The Commentariat -- September 2, 2017

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday said he would announce a decision by Tuesday on whether he will end the Obama-era program that shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation, declaring 'We love the Dreamers' even as his White House grappled with how to wind down their legal status.... Several administration officials have said in recent days that Mr. Trump is likely to phase out the program, but his advisers have engaged in a vigorous behind-the-scenes debate over precisely how to do so, and the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no decision was final, cautioned that the president was conflicted about the issue and could suddenly change his mind. As a candidate, Mr. Trump pledged to immediately terminate the program, but he has stalled for months.... He told reporters he had 'great feeling for DACA,' while declining to answer repeated questions about whether he believes the program is legal. But in recent days, Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, and Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, have made it clear that they could not defend the program in court, and a group of state attorneys general have threatened to mount a legal challenge if Mr. Trump did not act to end it by Tuesday." Mrs. McC: Let's give a special shout-out to the Evil Elf. ...

... Tal Kopan & Jim Acosta of CNN: "House Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday gave a major boost to legislative efforts to preserve protections for young undocumented immigrants -- and urged ... Donald Trump to not tear up the program. Responding to a question about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, on his hometown radio station WCLO in Janesville, Wisconsin, Ryan said Congress was working on a legislative fix to preserve the program. 'I actually don't think he should do that,' Ryan said of Trump's consideration of terminating the program. 'I believe that this is something that Congress has to fix.'" Mrs. McC: Good thing I took over here. Ryan never paid any attention to the Constant Weader, but he listened to me. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "Many of America's world-leading technology chiefs and dozens of business leaders have sent an open letter to Donald Trump urging him not to kill off the special legal provisions offered to 'Dreamers', people brought to the US illegally as children -- in a drastic move widely expected from the White House on Friday. The Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and other business titans such as Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Tim Cook of Apple and the fashion design legend Diane von Furstenburg appealed to Trump to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or Daca, the policy generated by the Obama administration to protect those who arrived in the US as undocumented children. The letter tells the president that such Dreamers are critical to the future success and competitiveness of American companies, and that the US economy will suffer if the young peoples' job security and protected residency status are stripped away." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... The letter, with a list of its signers, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... And Then There Were Nine. Adam Tamburen of the Tennessean: "Republican Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery no longer supports an effort to pressure ... Donald Trump to end a program that allows young immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally to stay in the country. Slatery announced the reversal Friday in a letter to Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker. In June, he had joined a coalition of [ten] conservative state attorneys general who had threatened to challenge DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, in court if Trump did not eliminate it by Sept. 5. But in his Friday letter, Slatery said his office would not participate in the litigation 'because we believe there is a better approach.' He urged Alexander and Corker, both Tennessee Republicans, to use legislation to establish a permanent policy that would address undocumented immigrants who came here as children."

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The White House is asking Congress for nearly $12 billion as a down payment on Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts, sending Republican leaders a request late Friday for $5.9 billion in immediate aid that will be quickly followed by a request for another $6 billion, administration officials said. The initial funding represents only a fraction of the long-term storm relief for flood-ravaged parts of Texas and Louisiana, which is likely to far exceed the $50 billion in funds allocated to northeastern states in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. President Trump is expected to make a pitch for quick passage of storm funding legislation when he travels on Saturday to the Houston area and to Lake Charles, La., his second trip to the region in the week since the hurricane made landfall at Rockport, Texas, inundating the Gulf Coast with record-breaking floods and rainfall." ...

... New York Times: "Fire engulfed part of a chemical plant northeast of Houston on Friday evening, sending thick black smoke high into the sky, a statement from Arkema, the owner of the plant, confirmed. It was the same facility where, on Thursday, a chemical storage trailer exploded, setting off a fire. Flooding from Harvey, once a Category 4 hurricane that hit southeast Texas last week, had knocked out the refrigeration system needed to keep the chemicals stable. Two trailers were on fire Friday evening, Rachel Moreno, a spokeswoman for the Houston Fire Marshal's office, confirmed. 'There are six more trailers there with the potential to do the same,' she said, but she could not predict whether any more trailers were immediately at risk. The company said in the statement Friday evening, 'We will likely see additional incidents. Please do not return to the area within the evacuation zone until local emergency response authorities announce it is safe to do so.'" Mrs. McC: Is Arkema going to compensate the people who had to leave their homes solely because of the mandatory evacuation caused by their burning mystery chemicals? ...

... Benjamin Wallace-Wells of the New Yorker on the self-fulfilling prophecy of stripped-down governmental resources: "There is a cyclic pattern to the erosion of faith in government, in which politics saps the state's capacity to protect people, and so people put their trust in other institutions (churches; self-organizing volunteer navies), and are more inclined to support anti-government politics. The stories of the storm and the navies exist on a libertarian skeleton. Through them, a particular idea of how society might be organized is coming into view."

Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "The White House has signaled to congressional Republicans that it will not shut down the government in October if money isn't appropriated to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, potentially clearing a path for lawmakers to reach a short-term budget deal. Congress has only appropriated money to fund government operations through the end of September, and President Trump has threatened to shut down the government if lawmakers don't include $1.6 billion in new funding so that 74 new miles of wall and secondary fencing can be added to the border.... Trump could still follow through on a threat to shut down the government in December, but this marks the second time he has pulled back from the wall demand to allow lawmakers to pass a budget bill.... Trump has been threatening to shut down the government for months. In May, he said in another tweet that the government needed a 'good shutdown' to break the gridlock in Congress." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Russia Scandal

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday lashed out anew at the F.B.I. director he fired in May, charging that James B. Comey had 'exonerated' Hillary Clinton before fully completing the investigation into her use of a private email server.... 'Wow, looks like James Comey exonerated Hillary Clinton long before the investigation was over,' Mr. Trump wrote on Friday. 'A rigged system!' Two Republican senators said on Thursday that Mr. Comey had begun drafting his statement recommending not to charge Mrs. Clinton before interviewing key aides in the investigation. The president's message came at the end of a week during which Mr. Trump and his aides have worked to portray the president as singularly focused on the devastating toll of storms pummeling Texas and Louisiana, and to project a more empathetic image for Mr. Trump. Just before posting his complaint about Mr. Comey, Mr. Trump used Twitter to praise the response to the storm, although with a trademark spelling error. 'Texas is heeling fast thanks to all of the great men & women who have been working so hard,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'But still, so much to do. Will be back tomorrow!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... James Downie of the Washington Post on why this attack on Jim Comey is fake: "On Thursday, Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) released a letter in which they claim Comey 'prejudged' the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email practices. Trump latched onto the story ... Friday morning.... Grassley and Graham's letter and the reactions by other Republicans show again that they'll use any excuse to hurt Comey's credibility and by extension special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's inquiry.... [The Grassley-Graham letter provides as 'evidence' the fact that] Comey began to work on a statement exonerating Clinton as early as April 2016, before Clinton herself and some key aides were interviewed.... But it's far from unusual for prosecutors and investigators to draft statements about their conclusions before the investigation is over.... As Washington veterans (and in Graham's case, a former lawyer), the senators likely know this.... If Comey and his team had taken weeks after interviews were finished to draft and announce his decision, Republicans would have claimed he was trying to slow-walk the case.... Besides, as the president admitted and as Grassley and Graham certainly know, Comey was not fired because of his treatment of Clinton.... It's a cheap stunt that both senators should be ashamed of." ...

... Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has obtained a letter that President Trump and a top political aide drafted in the days before Mr. Trump fired the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, which explains the president's rationale for why he planned to dismiss the director. The May letter had been met with opposition from Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, who believed that some of its contents were problematic, according to interviews with a dozen administration officials and others briefed on the matter. Mr. McGahn successfully blocked the president from sending Mr. Comey the letter, which Mr. Trump had composed with Stephen Miller, one of the president's top political advisers. A different letter, written by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, and focused on Mr. Comey's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server, was ultimately sent to the F.B.I. director on the day he was fired. The contents of the original letter appears to provide the clearest rationale that Mr. Trump had for firing Mr. Comey. It is unclear how much of Mr. Trump's rationale focuses on the Russia investigation, although Mr. Trump told aides at the time he was angry that Mr. Comey refused to publicly say that Mr. Trump himself was not under investigation." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "The multi-page letter enumerated Trump’s long-simmering complaints with Comey, according to people familiar with it, including Trump's frustration that Comey was unwilling to say publicly that Trump was not personally under investigation in the FBI's inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.... Mueller is likely to look into whether Trump, in consulting the Justice Department's top two officials, was seeking a pretense to remove the FBI director...." ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Neither the Times nor the WashPo reporters divulge much of what was in the letter, but it sounds as if they know more-or-less what it says. ...

... Josh Marshall speculates on what happened during a "mystery hour" on Air Force 1 -- an hour in which Trump met with Stephen Miller & Jared Kushner -- on the tarmac at Andrews AFB. The meeting took place on the night before Trump called Jeff Sessions & Rod Rosenstein about firing Jim Comey. "However that may be, I think Kushner's role in all of the entire Trump/Russia story is bigger and more central than most of us have understood. One day will find out what happened in that 45 minutes."

