The Commentariat -- August 6, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Trump Dishes It Out, But He Can't Take It. Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday attacked former President Barack Obama over the latter's statement on the weekend's mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, tweeting edited quotes from Fox News hosts to make his point and again claiming he is 'the least racist person' in the world. '"Did George Bush ever condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook. President Obama had 32 mass shootings during his reign. Not many people said Obama is out of Control,"' Trump wrote online. '"Mass shootings were happening before the President even thought about running for Pres." @kilmeade @foxandfriends'." Mrs. McC: Uh, Donnie, I think you & your Fox Friends missed the point: President Obama never stoked white nationalist wet dreams. Also, Obama didn't name you; you & your Friends clearly decided the shoe fits. For once you-all were right about something.

The Unwelcome, Deadbeat Visitor. Matthew Adams & Robert Garrett of the Dallas Morning News: "Ahead of a Wednesday visit to El Paso..., Donald Trump still owes the city more than $500,000 for his expenses related to his February rally. Trump is scheduled to visit El Paso in the wake of the Aug. 3 shooting that left at least 22 people dead. The Federal Aviation Administration advised pilots of a presidential visit later this week to El Paso and Dayton, Ohio.... The Center for Public Integrity ... reports that the total with late fees is now $569,204, according to a July 18 invoice to the Trump campaign. 'It's ridiculous and unconscionable. The city of El Paso is an economically challenged community,' El Paso County Commissioner Dave Stout said of the Trump camp's failure to pay.... 'He's going to be throwing salt into the wound -- a very, very deep wound. And this community needs healing, not Donald Trump, Stout said.... Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso [and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke], also said Trump isn't welcome."

Joshua Goodman & Deb Reichmann of the AP: "The Trump administration froze all Venezuelan government assets in a dramatic escalation of tensions with Nicolás Maduro that places his socialist administration alongside a short list of adversaries from Cuba, North Korea, Syria and Iran that have been targeted by such aggressive U.S. actions. The ban, blocking American companies and individuals from doing business with Maduro's government and its top supporters, took effect immediately Monday and is the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere in more than three decades, following an asset freeze against Gen. Manuel Noriega's government in Panama and a trade embargo on the Sandinista leadership in Nicaragua in the 1980s."

Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "Just days after mass shootings left at least 31 people dead, a bipartisan group of congressional staffers is set to go on an outing to shoot skeet alongside gun lobbyists. The event comes every year.... According to its website, the event is scheduled for August 6.... A source familiar with the event said the 'associated industry supporters' typically include members of the firearms industry, officials from the NRA, NRA lobbyists, and lobbyists working for gun companies.' They routinely attend the event to socialize with congressional staff. A second source familiar said NRA officials are not expected to attend this year." --s

John Seewer of the AP: "Facing pressure to take action after the latest mass shooting in the U.S., Ohio's Republican governor urged the GOP-led state Legislature Tuesday to pass laws requiring background checks for nearly all gun sales and allowing courts to restrict firearms access for people perceived as threats. Gov. Mike DeWine said Ohio needs to do more while balancing people's rights to own firearms and have due process during a press conference Tuesday. He outlined a series of legislative actions he wants the Legislature to take up to address mental health and gun violence.... Protesters once again shouted 'do something' -- a refrain chanted during Sunday's vigil honoring the victims -- at DeWine at the start of his Tuesday announcement.... His calls for action could be an uphill battle for the Legislature, which has given little consideration this session to those and other gun-safety measures already introduced by Democrats. DeWine's Republican predecessor, John Kasich..., also unsuccessfully pushed for a so-called red flag law on restricting firearms for people considered threats."

Vanessa Grioriadis of New York has a long bio on Ivanka Trump. Some highlights: "In her 20s, she said her favorite book was Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and she had modeled herself on its capitalist heroine, Dagny Taggart.... [T]he No. 1 thing friends from her past say about her: She isn't a 'mean person' or a 'bad person' but is simply afflicted with the same disease of narcissism as her father.... In 2003, when Paris Hilton's sex tape was leaked on the internet, Donald wouldn't stop talking about it, saying, 'Paris is laughing all the way to the bank, she's got the last laugh, she's marvelous.' Ivanka could not believe her father was not only idolizing an airhead heiress caught blowing a guy on a night-vision video but encouraging her to follow Paris's lead.... [According to a friend] 'She really has no idea she's privileged. She genuinely thinks she's earned everything she has. She goes on and on all the time about how hard she works.'" --s

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "A government climate scientist who says the Trump administration buried a groundbreaking report he authored has left the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in protest over the 'political views' top officials allegedly imposed on his work. Politico reported Monday that Lewis Ziska, a plant physiologist who worked at USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) for more than 20 years, quit due to an increasingly political atmosphere at the agency.... USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue has similarly dismissed global warming as 'weather patterns.'... Ziska told Politico that the reason the study was buried is down to political ideology and the administration's unwillingness to embrace established climate science." --s

Reuters: "North Korea has fired two unidentified projectiles into the sea from South Hwanghae province, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.... The [North Korean] foreign ministry said the [U.S./South Korean] military drills were violations of diplomatic agreements and added that North Korea had remained unchanged in its commitment to resolve the issues through dialogue, but 'will be compelled to seek a new road as we have already indicated,' if South Korea and the United States continue with hostile military moves." --s

