Afternoon Update:
Some Good News to Beat Back the Trump Fake News. Steve Benen of MSNBC. "In predictable fashion, Donald Trump spent quite a bit of time at his Phoenix rally this week whining about American news organizations. In fact..., the president said of reporters, 'I really think they don't like our country. I really believe that.' It was reminiscent of Trump's argument from earlier in the year that major news outlets, including NBC News, are 'the enemy of the American people' -- a phrase with a fraught history. is anyone actually buying the president's nonsense?... When it comes to trust, Trump has invested an enormous amount of energy into telling the public not to trust the media, and for the most part, Americans disagree.... The only constituencies that trust the president more than news organizations are self-identified Republicans, white men, and whites without college degrees. In every other group of people, the media tops Trump, usually by wide margins."
... Akhilleus: Now if we could only get those other groups to vote more often.
Birds of a Feather. A Tour of Trump "Updates" to the West Wing. Guardian. "It's a fresh new look for the White House, after a two-week renovation that reportedly cost more than $3m. The Oval Office, the Roosevelt Room and other parts of the West Wing have been given a facelift – and the heating and AC systems have also been updated." ...
... Akhilleus. The updates include the usual gaudy, gold-plated Trump patina along with plenty of eagles, to demonstrate the patriotic manliness of the new occupant. The renovations include 6,700 yards of new carpet and new wallpaper in the Oval Office because the Obama wallpaper was "damaged...with a lot of stains on it". Trump just can't bring himself to walk through hallways and sit in an office formerly occupied by a black guy who dirtied the wallpaper. Oh, and about those eagles? Here's what Ben Franklin had to say about Trump's choice of decorations. He believed the bald eagle to be a "rank coward" and "a bird of bad moral character ... that "does not get his living honestly" because it steals food from the fishing hawk and is "too lazy to fish for himself." Sounds pretty accurate to me...
Jeff Shesol in The New Yorker: "The Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, hardbound and handsome in ersatz leather, are not a beach read. A typical volume, each a compendium of speeches, statements, and proclamations, weighs four pounds.... It won't be until 2019, when the U.S. Government Publishing Office begins to release the papers of President Donald J. Trump, that any volume will have contained the sentence, 'not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me,' or the transcribed cry of a crowd in Phoenix, incited by a President of the United States, chanting 'CNN sucks!'... What the Trump papers will not include ... is much by way of significant speeches.... Donald Trump..., is, as he intends, dominating the national discussion. But he is not leading it; he is not driving it in any clear direction. His papers -- their pages filling up with digressions, obfuscation, invective, and lies -- will someday reflect that." ...
... Akhilleus: I've already got the Trumpy Papers on my Amazon wish list! Doesn't everyone?
Scaring the Dickens out, er... into Them. Doug Donovan of the Baltimore Sun. "The real estate company owned by Jared Kushner ... has been the most aggressive in Maryland in using a controversial debt-collection tactic: getting judges to order the arrest of people who owe his company money. Since 2013, the first full year in which the Kushner Cos. operated in Maryland, corporate entities affiliated with the firm's 17 apartment complexes in the state have sought the civil arrest of 105 former tenants for failing to appear in court to face allegations of unpaid debt, The Baltimore Sun has found.... That's more than any other landlord in the state over that time, an analysis of Maryland District Court data shows. Court records show that 20 former Kushner tenants have been detained." ...
... Akhilleus. Ahh...an evil bastard to rank with the most conniving Dickens villains. So what's next? Debtors prisons? That would be suitably vindictive. I'm sure if it's a Trump/Kushner idea, it will be a for-profit privately run prison. Maybe they can perfect the "enhanced interrogations" Trump would love to use during his new Afghanistan war. Try it out on the poors first. Perfect! Lady Munchkin would approve. "None of them have pearls on. To the waterboarding table with them." Maybe Young Jared can try this approach with his Peace in the Middle East plan. Anyone who doesn't do what he says, have them jailed. No wonder Trump loves this little twit.