Nicole Perlroth, et al., of the New York Times: "After a presidential campaign scarred by Russian meddling, local, state and federal agencies have conducted little of the type of digital forensic investigation required to assess the impact, if any, on voting in at least 21 states whose election systems were targeted by Russian hackers, according to interviews with nearly two dozen national security and state officials and election technology specialists. The assaults on the vast back-end election apparatus -- voter-registration operations, state and local election databases, e-poll books and other equipment -- have received far less attention than other aspects of the Russian interference, such as the hacking of Democratic emails and spreading of false or damaging information about Mrs. Clinton. Yet the hacking of electoral systems was more extensive than previously disclosed, The New York Times found." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Joy Reid explains how the hacking can -- and probably did -- work against Democratic voters. The segment begins at about 3:40 in:

... CBS News/AP: "Acrid, black smoke was seen pouring from a chimney at the Russian consulate in San Francisco Friday, a day after the Trump administration ordered its closure amid escalating tensions between the United States and Russia. Firefighters who arrived at the scene were turned away by consulate officials who came from inside the building. An Associated Press reporter heard people who came from inside the building tell firefighters that there was no problem and that consulate staff were burning unidentified items in a fireplace.... Normally cool San Francisco temperatures had already climbed to 95 degrees by noon." ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Mrs. McCrabbie: Last month, the Constant Weader posted a link to a Nation story by Patrick Lawrence which argued that Russia did not hack the DNC's system. The Weader (and I), especially given the source, found Lawrence's conclusion weird. It turns out, so did a number of his sources, as well as his editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, & other Nation reporters. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post reports. In an e-mail to Wemple, Nation writer Katha Pollitt didn't hold back:

Patrick Lawrence published claims that accorded with his own views and presented them as conclusive. He didn’t even bother to learn that members of VIPS dissented from the report. Nor, apparently, did he consult anyone who knows more about computers than he does, which turns out to be a lot of people. He's a crackpot and a terrible writer, and I've never understood why he was hired in the first place. Katrina should have fired him. Anything less is allowing him much more credence than he deserves, which is no credence at all.

Matt O'Brien of the Washington Post: "President Trump has made the economy so much better that it has added 186,000 fewer jobs in his first seven months than it did in President Barack Obama's last seven months.... It shouldn't be surprising that the economy isn't doing any better under Trump, since Trump really hasn't done anything to make it better. There hasn't been a dollar of new infrastructure spending, let alone the trillion that Trump's since-departed ideological consigliere Steve Bannon promised. And despite the administration's tax cut bravado, it's looking pretty iffy whether it will get that done either.... It is fitting that Trump has tried to take credit for the same economy he said was a disaster.... That's just him running the government like a business -- at least his own. After his casinos went bankrupt in the early 1990s, you see, Trump figured out that it was a lot easier to let other people put his name on things they'd built rather than do so himself. (Well, that and a lot of Wall Street banks wouldn't lend to him anymore). This is no different. Trump is just putting his name on a recovery that Obama put in place with his stimulus and his Federal Reserve picks."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Jim Mattis & Gary Cohn imply what they really think of Donald Trump.

Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Treasury's Office of Inspector General is reviewing the flight taken by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife, Louise Linton, last week to Louisville and Fort Knox, Ky., following criticism of their use of a government plane on a trip that involved viewing the solar eclipse." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Hi, I'm a Right-wing Nutjob!" -- Mick Mulvaney. That's how Trump's budget director introduced himself to White House economic advisor Gary Cohn. Michael Grunwald of Politico writes a longish piece that verifies Mulvaney's self-description. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Glenn Thrush & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times look at the relationship between Donald Trump & Chief-of-Staff John Kelly. It's not all that good. After Trump lashed out at him last month for no good reason, Kelly told White House staffers "he had never been spoken to like that during 35 years of serving his country. In the future, he said, he would not abide such treatment, according to three people familiar with the exchange.... How long Mr. Kelly and the president, two men with such divergent approaches to the common goal of Mr. Trump's success, will be able to coexist is unclear."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Sarah Huckabee Sanders has a reputation for putting off reporters' questions by saying she'd have to get back to them. It often hasn't mattered how simple the subject might be; Sanders is regularly loath to offer an answer. On Friday, the last day before the Labor Day holiday, Sanders had even less to offer than normal." Bump provides an edited transcript of the Q&A, & he puts answers that provided some actual response to the questions in bold-faced type. You'll have to do some serious scrolling to get to the responsive answers.

Dana Bash, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump's longtime aide and current director of Oval Office operations Keith Schiller has told people he intends to leave the White House, three sources familiar with the decision told CNN.... Schiller has told people his primary reason for leaving was financial, the sources said. Schiller earns a $165,000 annual salary at the White House -- a downgrade from his annual earnings before he followed Trump to the White House. Schiller has been a constant presence at Trump's side for nearly two decades and was among a handful of aides from Trump's previous life as a businessman to follow Trump onto the campaign trail and into the White House. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the story was "not true" and declined to comment further. Schiller declined to comment."

Mr. P*, You Are Not the Boss of Us. John McCain in a Washington Post op-ed: "Congress will return from recess next week facing continued gridlock as we lurch from one self-created crisis to another. We are proving inadequate not only to our most difficult problems but also to routine duties.... Our entire system of government -- with its checks and balances, its bicameral Congress, its protections of the rights of the minority -- was designed for compromise.... We have to respect each other or at least respect the fact that we need each other. That has never been truer than today, when Congress must govern with a president who has no experience of public office, is often poorly informed and can be impulsive in his speech and conduct. We must respect his authority and constitutional responsibilities.... But we are not his subordinates. We don't answer to him. We answer to the American people. We must be diligent in discharging our responsibility to serve as a check on his power. And we should value our identity as members of Congress more than our partisan affiliation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Laura Litvan of Bloomberg: "The Senate parliamentarian told lawmakers that Republicans' ability to pass an Obamacare replacement with just 51 votes expires at the end of this month, Senator Bernie Sanders said Friday. The preliminary finding complicates any further efforts by Republican leaders in Congress to pass a comprehensive GOP-only replacement for the health-care law. Sanders ... called the determination a 'major victory' for those who oppose repealing Obamacare.... The parliamentarian's new finding doesn't preclude Republicans in both chambers from seeking to restore the ability to use a 51-vote majority for an Obamacare repeal in the next fiscal year that starts Oct. 1." Mrs. McC: Litvan neither explains the reason for the deadline nor provides a link to Bernie's statement. Hey, Litvan: Who What When Where Why & How....

     ... Rachana Pradhan & John Bresnahan of Politico say it's because September 30 is the end of the fiscal year, & the 51-vote effort was attached to current budget reconciliation rules. AND right now, "the House GOP's budget resolution for fiscal 2018 does not include instructions on health care, which would likely kill the party's chances of an Obamacare repeal redo next year."

Beyond the Beltway

Melissa Gray of CNN: "Salt Lake City police apologized Friday for arresting a nurse who, citing hospital policy, refused to let officers draw blood from an unconscious crash victim. The arrest of Alex Wubbels, who was later released without charge, was captured on body camera video that the police chief said was alarming.... Wubbels, the charge nurse in the burn unit, presented the officers with a printout of hospital policy on drawing blood and said their request did not meet the criteria.... Wubbels' attorney, Karra Porter, said Friday the university and Salt Lake City police had agreed to the policy more than a year ago...." Mrs. McC: Yes, the cops can & will detain & manhandle you for doing the right, lawful thing. I'm guessing that what made the officer so mad was that (1) a woman disobeyed his order, & (2) she provided him with written evidence (and backup from a supervisor) that she was right & he was wrong. As for the Constitution rights of the accident victim, the police officer could not care less.

The Commentariat -- September 1, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday said he would announce a decision by Tuesday on whether he will end the Obama-era program that shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation, declaring 'We love the Dreamers' even as his White House grappled with how to wind down their legal status.... Several administration officials have said in recent days that Mr. Trump is likely to phase out the program, but his advisers have engaged in a vigorous behind-the-scenes debate over precisely how to do so, and the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no decision was final, cautioned that the president was conflicted about the issue and could suddenly change his mind. As a candidate, Mr. Trump pledged to immediately terminate the program, but he has stalled for months.... He told reporters he had 'great feeling for DACA,' while declining to answer repeated questions about whether he believes the program is legal. But in recent days, Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, and Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, have made it clear that they could not defend the program in court, and a group of state attorneys general have threatened to mount a legal challenge if Mr. Trump did not act to end it by Tuesday." Mrs. McC: Let's give a special shout-out to the Evil Elf.

Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "The White House has signaled to congressional Republicans that it will not shut down the government in October if money isn't appropriated to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, potentially clearing a path for lawmakers to reach a short-term budget deal. Congress has only appropriated money to fund government operations through the end of September, and President Trump has threatened to shut down the government if lawmakers don't include $1.6 billion in new funding so that 74 new miles of wall and secondary fencing can be added to the border.... Trump could still follow through on a threat to shut down the government in December, but this marks the second time he has pulled back from the wall demand to allow lawmakers to pass a budget bill.... Trump has been threatening to shut down the government for months. In May, he said in another tweet that the government needed a 'good shutdown' to break the gridlock in Congress."

