The Commentariat -- August 15, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Olivia Beavers of the Hill: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) subpoenaed Corey Lewandowski and former White House official Rick Dearborn on Thursday, marking Democrats' latest efforts to receive testimony from key figures in the Mueller report."

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Thursday baselessly accused the press of trying to tank the American economy, shrugging off any blame for a prospective economic slowdown and possible recession heading into his reelection next year. 'The Fake News Media is doing everything they can to crash the economy because they think that will be bad for me and my re-election,' he said in a tweet. 'The problem they have is that the economy is way too strong and we will soon be winning big on Trade, and everyone knows that, including China!' The president offered no evidence to support his claim that the media, a frequent target of his ire, is working to weaken the U.S. economy."

Rami Ayyub of Reuters: "Israel is considering barring a visit by two of its sharpest critics in the U.S. Congress, Democrats Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who plan to tour the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, an Israeli official said on Thursday.... Under Israeli law, backers of the [pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)] movement can be denied entry to Israel. But Israel's ambassador in the United States, Ron Dermer, said last month they would be let in, out of respect for the U.S. Congress and the U.S.-Israeli relationship." --safari: Twitter is confirming that they're indeed barred from a potential visit (no link). ...

     ... Barak Ravid of Israel's Channel 13 News (published in Axios), "President Trump tweeted Thursday that it would show 'great weakness' if Israel were to allow Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to enter the country during an upcoming congressional delegation visit on Sunday.... As Axios' Jonathan Swan and I previously reported, Trump has privately been telling advisers that he thinks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should use an anti-boycott law to bar the two freshman congresswomen over their support for the BDS movement. In response to our story, the White House said that Trump didn't pressure Israel in any way and that Israel can do whatever it wants." ...

     ... Update: Let's look at Ravid & Swan's report, dated August 10, which Ravid linked above: "President Trump has told advisers he thinks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should use Israel's anti-boycott law to bar Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) from entering Israel, according to 3 sources familiar with the situation.... But Trump denies, through White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, ever giving any kind of directive to the Israelis. 'The Israeli government can do what they want. It's fake news,' Grisham said on Saturday." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: Surprise! The new press secretary is just like the old press secretary. She lies. (And/or she repeats Trump's lies).

     ... Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's intervention was an extraordinary step to influence an allied nation and punish his political opponents at home. Israel's decision to bar the two congresswomen, Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, was widely criticized, including by prominent Israel supporters.... In lobbying a foreign government to bar members of the United States Congress, Mr. Trump crossed yet another line that other presidents generally respected. No matter how virulent their differences at home, presidents have traditionally not enlisted the help of overseas allies to take action against domestic political adversaries.... Mr. Trump's intervention also placed him at odds with the Republican leadership in Congress...." ...

     ... Update. Zack Budryk of the Hill: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday criticized Israel's decision not to allow Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to visit.... 'Israel's denial of entry to Congresswomen Tlaib and Omar is a sign of weakness and beneath the dignity of the great State of Israel,' Pelosi said in a statement.... 'The President's statements about the Congresswomen are a sign of ignorance and disrespect, and beneath the dignity of the Office of the President,' she said. Pelosi has had her differences with Tlaib and Omar...."

Spencer Woodman & Maryam Saleh of The Intercept: "In the first 15 months of the Trump administration, U.S. immigration authorities locked thousands of detainees in solitary confinement, some for months at a time, a new report from the Project on Government Oversight ... has found.... In roughly 40 percent of those reports ... across both presidential administrations, the detainee placed in isolation had a mental illness diagnosis.... The U.N. has said that solitary confinement should be banned except in 'very exceptional circumstances.' It should never be used to isolate people with mental illness or juveniles -- and no one should be held for longer than 15 days, the U.N. says." --s

Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "An international law group has submitted new evidence to the UK government alleging that the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has covered up evidence of its unlawful airstrikes on civilian targets. The allegations will put pressure on the UK government as it prepares its response to a court order directing it to reconsider all existing British government licences to export arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen.... The government is expected to provide its response next month in a move with big ramifications for future UK-Saudi relations." --s

More than 250,000 people have signed the petition to change the name of Fifth Avenue in the block in front of Trump Tower to "President Barack H. Obama Avenue." The WashPo has a story here. There's a ClickOrlando story here.

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Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Trade-war worries hammered financial markets again on Wednesday as data from Germany and China showed trouble for manufacturing-reliant economies, while the bond market renewed fears of an American recession. Stocks and commodities tumbled in Europe and the United States as risk-averse investors raced to the safety of government bonds, pushing bond prices sharply higher and yields -- which move in the opposite direction -- to low levels not seen in years." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Lucy Bayly of NBC News: "Wall Street took a battering on Wednesday, suffering its worst day so far this year after movements in the bond market signaled the sharpest indication yet of an approaching recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had already shed 400 points at the opening bell, spent the day in freefall before closing with a decline of 800 points, a drop of over 3 percent. The S&P 500 closed down 2.93 percent, and the Nasdaq posted a decline of just over 3 percent. The market selloff was the result of an inverted yield curve in government bonds, when the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note falls below the 2-year rate -- a phenomenon that has preceded every recession for the past 50 years.... Donald Trump blamed the Federal Reserve for Wednesday's market plunge, calling Fed Chairman Jerome Powell 'clueless' in an afternoon tweet." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Jonelle Marte of the Washington Post defines "inverted yield curve" & why it spooks investors. "Investors are spooked by a scenario known as the 'inverted yield curve,' which occurs when the interest rates on short-term bonds are higher than the interest rates paid by long-term bonds. What it means is that people are so worried about the near-term future that they are piling into safer long-term investments. In a healthy economy, bondholders typically demand to be paid more -- or receive a higher 'yield' -- on longer-term bonds than they do for short-term bonds." Here's an explanation by Al Lewis of CNBC. ...

... Ben White of Politico: "Trump on Wednesday once again blamed the Fed, taking to Twitter the bash the central bank for not slashing rates fast enough. 'We are winning, big time, against China. Companies & jobs are fleeing. Prices to us have not gone up, and in some cases, have come down. China is not our problem, though Hong Kong is not helping. Our problem is with the Fed. Raised too much & too fast. Now too slow to cut,' Trump tweeted. 'Spread is way too much as other countries say THANK YOU to clueless Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve. Germany, and many others, are playing the game! CRAZY INVERTED YIELD URVE! We should easily be reaping big Rewards & Gains, but the Fed is holding us back. We will Win!'... But the biggest drag cited by economists is uncertainty over trade, which is showing up in lower spending by businesses. The loss of the Chinese market is also hammering farmers." ...

... Man in White House Very Confused. Damian Paletta, et al., of the Washington Post: "Just a few hours [before he wrote the tweets knocking Powell & the Fed], Trump offered a contradictory assessment, saying the inverted yield curve was a good sign because there was 'Tremendous amounts of money pouring into the United States. People want safety!'... Several White House officials have become concerned that the economy is weakening faster than expected, but they are not working on proactive plans to change its course. The Treasury Department has had an exodus of senior advisers in recent months, and the White House just announced a replacement for its chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Instead of rolling out new policies, Trump and other top aides have escalated their attacks on the Federal Reserve, trying to pin much of the United States' problems on what Trump alleges is elevated interest rates that are strangling growth.... A number of investors and foreign leaders have blamed Trump's trade war for causing the contraction in business investment and forcing companies to pull back...."

Man in White House Still Confused. Eliana Johnson, et al., of Politico: "Donald Trump's top aides are urging him to back Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters, but the president isn't interested, multiple people familiar with the administration's internal debates say. In recent days, national security adviser John Bolton, China hands at both the National Security Council and the State Department, and several economic advisers have pushed for a more assertive posture on the Hong Kong demonstrations, which have paralyzed the former British colony and roiled markets. They are finding little traction with a president focused more narrowly on trade negotiations with Xi Jinping.... As the protests have intensified over the past month, the president has remained determined to keep China's human rights abuses from complicating his trade negotiations.... But after the initial publication of this report, the president appeared to reverse himself ... on Wednesday evening -- this time demanding that Xi 'deal humanely with Hong Kong.'... 'Of course China wants to make a deal,' the president wrote on Twitter.... 'Let then deal humanely with Hong Kong first!'... It was the most full-throated statement of support Trump has delivered to the pro-democracy protesters.... The remarks marked a reversal from the promise Trump made to Xi in a phone conversation in mid-June. The president surprised his aides when he told Xi that he would not condemn the Chinese government over a crackdown in Hong Kong. He understood it was an internal issue in which the U.S. would not interfere...."

Rachel Frazin of the Hill: "President Trump's disapproval rating has jumped to 56 percent in a Fox News survey released Wednesday, just one point shy of the record high in Fox News polling. The survey found a 5 percentage point increase in Trump's disapproval from last month. The only time his disapproval rating was higher, according to Fox News, was when it reached 57 percent in October 2017. Forty-three percent of respondents said they approve of Trump's job performance, down from 46 percent last month. The record low for Trump approval in Fox News's polling is 38 percent, also from October of 2017. Trump has the disapproval of a record number of men, at 53 percent, white men, 46 percent, and independents, 64 percent...."

