Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Quite a storm: “Thousands of people fled parts of coastal Texas on Friday as Hurricane Harvey strengthened to a major Category 3 storm and hurtled toward the state.”
* Hmm: “Special counsel Robert Mueller is examining what role, if any, former national security adviser Mike Flynn may have played in a private effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails from Russian hackers, according to people familiar with the matter.”
* Venezuela: “President Trump moved Friday to restrict the Venezuelan government’s access to the U.S. financial system and squeeze the oil-based economy that sustains President Nicolás Maduro but stopped short of imposing a full oil embargo.”
* Stay tuned: “President Donald Trump appears likely to pull the plug on DACA, the Obama-era program allowing young people who came to the U.S. illegally as children to remain here, several government officials said Friday.”
* An increasingly bizarre story: “At least 16 Americans working at the U.S. Embassy in Havana became ill last year in a mysterious health attack, the State Department disclosed on Thursday.”
* Gary Cohn, the head of Donald Trump’s economic council, explained yesterday why he didn’t resign in the wake of Charlottesville. His rationalization really doesn’t make any sense.
* This is an excellent point: “In the federal government and in most states, there are consequences when governments deprive Americans of their constitutional right to liberty — through, say, wrongful imprisonment. So why aren’t there more meaningful consequences when states deprive Americans of their constitutional right to vote?”
* Why did this policy need to be scrapped? “The Trump administration is abandoning another Obama-era regulatory initiative, killing a plan to allow cities to set aside work for local residents on federally funded public works projects.” * Interesting admission: “Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, says it was a mistake for House Republicans to try to tackle healthcare reform first this year instead of other topics, including tax reform, and cast doubt on the idea that the Senate would be able to pass any Obamacare repeal bill this year.” * Rhetoric like this remains unsettling: “Roger Stone, a longtime confidant to President Donald Trump, predicted Thursday there would be a ‘spasm of violence’ tantamount to civil war if the president were brought under impeachment charges by Congress.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