Nicole Perlroth, et al., of the New York Times: "After a presidential campaign scarred by Russian meddling, local, state and federal agencies have conducted little of the type of digital forensic investigation required to assess the impact, if any, on voting in at least 21 states whose election systems were targeted by Russian hackers, according to interviews with nearly two dozen national security and state officials and election technology specialists. The assaults on the vast back-end election apparatus -- voter-registration operations, state and local election databases, e-poll books and other equipment -- have received far less attention than other aspects of the Russian interference, such as the hacking of Democratic emails and spreading of false or damaging information about Mrs. Clinton. Yet the hacking of electoral systems was more extensive than previously disclosed, The New York Times found."

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday lashed out anew at the F.B.I. director he fired in May, charging that James B. Comey had 'exonerated' Hillary Clinton before fully completing the investigation into her use of a private email server.... 'Wow, looks like James Comey exonerated Hillary Clinton long before the investigation was over,' Mr. Trump wrote on Friday. 'A rigged system!' Two Republican senators said on Thursday that Mr. Comey had begun drafting his statement recommending not to charge Mrs. Clinton before interviewing key aides in the investigation. The president's message came at the end of a week during which Mr. Trump and his aides have worked to portray the president as singularly focused on the devastating toll of storms pummeling Texas and Louisiana, and to project a more empathetic image for Mr. Trump. Just before posting his complaint about Mr. Comey, Mr. Trump used Twitter to praise the response to the storm, although with a trademark spelling error. 'Texas is heeling fast thanks to all of the great men & women who have been working so hard,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'But still, so much to do. Will be back tomorrow!'" ...

... Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has obtained a letter that President Trump and a top political aide drafted in the days before Mr. Trump fired the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, which explains the president's rationale for why he planned to dismiss the director. The May letter had been met with opposition from Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, who believed that some of its contents were problematic, according to interviews with a dozen administration officials and others briefed on the matter. Mr. McGahn successfully blocked the president from sending Mr. Comey the letter, which Mr. Trump had composed with Stephen Miller, one of the president's top political advisers. A different letter, written by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, and focused on Mr. Comey's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server, was ultimately sent to the F.B.I. director on the day he was fired. The contents of the original letter appears to provide the clearest rationale that Mr. Trump had for firing Mr. Comey. It is unclear how much of Mr. Trump's rationale focuses on the Russia investigation, although Mr. Trump told aides at the time he was angry that Mr. Comey refused to publicly say that Mr. Trump himself was not under investigation."

Mr. P*, You Are Not the Boss of Us. John McCain in a Washington Post op-ed: "Congress will return from recess next week facing continued gridlock as we lurch from one self-created crisis to another. We are proving inadequate not only to our most difficult problems but also to routine duties.... Our entire system of government -- with its checks and balances, its bicameral Congress, its protections of the rights of the minority -- was designed for compromise.... We have to respect each other or at least respect the fact that we need each other. That has never been truer than today, when Congress must govern with a president who has no experience of public office, is often poorly informed and can be impulsive in his speech and conduct. We must respect his authority and constitutional responsibilities.... But we are not his subordinates. We don't answer to him. We answer to the American people. We must be diligent in discharging our responsibility to serve as a check on his power. And we should value our identity as members of Congress more than our partisan affiliation."

Tal Kopan & Jim Acosta of CNN: "House Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday gave a major boost to legislative efforts to preserve protections for young undocumented immigrants -- and urged ... Donald Trump to not tear up the program. Responding to a question about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, on his hometown radio station WCLO in Janesville, Wisconsin, Ryan said Congress was working on a legislative fix to preserve the program. 'I actually don't think he should do that,' Ryan said of Trump's consideration of terminating the program. 'I believe that this is something that Congress has to fix.'" Mrs. McC: Good thing I took over here. Ryan never paid any attention to the Constant Weader, but he listened to me. ...

... Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "Many of America's world-leading technology chiefs and dozens of business leaders have sent an open letter to Donald Trump urging him not to kill off the special legal provisions offered to 'Dreamers', people brought to the US illegally as children -- in a drastic move widely expected from the White House on Friday. The Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and other business titans such as Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Tim Cook of Apple and the fashion design legend Diane von Furstenburg appealed to Trump to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or Daca, the policy generated by the Obama administration to protect those who arrived in the US as undocumented children. The letter tells the president that such Dreamers are critical to the future success and competitiveness of American companies, and that the US economy will suffer if the young peoples' job security and protected residency status are stripped away." ...

     ... The letter, with a list of its signers, is here.

"Hi, I'm a Right-wing Nutjob!" -- Mick Mulvaney. That's how Trump's budget director introduced himself to White House economic advisor Gary Cohn. Michael Grunwald of Politico writes a longish piece that verifies Mulvaney's self-description.

Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Treasury's Office of Inspector General is reviewing the flight taken by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife, Louise Linton, last week to Louisville and Fort Knox, Ky., following criticism of their use of a government plane on a trip that involved viewing the solar eclipse."

*****

** The Oligarch. Jonathan Chait: "The version of Donald Trump who appeared [Wednesday] in Missouri was ... [of] a populist outsider, enemy of the Establishment, and traitor to his class. He pledged to ... protect 'ordinary Americans who don't have an army of accountants.' At one point, he claimed in an aside, 'I'm speaking against myself when I do this, I have to tell you.' The message, in other words, was almost the perfect inverse of the actual policy Trump was selling: a large regressive tax cut that has thrilled the party Establishment, the economic elite, and Washington lobbyists. Trump has done many shocking things in office, but most of them follow directly, even explicitly, from the persona he put on full display during the campaign.... His utter subservience to the party's donor class breaks from the pattern. It is a complete reversal of his promise to 'drain the swamp.'... The spectacular and telegenic failures of the Trump administration are obscuring the highly effective policies under way. Trump has transformed the government into an apparatus for protecting and enriching incumbent wealth. His chaos and incompetence are tolerable to his party because Trump is fashioning an American oligarchy."

Poor, Pitiful Me. Philip Rucker & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "Behind the scenes during a summer of crisis..., Trump appears to pine for the days when the Oval Office was a bustling hub of visitors and gossip, over which he presided as impresario. He fumes that he does not get the credit he thinks he deserves from the media or the allegiance from fellow Republican leaders he says he is owed. He boasts about his presidency in superlatives, but confidants privately fret about his suddenly dark moods. And some of Trump's friends fear that the short-tempered president is on an inevitable collision course with White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly.... Meanwhile, people close to the president said he is simmering with displeasure over what he considers personal disloyalty from National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn.... He also has grown increasingly frustrated with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.... This portrait of Trump as he enters what could be his most consequential month in office is based on interviews with 15 senior White House officials, outside advisers and friends of the president."

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "The Trump administration is urging Congress to provide $5.95 billion for response and initial recovery efforts related to Hurricane Harvey, a senior administration official told Axios. Bloomberg broke the news of the requested aid package. Budget director Mick Mulvaney is calling Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill tonight and tomorrow, asking them to support the funding. The official said the Trump administration believes the requested amount will be more than enough to support hurricane recovery efforts until the end of the year. Of the total, $5.5 billion would go to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and $450 million to the Small Business Administration for their disaster relief efforts." Emphasis original. ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump is pledging to donate $1 million toward hurricane disaster relief in Texas and Louisiana, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday.... Before taking office, Trump, a real estate baron and television personality, had a history of overstating his charitable giving and taking credit for donations that came from other sources, as documented in a series of stories last year in The Washington Post. [Sarah] Sanders said the president has not settled on specific charities and wants to solicit advice from the media." Sanders didn't know where the donation was coming from -- from Trump personally or from some entity he controls. Mrs. McC: Uh, Trump is asking the media to suggest worthy charities? Would that be the fake media or from the Trump media? ...

... mike pence hugs a victim of Hurricane Harvey. Mission Clean-up-apres-Trump accomplished:

... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday offered up a playbook for ... Donald Trump's follow-up visit to hurricane-ravaged Texas this weekend, hugging storm victims, directly offering words of encouragement, and dripping sweat as he helped clear debris. Pence -- who is always cautious about upstaging the president -- literally followed in Trump's footsteps, flying with his wife to Corpus Christi, Texas, two days after the president and first lady Melania Trump had flown there and received updates from officials on the response effort to Hurricane Harvey.... But while Trump courted controversy by barely mentioning the victims and boasting about the crowds who greeted him, his No. 2 took a more classic approach to offering comfort in the wake of a widespread natural disaster. Pence's trip was no-frills and low key. There was no buzz over second lady Karen Pence's footwear -- she was photographed wearing black flats -- or the vice president's headwear -- he didn't wear a hat, let alone one being advertised on the Trump campaign website. Unlike Trump, who claimed Wednesday to have witnessed 'first hand the horror & devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey,' it was Pence who actually met with storm survivors and slipped on blue gloves to help remove branches from fallen trees outside a battered home in Rockport. And unlike the first lady, the second lady didn't release a statement on the storm. She instead led a group in prayer." ...

... Julie Turkewitz, et al., of the New York Times: "A series of explosions at a flood-damaged chemical plant outside Houston on Thursday drew sharp focus on hazards to public health and safety from the city's vast petrochemical complex as the region begins a painstaking recovery from Hurricane Harvey. The blasts at the plant, owned by the French chemical company Arkema, came after its main electrical system and backups failed, cutting off refrigeration systems that kept volatile chemicals stable. While nearby residents had been evacuated, 15 public safety officers were treated at a hospital after inhaling smoke from chemical fires that followed the explosions. The Arkema plant has been identified as one of the most hazardous in the state. Its failure followed releases of contaminants from several other area petrochemical plants and systemic breakdowns of water and sewer systems in Houston and elsewhere in the storm-struck region. The explosions -- more are expected, the company said -- will bring fresh scrutiny on whether these plants are adequately regulated and monitored by state and federal safety officials." The story includes more news about the effects of the hurricane. ...

