The Commentariat -- September 10, 2017

Afternoon Update:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

News Ledes

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Commentariat -- September 9, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"A Big Fan of the Moon":

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

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

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

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

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

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

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

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

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

Beyond the Beltway

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

The Commentariat -- September 8, 2017

Peter Baker & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Trump pursued his newfound alignment with congressional Democrats on Thursday as he called the party's leaders in hopes of striking more deals and even complied with a request to publicly reassure younger immigrants brought to the country illegally not to worry about imminent deportation. A day after reaching a fiscal agreement with Democrats over the objections of his own Treasury secretary and party leaders, Mr. Trump called Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California to reinforce his willingness to keep working across party lines. He was effusive about their consensus. 'The press has been incredible,' he told Ms. Pelosi, according to a person briefed on the call.... Mr. Schumer, who has had little contact with Mr. Trump before now, said he raised the issue of cooperating on saving the DACA program through legislation known as the Dream Act and that Mr. Trump seemed amenable. 'We'll see,' Mr. Schumer said. 'I think it would be much better for the country and much better for Donald Trump if he was much more in the middle and bipartisan rather than siding with the hard right. I think he got a taste of it yesterday. We'll see if it continues. I hope it does.'" ...

... Elise Foley of the Huffington Post: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that ... Donald Trump told her on two occasions that he supports and would sign a bill to give legal status to young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. 'We made it very clear in the course of the conversation that the priority was to pass the Dream Act,' Pelosi said at a press briefing. 'Obviously it has to be bipartisan. The president supports that, he would sign it. But we have to get it passed.' Democrats are pushing for the bill, called the Dream Act, after Trump rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program earlier this week.... Trump ... called Pelosi earlier Thursday and made the comment about the Dream Act then, as well as in a meeting on Wednesday, according to Pelosi." ...

... Guy Who Hates Media Swoons over Good Press. Josh Dawsey of Politico: "... in calls with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Thursday morning, Trump raved about the positive news coverage [his deal with them] had received, according to people familiar with the calls, and he seemed very pleased with his decision. Trump specifically mentioned TV segments praising the deal and indicated he'd been watching in a call with Schumer, two people said. And he was jovial in a call with Pelosi and agreed to send a tweet she asked for about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, these people said, while also mentioning the attention the deal had gotten. He indicated to both leaders he would be willing to work together again. 'He seemed super upbeat,' one person familiar with the calls said.... 'I think we will have a different relationship than we've been watching over the last number of years. I hope so,' [Trump told reporters]. 'I think that's what the people of the United States want to see. They want to see some dialogue.'" ...

... Steve M. is not impressed: "Trump is basically acting like a teenager who's mad at his girlfriend and responds by cheating with someone he finds unappealing. It's not going to be a long-term romance." Mrs. McC: I'm with Steve. Trump will dump "Chuck & Nancy" as soon as the high school chatter at "Fox & Friends" turns nasty. Don't buy the prom dress, Chuck. The high-school bully is not taking you anywhere that matters. ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: However, there is one factor that might cause Trump to keep coming back to Chuck & Nancy. That is, if he perceives they can get their clique to lighten up on "the Russia thing," it's conceivable that Trump will continue to take them up to Lovers' Lane for some quickies. ...

... Damian Paletta & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) have agreed to pursue a deal that would permanently remove the requirement that Congress repeatedly raise the debt ceiling, three people familiar with the decision said. Trump and Schumer discussed the idea Wednesday during an Oval Office meeting. The two, along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), agreed to work together over the next several months to try to finalize a plan, which would need to be approved by Congress.... Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has suggested scrapping the existing debt-limit process and replacing it with one that automatically lifts the borrowing limit every time Congress appropriates future spending.... House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said at a news conference Thursday that he opposes scrapping the debt-limit process." ...

... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "The Republican-led Senate on Thursday approved legislation to raise the debt limit and keep the government funded until December while providing $15 billion in disaster aid, giving a reluctant stamp of approval to the surprising deal that President Trump struck with Democratic congressional leaders. The Senate approved the measure 80 to 17. All of the senators voting no were Republicans."

Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic: "President Trump may have hoped to increase pressure on congressional Democrats to accept other hardline elements of his immigration agenda this week by rescinding the program that has protected from deportation about 800,000 'Dreamers,' young people brought to the country illegally by their parents. But it's more likely Trump has triggered a process that will divide Republicans, further estrange him from the business community, and ultimately paralyze Congress, placing the issue of how to handle the 'Dreamers' squarely back on his desk when his six-month deadline expires." Brownstein explains why.

