The Commentariat -- September 9, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

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

Lies of the Grifter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "House Democrats return to Washington this week poised to significantly broaden their nascent impeachment inquiry into President Trump beyond the findings of the Russia investigation, but they will confront a fast-dwindling political clock. Undeterred by lackluster public support for impeachment, Democratic lawmakers and aides have sketched out a robust four-month itinerary of hearings and court arguments that they hope will provide the evidence they need to credibly portray Mr. Trump as corrupt and abusing his power. Beyond the president's efforts to impede the special counsel's investigation, Democrats also plan to scrutinize his role in hush payments to two women who said they had affairs with him and reports that he dangled pardons to officials willing to break the law to implement his immigration policies. Democrats also demanded documents last week related to whether his resort properties illegally profited from government business." ...

... Jonathan Alter of the Daily Beast argues for impeachment & trial. digby largely reproduces Alter's column, which is firewalled in the Beast. Alter: "... the trial in the well of the Senate would be presided over by Chief Justice John Roberts, who ... would run it like a quasi-trial, with evidence, witnesses (who would likely appear in person) and summations. Nadler and others from the House Judiciary Committee would serve as prosecutors. Trump would have private lawyers defending him. The senators would be the jury.... With the exception of Reps. John Ratcliffe and Louie Gohmert, no Republicans tried to claim Trump did not commit obstruction of justice. Instead, they changed the subject to Fusion GPS, the Steele dossier, and other counter-charges irrelevant to what would be at issue in a Senate trial.... [Trump's] trial lawyers would have the unenviable task of shooting down at least eight clear examples of obstruction of justice outlined in the Mueller Report, plus explain why Trump did not abuse and disgrace his office and obstruct Congress (other likely articles of impeachment). They would have to explain why it was perfectly okay for Trump to feather his own nest by directing his people to stay at Trump hotels, after promising he would not tend to his businesses in the White House." Read on. ...

... digby: "And consider that Trump won't be able to resist screeching 'witch hunt!' every single day, remin[d]ing everyone in the country that he is running as president who was impeached and protected from conviction by his accomplices in the Senate. Is it risky? Sure, anything can happen. But I have never understood this notion that Trump will gain power from being impeached. It's ridiculous. I realize that a lot of the media have simply assumed that since [President Bill] Clinton was acquitted and remained popular that it's a losing strategy. But this isn't about a couple of furtive blow jobs.... The sheer volume of impeachable offenses is enormous."

Nahal Toosi, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump's boasts about his dealmaking skills may have helped him win in 2016. But after this weekend's events, he has little to back up those claims on the world stage heading into 2020. Trump announced Saturday on Twitter that he was canceling ongoing U.S. peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, including scrapping a secret meeting with the Islamist militia's leaders and the Afghan president at the Camp David presidential retreat outside of Washington. The decision has imperiled what was, in the scope of Trump's presidency, a relatively successful diplomatic effort so far to bring an end to the 18-year war in Afghanistan. It also adds to a growing list of Trump's negotiating shortfalls -- from Iran to North Korea to China -- that gives ammunition to Democrats seeking to unseat him. The fact that the meeting could have happened the same week as the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks especially outraged Trump critics." ~~~

... My blood is boiling over this. And I'm left wondering: what was the plan here? How was the Taliban going to get to U.S. soil? Was the U.SW aircraft going to ferry them over? would the U.S. military going to give them a ride? What was the purpose of this, so President Trump could announce some kind of fake peace plan the day of 9/11 without any preconditions, without a day of cease-fire? -- CNN Republican analyst Amanda Carpenter, Sunday ~~~

~~~ Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "Even as President Trump blamed a recent Taliban attack for his decision to call off nearly yearlong negotiations with the insurgents, officials suggested on Sunday it had more to do with the Taliban's resistance to the American terms for a peace deal, and a rushed plan for a Camp David summit meeting. Talks that once seemed on the verge of a breakthrough had hit a wall over how the deal should be finalized and announced, they said." ~~~

~~~ ** Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "What would have been one of the biggest headline-grabbing moments of his tenure was put together on the spur of the moment and then canceled on the spur of the moment. The usual National Security Council process was dispensed with; only a small circle of advisers was even clued in. And even after it fell apart, Mr. Trump took it upon himself to disclose the secret machinations in a string of Saturday night Twitter messages that surprised not only many national security officials across the government but even some of the few who were part of the deliberations." ~~~

~~~ Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Plans for U.S. troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, in keeping with President Trump's pledge to end the war there, were thrown into confusion Sunday, following Trump's decision to call off a secret meeting he planned with Afghan and Taliban leaders to secure a peace deal. Competing versions of what led to the cancellation of the meeting and, at least temporarily, any further U.S.-Taliban negotiations, exposed internal administration tensions that have flared as a deal seemed near in recent weeks. Those tensions have pitted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose chief negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, said a week ago that agreement 'in principle' had been reached after 10 months of talks with the militants, and Trump national security adviser John Bolton, who opposed the talks." ~~~

