“So, governor, again, thank very much. And we won’t say congratulations. We don’t want to do that. We don’t want to congratulate,” Trump said.
“We’ll congratulate each other when it’s all finished, but you have been terrific,”
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“So, governor, again, thank very much. And we won’t say congratulations. We don’t want to do that. We don’t want to congratulate,” Trump said.
“We’ll congratulate each other when it’s all finished, but you have been terrific,”
By Julia Ainsley & Tom Winter @ NBCNews.com, Aug. 28, 6:26 pm
WASHINGTON — Federal investigators working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller are keenly focused on President Donald Trump's role in crafting a response to a published article about a meeting between Russians and his son Donald Jr., three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The sources told NBC News that prosecutors want to know what Trump knew about the meeting and whether he sought to conceal its purpose [....] the White House confirmed that Trump had "weighed in" as the response to the Times report was drafted aboard Air Force One on July 8 as the president returned to the U.S. from the G20 meeting in Germany. The Washington Post reported that Trump had "dictated" the response.
[....] A person familiar with Mueller's strategy said that whether or not Trump made a "knowingly false statement" is now of interest to prosecutors.
"Even if Trump is not charged with a crime as a result of the statement, it could be useful to Mueller's team to show Trump's conduct to a jury that may be considering other charges." [.....]
By Lily Nonomiya, Andy Sharp & Colin Keatinge @ Bloomberg.com, updated Aug 28, 9:36 PM EDT
[....] The missile landed about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) off Hokkaido in the Pacific Ocean, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters, adding there were no reports of damage. Japan’s government said it didn’t try to shoot it down.
“A missile passing over Japan is an unprecedented, grave and serious threat,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Tokyo. Japan has asked the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting.
Abe said that he agreed with Trump to increase pressure on North Korea following a 40-minute phone call on Tuesday morning. He urged China and Russia to join in taking action against Kim Jong Un’s regime.
[....]Suga said Japan strongly backed the U.S. view that all options were on the table in dealing with North Korea. The Pentagon confirmed the missile flew over Japan [....]
Trump mixed up two blond, Finnish journalists during a press conference. Finland President Niinistö was taking questions, called on a member of his press pool.Trump quickly chimed in, asking, "Again? You're going to give her the same one?"No, she is not the same lady," Niinistö responded, to laughter from the audience. Whiny Trump: How long will this thing take if they all get 2 questions?
By Josh Dawsey, Ben White & Eliana Johnson @ Politico.com, Aug. 28
[....] The repudiations by Tillerson and Cohn were not nearly as sharp as some other criticisms of the president [....] Still, said Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, “In the normal course of things, a secretary of state would be fired an hour after saying such a thing on national TV.”
The president, whose approval ratings have dropped into the 30-percent range and who has lost a raft of senior staff members, is loath to get rid of anyone right now, one adviser said. Some close to Trump note that he needs Cohn and Tillerson, seen as stabilizing forces in his administration, more than they need him at this point [...]
But he has stewed, this person said, as the comments from his own staff have dominated the news. Trump has repeatedly said that he doesn’t feel that others on his staff and Republicans on Capitol Hill are defending him enough.“He feels like when you back down, people will just keep coming at you,” the adviser said. “Even if he knew he was wrong, I don’t think he’d back down.”
The president could still lash out and publicly criticize Cohn or Tillerson, something Cohn told others wouldn’t have surprised him in the immediate aftermath of his interview last week.
Tillerson visited the White House early Monday, and several senior administration advisers said he was involved in responding to the hurricane in Texas, his home state. He was seen in the front row of a news conference at the White House on Monday afternoon and laughing with Vice President Mike Pence afterward. And Cohn told associates that he hadn’t heard a word from the president about his supposed anger — and that he didn’t regret one bit having made his comments [....]
Aryeh Lightstone, an orthodox rabbi with no diplomatic experience, is now the senior adviser to US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
In 2014-15, Lightstone served as CEO of Shining City, an American organization that has provided substantial funding for the ultra-nationalist, right-wing Israeli watchdog Im Tirtzu. Im Tirtzu has been widely criticized for its ferocious use of McCarthyite tactics against Israeli cultural icons with “leftist” political views, such as accusing them of being foreign moles.