Zak Cheney-Rice of New York: Donald Trump's "vision for America reimagines the Statue of Liberty not as a beacon for freedom but for the enhancement of a racist status quo and the empowerment of white Americans' chosen political party. It also establishes the possession of capital as a precondition for entry. And for the president, one kind of capital trumps most others: that conferred by being white. [Ken] Cuccinelli is a fitting spokesman for this vision. As a Virginia state legislator and later attorney general, he fought to repeal birthright citizenship and force employees to speak English in the workplace. He has compared immigration policy to rat extermination and described Representative Steve King -- an open white nationalist -- as 'one of [his] very favorite congressmen.'... [Trump's] political power hinges on galvanizing white voters who are overwhelmingly bigoted and inclined to blame people of color for their problems." Cheney-Rice suggests that Cuccinelli's view that Emma Lazarus' "New Colossus" was for Europeans only is a good example of white supremacism.

Violent Men Think Trump Is Violent. Mike Levine of ABC News: "... Donald Trump has repeatedly refused to accept any responsibility for inciting violence in American communities.... 'I think my rhetoric brings people together,' he said last week.... But a nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 36 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault. In nine cases, perpetrators hailed Trump in the midst or immediate aftermath of physically attacking innocent victims. In another 10 cases, perpetrators cheered or defended Trump while taunting or threatening others. And in another 10 cases, Trump and his rhetoric were cited in court to explain a defendant's violent or threatening behavior.... ABC News could not find a single criminal case filed in federal or state court where an act of violence or threat was made in the name of President Barack Obama or President George W. Bush. The 36 cases identified by ABC News are remarkable in that a link to the president is captured in court documents and police statements, under the penalty of perjury or contempt.... The perpetrators and suspects identified in the 36 cases are mostly white men ... while the victims largely represent an array of minority groups -- African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims and gay men." Via Adam Raymond of New York.

Dominic Holden of BuzzFeed News: "The Trump administration on Wednesday formally proposed a new rule to let businesses with federal contracts cite religious objections as a valid reason to discriminate against their workers on the basis of LGBTQ status, sex, race, ethnicity, national origin, and other characteristics -- thereby skirting worker protections created by past presidents. The move marks ... Donald Trump's latest effort to weaken the civil rights of minorities with ambiguous rules that grant agencies wide discretion to let companies off the hook when accused of discrimination. The 46-page draft rule from the Labor Department would apply to a range of so-called religious organizations — including corporations, schools, and societies -- provided that they claim a 'religious purpose.' Labor Department spokesperson Megan Sweeney confirmed to BuzzFeed News on Wednesday that the rule would apply to for-profit corporations with federal contracts.... The proposal could apply to up to 420,000 contractors...."

Andrew Blankstein of NBC News: "An IRS staffer who leaked confidential details about former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's finances to Michael Avenatti, ex-lawyer for adult film star Stormy Daniels, pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally accessing and distributing that information. John C. Fry was an investigative analyst with the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, the law enforcement arm of the agency, in May 2018 when he twice logged on to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) database and downloaded five Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) -- reports filed by banks when they note potentially suspicious transactions -- related to Cohen and his company Essential Consultants. In court Wednesday, Fry ... pleaded guilty to one county of unauthorized disclosure of SARs. Avenatti made the information public via Twitter, noting Cohen's receipt in 2017 of $500,000 from Columbus Nova, a company with ties to a Russian billionaire, and payments to Essential Consultants from other firms that do business with the federal government, including AT&T."

#MoscowMitch, Ctd. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi referred to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as 'Moscow Mitch' during a political speech in Illinois on Wednesday as she chided the Kentucky Republican for blocking an array of legislation passed by her chamber this year. Speaking at a Democratic event in Springfield, Pelosi (D-Calif.) recounted a series of bills passed by the House, including measures raising the minimum wage, reforming elections and expanding health care." Here's a CNN story by Kate Sullivan & others. ...

... Tom Hamburger & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post have sort of a follow-up report to the extensive Time report linked here yesterday on Mitch McConnell's successful efforts to lift sanctions on Rusal, Russia's largest aluminum producer, a move that allowed Rusal to partially fund a new aluminum-rolling mill in Kentucky. "A spokesman for McConnell said the majority leader did not know that [entrepreneur Craig] Bouchard had hopes of a deal with Rusal at the time McConnell led the Senate effort to end the sanctions, citing the recommendation of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.... But critics said the timing is disturbing. 'It is shocking how blatantly transactional this arrangement looks,' said Michael McFaul, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration.... Democratic senators have called for a government review of the deal, prompting a Rusal executive in Moscow last week to threaten to pull out of the investment. The Rusal-backed project is one of several issues fueling broader scrutiny of McConnell's posture toward Russia and its efforts to manipulate American voters."

Steve King Extols the Crucial Benefit of Rape & Incest. Robin Opsahl of the Des Moines Register: "U.S. Rep. Steve King [R-Iowa] told the Westside Conservative Club [of Urbandale, Iowa,] on Wednesday that humanity might not exist if not for rape and incest. 'What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?' he said at the event in Urbandale, Iowa. 'Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages taken place and whatever happened to culture after society? I know I can't certify that I'm not a part of a product of that.' The Kiron Republican was defending his position of not allowing exceptions for rape and incest in the anti-abortion legislation he tried to pass in Congress. Republican leadership had prevented the bills he sponsored on banning abortions from advancing through the House, despite GOP support for the measures, King said." ...

... Too Offensive for Even Scalise & Cheney. Sarah Ferris of Politico: "Democrats in Congress and on the 2020 campaign trail reacted with fury, saying that King's comments amounted to excusing violence against women and disregarding the victims of rape and incest. King's remarks drew a backlash from House GOP leaders -- who already agreed to strip him of his committee posts after a string of racist remarks earlier this year -- though their response took several hours. 'These comments are wrong, and offensive, and underscore why we removed him from his committees,' House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said in a statement to Politico Wednesday afternoon. House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney redoubled her calls for King to step aside, calling his comments 'appalling and bizarre.'" See also Akhilleus's commentary below on Steve King's anthropological musings.

Presidential Race 2020

Nicholas Riccardi of the AP: "John Hickenlooper is expected to drop out of the Democratic presidential primary on Thursday.... It's unclear whether Hickenlooper will now challenge Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, who is considered the country's most vulnerable Republican senator."

Neal Rothschild of Axios: "While Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the presidential candidate who's known for her robust set of policy plans, Sen. Amy Klobuchar is the one who's been the most prolific at her day job, introducing the most bills of any senator or House member running for president, according to data from Quorum.... She's also introduced more bills than any senator, whether they're running for president or not." The report also charts the percentage of votes missed by the candidates who are members of Congress. Seth Moulton has missed the fewest, while Booker & Harris have missed the most; Sanders & Gillibrand are tied for next-worst.

Ben Schrekinger of Politico: "A donor with deep ties to Ukraine loaned Joe Biden’s younger brother half-a-million dollars at the same time the then-vice president oversaw U.S. policy toward the country, according to public records.... The 2015 loan came as Biden's brother faced financial difficulties related to his acquisition of a multimillion-dollar vacation home, nicknamed 'the Biden Bungalow,' in South Florida. There is no indication that the loan influenced Joe Biden's official actions, but it furthers a decades-long pattern, detailed in a Politico investigation earlier this month, by which relatives of the former vice president have leaned on his political allies for money and otherwise benefited financially from the Biden name. Details of the loan are laid out in property records in Collier County, Florida, where Biden's younger brother, James, and James' wife Sara, owned until recently a home on Keewaydin Island. The luxurious, six-bed, seven-bath home comes with a guest house and sits on five acres along a pristine, miles-long stretch of sandy beach."

Nicholas Kulish & Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "... Cordelia Scaife May eventually found her life’s purpose: curbing what she perceived as the lethal threat of overpopulation by trying to shut America's doors to immigrants. She believed that the United States was 'being invaded on all fronts' by foreigners, who 'breed like hamsters' and exhaust natural resources. She thought that the border with Mexico should be sealed and that abortions on demand would contain the swelling masses in developing countries. An heiress to the Mellon banking and industrial fortune with a half-billion dollars at her disposal, Mrs. May helped create what would become the modern anti-immigration movement. She bankrolled the founding and operation of the nation's three largest restrictionist groups ... as well as dozens of smaller ones, including some that have promulgated white nationalist views. Today, 14 years after Mrs. May's death, her money remains the lifeblood of the movement, through her Colcom Foundation. It has poured $180 million into a network of groups that spent decades agitating for policies now pursued by President Trump: militarizing the border, capping legal immigration, prioritizing skills over family ties for entry and reducing access to public benefits for migrants, as in the new rule issued just this week by the administration." ...

... As MAG points out in today's Comments, here's what happens when people like May & Trump succeed in their ignorant crusades: ...

... Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Across Maine, families ... are being hammered by two slow-moving demographic forces -- the growth of the retirement population and a simultaneous decline in young workers -- that have been exacerbated by a national worker shortage pushing up the cost of labor. The unemployment rate in Maine is 3.2 percent, below the national average of 3.7 percent. The disconnect between Maine's aging population and its need for young workers to care for that population is expected to be mirrored in states throughout the country over the coming decade, demographic experts say. And that's especially true in states with populations with fewer immigrants, who are disproportionately represented in many occupations serving the elderly, statistics show." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The irony is that Trump already knows this. That's why he's been hiring both undocumented & documented immigrants for decades. Like many rich people, Trump believes laws are made to restrain the masses, not men of means. There's not much reason they shouldn't believe that, either, since law enforcement tends to selectively enforces laws, & this is especially true when it comes to hiring undocumented workers.