~~~ Michael Safi of the Guardian: Trump's "revelation of the planned talks and their abrupt cancellation leave a question mark over the future of peace talks intended to bring American involvement in Afghanistan to an end, an early and regularly recited Trump campaign pledge. The Taliban warned on Sunday that the cancellation meant more American lives would be lost, while the United States promised to keep up military pressure on the militants. Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, criticized Trump for calling off the dialogue and said US forces have been pounding Afghanistan with attacks at the same time.... Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger, a ... Republican, wrote on Twitter: 'Never should leaders of a terrorist organisation that hasn't renounced 9/11 and continues in evil be allowed in our great country. NEVER. Full stop.'" ~~~

~~~ Mr. Waffle. Michelle Cottle of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump is a chronic waffler. As such, the American public would do well to stay vigilant about what his administration is up to -- and not be shy about applying pressure. It has long been clear that Mr. Trump is not the decisive, resolute leader he imagines himself to be. His presidency is littered with plans and pronouncements that were walked back or abandoned.... On occasion, Mr. Trump will move to reverse his reversals -- or at least find a creative work around.... There are issues on which the president feels compelled to hold his ground.... When it comes to protecting his fragile ego [-- as in SharpieGate --] Mr. Trump can be quite firm in his convictions. The rest is subject to influence." ~~~

~~~ Chas Danner of New York: "The Camp David meeting -- according to Afghan, Taliban, and Western officials -- was actually a failed gamble by the Trump administration. The summit, which the Trump team proposed late last month, was an attempt rush a conclusion to the negotiations by flying Taliban and Afghan leaders to the U.S. so that the parties could iron out the remaining details and conclude with a big peace-deal announcement and photo op.... It's entirely possible the Trump administration, unable to close the peace deal, planned to wing it and hope the summit led to a big, popular finish. That would be the strategy most consistent with President Trump's track record of impulsive, spectacle-over-substance foreign-policy decisions.... Last week's deadly suicide bombing was not some final straw for Trump, as he and Pompeo have claimed, but rather a politically palatable excuse to save face after the administration's plan for a peacemaking grand finale fell apart."

Bryan Bender & Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "The U.S. Air Force has ordered a world-wide review of how it chooses overnight accommodations on long flights following revelations that air crews had occasionally stayed at ... Donald Trump's Scotland resort while refueling at a small commercial airport nearby.... The review, ordered by Acting Air Force Secretary Matthew Donovan and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein, covers the active-duty, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve.... The Air Force on Sunday insisted, however, that the use of the Prestwick airport -- which it said dates back to 2015 -- along with the Trump hotel appears to have adhered to proper procedures.... The Air Force's use of the Prestwick airport has ... steadily grown. Indeed, the use of the facility has nearly tripled -- and overnights in the area increased more than five-fold, the Air Force acknowledged Sunday. From 2015 to 2019, they said, Air Mobility Command aircraft stopped at the civil airport 936 times. Of those, crews stayed overnight in the area 659 times. The frequency of the stops and overnight stays has increased steadily each year, from 95 stops and 40 overnights in 2015; 145 and 75 in 2016; 180 and 116 in 2017; 257 and 208 in 2018; and 259 stops and 220 overnights through August 2019." ...

     ... Power of the Press. Mrs. McCrabbie: So when the House made official inquiries in June as to why military personnel were staying at Trump Turnberry, the Pentagon didn't bother to write back with even a lame excuse. But when Politico published its report Friday & major newspapers followed up, the Turnberry Grift became an urgent issue.

How Trump's Border-Wall Diversion Is Helping Putin. Sam Brodey of the Daily Beast: "The Trump administration's move to divert billions of dollars intended for military construction projects in order to finance a border wall with Mexico sparked outrage last week, with cuts to things like funding Army base elementary schools on U.S. soil dominating the discussion and prompting sharp criticism from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. But what went relatively unnoticed was the equally large pot of Pentagon cash that will be diverted away from construction projects at U.S. military facilities overseas.... National security experts believe it could be a gut punch to U.S. diplomatic and security interests in a part of the world that has been a particular sore spot for the president: Europe. The Trump administration is set to move $771 million worth of funding away from projects earmarked to the European Deterrence Initiative, a program created by the Obama administration that was designed to reassure anxious European allies that the U.S. would back them up in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea.... Deferred cash from the program accounts for two out of every five dollars that the administration is diverting to the wall from overseas -- raising more questions about Trump's inconsistent posture on the threat posed by Russia, along with his willingness to support NATO, which he has characterized as a financial burden on the U.S."

~~~ Kat Tenbarge of Business Insider: "... Donald Trump's 2020 reelection campaign manager ... says [the Trump family will become 'a dynasty that will last for decades, propelling the Republican Party into a new party.' Brad Parscale made the predication Saturday at a Republican Party convention in Indian Wells, California, where members of the party gathered to discuss strategy for the GOP to make strides in the overwhelmingly blue state." ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Mr. Parscale declined to comment to The New York Times. But a campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and without official authorization to discuss the speech, said that Mr. Parscale was referring less to possible candidacies in the future and more to activities such as political speeches and fund-raising." ~~~

