs should blame themselves, because they're 'badly run and weak.'... Some of Trump's most consequential actions involve his frantic efforts to dismantle environmental regulation. Unlike tariffs, this may at first sound like something business would want. It turns out, however, that many businesses want to keep those regulations in place.... Aside from the tax cut, however, it's becoming increasingly clear that Trumpism is bad for business. Or more precisely, it's bad for productive business.... The big complaint business has about Trump's trade war isn't just that tariffs raise costs and prices, while foreign retaliation is cutting off access to important markets. It is that businesses can't make plans when policy zigzags in response to the president's whims.... To be fair, however, some kinds of business do thrive under Trumpism -- namely, businesses that aren't in it for the long run, operations whose strategy is to take the money and run."

Presidential Race 2020

Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Marianne Williamson chided people who mocked her for a since-deleted tweet in which she argued the 'power of the mind' kept Hurricane Dorian from doing more damage Wednesday. 'Prayer is a power of the mind, and it is neither bizarre nor unintelligent. People of faith belong in the Democratic Party, and will be necessary to the effort if we're to win in 2020,' the Democratic presidential candidate tweeted." Mrs. McC: For some reason, this woman thinks she should be president, which annoys me mostly because her insipid campaign ads often come up when I am searching YouTube videos. (Also linked yesterday.)

Tom LoBianco in Yahoo! News: "... behind the scenes, tensions have been mounting among Trump, Pence and their top advisers ever since the GOP's resounding losses in the 2018 midterms. In the weeks afterward, Trump asked aides about replacing Pence on the ticket, and he asked again for their thoughts on Pence during his August vacation at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., according to Trump advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about private discussions with the president.... The relationship between their political teams has soured greatly in the past year, according to a dozen Trump and Pence aides and Republican advisers familiar with the dynamic. In particular, rumors that Kushner and Ivanka Trump wanted to consider replacements for Pence -- specifically trying to find a woman running mate to help win back the suburbs in 2020 -- have worried the vice president's camp, according to Trump and Pence campaign advisers who spoke on background for this story."

Benjamin Hart of New York: Marianne Williamson got in a spat with Erica Jong & Jong's daughter Molly Jong-Fast when the feminists took issue with Williamson's assertion that "millions of us seeing Dorian turn away from land is not a wacky idea; it is a creative use of the power of the mind." Mrs. McC: Williamson & her fans may be using the "power of their minds" to boost her chances of becoming president (and to make her less annoying), but it's not working. ...

... Zack Budryk: "White House hopeful Marianne Williamson's past controversial comments on health issues are coming under intense scrutiny from disability advocates who are worried that she is popularizing unproven stigmas..., including expressing concerns about mandatory vaccinations and appearing to link the use of anti-depressants to the suicides of some celebrities, will gain acceptance amid the attention being devoted to the 2020 race.... Williamson became known through her 13 books and from when she was Oprah Winfrey's spiritual adviser." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Another reason to be thankful wacky Oprah decided not to run. Oprah might have really screwed up the race.

Senate Race 2020

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said at a recent town hall that lawmakers should discuss fixing Social Security 'behind closed doors,' prompting a wave of criticism from liberal and advocacy groups.... '... we need to sit down behind closed doors so we're not being scrutinized by this group or the other, and just have an open and honest conversation about what are some of the ideas that we have for maintaining Social Security in the future, [Ernst said].... Ernst, who is running for reelection in 2020, made the remarks Saturday, according to a video posted by the Democratic super PAC American Bridge.... '@SenJoniErnst's plan to privatize Social Security is so toxic, she wants to keep it a secret to avoid "media scrutiny,"' the super PAC said in a tweet." ...

... Ed Kilgore of New York: "I'm sure that Ernst will claim she didn't mean what she said, or that the solutions she had in mind might involve giving Social Security beneficiaries more money or Starbucks gift cards. But anyone even vaguely familiar with Republican thinking on 'entitlement reform' knows the drill: The GOP is terrified of intense public hostility to conservative schemes to 'save' Social Security by reducing benefits (usually by privatizing them and then cutting them over time), and needs Democratic 'cover' to get 'er done.... As Iowa Starting Line pointed out, Ernst has in the past expressed interest in privatizing Social Security.... But even if you are gullible enough to believe that she is looking at Social Security with anything other than bad intent, the 'behind closed doors' comment is a terrible look for her."

Zak Cheney-Rice of New York: The Republican party has "pursued an agenda dedicated, in large part, to demonizing immigrants from Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East, while extolling the virtues of those from Europe; curtailing voting rights and seeking to reduce political representation for black and Hispanic people, for the express purpose of winning elections; and criminalizing abortion and reducing affordable health-care options in states where maternal and infant mortality rates are worse than in many less developed economies, especially for black women and children. They've advanced their cause by uniting behind a president, Donald Trump, who spouts racism and xenophobia as a matter of routine.... Racism has been fundamental to American conservatism, and the GOP in particular, since the mid-20th century realignment of the parties -- even as its purportedly defining tenets have proven to be negotiable, from small government to antagonism toward autocrats to reduced deficit spending.... It's been apparent since the Nixon administration that the Republican Party would collapse without support from racists.... The [conservative] movement's racism problem is not the result of a hijacking or a coup, but of popular will. There are no innocents among today's Republicans."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Staffers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette were surprised to learn April 15 that, along with the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news, came a monetary award of $15,000. The newspaper was honored with a Pulitzer for its coverage of the shooting deaths of 11 people and the wounding of seven others Oct. 27 at the Tree of Life Congregation in Squirrel Hill.... PG Publisher John Robinson Block had a suggestion -- donate the prize money to Tree of Life to help it repair its bullet-riddled temple.... On Aug. 29, in the Post-Gazette newsroom on the North Shore, the newspaper's executive editor, Keith Burris, presented a $15,000 check to Rabbi Jeffrey Myers and Samuel Schachner, president of the congregation."