Vanessa Gera of the AP: "Claims that Russia orchestrated a political scandal that helped bring Poland's right-wing government to power are getting revisited as the country prepares for another election. Five years ago, unflattering recordings of Polish politicians secretly made at two Warsaw restaurants were leaked to newspapers. The resulting 'Waitergate' scandal helped topple a pro-EU government in 2015. An investigative Polish journalist and a formerly fugitive multimillionaire have recently provided fresh fuel for the idea that Waitergate was a prelude to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Reporter Grzegorz Rzeczkowski argues in a new book that Russian intelligence services bugged the restaurants on behalf of the Kremlin." --s

~~~~~~~~~~

We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred and normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don't look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people. -- Barack Obama, in a statement, Monday (full statement at the link) ...

... Michael Crowley, et al., of the New York Times: In a speech this morning, President* Trump said, "'In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy''... But Mr. Trump stopped well short of supporting the kind of broad gun control measures that activists and Democrats have sought for years, instead calling for stronger action to address mental illness, violence in the media and in video games, as well as 'the perils of the internet and social media.'... Mr. Trump took no questions, and did not repeat his call on Twitter earlier in the morning for Republicans and Democrats to work together to strengthen background checks for prospective gun buyers, but his proposal to link new gun control measures with immigration restrictions is likely to leave Democrats sternly opposed." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Several commentators noted that Trump never once in his speech referred to Hispanics or Latinos. ...

... What the Over-the-Hill Gang Is Saying about the Massacres in El Paso & Dayton:

(1) May God bless the memory of those who died in Toledo. -- Donald Trump, 73, in the only ad-lib in his teleprompter speech yesterday: ...

(2) Emily Larsen of the Washington Examiner: "... speaking to donors at a high-dollar fundraiser in San Diego on Sunday night, [Joe] Biden, 76, mistakenly referred to the shootings as 'the tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan the day before,' but later corrected himself, according to a pool report."

... Jack Mirkinson of Splinter: "On Monday morning..., Donald Trump gave a speech at the White House about the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton which was so at odds with everything he has said and done throughout his political career that it might as well have been coming from an alternate universe. Using the halting somber tones he incongruously adopts when reading off a Teleprompter after mass tragedies, Trump ... plodded through all the phrases presidents are expected to deploy at times like these.... 'America weeps for the fallen,' Trump said in a monotone. For someone who had, just hours earlier, ranted about the 'fake news' media helping cause these atrocities, it felt more than a little hollow.... 'In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,' said the man who laughed when a person at one of his rallies suggested shooting immigrants. 'Hate has no place in America,' said the man who happily oversaw chants of 'Send her back!' about a black woman he doesn't like." ...

... "Trump Made It Easier for the Mentally Ill to Get Guns." Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "... Donald Trump responded to the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings by insisting Monday that 'mental illness pulls the trigger not the gun,' but shortly after taking office he quietly rolled back an Obama-era regulation that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns.... It came after the House and Senate, both of which were Republican-controlled at the time, passed a bill, H.J. Res 40, which revoked the Obama-era regulation.... The Obama rule that Trump nullified had added people receiving Social Security checks for mental illnesses and people deemed unfit to handle their financial affairs to the national background check database." ...

White supremacy is not a mental illness. We need to call it what it is: Domestic terrorism. And we need to call out Donald Trump for amplifying these deadly ideologies. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Monday

... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "In his re-election campaign, Mr. Trump has spent an estimated $1.25 million on Facebook ads about immigration since late March, according to data from Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic communications firm that is tracking the digital advertising of presidential candidates. Those ads represent a significant portion of the roughly $5.6 million that Mr. Trump has spent on Facebook advertising during that period. Most of the [2,000+] 'invasion' ads began running between January and March, though a few dozen began running in May. Many of the ads began with a blunt message -- 'We have an INVASION!' -- and went on to say, 'It's CRITICAL that we STOP THE INVASION.'... Mr. Trump, through his speeches, tweets and campaign ads, has elevated the idea of an 'invasion,' once a fringe view often espoused by white nationalists, into the public discourse." ...

     ... This is a pirated video, so it will probably come down soon. Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.

... Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Surrendering to political necessity, Trump gave a brief speech on Monday decrying white supremacist terror: 'In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.' He read these words robotically from a teleprompter, much as he did after the racist riot in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.... Back then, it took about a day for the awkward mask of minimal decency to drop; soon, he was ranting about the 'very fine people' among the neo-Nazis.... If history is any guide, it won't be long before the president returns to tweeting racist invective and encouraging jingoist hatreds at his rallies. In the meantime, everyone should be clear that what Trump said on Monday wasn't nearly enough." ...

Bananas! Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "After two mass shootings over the weekend that killed 31 people and wounded dozens more, powerful Republicans, including the president, blamed an old boogeyman: video games.... Researchers have extensively studied whether there is a causal link between video games and violent behavior, and while there isn't quite a consensus, there is broad agreement that no such link exists.... 'The data on bananas causing suicide is about as conclusive,' said Dr. [Chris] Ferguson [who led a group that developed an American Psychological Association statement on the effects of video games on violent behavior]. 'Literally. The numbers work out about the same.' The Supreme Court has also rejected the idea. In striking down a California law that banned the sale of some violent video games to children in 2011, the court savaged the evidence California mustered in support of its law."

The Lonely Republican Truth-teller. Chris Rodrigo of the Hill: "A Republican state senator from Nebraska on Sunday accused the GOP of helping to enable white supremacy. 'The Republican Party is enabling white supremacy in our country,' state Sen. Kevin McCollister (R) tweeted. 'As a lifelong Republican, it pains me to say this, but it's the truth,' McCollister continued. 'I of course am not suggesting that all Republicans are white supremacists nor am I saying that the average Republican is even racist. What I am saying though is that the Republican Party is COMPLICIT to obvious racist and immoral activity inside our party.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Bill Hutchinson, et al., of ABC News: "The suspect in the killing rampage at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, allegedly cased the store, looking for Mexicans to kill before he came back and unleashed a barrage of gunfire that left 22 people dead and more than two dozens injured, law enforcement officials told ABC News. The latest twist in the investigation of the mass shooting came just hours after doctors in El Paso confirmed that two more victims had died from bullet wounds suffered in the Saturday morning massacre -- increasing the death toll to 22. The suspect ... told investigators following his arrest that he allegedly set out to kill as many Mexicans as he could, according to authorities. On Monday, law enforcement officials told ABC News that [Patrick] Crusius case the Walmart, going inside on Saturday without any weapons, apparently to size up the clientele inside the store, which is about 5 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.... Crusius [then] exited the store and allegedly armed himself."

Ali Soufan in a New York Times op-ed: "I see disturbing parallels between the rise of Al Qaeda in the 1990s and that of racist terrorism today. White supremacists, like their Islamist counterparts, explicitly seek to use violence to create a climate of fear and chaos that can then be exploited to reshape society in their own image. Their recruitment videos share an emphasis on the lifestyle they purport to offer recruits -- one of 'purity,' militancy and physical fitness.... One group for neo-Nazis, founded by a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has taken the analogy to its logical conclusion, calling itself 'The Base' -- a direct translation of the meaning of the word Al Qaeda. The organization also uses similar black flag imagery. The Base maintains an online library of terrorist manuals; the Al Qaeda publication Inspire taught the Boston bombers how to build pressure-cooker explosives.... Many of our allies have already changed their own laws to allow more robust investigations of domestic terrorists."

Annals of White Nationalist "Journalism." Courtney Hagle of Media Matters: "The shooter who killed 20 people and injured dozens in El Paso, TX, over the weekend first posted online a document outlining the white nationalist 'great replacement' theory to which he subscribed. Fox News has long mainstreamed this theory's rhetoric.... Fox hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, who both have a history of pushing white nationalism and bigotry on cable airwaves, blatantly push the theory that white Americans are being replaced through immigration to the benefit of Democrats. Variations of the white supremacist 'great replacement' theory have also appeared on other Fox programs.... On her Fox show, Laura Ingraham fearmongered that Democrats 'want to replace you, the American voters, with newly amnestied citizens and an ever increasing number of chain migrants.'... On his Fox show, Tucker Carlson fearmongered about immigrants replacing an aging American population. He asserted that he isn't 'against the immigrants' but rather 'for the Americans' because 'nobody cares about them. It's like, shut up, you're dying, we're gonna replace you.'" Hagle cites many similar remarks by Fox hosts & guests.

Daniel Newhauser of Vice News: "Before he killed nine people in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, early Sunday, Connor Betts was deeply involved in the misogynistic, male-dominated 'goregrind' or 'pornogrind' extreme metal music scene. It has a regional following in the Midwest and is known for sexually violent, death-obsessed lyrics and dehumanizing imagery depicting women. Over the past year, the 24-year-old shooter occasionally performed live vocals in the band Menstrual Munchies, which released albums titled '6 Ways of Female Butchery' and 'Preeteen Daughter Pu$$y Slaughter,' with cover art showing the rape and massacre of female bodies. He also performed with a group called Putrid Liquid.... One of Betts' bandmates, Jesse Creekbaum, 25, is taking the recordings down. He says he's removing them out of fear the vulgar music he produced will make a cult hero out of the murderer...."...

