Trump Betrays GOP: Today's News for August 7th

Before we get into the news, above is the current projected path of Hurricane Irma for the next 5 days. (Hat tip to the National Hurricane Center.)  

Reuters:

Trump sides with Democrats on debt limit in rare bipartisan deal

President Donald Trump forged a surprising deal with Democrats in Congress on Wednesday to extend the U.S. debt limit and provide government funding until Dec. 15, embracing his political adversaries and blindsiding fellow Republicans in a rare bipartisan accord.

Trump, living up to his reputation for unpredictability, met at the White House with congressional leaders from both parties and overruled Republicans and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who wanted a longer-term debt-limit extension rather than the three-month Democratic proposal the president embraced.

“We could have done a one-year deal today,” Mnuchin told reporters aboard Air Force One later in the day en route back to Washington from an event in North Dakota where Trump spoke about taxes.

In other words, this could have been so much worse. If that sounds like a rationalization, it is because it probably is. Why mention the one-year deal at all?

By the way, for all those people who said Trump was too liberal to be a Republican president, it is time for your "I told you so" moment.

In other Trump news....

Independent:

Russian politician says 'let's hit Trump with our Kompromat' on state TV

A Russian politician has threatened to "hit Donald Trump with our Kompromat" on state TV.

Speaking on Russia-24, Nikita Isaev, leader of the far-right New Russia Movement, said the compromising material should be released in retaliation over the closure of several Russian diplomatic compounds across the US.

When asked whether Russia has such material, Mr Isaev, who is also director of the Russian Institute of Contemporary Economics, replied: "Of course we have it!"

This is why Vladimir Putin is the leader of Russia, and not Nikita Isaev. Even if you assume Russia had such "Kompromat", why would they waste it on diplomatic base closures? They would use it to get something they really want.

If the "Kompromat" does exist, I suspect we won't know what it is for some time. Putin plays a long game.

On a personal note, I really like the word "Kompromat". It is so much more compact than "compromising materials".