... Steve Mufson, et al., of the Washington Post: "The [Arkema Crosby] plant had 19.5 tons of organic peroxides of various strengths, all of them requiring refrigeration to prevent ignition. But the power went out, and then the floodwaters came and knocked out the plant's generators. A liquid nitrogen system faltered. In a last-ditch move, the workers transferred the chemicals to nine huge refrigerated trucks, each with its own generator, and moved the vehicles to a remote section of the plant. That was doomed to fail, too. Six feet of water swamped the trucks, and the final 11 workers gave up. At 2 a.m. Tuesday, they called for a water evacuation and left the plant to its fate." Mrs. McC: So, um, the workers didn't drive the trucks to higher ground??? You can see a total of 10 trucks in the photo accompanying the NYT story, linked above; eight are on ground that was not flooded at the time the photo was taken; two are in what I would guess is the flooded parking lot. ..."

     ... There's More: "In February, Arkema's Crosby plant was initially fined $107,918 for 10 OSHA violations, federal records show. The violations were marked as 'serious,' meaning they could cause serious physical injury or worker deaths if not remedied.... The government later reduced the fines to about $91,000. Arkema also agreed to a settlement with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in January stemming from a leak of a toxic and flammable compound in June 2016, state records show. The plant released 4,800 pounds of isoamylene after workers left a valve partially open for 62 hours.... A state inspection of the facility months earlier also found seven violations. The TCEQ lists the company's overall compliance history as 'satisfactory,' however." ...

... David Sirota in International Business Times: "The rules, which were set to go into effect this year, were halted by the Trump administration after a furious lobbying campaign by plant owner Arkema and its affiliated trade association, the American Chemistry Council, which represents a chemical industry that has poured tens of millions of dollars into federal elections.... While Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has given chemical companies legal cover to hide the locations of their EPA-regulated chemicals, the Associated Press reports that the imperiled Arkema facility houses large amounts of toxic sulfur dioxide and flammable methylpropene, which required Arkema to submit a risk management plan to the agency -- and which would have subjected the company to the strengthened [Obama] safety rules.... The American Chemistry Council also lauded Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton for co-authoring a letter slamming the chemical plant safety rule.... Among the 65 co-sponsors of the measure to block the rules were 10 members of the Texas Congressional delegation...."

... Matthew Daly of the AP: "The Trump administration delayed an Obama-era rule that would have tightened safety requirements for companies that store large quantities of dangerous chemicals such as the chemical plant near Houston that exploded early Thursday. The Environmental Protection Agency rule would have required chemical plants, including the now-destroyed Arkema Inc., plant outside Houston, to make public the types and quantities of chemicals stored on site. The rule was developed after a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, exploded in 2013, killing 15 people. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt prevented the safety rule from taking effect until 2019 to allow the agency time to reconsider industry objections. Chemical companies, including Arkema, said the rule could make it easier for terrorists and other criminals to target refineries, chemical plants and other facilities." ...

... Ben Lefebvre & Alex Guillen of Politico: "Explosions and fires at a Houston-area chemical plant ... generated new criticism of ... Donald Trump's efforts to repeal the industry's safety rules. Thursday morning's blasts at the plant came just a day after a federal court refused to force the Environmental Protection Agency to implement an Obama-era chemical safety regulation that the Trump administration has delayed until 2019.... [Also] Trump's proposed budget for next year would eliminate all funding for the [federal Chemical Safety B]oard, which issues safety recommendations but cannot directly enforce regulations.... Collapsed chemical tank roofs, machinery malfunctions and other accidents in the Houston area have sent more than 1,000 tons of dangerous chemicals into the air following days of pummeling from Harvey, according to a Politico analysis of incident filings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Sometimes, toxic chemicals sit in huge storage tanks that border residents' backyards.... Texas' famously lax site regulations and inspection rates will make normally straightforward emergency response problematic, as firefighters and others may not know whether a storage site's equipment is up to date or even what chemicals it's storing, said Elena Craft, a senior health scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund in Austin."

** Anonymous Officials Say HHS Will Gut ObamaCare Funds. Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is gutting federal funds to help Americans sign up for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, cutting grants to grass-roots groups that assist with enrollment by 40 percent and slashing an advertising budget from $100 million to $10 million. The announcement late Thursday afternoon, just nine weeks before the start of the fifth annual enrollment season, is the first indication of how an administration determined to overturn the health-care law will oversee the window for new and returning consumers buying coverage for 2018. In a conference call with reporters, three federal health officials extended the White House's pattern of denigrating the ACA and its effectiveness. They also reversed a promise that Health and Human Services staff had made two months ago to nearly 100 organizations receiving 'navigator' grants that their funding would be renewed.... The HHS officials ... briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.... The magnitude and abruptness of the cuts sparked an immediate outcry from the Senate's top Democrats, consumer advocacy groups and members of the Obama administration, who had relentlessly championed ACA enrollment until they left office eight months ago."

** Anita Kumar & Franco Ordoñez of McClatchy News: "... Donald Trump is expected to end an Obama-era program that shielded young people from deportation, but he will likely let the immigrants known as Dreamers stay in the United States until their work permits run out, according to multiple people familiar with the policy negotiation. That plan would allow Trump to fulfill a campaign promise to end one of Barack Obama's signature initiatives while also giving the president a way to keep the pledge he made after Inauguration Day to treat the Dreamers with 'great heart,' said sources on both sides of the issue who are involved in the discussions. An announcement could come as soon as Friday, just days before a deadline imposed by 10 states that threatened to sue the U.S. government if it did not stop protecting people brought into the country illegally as children.... 'He's been advised that it's in his political interest for him to be the one to make the decision to terminate the program because he'll get the credit,' said a source who is familiar with the conversations inside the White House." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: Here again, Congress could show its collective "great heart" & fix Trump's cold-hearted plan almost immediately. This is much simpler than comprehensive immigration reform, & most Americans -- including 75 percent of Trump voters -- favor allowing Dreamers to stay in the U.S. Indeed, there's already a GOP-backed bill -- the Recognizing America's Children Act ... sitting in some committee that would allow most Dreamers to stay in the country. Of course, any such bill would probably have to pass with a veto-proof majority unless Trump's "great heart" led him to call the bill a victory for "repealing & replacing" President Obama's DACA & then quietly signing the bill or letting the veto period pass. The Hill reported a couple of days ago that Rep. Carlos Curbelo's (R-Fla.) has attached pro-DACA "amendments to a government spending bill slated for House floor consideration next week." Also, I don't see how it's in Trump's "political interest" to deport Dreamers when even his own voters oppose the draconian policy. ...

... AND Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) said Thursday he'll attempt to force a vote on a bill that would extend protections for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors. When he returns to Washington next week, Coffman said he'll file what's known as a 'discharge petition' to force action on his proposal, known as the BRIDGE Act. If he can persuade a majority of the House -- 218 members -- to join him, the House will be required to take up the measure later in September.... The measure extends protection -- similar to that afforded under DACA -- to those born after June 15, 1981, were brought to the United States before their 16th birthday and have lived in the United States since June 15, 2007. Applicants for protection must also be enrolled in school, have graduated from high school or have served honorably in the military. And those convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanors would be barred from the program. Coffman's call is likely to draw support from Democrats, as well as other Republicans...." ...

... MEANWHILE, Cristian Farias, in New York, writes that the "deadline" supposedly imposed on Trump is totally fake. "Texas's threat lacks merit, is internally inconsistent, and there's little evidence that it was dreamed up for any other reason than political grandstanding. If Trump is the grand negotiator that he claims he is, he would be well advised to ignore it. First things first: [horrible Texas AG Ken] Paxton's 'deadline' is a sham. Federal policy that applies nationwide doesn't rise or fall because someone threatens a lawsuit. And any president, no matter the party, would look weak if his decision-making depended on a cease-and-desist letter that shows up in the mail.... [To end DATA] would be a political disaster for Trump. Dreamers remain a popular group with Democrats and Republicans alike, are a boon to the economy...."

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The Trump administration signaled on Thursday that the black abolitionist Harriet Tubman may not replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill after all. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin declined to endorse the plan for a 2020 redesign of the $20 bill that was announced by the Obama administration last year. 'People have been on the bills for a long period of time,' Mr. Mnuchin told CNBC. 'This is something we'll consider. Right now we've got a lot more important issues to focus on.' President Trump, who has described himself as a 'big fan' of the populist rabble-rousing president from Tennessee, made clear as a candidate that he didn't like the proposal to replace Jackson."

David Sanger & Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "The world's nuclear inspectors complicated President Trump's effort to find Iran in violation of the two-year-old nuclear accord with the United States and five other world powers, declaring on Thursday that the latest inspections found no evidence that the country is breaching the agreement. Mr. Trump has made no secret of his desire to scrap the agreement, even over the objections of many of his top national security officials. But the reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency make it harder to create an argument that Iran is in violation."