... Michael Biesecker & Julie Smyth of the AP: "High school classmates of the gunman who killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio, say he was suspended years ago for compiling a 'hit list' and a 'rape list,' and questioned how he could have been allowed to buy the military-style weapon used in this weekend's attack. The accounts emerged after police said there was nothing in the background of 24-year-old Connor Betts that would have prevented him from purchasing an AR 15-style rifle with an extended ammunition magazine.... A former cheerleader, the woman said she didn't really know Betts and was surprised when a police officer called her cellphone during her freshman year to tell her that her name was included on a list o potential targets.... The male classmate, who was on the track team with Betts, said Betts routinely threatened violence toward other students. 'Most people avoided him,' the man said. 'He would say shocking things just to get a reaction. He enjoyed making people feel scared.'" ...

     ... Campbell Robertson & others of the New York Times report more about the Dayton shooter's background & what happened Saturday night. ...

... And That Brings Us to Mitch McConnell. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Monday, a picture appeared on Instagram, apparently taken by a group of young men supporting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at the Fancy Farm, Kentucky political picnic. [The young men are wearing T-shirts that say 'Team Mitch.'] The picture showed them gathered around a cardboard cutout of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), with one of them gripping the cutout's throat to look as if he was strangling her[.]... Other supporters of McConnell set up a display of tombstones depicting both former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland and Democratic Senate challenger Amy McGrath." Mrs. McC: Ah, boys will be boys and all. Oh, wait. ...

... Matthew Choi of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign tweeted out a photo of satirical tombstones over the weekend..., hours after the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.... The tombstones named Amy McGrath, his main Democratic opponent in the 2020 Senate race for Kentucky, as well as Judge Merrick Garland, whose nomination to the Supreme Court he blocked during the last year of Barack Obama's presidency.... The tweet was shared as details of the El Paso shooting were still developing.... 'Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging,'" McGrath wrote in a tweet featuring the photo of gravestones McConnell tweeted. McConnell's campaign manager Kevin Goldman chastized McGrath for "politiciz[ing] a tragedy." Right. ...

... Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that Republicans are prepared 'to work in a bipartisan, bicameral way to address the recent mass murders which have shaken our nation,' but his statement made no mention of any timeline to do so - and it didn't mention the word 'guns.' Democrats have called on McConnell to call the Senate back in session to take up legislation to tighten background checks.... McConnell issued a statement later in the day that said 'Senate Republicans are prepared to do our part,' but also indicated they were in no rush." AND ...

... Here's Why. Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "The National Rifle Association spent $1.6 million during the first half of the year lobbying members of the House and Senate against laws that would enact stricter background checks for people looking to buy guns, according to disclosure reports. One of the dozens of bills targeted by the NRA is H.R. 8, a bipartisan proposal that passed the Democratic-controlled House in February and has yet to be taken up by the Republican-controlled Senate. The second-quarter filing shows that NRA lobbyists continued their efforts against the bill after its passage in the House. The lobbyists also looked to make changes to the Background Check Expansion Act from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.... The NRA's PAC, the National Rifle Association of America Victory Fund, gave the reelection committee of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky $4,950 in June, according to Federal Election Commission documents." ...

... #MassacreMitch. Ewan Palmer of Newsweek: "... Mitch McConnell is receiving criticism in the wake of two mass shootings within less than 24 hours over his apparent failure to help impose stricter gun control laws. More than 120,000 tweets have been sent using the #MassacreMitch hashtag after at least 20 people were killed at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and a further nine people killed in a shooting around 13 hours later in Dayton, Ohio. Many Twitter users expressed their anger towards McConnell for blocking a Senate vote on a bill passed by the House of Representatives in February which would require full background checks to be run against every person who wishes to purchase a gun. Others also accused McConnell of costing people's lives by pandering to the NRA due to the donations he and the Republican party receive from the lobbying group."

Victoria Bekiempis of the Guardian: "Cesar Sayoc, who in March admitted to mailing more than one dozen bombs to prominent critics of Donald Trump before the 2018 midterm elections, was sentenced in New York to 20 years in prison on Monday. A fanatical Trump supporter, Sayoc ... sent 16 crude explosives to 13 intended victims across the US, prosecutors said. None of the bombs, which prosecutors called 'improvised explosive devices', exploded.... As his life declined, [Sayoc's lawyers] argued, the penniless Sayoc turned to spiritual candles and self-help books -- including Trump's writing. 'The books by Donald Trump really resonated with him,' said defense lawyer Ian Marcus Amelkin. 'Then he kind of became obsessed with Donald Trump. Sayoc spent money on 'Trump-branded' suits and ties. 'He looked up to the president, as a father figure,' Amelkin said. 'He watched Fox News ... he was expressing a lot of hateful ideas and conspiracy theories.'"

Trade Wars Are Easy to Win. Fred Imbert of CNBC: "Stock futures tumbled on Monday night, adding to Wall Street's losses from its worst day of 2019 amid intensifying trade-war fears. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures traded 508 points lower, implying a loss of 630.74 points at Tuesday's open. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also indicated sharp losses. If these losses remain, the Dow's two-day decline would amount to more than 1,300 points." ...

... Markets Plunge. Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: "The trade war between the United States and China entered a more dangerous phase on Monday, as Beijing allowed its currency to weaken, Chinese enterprises stopped making new purchases of American farm goods and President Trump's Treasury Department formally labeled China a currency manipulator. The escalation shook world markets as nervous investors looked for safe places to park their money. Wall Street suffered its worst day of the year, with the S&P 500 closing down nearly 3 percent. Selling was especially heavy in the trade-sensitive technology, consumer discretionary and industrial sectors. Yields on United States Treasuries, which fall as prices rise, dropped as investors sought safety in government-backed bonds. Benchmark indexes in Asia and Europe also fell." ...

... Dan Primack & Felix Salmon of Axios: "U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday night declared China to be a currency manipulator, just hours after the Chinese government allowed the yuan to slip below a 7-to-1 dollar ratio for the first time in over a decade.... This is a further ratcheting up of trade tensions between the two countries, and also marks the first time any U.S. president has used the currency manipulator label since 1994." ...

Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg News: "While the U.S. Treasury Department's determination is largely symbolic, as the potential punishments are a shadow of the steps Trump has already taken against China, it underscores the rapidly deteriorating relationship between the world's two largest economies. The move immediately roiled markets, with S&P 500 Index futures sliding more than 1% Tuesday in Asia. The yuan slid further in offshore trading."

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "A federal judge signaled Monday he's considering removing the Mueller report's redactions. During more than two hours of oral arguments in Washington, District Judge Reggie Walton appeared on several occasions to side with attorneys for BuzzFeed and the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center, which are seeking to remove the black bars covering nearly 1,000 items in former special counsel Robert Mueller's final 448-page final report.... The judge, an appointee of President George W. Bush, sounded increasingly skeptical of the government's arguments pressing him to leave the redactions untouched." ...

Sometimes the body does what the head wants. -- Judge Reggie Walton, questioning the necessity of all the redactions in the Mueller report ...

... Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Judge Walton ... suggest[ed] that the DOJ officials tasked with making the FOIA exemptions could have been following directions from higher-ups.... Walton in particular raised concerns about Attorney General William Barr's initial handling of Mueller's report, indicating that he believed there were discrepancies in how Barr characterized the report and the former special counsel's actual findings. 'I do have some concerns because it seems to me difficult to reconcile the contents of the Mueller report and statements made by the attorney general' about the report, Walton said. The judge pointed to a letter authored by Barr weeks ahead of the report's release that said Mueller determined there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election and Barr's suggestion that the president was cleared by the report. Mueller has since stated that his office did not investigate collusion but instead whether any Trump campaign officials conspired with Russians in 2016. And the former special counsel has repeatedly stated that his report does not exonerate President Trump.... [Walton] noted the high level of public interest in the case -- and the inevitable prospect that whatever ruling he issues will be appealed -- in saying h will work to make a decision soon."

Congressional Race 2020. Laura Barron-Lopez of Politico: "Rep. Kenny Marchant announced Monday he will not seek reelection next year, adding another member to the rapidly growing House GOP retirement list and opening a newly competitive Dallas-area seat.... Marchant's seat is a top target for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which plans to invest in flipping a slate of Texas seats occupied by Republicans that have rapidly shifted to the left in recent years. Marchant won reelection last year by only 3 percentage points against a Democratic candidate who spent only $96,000 for the entire cycle.... Marchant, first elected in 2004, is the fourth Texas Republican to decide against running again in 2020 and the 11th House Republican to announce retirement."

News Lede

New York Times: "Toni Morrison, the 1993 Nobel laureate in literature, whose work explored black identity in America and in particular the experience of black women, died on Monday at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, said in a statement. She was 88."

The Commentariat -- August 5, 2019

Photo found on the Facebook page of the El Paso mass shooter.

Late Morning Update:

Michael Crowley, et al., of the New York Times: In a speech this morning, President* Trump said, "'In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy''... But Mr. Trump stopped well short of supporting the kind of broad gun control measures that activists and Democrats have sought for years, instead calling for stronger action to address mental illness, violence in the media and in video games, as well as 'the perils of the internet and social media.'... Mr. Trump took no questions, and did not repeat his call on Twitter earlier in the morning for Republicans and Democrats to work together to strengthen background checks for prospective gun buyers, but his proposal to link new gun control measures with immigration restrictions is likely to leave Democrats sternly opposed." ...

     ... At the end of the speech, Trump asks God to bless "those who passed in Toledo," whoever they may be.

The Lonely Republican Truth-teller. Chris Rodrigo of the Hill: "A Republican state senator from Nebraska on Sunday accused the GOP of helping to enable white supremacy. 'The Republican Party is enabling white supremacy in our country,' state Sen. Kevin McCollister (R) tweeted. 'As a lifelong Republican, it pains me to say this, but it's the truth,' McCollister continued. 'I of course am not suggesting that all Republicans are white supremacists nor am I saying that the average Republican is even racist. What I am saying though is that the Republican Party is COMPLICIT to obvious racist and immoral activity inside our party.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Devan Cole of CNN: "... Donald Trump on Monday suggested tying immigration reform to strengthening background checks following a weekend in which the alleged shooter in El Paso, Texas, is believed to have authored a racist, anti-immigrant document targeting Hispanics. Trump, who is scheduled to address the nation at 10 a.m. ET following two mass shootings that left at least 29 people dead, has previously expressed an openness to tougher action on gun control only to back away under pressure from Second Amendment activists and the gun lobby. He did not indicate in his tweets on Monday morning if he supported a sweeping gun control bill that passed the House with bipartisan support in February that requires universal background checks but has not been considered by the Senate. 'Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform,' Trump wrote in a pair of tweets...." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. Mrs. McC: Consistent with Ken's comment below, my guess is that Trump wants to attach any gun-control measures to an immigration bill that McConnell won't bring up & Trump wouldn't sign if the bill did come to his desk.

Christina Zhao of Newsweek: "... Donald Trump has run roughly 2,200 Facebook advertisements using the word 'invasion' since May 2018[.]" --s ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "There's abundant evidence the [El Paso] shooter is a big fan of President Trump and certainly of his worldview. And yet [his] manifesto includes a sort of preemptive rebuttal of any claims that he is a Trump supporter or that Trump influenced [him]. He predicts that 'the media' will identify him as a white supremacist and blame President Trump's racist and xenophobic rhetoric for radicalizing him and provoking the attack. Such claims would be 'fake news' and such claims will indeed only prove that 'the media' is 'fake news.'... For someone who specifically denies Trump radicalized him, he's very focused protecting the President. He doth protest rather too much. The gaslighting is actually baked into the attack itself. He wants to be both the assailant and part of the post massacre spin and pro-Trump defense." --s ...

... ** Even the Gray Lady Goes There. Peter Baker & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "At campaign rallies before last year's midterm elections, President Trump repeatedly warned that America was under attack by immigrants heading for the border. 'You look at what i marching up, that is an invasion!' he declared at one rally. 'That is an invasion!' Nine months later, a 21-year-old white man is accused of opening fire in a Walmart in El Paso, killing 20 people and injuring dozens more after writing a manifesto railing against immigration and announcing that 'this attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.'... If Mr. Trump did not originally inspire the gunman, he has brought into the mainstream polarizing ideas and people once consigned to the fringes of American society. While other leaders have expressed concern about border security and the costs of illegal immigration, Mr. Trump has filled his public speeches and Twitter feed with sometimes false, fear-stoking language even as he welcomed to the White House a corps of hard-liners, demonizers and conspiracy theorists shunned by past presidents of both parties.... In televised remarks on Sunday afternoon..., Mr. Trump [said]..., 'Hate has no place in our country, and we're going to take care of it.'... He made no mention of white supremacy or the El Paso manifesto, but instead focused on what he called 'a mental illness problem.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Baker & Shear are two of the leading practitioners of both-siderism. They do allow a couple of Trump toadies -- Mick Mulvaney & Kris Kobach -- brief defenses of Trump's hateful rhetoric, but by and large, this report is a recitation & condemnation of Trump's encouragement of white supremacy. Remarkable. ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post covers the same territory: "Since the moment Trump rode down his gold-plated escalator four years ago to start his renegade run for the White House, us-against-them language about immigrants has been a consistent and defining feature of his campaign and now of his presidency. Absent from his repertoire has been a forceful repudiation of the white nationalism taking rise on his watch.... Trump throughout his presidency has stoked fear and hatred of the other, whether Latino immigrants or black people living in cities or Muslims.... [The author of the screed attributed to the El Paso shooter] is so aligned with the president's that he decided to conclude the manifesto by clarifying that his views predate Trump's 2016 campaign and arguing that blaming him would amount to 'fake news,' another Trump phrase.... Although a press pool traveled with Trump to New Jersey, the president opted not to address the nation Saturday. He did, however, find time to stop by a wedding reception being held at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster...." ...

... Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "As the nation reeled from two mass shootings in less than a day, ... Donald Trump spent the first hours after the tragedies out of sight at his New Jersey golf course, sending out tweets of support awkwardly mixed in with those promoting a celebrity fight and attacking his political foes.... Not until Trump and the first lady prepared to fly back to Washington in the late afternoon Sunday did he appear before cameras.... While connecting 'hate' and mental illness to the shootings, Trump made no direct mention of gun laws, a factor brought up by Democratic officials and those seeking their party's [presidential] nomination.... 'We have done much more than most administrations,' he said, without elaboration. 'We have done actually a lot. But perhaps more has to be done.'"

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: Beto O'Rourke, "Cory Booker and Julián Castro, placed blame on Trump for his rhetoric [that encouraged the El Paso shooter]. Mrs. McC: I heard Rep. Tim O'Ryan & Sen. Kamala Harris on MSNBC do the same. I'm surprised & heartened that at least some Democrats are speaking truth to the racist-in-chief. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump: A Racist AND a Deadbeat. Kolten Parker of KSAT (San Antonio): "... El Paso officials have been critical of the president in recent months for his refusal to pay a $470,000 debt owed to the city for transportation and security services during his February campaign rally. For six months, the city has sent Trump's campaign invoices for services provided by city departments -- including police, buses, the health department and others -- but has not gotten a response, according to local media.... A local TV station reported two weeks before the shooting that Trump still hadn't paid the debt." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Federal authorities are treating the shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart that killed 20 people and wounded 26 more as a case of domestic terrorism and will pursue federal hate crime and firearm charges in connection with the massacre, officials said at a press conference Sunday. Patrick Wood Crusius, 21, was booked into El Paso County Jail early Sunday on capital murder charge, the El Paso Times reported. At the same Sunday morning press conference El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza said his office would seek the death penalty." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wajahat Ali of The Atlantic: "Will America finally confront the violent death rattle of white supremacy? Or will it fail to inflict the coup de grâce, allowing the ideology of hate to revive itself into a global movement, with radicalized young men engaged in what they believe is a zero-sum war for survival? Last year, those opening lines might have been dismissed as alarmist rhetoric and hyperbole. We no longer have that luxury.... Hate that was once hidden has now been given permission to come out of the closet and drop its white robes and masks. This has real-life consequences for communities of color, Jews, and immigrants." --s

... Kevin Roose of the New York Times: "In recent months, 8chan has become a go-to resource for violent extremists.... [Fredrick] Brennan started the online message board as a free speech utopia. But now, 8chan is known as something else: a megaphone for mass shooters, and a recruiting platform for violent white nationalists.... Mr. Brennan, who stopped working with the site's current owner last year, called for it to be taken offline before it leads to further violence.... 8chan has been run out of the Philippines by Jim Watkins, a United States Army veteran, since 2015, when Mr. Brennan gave up control of the site.... Mr. Watkins, who runs 8chan along with his son, Ronald, has remained defiant in the face of criticism, and has resisted calls to moderate or shut down the site.... The site remained on the fringes until 2014, when some supporters of GamerGate -- a loose reactionary collection of anti-feminist video gamers -- flocked to 8chan after being kicked off 4chan. Since GamerGate, 8chan has become a catchall website for internet-based communities whose behavior gets them evicted from more mainstream sites. It hosts one of the largest gatherings of supporters of QAnon, who claim that there is an international bureaucracy plotting against the Trump administration. And it has been an online home for 'incels,' men who lament being 'involuntarily celibate,' and other fringe movements." ...

... Matthew Prince of Cloudflare: "8chan is among the more than 19 million Internet properties that use Cloudflare's service. We just sent notice that we are terminating 8chan as a customer effective at midnight tonight Pacific Time. The rationale is simple: they have proven themselves to be lawless and that lawlessness has caused multiple tragic deaths. Even if 8chan may not have violated the letter of the law in refusing to moderate their hate-filled community, they have created an environment that revels in violating its spirit." ...

... Kevin Roose of the NYT writes in the report linked above, "Another company, Tucows, which controls 8chan's domain name registration, had no plans as of Sunday evening to disable the site's web address."