Lies White and Black. But Mostly Black. And Huge. Philip Bump of the Washington Post. "There's not much that is remarkable about Paulding County, Ohio. Slotted into the northwest corner of the state along the Indiana border, the rural county is home to about 20,000 people. The reason we're interested in Paulding County today is because of 334 of those people, about 2 percent of the population. Those 334 people were, as of this week, the only people in America who participate in an Obamacare exchange for which no 2018 insurance provider had yet been lined up.... Earlier this week, our factcheckers identified the Trump falsehood that he has repeated with the most regularity. 'Trump's most repeated claim, uttered 50 times,' they wrote, 'was some variation of the statement that the Affordable Care Act is dying and "essentially dead."' The turnaround in Paulding County reinforces the idea that this isn't true."
... Akhilleus: This goes just a tad -- a tad, I say -- against the regular pronouncements of Lyin' Ryan that “Obamacare is not working...We've got dozens of counties around America that have zero insurers left." So, let's see. This must be some new kind of math. One county with problems = "dozens". Hmmm....Confederate math. No wonder they think killing taxes on the rich will lead to enormous increases in the federal coffers. I think I'll try this next time I'm filling out my taxes. "Taxable Income?" they'll ask. "One dollar" I'll say.
*****
Manu Raju & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Congressional investigators have unearthed an email from a top Trump aide that referenced a previously unreported effort to arrange a meeting last year between Trump campaign officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The aide, Rick Dearborn, who is now ... Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff, sent a brief email to campaign officials last year relaying information about an individual who was seeking to connect top Trump officials with Putin, the sources said. The person was only identified in the email as being from 'WV,' which one source said was a reference to West Virginia. It's unclear who the individual is, what he or she was seeking, or whether Dearborn even acted on the request.... The same source said Dearborn in the email appeared skeptical of the requested meeting. Sources said the email occurred in June 2016 around the time of the recently revealed Trump Tower meeting where Russians with Kremlin ties met with ... Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner as well as ... Paul Manafort.... Dearborn's name has not been mentioned much as part of the Russia probe. But he served as then-Sen. Jeff Sessions' chief of staff, as well as a top policy aide on the campaign. And investigators have questions about whether he played a role in potentially arranging two meetings that occurred between the then-Russia ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, and Sessions...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Based on what we know so far, it appears that Russian interests, not Trump or his operatives, were initiating or attempting to initiate these meetings. But the e-mail does send Jefferson I-Did-Not-Have-Meetings-with-Those-Russians Sessions tumbling further down the rabbit hole. So he "forgot" his meetings with Kislyak while his chief-of-staff was involved in arranging meetings with Putin? Definitely possible, but there's a limit to the number of "coincidences" that can occur before those "coincidences" look more like a pattern of purposeful activities. ...
... Anna Giaritelli of the Washington Examiner: "Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley on Wednesday said he will hold a committee vote to release the transcripts of a 10-hour hearing with Glenn Simpson, the former reporter for the Wall Street Journal whose firm helped compile the infamous "Russia Dossier" about President Trump's campaign team and Russia. Grassley was put on the spot during a town hall meeting in Mount Air, Iowa, Wednesday when a man in the audience asked what he and his committee discovered during an all-day closed-door meeting with Simpson on Tuesday and whether they would share those findings." ...
Jason Le Miere of Newsweek: "Glenn Simpson, whose firm compiled an infamous and salacious dossier about ... Donald Trump's ties to Russia, told Senate investigators Tuesday that he 'stands by' its findings. The private investigator and former reporter spent more than 10 hours being questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee after Chairman Chuck Grassley withdrew a subpoena when Simpson agreed to testify behind closed doors.... 'This [Judiciary Committee] investigation into Mr. Simpson began as a desperate attempt by the Trump campaign and its allies to smear Fusion GPS because of its reported connection to the Trump dossier, which Watergate prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste and others have said is a 'roadmap for an investigation,'" [Simpson's attorney Josh] Levy said." ...
... Josh Dawsey & Elana Schor of Politico: "... Donald Trump privately vented his frustration over Russia-related matters with at least two other Republican senators this month, according to people familiar with the conversations -- in addition to the president's public admonishments of Mitch McConnell, John McCain and Jeff Flake. Trump expressed frustration over a bipartisan bill sanctioning Russia and tried to convince Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) that it wasn't good policy, according to three people familiar with the call.... Trump dialed up Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Aug. 7, two days before a blunt call with the Senate majority leader that spilled over into a public feud. Tillis is working with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on a bill designed to protect Robert Mueller, the independent counsel investigating the president's Russia connections, from any attempt by Trump to fire him.... Trump's chewing out of GOP senators, according to people briefed on the calls, reflected the president's frustration that fellow Republicans would make moves that could damage him, particularly on an investigation that he detests.... 'It seems he is just always focused on Russia,' one senior GOP aide said." ...
... Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Trump did not name Sens. John McCain or Jeff Flake by name in his remarks [during his Phoenix rally] -- he joked that his aides pleaded with him not to mention the senators explicitly -- but it was unmistakable who he was talking about. Over and over, Trump noted that Senate Republicans were 'one vote away' from passing a bill to repeal Obamacare. The crowd at the Phoenix Convention Center immediately began jeering McCain, a longtime Trump critic who delivered the tie-breaking vote that sank the overhaul bill. The 80-year-old McCain is being treated for brain cancer.... Trump's anti-Flake offensive was a rebuke of [Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell, who has promised to protect the incumbent at all costs, and came as tensions between Trump and the congressional wing of the GOP are on the rise." ...
... Alex Isenstadt: "... Donald Trump continues to amp up the pressure on Sen. Jeff Flake, savaging the Arizona Republican on Twitter and holding a private meeting with several of his prospective primary opponents. Before taking the stage in Phoenix on Tuesday evening for a campaign-style rally, the president huddled backstage with state Treasurer Jeff DeWit and former state GOP Chairman Robert Graham. Both are considering running against Flake, an outspoken critic of the president who recently published an anti-Trump book.... Trump ripped the Arizona senator during the brief meeting, calling him 'the flake'.... Trump attacked Flake during his campaign-style speech Tuesday, though he did not mention the senator by name. The president described the first-term senator as 'weak on [the] border, weak on crime.' 'Nobody knows who the hell he is!' Trump added." ...
... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump has widened an extraordinary rift with his own party, as he threatened a government shutdown over his long-promised border wall and attacked key lawmakers whose votes he needs heading into a crucial legislative period.... In a challenge to Republicans late Tuesday [at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona], Mr. Trump threatened to shut down the government in a matter of weeks if Congress did not fund the wall on the southern border that was a signature promise of his campaign for the White House.... On Wednesday, he followed up on the threat by attacking Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, a Republican who has said skeptical of building a border wall between the United States and Mexico unless, as Mr. Trump promised, Mexico pays for it.... 'Not a fan of Jeff Flake,' Mr. Trump said in a Twitter post. 'Weak on crime & border!'" ...
... Trump Continues Feud with GOP Congress. Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "President Trump said Thursday he asked GOP leaders in Congress to tie legislation raising the debt ceiling to a Veterans Affairs bill, and that their failure has led to a political mess surrounding the issues. Trump targeted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in the tweet. 'I requested that Mitch M & Paul R tie the Debt Ceiling legislation into the popular V.A. Bill (which just passed) for easy approval,' Trump tweeted. 'They didn't do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval. Could have been so easy-now a mess!'"
"Teleprompter Trump." Mark Landler of the New York Times: "The morning after he delivered an aggrieved and impromptu defense of his comments on the violence in Charlottesville, Va., Mr. Trump spoke in a more measured tone to the national convention of the American Legion, telling its members that 'we are not defined by the color of our skin,' and that the country will overcome its challenges by reaffirming its common values.... It was a day-and-night contrast to Mr. Trump's performance Tuesday night in Phoenix, where he lurched from subject to subject and accused the news media of ignoring what he insisted had been his message of unity in the aftermath of Charlottesville. But such contrasts have become a recurring motif of his presidency: Mr. Trump has toggled between Teleprompter Trump and Unplugged Trump every day since the deadly clashes in Virginia, leaving Washington and the rest of the nation with a chronic case of rhetorical whiplash.... There were many reasons to believe that the president's angry performance in Phoenix was the real Donald J. Trump. It was consistent with the way he has reacted to all sorts of setbacks since he took office...." ...