Daniel Bice & Bill Glauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. -- the controversial, Stetson-wearing official who rose to national prominence with his no-holds-barred conservative rhetoric -- resigned his office Thursday. Clarke, who is in his fourth term, submitted a resignation letter to Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson on Thursday. 'After almost forty years serving the great people of Milwaukee County, I have chosen to retire to pursue other opportunities,' Clarke said in a statement." ...

... Andrew Restuccia, et al., of Politico: "David Clarke, the controversial outgoing sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, is expected to take a job in the Trump administration, according to two sources familiar with the matter.... But he has come under fierce criticism amid a series of deaths in the Milwaukee County prison, including that of Terrill Thomas, who died of dehydration last year after guards turned off the water in his cell. Trump has been one of Clarke's most vocal cheerleaders, and even promoted his book on Twitter earlier this month.... Clarke likely won't be offered a Senate-confirmed role because his nomination would face opposition from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle." See also the Slate story, linked yesterday, which likens Clarke to Joe Arpaio. Mrs. McC: ... And that is what makes Clarke Trump's kind of guy.

Kimberly Hefling of Politico: Candice Jackson, "who runs the Education Department's civil rights division cited her work attacking Bill and Hillary Clinton at the top of her resume when she applied to work for ... Donald Trump, according to a copy of the document obtained by Politico.... Jackson, who brought a group of women who had accused President Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct to a presidential debate last year between Trump and Hillary Clinton, listed that event as one of her 'top five qualifications' for working in the administration. At the Education Department, Jackson has taken a prominent role helping Education Secretary Betsy DeVos shape federal policy pertaining to protections for transgender students and the handling of campus sexual assault cases. She drew fire in June for telling The New York Times that 90 percent of campus sexual assault cases 'fall into the category of "we were both drunk."'" Mrs. McC: And that is what makes Jackson Trump's kind of gal.

This Should Work, Noor Al-Sibai of the Raw Story: "In a series of legal memoranda submitted on behalf of ... Donald Trump to special counsel Robert Mueller, lawyers for the president attacked fired FBI Director James Comey's character as a means of defending the president. According to sources close to the case who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, the president's legal team submitted a memo to Mueller in June that claimed Comey was an 'unreliable witness' because he is 'prone to exaggeration, unreliable in congressional testimony and the source of leaks to the news media.'" ...

... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "Special counsel Bob Mueller has teamed up with the IRS. According to sources familiar with his investigation into alleged Russian election interference, his probe has enlisted the help of agents from the IRS' Criminal Investigations unit. This unit -- known as CI -- is one of the federal government's most tight-knit, specialized, and secretive investigative entities. Its 2,500 agents focus exclusively on financial crime, including tax evasion and money laundering. A former colleague of Mueller's said he always liked working with IRS' special agents, especially when he was a U.S. Attorney.... If [Mueller] wants to bring charges against Trump associates related to violations of tax law, he will need approval from the Justice Department's elite Tax Division. Trump hasn't yet named his pick to run the division, which is a post that requires Senate confirmation. At the moment, career officials are helming the division.... 'The fact that there is not a senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division, and that the Trump people have disregarded it despite warnings as far back as December that they needed to fill the AAG's spot ... shows what a self-created mess the Trump administration has found itself in,' said [a] former prosecutor, who requested anonymity.... 'They have no one to keep Mueller and his Brooklyn team honest. They should be concerned about that.'" ...

... Jonathan Chait (Aug. 30): Robert "Mueller is apparently handling his investigating like the prosecution of a mob boss, pressuring underlings to flip on the boss. Trump's advantage is that, unlike a mob boss, he can give out an unlimited number of get-out-of-jail-free cards. Trump has reportedly mused in public about using the pardon -- and his pardon of Joe Arpaio flaunted his willingness to use it on behalf of a political ally, even in outrageous fashion. But it turns out that there is a flaw in Trump's strategy. The presidential pardon only applies to federal crimes.... [So] Mueller is teaming up with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.... Trump can pardon anybody facing charges from Mueller, but not from Schneiderman. It is probably significant that Mueller is letting this fact be known to Trump's inner circle. Trump's biggest source of leverage over Mueller just disappeared."

... Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Paul Manafort's notes from a controversial Trump Tower meeting with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign included a mention of political contributions near a reference to the Republican National Committee, two sources briefed on the evidence told NBC News.... It is illegal for foreigners to donate to American elections. The meeting happened just as Trump had secured the Republican nomination for president, and he was considered a longshot to win. Manafort was the campaign chairman at the time.... Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni told NBC News that 'it is 100 percent false to suggest this meeting included any discussion of donations from Russian sources to either the Trump campaign or the Republican Party. Mr. Manafort provided the Senate Intelligence Committee with the facts and his notes so this speculation and conjecture is pointless and wrong.'"

Richard Gonzales of NPR: "A federal judge temporarily blocked an anti-abortion law set to take effect in Texas on Friday that would have limited second trimester abortions in that state. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel issued an injunction lasting 14 days that prevents Texas from outlawing an abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation, commonly used on women seeking to terminate their pregnancies in their second trimester. In his ruling, Yeakel wrote, 'The act leaves that woman and her physician with abortion procedures that are more complex, risky, expensive, difficult for many women to arrange, and often involve multi-day visits to physicians, and overnight hospital stays.' The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by abortion providers who argued that the Texas law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in May, would deny women access to a safe procedure."

News Lede

Washington Post: "Job growth lagged in August, with the economy adding a lower-than-projected 156,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticking up slightly to 4.4 percent. Average hourly wages rose 3 cents last month to $26.39, up 2.5 percent from a year ago -- a raise economists call tepid and government officials say 'has room for improvement.' The growth missed expectations, as analysts thought federal economists would report approximately 200,000 new jobs in August."

The Commentariat -- August 31, 2017

For the record, here is mike pence hugging a victim of Hurricane Harvey. Mission Clean-up-apres-Trump accomplished:

*****

Rex Is Off the Reservation Now. Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "The Trump administration is ordering Russia to shutter a consulate in San Francisco as well as annexes in Washington and New York, the State Department announced Thursday. The move was positioned as a response 'in the spirit of parity' to the Russian government's order that the United States cut down the number of diplomatic personnel in Russia, which a State spokesman described as 'unwarranted and detrimental.' Moscow is ordered to close the facilities by Saturday."

AP: "The United States flew some of its most advanced warplanes -- including two nuclear-capable bombers -- to South Korea on Thursday for bombing drills intended as a show of force against North Korea. A South Korean military official confirmed the joint operation to NBC News, adding that the aircraft later returned safely to their home bases."

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: You may want to look at the photographic "evidence" Trump provided to "prove" he "witness[ed] first hand the horror & devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey." ...

... MEANWHILE, meany-nitpicker Aaron Blake of the fake-news Amazon Washington Post begs to differ: "A reporter asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about this ["first-hand" claim] later Wednesday, and her answer was ... something: 'He met with a number of state and local officials who are eating, sleeping, breathing the Harvey disaster. He talked extensively with the governor, who certainly is right in the midst of every bit of this, as well as the mayors from several of the local towns that were hit hardest. And detailed briefing information throughout the day yesterday talking to a lot of the people on the ground. That certainly is a firsthand account.' No, it's not. That's a *second*hand account -- the very definition of one, in fact." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Besides, Aaron, a guy who gets all his briefings from Fox "News" instead of from the living, breathing briefers who come sit with him in the Oval every day (or every day he lets them in) is bound to think that looking at a real, big ole radar screen instead of the picture of one he sees on the teevee is "first hand."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump's public electoral threat Wednesday against Sen. Claire McCaskill during a speech in Missouri on tax reform triggered another round of questions about the administration's blurring the line between partisan politics and official business. Speaking at an industrial-fan factory in Springfield, Trump singled out McCaskill, a Democrat who is up for reelection next year in a state the president won decisively in 2016. 'We must -- we have no choice -- we must lower our taxes. And your senator, Claire McCaskill, she must do this for you, and if she doesn't do it for you, you have to vote her out of office,' Trump said to loud applause and whistling from the audience.... Trump is not covered by the Hatch Act, the federal law prohibiting politicking while on official duty, but White House officials are subject to the measure. 'The Office of Special Counsel should examine very closely if staffers were involved in the preparation of these remarks,' said Nick Schwellenbach, a former OSC official...."

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Eric Trump ripped negative media coverage of his father during a radio interview Wednesday, saying that a person 'would end up killing yourself out of depression' if they got as much negative coverage as the president.... 'It's the media, the mainstream media, who does not want [President Trump] to succeed. It's government who does not want him to succeed.... No matter what he does, he's going to get hit, and listen, I think you have to tune it out.' He added that his father wasn't being attacked by just the media, but by everyone in politics in general, including people 'in their marble offices.'" Mrs. McC: If I'm not mistaken, Trump Tower, where Eric helps run pop's vast empire, has pink marble glued to nearly every standing surface. Eric's efforts to sound like a populist ring a tad hollow, like the sound of cleats on pink marble floors.

Rebecca McCray of Slate: Joe "Arpaio’s tactics, while outrageous, aren't as anomalous as we'd like to think they are. In counties across the United States, elected sheriffs oversee their communities and jails using variations on the same methods. The difference is that they typically get less press coverage and that the courts rarely hold them accountable for their actions. The foremost example of an Arpaio-like figure is David Clarke. The Trump-endorsed author and sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, runs a jail system rife with abuse and fatalities...." McCray cites several other sheriffs. "This handful of examples includes a number of instances in which a sheriff was investigated. But investigations like these, much less guilty verdicts like Arpaio's, are atypical."