Jessica McBride of Heavy: "Connor Betts, the Dayton, Ohio mass shooter, was a self-described 'leftist,' who wrote that he would happily vote for Democrat Elizabeth Warren, praised Satan, was upset about the 2016 presidential election results, and added, 'I want socialism, and i'll not wait for the idiots to finally come round to understanding.'... On Nov. 2, 2018, he wrote: 'Vote blue for gods sake.'... On Feb. 14, 2018, he tweeted this at Sen. Rob Portman: '@robportman hey rob. How much did they pay you to look the other way? 17 kids are dead. If not now, when?' That was the date of the mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida.... He also wrote that he enjoyed anime, railed against ICE and the industrial revolution, and made references to Satan.... He shared posts of people outed for possibly being at a KKK rally in Dayton and wrote, 'Know your enemies.'... He railed against the police, QAnon conspiracy theories, and white supremacists." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: It would seem Betts has had violent fantasies for a long time: "Dayton 24/7 Now spoke with other classmates of Betts' who said he was expelled from school after officials found a notebook where he reportedly wrote a list of people who he wanted to rape, kill and skin their bodies. The classmate we spoke with said Betts was supposed to write a letter of apology to the people on the list. After being expelled, Betts was allowed back to school, according to the classmate. The classmate added Betts was not a loner, but had friends." Betts is reportedly 24 years old. I can't be certain because the reporting is crummy, but the context suggests the source was a high-school classmate of Betts'. Also, since one of the people he assassinated was his own sister, it's pretty hard to guess what his motives were, but it doesn't really seem, based on what we know at this point, they were political.

New York Post Editors urge passage of a federal assault-weapons ban & devote their screaming front page to it: "This ban would only be part of the response: Keep improving background checks, find wiser approaches to mental health, get every state to pass a red-flag law* (do a federal one, too, even if issuing these restraining orders is mainly the job of state courts). And by all means, do as Sen. Elizabeth Warren suggested in last week's Democratic debate and 'double down on the research and find out what really works.'" Yes, the New York Post, a Rupert Murdoch production.

     * "A red flag law is a gun violence prevention law that permits police or family members to petition a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who may present a danger to others or themselves." ...

... Guardian: "Philadelphia Union [pro soccer/football team] captain Alejandro Bedoya brought attention to this weekend's mass shootings in Ohio and Texas when he called out Congress after scoring for his team in Washington DC.... After Bedoya scored he ran over to a TV microphone and shouted: 'Hey Congress, do something now. End gun violence. Let's go!' The comment could be heard on Fox Sports' coverage of the game.... [Bedoya] is from Weston, Florida, close to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School...." --s ...

... David Frum of the Atlantic: A "menu of atrocities offers a wide range of political points to score, if that is your wish. You will find here immigrants and natives; whites and nonwhites; Muslims and Christians; right-wingers, left-wingers, and the nonpolitical. There is even a woman, Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, targeted a Christmas party sponsored by the local Department of Public Health, where the husband worked. Despite their diversity, all these killers had one thing in common: their uniquely American access to firearms. In turn, these killers unite the country in a uniquely American determination to ignore the obvious.... America's uniquely bloodstained record of violence is a consequence of America's uniquely reckless attitudes toward weapons of mass death." ...

... Yeah But. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "[I]f President Donald Trump's most recent appointment to the Supreme Court gets his way, both assault rifles and high-capacity magazines will soon enjoy special constitutional protection. It is likely, moreover, that Justice Brett Kavanaugh has the five votes he needs to make this happen.... Regarding assault rifles, the future Trump appointee [had] argued that these weapons should enjoy the same nearly unassailable level of constitutional protection the Supreme Court afforded to handguns in its 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller." --s

** David Li of NBC News: "Mexico on Sunday threatened to take legal action against the United States for failing to protect its citizens after this weekend's mass shooting in the border city of El Paso. Of the 20 people gunned down at a Walmart at the Cielo Vista Mall, at least seven were Mexican citizens, and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard promised Mexico City will act. Ina statement, the Foreign Ministry called the attack in El Paso a 'terrorist act against innocent Mexicans.'... Of the 26 injured in the attack, at least nine were Mexican nationals, according to the government." ...

... Elisabeth Malkin & Azam Ahmed of the New York Times: "Mexican authorities could seek to extradite the gunman on a terrorism charge and were planning legal action against the seller who provided the shooter with his weapon, said the foreign minister.Marcelo Ebrard.... Tensions [between the U.S. & Mexico] are often fueled by President Trump in divisive invectives that target Mexicans, Central Americans and others, and speak of migrant caravans as 'an invasion of our country.' 'Xenophobic and racist discourse breeds hate crimes,' Martha Bárcena, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, said over Twitter."

A Convenient Slip & Fall. Ashley Killough & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fractured his shoulder Sunday after falling in his Kentucky home, his office said in a statement. 'This morning, Leader McConnell tripped at home on his outside patio and suffered a fractured shoulder,' David Popp, McConnell's communications director, said in a statement. 'He has been treated, released, and is working from home in Louisville.'McConnell's injury comes as Democrats demand he reconvenes the Senate to pass gun control legislation after a pair of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio this weekend left 29 people dead." Mrs. McC: Of course Mitch could still call the Senate back from recess; he doesn't have to show up himself. Let his second-in-command Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) try to explain why Republicans favor doing nothing or relatively nothing in the wake of the murders of 20 Texans.

Malcolm Scott, et al. of Bloomberg: "China responded to Donald Trump's tariff threat with another escalation of the trade war on Monday, letting the yuan tumble to the weakest level in more than a decade and asking state-owned companies to suspend imports of U.S. agricultural products.... Trump last week proposed adding 10% tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese imports from Sept. 1.... Chinese bureaucrats were stunned by Trump's announcement, according to officials who've been involved in the negotiations." --s

Motoko Rich, et al., of the New York Times: "The long-simmering conflict [between Japan & South Korea] erupted into a full diplomatic crisis on Friday, when Japan threatened to slow down exports of materials essential to South Korean industries. By Saturday night, thousands of protesters marched in the streets of Seoul, accusing Japan of an 'economic invasion' and threatening an intelligence-sharing agreement that the United States considers crucial to monitoring North Korea's nuclear buildup. Washington has long relied on both countries to stand alongside it to help counter China's rise and the nuclear-armed North. But ... the Trump administration has been reluctant to get involved to repair the rift. President Trump said he might take some action if asked by both parties, but added that trying to referee the dispute would be 'like a full-time job.' And State Department officials had said they want the two countries to work it out on their own. Still, as tensions escalated in recent days, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attempted on Friday to orchestrate a reconciliation at an Asian security conference attended by regional foreign ministers.... The two ministers stayed far apart, however, with Taro Kono, Japan's foreign minister, grimacing, and South Korea's, Kang Kyung-wha, turning away, stone-faced.... 'Trump has made it worse,' [said Michael] Green..., [director of Bush II's Asian affairs division of the National Security Council]. 'He himself has done nothing to create a sense that there is a team of allies in Asia.'"

Way Beyond the Beltway

BBC News: "Iran has seized another foreign tanker in the Gulf, state media reports claim. Iranian forces seized the Iraqi ship for 'smuggling fuel for some Arab countries' and detained seven sailors, according to the reports. Iraq's oil ministry has said it has no connection to the seized vessel and that it is working to gather information about it.... If confirmed, the Iraqi tanker would be the third foreign vessel to have been seized by Iran in recent weeks."

News Ledes

A Walk in the Park, American-Style. NBC 5 Chicago: "Seven people were wounded in a shooting Sunday as they gathered in Douglas Park on the West Side [of Chicago]. At about 1:20 a.m. Sunday, a group was standing in the park in the 2900 block of West Roosevelt Road when someone opened fire from a black Camaro, Chicago police said."

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "A planned mass shooting at a Lubbock hotel was averted when a gunman's grandmother convinced him he needed to go to a hospital according to federal authorities. Authorities found an AK-47 in the suspect's hotel room, 17 magazines loaded with 7.62 ammunition, a black trench coat, multiple knives, black tactical pants, blac tactical gloves with the fingers cut off and a black T-shirt that said, 'Let 'Em Come.' William Patrick Williams, 19, of Lubbock, was arrested Thursday and charged on Friday with making false statements to a federally licensed firearms dealer."

The Commentariat -- August 4, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Federal authorities are treating the shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart that killed 20 people and wounded 26 more as a case of domestic terrorism and will pursue federal hate crime and firearm charges in connection with the massacre, officials said at a press conference Sunday. Patrick Wood Crusius, 21, was booked into El Paso County Jail early Sunday on capital murder charge, the El Paso Times reported. At the same Sunday morning press conference El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza said his office would seek the death penalty." ...

... Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: Beto O'Rourke, "Cory Booker and Julián Castro, placed blame on Trump for his rhetoric [that encouraged the El Paso shooter]. Mrs. McC: I heard Rep. Tim O'Ryan on MSNBC do the same. I'm surprised & heartened that at least some Democrats are speaking truth to the racist-in-chief.

Trump: A Racist AND a Deadbeat. Kolten Parker of KSAT (San Antonio): "... El Paso officials have been critical of the president in recent months for his refusal to pay a $470,000 debt owed to the city for transportation and security services during his February campaign rally. For six months, the city has sent Trump's campaign invoices for services provided by city departments -- including police, buses, the health department and others -- but has not gotten a response, according to local media.... A local TV station reported two weeks before the shooting that Trump still hadn't paid the debt."