“It proposes, in just one stroke, to cut away so many of the pathologies of our health care system. And you can look at that and say, ‘The shocks to society this would produce would be crazy — too crazy to actually pull off,” Harold Pollack, a health expert at the University of Chicago, told me. “On the other hand, the bill forces us to confront how pathological our system is in the first place. And it does so in a breathtakingly ambitious way.”
By Joe Biden @ The Atlantic.com, Aug. 27, 6:00 AM ET
The former vice president calls on Americans to do what President Trump has not.
Just happened to have WaPo open on a tab when this came up in a red "breaking" banner.
Trump’s business sought deal on a Trump Tower in Moscow while he ran for president
By Carol D. Leonning, Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman @ WashingtonPost.com, Aug. 27 at 8:48 PM
While Donald Trump was running for president in late 2015 and early 2016, his company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow, according to several people familiar with the proposal and new records reviewed by Trump Organization lawyers.
As part of the discussions, a Russian-born real estate developer urged Trump to come to Moscow to tout the proposal and suggested he could get President Vladimir Putin to say “great things” about Trump, according to several people who have been briefed on his correspondence.
The developer, Felix Sater [....]
By Jonathan Swan @ Axios.com, 14 min. ago
following this published seconds earlier, also by Jonathan Swan
Scoop: Trump frustration with Tillerson rising fast
.... One time recently, after Trump had returned from a meeting on Afghanistan, a source recalled Trump saying, "Rex just doesn't get it, he's totally establishment in his thinking." Tillerson's jaw-dropping comments on TV today will likely only worsen their relationship.....
What I see: it's looking like Swan's officials inside and close to the White House are clearly Globalist Cosmopolitan "RINO's/stealth Dems" attempting to fight back against the Breitbart horde influence.
By Joel Achenbach @ WashingtonPost.com, Aug. 27
[....] The storm has produced catastrophic flooding across thousands of square miles of south and Southeast Texas. Rain continues to fall in historic quantities. Rivers are rising to levels never before seen. People have taken refuge in attics or on rooftops awaiting rescue.
“This will be a devastating disaster, probably the worst disaster the state’s seen,” Long told The Washington Post on Sunday in a telephone interview from FEMA headquarters in Washington.
“The recovery to this event is going to last many years, to be able to help Texas and the people impacted by this event achieve a new normal,” Long said [....]
By Thomas Erdbrink @ NYTimes.com, Aug. 26
TEHRAN — It’s a common theme in the state-controlled media in Iran: The armed forces are not to be trifled with; they’re tough men doing a tough job, defending a country permanently under threat. Nevertheless, it was a shock to some young Iranians when a video appeared featuring a well-known rapper delivering the same message from the deck of a navy frigate.
Things like chanting “death to America,” burning effigies of Uncle Sam and painting murals of Lady Liberty with a skull as a face lost their impact long ago, particularly among younger Iranians. Forced to adapt or fizzle out, Iran’s propaganda machine has sought to embrace the latest trends and technologies to try to tailor messages to the sensibilities of a new generation.
A number of such propaganda videos have appeared in recent years, distributed on Apparat, a local version of YouTube, as well as on the messenger app Telegram.
Below is a selection of some of the most prominent [....]
By Morgan Chalfant @ TheHill.com, Aug. 26
[....] “Promoting content that is divisive – that is the ultimate goal here,” said Lee Foster, manager of information operations analysis at FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence.
“It’s the same in Europe, but the specific themes change,” Foster said. “There, one of the most prominent themes is migration and the refugee crisis.”[....]
The latest example is the recent flood of negative coverage of President Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, which originated on right-wing media outlets like Breitbart News and has been picked up by prominent conservative personalities, including Sean Hannity.
The campaign, coined #FireMcMaster, was also picked up by automated Twitter accounts—commonly known as “bots”—that are linked to Russia [.....]
Chinese investments in Greece are beginning to pay off, not only economically, but also by providing Beijing with a seemingly reliable ally in Brussels
By Jason Horowitiz & LIz Alderman @ NYTimes.com, Aug. 26.
ATHENS — After years of struggling under austerity imposed by its European partners and a chilly shoulder from the United States, Greece has embraced the advances of China, its most ardent and geopolitically ambitious suitor.
While Europe was busy squeezing Greece, the Chinese swooped in with bucket-loads of investments that have begun to pay off, not only economically but also by apparently giving China a political foothold in Greece, and by extension, in Europe.
Last summer, Greece helped stop the European Union from issuing a unified statement against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. This June, Athens prevented the bloc from condemning China’s human rights record. Days later it opposed tougher screening of Chinese investments in Europe.