The Plot Thickens. Carol Leonnig & Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "An autopsy found that financier Jeffrey Epstein sustained multiple breaks in his neck bones, according to two people familiar with the findings, deepening the mystery about the circumstances around his death. Among the bones broken in Epstein's neck was the hyoid bone, which in men is near the Adam's apple. Such breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, particularly if they are older, according to forensics experts and studies on the subject. But they are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation, the experts said.... The office of New York City's chief medical examiner, Barbara Sampson, completed an autopsy of Epstein's body Sunday. But Sampson listed the cause of his death as pending." The Houston Chronicle has the WashPo story here. ...

... Bizarre "News." Isolde Walters & Cheyenne Roundtree of the Daily Mail: "Jeffrey Epstein had a bizarre portrait of Bill Clinton in a dress hanging in his Manhattan mansion.... The picture depicting the former president apparently lounging on a chair in the Oval Office, wearing red heels and posing suggestively in a blue dress redolent of Monica Lewinsky was in a room off the stairway of the Upper East Side townhouse. The dress is also strikingly similar to one worn by Hillary Clinton at the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors. The original painting is called 'Parsing Bill' and is by Australian-American artist Petrina Ryan-Kleid, although it is unclear if Epstein had bought the canvas or had a print mounted." Includes photos. Mrs. McC: I apologize to everyone who is offended by my linking this nonsense.

More Weird News. Jeran Wittenstein of Bloomberg: "Overstock.com Inc. shares fell for a third day Wednesday as investors reacted to statements by Chief Executive Officer [link fixed] Patrick Byrne that he was a part of federal investigations related to the 2016 election. The e-commerce company has lost a third of its value in the two days since releasing a statement by Byrne titled 'Overstock.com CEO Comments on Deep State' and referring to federal investigators as 'the Men in Black.' The stock fell another 23% on Wednesday, bringing its slide to 36% since Monday, the biggest two-day slump in more than 11 years. Byrne's statement addressed stories published on a little-known news website and referenced investigations relating to the Clintons and Russian interference in the U.S. elections, political espionage and the rule of law.... They’re not the first unusual comments from the Overstock founder."

Lauren Said-Moorhouse & Per Nyberg of CNN: "US rapper A$AP Rocky has been found guilty of assault and handed a conditional sentence after he was involved ina street brawl in Stockholm.... The imposition of a conditional sentence means that A$AP Rocky will be subject to a probationary period of two years. The court awarded damages of 12,500 Swedish Krona ($1,300) to the victim 'for violation of his integrity and pain and suffering.' The defendants were also ordered to pay fees of 80,610 Swedish Krona (nearly $8,400) for the victim's lawyer."(Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

New Jersey. Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times: "A growing crisis over lead contamination in drinking water gripped Newark on Wednesday as tens of thousands of residents were told to drink only bottled water, the culmination of years of neglect that has pushed New Jersey's largest city to the forefront of an environmental problem afflicting urban areas across the nation. Urgent new warnings from federal environmental officials about contamination in drinking water from aging lead pipes spread anxiety and fear across much of Newark, but the municipal government's makeshift efforts to set up distribution centers to hand out bottled water were hampered by confusion and frustration.... Newark had long denied that the city had a widespread problem with its drinking water, only to reverse course last fall and give away tens of thousands of water filters. But recent tests have shown that the filters were not properly removing lead.... Standing in long lines, residents expressed anger and fear over how wide-reaching the problem really was." ...

     ... Brian Kahn of Gizmodo has a report on the Newark water crisis.

... Karen Yi of NJ.com: "U.S. Sen. Cory Booker who once led New Jersey's largest city, co-authored a letter to the federal government on Tuesday urging 'immediate assistance' for Newark as officials there distribute bottled water to protect residents from potential lead exposure. The mass distribution of bottled water began Monday, three days after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asked Newark to do so. The quick decision was based on surprising test results that showed water filters at two homes were not eliminating enough lead. About 38,000 filters have been distributed in the city." Mrs. McC: This can't be helping Cory Booker's presidential hopes.

News Lede

NBC Philadelphia: "A man accused of shooting six Philadelphia police officers during a standoff that lasted more than seven hours has surrendered to police. NBC Philadelphia was there as a member of the SWAT team shot tear gas into the home on North 15th and Butler streets around midnight. The suspect, identified by police as 36-year-old Maurice Hill of Philadelphia, then walked out of the home and was taken into custody by police. Hill was taken to Temple University Hospital for an evaluation. He is likely to be charged with six counts of attempted murder and aggravated assault, according to his longtime attorney Shaka Johnson."

The Commentariat -- August 14, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Trade-war worries hammered financial markets again on Wednesday as data from Germany and China showed trouble for manufacturing-reliant economies, while the bond market renewed fears of an American recession. Stocks and commodities tumbled in Europe and the United States as risk-averse investors raced to the safety of government bonds, pushing bond prices sharply higher and yields -- which move in the opposite direction -- to low levels not seen in years." ...

... Lucy Bayly of NBC News: "Wall Street took a battering on Wednesday, suffering its worst day so far this year after movements in the bond market signaled the sharpest indication yet of an approaching recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had already shed 400 points at the opening bell, spent the day in freefall before closing with a decline of 800 points, a drop of over 3 percent. The S&P 500 closed down 2.93 percent, and the Nasdaq posted a decline of just over 3 percent. The market selloff was the result of an inverted yield curve in government bonds, when the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note falls below the 2-year rate -- a phenomenon that has preceded every recession for the past 50 years.... Donald Trump blamed the Federal Reserve for Wednesday's market plunge, calling Fed Chairman Jerome Powell 'clueless' in an afternoon tweet."

Lauren Said-Moorhouse & Per Nyberg of CNN: "US rapper A$AP Rocky has been found guilty of assault and handed a conditional sentence after he was involved in a street brawl in Stockholm.... The imposition of a conditional sentence means that A$AP Rocky will be subject to a probationary period of two years. The court awarded damages of 12,500 Swedish Krona ($1,300) to the victim 'for violation of his integrity and pain and suffering.' The defendants were also ordered to pay fees of 80,610 Swedish Krona (nearly $8,400) for the victim's lawyer."

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I'm going to speak to some of your union leaders to say, I hope you are going to support Trump. O.K.? And if they don't, vote them the hell out of office because they are not doing their job. It's true. Vote them out of office. -- Donald Trump, to union workers in a speech "about energy policy" ...

... Lola Fadulu & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump's appearance on Tuesday at the site of a multibillion-dollar chemical plant under construction [in Monaca, Pa.,] was ostensibly about energy policy. Instead, the crowd of mostly white, male workers in bright orange and yellow construction vests was the audience for a 67-minute speech that was nearly indistinguishable from something that Mr. Trump would deliver at one of his campaign rallies. Mr. Trump railed against China, President Barack Obama, the lawsuits he is facing, the money he claims being president has cost him, Hillary Clinton, Democrats running against him and, as always, his news coverage. The president occasionally touched on energy policy as he claimed credit for one of the largest active construction projects in the United States, the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex. The plans for the complex, which will convert natural gas into plastics, were in fact announced in 2012, while Mr. Obama was in office." Mrs. McC: Fadulu & Haberman don't specify, but it appears you & I paid for this Trump campaign trip. ...

... Toluse Olorunnipa & Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Trump told the workers that without him, they would be out of work.... State and local governments provided millions of dollars in incentives to ... Shell.... He subsequently complained that being president was costing him $3 billion to $5 billion, without offering any details to back up the claim. [Mrs. McC: Let's see those tax returns, Donnie.] 'This thing is costing me a fortune, and I love it because I'm making the lives of other people much, much better,' he said.... He used disparaging nicknames he has created for two Democratic candidates for president, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former vice president Joe Biden." The Politico report, by Caitlin Oprysko, is here. Oprysko highlights some of Trump's remarks.

Trump Loses Round of Chicken to U.S. Consumers. Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Tuesday narrowed the list of Chinese products it plans to impose new tariffs on as of Sept. 1, delaying levies on cellphones, laptop computers, toys and other consumer goods until after stores stock up for the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons. The move, which pushed off a new 10 percent tariff on some goods and spared others entirely, came as President Trump faces mounting pressure from businesses and consumer groups over the harm they say the continuing trade war between the United States and China is doing." The AP story, by Paul Wiseman, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Yun Li of CNBC: "Stocks surged higher in a sudden move after the U.S. said it was delaying China tariffs until December on items including cellphones and clothing. The U.S. also outright removed some items from list of new tariffs. The adjusted policy caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to jump about 408 points, while the S&P 500 rose 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.7% higher.... Donald Trump said Tuesday he delayed the tariffs for Christmas season in case it had an impact on shopping. He added China would very much like to make a deal." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

We are doing this for the Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. consumers. So far they've had virtually none. The only impact has been that we've collected almost $60 billion from China, compliments of China. But just in case they might have an impact on people, what we've done is we've delayed it so they won't be relevant for the Christmas shopping season. -- Donald Trump, to reporters, Tuesday

We are all just one tweet away from significant volatility. The idea that this is a major source of relief to the economy is not tethered to empirical reality. -- Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM in a note to clients ...