Maggie Haberman & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators on Thursday that he set up a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer because he was intrigued that she might have damaging information about Hillary Clinton, saying it was important to learn about Mrs. Clinton's 'fitness' to be president. But nothing came of the Trump Tower meeting, he said, and he was adamant that he never colluded with the Russian government's campaign to disrupt last year's presidential election. In a prepared statement during an interview with Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, the younger Mr. Trump said ... he always intended to consult with his own lawyers about the propriety of using any information that [Natalia] Veselnitskaya, who has ties to the Kremlin, gave him at the meeting.... [This] suggests that he knew, or at least suspected, that accepting potentially damaging information about a rival campaign from a foreign country raised thorny legal issues." ...

... Tom Hamburger & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators Thursday that nothing came of the 2016 meeting he set up with a Russian lawyer who offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton.... In his statement Thursday, Trump Jr. acknowledged for the first time that phone records show three short phone calls he had with [Russian pop music star Emin] Agalarov before the June 9 meeting, which he said he did not recall.... Some senators attended the closed door session Thursday but they asked no questions -- those were left to the staff alone." ...

... The Washington Post has released a copy of Junior's prepared statement. Amber Phillips has annotated the transcript. Mrs. McC: Besides the expected "saw no evil, heard no evil, did not evil" claims, there is at least one out-and-out whopper: "The meeting was instead primarily focused on Russian adoptions, which is exactly what I said over a year later in my statement of July 8, 2017." ...

... Jake Tapper runs down Junior's evolving cover stories about the June 2016 meeting:

... Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump Jr. told Senate judiciary committee staffers Thursday that he did not recall the details of White House involvement in the public response to his 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer and did not know much about the Air Force One meeting that allegedly led to the production of the statement, sources told CNN. Trump Jr. was explicitly asked whether he either took any of the Russian participants in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting to see his father ... or whether he told his father about the meeting after, sources said. He insisted he did neither. Asked why his father promised the next day that dirt was coming on Hillary Clinton, Trump Jr. told Senate staffers that's just the way his father talks. The President's eldest son met with congressional investigators for more than five hours Thursday, but at least one member of the Senate judiciary committee is saying Trump Jr.'s interview is doing little to ease their concerns.... Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who sat in on the meeting with committee staff, told CNN that Trump Jr. has not put concerns to rest and is opening up new lines of inquiry.... [Committee Chair Chuck] Grassley told CNN on Thursday that no final decision has been made on a public hearing for Trump Jr." ...

... Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "Democratic Sen. Chris Coons on Thursday strongly suggested he thought Donald Trump Jr. lied in his interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee about a meeting he had with two Russians last year at Trump Tower. 'Below is a statute to keep in mind in regards to Donald Trump Jr.'s testimony today,' Coons' office wrote in an email with the subject line: 'On day of Trump Jr. testimony, an important law to remember.' Coons' memo then quoted statute 18 U.S.C. 1001(a) & (c)(2), which outlines the punishments for lying to Congress." ...

... Josh Marshall: "Don Jr. says that he really had no idea what the meeting was about or more importantly who would attend the meeting in advance. In other words, someone said he might have dirt on Hillary, why not take a meeting? This (no doubt intentionally) leaves out critical information that is in the plain text of the emails. In his emails [music publicist Rob] Goldstone very conspicuously noted that this wasn't just some information he could pass Trump's way. He went out of his way to say explicitly that it came from the Russian government and was part of the Russian government's support for and efforts to elect Donald Trump. He wrote: 'This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.' That makes all the difference in the world.... The relevant point is that Trump Jr was told in advance that he was dealing with the Russian government and that the Russian government was supporting and trying to elect his father. I don't care how naive you are.... What about Paul Manafort?... There's no question Manafort knew what was happening in this meeting and that it was a problem." ...

... The Orphans Ruse, Ctd. Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has approached the White House about interviewing staffers who were aboard Air Force One when the initial misleading statement about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower was crafted, three sources familiar with the conversations said. The special counsel's discussions with the White House are the latest indication that Mueller's investigators are interested in the response to the Trump Tower meeting. Mueller wants to know how the statement aboard Air Force One was put together, whether information was intentionally left out and who was involved, two of the sources said. Mueller's questions could go to the issue of intent and possible efforts to conceal information during an obstruction of justice investigation.... The interviews with White House staffers who were aboard Air Force One have not begun.... Sources previously told CNN that [President] Trump was involved in the crafting of the statement aboard Air Force One and that he involved some of his closest aides." Mrs. McC: As noted above, Junior claimed to Senate staff today that this initial statement about the June 2016 was really, really true. Uh-huh. ...