~~~~~~~~~~

Ben Collins of NBC News: "Investigators are examining a screed believed to have been posted online by the suspect in Saturday's fatal shooting at a Texas shopping mall an hour before the attack, senior law enforcement officials say. Investigators are 'reasonably confident' that the suspect, identified by police as Patrick Wood Crusius, 21, of Texas, posted the diatribe on the extremist online forum 8chan before the shooting.... The screed posted to an anonymous extremist message board railed against immigrants in Texas and pushed talking points about preserving European identity in America.... The writing presented itself as a low-cost, low preparation model for deadly attacks and envisioned the actions as part of a larger ideological war.... The author claimed to have developed those beliefs before Trump's presidency.... Law enforcement was already analyzing the document before the mass shooting began and had connected it to a person, but the writing didn't name a target, time, place, or use the suspect's name." ...

... Simon Romero, et al., of the New York Times: The authorities identified the gunman as Patrick Crusius, from a Dallas suburb. He was taken into custody after he surrendered to the police outside the Walmart. The authorities said they were investigating a manifesto Mr. Crusius, who is white, may have posted before the shooting, which described an attack in response to 'the Hispanic invasion of Texas.' 'Right now, we have a manifesto from this individual,' El Paso's police chief, Greg Allen, told reporters, though he said later that law enforcement officers were still not clear whether the gunman had posted the document. The manifesto the chief appeared to be referring to was an anti-immigrant online screed titled 'The Inconvenient Truth.' The post declares support for the gunman who killed 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand; outlines fears about Hispanic people gaining power in the United States; and appears to discuss specific details about elements of the attack, including weapons.... 'Hispanics will take control of the local and state government of my beloved Texas, changing policy to better suit their needs,' the manifesto said. It added that politicians of both parties are to blame for the United States 'rotting from the inside out,' and that 'the heavy Hispanic population in Texas will make us a Democrat stronghold.'" ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Assuming investigators are right about the source of the screed, this mass murderer may or may not have harbored such ideas prior to 2015, but Trump certainly exacerbated the murderer's hate-filled belief system. Trump's fingerprints might not be on the rifle, but they're on Crusius' forehead. ...

... Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "'We've had a rise in hate crimes every single one of the last three years, during an administration where you have a president who's called Mexicans rapists and criminals,' said the former Texas congressman and El Paso native [Beto O'Rourke]. 'He is a racist, and he stokes racism in this country,' O'Rourke added. 'It does not just offend our sensibilities; it fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence.'" Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. ...

... David Atkins of the Washington Monthly: "While offering the usual thoughts, prayers and condemnations of the violence itself, Republicans have for the most part been remarkably quiet not only about the crisis of gun violence but also about the motives of the shooter.... Fox News tried to blame video games.... But of course, the only Republican politician who really matters is the one whose name spelled in firearms the killer's twitter account allegedly liked in a tweet: ... Donald Trump.... Trump's ... latest tweet (before issuing the usual pabulum 'thoughts and prayers') is as follows: 'Today's shooting in El Paso, Texas, was not only tragic, it was an act of cowardice. I know that I stand with everyone in this Country to condemn today's hateful act. There are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people.' These are not the words of a man disgusted with the terrorist's motives. These are the words of a man disappointed in his tactics. No one says 'there are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify' unless they sympathize with the frustrations of the individual.... Moreover, it's pretty obvious that these aren't Trump's authentic words at all. When Trump actually cares about something, he tweets about it authentically and spontaneously, usually with bizarre random capitalization, grammar errors and misspellings." ...

... Richard Parker of El Paso in a New York Times op-ed: "... the El Paso massacre ... was the inevitable byproduct of the Trump era's anti-immigrant, and anti-Latino invective, which with its pervasive, vile racism has poisoned our nation.... The Trump era ... has brought us walls, internment camps and children in cages. The massacre is the outcome I have feared for years now, and I can't help but feel that its genesis lies with the president of the United States." ...

... There Was This. "The Remark Drew a Chuckle from the President"* William Cummings of USA Today, May 9: "... Donald Trump was tickled Wednesday when an audience member at a Florida rally suggested shooting migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump was bemoaning the legal protections afforded migrants and espousing the need for a border wall when he asked rhetorically, 'How do you stop these people?' 'Shoot them!' someone shouted from the Panama City Beach crowd.... The remark drew a chuckle from the president, who shook his head, pointed in the audience member's direction and said, 'Only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement.' 'Only in the Panhandle,"' he repeated to laughs and cheers from the crowd." ...