... Heather Long of the Washington Post: "President Trump has repeated the same mantra for months: The Chinese are paying the full price of his tariffs. It's a line that the overwhelming majority of economists and business owners say is false, but Trump kept saying it -- until Aug. 13.... [In remarks Friday,] he used qualifying phrases such as 'just in case' and 'might have,' but his words — and actions — are a noticeable change from his insistence that the Chinese are paying the full cost of his tariffs. (Note that the harm to American farmers comes from China's counter-tariffs, which Trump has sought to offset with a bailout targeting farm country.) 'The decision to delay new tariffs on Chinese-made toys, smartphones, laptops and other popular holiday gifts is a tacit admission that consumers pay for tariffs, not Chinese producers,' said Ryan Young ... [of] the Competitive Enterprise Institute." ...

... Paul Wiseman & Christopher Rugaber of the AP: "Trump has repeatedly argued that his tariffs are hurting China, not American consumers. But by delaying higher tariffs on consumer goods, Trump is tacitly acknowledging that his import taxes stand to squeeze American households, too. Tariffs are taxes paid by U.S. importers, not by China, and are often passed along to U.S. businesses and consumers through higher prices.... Among the products that will benefit from the 3½-month reprieve are such popular consumer goods as cellphones, laptops, video game consoles, some toys, computer monitors, shoes and clothing.... On Sunday, economists at Goldman Sachs downgraded their economic forecasts, citing the impending tariffs on consumer goods. And economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch have raised their odds of a recession in the next year to roughly 33%, up from about 20%."

Trump Alone Can Fix It. Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "From tax cuts to relaxed regulations to tariffs, each of President Trump's economic initiatives is based on a promise: to set off a wave of investment and bring back jobs that the president says the United States has lost to foreign countries.... Mr. Trump's tax cuts unquestionably stimulated the American economy in 2018, helping to push economic growth to 2.5 percent for the year and fueling an increase in manufacturing jobs. But statistics from the government and other sources do not support Mr. Trump's claim about his policies' effectiveness in drawing investment and jobs from abroad. Foreign investment in the United States grew at a slower annual pace in the first two years of Mr. Trump's tenure than during Barack Obama's presidency, according to Commerce Department data released in July. Growth in business investment from all sources, foreign and domestic, accelerated briefly after Mr. Trump signed a $1.5 trillion tax-cut package in late 2017 but then slowed. Investment growth turned negative this spring, providing a drag on economic output." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: A good example of Trump's marvelous (and mostly fantastical) effort to bring back American jobs was in evidence yesterday when he claimed during his campaign visit to the Pennsylvania Shell petrochemicals plant that the white guys who comprised his audience there would be out of work without him. As Olorunnipa & Itkowitz wrote in the WashPo report linked above, "While the project employs more than 5,000 people working in construction, it ultimately will have about 600 permanent employees when completed in a few years, according to Shell." So most if not all of them will be out of work once the plant is built. In addition, the project began when Obama was president. Finally, state & local tax incentives boosted the project. Trump had nothing to do with it. ...

... AND what about those 600 jobs in Kentucky??? :

     ... Thanks, #MoscowMitch! Simon Shuster & Vera Bergengruen of Time: "... the story of how a Kremlin-linked aluminum giant offered an economic lifeline to Appalachia is an object lesson of ... [how] Moscow political influence that could undermine national security[, according to critics].... What worries national-security experts is not that [the Russian aluminum company] Rusal, [the American company] Braidy [Industries] or [Russian oligarch Oleg] Deripaska broke any laws in the deal. It's that they didn't. A Time investigation found that Rusal used a broad array of political and economic tools to fight the sanctions, establishing a foothold in U.S. politics in the process.... To free itself from sanctions, Rusal fielded a team of high-paid lobbyists for an intense, months-long effort in Washington. One of the targets was Kentucky's own Mitch McConnell..., who helped thwart a bipartisan push to keep the sanctions in place. Since May, two of McConnell's former staffers have lobbied Congress on behalf of Braidy, according to filings. Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, one of Rusal's longtime major shareholders, Len Blavatnik, contributed more than $1 million through his companies to a GOP campaign fund tied to McConnell."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "A coalition of 29 states and cities on Tuesday sued to block the Trump administration from easing restrictions on coal-burning power plants, setting up a case that could determine how much leverage the federal government has to fight climate change in the future. The lawsuit is the latest salvo in a long-running battle over the future of coal and how to regulate the nation's heavily polluting power plants, which are major producers of greenhouse gases that warm the planet. It also is the most significant test to date of the Trump administration's efforts to eliminate or weaken former President Obama's regulations to reduce the United States' contribution to global warming.... Previously, Republican-led states and industry groups sued to stop Mr. Obama's Clean Power Plan from going into effect. They won a reprieve in 2016 when the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Obama administration from imposing changes." The Grist story, by Rachel Ramirez, is here.

Trump Again Refuses to Back Democracy. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday said he's hopeful that clashes in Hong Kong between anti-government protesters and armed security forces end peacefully, offering a rare comment on the escalating tensions in the region. 'The Hong Kong thing is a very tough situation, very tough,' Trump told reporters as he boarded Air Force One for a trip to Pennsylvania. 'We'll see what happens but I'm sure it'll work out. I hope it works out for everybody -- including China, by the way. I hope it works out for everybody.'" As long-time U.S. diplomat Nicholas Burns put it on MSNBC, Trump's stance is "disgraceful" and is reminiscent of his both-sides Charlottesville remarks. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) See related stories linked under Way Beyond the Beltway. ...

... MEANWHILE. Fira Abdurachman of the New York Times: "Donald Trump Jr., visiting Indonesia's capital on Tuesday to promote two Trump-branded resorts, defended his father, President Trump, and their family's company against allegations that their global business presented conflicts of interest for the president ... that ... could affect his foreign policy. 'He wouldn't make decisions on a country based on a real estate deal,' Mr. Trump said.... He and his billionaire business partner, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, chairman of the MNC Group, held a news conference to extol the virtues of the two Trump-branded resorts, one in Bali and the other at Lido, south of Jakarta.... Trump International Resort, Golf Club and Residences Lido, to be built about 45 miles south of Jakarta, is to be part of a larger project known as Lido City, which is to include a theme park, hospital, restaurants and other facilities.... Last year, [Hary's corporation] said it would receive $500 million in financing from an arm of Metallurgical Corporation of China, a state-owned construction company, to build the theme park. The deal falls under the umbrella of China's Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious plan to spread money and influence by financing infrastructure and other projects worldwide, a high priority for China's leader, Xi Jinping." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd say Xi's effort to "spread money & influence" is working pretty well when you can get a U.S. president* to wish you well in beating down lawful democratic guarantees. Not to mention, I'm so happy to be paying for Junior's money-grubbing trips abroad.

Give me your tired and your poor
Who can stand on their own two feet
and who will not become a public charge.

-- Ken Cuccinelli, rewrite of "The New Colossus"

Yeah, he really said that. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... ** Only White People Need Apply. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Hours after rewriting the famous words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, Acting Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli went a step further on Tuesday night by insisting that Emma Lazarus' poem about America accepting the world's poor and huddled masses only referred to Europeans.... Quoting the actual poem to Cuccinelli -- which definitely does not place a burden on immigrants to 'stand on their own two feet' -- [CNN's Erin] Burnett said the poem about accepting those 'yearning to breathe free' is what Lazarus said America is supposed to stand for. She went on to ask Cuccinelli: 'So what do you think America stands for?' 'Well, of course that poem was referring back to people coming from Europe where they had class-based societies,' Cuccinelli ... replied." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This was not a gaffe on Cuccinelli's part. It is what he believes. Cuccinelli is of Italian & Irish descent. Many Americans of Northern European descent despised & discriminated against immigrants from those countries. The Immigration Act of 1924 was specifically designed to reduce the number of Italians eligible to immigrate. "Proponents of the act sought to establish a distinct American identity by preserving its ethnic homogeneity." Nativist Americans also despised Irish immigrants, not only because they were dirt-poor but also because they were Roman Catholic, & these Americans "believed that Protestantism defined American society." Cuccinelli is Roman Catholic. ...

As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy. -- Abraham Lincoln, in an 1855 letter

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday defended his weekend decision to share an unfounded conspiracy theory on Twitter suggesting without evidence that former President Bill Clinton was somehow connected to the death of wealthy financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. 'He is a very highly respected conservative pundit,' Trump said Tuesday of Terrence K. Williams, the man whose tweet the president shared. 'He's a big Trump fan. And that was a retweet. That wasn't from me. That was from him. But he's a man with half a million followers, a lot of followers,' Trump continued, speaking to reporters as he traveled from his summer getaway in Bedminster, New Jersey, to Pennsylvania. 'Basically what we're saying is, we want an investigation. I want a full investigation,' Trump added." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Williams is a right-wing comedian, not "a very highly-respected conservative pundit." Trump's claim that his retweet suggested he "wanted a full investigation" mimics Kellyanne Conway's attempt to clean up after Trump. ...

... Jim Mustian, et al., of the AP: "The warden at the federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein took his own life over the weekend was removed Tuesday and two guards who were supposed to be watching the financier were placed on leave while federal authorities investigate the death. The move by the Justice Department came amid mounting evidence that the chronically understaffed Metropolitan Correctional Center may have bungled its responsibility to keep the 66-year-old Epstein from harming himself while he awaited trial on charges of sexually abusing teenage girls." ...

