The Commentariat -- September 11, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has backed away from some of the most stringent penalties it had sought to impose on North Korea, in an apparent effort to draw Russian and Chinese backing for a new raft of sanctions over the country's nuclear weapons advances. Whether the administration will garner the support of Moscow and Beijing when the new sanctions come up for a vote Monday evening at the United Nations Security Council remains to be seen. More important, it is wholly unclear whether additional sanctions will persuade Pyongyang to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile tests."

Update: Scott Pruitt Is Still a Phony Prick. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, says it is insensitive to discuss climate change in the midst of deadly storms.... 'To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced,' Mr. Pruitt said to CNN in an interview ahead of Hurricane Irma, echoing similar sentiments he made when Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas two weeks earlier. 'To use time and effort to address it at this point is very, very insensitive to this people in Florida,' he added.... For scientists, drawing links between warming global temperatures and the ferocity of hurricanes is about as controversial as talking about geology after an earthquake.... Ben Kirtman, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Miami..., said he believes failing to discuss climate change hurts Florida and the entire country.... President Trump has derided climate change as a hoax. Mr. Pruitt has declared that carbon dioxide emissions from cars, power plants and other sources are not the primary contributor to global warming, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. The E.P.A. has removed many mentions of climate change from its website and is rolling back regulations aimed at curbing carbon dioxide emissions." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Science, & reality in general, are still left-wing conspiracies as far as wingers are concerned. See also Jonathan Chait's post, linked below. Anyway, I'm more than happy to have Pruitt remind folks I'm "insensitive." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... thanks to Trump's electoral victory, know-nothing, anti-science conservatives are now running the U.S. government. When you read news analyses claiming that Trump's deal with Democrats to keep the government running for a few months has somehow made him a moderate independent, remember that it's not just Pruitt: Almost every senior figure in the Trump administration dealing with the environment or energy is both an establishment Republican and a denier of climate change and of scientific evidence in general.... Today's right-wing intellectual universe, such as it is, is dominated by hired guns who are essentially propagandists rather than researchers.... When people like [Rush] Limbaugh imagine that liberals are engaged in a conspiracy to promote false ideas about climate and suppress the truth, it makes sense to them partly because that's what their friends do.... We are now ruled by people who are completely alienated not just from the scientific community, but from the scientific idea -- the notion that objective assessment of evidence is the way to understand the world. And this willful ignorance is deeply frightening. Indeed, it may end up destroying civilization."

Joshua McElwee of the National Catholic Reporter: "Pope Francis has questioned ... Donald Trump's commitment to pro-life values, suggesting that his administration's recent decision to end a program protecting undocumented young people from deportation is contradictory.... The pope said he is especially worried about young people who become detached from their roots and lose hope in the future.... Francis also said during the press conference that political leaders have a moral responsibility to follow scientists' recommendations and reduce carbon emissions in order to stem the effects of climate change. The pope said that whoever denies that humans are contributing to the warming of the planet 'needs to go visit the scientists and ask them.'" Mrs. McC: Francis is somewhat confused about the effects rescinding DACA would have on families, but it will certainly break up families.

Anita Kumar of McClatchy News: "A major construction company owned by the Chinese government was hired to work on the latest Trump golf club development in Dubai despite a pledge from Donald Trump that his family business would not engage in any transactions with foreign government entities while he serves as president. Trump's partner, DAMAC Properties, awarded a $32-million contract to the Middle East subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation..., according to news releases.... The companies' statements do not detail the exact timing of the contract except to note it was sometime in the first two months of 2017, just as Trump was inaugurated and questions were raised about a slew of potential conflicts of interest between his presidency and his vast real estate empire."

Bryan Schott of UtahPolicy.com: "Sources tell UtahPolicy.com that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is preparing to run for Senate in 2018 if Sen. Orrin Hatch decides to retire.... So far, Hatch has not made up his mind as to whether he'll run for an eighth term in 2018. He has previously said he was planning on running as long as his and his wife's health holds up." Mrs. McC: I'm pretty sure Steve Bannon can come up with a raging winger alternative to Romney.

Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Monday granted the Trump administration's request to temporarily lift restrictions on the president's travel ban. In a one-page order signed by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court temporarily blocked the part of last week's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that barred the government from prohibiting refugees that have formal assurances from resettlement agencies or are in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program from entering the U.S. Kennedy said that part of the decision is stayed pending the receipt of a response from the state of Hawaii. That response that is due by noon on Tuesday. The Supreme Court's decision came less than two hours after Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall filed a request for a stay."

*****

Jennifer Peltz of the AP: "While the U.S. contends with the destruction caused by two ferocious hurricanes in three weeks, Americans also are marking the anniversary of one of the nation's most scarring days. Thousands of 9/11 victims' relatives, survivors, rescuers and others are expected to gather Monday at the World Trade Center to remember the deadliest terror attack on American soil."

Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "In his first extended interview since he left the White House last month, Stephen K. Bannon was unsparing in his criticism: calling out top Republicans, West Wing staff, the 'pearl-clutching mainstream media,' special counsel investigators and the Roman Catholic Church. He even singled out President Trump, labeling his firing of James B. Comey ... the biggest mistake in 'modern political history.' Pressed by the interviewer, Charlie Rose, Mr. Bannon said that had Mr. Comey not been fired, the Justice Department investigation into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia's election interference would not have been handed over to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. The assertion, made in an online-only segment of a wide-ranging '60 Minutes' interview that aired on Sunday night, was perhaps the most extraordinary of many criticisms made by Mr. Bannon.... Mr. Bannon said he planned to be the president's 'wingman outside for the entire time' he is in office." ...

... Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump's former chief strategist who left the White House in August -- declared war Sunday against the Republican congressional leadership, called on Gary Cohn, Trump's top economic adviser, to resign, and outlined his views on issues ranging from immigration to trade. [Steve] Bannon, in an interview on CBS's '60 Minutes,' accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) of 'trying to nullify the 2016 election.'... He blamed them for failing to repeal and replace former president Barack Obama's signature health-care law and made clear that he would use his Breitbart perch to hold Republicans accountable for not helping Trump push through his agenda.... He also seemed to criticize the president's recent decision to rescind protections for 'dreamers' -- those 690,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the country as young children -- while giving Congress six months to devise a legislative solution. The move, he said, could cost Republicans the House in the 2018 election." ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "Bannon described embracing the GOP Establishment as the 'original sin of the administration,' explaining that the Trump team felt in the days after the election that they would need their help to govern. However, their deal with congressional leaders to spend Trump's first year in office repealing Obamacare, enacting tax reform, and passing an infrastructure bill quickly went off the rails." ...

... Here's a tiny portion of the interview. What's the matter with Bannon's eyes?:

... Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump's closest allies are planning a slate of primary challenges against Republican senators, potentially undermining the party's prospects in 2018 and further inflaming tensions between GOP leaders and the White House. The effort is being led by Steve Bannon, Trump's bomb-throwing former chief strategist, who is launching an all-out war against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican establishment. Bannon has begun holding private meetings with insurgent challengers, vowing his support. He's coordinating with conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer, who is prepared to pour millions of dollars into attacks on GOP incumbents. Bannon has also installed a confidant at an outside group that is expected to target Republican lawmakers and push the Trump agenda." Among the GOP lawmakers Bannon hopes to "primary" are Senators Dean Heller (Nev.), Jeff Flake (Az.), Bob Corker (Tenn.) Roger Wicker (Miss.) & Luther Strange (Ala.). ...

... Manu Raju of CNN: Bob Corker hasn't decided whether or not to stand for re-election.

Evangelical Trump. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration opened the door to allowing more firearms on federal lands. It scrubbed references to 'L.G.B.T.Q. youth' from the description of a federal program for victims of sex trafficking. And, on the advice of religious leaders, it eliminated funding to international groups that provide abortion. While these initiatives lacked the fanfare of some of President Trump's high-profile proclamations -- like his ban on transgender people in the military -- they point to a fundamental repurposing of the federal bureaucracy to promote conservative social priorities.... The overhaul is unfolding behind the scenes in Washington at agencies like the Health and Human Services Department, where new rules about birth control are being drafted, and in federal courtrooms, where the Justice Department has shifted gears in more than a dozen Obama-era cases involving social issues. The turnabout stems in part from lobbying by evangelical Christians and other conservative groups. In interviews, these groups said they have regular discussions on domestic and foreign policy with the administration -- more so than during the presidency of George W. Bush...." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This from an administration where the Top Guy said he was impressed by two Corinthians & occasionally consumes "little crackers" during the Eucharist.

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has told associates he wants to put the entire National Security Council staff through a lie detector test to root out leakers. It's unclear whether this will ever happen, but Sessions floated the idea to multiple people, as recently as last month. Sessions' idea is to do a one-time, one-issue, polygraph test of everyone on the NSC staff. Interrogators would sit down with every single NSC staffer (there's more than 100 of them), and ask them, individually, what they know about the leaks of transcripts of the president's phone calls with foreign leaders. Sessions suspects those leaks came from within the NSC, and thinks that a polygraph test -- at the very least -- would scare them out of leaking again." ...

     ... Margaret Hartmann: "Sessions wouldn't be the first Trump administration staffer to resort to desperate measures to crack down on leakers. In February then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer performed an unannounced phone check on his staff. They got back at him by informing the press of the incident."

White House Shares Fake Irma "News." Because These People Are Really Stupid. Abby Ohlheiser of the Washington Post: "The viral hoaxes targeting those looking for information about Irma online began early, with a viral map last week that showed the hurricane following Hurricane Harvey's path, headed straight toward Houston.... Dan Scavino, the White House's director of social media, has been re-posting videos and photos he appears to have pulled from social media showing the destruction in Miami all day.... One isn't from Irma, or Miami[.]... The airport replied to Scavino within minutes, letting him know he was wrong[.]... This video ... [is] at least a few weeks old. Here it is on a YouTube channel -- one that, it's worth noting, has been known to re-use old footage for new disasters before -- from August. That video claims to be from Mexico City's airport. Scavino's tweet suggested he had shared videos like this one with President Trump and Vice President Pence. Scavino later deleted the tweet." Ohlheiser lists some other fake viral stories that Scavino missed.

Jonathan Chait: "The only problem in American politics is the Republican party" because it has sealed itself off from reality. Either party could be captured by its extremists, as the GOP has been. "But the fact is that the Democratic Party is fundamentally accountable to the mainstream news media. And that media play try to follow rules of objectivity that the right-wing alternative media does not bother with."

Ian Kullgren of Politico: "In his first nationally televised interview since his diagnosis in July, [Sen. John] McCain discussed with CNN's Jake Tapper some of the details of his battle against glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain cancer. At times, the 81-year-old, sixth-term senator was somber, upbeat and reflective about his storied career, which has included two presidential runs and more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam after his Navy jet was shot down. 'You know, every life has to end one way or another,' he said.... 'I'm facing a challenge,' the Arizona Republican said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'But I've faced other challenges, and I'm very confident about getting through this one as well.'"