... April Glaser of Slate: "The document [attributed to the El Paso shooter] had been uploaded to the notorious, unmoderated message board 8chan at 10:15 a.m. local time, and it included a request: 'Do your part and spread this brothers!'... Soon after it was first posted on 8chan, the manifesto could be found On 4chan, another message board with scant rules about what people can or cannot share. And not long after that, it was circulating as images on Twitter and Facebook and easily findable in a Google image search.... The involvement of 8chan is becoming a familiar detail in cases of white-supremacist violence. The El Paso shooting appears to be the second one since the Christchurch massacre to draw from that killer's playbook.... [The] shootings [in Christchurch, New Zealand, Poway, California, & El Paso] appeared to have been designed to go viral -- a horrific act would catch the world's attention, and a manifesto would deliver the hate-filled payload. An anonymous, meme-filled internet backwater, 8chan has long been a place for white supremacists to indoctrinate others -- mostly young white men -- into bigoted ideologies.... Whatever is too gruesome for 4chan finds a home on 8chan. That now includes enthusiasm for a white ethnostate.... Many people come to the politically incorrect boards of 4chan and 8chan from video-game communities, where players looking to laugh at an abasing joke or chat about violent games ... can find friends."

Cora Currier of The Intercept: "A principal goal of the Trump administration's policy at the U.S.-Mexico border -- and in Central America ... -- has been to get other governments to handle the increase in migrants seeking to enter the United States.... Another way to describe these efforts is what the U.S. security establishment has long referred to as 'pushing out the border.' It's not a project that's new to the Trump administration, and it's not one that's unique to the United States, as journalist Todd Miller expounds in his latest book, 'Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World.'" --s

This could be the headline of at least half the stories about Trump's tweets & chopper chatter: "Trump Defends His Recent Erratic Decision with Lies." Case in point: Tax Axelrod of the Hill reports on Trump's latest fantastical tweets defending his brilliant trade-war strategy against China. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "Fox News' Neil Cavuto wasted no time in fact-checking ... Donald Trump's latest claims about the tariffs his administration has imposed (and has promised to ramp up) on products imported into the U.S. from China. Trump on Friday told White House reporters that 'the tariffs are not being paid for by our people' but 'by China' because 'of devaluation and because they're pumping money in.' 'Remember this, our country is taking in billions and billions of dollars from China,' the president added. 'We never took in 10 cents from China. And out of that many billions of dollars, we're taking a part of it and giving it to the farmers because they've been targeted by China. The farmers, they come out totally whole,' [Trump claimed.] 'I don't know where to begin here,' responded Cavuto.... 'But just to be clarifying, China isn't paying these tariffs. You are. You know, indirectly and sometimes directly,' he explained.... '... this latest round of tariffs that kick in on September 1, on $300 billion worth of goods at 10%, that will most directly be felt by consumers directly,' he added. 'Because that happens on almost entirely consumer items rather than industrial-related items.... Our governments don't pay these things, you do, one way or another.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maureen Dowd: "White male privilege is out of fashion these days. Yet we are awash in nostalgia for it. Donald Trump has built a political ideology on nostalgia. And Quentin Tarantino has built a movie ideology on nostalgia. In The Los Angeles Times, Mary McNamara observed that the moral of Tarantino's new fairy tale, 'Once Upon A Time In -- Hollywood,' is, 'Who doesn't miss the good old days when cars had fins and white men were the heroes of everything?'... In The New Yorker, Richard Brody called the movie ... 'obscenely regressive,' a phrase that could easily be applied to the man in the Oval.... Both the Tarantino creation and the Trump creation feature scripted tough-guy dialogue, rough treatment of women and slurs against Mexicans. Trump's time machine is a vicious and vertiginous journey, all about punching down, pulpy fictions, making brown and black people scapegoats and casting women back into a crimped era of fewer reproductive rights. Trump has inverted all the old American ideals, soiling the image of our country in the world and reshaping it around his grievances and inadequacies. He is a faux tough guy who lets other people do the fighting for him, a needy brat who never accepts responsibility for his actions, an oaf with no trace of courage, class or chivalry." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: MoDo's attempts to find the nexus between cultural inflection points usually fall flat, but I think she got it right this time.

Another Embarrassing Trumpisode. In Which Trump Pretends He Has Black Friends. Linda Givetash of NBC News: "The U.S. government warned Sweden of 'negative consequences' as it advocated for rapper ASAP Rocky during his trial for assault charges in Stockholm this week, according to a pair of letters released by the Swedish Prosecution Authority. Rocky was released from jail on Friday pending the verdict, with ... Donald Trump celebrating the news on Twitter. 'It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!' Trump said. The rapper landed back on U.S. soil Saturday, leaving behind him the looming verdict in an episode that has led to unexpected tension between the U.S. and its European ally.... A final judgment in the case is expected to be reached Aug. 14."

Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "Interior Secretary David Bernhardt's ethics recusal will expire on Saturday. The ethics pledge banned Bernhardt from decisions involving his former firm's clients for two years. Bernhardt was also not able to meet with these companies, unless five or more other stakeholders were present and nothing relating specifically to the companies was discussed.... Prior to joining the Interior Department in 2017, Bernhardt worked as a lobbyist for the oil and gas industry.... He has so many potential conflicts of interest to avoid that he carries around a card listing all of them so he doesn't forget. A recent analysis by the Center for American Progress found that Bernhardt has more conflicts of interest than any other Trump Cabinet nominee." --s

Ole MacNunes Had a Farm, E-I-E-I-O. Julia Arciga of the Daily Beast: "Rep. Devin Nunes' (R-CA) campaign is suing a group of people who called him a 'fake farmer', claiming the defendants were coordinating with 'dark money' groups to hurt his campaign.... Prior to the lawsuit, the group claimed Nunes couldn't call himself a farmer since he no longer farms -- but a state judge ruled that the representative can continue to use the designation. The campaign also claimed the group was working with various political groups and The Fresno Bee's parent company, McClatchy, in a campaign against him.... The lawsuit, filed Thursday, comes after the representative sued a parody Twitter account claiming to be his cow, and McClatchy."

Presidential Race 2020

** Jonathan Chait: "Of all the institutions and norms of American government, none is more rickety than the voting process. The system's legitimacy hangs on the public's willingness to trust the accuracy of a system that is hardly a system at all.... Even more alarming than the implied weaknesses in the voting system is the political context in which they exist. President Trump has frequently either minimized or outright denied Russia's culpability in the 2016 email hacks (which Trump himself was exploiting at the time).... Republican indifference to the Russian threat gives an indication of how the party would respond in the event of a compromised election.... [Mitch McConnell] has already proved that he would prefer for his party to win with Russian help than to lose without it." ...

    ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You might think Chait is making a Chicken Little argument here, but he presents too much GOP history to dismiss his concerns. I would be horrified, but not completely surprised, if armed U.S. marshalls, by order of President Harris, had to storm the White House in late January 2021 & remove the fat bastard by force.

Matthew Choi of Politico: "Sen. Bernie Sanders defended his rival 2020 Democratic hopeful Elizabeth Warren on Friday after Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) went after Warren for advocating a no-first-strike nuclear policy.... Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, lambasted Warren the following morning for her remarks.... 'Which American cities and how many American citizens are you willing to sacrifice with your policy of forcing the US to absorb a nuclear attack before we can strike back?' Cheney wrote Wednesday on Twitter. Friday afternoon, Sanders shot back at Cheney, sparking a heated back and forth. 'Taking national security advice from a Cheney has already caused irreparable damage to our country,' Sanders tweeted. 'We don't need any more, thanks.' Cheney responded by calling Sanders a 'commie' who "is ok with U.S. getting attacked first.'... Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also chimed in on Friday, tweeting a gif of her exasperated face and the message: [']My face when "*Liz Cheney* of all people tries to offer foreign policy takes, as if an entire generation hasn't lived through the Cheneys sending us into war since we were kids.'"