     ... Update. Katie Benner & Danielle Ivory of the New York Times: "The two guards who were in the jail unit where Jeffrey Epstein apparently killed himself fell asleep and failed to check on him for about three hours, then falsified records [in a log] to cover up their mistake, a law enforcement official and a prison official said on Tuesday.... Such false entries in an official log could constitute a federal crime.... Those disclosures came as the two guards were placed on administrative leave and the warden of the jail ... was temporarily reassigned, pending the outcome of the investigation into Mr. Epstein's death, the Justice Department announced.... [Epstein] had apparently hanged himself with a bedsheet, likely fastening the sheet to a top bunk and pitching himself forward, law-enforcement and prison officials said." ...

     ... Update Update. AP (10:05 pm ET Tuesday): "Surveillance video reviewed after the death showed guards never made some of the checks noted in the log, according to the person familiar with the investigation." ...

... Jane Lytvynenko of BuzzFeed News: "The New York City Fire Department looked into whether an employee posted about Jeffrey Epstein's death on a notorious internet message board prior to officials announcing it to the public.... An FDNY spokesperson said authorities 'determined this alleged information did not come from the Fire Department.'... Almost 40 minutes before ABC News first reported Epstein's death on Twitter, someone posted still-unverified details on 4chan, the anonymous message board popular with far-right trolls and white nationalists. '[D]ont ask me how I know, but Epstein died an hour ago from hanging, cardiac arrest. Screencap this,' read the post, which was published at 8:16 a.m. alongside an image of Pepe, the green frog that has become a mascot for right-wing internet trolls." ...

...CBS News: "On the morning of Jeffrey Epstein's death there was shouting and shrieking from his jail cell, a source familiar with the situation told CBS News. Corrections officers attempted to revive him while saying 'breathe, Epstein breathe.' Congress is the latest to start investigating Epstein's apparent suicide over the weekend, with new reports raising questions about the federal jail where he was being held. One of Epstein's guards at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on the night he died was reportedly not a regular corrections officer." (Also linked yesterday.)

Paul Krawzak of Roll Call: "Funding to support global health programs, promote women's economic development [supported by Ivanka Trump] and protect Christians and other religious minorities abroad from persecution [supported by mike pence] would be exempt from a package of cuts to foreign aid that the White House is developing ... as part of a forthcoming request for spending cuts, or rescissions, affecting the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development[.]... If such a package is submitted shortly, as expected, it would block the targeted funds from being spent for 45 days of 'continuous' legislative session, excluding recesses of three or more days. That would mean effectively a cancellation of money that would otherwise expire after the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, despite a requirement of 1974 budget law that Congress must approve any rescissions package." --s

William Cohen in Vanity Fair: "As the backlash continues over [billionaire] Stephen Ross's decision to hold a multimillion-dollar fund-raiser for Donald Trump in the Hamptons on Friday, Wall Street is wondering just what he was thinking.... The Wall Street executive I spoke to believes that Ross's primary focus at the moment is making sure the controversial EB-5 visa program, which allows rich foreigners to get a permanent visa in exchange for making an investment of at least $500,000 in an American business, gets extended rather than expire at the end of September, as it is now scheduled to do. According to a study undertaken by the NYU Stern School of Business, Ross's Related Companies is one of the bigger users of the EB-5 program." --safari: Jared Kushner also relies heavily on this program, so it will be extended.

Presidential Race 2020

Alex Samuels of the Texas Tribune: "Julián Castro, a Democratic candidate for president, plans to release a television ad Wednesday on Fox News connecting ... Donald Trump to a recent attack in El Paso that federal law enforcement officials have classified as an act of domestic terrorism. The ad will speak to Trump directly -- linking his rhetoric toward immigrants and people of color to that of the shooter in El Paso who killed 22 and left more than two dozen wounded. A spokesman for Castro's campaign told The Texas Tribune that the ad -- a small buy of $2,775 -- will air throughout the day on Fox News in Bedminster, N.J. That is where Trump is spending the week at his private golf club...." ...

A message for @realdonaldtrump: pic.twitter.com/WFYRxm69hA

— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) August 13, 2019

Greg Krieg, et al., of CNN: "Sen. Bernie Sanders scaled back his criticism of the media on Tuesday, telling CNN he did not believe that Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos was dictating the paper's coverage of his campaign. But while the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate acknowledged that there is no direct link between the Post newsroom and Bezos, he continued to argue that the structure of the mainstream media leaves candidates like him at a disadvantage.... On Tuesday, Sanders reprised a more comprehensive -- and familiar -- frustration with corporate-owned media and what he described as a lack of attention to poverty and income and wealth inequality.... Sanders clarified his position on Bezos' role after suggesting twice on Monday that his public objections to Amazon's business practices had influenced the Post's reporting. 'I talk about (Amazon's taxes) all of the time,' Sanders said in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, a day earlier. 'And then I wonder why The Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon, doesn't write particularly good articles about me. I don't know why.'... Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron ... defended the paper's independence. 'Sen. Sanders is a member of a large club of politicians -- of every ideology -- who complain about their coverage,' Baron said in a statement provided to CNN. 'Contrary to the conspiracy theory the senator seems to favor, Jeff Bezos allows our newsroom to operate with full independence....'"

Elections 2020

Hickenlooper Gets Real. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado is in discussions about ending his presidential bid and entering the race for his state's Republican-held Senate seat, potentially giving Democrats a strong candidate in a race they must win to have hopes of retaking the chamber in 2021, according to four Democrats familiar with his thinking."

Jeremy White of Politico: "California's new law requiring candidates' tax returns may be aimed at Donald Trump, but its most consequential effects would likely be felt downballot if it survives a legal challenge. For Republicans who already face a steep climb to blunt Democratic dominance here, the possibility of Trump's absence from 2020 primary ballots threatens to suppress turnout at a time when they need every vote they can get. That risk conjures another scenario that's keeping conservative strategists up at night: Republicans getting locked out of general election races thanks to California's primary system, which allows the top two vote-getters to advance to the general election regardless of party and regularly produces Democrat-vs.-Democrat contests." --s

Dan Friedman & Ali Breland of Mother Jones: "Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos ... appear to have found some new allies: QAnon conspiracy theorists. Flynn ... and Papadopoulos are listed as speakers at the upcoming 'Digital Soldiers Conference,' a one-day event scheduled for September 14 in Atlanta that promises to ready '[p]atriotic social media warriors' for a coming 'digital civil war' against 'censorship and suppression.' Other featured speakers include Bill Mitchell, an online broadcaster and conspiracy theorist.... The event is being organized by Rich Granville, the CEO of Yippy, Inc, who has a Twitter feed littered with references to QAnon, a conspiracy theory centered around the notion that Trump is secretly taking down an international ring of pedophiles that includes high-ranking Democrats. QAnon supporters believe that an anonymous person known as Q is dropping online clues about this supposed clandestine operation. The web page for Granville's conference prominently features an American flag festooned with a Q."

Civil War West. Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "The Republican politician Matt Shea connected close allies with a group [called 'Team Rugged'] offering training to young men in 'biblical warfare' that includes how to use knives, pistols and rifles, with lessons based in part on the teachings of a Georgia-based neo-Confederate pastor [John Weaver], emails obtained by the Guardian reveal. Shea, who is an elected Washington state representative ... also paid the founder of the group money from his campaign fund in 2018.... Shea['s] associate, Jack Robertson ... is a rightwing podcast host who advocates for conservatives to move to the 'American Redoubt' in eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana, and, with Shea, campaigns for eastern Washington to secede and form its own state.... Last May, the Guardian revealed that at the 2018 God and Country event, Shea warned of civil unrest while Robertson urged the audience to prepare for civil war." --s

** "Extreme Climate Change Has Come to America." Steven Mufson, et al., of the Washington Post: "Over the past two decades, the 2 degrees Celsius number has emerged as a critical threshold for global warming.... The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that if Earth heats up by an average of 2 degrees Celsius, virtually all the world's coral reefs will die; retreating ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica could unleash massive sea level rise; and summertime Arctic sea ice, a shield against further warming, would begin to disappear. But global warming does not heat the world evenly. A Washington Post analysis of more than a century of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration temperature data across the Lower 48 states and 3,107 counties has found that major areas are nearing or have already crossed the 2-degree Celsius mark. -- Today, more than 1 in 10 Americans -- 34 million people -- are living in rapidly heating regions, including New York City and Los Angeles.