~~~ ** McKay Coppins of the Atlantic: The Trump dynasty began with a brothel in the Yukon, owned & run by Donald's grandfather Friedrich. "Friedrich's widow, Elizabeth, assigns each of her children a job in their fledgling real-estate business. But it's Fred, the middle child who has a knack for building, both houses and empires, and he takes charge shortly after high school.... infamy attends each new triumph. By the 1950s, he has built thousands of houses and apartments, and become the kind of landlord Woody Guthrie writes songs about.... [When Fred eldest son fails to met muster, Fred eventually chooses Donald as his successor.] The [Manhattan] market on the island is crowded and hostile, but Fred and Donald work closely to plot their invasion. Together, they cook books, fleece investors, and fool one regulator after another. Some of the scion's schemes pay off.... And while the president writes his chapter in history, the next generation waits in the wings, jockeying for position, feuding over status, knowing only one of them can be the heir.... Like a fun-house-mirror version of the Kennedys, they reel across the national stage swapping the language of duty and sacrifice for that of grievance and quid pro quo. Ask not what your country can do for you, they seem to say; ask what your country can do for the Trumps."

Conservative Peter Wehner of the Atlantic: "Donald Trump's disordered personality -- his unhealthy patterns of thinking, functioning, and behaving -- has become the defining characteristic of his presidency. It manifests itself in multiple ways: his extreme narcissism; his addiction to lying about things large and small, including his finances and bullying and silencing those who could expose them; his detachment from reality, including denying things he said even when there is video evidence to the contrary; his affinity for conspiracy theories; his demand for total loyalty from others while showing none to others; and his self-aggrandizement and petty cheating. It manifests itself in Trump's impulsiveness and vindictiveness; his craving for adulation; his misogyny, predatory sexual behavior, and sexualization of his daughters; his open admiration for brutal dictators; his remorselessness; and his lack of empathy and sympathy, including attacking a family whose son died while fighting for this country, mocking a reporter with a disability, and ridiculing a former POW."

Danny Sjursen in TruthDig: "The fallacy that [former Defense Secretary Jim] Mattis and other generals were the voice of reason in the Trump White House, the so-called 'adults in the room,' has precluded any serious critique of their actual strategy and advice.... The wildly unpopular, if not forbidden-to-be-uttered, truth is that Mattis, while an admittedly decorated Marine and a military strategist, was an abject failure. Despite being hailed as a 'warrior monk,' he was and remains a conventional interventionist figure -- prisoner to the tired old militarist ideas of the necessity for U.S. military forward deployment, counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, and the perpetual need to balance or 'contain' Russia and China." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. Mrs. McC: Sjursen doesn't mention it, but I've always sorta figured Trump hired Mattis because President Obama fired him.

Presidential Race 2020

Matt Stevens of the New York Times: "Tom Steyer, the billionaire and former hedge fund investor turned impeachment activist, became the 11th Democratic presidential candidate to qualify for the October debates on Sunday after a new poll showed him with 2 percent support in Nevada.... With 11 candidates now qualified for the October event, the D.N.C. may split that debate across two nights, as it did for the first two sets of debates in June and July. The committee has not yet indicated whether it will do so."

Caitlin Byrd of the [Charleston, S.C.] Post & Courier: "Facing monumentally longshot odds, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford announced Sunday he will challenge fellow Republican ... Donald Trump for the White House, launching a campaign centered on Washington spending but also on where the party is headed.The announcement came during a nationally televised in-studio appearance on 'Fox News Sunday'...."