... Dana Milbank: "There have been a few hundred ... incidents of domestic terrorism annually in recent years by far-right-affiliated perpetrators, but the previously gradual increase in violence is accelerating under Trump, for three reasons. They feel the election validated their worldview and indicated popular support for their views, they believe the Trump administration will be more tolerant of their actions, and they are frustrated that, so far, Trump's agenda has been largely thwarted.... The new Washington Post/ABC News poll, for example, finds that 9 percent of Americans believe it's acceptable to hold Nazi or white-supremacist views. But ... any position Trump takes drives most Republicans to embrace the same position. In a SurveyMonkey poll, when respondents were told that Trump had said people on both sides ... in Charlottesville were responsible for the violence, Republicans reflexively agreed, 87 percent to 11 percent. [Steve] Bannon was all about exploiting this..." ...
... Mrs. McC: That 9 percent is shockingly high, especially because people lie to pollsters; that is, 9 percent admit they're cool with white supremacy. There must be a huge percentage of people who agree with that in their hearts of hearts, but wouldn't tell a pollster so. ...
... Mark Follman of Mother Jones: "Trump's response to a neo-Nazi’s lethal car attack on a crowd of protesters in the Virginia college town ... poured fuel on a long-simmering threat of far-right violence in America.... Trump's actions came atop his administration's apparent policy of turning a blind eye to far-right terror.... The Trump administration reportedly has also sought to repurpose the Department of Homeland Security's Countering Violent Extremism program to focus only on the radical Islamic threat while cutting programs aimed at deradicalizing neo-Nazis and their ilk -- in part through the efforts of [Sebastian] Gorka's wife, also a Trump aide. Never mind that the FBI reportedly stopped another would-be Oklahoma City bomber ... the very day of Charlottesville.... Trump has a long record of downplaying -- if not downright ignoring -- right-wing terror." Mrs. McC: Follman points out that the 9 percent translates to 29 million Americans, tho it appears he's including toddlers & grade-school kids, not just Americans old enough to think for themselves. ...
... So You Get This. Nassim Benchaabane of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Police and a witness gave differing versions of how protesters were injured when a driver pulled into a group that had blocked an intersection on Wednesday night. The witness, Keith Rose, said the driver had his middle fingers raised before he accelerated through the group of people who were blocking Manchester Avenue and Sarah Street in the Grove neighborhood. But St. Louis police said the driver stopped, honked and attempted to drive around the protesters before some of them surrounded his car and began hitting it with their hands and a flag pole." The protesters were holding a candlelight vigil for a woman police fatally shot Tuesday.' Mrs. McC: The recorded report that accompanies the article, by Post-Dispatch photographer David Carson seems closer to the police account than to Rose's accusations, but it isn't definitive.
... Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post CNN: Fact Checking the Phoenix Screed. The list of lies grows and grows. "President Donald Trump went to Arizona on Tuesday night and delivered what has now become a trademark speech: Full of invective, victimhood and fact-free retellings of recent historical events. I went through the transcript of Trump's speech -- all 77 minutes -- and picked out his 57 most outrageous lies, in chronological order. They're below." Some examples:
"The Secret Service tells me there aren't many protesters outside." There were thousands.
"The lying media won't show my beautiful, enormous crowd of supporters." They always do.
"Our movement is built on love!" Hahahahahaha....okay, that's all. It gets worse. -- Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday.)
I always hear about the elite. You know, the elite. They're elite? I went to better schools than they did. I was a better student than they were. I live in a bigger, more beautiful apartment and I live in the White House, too, which is really great. -- Donald Trump, at the Phoenix rally, Tuesday
I doubt you'd find an entry this stupid on a Match.com profile. Anyway, there's a great irony here in that Robert Mueller, Trump's nemesis, is actually "an elite," if you assume that money should be old, education usually prestigious, & public service an element of noblesse. A crude, chiseling, narcissistic, loudmouthed, new-money boor isn't vaguely elite. If Trump had chosen a radically different life's path, by dint of his inherited wealth he might have insinuated himself in among Manhattan's previously-anointed elite, as did, say, Brooke Astor. Various pundits have compared Trump to Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby, but Trump is much more like the despicable Tom Buchanan, without Tom's old money & "breeding." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
... Eric Boehlert in ShareBlue: "During his televised pity party Tuesday night in Phoenix..., Trump made no mention of the 10 U.S. sailors who remain missing or were killed after the Navy destroyer USS John McCain collided with a merchant vessel off the off the coast of Singapore.... A review of the transcript from his rally speech shows he referenced himself nearly 250 times, with the incessant use of 'I,' 'I'm,' 'I'd' and the third-person 'Trump.'"
... Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "As with so much about President Trump, his Phoenix rally on Tuesday night was two contradictory things: both shocking and completely predictable. Shocking because it was the most sustained attack any president has made on the news media. ('It's time to expose the crooked-media deceptions and challenge the media for their role in fomenting divisions,' Trump ranted, as he charged that reporters invent sources and make up stories. 'They are trying to take away our history and our heritage.') And predictable because this is exactly what Trump does when he's in trouble. He finds an enemy and punches as hard as he can.... Under siege, Trump needs a foil more than ever, so these media attacks are only going to grow in intensity. It will be journalists' continued challenge not to take the bait...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Ben Carson shows up at Trump's Phoenix campaign rally & promptly violates federal law. Mrs. McC: Yesterday, what with the publication of Alec MacGillis' devastating profile of the HUD secretary (linked here yesterday) was not a good day for Dr. Ben. Ah, well, Trump will pardon him. Or at least tease a pardon. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... President Trump's Other Black Friend: "Michael the Black Man." Katie Mettler & Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post: "At a number of political rallies over the past year, [including the one in Phoenix yesterday,] a character calling himself 'Michael the Black Man' has appeared in the crowd directly behind Donald Trump, impossible to miss and prompting widespread fascination.... The radical fringe activist from Miami once belonged to a violent black supremacist religious cult, and he runs a handful of amateur, unintelligible conspiracy websites. He has called Barack Obama 'The Beast' and Hillary Clinton a Ku Klux Klan member. Oprah Winfrey, he says, is the devil. Most curiously, in the 1990s, he was charged, then acquitted, with conspiracy to commit two murders. It's unclear whether the White House or Trump’s campaign officials are aware of Michael the Black Man's turbulent history or extreme political views." Mrs. McC: What is clear is that the Trump people don't give a flying fuck. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mallory Shelbourne of the Hill: "The American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) of Arizona on Wednesday called for an independent probe into potential excessive use of force against protesters outside of President Trump's Tuesday rally in Phoenix. '... Shortly after Donald Trump finished attacking the First Amendment rights of the press inside of the Phoenix Convention Center, Phoenix police began attacking the First Amendment rights of protesters outside,' the ACLU of Arizona's executive director, Alessandra Soler, said in a statement. 'They used harmful chemical agents against a peaceful crowd, which turned a nonviolent gathering into one where many, many people were harmed. Law enforcement's decision to swiftly and brutally end hours of civil protest could profoundly chill the freedoms of speech and assembly in Phoenix for years to come.'" ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Gerard Baker, the editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, has faced unease and frustration in his newsroom over his stewardship of the newspaper's coverage of President Trump, which some journalists there say has lacked toughness and verve. Some staff members expressed similar concerns on Wednesday after Mr. Baker, in a series of blunt late-night emails, criticized his staff over their coverage of Mr. Trump's Tuesday rally in Phoenix, describing their reporting as overly opinionated. 'Sorry. This is commentary dressed up as news reporting,' Mr. Baker wrote at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday morning to a group of Journal reporters and editors, in response to a draft of the rally article that was intended for the newspaper's final edition. He added in a follow-up, 'Could we please just stick to reporting what he said rather than packaging it in exegesis and selective criticism?'... Several phrases about Mr. Trump that appeared in the draft of the article reviewed by Mr. Baker were not included in the final version published on The Journal’s website." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: From "Baker's Book of Journalism": "Just write, 'Trump said..., and then he said..., and then he said....'" As Stephen Colbert memorably pointed out, that's not journalism; that's stenography.
Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "The White House has prepared the paperwork for President Trump to pardon former sheriff Joe Arpaio when he makes the final decision to do so, CNN has learned. An administration official said the White House has also prepared talking points to send to surrogates after he is pardoned." Mrs. McC: A few days ago I read that the White House had not prepared paperwork for Arpaio's pardon, so I was hoping Trump's allusions to the pardon were a bit of his usual fakiness (something like truthiness, only worse). Apparently not.