... digby: "Trump Jr, Kushner [and] Manafort colluded with the Russian government to receive 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton. Junior admitted it today. We already knew it from the emails, but if he had said that he never read the emails all the way through or misunderstood or something he would have denied collusion, however unbelievable that might have been. He didn't do that. Whether that collusion resulted in information being exchanged we don't know. But we do know that subsequent to the meeting, Wikileaks dumped a huge cache of DNC emails during the Democratic convention and later we saw releases of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. So there was 'dirt' and it was disseminated. All that's left to determine is what the president knew about this meeting and when did he know it. We do know that he tried to cover it up, which Jr pretended not to remember and which is not credible in the least." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm convinced, based on no evidence at all, that Trump & his inner circle are sitting on a minefield of other instances in which they colluded with Russians & others to undermine Clinton's candidacy, and we just don't know about them. They're happy that so far they only have to make false statements about this one June 2016 meeting, because there's a lot more that hasn't become public. Let's hope Mueller's tight-lipped staff has -- via phone records & other sources -- found out about more discussions about "Russian orphans." ...

... Adam Raymond of New York: "Across town, FBI Director Christopher Wray also spoke Thursday about the White House and the Russia investigation. While on a panel at Washington's Intelligence and National Security Summit, Wray was asked if the Trump administration has tried to influence the investigation into the campaign’s ties to Russia. 'I can say very confidently that I have not detected any whiff of interference with that investigation,' he said, perhaps forgetting that the reason he has a job is because Trump fired Wray’s predecessor for investigating him." ...

... Scott Shane of the New York Times: "An investigation by The New York Times, and new research from the cybersecurity firm FireEye, reveals some of the mechanisms by which suspected Russian operators used Twitter and Facebook to spread anti-Clinton messages and promote the hacked material they had leaked.... On Twitter, as on Facebook, Russian fingerprints are on hundreds or thousands of fake accounts that regularly posted anti-Clinton messages. Many were automated Twitter accounts ... that sometimes fired off identical messages seconds apart -- and in the exact alphabetical order of their made-up names, according to the FireEye researchers." ...

... ** TrumPutin Sleepers! Katie Zavadski of the Daily Beast: While Trump rails against U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants, his Florida properties have become a playground for birth tourists from Russia's upper crust.... [An] estimated hundreds of Russian parents ... flock to the U.S. annually for warm weather, excellent medicalcare, and, more importantly, birthright American citizenship. And many ... stay at ... Trump's properties in Florida. The Daily Beast has discovered several companies are advertising rentals in Trump properties to expectant Russian parents. While the Trump Organization does not directly profit from subleases of privately owned condos, it does benefit from Russian patronage of the nearby Trump International Beach Resort.... The [Miami] area's most popular Russian deli ... sit[s] directly across the street from the Trump International Beach Resort, Trump Palace, and Trump Royale."

Paul Krugman elaborates on a blogpost he wrote earlier this week (and linked here) on the phony arguments Jeff Sessions employed to provide cover for Trump's (and his own) racist decision to dump the DACA program. ...

... Julia Ainsley & Andrew Blankstein of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security had planned nationwide raids to target 8,400 undocumented immigrants later this month, according to three law enforcement officials and an internal document that described the plan as 'the largest operation of its kind in the history of ICE,' an acronym for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.But after NBC News reported the plans late Thursday, the agency issued a statement saying it had cancelled nationwide enforcement actions due to Hurricane Irma and the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.... ICE had been planning the operation internally since mid-August and had instructed officers in the field to target adults deemed to be gang members or perpetrators of serious crimes, said one of the officials. Other undocumented immigrants not suspected of crimes may have been swept up in the raids as 'collateral,' the official said."