*****

AP, via digby: "... Donald Trump is promising billions to help Texas rebuild from Hurricane Harvey, but his Republican allies in the House are looking at cutting almost $1 billion from disaster accounts to help finance the president's border wall. The pending reduction to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief account is part of a spending bill that the House is scheduled to consider next week when Congress returns from its August recess. The $876 million cut, part of the 1,305-page measure's homeland security section, pays for roughly half the cost of Trump's down payment on a U.S.-Mexico border wall." (The AP story was a brief, & it's moved since Wednesday morning.) ...

... digby: "There's only 2.3 billion left in the disaster fund anyway, so they'll probably leave it alone. But Trump is going out on the stump to hold a rally for tax cuts as we speak. Today. While southeastern Texas is still drowning. He's running the country like one of his failed casinos." (Linked above.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Hey, digby, Trump went to Texas way back on Tuesday, remarked on how yuge the storm was, bragged about the great job his people were doing, cheered on a small crowd of supporters, & left. He's doesn't have time for drowning people. Tax cuts for Donald Trump -- now that's worth some effort. ...

After witnessing first hand the horror & devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey,my heart goes out even more so to the great people of Texas! -- Donald J. Trump August 30, 2017

Our reporting does not match claim that @POTUS witnessed any horror or devastation first hand. -- Todd Gillman of the Dallas Morning News, in a tweet

In the past, Trump has viciously attacked others for making similarly misleading claims. Most memorably, Trump and his supporters mercilessly went after former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams after a 2015 segment in which the reporter misrepresented events that happened during his 2003 Iraq War coverage. -- Caroline Orr of Shareblue ...

... Katie Leslie of the Dallas Morning News: "Vice President Mike Pence is heading for Texas on Thursday to survey Hurricane Harvey's destruction and meet with storm survivors.... Pence, notably, is expected to meet with people affected by the storm. According to the White House, he will travel with second lady Karen Pence and several Cabinet members, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the former Texas governor. Also traveling with Pence: Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke. In Corpus Christi they'll meet with Gov. Greg Abbott and Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi." Mrs. McC: All, except Pajama Boy Fahrenthold, have explicit instructions to hug & commiserate with flood victims & say they're hugging & commiserating for the President*. ...

... Anthea Butler, in a New York Times op-ed: "Before it began to rain in Houston last week, the spectacularly wealthy pastor Joel Osteen could have opened up his megachurch to ... evacuees.... Instead he wrote tweets like 'God's got this' and 'don't drift into doubt and fear ... stay anchored to hope.'... On Sunday, Mr. Osteen's church announced that it was inaccessible because of 'flooding.' But intrepid journalists proved otherwise. After Mr. Osteen was humiliated on social media, he finally opened the 16,800-seat church to the public on Tuesday. When asked about the delay, Mr. Osteen said that 'the city didn't ask us to become a shelter.' President Trump, too, revealed his morally bankrupt soul during the storm when he said that he timed his pardon of the racist former sheriff Joe Arpaio to coincide with the hurricane's landfall because he assumed that it would garner 'far higher' TV ratings than usual. Mr. Trump did visit Texas, but there was apparently no mention of dead or displaced Texans, and no expressions of sympathy. Mr. Trump and Mr. Osteen ... both enjoy enormous support among evangelicals, yet they lack a command of biblical scripture. Both are among the 1 percent.... Mr. Trump's and Mr. Osteen's brands are rooted in success, not Scripture. Believers in prosperity like winners.... Mr. Trump and Mr. Osteen unwittingly revealed its ugly underbelly: the smugness, the self-aggrandizing posturing. It has co-opted many in the Republican Party, readily visible in their relentless desire to strip Americans of health care, disaster relief and infrastructure funding." ...

... AND Then There's Mattress Mack. The Week: "On Sunday, Jim 'Mattress Mack' McIngvale, the owner of Gallery Furniture, opened the doors of his Houston-area furniture emporia to people flooded out of their homes by Tropical Storm Harvey. Since then, he and his employees, plus volunteers, have rescued, housed, and fed about 400 people, and also provided a place to unwind for a National Guard unit. His 24-foot furniture trucks 'picked up about 200 people,' McIngvale told ABC News on Wednesday. 'They were stranded on bridges, they were stranded in convenience stores, they were walking through the water with snakes and alligators, and we brought 'em out here.' When the flood evacuees arrived, McIngvale said, he told them to make themselves at home, on the twin theories that 'furniture's made to be sat on, slept on, laid on, whatever,' and 'to hell with profits, let's take care of people.' He still plans to sell the furniture when his store is just a store again. 'We'll have a Harvey floor model sale, or something -- I'll come up with some shtick,' he told ABC News. 'This is the right thing to do. That's the way I was brought up.'" ...

Our GF N FWRY & GF Grand PKWY stores are open for those in need. If you can safely join us, we invite you for shelter and food. God Bless. pic.twitter.com/IHHgjKmjMY

— MattressMack (@MattressMack) August 28, 2017

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm happy to say Melbar & I purchased a knock-off Lutyens bench from Mattress Mack when last we were in Houston.

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday pitched a sweeping tax overhaul that he said would unleash the American economy and growth to help ordinary people, promising that a vague recipe of large corporate tax cuts and individual tax reductions would boost the middle class. Wrapping his message in the populist rhetoric that powered his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump ... offered few specifics beyond a goal of a 15 percent corporate tax rate, down from 35 percent. The politically difficult legislation has yet to be drafted despite months of private negotiations between members of his administration and Republicans on Capitol Hill.... Democrats seized on the disconnect between Mr. Trump's tax-cutting message and the large reductions for businesses and high earners that he has championed, vowing to fight what they called a gift to the rich cloaked in populist language.... Many economists, too, rejected the premise underlying Mr. Trump's stated priorities, arguing that large corporate tax cuts would do relatively little -- particularly in the near term -- to boost wages or create jobs, instead helping the wealthiest Americans who can afford to invest.... The already long odds of completing a plan and signing it into law before year's end appear to be dwindling." ...

     ... Ms. McCrabbie: Donald Trump even outdoes the U.S.'s heretofore favorite flim-flam man Paul Ryan. Most of the time Trump doesn't know what he's talking about, but on taxes, he knows. Ergo, he's straight-out lying, not just making up phony stuff. ...

... Damian Paletta & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Unlike his boisterous rallies, Trump rarely strayed from carefully worded remarks.... Trump closely followed the economic vision many Republicans have tried to advance for years -- namely that cutting corporate taxes will grow the economy, lead companies to pay workers higher wages, spur those workers to spend more money and help grow the economy.... The speech had Trump's trademark lofty promises -- he said numerous times the tax cut plan he envisioned would reshape the U.S. economy and the morale of workers who 'will love getting up in the morning. They will love going to work.'... On tax reform [unlike on repeal & replace], the White House is planning a series of pitches by Trump himself, building on his remarks Wednesday.... [Speaking in Missouri,] Trump ... [said] there could be political consequences for Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, who is up for reelection next November, if she doesn't support the bill.... Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that Democrats were open to discussing changes to the tax code but they would oppose any plan that is not squarely focused on the middle class and that would add to government debt, saying it would lead to Republicans later targeting programs such as Social Security or Medicare for savings." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Obviously, Trump is working on tax "reform" where he did nothing but whine about repeal & replace & never knew what was in the various abominable GOP proposals; he really, really wants that huge tax cut for himself & his family. Of course in both cases, let the public be damned. ...

... Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics. Glenn Kessler & Michelle Lee of the Washington Post lie-check Trump's speech. Mrs. McC: Evidently Trump's speechwriters & talking-points preparers are big fat liars, too. ...

... David Dayen in the Nation: "A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies shows [that] ... US companies are already paying minimal amounts in corporate taxes, and the ones most likely under Republican theory to pour tax savings into job creation have instead been more likely to cut their workforce over the past nine years. The data shows [sic.!] that low corporate tax rates more often lead to increases in CEO pay and boosts for shareholders.... 'If claims about the job creation benefits of lower tax rates had any validity,' report author Sarah Anderson writes, 'the 92 consistently profitable tax-dodging firms we identified would be among the nation's strongest job creators.' But the lower rates didn't correspond to job creation. Collectively, the 92 profitable corporations cut jobs by 0.74 percent over the period studied, from 2008-16. During that same time, the private sector added jobs at a 6 percent clip. So low-tax corporations did far worse on hiring than their counterparts." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: Yeah but those are factual statistics, & they have no place in any Republican brain, much less in any policy considerations.

This Is What Corruption Looks Like. Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "Donald Trump called a senior Republican senator from Iowa [Chuck Grassley] on Wednesday whose congressional committee is investigating his son, Donald Trump Jr, and promised him critical federal support for the biofuel ethanol, a key issue for the lawmaker. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee and a major advocate of the ethanol industry, announced on Twitter that he had received a phone call from Trump and had been assured by the US president that Trump was 'pro ethanol' and was 'standing by his campaign promise' to support the biofuel. The phone call came less than a day after CNN reported that Trump's eldest son had reached an agreement with the committee to appear in a private session and answer investigators' questions.... It is not clear, however, how Trump will make good on his promise to Grassley. Bloomberg reported in June that US ethanol producers were concerned that oil industry lobbyists who oppose important biofuel mandates could hold sway over Trump's Environmental Protection Agency...." ...