President Creep. Cleve Wootson and Amy B. Wang of the Washington Post. "Hillary Clinton said her 'skin crawled' as Donald Trump loomed behind her at a presidential debate in St. Louis, and added that she wished she could have pressed pause and asked America, 'Well, what would you do?' The words, Clinton's most detailed public comments about what happened during one of the campaign's more memorable moments, are included in her new book, 'What Happened,' which she called an attempt to 'pull back the curtain' on her losing bid for the presidency. Some of the moments during the campaign, she said, 'baffled' her. Others seemingly repulsed her: In recounting the October incident, she referred to Trump as a 'creep.' The book comes out Sept. 12, but audio excerpts, read by Clinton, were played Wednesday morning on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.'" ... Akhilleus: Can't get more specific and truthful than that. "Creep" it is. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
German Lopez of Vox: "In July, Trump tweeted that he would ban trans military service. He argued, 'Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.' On Wednesday, a new report by Gordon Lubold at the Wall Street Journal revealed the actual policy behind those tweets. According to anonymous US officials familiar with the formal guidance, the White House will tell the Pentagon to deny future trans applicants from the military and stop providing trans-inclusive medical services. And it will let Defense Secretary Jim Mattis consider whether to kick out trans people from the military, supposedly based on their 'deployability.' Trump will reportedly sign off on the memo within a few days, and the ban will be implemented within six months.... [Trump's] stated rationale for the ban is baseless. The empirical evidence, based on the experiences of countries from Israel to the UK to Canada, shows that allowing trans people to serve poses minimal to no costs in terms of finances or military readiness. But ... the real reasons for the renewed anti-trans ban are reportedly more political -- about sticking it to Democrats and political correctness -- than his public-facing reasons. To Trump, trans troops have just become political pawns for his broader efforts."
Tory Newmyer of the Washington Post: "Here's how Louise Linton could change the tax debate.... Her husband, co-architect of a tax policy the administration promises will benefit lower and middle-income workers, represents what Democrats believe is an Achilles heel for Trump with his own base.... 'I can tell you from research I've seen one of the few things even the most ardent Trump supporters don't like is when they learn that Wall Street bankers are actually running his economic policy,' Democratic strategist Paul Begala said Tuesday on CNN in a discussion of the flap. 'It's one of the few things that decouples those Trump supporters from him...'... Details of the tax strategy the administration is supposedly forging with a small group of congressional Republican negotiators remain murky. But an analysis of the outline the administration released in April found that proposal would be 'highly regressive.' The Tax Policy Center found 40 percent of the plan's benefits would accrue to the top 1 percent, while those in the top 0.1 percent would see their after-tax income spike by an average of $1.4 million.... As long as [Steve] Bannon was inside the West Wing, his attempts to sabotage [Steven] Mnuchin, [Gary] Cohn and the rest of the so-called globalist ilk he reviles could be held in some relative check. Now back at the helm of Breitbart, he's free to savage those figures and attempt to rally a core piece of Trump's constituency against their agenda. On Tuesday afternoon, a headline appeared on the site: 'Mnuchin's Wife Fights in Instagram Comments over High Fashion, Govt. Perks.'" Thanks to Monoloco for the link. ...
... A Total Eclipse of the Munchkins. Andrew Husband of Uproxx: "The nonprofit government watchdog [CREW] has requested 'copies of all records concerning authorization for and the costs' related to [Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin and [his wife Louise] Linton's use of [a military] plane on Monday, August 21st. They specifically want 'copies of all records concerning authorization for and the costs of Secretary Mnuchin's use of a government plane for any purpose since his appointment as Treasury Secretary.' Why? Because according to a throwaway line in a Courier-Journal article about Mnuchin's visit, he and Linton later traveled to Fort Knox 'to tour the bullion reserve at the Army post and view the eclipse.'... CREW wants to know if they used the government plane in order to see the rare cosmic event. 'The requested records would shed light on the justification for Secretary Mnuchin's use of a government plane, rather than a commercial flight, for a trip that seems to have been planned around the solar eclipse and to enable the Secretary to secure a viewpoint in the path of the eclipse's totality.'... Mnuchin did tweet about his visit to Fort Knox on Monday. He did not, however, mention the solar eclipse." Thanks again to Monoloco for the lead. Mrs. McC: Looks like Louise accidentally forgot to #NASAeclipsespecs. ...