Jay Weaver of the Miami Herald: "An American Airlines mechanic was arrested Thursday on a sabotage charge accusing him of disabling a navigation system on a flight with 150 people aboard before it was scheduled to take off from Miami International Airport earlier this summer. The reason, according to a criminal complaint affidavit filed in Miami federal court: Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, a veteran employee, was upset over stalled union contract negotiations. None of the passengers and crew on the flight to Nassau were [was!] injured because the tampering with the so-called air data module caused an error alert as the pilots powered up the plane's engines on the runway July 17, according to a criminal complaint affidavit filed in Miami federal court. As a result, flight No. 2834 was aborted and taken out of service for routine maintenance at America's hangar at MIA, which is when the tampering with the ADM system was discovered during an inspection. An AA mechanic found a loosely connected tube in front of the nose gear underneath the cockpit that had been deliberately obstructed with some sort of hard foam material."

Caitlin Cruz of Splinter: "A Bunch of Grocery Stores Realize People Don't Want Guns as a Part of the Shopping Experience." Cruz goes on to list drugstore & supermarket chains who have respectfully asked customers to park their firearms elsewhere before entering their establishments. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. Mrs. McC: So I'm wondering if it's okay to pack heat at CVS's drive-up window where I usually pick up my prescription meds.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Jake Bleiberg & Paul Weber of the AP: "Investigators looking for how a Texas gunman obtained an assault-style rifle used in a Labor Day weekend rampage despite failing a background check have searched the home of a man they believe was involved in the 'transfer' of the weapon, a federal law enforcement official said Thursday.... The official said federal agents are investigating whether the Lubbock man has been manufacturing firearms but that there have been no arrests."

Way Beyond

Heather Stewart of the Guardian: "Opposition parties have agreed to reject Boris Johnson's attempt to trigger a snap election for a second time on Monday, making it increasingly unlikely a poll will be held before 31 October. Jeremy Corbyn held the latest of a series of discussions with fellow opposition leaders on Friday morning, at which they agreed not to allow an election to take place until after a delay to Brexit has been secured."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The economy added 130,000 jobs [in August]. Analysts on Wall Street had been expecting a gain of 160,000 jobs, according to Bloomberg.... The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7 percent. That is close to a 50-year low, and a reflection of how strong the labor market has been recently[.]... The American economy turned in a decent performance last month as businesses grew more cautious about hiring. About 25,000 of the jobs added were temporary positions for the 2020 census." ...

... CNBC: "Job growth continued at a tepid pace in August, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by just 130,000 thanks in large part to the temporary hiring of Census workers, the Labor Department reported Friday."

Weather Channel: "Hurricane Dorian is lashing North Carolina and southeast Virginia with torrential rain, storm surge flooding, high winds and tornadoes and is headed for a brush of southeast New England tonight before slamming into Atlantic Canada this weekend. Dorian's maximum sustained winds have diminished, making it a Category 1 hurricane. Regardless of the intensity change, the hurricane's flooding impacts will likely be similar." The Weather Channel's front page is here. ...

     ... The Raleigh News & Observer's main story on the hurricane is here. The paper's front page, with links to related stories, is here. Stories are firewalled, as far as I can tell, so open in a private window. ...

... New York Times liveblog: "Hurricane Dorian pounded much of the Carolina coast with heavy rain and strong winds early Friday, spawning small tornadoes and causing widespread power losses and flooding. The storm, which was downgraded to Category 1 early Friday, was centered about 25 miles east of Cape Lookout, N.C., as of 5 a.m., according to the National Hurricane Center. The center said Dorian's core was 'brushing' the coast of North Carolina as it moved northeastward up the East Coast at about 14 miles an hour. The center's models indicated that the eye of the storm, about 45 miles in diameter, could touch land on the Outer Banks of North Carolina Friday morning." ...

     ... Update: "Hurricane Dorian ... whipped the coast of North Carolina with heavy rain and wind on Friday morning, after making landfall on the Outer Banks. The center of the Category 1 storm passed over Cape Hatteras in the Outer Banks at 8:35 a.m. Friday, according to the National Weather Service.The storm is now moving quickly northeast and heading away from land, but the Outer Banks endured hurricane-force winds and rapidly rising water levels."

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Ever since yesterday afternoon, when Dorian's eye was a good 1,000 miles from my house, it's been overcast here -- because of Hurricane Dorian, according to the weathermen. I don't mind, but I do hope the people of Alabama are enjoying their sunny day.

     ... Update: Oh, my mistake. Trump just put out a new map:

New York Times: "Robert Mugabe, the first prime minister and later president of independent Zimbabwe, who traded the mantle of liberator for the armor of a tyrant and presided over the decline of one of Africa's most prosperous lands, died on Friday. He was 95."