Jack Shafer/Politico:
The new interest in a Uranium One scandal Trump has fanned with his Twitter feed fits this pattern. As assessed by Factcheck.org, Snopes, Politifact, and the Washington Post, there doesn’t seem to be much to Trump’s shouting. He could be right. The Russians might have bought the House of Clinton. She might be the Moscow Candidate! Or the ballyhoo might be just the Benghazi crap retreaded for another roll around the track. In any event, no matter what Hillary Clinton’s sins, they have nothing to do with the Trump-Russia probes, so if we’re going to tussle over them, let’s put them in a separate lane.
But the scandal is less about Trumpian word-war, the forging of public opinion through the services of the Fox News Channel, and the side-show of the uranium story than it is about Mueller’s ultimate findings and his power to bring criminal indictments. Mueller’s team, which has kept radio silence since mustered into being in May by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, has been steadily building its evidentiary munitions depot in a secretive bunker that so far has been impervious to the counter assaults of the White House. Mueller’s staff has issued subpoenas in profusion and interviewed Rosenstein himself, dossier author Christopher Steele, top current and former intelligence officials, and former Trump administration officials, and plans to interview current administration officials, culminating almost certainly with an interview with the president.
Watch this:
NY Times version of story:
Trump Tries to Shift Focus as First Charges Reportedly Loom in Russia Case
President Trump’s frustration at the investigations into his campaign’s ties with Russia boiled over on Sunday, as he sought to shift the focus to a litany of accusations against his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton, a day before the special counsel inquiry will reportedly produce its first indictment in the case.
In a series of midmorning Twitter posts, Mr. Trump said Republicans were now pushing back against the Russia allegations by looking into Mrs. Clinton. But the president, who has often expressed anger that his allies were not doing more to protect him from the Russia inquiries, made it clear he believed that Mrs. Clinton should be pursued more forcefully, writing, “DO SOMETHING!”
He did not specify who should take such action, though critics have accused him of trying to improperly sway the inquiries.
WaPo version of the story:
Frustrated with the Russia investigation, Trump demands Democrats and Hillary Clinton face more scrutiny
On Sunday morning, President Trump expressed frustration that his campaign is under investigation over possible ties to Russia's plot to influence the 2016 election but that his former opponent Hillary Clinton is not facing the same level of scrutiny.
In four tweets sent over 24 minutes, Trump wrote: “Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?), the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia, 'collusion,' which doesn't exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!”
Reality has a liberal bias.
NBC:
Trump’s Approval Rating Drops to Lowest Level Yet in New NBC News/WSJ Poll
President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has declined to the lowest point of his presidency, and nearly half of voters want their vote in the 2018 midterms to be a message for more Democrats in Congress to check Trump and congressional Republicans, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Thirty eight percent of Americans say they approve of Trump’s job performance — down five points since September — while 58 percent disapprove.
Trump’s previous low in approval in the national NBC/WSJ poll was 39 percent back in May.
See article for trends.
His base is not untouchable and they are not all rally goers. Look at the numbers. Sure, there are plenty of diehards but not as many as you think.
Religion News Service:
‘Christian America’ dwindling, including white evangelicals, study shows
Almost every Christian denomination in the U.S. shows signs of growing diversity as white Christians, once the majority in most mainline Protestant and Catholic denominations, give way to younger members, who tend to be of different races, according to a study released Wednesday (Sept. 6) by the Public Religion Research Institute.
In non-Trump news…
Ed Yong/Atlantic
Is It Possible to Predict the Next Pandemic?
Large initiatives are underway to pinpoint the next big viral threats—but some virologists believe the task is too hard.
“Can we predict pandemics? The answer right now is no. But just because something is hard to predict does not mean we cannot quantify its risk in a useful, actionable way—a logic that the insurance industry profits from,” adds Barbara Han, from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. No predictions are perfect, but at the very least, we can put boundaries on what is likely.
Resources aren’t infinite, though, and public health is an area that’s historically underfunded. Geoghagen argues that it would be best to channel efforts into approaches that would do the most good. For her, that involves looking at the “fault lines” where humans and animals meet—regions where people are more likely to be exposed to animal viruses because they are chopping down forests, or setting up dense animal markets, or hunting wild creatures for meat, or moving around a lot because of political instability.
Rebecca Traister/The Cut:
Our National Narratives Are Still Being Shaped by Lecherous, Powerful Men
The media is breaking the news here; the media is also deeply implicated in this news and still shaping how the tale is getting told. Ours is an industry, like so many others, dominated by white men at the top; they have made the decisions about what to cover and how, and they still do. The pervasiveness of these power imbalances and the way they affect how even this story itself is being told are instructive. Here is something you should know, from inside a publication: For every one of these stories of harassment and predation finally seeing the light of day, reporters are hearing dozens more that will not be published, because women won’t go on the record in an industry still run by the people they want to name, or because the men in question aren’t powerful enough to interest those who are powerful enough to decide what has news value, or because the damage these men are alleged to have done seems insignificant on a scale that has recently been drawn to accommodate the trespasses of Harvey Weinstein, and of writer-director James Toback, named by more than 300 women (whose accounts he denies).