CBS News has more on Jane Pauley's interview of Hillary Clinton. She was so confident she would win, "the Clintons had acquired the house next door [to their Chappaqua, New York, home], to accommodate White House staff and security during a second Clinton Administration. At a dining room table in that house, she wrote about 'What Happened.'" ...

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Hunter Walker & Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News: "The FBI recently questioned a former White House correspondent for Sputnik, the Russian-government-funded news agency, as part of an investigation into whether it is acting as an undeclared propaganda arm of the Kremlin in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). As part of the probe, Yahoo News has learned, the bureau has obtained a thumb drive containing thousands of internal Sputnik emails and documents -- material that could potentially help prosecutors build a case that the news agency played a role in the Russian government 'influence campaign' that was waged during last year's presidential election and, in the view of U.S. intelligence officials, is still ongoing. The emails were turned over by Andrew Feinberg, the news agency's former White House correspondent, who had downloaded the material onto his laptop before he was fired in May. He confirmed to Yahoo News that he was questioned for more than two hours on Sept. 1 by an FBI agent and a Justice Department national security lawyer at the bureau's Washington field office.... It is not clear whether the agent and prosecutor who questioned Feinberg were acting as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's broader investigation into Russian efforts to disrupt the 2016 election and possible links to the Trump campaign."

Lucia Graves of the Guardian: "Dozens of reporters, editors, and copy staff have left the [Wall Street Journal] in the past year, an exodus attributable to a combination of buyout incentives, poaching and frustration with management.... The talented staff that remain still produce memorable journalism. But when it comes to covering Trump -- according to interviews with 18 current and former Journal staffers, some of whom have provided the Guardian with previously unpublished emails from [Editor-in-Chief Gerry] Baker -- many say this is no thanks to management. 'The Journal has done a lot of good work in covering the Trump administration, but not nearly as much as it should have,' another recent departee said. 'I lay almost all of that at Gerry's doorstep. Political editors and reporters find themselves either directly stymied by Gerry's interference or shave the edges off their stories in advance to try to please him (and, by extension, [publisher Rupert] Murdoch).'"

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: For decades, the Journal was well-known for having an excellent newsroom & horrifying right-wing editorial pages. Graves' reporting makes crystal-clear the editorial view has forced its way into the newsroom. That's a real loss for journalism. And there's this: Gerry Baker is a British subject, not a U.S. citizen. Murdoch became a U.S. citizen in 1985 (so he could buy U.S. media outlets). At the time, he gave up his Australian passport because neither country allowed dual citizenship. But both countries allow dual citizenship now, so it's possible Murdoch has quietly regained his Australian citizenship. In any event, since Baker is at least in theory running the show, maybe the WSJ should be covered by the U.S.'s foreign agents registration law.

Way Beyond the Beltway

"Echoes of Charlottesville." Katie Shepherd of Willamette Week (Portland, Oregon): "Police in Vancouver [B.C.] [Sunday] afternoon arrested a man after a Patriot Prayer rally when he nearly ran his truck into a crowd of antifascist counter-protesters.... A black Chevy Silverado with Oregon plates and two large American flags and several small flags hanging from its windows (along with a Confederate flag decal displayed on the back window of the cab) drove up to the marchers.... As the crowd parted to clear the way..., protesters filled the street behind it and started throwing rocks and water bottles at the truck. The driver suddenly put his vehicle in reverse and accelerated toward the protesters. As he sped up, people jumped out of the street.... The protesters ... changed their path to escape the truck.... However, the truck re-appeared cutting the marchers off.... After the man was arrested, a group called the 'Proud Boys' drove down Columbia Ave and sprayed pepper spray out their windows at protesters in the street. The counter-protesters lobbed rocks at their truck. Police stopped the Proud Boys, but did not detain them.... Reporters nearby say the Proud Boys [later] crashed into a police vehicle." The march was originally planned for Portland.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Hurricane Irma brought ripping winds, tornadoes and storm-surge flooding to much of Florida's lower half on Sunday, as its slow-moving core battered the state's west coast from Key West to Tampa. The massive storm -- which had menaced Florida for days, and triggered evacuation orders covering 5.6 million people -- made two official landfalls on Sunday before being downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane Monday. The first landfall, at about 9:10 a.m., was over the Florida Keys, an isolated string of islands that had rarely felt more alone than on Sunday. Irma hit them as a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds near 130 miles per hour."

The Miami Herald's Hurricane Irma page is here. ...

... Links to Tampa Bay Times stories are here ...

The Commentariat -- September 10, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Henry Fountain of the New York Times: "Engineers stopped releasing water from Lake Okeechobee on Saturday, confident that they had lowered levels enough to keep the dike and the towns around it safe as Hurricane Irma swept into southern Florida. But the dike, built seven decades ago and named for Herbert Hoover, was not the only major piece of Florida infrastructure that had officials concerned as the hurricane approached. Airports, sewage treatment plants, flood control systems and other facilities could be overrun by heavy rains or flooding from storm surge, as Irma's winds amass ocean water and push it ashore. The impacts of climate change -- especially sea level rise, which is already bringing more tidal flooding in Miami Beach -- could make matters worse, as any storm surge from Irma would be on top of an already higher baseline. And Florida, like every state in an era of tightening budgets, has deferred costly maintenance on much of its infrastructure, said Addie Javed, a former president of the Florida section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.... As South Florida's population has swelled in recent decades, its roads, water and sewage treatment plants and other facilities have struggled to keep pace. Much of the state’s infrastructure is now nearing the end of its useful life...." ...