Busloads of Left-Wing Radical Criminals Steal New Hampshire Election! -- Kobach. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Days before they meet in New Hampshire, members of the White House's Election Integrity Commission have seized on a report about same-day registration to allege that massive fraud might have swung the state's 2016 vote. Both voters and election experts say the allegation -- accusing thousands of voters of criminal activity simply for living in New Hampshire but holding out-of-state driver's licenses -- are baseless. The accusation arose Thursday morning, when Shawn Jasper, the speaker of New Hampshire's Republican-run House of Representatives, released data on same-day registrants that he'd obtained from the secretary of state's office. In November 2016, 6,540 voters had registered to vote on Election Day. As of Aug. 30, just 1,014 of those voters had obtained a New Hampshire drivers license. A few hundred voters did not obtain state licenses but had registered cars in the state. That was enough for Jasper to allege thousands of fraudulent votes -- and for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the vice chairman of the commission, to flatly allege that fraudulent voters might have stolen the state's four electoral votes and a U.S. Senate seat away from Republicans. 'If 59.2 percent or more of them went for [Democratic Sen. Maggie] Hassan, then the election was stolen through voter fraud,' Kobach wrote in a column for Breitbart. 'That's likely, since the surrounding states are Democrat (sic) strongholds.'"

AND. Addy Baird of ThinkProgress: "Rush Limbaugh will be evacuating South Florida, just days after the popular conservative radio host claimed that Hurricane Irma would not hit the United States and that scientists and the liberal media were hyping up the hurricane as proof of their global warming 'lie.'"

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "In a major upcoming Supreme Court case that weighs equal rights with religious liberty, the Trump administration on Thursday sided with a Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The Department of Justice on Thursday filed a brief on behalf of baker Jack Phillips, who was found to have violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act by refusing to created a cake to celebrate the marriage of Charlie Craig and David Mullins in 2012. Phillips said he doesn't create wedding cakes for same-sex couples because it would violate his religious beliefs. The government agreed with Phillips that his cakes are a form of expression, and he cannot be compelled to use his talents for something in which he does not believe." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Okay, then. Bigotry is a form of expression. But spontaneously giggling out loud at a preposterously hypocritical remark by Jeff Sessions is not a form of expression; rather it is a crime punishable with incarceration. This is how the authoritarian state works.

Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "Equifax, one of the three major consumer credit reporting agencies, said on Thursday that a data breach left Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and other sensitive information for 143 million United States consumers vulnerable to hackers. Criminals gained access to certain files in the company's system from mid-May to July by exploiting a weak point in a website application, according to an investigation by Equifax. The company said that it discovered the intrusion on July 29 and has since found no evidence of unauthorized activity on its main consumer or commercial credit reporting databases." ...

... Anders Melin of Bloomberg: "Three Equifax Inc. senior executives sold shares worth almost $1.8 million in the days after the company discovered a security breach that may have compromised information on about 143 million U.S. consumers. The trio had not yet been informed of the incident, the company said late Thursday." Mrs. McC: Uh-huh.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Hurricane Irma’s deadly fury threatened to swamp low-lying islands of the Bahamas with a possible 20-foot storm surge Friday as the massive storm moved toward Florida's doorstep packing the potential to ravage the state with destruction not seen in a generation. The window to escape the path of Irma in Florida was rapidly closing. Forecasters said Irma could make landfall early Sunday somewhere in the wide band between densely populated Atlantic coast and the 100-mile string of islands from Key Largo to Key West, before veering to the north possibly toward more population centers up the Eastern Seaboard." ...

... The Miami Herald has a page dedicated to Irma-related stories. Access is free.

ABC News: "At least 60 people were killed after a magnitude-8.1 earthquake rocked Mexico late Thursday night, leveling buildings in southern Mexico, triggering tsunami warnings in several countries and causing people to flee into the street. Buildings swayed and lights went out in Mexico City, some 650 miles from the epicenter.Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto called it the strongest quake the country has seen in a century. The U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 8.1 magnitude, though initial reports said 8.2. Pena Nieto said in a series of tweets on Friday that more than 200 people had been injured and more than 260 aftershocks had hit the country since the initial quake, the most powerful of which was measured at magnitude 6.1. More than 1.85 million electricity customers had been affected, Pena Nieto said, with nearly 200,000 still facing outages." ...

... Los Angeles Times: "A massive earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mexico late Thursday and was felt as far away as Mexico City, where residents fled violently swaying buildings and electrical transformers exploded. The Mexican Seismological Institute said the earthquake measured 8.4 in magnitude, making it the most powerful to strike Mexico since the disastrous earthquake of 1985, which caused extensive damage in Mexico City and left at least 5,000 people dead. The epicenter of Thursday's earthquake was about 60 miles off the coast of Chiapas state, near the border with Guatemala, according to the United States Geological Survey, which measured the quake's magnitude at 8.1. The National Weather Service's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned that tsunami waves as high as 9 feet might hit along Mexico's Pacific coast. Tsunami waves of 2.3 feet were observed in Huatulco, a resort city in Mexico's Oaxaca state, and 3.3 feet at Salina Cruz, according to the center."