     ... Mrs McCrabbie: Yo, Chuck. You might want to take a look at Trump's spectacular record of breaking promises before you decide to jolly go lightly on Junior. ...

... Noor Al-Sibai of the Raw Story: "According to the Financial Times, Rinat Akhmetshin, the Russian lobbyist and former Soviet army official who attended the meeting in Trump Tower [with Donald Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner & other Russian operatives] last summer, has testified before [Robert] Mueller's grand jury. According to two sources close to the testimony, Akhmetshin testified for 'several hours' on August 11. Though Akhmetshin declined FT's requests for comment, the report claims his testimony centered around a 'dossier' provided by Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. The dossier reportedly contained information about 'how bad money ended up in Manhattan and that money was put into supporting political campaigns.' The report also noted that Akhmetshin is currently under investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee, who are looking into the circumstances surrounding his American citizenship, his role in the Soviet military and 'whether he improperly lobbied for Russian interests.'" ...

... Josh Dawsey of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is working with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on its investigation into Paul Manafort and his financial transactions, according to several people familiar with the matter. The cooperation is the latest indication that the federal probe into ... Donald Trump's former campaign chairman is intensifying. It also could potentially provide Mueller with additional leverage to get Manafort to cooperate in the larger investigation into Trump's campaign, as Trump does not have pardon power over state crimes. The two teams have shared evidence and talked frequently in recent weeks about a potential case, these people said. One of the people familiar with progress on the case said both Mueller's and Schneiderman's teams have collected evidence on financial crimes, including potential money laundering. No decision has been made on where or whether to file charges." ...

... Maggie Haberman & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "President Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, has given Congress a point-by-point rebuttal of a dossier alleging that he [Cohen] has deep ties to Russian officials -- an effort to clear his name as the Justice Department and congressional committees investigate Russia's attempts to disrupt last year's election.... Mr. Cohen's name appears throughout the dossier compiled by the retired British spy, Christopher Steele, who has deep expertise in Russia.... The dossier ... portrays Mr. Cohen as a central figure in the conspiracy. In an eight-page letter to the House Intelligence Committee, a lawyer for Mr. Cohen offered a full-throated rejection of any suggestion that Mr. Cohen was involved in an effort to work with Russia to disrupt the election." ...

... Andrew Roth of the Washington Post: Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin 's personal spokesman, "confirmed on Wednesday that he had received a request for assistance on a stalled Trump Tower real estate project in Moscow from a close aide [Michael Cohen] to President Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, but added that the Kremlin did not respond to the letter.... Peskov said that the email described a 'Russian company together with certain people [who] had the goal of creating a new skyscraper in Moscow city, but the deal is not moving forward, and they were asking for some recommendations and help advancing this deal.' Peskov said that he had seen the email but that it was not given to Putin." ...

... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "The Trump Organization's efforts to build in Moscow finally fell apart, in late January, 2016, because, according to the Post, 'they lacked the land and permits to proceed.' But, despite this failure, Trump's pursuit of the deal while he was campaigning on a platform of friendlier relations with the Russian President -- a foreign adversary who controlled the deal's fate -- is scandalous, even without any other context. And additional details, unearthed this week by the Times and the Post, about the Trump Organization's attempts to secure the deal make the scandal far worse.... First, Trump was taking a policy position -- one deeply at odds with his own party -- that would benefit him personally. It's a startling conflict of interest. Second, his statements and actions, and those of his subordinates and their associates pursuing the deal, may fuel the obstruction-of-justice inquiry against Trump that the special counsel, Robert Mueller.... The more it looks like Trump had something to cover up, the stronger an obstruction charge would be."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The United States has about 11,000 troops in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, acknowledging for the first time publicly that the total forces there are higher than formally disclosed in recent years. Previously, Defense Department officials had said 8,400 troops were in Afghanistan as part of NATO's Resolute Support mission. An additional 2,000 American troops, which military officials have not publicly acknowledged, are in Afghanistan to help local forces conduct counterterrorism missions. The new count includes covert as well as temporary units, defense officials said."

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Donald Trump appeared to rule out contacts with the North Korean regime in the wake of its missile test over Japan on Wednesday, declaring: 'Talking is not the answer.' Minutes later, however, the defense secretary, James Mattis, flatly contradicted the president's blanket statement, telling reporters: 'We[re never out of diplomatic solutions.' Such sharply conflicting statements have become a norm for the Trump administration, but it is unclear how they are being read by the regime in Pyongyang and US allies in the region."

EPA to Scientists (Again): "STFU." Valerie Volcovici of Reuters: "The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday rejected a contention by scientists that the historic rainfall from Tropical Storm Harvey was linked to climate change, calling it 'an attempt to politicize an ongoing tragedy.' Several scientists have said that factors related to global warming have contributed to increased rainfall from storms like Harvey, which struck the Texas coast as a major hurricane on Friday and has since triggered catastrophic flooding in Houston, killing at least 12 people and forcing tens of thousands from their homes."

Secrets & Lies. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "A Trump administration official said Wednesday that the administration wanted to stabilize health insurance markets, but refused to say if the government would promote enrollment this fall under the Affordable Care Act or pay for the activities of counselors who help people sign up for coverage. The official also declined to say whether the administration would continue paying subsidies to insurance companies to compensate them for reducing deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for low-income people. Without the subsidies, insurers say, they would sharply increase premiums. The administration, the official suggested, will do the minimum necessary to comply with the law, which Mr. Trump has called 'an absolute disaster' and threatened to let collapse.... Asked if the Trump administration wanted the public marketplaces to succeed, the official did not answer directly.... The Trump administration official spoke to about 20 journalists on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity, evidently because major decisions had not been made." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: How is the administration supposed to meet this claimed desire to "stabilize health insurance markets" when it won't say what its plans are, suggests there are no plans, & the spokesperson is so secretive she won't even allow publication of her name?

David Kocieniewski & Caleb Melby of Bloomberg look down the huge financial hole Jared Kushner dug for Kushner Companies. It isn't entirely clear how much Kushner Companies actually owns of some "Kushner" properties. "Even after selling big sections of 666 Fifth [-- the biggest albatross in the Kushner zoo --] in 2011, they have increased their own vulnerability by borrowing more money for other deals, people close to the company say. After a refinancing, the deed to 666 Fifth sits in an escrow account, ready to be seized by lenders in a default, an action indicating their trust has grown thin.... Under some dire circumstances, guarantees in the refinancing agreement could even give lenders the ability to go after the family's other assets -- many of which are also underpinned by debt."

This Also Is What Corruption Looks Like. John Bresnahan of Politico: "Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez allegedly starting taking bribes from a wealthy donor shortly after he entered the Senate in 2006, federal prosecutors assert in a new document. Menendez's bribery and corruption trial is set to begin next week. In preparation for that, Justice Department prosecutors filed a new document Wednesday laying out their case against the New Jersey senator, as well as Dr. Salomon Melgen, his alleged co-conspirator. Melgen has already been convicted in a separate case of bilking Medicare but has not been sentenced yet. Menendez's fate -- and the what happens to his Senate seat if convicted -- is part of the drama surrounding the high-profile case. Menendez has denied all allegation of wrongdoing, and he has denied any talk of a plea deal with the Justice Department." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: If Menendez is convicted, there's a good chance he would resign or the Senate would kick him out. (It takes a 2/3rds vote.) If a conviction occurs in the next five months, Chris Christie would replace him with a Republican. Christie has denied he would appoint himself.

** Jason Sattler, in a CNN opinion piece, explains the rules of etiquette Republican apply to their support for white supremacists & how Trump exposed the plot by breaking those rules: "Perhaps Republicans know they get away with policies that enforce white supremacy through voting restrictions and mass incarceration, but to do this, they must reject public displays of bigotry. This unstated compromise is the heart of a strategy that has helped the party accumulate more political power than at any time since the Great Depression.... The Republican approach to white identity politics that has been reinforced in the last decade by adding new voting restrictions and more effective racial gerrymandering on top of felon disenfranchisement that combine to diminish the power of non-white voters. But it has been stoked for generations by an assault on public services that has fed by the dog whistle that 'government' equaled 'coddling of nonwhites.'"

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Wednesday tore into President Trump's voter commission for reneging on a promise to fully disclose public documents before a July 19 meeting, ordering the government to meet new transparency requirements and eliciting an apology from administration lawyers. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of Washington said the Election Integrity Commission released only an agenda and proposed bylaws before its first meeting at the White House complex last month. But once gathered, commissioners sat with thick binders that included documents the public had not seen, including a specially prepared report and a 381-page 'database' purporting to show 1,100 cases of voter fraud, both from the Heritage Foundation, and also received a typed list of possible topics to address from the panel vice chairman, Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach. Kollar-Kotelly said the panel's after-the-fact argument was 'incredible' when it said it did not believe documents prepared by individual commissioners for the July meeting had to have been posted in advance."

Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "A federal judge in San Antonio on Wednesday blocked Texas from enforcing its ban on so-called sanctuary cities, questioning the constitutionality of a law that has pitted Republican state leaders against several Democratic-leaning cities. The judge's ruling was only temporary, and prevents the law from taking effect on Friday while a suit against it goes forward. But the decision, which Texas said it would appeal, served as a legal blow to one of the toughest state-issued immigration laws in the country and puts the brakes on a measure backed by the Trump administration that critics had called anti-Latino.... A number of the state's biggest cities, including Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Dallas, all of which are run by Democrats, joined a lawsuit against Texas seeking to strike down the law, which was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by the Republican governor, strong>Greg Abbott, in May."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd.

Reuters: "Arkema SA expects chemicals to catch fire or explode at its heavily flooded plant in Crosby, Texas in the coming days, and has no way to prevent that from happening, the chief executive officer of the company's North America unit said on Wednesday. The company evacuated remaining workers on Tuesday and Harris County ordered the evacuation of residents in a 1.5-mile radius of the plant that makes organic chemicals.... The Federal Aviation Administration has temporarily barred flights over the area near the plant because of the risk of fire or explosion.... Richard Rowe, CEO of the North America unit, told reporters that chemicals on the site will catch fire and explode if they are not properly cooled, and that Arkema expects that to happen within the next six days as temperatures rise. He said the company has no way to prevent that because the plant is swamped by about six feet of water.... The plant is near a section of Interstate 90 that has been underwater and closed. The plant has been without electric service since Sunday. Back-up generators have largely been inundated with water, the company said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Medlar can't understand why Arkema didn't have a hurricane/flood plan to prevent such an outcome, which the CEO now says is certain to happen. Seems to me government regulations, by the state and/or feds, could have prevented this impending disaster. Here's an idea: maybe don't put the generators on the first floor. But then, what's to worry? -- the exploding chemicals are organic. ...

... Adam Raymond of New York: "The plant, one of five operated by Arkema in Texas, produces peroxides that are used to make plastics and rubbers. Those volatile peroxides, along with the number of homes near the plant, resulted in it landing on a list of Houston-area industrial sites with the highest potential for catastrophe in the event of a natural disaster. Still, [CEO Richard] Rowe sought to reassure reporters that after the plant blows, worries about any long-term environmental impact should be 'minimal.'" Mrs. McC: Okay then. Could be safe-ish to live in & around Crosby in 25 years or so. ...

... UPDATE. Pam Wright of the Weather Channel: "Multiple explosions were reported at the flooded Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, early Thursday morning just a day after the company's CEO warned of an unpreventable, imminent explosion. One deputy was rushed to the hospital after inhaling fumes and nine others hospitalized themselves after the explosion, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said. There are no more details on their condition at this time.... KHOU reported that two explosions happened at roughly 2 am local time. "

Matt Egan of CNN: "Wells Fargo has uncovered up to 1.4 million more fake accounts after digging deeper into the bank's broken sales culture. The findings show that Wells Fargo's problems are worse than the bank previously admitted to when the scandal began almost a year ago. Wells Fargo ... now says it has found a total of up to 3.5 million potentially fake bank and credit card accounts, up from its earlier tally of approximately 2.1 million."

Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "Open Markets, a division at the public policy think tank the New America Foundation, had been an intellectual force in progressive circles in recent years, leading to a heightened awareness of the damaging effects that monopolization is having on both consumers and businesses.... Where it really stirred things up was by targeting America's giant tech companies, particularly Amazon, Facebook, and Alphabet (the umbrella company for Google). Now, Google has apparently struck back, revealing a growing divide between progressives and an industry that has long claimed a home in the Democratic Party. On Wednesday, The New York Times's Ken Vogel reported that New America had parted ways with Open Markets following complaints from Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Alphabet, a major New America donor. (Schmidt has also made personal donations to New America, and was its chairman until 2016.)... It appears the nail in the coffin was when Open Markets praised the $2.7 billion antitrust fine the European Union levied against Alphabet in June.... The scandal is also an indictment of the relationship between public policy think tanks and corporations. Think tanks have downplayed the role that large corporate donors play in their research, but the situation at New America suggests that donors like Schmidt expect something in return for their money. On the right, this has been obvious for years...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The only "scandal" I see is that well-intentioned liberals are so foolish they think people who fund them will keep sending money when the well-intentioned point out the existential flaws of their benefactors. When you heard your ne'er-do-well nephew was bad-mouthing you, did you keep sending him rent money? I didn't think so.

Alison Flood of the Guardian: "The cartoonist who created Pepe the Frog has taken legal action to force the author of a self-published children's book that uses the character to espouse 'racist, Islamophobic and hate-filled themes' to give all of his profits to a Muslim advocacy organisation. Pepe, created by Matt Furie in the early 2000s as a 'peaceful frog-dude' with the catchphrase 'feels good man', was adopted as a symbol by supporters of the US 'alt-right' last year. He has since been designated by the Anti-Defamation League as a hate symbol, but Furie has been attempting to end the association, even killing off the character in one comic strip and subsequently launching a Kickstarter to raise money to 'save Pepe'.... Furie's lawyers have also successfully stopped the distribution of Eric Hauser's children's book The Adventures of Pepe and Pede. According to the Washington Post, the book sees Pepe and 'his best friend Centipede' -- centipede is a term for Trump supporters -- as they attempt to 'bring freedom back to Wishington Farm', battling an alligator named 'Alkah' with buds from 'the honesty tree'. Hauser was an assistant principal at a Texas middle school until details of the book became public." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Who knew frog legs were just desserts? BTW, I think we know now why Trump made Mitt Romney eat frogs legs.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Sarah Jones of the New Republic Wants to Know: "Why is The New York Times op-ed page publishing Erik Prince's sales pitch for more mercenaries? Prince, whose notorious company Blackwater was responsible for the deaths of Iraqi and Afghan civilians and epitomized the folly of the Bush administration's attempts to outsource U.S. military operations to the private sector, has a brilliant plan for Afghanistan, which you can read about it in the op-ed section of the Times.... It is a sales pitch, written by a very well-connected operator (his sister is Betsy DeVos) who has privately tried to convince the Trump administration to send contractors to Afghanistan — a story that was broken by the Times's reporting desk. He has written a version of this op-ed before, for The Wall Street Journal, arguing that corporations can operate 'cheaper and better than the military.' The conflicts of interest are glaring, and yet this advertisement was given pride of place in the opinion section. What's worse, however, is the product the Times has allowed Prince to shill: mercenaries that, under Prince, committed war crimes in Iraq."

Contributor MAG points to this video of a CNN "reporter" doing standard if-it-bleeds-it-leads "reporting" -- i.e., asking disaster victims, "How do you feel now that you've lost everything?" -- & accidentally hitting on a media critic. The hapless interviewee, who probably knew she was supposed to give a canned response like, "I thank God for saving my children & me. I know he has a higher purpose for us," goes another way:

Medlar's Sports Report

John Branch of the New York Times: Ed Cunningham, a color analyst for ABC Sports & ESPN college football games, "resigned from one of the top jobs in sports broadcasting because of his growing discomfort with the damage being inflicted on the players he was watching each week. The hits kept coming, right in front of him, until Cunningham said he could not, in good conscience, continue his supporting role in football's multibillion-dollar apparatus.... 'In its current state, there are some real dangers: broken limbs, wear and tear,' Cunningham said. 'But the real crux of this is that I just don't think the game is safe for the brain. To me, it's unacceptable.' Football has dominated Cunningham's life, he said, since he began playing as a freshman in high school. He was captain of the University of Washington's 1991 national championship team and a third-round draft choice in the N.F.L., where he was an offensive lineman for five seasons. He has been a broadcaster since.... He was in the prime of his career as a broadcaster, and most likely could have continued to make a comfortable living doing it for decades.... A football broadcaster leaving a job because of concerns over the game's safety appears to have no precedent." Mr. McC: No, Bea, color analysts are not personal style consultants. But yes, Cunningham did something gutsy & principled here.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The rain from Harvey is in a class of its own. The storm has unloaded over 50 inches of rain east of Houston, the greatest amount ever recorded in the Lower 48 states from a single storm. And it’s still raining." ...

... Washington Post: "ExxonMobil acknowledged Tuesday that Hurricane Harvey damaged two of its refineries, causing the release of hazardous pollutants. The acknowledgment, in a regulatory filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, follows repeated complaints on Twitter of an 'unbearable' chemical smell over parts of Houston. However, it was not immediately clear what caused the smell.... A variety of ... chemicals was emitted during the shutdown of the plants.... Most of the other facilities belonging to major companies also filed notices with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality." ...

... New York Times: "As one of the most destructive storms in the nation's history pummeled southeast Texas for a fourth day, forecasts on Monday called for still more rain, making clear that catastrophic flooding that had turned neighborhoods into lakes was just the start of a disaster that would take years to overcome. Local, state and federal officials conceded that the scale of the crisis was so vast that they were nowhere near being able to measure it, much less fully address it. Across a region that is home to millions of people and includes Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city, no one has a clear idea how many people are missing, how many evacuated, how many hunkered down or were trapped in their waterlogged homes, or how many inundated houses and vehicles are beyond saving.... Local officials reported 10 deaths possibly related to the storm, six of them in Harris County, which includes Houston. But the painstaking and heartbreaking work of clearing streets, going door to door, assessing damage — and finding victims -- has not yet begun."