memeorandum: Harvey, the Storm That Humans Helped Cause (David Leonhardt/New York Times)

3:05 PM ET, August 29, 2017

Top Items:

St. John Barned-Smith / Houston Chronicle:

Houston Police officer drowns in Harvey floodwaters — A Houston police officer drowned in his patrol car in Harvey floodwaters, according to three department officials. — The officer, an HPD veteran who has been with the department for more than 30 years, was in his patrol car driving …

Discussion: Austin American-Statesman, ThinkProgress, Axios, RedState, Daily Wire, WREG-TV, KTLA, The Daily Caller, IJR, twitchy.com, The Atlantic, AOL, Faithwire and CNN

Eric Holthaus / Politico:

Harvey Is What Climate Change Looks Like — In all of U.S. history, there's never been a storm like Hurricane Harvey. That fact is increasingly clear, even though the rains are still falling and the water levels in Houston are still rising. — But there's an uncomfortable point that …

Euan McKirdy / CNN:

Joel Osteen church denies reports it closed its doors to flood victims — (CNN)Pastor Joel Osteen's Houston megachurch says it's opening its doors Tuesday to residents displaced by flooding. — Lakewood Church, which was founded by Osteen's father in the 1950s, posted on social media Monday …

Discussion: The Hill, New York Times, FOX2now.com, The Daily Caller, The Root, IJR, Business Insider, AOL, Talking Points Memo and FOX6Now.com

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

Harvey, the Storm That Humans Helped Cause — Even before the devastation from Harvey, southeastern Texas was enduring a year unlike any before. — The daily surface temperature of the Gulf of Mexico last winter never dropped below 73 degrees. You can probably guess how many previous times that had happened: Zero.

Discussion: Hit & Run, CNN, The Daily Caller, Daily Wire, Roy Spencer, PhD., The Guardian, IJR, Washington Post and Vox

Michael Grunwald / Politico:
How Washington Made Harvey Worse

Discussion: Vox, VDARE, Slate, Grist, CityLab and The Hill

Matthew Haag / New York Times:
Saving Pets Is Paramount for Many Fleeing Tropical Storm Harvey

Discussion: Military.com, The Daily Caller, Los Angeles Times and Gizmodo

New York Times: How Does Hurricane Harvey Compare With Katrina? Here's What We Know

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Ted Cruz's claim that two-thirds of the Hurricane Sandy bill ‘had nothing to do with Sandy’ — “The problem with that particular bill is it became a $50 billion bill that was filled with unrelated pork. Two-thirds of that bill had nothing to do with Sandy.” — Hypocrisy watch!

Discussion: CNBC, Raw Story, Shareblue, Politicus USA, Jamie Dupree - AJC, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo and Austin American-Statesman

Glenn Thrush / New York Times:

Harvey Gives Trump a Chance to Reclaim Power to Unify — Hurricane Harvey was the rarest of disasters to strike during the Trump presidency — a maelstrom not of Mr. Trump's making, and one that offers him an opportunity to recapture some of the unifying power of his office he has squandered in recent weeks.

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Crooks and Liars, Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns & Money, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balloon Juice, Raw Story and Media Matters for America

Stan Collender / Forbes:
Hurricane Harvey Greatly Complicates The Government Shutdown Calculation

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Politico, JustOneMinute, New York Magazine, Wall Street Journal, BillMoyers.com, Washington Post, Associated Press, The Hill and Newsweek

Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Sanders: Probably too soon for Trump to visit Houston

Discussion: Washington Post, Refinery29, Daily Wire and The Daily Caller

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Will Hurricane Harvey prompt a Trump ‘reset’? His megalomania probably won't allow it.

Discussion: Breitbart, Politico, VICE News, Weekly Standard, Talking Points Memo, Shakesville, ABC News and Joe.My.God.

Olivia Beavers / The Hill:
Rep. King: NY won't ‘abandon’ Texas despite ‘hypocrite’ Ted Cruz

Discussion: MichelleMalkin.com, The Texas Tribune, NBC News, CNBC and Mother Jones

HuffPost:
Hurricane Harvey And The Potential Hypocrisy Of Texas Republicans

Discussion: Slate, Vox, NPR, Newsweek, New York Times, Daily Wire and CBS New York

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:
Cruz defends vote on Sandy relief bill: ‘Filled with pork’

Discussion: Politico, twitchy.com and The Resurgent

Washington Post:
How many votes could Hurricane Harvey cost Trump in Texas?

Discussion: Washington Monthly

The Hill:

Gorka suggests covert US cyber program targeted at N. Korea — Sebastian Gorka, who recently departed the White House, on Tuesday appeared to publicly confirm the existence of a covert cyber sabotage program targeted at North Korea's missile program. — “There's many options in the more covert side …

Discussion: Politico and RedState

CNN:
Trump says ‘all options on table’ after North Korea launches missile over Japan

Louis Nelson / Politico:
Trump on North Korea's missile launch: ‘All options are on the table’

Discussion: ABC News, Associated Press, Axios and IJR

Justin McCurry / The Guardian:
Trump and Abe vow to increase pressure after North Korea fires missile over Japan

Discussion: CNN, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Agence France-Presse, Daily Kos, VICE News, TheBlaze, New York Times, Just Security, AOL, BBC, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, ABC News, Politico and Daily Wire

Charles Riley / CNNMoney:

Fox News pulled off the air in Britain — Rupert Murdoch and his sons are pulling Fox News off the air in Britain. — The network's parent company, 21st Century Fox, has announced that the controversial news channel will no longer be broadcast in the U.K. after failing to attract an audience.