... Brent Griffiths of Politico: "... Donald Trump said on Saturday that his administration continues to monitor Irma as the Category 3 hurricane heads for a projected collision with southern Florida on Sunday. 'We're as prepared as you can be for such an event,' Trump said during a meeting with members of his cabinet at Camp David, the Maryland presidential retreat. 'This is a storm of enormous destructive power and I ask everyone in the storm's path to heed all instructions, get out of its way.'... The White House said the president and his team also received a briefing on Hurricane Jose, a Category 4 storm that is projected to move away from the Caribbean Islands, but could still cause flooding in certain areas. Trump also commended federal agencies for 'remaining focused on Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts in Texas and Louisiana,' according to a White House readout from the summit." ...

... Katie Paris of Shareblue: "At [Saturday's] cabinet meeting, Trump made sure every cabinet member present knew that the hurricane means a 'speed up' in delivering on his 'tax reform' agenda. Despite the populist rhetoric, the reality of Trump's push for tax cuts could not be more clear: massive tax breaks for corporations and the nation's millionaires and billionaires.... 'To create prosperity at home we'll be discussing our plan for dramatic tax cuts and tax reform. And I think now with what's happened with the hurricane, I'm gonna ask for a speed up. I wanted a speed up any way, but now we need it even more so. So we need to simplify the tax code, reduce taxes very substantially on the middle class. And make our business tax more globally competitive. We're the highest anywhere in the world right now.' As PolitiFact has noted repeatedly, 'By all metrics we looked at, the United States is far from the most taxed nation overall and for businesses.'" Emphasis original. ...

... Brandon Carter of the Hill: "A Florida sheriff is warning citizens not to shoot guns at Hurricane Irma as the monster storm approaches Florida. 'To clarify, DO NOT shoot weapons @ #Irma,' the Pasco County, Fla. sheriff tweeted. 'You won't make it turn around & it will have very dangerous side effects.'" Mrs. McC: Apparently the sheriff is aware that what goes up must come down. See related story linked below. ...

... Cruel People Tricks. Merris Badcock of WPTV West Palm Beach: "As Hurricane Irma's outer bands inch closer to Palm Beach County, animal control officers say they are hustling to rescue abandoned animals. And these aren't pets who are just being left inside, Director of Animal Care Diane Suave said. 'They are left in a yard, in a pen they cannot escape from or tethered to trees or poles,' she said. Palm Beach County Animal Care reports animal control officers have rescued 49 dogs and two cats in the last 48 hours. This latest update comes just one day after local animal officials reported finding dozens of dogs chained to trees and parked cars."

Julia Manchester of the Hill: "... Hillary Clinton said in an interview broadcast Sunday that while she is 'done' being a candidate, she is not leaving politics. 'Is your political career over?' Jane Pauley asked Clinton on 'CBS Sunday Morning.' 'Yes,' Clinton responded. 'As an active politician, it's over. I am done with being a candidate,' she added. 'But I am not done with politics, because I literally believe that our country's future is at stake.'"

Say What? Ruth Eglash of the Washington Post: "Israeli leaders and political commentators reacted with anger and bewilderment Sunday after Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, posted a classic anti-Semitic meme on his Facebook page. Neo-Nazi groups in the United States and Holocaust denier David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, liked the post, however. 'Yair Netanyahu is a total bro,' wrote Andrew Anglin in the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer. 'Next he's going to call for gassings.'... The image posted over the weekend by the younger Netanyahu, who goes by the name 'Yair Hun' on Facebook, appears to be a local take on a classic anti-Semitic meme suggesting that Jews control the United States. It has appeared widely on extreme alt-right websites. In this instance, it depicts his father's perceived foes: American Jewish billionaire philanthropist and investor George Soros, outspoken former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, activist Eldad Yaniv and Meni Naftali, a former housekeeper for the Netanyahu's who successfully sued them for mistreatment. Netanyahu captioned the meme 'the food chain.'"

*****

** Ta-Nehisi Coates, of the Atlantic, in an essay adapted from his new book We Were Eight Years in Power: "It is insufficient to state the obvious of Donald Trump: that he is a white man who would not be president were it not for this fact. With one immediate exception, Trump's predecessors made their way to high office through the passive power of whiteness.... It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If you don't have time to read anything else this week, carve out 20 minutes to read Coates' essay. His takedown of white, liberal politicians & pundits is particularly effective.

David Smiley of the Miami Herald: "Miami's Republican mayor called on ... Donald Trump and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency Friday to acknowledge that climate change is playing a role in the extreme weather that has slammed his city and the continental U.S. this summer. Speaking from Miami's Emergency Operations Center in downtown, where the city's senior public safety and political authorities will ride out Category 4 Hurricane Irma this weekend, Mayor Tomás Regalado told the Miami Herald that he believes warming and rising seas are threatening South Florida's immediate and long-term future. 'This is the time to talk about climate change. This is the time that the president and the EPA and whoever makes decisions needs to talk about climate change,' said Regalado.... 'If this isn't climate change, I don't know what is. This is a truly, truly poster child for what is to come.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you read yesterday's Commentariat, then you know Scott Pruitt said just the opposite -- that it's wrong to talk about climate change when you should be out rescuing people. This is about as cogent an argument as telling the cop who stopped you for speeding that s/he should be out "catching the real criminals." ...