... Louis Nelson of Politico: "Actress Louise Linton, the wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, apologized Tuesday after she tangled with an Oregon woman in the comments section of her Instagram account.... On Tuesday afternoon, she issued an apology through her publicist. 'I apologize for my post on social media yesterday as well as my response. It was inappropriate and highly insensitive,' she said in the statement." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... BUT. Munchkin's Gimungous Gift to the Big Banks. Yalman Onaran of Bloomberg: Via a series of deregulatory rules Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin proposed in June, "Washington could add $27 billion of gross profit at the six largest U.S. banks, lifting their annual pretax income by about 20 percent.... Regulators appointed by Trump could make these changes without congressional approval. Doing so would reverse their agencies' efforts since 2008 to strengthen capital and liquidity requirements for U.S. banks beyond international standards." Mrs. McC: Wow! That will buy a lot of #Hermes scarves & Birkin bags.
Zinke's Gift to Miners, Ranchers & Energy Companies. Julie Turkewitz & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Parts of ... [Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, a] sprawling region of red-rock canyons, towering mesas and ancient Native American sites in southeastern Utah could lose their strict federal protection as a national monument, under a recommendation that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is expected to issue on Thursday. Shrinking the Bears Ears National Monument and reopening much of the land for possible mining and drilling would be widely seen as a direct blow to former President Barack Obam's environmental legacy, and the first major test of a century-old conservation law." Zinke's move may be illegal under the Antiquities Act, which has never been tested in court.
Sewell Chan & Nick Cumming-Bruce of the New York Times: "Without mentioning Mr. Trump by name, a body of United Nations experts on Wednesday denounced 'the failure at the highest political level of the United States of America to unequivocally reject and condemn' racist violence, saying it was 'deeply concerned by the example this failure could set for the rest of the world.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "The science envoy for the State Department has resigned following President Trump's response to the violent clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. Daniel Kammen announced his resignation in a letter addressed to Trump -- in which the first letter of every paragraph spelled out 'Impeach.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Negassi Tesfamichael of Politico: "A prominent coalition of American rabbis has decided not to hold its annual conference call with the president to mark Jewish holidays, citing Donald Trump's remarks on the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, as supporting 'those who advocate anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia.'" ...
... German Lopez of Vox: "We are now at the phase where the debate over Confederate statues has reached sports -- but this time, it's in a pretty dumb way. In the newest controversy, ESPN is under fire for pulling an Asian-American announcer from a September 2 University of Virginia football game because his name is Robert Lee -- which is similar to the name of the Civil War general who fought to dismantle the United States and maintain slavery. ESPN said it pulled Lee 'simply because of the coincidence of his name.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Adam Raymond of New York: "In its haste to avoid becoming the target of dumb jokes by sports bloggers, ESPN has created a full-blown controversy for [blogger Clay] Travis, Matt Drudge, and Breitbart News, among other right-wing thought leaders. As for Deadspin, it's making fun of the network anyway." Mrs. McC: First time I ever realized Robert E. Lee was Korean. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Melissa Byrne, in a Washington Post op-ed, reports on what happened to her when she unfurling a banner in Trump Tower that read "Women Resist White Supremacy." For starters, she was wrestled to the ground, cuffed & detained. Byrne writes that she released the banner in the second-storey Starbucks, and says, "Starbucks is a public place and I was a paying guest." ...
... Mrs. McC: First, Byrne's "protest" was not very provocative. Few people would disagree with the message on her banner. But Byrne may be wrong about her right to unfurl it in the space. It could depend upon whether or not the unfurling took place in Starbucks or in the public space, & that's not clear from Byrne's description. Starbucks, as a tenant, has the right to control the space it leases, & if its representatives didn't like how Byrne was using its space, whether or not she bought a $5 latte, they could have asked her to leave or cease the "disapproved" activity. They didn't. A Trump Tower security guard grabbed the banner before the NYPD & later the Secret Service got involved. But she is right that much of the first floor & possibly parts of the second are, by law, truly public spaces, little different from city parks or public sidewalks. Trump agreed to make the space public as a condition of getting a city building permit. He or his representatives can't legally kick people out of those public spaces unless they're violating a city ordinance. ...