Marina Pitofsky of the Onion Hill: "Michael Avenatti is reportedly considering a White House bid after declaring that he would not join the slate of Democratic candidates running for president in 2020.... Earlier this year, Avenatti was arrested in New York for an alleged $20 million extortion scheme against Nike. In April, federal prosecutors in California indicted the lawyer on three dozen criminal counts, including allegedly stealing money from clients and lying about his income to regulators. Avenatti has pleaded not guilty to all charges." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nancy Cook of the Onion Politico: "The Trump 2020 campaign has been quietly reaching out to prominent African Americans about joining its latest coalition, intended to boost Republican support in the black community. The effort comes just as the president capped off a month filled with racially divisive language and Twitter taunts aimed at House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings and four freshman congresswomen of color." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: We have never had an American president whose last name was difficult for English-readers to spell. The toughest might be Roosevelt (Dutch) & Eisenhower (anglicized German).

Presidential Races 2016 & 2020. Danielle McLean of ThinkProgress: "Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) claimed during Wednesday night's presidential debate that President Donald Trump won Michigan in 2016 because Republicans and Russians worked to suppress the votes of African Americans. Election experts say he's onto something.... Trump won the state by 10,704 votes." --s

Steven Greenhouse in a New York Times op-ed: "... the United States suffers from what I call 'anti-worker exceptionalism.' Academics debate why American workers are in many ways worse off than their counterparts elsewhere, but there is overriding agreement on one reason: Labor unions are weaker in the United States than in other industrial nations.... In no other industrial nation do corporations fight so hard to keep out unions.... Numerous studies have found that an important cause of America's soaring income inequality is the decline of labor unions -- and the concomitant decline in workers' ability to extract more of the profit and prosperity from the corporations they work for.... The consequences are enormous, not only for wages and income inequality, but also for our politics and policymaking and for the many Americans who are mistreated at work.... The diminished power of unions and workers has skewed American politics, helping give billionaires and corporations inordinate sway over America's politics and policymaking." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Greenhouse doesn't mention the confederate Supremes, who exult in quashing union rights, making them the five old boys who have done the most to maintain income inequality.

Taylor Hatmaker of The Daily Beast: "As many tech giants grow skittish about cashing in on the surveillance boom, one company [Anduril Industries] helmed by an industry iconoclast [Palmer Luckey] seems custom-built for Big Brother. The 26-year-old is best known as the designer of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset that shepherded the futuristic technology into the mainstream. In 2014, Luckey sold his 100-person virtual reality company to Facebook for $3 billion ... after The Daily Beast revealed that he was bankrolling an unofficial pro-Trump group dedicated to 'shitposting' and circulating anti-Clinton memes.... And far from shying away from politics post-Facebook, Luckey leaned into the #MAGA-friendly ideology -- donating big money to pro-Trump outfits, and meeting with Trump cabinet officials, all while his company quietly picks up military contracts and expands its work with border patrol." --s

Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "It was common knowledge that the founding nuns [of the Georgetown Visitation Convent school for girls in Washington, D.C.,] owned slaves, but school lore has held that the sisters allowed enslaved children to attend Saturday school and defied the law by teaching them how to read. The 65-page report, which the school has made available online, details the businesslike efficiency with which the nuns sold scores of enslaved people to pay off debts and fund new buildings. Georgetown Visitation sisters owned at least 107 enslaved people,including men, women and children, from a year after its founding until 1862, when the federal government made slavery illegal in the District, the report found.... News of the research and its findings was published Friday by New York University professor Rachel Swarns in an opinion piece for the New York Times. The Catholic Standard ran a story about the report in November." (Also linked yesterday.)

Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "Coal, oil and gas get more than $370bn (£305bn) a year in support, compared with $100bn for renewables, [an] International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) report found. Just 10-30% of the fossil fuel subsidies [switched to renewables] would pay for a global transition to clean energy, the IISD said.... 'Almost everywhere, renewables are so close to being competitive that [a 10-30% subsidy swap] tips the balance, and turns them from a technology that is slowly growing to one that is instantly the most viable and can replace really large amounts of generation,' said Richard Bridle of the IISD. 'It goes from being marginal to an absolute no-brainer.'" --s

You Too May Be an Unregistered Lobbyist. Vivan Wang of the New York Times: "When Kat Sullivan rented a billboard last year in upstate New York to call for stronger protections against child sex abusers, she believed she was engaging in the democratic process, using her own time and money to make her voice as an abuse survivor heard.So she was shocked when state regulators afterward sent her a letter ordering her to register as a lobbyist. New York State defines a lobbyist as, in part, someone who spends money to influence lawmakers. But Ms. Sullivan, a registered nurse, has argued that she was exercising her rights as a citizen.... The state's ethics commission ... has warned that she could be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined more than $40,000 if she continues to refuse to register.... Few unpaid advocates spend more than $5,000 on an issue, the annual threshold for registering as a lobbyist in New York. Ms. Sullivan has said that she spent $14,000 on three billboards, plus about $2,000 on a website.... Federal law defines lobbyists by the percentage of time that they spend contacting lawmakers; New York defines them by money earned and spent. Other states have lower or higher thresholds, or exclude volunteers.... 'Almost every jurisdiction I can think of is grappling at some level with how much is covered and at what threshold,' Beth Rotman, [of] Common Cause ... said...."

Way Beyond the Beltway

China. Nick Schager of The Daily Beast: "One Child Nation is a ... heartrending documentary [that] examines ... China's one-child policy, which functioned as a systematic attack on its female population -- and which resulted in collateral damage on an international scale. In effect from 1979 to 2015, China's policy placed strict guidelines on reproduction in order to curb population growth.... The law outlined strict punishment for non-compliance: the destruction of homes, forfeiture of property and valuables, and steep fines. Those who suffered those penalties, however, got off easy, since local Family Planning Officials -- empowered by the Nationalist Party -- also had the authority to abduct women, tie them up, and force them to undergo sterilizations and abortions as late as 8-9 months into their pregnancies." Attention: disturbing content. --s

Russia. AP: "Police cracked down hard on an unsanctioned demonstration in Moscow for a second weekend in a row, detaining about 600 people protesting the exclusion of some independent and opposition candidates from September city council elections. The issue taps growing dissatisfaction with a political environment dominated by the Kremlin-aligned United Russia party, in which dissenting voices are marginalized, ignored or repressed. An arrest-monitoring group, OVD-Info, said 685 people were detained Saturday. The Russian Interior Ministry said the number was about 600. The detentions came a week after authorities arrested nearly 1,400 people at a similar protest."

News Ledes

Mass Murder America. Guardian: "Nine people have been killed and at least 16 injured in a shooting early on Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, police have said. Police said the suspect was shot and killed by responding officers.... The shooting came hours after at least 20 people were killed in another mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas." --s ...

... According to CNN, which is liveblogging developments, the motive for this mass murder is still unknown. In later updates, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said the shooter was "a young, white male," & Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said police responded to the shooter "in less than one minute." Mrs. McC: So in less than a minute, this guy killed nine people & injured 27 others. There is no excuse for any civilian to have access to a weapon that can shoot 36 people in less than a minute. Update: "in 24 seconds." ...

     ... CNN Updates: "Authorities have found writings linked to Dayton, Ohio, shooting suspect Connor Betts that show he had an interest in killing people, two federal law enforcement sources told CNN. A preliminary assessment of the writings, found during the execution of a search warrant, did not indicate any racial or political motive, the sources said.... The City of Dayton has released the names of the nine deceased victims in the shooting early Sunday. Suspect Connor Betts' sister was identified as one of those killed."