... Paul Krugman: "Lots of people are having fun with Rush Limbaugh's insistence that warnings about Irma were a liberal plot.... (He evacuated his Palm Beach mansion soon afterwards.)... Crazy conspiracy theorizing about climate change isn't an aberration on the right, it's the norm. Almost every senior figure in energy and environmental policy within the Trump administration is a climate change denier, with most of them having expressed the view that the science is a hoax. And in this case Trump isn't bypassing the GOP establishment: these people are the party's establishment.... The paranoid style in policy debates is pretty much universal on the modern right."

Bryan Bender of Politico: "The Trump administration is considering proposing smaller, more tactical nuclear weapons that would cause less damage than traditional thermonuclear bombs.... A high-level panel created by ... Donald Trump to evaluate the nuclear arsenal is reviewing various options for adding a more modern 'low-yield' bomb, according to sources involved in the review, to further deter Russia, North Korea or other potential nuclear adversaries. Approval of such weapons -- whether designed to be delivered by missile, aircraft or special forces -- would mark a major reversal from the Obama administration, which sought to limit reliance on nuclear arms and prohibited any new weapons or military capabilities. And critics say it would only make the actual use of atomic arms more likely."

Ashley Parker & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "In agreeing to tie Harvey aid to a three-month extension of the debt ceiling and government funding [proposed by Democratic leaders], Trump burned the people who are ostensibly his allies. The president was an unpredictable -- and, some would say, untrustworthy -- negotiating partner with not only congressional Republicans but also with his Cabinet members and top aides. Trump saw a deal that he thought was good for him -- and he seized it. The move should come as no surprise to students of Trump's long history of broken alliances and agreements. In business, his personal life, his campaign and now his presidency, Trump has sprung surprises on his allies with gusto. His dealings are frequently defined by freewheeling spontaneity, impulsive decisions and a desire to keep everyone guessing -- especially those who assume they can control him. He also repeatedly demonstrates that, while he demands absolutely loyalty from others, he is ultimately loyal to no one but himself." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You might want to read about Mnuchin's "contributions" to the meeting. Unless he was giving a lecture for Trump's benefit, his lecture was an insult to the long-serving Congressional leaders in the room. They all know a helluva a lot more about the history & effects of the debt limit than he does. Although the leaders didn't boo him the way Congressional confederates did, his approach was probably as welcome as his pitch to the confederates: "Do it for me." And it didn't work on Trump, anyway; he thought Chuck & Nancy were more fun & "energetic" than his "subdued" Cabinet members.

Mike Allen of Axios: "A Trump adviser says that after a tumultuous seven months in office, it had finally dawned on the president: 'People really f[uck]ing hate me.' For someone who has spent his life lapping up adulation, however fake, it was a harsh realization. This is a man with an especially acute need for affirmation. This week's bear hug of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer opened Trump's eyes to one solution: Stop doing things that people hate, and start striking deals. Who knows if this will stick. But there's reason to think it might, according to Trump's friends and aides."

Washington Post Editors: "Unfortunately but predictably, an effort that would have forced release of Mr. Trump's tax information was shut down last week by House Republicans. In a party-line vote Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee rejected a resolution that would have directed the Treasury Department to turn over the tax returns of Mr. Trump and his many businesses. A law enacted in 1924 after the Teapot Dome scandal allows the Way and Means Committee, along with the Senate Committee on Finance and the Joint Committee on Taxation, to request tax information for review in a closed session with possible public disclosure.... 'How can we debate tax reform proposals without seeing the president's tax returns?' asked Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.), who sponsored the resolution.... It appears Republicans ... need to be reminded that Congress's job is not to provide slavish political cover for the executive, but rather independent oversight."

AND if you think about this preacher's amazing theory -- adapted from the Bible -- you'll realize that God is a big fan of the Electoral College. On the other hand, couldn't God be punishing us for being so stupid? Medlar & I don't suppose any heavenly beings are paying attention to U.S. politics, but for believers in supernatural interference in worldly matters, Theory B sounds as likely as Theory A. -- Mrs. McCrabbie ...

... THIS TOO. Some 46,000 Floridians have found a brilliant way to confront Hurricane Irma. They plan to shoot at it. ...

... Some of The Hurricane Shootists Probably Voted for These Two Guys. Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "As Irma churned toward the Florida coast, two Republican lawmakers from the state voted against a $15 billion hurricane relief bill, saying that although they want aid to storm victims, they have concerns about other provisions of the measure.GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz and Ted Yoho ... stuck to their principles of fiscal conservatism despite calls from fellow Florida lawmakers to support the bill. The two, who are among the 90 House Republicans who voted against the bill, do not represent parts of the state that are likely to feel Irma's immediate impact as the massive storm makes landfall on mainland United States this weekend.... Both lawmakers had voted for a stand-alone bill that would provide nearly $8 billion in hurricane relief for FEMA.... 'I have a pretty strident view that I will only vote to raise the debt limit if that vote is accompanied with reductions in entitlement spending,' Gaetz said, according to the Miami Herald." Mrs. McC: And I have a pretty strident view that Gaetz doesn't have a clue what the debt limit is about. It doesn't raise spending AT ALL, nor does it in any way justify "entitlement" cuts. Yahoo Yoho says he still expects FEMA to be there for residents of his district.

Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times on the Equifax breach: "We really have no good way, in public policy, to exact some existential punishment on companies that fail to safeguard our data.... Experts said it was highly unlikely that any regulatory body would shut Equifax down over this breach.... Consumers also have piddling rights over how Equifax may continue to use their credit data. 'There's nothing in any statute or anything else that allows you to ask Equifax to remove your data or have all your data disappear if you say you no longer trust it,' said John Ulzheimer, a consumer credit expert who worked at Equifax in the 1990s. But wait, it gets worse. You also can't prevent Equifax from getting any more of your data."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The extremely dangerous Category 4 Irma crashed into the Florida Keys on Sunday morning, unleashing violent wind gusts and storm-surge flooding. Florida's western coast next faces Irma's wrath, and forecasters fear this storm will go down as one of the worst in the state's history.... Coastal waters could rise 10 to 15 feet above normally dry land, inundating homes, businesses and roads, an 'imminent danger,' according to the National Hurricane Center. 'The Keys through Tampa will likely experience the worst storm surge event that area has seen in generations,' said Bill Read, a former Hurricane Center director." ...

... Here are the WashPo's live updates. ...

... Washington Post: "... Hurricane Irma is so strong and its pressure is so low, it's sucking water from its surroundings into the core of the storm." ...

     ... Marie: My neighbor just sent a photo of his riverside yard & wrote that I have 100 feet of beach beyond my seawall right now where there is normally river. Our houses are several miles in from the coast, but the temporary "beach" will send all that water back to haunt us in the surge. ...

... Miami Herald: "Irma's fierce eyewall battered the Lower Keys early Sunday as the record-breaking hurricane descended on the low-lying chain of islands curling off South Florida. The north side of Irma's eye, about 23 miles wide, began brushing Key West at daybreak, hammering the islands with waves and gusty winds. Landfall, which is not officially declared until half the eye comes ashore, is expected any time. Social media posts showed white-topped waves rushing across streets and trees whipping in the wind. At 8 a.m., Irma was located 20 miles southeast of Key West, with sustained winds still reaching 130 mph, National Hurricane Center forecasters said. Irma's eye should move over the Lower Keys shortly, forecasters said, before the storm rolls up Florida's Gulf Coast. Hurricane-force winds extend 80 miles, likely guaranteeing widespread damage. Tropical storm force winds reach another 220 miles from Irma's center." ...

... CNN: "Hurricane Jose is moving away from a string of Caribbean islands -- a welcome reprieve to the area, which was already pummeled earlier this week by Hurricane Irma."

The Commentariat -- September 9, 2017

Mike DeBonis & Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "President Trump signed a bill Friday to deliver $15 billion in disaster aid and also extend government funding and the federal borrowing limit until Dec. 8, despite objections of Republican lawmakers who booed two top White House officials earlier in the day over the deal Trump struck with Democrats. The measure passed a morning House vote 316-90; every member opposed was a Republican.... Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney ... came to Capitol Hill to urge skeptical Republican lawmakers to back the measure. To many GOP members, the administration's messengers were poorly chosen: Mnuchin is a New York financier known for his past as a Democratic fundraiser. Mulvaney is a former House conservative who spent much of his legislative career browbeating GOP leaders over the national debt and budget deficits.... At several points, according to several members and aides, comments from Mnuchin and Mulvaney were met with groans, boos and hisses. Mnuchin, in particular, drew jeers.... 'His last words, and I quote, was, "Vote for the debt ceiling for me,"' said Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), who leads a group of conservative members. 'That did not go over well in the room at all ... His performance was incredibly poor.'" ...

... Rachel Bade & Kyle Cheney of Politico have more on the Mnuchin-Mulvaney "pep talk." Mrs. McC: One confederate called the meeting "almost comical." No, it was comical. ...

... Paul Waldman in the Week: "The cries of anguish and rage reverberated throughout the land. 'He [Trump] f[uck]ed us,' said one anonymous Republican official. 'It's just a betrayal of everything we've been talking about for years as Republicans,' said former Sen. Jim DeMint, who until recently led the conservative Heritage Foundation.... This is all because Republicans wanted to push the debt ceiling past the midterm elections so they wouldn't have to vote on it again -- the same Republicans who pressed one debt ceiling showdown after another while Barack Obama was president.... The first thing that [Republicans] may not get is that [Trump] doesn't really care about them and their fates. Republican leaders don't want to take more debt ceiling votes because of their own lunatic fringe, which is happy to push the United States to the brink of default if they might be able to use the crisis to squeeze out some cuts to the safety net.... Second, Republicans are surprised when everything comes back to the personal with Trump. He's been perturbed by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell's inability to produce legislative 'wins' for him..., so making an agreement with the Democrats was kind of like a 5-year-old saying, 'I wish Mr. Schumer and Ms. Pelosi were my parents!' when he didn't get to eat cookies for breakfast.... The odds that he has an actual opinion about the relative merits of a three-month increase versus an 18-month increase in the debt ceiling are near zero." ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday rejected Republican complaints about his decision to work with Democrats on fiscal and immigration issues, chiding his own party for failing to advance major legislation and calling on congressional leaders to begin overhauling the tax code immediately. As the rift between the president and Republican lawmakers widened, the president argued that he had no choice but to collaborate with the Democratic minority to get business done, especially because the opposition has the power to block bills in the Senate, where Republicans do not have the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster. 'Republicans, sorry, but I've been hearing about Repeal & Replace for 7 years, didn't happen!' he wrote in a series of morning messages on Twitter.... 'Even worse, the Senate Filibuster Rule will never allow the Republicans to pass even great legislation. 8 Dems control -- will rarely get 60 (vs. 51) votes. It is a Repub Death Wish!'"