... MEANWHILE, the Blubbering Bigot Surrenders. Boo-Hoo-Hoo. Darran Simon of CNN: "Christopher Cantwell, a white supremacist organizer known for a Vice video about a torch-lit Charlottesville, Virginia march, has turned himself in, University of Virginia Police said Wednesday. UVA police had issued an arrest warrant for Cantwell on two counts of illegal use of tear gas and one count of malicious bodily injury with a caustic substance in connection with the August 11 march on the school campus. Cantwell, of Keene, New Hampshire, surrendered to police in Lynchburg, Virginia. He is currently being held at the Blue Ridge Regional Jail pending transport to Charlottesville, police said." Mrs. McC: Aw. I hope the cops weren't as rough with the Crybaby Nazi as they were with Melissa Byrne, who had the temerity to "resist white supremacy."
Abha Bhattarai of the Washington Post: "The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday gave the green light to Amazon.com's purchase of Whole Foods Market in a deal valued at $13.7 billion. The regulator announced that it will not undertake any further investigation of the acquisition, which is expected to be finalized by the end of this year." Mrs. McC: Flying Fish! Now Amazon's little drones can drop fresh sustainable tuna on our front stoop.
Beyond the Beltway
James Barragan of the Dallas Morning News: "A federal judge in Corpus Christi blocked the further implementation of Texas' controversial voter identification law, finding for a second time that it intentionally discriminates against minorities. In a court order Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos ruled that Texas' 2011 voter ID law, considered one of the strictest in the nation, was unconstitutionally discriminatory. The law, Ramos wrote, violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination, and the 14th and 15th amendments. Ramos had previously ruled in 2014 that the law was purposefully discriminatory, but that ruling was appealed to the United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court ruled that the law had discriminatory effects, but asked Ramos to reconsider her ruling that it was drawn up with discriminatory intent. In April, Ramos reaffirmed that ruling. In all, Texas' voter ID law has been ruled discriminatory five times -- four times by Ramos and once by the 5th Circuit. Ramos' order also blocked Texas from implementing the law. And in a striking blow to the state, she blocked entirely a revamp to the law that the state legislature had passed earlier this year.... Immediately after the ruling became public, Attorney General Ken Paxton promised to appeal it...." Mrs. McC: Ramos is an Obama appointee. Paxton is a notable dick.
Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Arizona has ruled that the state violated the constitutional rights of Mexican American students by eliminating a successful Mexican American studies program, saying officials 'were motivated by racial animus' and were pushing 'discriminatory ends in order to make political gains.' The decision came down Tuesday, the same day that President Trump hinted at a rally in Phoenix that he would pardon Joe Arpaio."
Gubernatorial Race
Laura Vozzella & Fenit Nirappil of the Washington Post: "The Republican Party of Virginia said Wednesday that Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, whose ancestors once owned slaves and fought in the Civil War, had 'turned his back on his own family's heritage' by calling for the removal of Confederate monuments. The accusation drew swift condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans, who said it amounted to calling Northam a 'race traitor.'... The blowback was instant.... Even a conservative blog, the Reagan Battalion, jumped in, asking the Virginia Republican Party, 'Was your account hacked?' Former delegate David Ramadan, a Republican, tweeted: 'Have you lost your mind -- who is in control of your twitter act?' After nearly four hours, the state party pulled down the tweet and replaced it with this: 'Our previous tweets were interpreted in a way we never intended. We apologize and reiterate our denunciation of racism in all forms.' Eric Boehlert, a writer, trolled the state Republican Party by tweeting, 'It's almost like yr trying to erase history when you deleted the tweets.....#monuments.'"
News Lede
Houston Chronicle: "Tropical Storm Harvey quickly intensified and was upgraded to a hurricane on Thursday as it moved toward the Texas Coast, prompting officials to issue voluntary and mandatory evacuations of some coastal areas, area school districts to postpone a return to classes and local governments to brace for severe flooding. Forecasters said they expected Harvey to make landfall on the middle Texas Coast, between Corpus Christi and Matagorda, on Friday night or early Saturday, and then stall along the coast through the weekend. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, Hurricane Harvey was 'rapidly intensifying' with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center."
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