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "The New York Times demoted one of its Washington editors on Tuesday as punishment for sparking controversy last week with tweets about Democratic members of Congress and for a related run-in with an author. The editor, Jonathan Weisman, came under fire for tweets questioning whether Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) actually represented the Midwest and whether Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) and John Lewis (D-Ga.) represented the Deep South, given that their districts are primarily urban and heavily minority. Weisman said he was questioning whether the districts truly reflected the broader politics of their regions, which are predominantly white and more rural. He deleted the tweets after they were roundly criticized as racist. He later asked author and Times contributor Roxane Gay for an 'enormous apology' in an email after she called him out for those tweets and for criticizing him for identifying another congresswoman as African American without mentioning that her primary challenger is also African American." Here's CNN's story, by Oliver Darcy.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Frances Langum of Crooks And Liars: "Fearmongering about healthcare..., Fox and Friends [hosts] ... were reading [viewer messages that] appeared to come from Medicare recipients exclusively.... I fact-checked the one actual tweet they used on screen. Fox News REMOVED the hashtag #LeaveMedicareAlone from the tweet. They are a propaganda network, but you knew that. And they've been caught today, in the very act." --s

Way Beyond the Beltway

Austin Ramzy of the New York Times: "Protesters began issuing apologies on Wednesday for causing disruptions at the Hong Kong airport, as fallout from scenes of violence and chaos there, along with a court injunction, threatened to eliminate the transportation hub as one of their most effective venues for demonstrations.... The protests -- which began over a now-suspended plan to allow extraditions to mainland China, but have grown to include calls for more direct elections and investigations into the police's use of force -- have been largely leaderless." An AP story, by Vincent Thian & Yanan Wang is here. ...

... Anna Fifield of the Washington Post: "This week, state-affiliated media outlets tweeted ominous videos of Chinese tanks carrying out exercises in Shenzhen, the southern Chinese city that borders Hong Kong, while authorities in Beijing portrayed the protests as 'terrorism.' 'Hong Kong will slide into a bottomless abyss if the terror atrocities are allowed to continue,' China's liaison office responsible for Hong Kong affairs said Monday, according to state news agency Xinhua.... Authorities in Beijing have repeatedly blamed 'hostile foreign forces,' especially the United States, for fomenting unrest and trying to foster a 'color revolution' inside China's borders -- a reference to the uprisings that have toppled regimes in the Middle East and Eastern Europe this century.... Chinese state media had a field day with photographs showing an American diplomat in Hong Kong meeting with pro-democracy activists."

Russia. Patrick Reevell of ABC News: "The radiation spike that followed the apparent explosion of a nuclear-powered missile engine in Russia -- an event that left seven dead and has been cloaked in secrecy -- was higher than previously indicated by the country's officials, Russian government weather agency on Tuesday said. The news comes amid conflicting reports that authorities were preparing to evacuate a village close to the Arctic test site where the blast occurred and that doctors who had treated engineers injured in the blast had signed non-disclosure agreements." ...

... Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "Russian officials have released a flurry of misleading or incomplete statements playing down the severity of the accident, which the military first reported on Thursday as a fire involving a liquid-fueled rocket engine. It was not until Sunday that Russian scientists conceded that a reactor had released radiation during a test on an offshore platform in the White Sea. That pattern of murkiness continued on Tuesday, as news reports and official statements offered only the vaguest explanation for the evacuation, and hours later seemed to indicate that it had been called off.... On Saturday, Tass, a state news agency, cited an unnamed official at the Russian nuclear company Rosatom as saying that the explosion on the test platform had knocked the scientists who died into the sea, suggesting the reactor or what remained of it also wound up in the water.... After treating [victims of the accident], the doctors at the Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital found that their scrubs were causing radiation meters to click, the site reported. The patients were taken to Moscow and the rooms where they had lain were sealed. Then, the report said, the doctors were also transferred to the capital for medical evaluations." ...

... The Washington Post story, by Will Englund, is here. Rachel Maddow summarized what-all was known and unknown as of last night about the story in her scary top segment:

News Ledes

NBC News: "Philadelphia police were shot at Wednesday afternoon after responding to a shooting incident in a North Philly neighborhood. A large police presence responded to a shooting incident in a residential area of the Nicetown section of the city. One male shooter was still inside a residence in what police described as an active situation." ...

     ... Philly.com: "Six police officers were shot in a confrontation with at least one gunman Wednesday afternoon in the Tioga section of North Philadelphia, and after nightfall two officers emerged after being trapped for hours in the house where the shootout first erupted at 4:30 p.m. Just before 10 p.m., Police Commissioner Richard Ross confirmed that the officers and several people they had handcuffed during the tense standoff had been safely extracted from the property in the 3700 block of North 15th Street." The situation was still ongoing at 10:45 pm ET. It appears the report is being updated as developments warrant.

The Commentariat -- August 13, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Trump Again Refuses to Back Democracy. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday said he's hopeful that clashes in Hong Kong between anti-government protesters and armed security forces end peacefully, offering a rare comment on the escalating tensions in the region. 'The Hong Kong thing is a very tough situation, very tough,' Trump told reporters as he boarded Air Force One for a trip to Pennsylvania. 'We'll see what happens but I'm sure it'll work out. I hope it works out for everybody — including China, by the way. I hope it works out for everybody.'" Mrs. McC: As long-time U.S. diplomat Nicholas Burns put it on MSNBC, Trump's stance is "disgraceful" and is reminiscent of his both-sides Charlottesville remarks.

Trump Loses Round of Chicken to U.S. Consumers. Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Tuesday narrowed the list of Chinese products it plans to impose new tariffs on as of Sept. 1, delaying levies on cellphones, laptop computers, toys and other consumer goods until after stores stock up for the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons. The move, which pushed off a new 10 percent tariff on some goods and spared others entirely, came as President Trump faces mounting pressure from businesses and consumer groups over the harm they say the continuing trade war between the United States and China is doing." The AP story, by Paul Wiseman, is here. ...

... Yun Li of CNBC: "Stocks surged higher in a sudden move after the U.S. said it was delaying China tariffs until December on items including cellphones and clothing. The U.S. also outright removed some items from list of new tariffs. The adjusted policy caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to jump about 408 points, while the S&P 500 rose 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.7% higher, led by Apple which surged more than 4%.... Donald Trump said Tuesday he delayed the tariffs for Christmas season in case it had an impact on shopping. He added China would very much like to make a deal."

Trump Alone Can Fix It. Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "From tax cuts to relaxed regulations to tariffs, each of President Trump's economic initiatives is based on a promise: to set off a wave of investment and bring back jobs that the president says the United States has lost to foreign countries.... Mr. Trump's tax cuts unquestionably stimulated the American economy in 2018, helping to push economic growth to 2.5 percent for the year and fueling an increase in manufacturing jobs. But statistics from the government and other sources do not support Mr. Trump's claim about his policies' effectiveness in drawing investment and jobs from abroad. Foreign investment in the United States grew at a slower annual pace in the first two years of Mr. Trump's tenure than during Barack Obama's presidency, according to Commerce Department data released in July. Growth in business investment from all sources, foreign and domestic, accelerated briefly after Mr. Trump signed a $1.5 trillion tax-cut package in late 2017 but then slowed. Investment growth turned negative this spring, providing a drag on economic output."

Give me your tired and your poor
Who can stand on their own two feet
and who will not become a public charge.

-- Ken Cuccinelli, rewrite of "The New Colossus"

