Today’s edition of quick hits.
* A story worth watching: “The United States is deploying three Aegis guided-missile destroyers to the waters off Venezuela as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to combat threats from Latin American drug cartels, according to a U.S. official briefed on the planning. The USS Gravely, the USS Jason Dunham and the USS Sampson are expected to arrive soon, said the official, who was not authorized to comment and spoke Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.”
* The latest on Hurricane Erin: “Hurricane Erin is expected to grow as it moves over the Atlantic through the week, causing dangerous rip currents, heavy rain and strong winds along the East Coast. The storm dropped to a Category 2 on Tuesday morning, but it still packs a powerful punch.”
* Expanded tariffs: “The Trump administration has quietly expanded its 50% steel and aluminum tariffs to include more than 400 additional product categories, vastly increasing the reach and impact of this arm of its trade agenda. The new tariffs, which took effect Monday, expand the scope of the levies that President Donald Trump previously announced on the valuable commodities.”
* Quite a story out of Texas about a Democratic legislator: “State Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth said in an interview Tuesday she would sleep on the House floor until Labor Day if she had to. Since Monday, Collier has entered a new existence, eating, sleeping and working from the locked chamber after refusing to acquiesce to Republican demands that Democrats agree to around-the-clock security escorts in order to be released from the building.”
* Can anyone explain how developments like these make the country better off? “A Maine police officer arrested by immigration authorities has agreed to voluntarily leave the country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday. ICE arrested Old Orchard Beach Police Department reserve Officer Jon Luke Evans, of Jamaica, on July 25, as part of the agency’s effort to step up immigration enforcement.” * Team Trump seems to have picked revoking security clearances as a hobby: “The Trump administration moved Tuesday to revoke the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials in the latest act of retribution targeting public servants in the federal government’s intelligence community.” * The touristy areas are already some of the safest parts of D.C., and have been for years: “The hundreds of National Guard troops deployed in the nation’s capital so far have been concentrated in tourist-heavy areas of the city, near the National Mall and large monuments.” See you tomorrow.
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."
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