Greece’s diplomatic stance hardly went unnoticed by its European partners [....]
Op-ed by George F. Will @ WashingtonPost.com, Aug. 25
Sooner or later, and the later the better, the president’s wandering attention will flit, however briefly, to the subject of trade. So, let us try to think about the problem as he seems to: Wily cosmopolitans beyond our borders are insinuating across our borders goods that Americans, perhaps misled by British economist David Ricardo, persist in purchasing [....]
I don't know for sure because I am too young, and am used to a lot of dreck from him, but this kind of piece is maybe a glimpse of how he got a Pulitzer for commentary in 1977
By The Editorial Board @ NYTimes.com, Aug. 25
[...] The growing consensus against cash bail cuts across party lines, and includes law enforcement leaders, prosecutors, defense lawyers, the courts and religious leaders.
The only defender of the system, it seems, is the industry that profits from it. States and localities around the country have begun imposing long overdue reforms to their bail systems. But the multibillion-dollar bail-bond industry, which charges defendants to guarantee their appearance in court, is pushing hard in the other direction. The Times reported Monday on two lawsuits filed in federal court in New Jersey over the summer challenging a new state law that essentially eliminates money bail. Another suit, in New Mexico, challenges that state’s Supreme Court’s new rules governing bail. The industry is also fighting federal bail reform legislation.
The industry’s gripe is understandable: The shift from cash bail is bad for business. Of course, that’s not how those in the industry frame their argument. They claim that public safety is the real concern. But secured money bail has never been about protecting the public; it is simply meant to ensure that a defendant shows up to court. And even in that case, money bail might be less effective than other methods, as a federal judge in Texas found in April when she struck down Harris County’s bail system as unconstitutional. [....]
Due to Hurricane Harvey, for the next 48 hours The Washington Post has temporarily removed the limit on the number of articles can be read without a subscription in order to provide readers unlimited access to weather coverage and important safety information.
THE NYTIMES is only doing it for hurricane coverage so far:
Open Access to Coverage of Hurricane Harvey
The Times has lifted its paywall for stories about the hurricane.
NYT has these two editorials published last night atop its home page now:
The Perils of a Pardon for Joe Arpaio
BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Note: After this editorial was published, President Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio.
A Pardon for Arpaio Puts Us in Uncharted Territory
By MARTIN H. REDISH
If the president immunizes officials who violate constitutional rights, there will be no limit on his power.
Here's their main story
Trump Pardons Joe Arpaio, Who Became Face of Crackdown on Illegal Immigration
By Julie Hirschfelld Davis and Maggie Haberman, Aug. 25, 11:12 pm
and a related piece: Latinos Express Outrage After Trump Pardons Arpaio
Members said it was important to formally condemn hate groups, but some privately scoffed that Republicans felt it was even necessary.
By Alex Isenstadt @ Politico.com, Aug. 25
[....] The resolution, sponsored by RNC member Bill Palatucci of New Jersey, states that “the racist beliefs of Nazis, the KKK, white supremacists and other like-minded groups are completely inconsistent with the Republican Party’s platform,” and that “the view that the color of one’s skin determines or should determine one’s standing, rights, opportunities, or duties to others is not consistent with the philosophy of the Republican Party.”
It adds: “The racist beliefs of the Nazis, the KKK, white supremacists and others are repulsive, evil, and have no fruitful place in the United States.” [....]
I hope Mayweather gets pummelled lifeless, but he shouldn't even be in the ring. The suspended Vick for dog fighting, suspended Clay for protesting the draft, but serial girl beating? Just what bad boys do. Stuff it, bitch. See you on the mat.
By Damian Paltetta and and Philip Rucker @ WashingtonPost.com, 4:56 PM
An unprecedented rebuke of President Trump by National Economic Council director Gary Cohn reverberated through Washington on Friday, forcing the White House to respond to harsh, public criticism from one of the president’s top advisers.
Cohn lashed Trump’s comments earlier this month blaming the violence in Charlottesville on “both sides,” saying in an interview with the Financial Times that “citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.” The adviser, who is Jewish and has long given to Jewish causes, said the administration “must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups.”
The criticism was the first serious public condemnation of Trump’s behavior by a member of his inner circle since the beginning of his presidency and raised the question of how a president who puts a heavy premium on loyalty would react [....]