Congressional Race 2019. Steven Shepard of Politico: "The last, lingering piece of the 2018 election is about to preview the fundamental dynamic shaping the fight for the White House in 2020. Tuesday's do-over election for a congressional seat marred by allegations of fraud last year, taking place in a Republican-leaning slice of North Carolina, exemplifies the key push-pull of politics in the Trump era: Cities and suburbs racing away from the GOP and toward Democrats -- and rural and exurban voters roaring back in the other direction, propelled by ... Donald Trump's appeal. The battle to maximize those trends will shape the 2020 campaign between Trump and his Democratic opponent in virtually every important swing state.... The president will hold a rally for Republican nominee Dan Bishop on Monday night in Fayetteville, seeking to boost GOP turnout on one end of the district and outdo Charlotte and its immediate suburbs on the opposite end, where Democrats in Mecklenburg County are in ascendance."

~~~ Senate Race 2020. Mrs. McCrabbie: In case you thought Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) -- who is up for re-election in 2020 -- spent last week back home appearing in photo ops where he pretended to be helping residents sandbag their homes against the impending hurricane, or tried to look concerned & empathetic while surveying storm-damaged properties, or in some other craven acts of retail politics that we think of as inevitable during election season, you would be wrong. Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) appeared in a photo with Geert Wilders, a controversial Dutch parliamentary leader with anti-Islam and anti-immigrant views, while both attended a European security conference in Italy. Graham and Wilders, leader of the Party of Freedom in the Netherlands, were seen smiling together Saturday night at the Ambrosetti Forum on Italy's Lake Como." Mrs. McC: No doubt the weather was fine, the accommodations superb & the cuisine divine at beautiful Lago di Como.

Brandon Ambrosino, a Liberty U. graduate, in Politico Magazine: "In interviews ... [of] ore than two dozen current and former high-ranking Liberty University officials and close associates of [Jerry] Falwell[, Jr.] over the past eight months, they depicted how Falwell and his wife, Becki, consolidated power at Liberty University and how Falwell presides over a culture of self-dealing, directing university resources into projects and real estate deals in which his friends and family have stood to make personal financial gains. Among the previously unreported revelations are Falwell's decision to hire his son Trey's company to manage a shopping center owned by the university, Falwell's advocacy for loans given by the university to his friends, and Falwell's awarding university contracts to businesses owned by his friends. 'We're not a school; we're a real estate hedge fund,' said a senior university official with inside knowledge of Liberty's finances. 'We're not educating; we're buying real estate every year and taking students' money to do it.'"

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hong Kong. Eileen Ng of the AP: "Thousands of students formed human chains outside schools across Hong Kong on Monday to show solidarity after violent weekend clashes between police and activists pushing for democratic reforms in the semiautonomous Chinese territory. The silent protest came as the Hong Kong government condemned the 'illegal behavior of radical protesters' and warned the U.S. to stay out of its affairs. Thousands of demonstrators held a peaceful march Sunday to the U.S. Consulate to seek Washington's support, but violence erupted hours later in a business and retail district as protesters vandalized subway stations, set fires and blocked traffic, prompting police to fire tear gas. Hong Kong's government agreed last week to withdraw an extradition bill that sparked a summer of protests, but demonstrators want other demands to be met, including direct elections of city leaders and an independent inquiry into police actions. Protesters in their Sunday march appealed to ... Donald Trump to 'stand with Hong Kong' and ensure Congress passes a bill that would impose economic sanctions and penalties on Hong Kong and mainland China officials found to suppress democracy and human rights in the city."

News Ledes

NBC News: "Rescue teams made contact on Monday with four crew members still inside the Golden Ray, the cargo ship that capsized off the coast of Georgia, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The crew members on the ship were trapped in the engine room of the massive vessel that overturned and caught fire on the St. Simons Sound off the coast of Brunswick, Georgia, on Sunday. On Sunday, South Korea's foreign ministry said that the Hyundai Glovis cargo ship Golden Ray, which was transporting automobiles, had begun listing and then capsized in the early morning hours Sunday." ~~~

~~~ NPR Update: "The U.S. Coast Guard says it has rescued the fourth and final crew member from an overturned car carrier vessel in waters off the coast of Brunswick, Ga., after reporting earlier in the day that all but one had been pulled to safety.... Rescue crews had been working since Sunday to locate the missing crew members after the Golden Ray became disabled and eventually overturned in St. Simons Sound, about 80 miles south of Savannah, Ga."

A Hurricane by Any Other Name. Japan Times: "A powerful typhoon landed near Tokyo early Monday morning, killing at least three people and injuring about 40 as well as affecting hundreds of thousands of rush-hour commuters in the metropolitan area at the start of the week. East Japan Railway Co., also known as JR East, had suspended all lines in the greater Tokyo area as Typhoon Faxai made landfall near the city of Chiba, shortly before 5 a.m., as one of the strongest typhoons on record in the Kanto region.... Some 934,900 households in seven prefectures including Chiba, Kanagawa and Shizuoka were believed to have been temporarily without power during the course of the storm, and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. said power would be unlikely to return Monday in some areas, including south of Chiba prefecture where typhoon damage is extensive."

The Commentariat -- September 8, 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Presidential Race 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Way Beyond the Beltway

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

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

The Commentariat -- September 7, 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Presidential Race 2020

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

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

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

Beyond the Beltway

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

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

Way Beyond

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

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

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

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

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

News Ledes

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

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

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

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