Donald Trump, who campaigned on ending DACA, has apparently decided to pull the plug on the program that protects immigrants who were brought here illegally as children. Of course that’s the same Trump who, as president, once told the 800,000 affected Dreamers not to worry and that they should “rest easy.” Politico is reporting that resting easy is no longer an option as Trump will end the program with an expected Tuesday announcement. According to sources, Trump will likely delay the shutdown for six months, apparently to give Congress time to do something. Of course, Congress has had years to do something about immigration and, to this point, has done nothing.
Meanwhile, other sources inside the White House are saying that the decision is still “fluid,” meaning Trump could change his mind. Still meaning that resting easy is not an option. Via The Washington Post.
How much heat is there surrounding Trump’s expected decison to end DACA? Well, the Tennessee attorney general, one of 10 who joined in the Texas-led lawsuit to upend the program, has changed his mind and is now advising the state’s U.S. senators to vote for the DREAM Act. Via Vox.
The North Korea crisis has reached yet another level with the country’s latest nuclear test, which it claims to have been a hydrogen bomb. The Trump administration responded by saying that even a threat to use the weapons against America or its allies “will be met with a massive military response.” Of course, Trump had already threatened “fire and fury.” Trump also tweeted that he was considering cutting off trade with any country “doing business with North Korea.” North Korea’s main trading partner is, of course, China. Via The New York Times.
Trump’s response to North Korea’s nuclear test was to, yes, accuse South Korea of appeasement. And to threaten to end a bilateral trade agreement. Will that work? Or to put it another way: Will it work any better than Trump’s “fire and fury” line-drawing threat to North Korea? Via The New Yorker.
The New York Times reports on one Houston family’s first daunting steps in beginning the long process of recovery from Harvey. It’s just one family among many tens of thousands.
The Associated Press is reporting that Houston-area Superfund toxic waste sites are flooded and that the EPA has not yet visited the sites, saying they were inaccessible. An AP reporter, though, was able to access seven of them. Meanwhile, the EPA issued a statement attacking one of the AP writers reporting the story. Via Politico.
The water has receded in Houston and others of southeastern Texas, but the trash piles up. And so do the many decisions for those whose houses will be habitable again — what to keep and what is ruined beyond hope. And meanwhile, Houston and other cities have to decide what to do with the trash. Via New York magazine.
Nicholas Kristof: How do you discuss Hurricane Harvey without discussing climate change? It’s apparently easier than you might think. Via The New York Times.
Texas’s culture may strike some as atavistic macho-cowboy silliness, but, as it turns out, when the water gets high you really want to have some atavistically macho cowboys around. Via The National Review.