Tara Palmeri & Josh Dawsey of Politico: "... Donald Trump and his agency heads will meet this weekend as a monster hurricane crashes into Florida.... The Camp David meeting is part team-building after a bruising stretch for the administration, part strategy session on giving the Cabinet more sway and part optics for an image-obsessed president during a natural disaster -- giving him the look, and reality, of having an entire government at his fingertips.... The White House is expected to keep the meeting out of the reach of cameras, and the two-day confab with the president is seen by some cabinet members as an opportunity for some face time with the president now that their free-wheeling access to the Oval Office has been curtailed by [Chief-of-Staff John] Kelly."

Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has alerted the White House that his team will probably seek to interview six top current and former advisers to President Trump who were witnesses to several episodes relevant to the investigation of Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the request. Mueller's interest in the aides, including trusted adviser Hope Hicks, former press secretary Sean Spicer and former chief of staff Reince Priebus, reflects how the probe that has dogged Trump's presidency is starting to penetrate a closer circle of aides around the president.... In addition..., Mueller has notified the White House he will probably seek to question White House counsel Don McGahn and one of his deputies, James Burnham. Mueller's office has also told the White House that investigators may want to interview Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman who works closely with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.... Each of the six advisers was privy to important internal discussions that have drawn the interest of Mueller's investigators, according to people familiar with the probe, including his decision in May to fire FBI Director James B. Comey.... White House officials are expecting that Mueller will seek additional interviews, possibly with family members, including Kushner, who is a West Wing senior adviser, according to the people familiar with Mueller's inquiry.... Also of interest is the White House's initial inaction after warnings about then-national security adviser Michael Flynn's December discussions with Russia's ambassador to the United States. The advisers are also connected to internal documents that Mueller's investigators have asked the White House to produce, according to people familiar with the special counsel's inquiry." ...

... Betsy Woodruff, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Special counsel Robert Mueller increasingly views ... Donald Trump's trip back from the G-20 summit in Europe this July as a critical moment in his investigation. And as part of an attempt to uncover just what happened on that fateful flight, his team is expected to question several White House officials. Among them will be the president's close adviser Hope Hicks. People familiar with the probe tell The Daily Beast that Hicks — the longtime Trump aide who is currently interim White House communications director -- likely has information that will interest Mueller regarding Donald Trump Jr.'s initial claim that his meeting with the Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was just about adoption.... Hicks was on the Air Force One flight back to the United States after the G-20 summit and played a role in drafting the statement on Trump Jr.'s June 2016 meeting between Veselnitskaya and Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Trump Jr.... There are currently efforts underway to organize a legal defense fund for White House staffers.... In most cases, third parties can pay for federal workers' legal defense funds."

To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm, versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced. -- Scott Pruitt, on CNN

... James Hamblin of the Atlantic: "In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said that now is not the time to talk about climate change.... Fortunately this is not a choice that need be made.... We don't have to choose between helping current victims and working to prevent the next tragedy. This is a false dichotomy of the sort that's commonly used to silence talk of prevention and public health that implicates powerful industries. In the wake of mass shootings, for example, the supposed choice is between mourning loss of life and talking about the instruments of violence.

Palace Intrigue, Ctd. Maggie Haberman & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "At a staff meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Trump's new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, announced a number of seemingly quotidian internal moves, capped by the appointment of Kirstjen Nielsen -- his brusque, no-nonsense longtime aide -- as an assistant to the president and his principal deputy. Few outside the White House marked the moment, but inside the building, this was a big deal. Mr. Kelly had just handed day-to-day operations to a forceful, empowered aide some of her new colleagues are already comparing to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the feared Vatican enforcer who eventually became Pope Benedict XVI.... The first step in taming 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Mr. Kelly believes, is installing a No. 2 who is willing to be hated. It is Ms. Nielson who sends out the emails announcing internal policy and planning meetings that now contain a clipped addendum -- 'principals only' -- with a stern warning that any subordinates who wander in will be immediately ejected. She is also responsible for keeping Mr. Kelly's no-fly list of aides he deems to be unfit to attend serious meetings, the most prominent of whom is Omarosa Manigault, the former 'Apprentice' star with ... a penchant for dropping into meetings where she was not invited." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you read to the end, there's a bit about how Trump is treating Gary Cohn, his top economic advisor who criticized the prez* for his abominable response to Charlottesville. I think I may have used Trump's tactic when I was a teenager.

"A Big Fan of the Moon":

Gail Collins offers some alternative ways of looking at some current events. Mrs. McC: It's pretty easy to agree with all or most of the alternatives.

My personal view is we've got to start looking at single-payer. I think we should have hearings.... We're getting there. It's going to happen. -- Former Sen. Max Baucus [D-Montana] at a talk at Montana State University ...

... "Holy Crap. Max Baucus Now Supports Single Payer?" Josh Marshall: "... Baucus was a critical player in passing Obamacare. And since Obamacare was and is a big step forward from where we were before Obamacare, that's a great thing. But it is difficult to overstate the degree to which Baucus was a critical force among Senate Democrats preventing a more progressive version of Obamacare from becoming law. Really, really critical." Mrs. McC: Yeah, Baucus is the kind of guy we might have thought would pull a Pruitt: "Now is not the time to talk about single payer when we should be helping sick people. Good for him for finally seeing the light. In fairness to Baucus, he may have been exactly right to ease into single payer via the cumbersome private-public mishmash that is ObamaCare.

