We have relatives who live about 150 miles northwest of Corpus Christi, TX. They got some rain and wind but thankfully they were beyond the full brunt of Hurricane Harvey. Different story for those in the path. The photos and personal stories are heart-wrenching. Do what you can.

It’s hard to put a storm like this in perspective, particularly if you’ve never encountered a flash flood or had water in your home. Those of us in the Northeast who have had a couple inches of water in the basement from a burst frozen pipe know what a pain it is to recover from. Try having your entire first floor under water. Parts of Texas have had around 50 inches of rain. The rule of thumb is that one inch of rain equates to around a foot of snow. Do the math.

It’s been two weeks since Charlottesville and Trump’s comments, and the Left and mainstream media continue to mischaracterize Trump and overplay their hand. To repeat, Trump botched this, but it was a PR botch and a blind spot needed to defeat the media, not some indication of racism or sympathy for white supremacists. Yet we continue to see the media characterize the event as a clash between violent far-right groups and “counter protestors” simply expressing their First Amendment rights and Trump’s reaction as supportive of Nazis and the KKK. The number of major New York Times retractions/corrections of supposed Trump quotes on the subject is up to six and counting.

In spite of numerous reports that there was “violence from both sides,” including one from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, there has been stunning silence from the Left in condemning antifa in spite of constant renouncing of the far-right participants by Trump and every other GOP official on record. The hypocrisy is breathtaking but maybe not surprising when you realize that antifa represents the latest evolution of the Democrat base — from Occupy to BLM and now this. Even The Washington Post recognized that a couple days ago when antifa members violently attacked a peaceful conservative rally in California that was just promoting free speech. The tide is turning.

Then we have the aggrieved Left going to almost comically absurd lengths. To name just two examples: A movie theater in Tennessee that has played the classic film “Gone with the Wind” annually for quite some time has pulled it because it displays slavery and might be insensitive. In spite of highly publicized protests demanding the removal of statues associated with anyone who had any connection to slavery (like, say, George Washington), support for keeping them remains in the mid 50’s. But the gold medal goes to USC, which is considering banning the tradition of having its football mascot, Tommy Trojan, ride his white horse, Traveler, around the field to rally the fans. You see, the horse has the same name (different spelling) as Robert E. Lee’s horse, and no, I’m not making this up.

There’s no problem with Trump continuing to bash the media. It’s well-deserved, particularly the opinion masquerading as news aspect. But publicly blasting GOP legislators that he needs to enact major pieces of his agenda, not so much. Not because they don’t also deserve it but because fighting from a 35% approval base doesn’t carry enough fear clout. True, the economy is chugging along at 3%, but Trump needs a big, visible win on tax policy to gain the upper hand negotiating on other matters, ideally on health care. (Don’t give up on this. Something must be done and capitulating to the Democrat approach would be the kiss of death for the GOP).

As noted before, the best tactic would be for Trump to propose something simple that provides across-the-board tax relief. Cut all rates; increase the standard deduction and reduce the payroll tax to give those who don’t pay income taxes a break as well; and allow repatriation of offshore cash tax-free. Leave the contentious debate on special interest deductions and other breaks for later, and address head-on the predictable dissent from Democrats (and some in the GOP) who say it’s a tax cut for the rich and the deficit will balloon. Dare the GOP to reject it.

The perception is being fostered that even members of Trump’s Cabinet have doubts about his attitude toward race and his supposed support of far-right groups. This is of course ridiculous; given the caliber of folks in the Cabinet, no one would stay if they really believed the guy they were working for was a racist. What’s happening is a version of what I refer to as “you have to live at home.” It’s when you have different points of view from your friends and family but you go along with them to keep the peace. With Trump’s approval numbers so low, it’s just expediency for Cabinet members not to give full-throated support to Trump on topics like Charlottesville when he botched the response and the media is framing the question of why would they back a bigot. It’s too hard to swim upstream and potentially risk having one’s reputation smeared by the media and having friends and family go on radio silence. Only the Treasury Secretary has it right — Trump’s response may not have been perfect, but I know what is in his heart. He doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. If I thought he did, I wouldn’t be here.

Ditto with the reaction to the Sheriff Joe Arpaio pardon. Lost in the media characterization of Joe as a bigot who trampled on the civil rights of criminals and immigrants is the ambiguity of the court ruling that resulted in his contempt conviction, which by the way was rendered by a single Bill Clinton-appointed judge who denied Joe a jury trial. Since backing Trump’s pardon would require explaining the complexity and controversy of the rulings, which were under appeal, and would require responding to loaded media questions about why one would support a bigot (sound familiar?), most legislators, including many leading GOP folks, simply ran for cover. Some even opined that Trump had violated the rule of law by providing the pardon, which is absurd since the Constitution gives him that absolute right. If you want to conclude that the pardon was unwise, fine. But then explain why pardons for a conviction under challenge, based on vague rulings, is in the same league as pardons for tax cheats, traitors and terrorists. Low approval ratings provide all kinds of cover, so it might take 50% or so for GOP folks to find the courage (read: fear of Trump) to fight back on the media premise that anyone supporting the pardon, or other items of the Trump agenda, is a racist.

The media still can’t let go of the “Russians did it in collusion with Trump” theme. There is the grand total of zero evidence of any collusion, but the latest attempt at stirring doubts is a front page New York Times story that a real estate broker who had done business with Trump tried to arrange a deal in Moscow for a “Trump” hotel in partnership with Russian businessmen who knew Putin. Trump agreed to let him try, but the deal never came together and the project was dropped after a few weeks. Somehow this is what the Times calls evidence of collusion that cries out for further investigation. Trump’s real problem is that he had the common sense to think this insignificant event was not worth mentioning to the Mueller folks, so it looks like he was hiding something when it came out.

Book promotions have a rhythm of their own, particularly if the author is a celebrity. Hillary’s new book, “What Happened,” about the election, is due out soon and the PR campaign is under way. It began some time ago with a tease that she was writing a tell-all book about the election, which then moved to leaks about some of the content, and finally last week the release of the promotional tour specifics and excerpts from the book.

The excerpt that Hillary chose to release is telling, mostly because you know it was focus-grouped to death. It recounts a debate with Trump in which he supposedly “stalked” her on stage and “made her skin crawl.” She says she wanted to stop and ask the American people whether she should continue as if nothing happened or turn around and confront Trump, demanding that he back off. In other words, she needed a focus group, listening tour or poll to know how to act. Can you spell irony? She then adds that by choosing the former, she doomed her campaign and things would have been far different if she had stood up to Trump. So we can add “Trump was a bully” to all those other external excuses — Comey, Russians, gender discrimination, staff incompetence, etc — instead of being arrogant/overconfident, ignoring Wisconsin, calling half the country deplorable, and generally running the worst campaign in history.

But it’s a preview of the next phase in the 2020 campaign, including the “Trump as woman hater” angle. Absent any other Democrat emerging to take the mantle, she will remain the front runner and suck up all the oxygen in the room. The book tour is further evidence. It will include visits to Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania; and even an appearance at a Costco on Brookfield, CT, population 16,000, to demonstrate her middle class bona fides to a friendly crowd in a state that she won by 15. But old Clinton habits die hard; Hillary is charging over $1,000 for tickets to some of her appearances. One might think that the idea of a book tour is not to get in the way of maximizing attendance, but profits from book sales can’t compete with appearance fees, so there you go. Run, Hillary, run.