Another Trumpian Twitter war, this time with GOP Sen. Bob Corker, does the unexpected: It reveals some essential truth. In a Sunday morning duel, Trump tweeted that Corker, who is retiring in 2018, didn’t have the “guts” to run again. Corker retorted by calling the White House an “adult day care center.” Then came the truth: In an interview with The New York Times, Corker said Trump’s reckless threats could set the nation “on the path to World War III” and that most Republican senators agree with him.
Coincidentally, or maybe now, James Mann has a piece just out in The New York Review of Books about the few members of the Trump cabinet that Corker had said were all the separated us from chaos. The headline: The Adults in the Room.
Remember when it looked like Trump had a deal with Chuck and Nancy on the Dreamers? If you were among the skeptical, it looks like you may have been right. The White House has just released a list of hard-line demands that must be met before any deal. You can guess them. The wall. Crackdown on sanctuary cities. Limits on legal immigration. Via The Atlantic.
Gregg Doyel: Trump bumps up the stakes in the NFL protests as he prompts the Vice President to walk out when players protested during the National Anthem in Indianapolis during the Colts-49ers game. And then as Pence was getting slammed on social media, Trump said it was all his idea. Via The Indianapolis Star.
Before Stephen Paddock was revealed as a mass murderer, he was seen as “the boring one” in the family and a nondescript “numbers guy.” Via The New York Times.
To no one’s surprise, Harvey Weinstein gets the hook. He gets fired by his own company after being slammed in a series of sexual harassment (and far worse) allegations. It looks like being a liberal in Hollywood didn’t protect him after all. Via The Los Angeles Times.
David French from The National Review: How do men like Weinstein, Ailes and O’Reilly survive and thrive when their ugly behaviors were generally an open secret? One word: Power.
Inspectors general have opened five investigations into Trump’s cabinet of billionaires and budget hawks for taking questionable charter and military flights costing millions of taxpayer dollars. Via The Washington Post.
Dana Milbank: A dispatch from the Deep State Command where the deep-staters are gratified that they’re finally getting the recognition they deserve for destroying America. Via The Washington Post.
Trudy Rubin: Not only is Rex Tillerson toast, so is U.S. foreign policy. That’s what happens when you have a president who thinks diplomacy is for sissies. Via The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Good news! “If (President) Trump isn’t removed from office and doesn’t lead the country into some form of global catastrophe, he could secure a second term simply by maintaining his current level of support with his political base.” So says Doug Sosnik, a Democrat political strategist, and a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 2000. Via The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-on-track-to-win-reelection/2017/10/06/91cd2af0-aa15-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html?utm_term=.4d3fe0805908&wpisrc=nl_az_most&wpmk=1
Leah Libresco is a statistician and former newswriter at FiveThirtyEight,a data journalism site. She used to believe gun control was the answer but after examining proposed gun laws she arrived at this conclusion, “I can’t endorse policies whose only selling point is that gun owners hate them.” The article is well worth reading. Via The Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-used-to-think-gun-control-was-the-answer-my-research-told-me-otherwise/2017/10/03/d33edca6-a851-11e7-92d1-58c702d2d975_story.html