John Bowden of the Hill: "Two GOP lawmakers have turned their fire on President Trump's Justice Department after it announced it would not reconsider its decision not to prosecute Lois Lerner, the IRS employee at the center of the 2013 political-targeting scandal. Reps. Kevin Brady (Texas) and Peter Roskam (Ill.), who sit on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, issued a statement Friday afternoon blasting the Department of Justice and Attorney General Jeff Sessions's 'deeply flawed' decision not to prosecute Lerner criminally.... Lerner was the head of IRS divisions that oversaw tax-exempt groups when requests from conservative groups began to receive more scrutiny by the department. Lerner acknowledged the improper handling of the applications in 2013 shortly before being put on leave by the IRS and eventually retiring. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Lerner in 2015 under former President Obama, but Brady and Roskam wrote a letter in April to Sessions asking him to reconsider the department's decision. In a letter Friday afternoon, Sessions rejected their request, writing that based on a review of the case, it 'would not be appropriate' to reopen the investigation. While 'the Department's investigation uncovered substantial evidence of mismanagement at the IRS,' the Justice letter said, the probe 'had not uncovered evidence of criminal intent by any IRS official.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Unlike these two Congressional jamokes -- who clearly watch too much Fox "News" (see stories below) -- I'm not going to relitigate the Lois Lerner "scandal." But my best recollection was that a confederate-partisan inspector general brought the issue to Congress's attention, & that further investigation & reporting revealed that Lerner's unit also had "targeted" liberal tax-exempt organizations. She may well have been clumsy in her approach, but reviewing the status of these tax-exempt entities, many of which are on the far side of phony, was her job. If anyone wants to correct my recollection, feel free. This appears to be one time Sessions did something right. So probably not his idea.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Dylan Matthews of Vox: "Fox News is, by far, America's dominant TV news channel; in the second quarter of 2017, Fox posted 2.35 million total viewers in primetime versus 1.64 million for MSNBC and 1.06 million for CNN. Given that Fox was founded by a longtime Republican Party operative and has almost exclusively hired conservative commentators ... to host its shows, it would stand to reason that its dominance on basic cable could influence how Americans vote, perhaps even tipping elections. A new study in the American Economic Review (the discipline's flagship journal) ... finds exactly that. Emory University political scientist Gregory Martin and Stanford economist Ali Yurukoglu estimate that watching Fox News directly causes a substantial rightward shift in viewers' attitudes, which translates into a significantly greater willingness to vote for Republican candidates. They estimate that if Fox News hadn't existed, the Republican presidential candidate's share of the two-party vote would have been 3.59 points lower in 2004 and 6.34 points lower in 2008. For context, that would've made John Kerry the 2004 popular vote winner, and turned Barack Obama's 2008 victory into a landslide where he got 60 percent of the two-party vote.... The effects of CNN and MSNBC on centrist voters are mostly negligible...."

Brian Steinberg of Variety: "Fox News Channel will part ways with host Eric Bolling, a host and contributor whose on-air presence at the 21st Century Fox-owned network had been growing in recent months, after allegations surfaced that he had harassed colleagues there, the network confirmed Friday.... Bolling, a former commodities trader and best-selling author, had been a longtime co-host of 'The Five,' and more recently helped launch a new late-afternoon show, 'The Fox News Specialists.' He also anchors the Fox News program 'Cashin' In.'... Bolling had vowed to clear his name. The allegations against Bolling were among the latest personnel issues to roil the network that broadcasts such popular shows as 'Hannity' and 'Fox & Friends.' The parent company, 21st Century Fox, is working to acquire the rest of European broadcaster Sky PLC that it does not already own. Attorneys for several employees who have sued Fox News and activists have used the accusations to suggest British regulators not approve the proposed transaction, which remains under government review."

Adam Raymond of New York: "Chris Christie's term as New Jersey governor ends in January and his highly public search for future employment now has him eyeing a spot with cable-news giants CNN and MSNBC. The wildly unpopular Republican, who has the approval rating of a rush-hour traffic jam, has had discussions about a gig with both networks, CNN reports.... But it obviously wasn't his first choice. A year ago this time, Christie was making (literal) burger runs for President Trump in hopes of landing a position in his Cabinet. But as Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon recently revealed, Christie lost his shot at an appointment when he wouldn't support Trump’s endorsement of sexual assault. He also tried to get Trump to use his germy cell phone, a faux pas in Trumpland." Mrs. McC: I can already hear Brian Williams saying, "And now, let's turn to our own Chris Christie...."

Beyond the Beltway

Brady Dennis & Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has been ubiquitous in recent days as Hurricane Irma bears down on the Sunshine State.... But for all of Scott's vigor in readying Florida for Irma's wrath, his administration has done little over the years to prepare for what scientists say are the inevitable effects of climate change that will wreak havoc in the years to come.... Local officials, academics and even some political allies say Scott has scarcely acknowledged the problem and, along with the Republican-led legislature, has shown little interest in funding projects to help the state adapt and become more resilient in the face of storms such as Irma.... He faced a wave of criticism in 2015 after the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting revealed state employees had been discouraged from using the terms 'climate change' and 'global warming.'... The governor's office has repeatedly insisted no such policy ever existed.... Scott's long-standing refusal to acknowledge an issue that many others view as among Florida's biggest threats has had repercussions, his critics say."