Discussion: Raw Story and Mediaite

The Guardian:
Sky stops broadcasting rightwing US channel Fox News in UK

Discussion: AOL, more at Mediagazer »

David Brooks / New York Times:

How Trump Kills the G.O.P. — It's ironic that race was the issue that created the Republican Party and that race could very well be the issue that destroys it. — The G.O.P. was founded to fight slavery, and through most of its history it had a decent record on civil rights.

Discussion: driftglass

Bloomberg:

Trump Punishes Longtime Aide After Angry Phoenix Speech, Sources Say — George Gigicos removed as president's rally organizer — Sparse crowd put Trump in foul mood before delivering remarks — Donald Trump was in a bad mood before he emerged for a confrontational speech in Arizona last week.

Discussion: CNN, Vox, Politico, Shareblue, Talking Points Memo, IJR, Washington Post, Business Insider, CANNONFIRE, RedState, Raw Story, Balloon Juice and Mediaite

Margaret Hartmann / New York Magazine:
Trump Fires Longtime Event Organizer Over Sparse Crowd at Phoenix Rally

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, theGrio, IJR and Hullabaloo

Juan Escalante / Vox:

DREAMers like me have flourished under DACA. Trump might take it all away. — If Trump ends DACA, DREAMers like me will return to a life of anxiety and doubt. — During the summer of 2012, I was working an unpaid communications internship in Tallahassee, Florida, with no hopes of ever getting …

Discussion: juansaaa, ThinkProgress and Daily Kos

National Review: Mr. President, End DACA

San Francisco Chronicle:

After melees, Berkeley mayor asks Cal to cancel right-wing Free Speech Week — In the aftermath of a right-wing rally Sunday that ended with anarchists chasing attendees from a downtown park, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin urged UC Berkeley on Monday to cancel conservatives' plans …

Discussion: National Review, News, East Bay Express, Townhall.com, New York Times, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Reveal, The Daily Caller, Campus Reform, Daily Wire, Patterico's Pontifications, twitchy.com, Infowars, SFist, Breitbart and IJR

Pew Research Center:

Republicans Divided in Views of Trump's Conduct; Democrats Are Broadly Critical — In their own words: How people describe Trump's presidency — In his first seven months as president, Donald Trump has generally drawn high job approval ratings among Republicans.

Discussion: Pew Research Center, Washington Post, Business Insider and Politicus USA

David M. Drucker / Vanity Fair:

How the Swamp Sold Its Soul to Donald Trump — “Your heart tells you that he's bad for the country,” one Republican strategist said. “Your head looks at polling data.” — “From a personal standpoint, I think this president f**king sucks. He's not even a Republican,” …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Raw Story

MSNBC:

Exclusive: White House staff warned not to admit Gorka — Thing 1/Thing 2: All In has obtained emails sent the night the news broke that Sebastian Gorka was leaving the White House - emails that are not remotely normal, according to two former White House staff members. ... more Duration: {{video.duration.momentjs}}

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Washington Post

NBC News:

Mueller Team Asking If Trump Tried to Hide Purpose of Trump Tower Meeting — 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 …

Discussion: Don Surber, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Raw Story, Shakesville, Business Insider, TheBlaze, Politicus USA, Infowars, Axios and Mediaite

CNN:

Trump appointee: Comment calling Obama's mother a ‘w@!re’ result of ‘Internet crimes’ against me — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — (CNN)President Donald Trump's appointee to a Department of Energy post says inflammatory comments that appeared to have been made by him online were the result of …

Fox News:

Family of six counted among the dead as Harvey death toll rises to 14 — A family of six trying to escape the floodwaters produced by Harvey has been counted among the 14 victims who died in the historic storm, authorities said. — The four children and their great-grandparents died Sunday afternoon …

Discussion: Shareblue, The Federalist, IJR, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, gov.texas.gov, Austin American-Statesman, New York Times, TheBlaze and The Daily Caller

Los Angeles Times:

‘Antifa’ violence in Berkeley spurs soul-searching within leftist activist community — All eyes turned to Berkeley after a day of large-scale protests, and relative peace, in San Francisco. (Aug. 27, 2017) (Sign up for our free video newsletter here http://bit.ly/2n6VKPR)

Discussion: Mother Jones and Daily Wire

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

A new polling low for Trump: Just 16 percent ‘like’ his conduct as president — Polling Donald Trump is one of the most difficult and confusing exercises in modern politics. In Trump, we have a guy who won the presidency by surprisingly beating the polls in key Rust Belt states, of course.

Victoria Lopez / ACLU:

ICE Plans to Start Destroying Records of Immigrant Abuse, Including Sexual Assault and Deaths in Custody — Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently asked the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA), which instructs federal agencies on how to maintain records …

Discussion: Shakesville, Shareblue and Raw Story