Yeah, he really said that. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

CBS News: "On the morning of Jeffrey Epstein's death there was shouting and shrieking from his jail cell, a source familiar with the situation told CBS News. Corrections officers attempted to revive him while saying 'breathe, Epstein, breathe.' Congress is the latest to start investigating Epstein's apparent suicide over the weekend, with new reports raising questions about the federal jail where he was being held. One of Epstein's guards at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on the night he died was reportedly not a regular corrections officer."

~~~~~~~~~~

Every day Donald Trump gives Americans a new reason new reasons to despise him. Even though he's gone golfing, yesterday was no exception:

** Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would change the way the Endangered Species Act is applied, significantly weakening the nation's bedrock conservation law credited with rescuing the bald eagle, the grizzly bear and the American alligator from extinction. The changes will make it harder to consider the effects of climate change on wildlife when deciding whether a given species warrants protection. They would most likely shrink critical habitats and, for the first time, would allow economic assessments to be conducted when making determinations." Here's a HuffPost story by Chris D'Angelo. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... AND this, Charles Pierce writes, is why Republicans, who may be horrified by his otherwise bad behavior -- including his taking the Lord's name in vain (see yesterday's Comments for context), stick with Trump: "It is now a safe assumption that El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago doesn't really know anything about anything, but that, in those few places in the Executive Branch he's left undecimated, he's letting people who hate those places run completely amuck. That's a big part of why Republicans refuse to Scaramucci his considerable hindquarters into oblivion. He's turned what Steve Bannon called 'the administrative state' into a toxic playground for the worst of the American corporate class.... [This] has been on the Republican wish list ever since the party's power base swung south and west. Why do they stay with him? He's the president* they've waited their whole lives for, that's why."

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I think it's still okay to be tired, but just in case, I'd advise immigrant hopefuls to try to look peppy. ...

... Eileen Sullivan & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The Trump administration will penalize legal immigrants who rely on public programs, such as food stamps and government-subsidized housing, as part of a sweeping new policy to slow legal immigration into the United States and reduce the number of immigrants who are granted permanent legal status. The move will have the greatest impact on poor immigrants who are living in the country legally and are receiving public benefits from the government, forcing them to make a choice between accepting financial help and living and working in the country legally. It will probably not affect immigrants who already have green cards. The United States wants immigrants who can support themselves, according to the rule, not those who 'depend on public resources to meet their needs,' according to the new rule.... Immigration advocates have pledged to sue the administration in an attempt to block the new regulation from going into effect. Tens of thousands of people opposed the rule in a public comment period over the past several months." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Patricia Alvarez, et al., of CNN: "The Trump administration released a regulation Monday that could dramatically cut the number of legal immigrants allowed to enter and stay in the US by making it easier to reject green card and visa applications. Paired with last week's enforcement raids on food processing plants in Mississippi, Monday's announcement amounts to a concerted effort by the administration to limit legal immigration and crack down on illegal immigration. The 837-page rule applies to those seeking to come to or remain in the United States via legal channels. The so-called public charge rule is designed to ensure immigrants can support themselves financially. In doing so, though, it'll likely make it harder for low-income immigrants to come to the US." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Noah Lenard of Mother Jones: "In 1882, four decades before the creation of the Border Patrol, the United States established one of its first ways of keeping out poor immigrants. It ... require[d] ... just a few lines of seemingly neutral legislation that directed immigration officials to block people they deemed likely to become 'public charges' with financial dependence on the US government. On Monday, the Trump administration revived the public charge rule to keep out working-class immigrants who now disproportionately come from Mexico and Central America.... The original public charge rule grew out of a nativist backlash against Irish immigrants. In later decades, it went on to target the new populations from Eastern and Southern Europe that were arriving in large numbers.... Immigrants were previously considered public charges only if most of their income was likely to come from the government, a generous standard that allowed the vast majority of people to pass the public charge test. Now they could be denied legal residency if even a small portion of their income is likely to come from government programs." ...

... Colby Hall of Mediaite: "The new immigration regulation flies in the face of previous immigration rhetoric put forth by ... Donald Trump, who had repeatedly avowed support for those foreign-born individuals who followed the legal process for staying in the United States.... [At a White House briefing Monday by Ken Cuccinelli, acting Director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services,] CBS Radio's Steven Portnoy asked asked: 'As long as the public charge has been in effect since the late 1800s, there's also been, almost as long, the words at the base of the Statue of Liberty that read "Give us your tired, your poor..." You're implementing a public charge rule for the first time. Is that sentiment, give us "your tired, your poor," still operative in the United States, or ... should the plaque come down from the Statue of Liberty?'... [Cuccinelli replied,] 'I'm certainly not prepared to take anything down off the Statue of Liberty.'" ...

... AND don't miss Nisky Guy's comment in the thread below. ...

... NEW. Rafael Carranza of the Arizona Republic: "A former U.S. Border Patrol agent charged with running over a Guatemalan migrant along the Arizona-Mexico border and then lying about it has pleaded guilty and can face up to a year in prison, according to a deal with prosecutors. Matthew Bowen, 39, a 10-year veteran agent stationed in Nogales, was scheduled to appear in Tucson federal court on Monday for the first day of his trial. But late last week, his attorney filed a motion saying they would accept a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney's Office. The plea agreement is dated Aug. 8. but the court on Monday released details about the agreement with prosecutors. Bowen agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor for violating the rights of Antonin Lopez Aguilar, a 23-year-old migrant from Guatemala." Mrs. McC: The Arizona U.S. attorney must have taken plea-negotiating lessons from Trump's former labor secretary Alexander Acosta. Or maybe attempted murder of Guatemalans is always a misdemeanor. The judge should have rejected the plea deal.

[Donald Trump] treats everybody like objects. There's no way he's a racist because when he's looking at you he doesn't see color, he just sees a potential transaction, an opportunity or a detriment. That's not racism. That might be narcissism.... I've watched him do it. It's like a worse level than racism. It's racist against everybody. he could care less. You're an object in his way for or against and then he's got a playbook.... -- Anthony Scaramucci, to Anderson Cooper, yesterday

Scaramucci is half-right. Trump is both a complete narcissist and a racist. And a misogynist. And a snob. If a white man of means crosses him, Trump will insult him, usually with lies that exhibit some form of projection. But if a person of color, a woman or a poor person crosses or displeases him, he sees them not as individuals but as representative of their "group." They come from shithole countries, they should go back to where they came from, they are sub-human (Baltimore, Chicago residents), they are nasty (women of means like Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Meghan Markle), they are beneath him ("I'm president & you're not"). -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

President Pinocchio Hits Another Milestone. Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's proclivity for spouting exaggerated numbers, unwarranted boasts and outright falsehoods has continued at a remarkable pace. As of Aug. 5, his 928th day in office, he had made 12,019 false or misleading claims, according to the Fact Checker's database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement the president has uttered. Trump crossed the 10,000 mark on April 26, and he has been averaging about 20 fishy claims a day since then. From the start of his presidency, he has averaged about 13 such claims a day." (Also linked yesterday.)

Emily Fox of Vanity Fair: "Last month, [Stephanie] Wolkoff received a subpoena from the Washington, D.C., attorney general's office, requesting documents related to President Trump's inauguration, which Wolkoff had a heavy hand in planning. The $107 million event has been under investigation for months, including by federal prosecutors in New York and New Jersey, for profligate spending and questions about foreign donations. The latest subpoena appears to be probing potential self-dealing by the Trump Organization and members of the president's family, according to two people familiar with the investigation. Wolkoff complied with the request, according to these sources, by the July 26 deadline, which asked her to turn over records involving the inaugural event, the president's family and associates, and expenditures by the inaugural committee that could shine a light on whether the nonprofit group provided private benefits to the Trump Organization."

Kevin Brueninger of CNBC: "Attorney General William Barr said Monday that there were serious irregularities' at the Manhattan federal jail where accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein apparently killed himself over the weekend. 'We will get to the bottom of what happened,' Barr vowed in blistering opening remarks at a police event in New Orleans, 'and there will be accountability.' Barr ... also fired a warning shot to anyone who may have been involved in the wealthy financier's alleged crimes. 'Any co-conspirators should not rest easy,' Barr said. 'The victims deserve justice and they will get it.'" (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story, by Ali Watkins & others, is here. ...

... Sonam Sheth of Business Insider: "FBI personnel are furious that ... Donald Trump retweeted to his 63 million Twitter followers a baseless conspiracy theory suggesting that former President Bill Clinton was involved in the death of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.... White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News Sunday that Trump 'just wants everything to be investigated.'... But the president's actions make investigators' job harder, not easier.... [One] FBI agent told Insider that Trump's actions make the FBI's job harder as it combats homegrown extremism, particularly after its latest finding that conspiracy theories pose a new domestic-terrorism threat.... In its intelligence bulletin highlighting the threat posed by conspiracy theories, the FBI laid out several events over the last few years in which 'perpetrators intended to kill groups identified by such theories as hostile and malevolent,' or to carry out 'dangerous, unlawful acts in an effort to draw attention to or expose a perceived conspiracy.'" ...

... Amanda Marcotte of Salon on Trump's retweeting an accusation that Bill and/or Hillary Clinton arranged Epstein's murder: "Trump's false accusations about the troubling circumstances of Epstein's death are even more disturbing considered in light of his long-standing habit of psychological projection.... No one who has followed Trump's career believes he would hesitate to order underlings to commit brutal acts to cover up for his corrupt or criminal behavior.... It's almost beyond dispute that Trump has engaged in a number of conspiracies and cover-ups, some of them likely criminal. It's easy to believe new conspiracy theories about our supposedly elected leader, since so many of the old ones are true.... Keeping those conspiracy theories at bay was already hard enough. Then Trump tweeted out a false accusation against a political adversary, which is his go-to move when he's trying to deflect attention from his own guilt." Marcotte cites evidence to make each point of her case. ...

... Rich Schapiro, et al., of NBC News: "FBI agents raided Jeffrey Epstein's private island in the Caribbean on Monday in a vivid display that the probe into his alleged sex trafficking ring is continuing despite his death. A swarm of federal agents was seen fanning out across Little St. James in golf carts about 10:30 a.m.... Two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation confirmed that the FBI launched a search of Epstein's private island home off the coast of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The search was directed by the Epstein task force led by the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, the officials said." ...

... Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "L Brands founder Les Wexner and his legal team have been providing documents to federal investigators that they believe show Jeffrey Epstein misappropriated funds while the child predator was Wexner's money manager. Wexner believes the evidence demonstrates 'all sorts of irregularities and theft,' one person with direct knowledge of the matter said.... Wexner's cooperation with authorities started before Epstein's apparent suicide on Saturday in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correction Center in New York." ...

... James Stewart of the New York Times: "Almost exactly a year ago, on Aug. 16, 2018, I visited Jeffrey Epstein at his cavernous Manhattan mansion. The overriding impression I took away from our roughly 90-minute conversation was that Mr. Epstein knew an astonishing number of rich, famous and powerful people, and had photos to prove it. He also claimed to know a great deal about these people, some of it potentially damaging or embarrassing, including details about their supposed sexual proclivities and recreational drug use. So one of my first thoughts on hearing of Mr. Epstein's suicide was that many prominent men and at least a few women must be breathing sighs of relief that whatever Mr. Epstein knew, he has taken it with him."

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "A friend of the gunman who killed nine people outside a Dayton, Ohio, bar last week told authorities he bought body armor and equipment for the attacker and helped him assemble the weapon used in the rampage, according to a court filing unsealed Monday. Those details were included in a criminal complaint charging the friend -- Ethan Kollie, 24 -- with two counts related to his purchase and possession of firearms.... Kollie was charged with possessing a firearm while being an unlawful user of a controlled substance and making a false statement regarding firearms.... Neither count relates to the shooting itself. Benjamin C. Glassman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, stressed that while the charges emerged from the investigation into the Dayton shooting, they included no suggestion that Kollie knowingly played a role in plotting the attack.... Kollie and Betts were friends who had repeatedly done 'hard drugs' together, P. Andrew Gragan, an FBI special agent, wrote in an affidavit included in the complaint." ...

     ... Here's an ABC News story by Julia Jacobo. Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, what exactly did Kollie think Betts was going to do with an assault weapon, ammo & body armor?

Presidential Race

Adam Raymond of New York: "For the first time since the beginning of the Democratic presidential primary, Elizabeth Warren took the lead in PredictIt's online betting markets over the weekend. Shares of the Massachusetts senator were going for as high 29 cents on Sunday, one cent more than Joe Biden's. Senators Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders were a fairly distant third and fourth."

Cameron Joseph of Vice: "Former Vice President Joe Biden delivered a series of verbal fumbles and gaffes during his longest swing to date through Iowa, providing fodder for President Trump's accusations that he's slipped mentally and left some local Democrats worried that he's lost a step.... Trump himself is a gaffe machine.... The bigger problem for Biden is not whether he gaffes more often and worse than Trump -- it's how he stacks up in a crowded field of eloquent candidates, many of them decades younger than him." ...

... It's More than the Gaffes. Henry Gomez of BuzzFeed News: "... even among Iowans who admire [Joe] Biden and might be inclined to caucus for him when primary season begins in February, there's a sense his argument and his approach might not be enough to beat candidates who are fresher or more progressive. Pete Buttigieg ... and ... Elizabeth Warren drew louder cheers and larger ovations at the Iowa Demoratic Wing Ding, a big party dinner that brought more than 20 presidential contenders to Clear Lake's historic Surf Ballroom.... Biden crowds trend elderly.... Biden crowds also trend smaller than those of his rivals."

Toluse Olorunnipa & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: President* Trump is targeting "paper straws -- the latest addition to an ever-growing list of cultural flash points his campaign is seeking to highlight as part of a base-focused reelection effort. As cities and coffee chains across the country have adopted policies aimed at limiting environmental damage, the president's campaign has targeted what it calls 'liberal paper straws.' It's selling a Trump-branded plastic version as a fundraising tool. Pointing to the 'runaway success' of the straws -- which have earned the campaign more than $670,000 in a month -- communications director Tim Murtaugh said they represent Trump's ability to make a political point using a cultural issue everyday voters can relate to.... From straws to wind turbines to socially conservative issues, Trump is deliberately amplifying public tensions by seizing on divisive topics to energize his base, according to campaign aides and White House advisers." ...

     ... Here's an NPR story from July 19 about Trump's anti-paper-straws campaign.

Election 2020. Maggie Miller of the Hill: "At least eight states are on course to not use any form of paper ballots or machines with paper records during the 2020 elections, a report published Tuesday by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice found. The report said that around 12 percent of Americans, or about 16 million people, will vote on paperless machines in 2020 and will have no paper record of how they voted. Many of these Americans will vote in the eight states that will use some form of paperless voting in 2020 -- Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, and New Jersey. 'Experts have longed warned that these machines are a security risk because they do not allow election officials or the public to confirm electronic vote totals,' the report's authors wrote. The report said the number of Americans expected to cast votes through paperless machines is down from 20 percent in 2016, when 14 states used some form of paperless voting machines."

Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "About 40% of all forests across the US are at risk of being ravaged by an army of harmful pests, undermining a crucial resource in addressing the climate crisis, new research has found.... About 450 overseas pests that damage or feed on trees have been introduced to US forests due to the growth in international trade and travel. A PNAS-published study of the 15 most damaging non-native forest pests has found that they destroy so many trees that about 6m tons of carbon are expelled each year from the dying plants. This is the equivalent, researchers say, of adding an extra 4.6m cars to the roads every year in terms of the release of planet-warming gases." --s

Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "A cloud of smoke and soot bigger than the European Union is billowing across Siberia as wildfires in the Arctic Circle rage into an unprecedented third month. The normally frozen region, which is a crucial part of the planet's cooling system, is spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and worsening the manmade climate disruption that created the tinderbox conditions. A spate of huge fires in northern Russia, Alaska, Greenland and Canada discharged 50 megatonnes of CO2 in June and 79 megatonnes in July, far exceeding the previous record for the Arctic." --s

Thanks, Republicans! Sarah McGregor of Bloomberg: "The U.S. fiscal deficit has already exceeded the full-year figure for last year, as spending growth outpaces revenue. The gap grew to $866.8 billion in the first 10 months of the fiscal year, up 27% from the same period a year earlier, the Treasury Department said in its monthly budget report on Monday. That's wider than last fiscal year's shortfall of $779 billion -- which was the largest federal deficit since 2012. So far in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, a revenue increase of 3% hasn't kept pace with a 8% rise in spending." ...

... Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The U.S. budget deficit widened another $119.7 billion, good for a 27% increase over a year ago, according to government figures released Monday. Total outlays increased by 22.8% over last July as receipts grew 11.6%. For the year, receipts were up 3% in the October to July period, totaling $2.86 trillion, while expenditures were at $3.73 trillion, an 8% rise. That brings the fiscal year deficit through July to $866.8 billion, a little over a year and a half after the Trump administration ushered through a $1.5 trillion tax cut that the White House has vowed would pay for itself. At this point last year, the deficit was $684 billion. There are two months left in this fiscal year, and the Treasury Department is projecting a deficit of just over $1 trillion."

Yun Li of CNBC: "Stocks fell on Monday as bond yields resumed their August downturn, raising concerns about the state of the economy. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield, which fell to its lowest since 2016 last week, dipped to 1.63%. The spread between 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields narrowed to only 6 basis points on Monday, near its lowest level since 2007. Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 391 points, or 1.49%, to 25,896.44, while the S&P 500 dropped 36.21 points, or 1.24%, to 2,882.44 and the Nasdaq Composite is down 1.2% to 7,863.41." Observers suggest a number of culprits, including the stalled U.S.-China trade talks, Hong Kong protests that closed the airport & Argentina's elections.

Beyond the Beltway

Tejas. Madison Pauly of Mother Jones: "New, looser gun laws will go into effect in the state of Texas in September, just before the one-month anniversary of the mass shooting that killed 22 people in an El Paso Walmart." --s

Way Beyond

Guatemala. Nina Lakhani of the Guardian: "A conservative law and order hardliner [Alejandro Giammattei] promising to reinstate the death penalty and deploy soldiers on to the streets has been elected the new president of Guatemala...backed by the country's economic and military power brokers.... Giammattei's triumph comes amid growing tension with the US over migration and asylum. Shortly before his victory, Giammattei said he wanted to change a controversial migration deal signed with the US by his predecessor, Jimmy Morales.... Details of the agreement remain murky, and currently face judicial and congressional obstacles in the US and Guatemala." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Hong Kong. Yanan Wang & Christopher Bodeen of the AP: "One of the world's busiest airports canceled all flights after thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators crowded into Hong Kong's main terminal Monday, while the central government in Beijing issued an ominous characterization of the protest movement as something approaching 'terrorism.' The extreme action by the largely leaderless movement seemed calculated to prompt a stern response from Beijing, and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's administration responded within hours. No new violence was reported by Monday evening, although the city remained on edge after more than two months of near-daily and increasingly bloody confrontations between protesters and police." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... NEW. Update. Yanan Wang & Katie Tam of the AP: "Protesters severely crippled operations at Hong Kong's international airport for a second day Tuesday, forcing authorities to cancel all remaining flights out of the city after demonstrators took over the terminals as part of their push for democratic reforms. After a brief respite early Tuesday during which flights were able to take off and land, the airport authority announced check-in services for departing flights were suspended as of 4:30 p.m."

Yemen. Juan Cole: "Yemen, a country of 28 million and one of the poorest in the world, had already become a byword for misery over the course of the last four years of war. Now, believe it or not, things have abruptly worsened. The strategic port of Aden has fallen to southern separatists ... with four hundred armed vehicles that had been supplied to it by the United Arab Emirates.... The Saudis are now riposting against the allies of their ally. This is not about Iran but about regional power rivalry. In essence, Yemen is now split in 3, with 1) the Southern secessionists, 2) what's left of the government of Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and 3) Houthi rebels in the West.... Abu Dhabi is now cutting its losses and running. The UAE ... says it is getting out entirely. These developments have left Saudi Arabia holding the bag[.]"

U.K. Michael McGowan & Ben Doherty of the Guardian: Brexit Boy & Friend of Trump "Nigel Farage has derided the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for their 'irrelevant' social justice and environmental campaigns while abusing Prince Charles and describing the late Queen Mother as an 'overweight, chain-smoking gin drinker', in an incendiary speech to an Australian rightwing political conference. Farage's speech to Sydney's Conservative Political Action Conference -- from which media were barred -- ranged across his views on Brexit, media bias and the United Nations, but he reserved his fiercest condemnation for members of the royal family.... The Brexit party leader was laudatory about the Queen -- 'an amazing, awe-inspiring woman, we're bloody lucky to have her' -- but abused her son, grandson and mother. 'When it comes to her son, when it comes to Charlie Boy and climate change, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.'" Mrs. McC: Still, I'm thinking it won't be "Sir Nigel" any time soon. (Also linked yesterday.)