The Commentariat -- January 5, 2019
Late Morning Update:
Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Two weeks into the showdown over a border wall, Mr. Trump is now crafting his own narrative of the confrontation that has come to consume his presidency. Rather than a failure of negotiation, the shutdown has become a test of political virility, one in which he insists he is receiving surreptitious support from unlikely quarters. Not only are national security hawks cheering him on to defend a porous southern border, but so too are former presidents who he says have secretly confessed to him that they should have done what he is doing. Not only do federal employees accept being furloughed or forced to work without wages, they have assured him that they would give up paychecks so that he can stand strong. Never mind how implausible such assertions might seem. The details do not matter to Mr. Trump as much as dominating the debate.... He has told people that 'my people' love the fight, and that he believes he is winning."
Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: National Security Advisor John Bolton & Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Joseph Dunford will travel to Turkey next week to discuss with Turkish officials Turkey's "concerns and expectations" regarding the U.S.'s planned withdrawal of troops from Syria. Accompanying Bolton & Dunford will be James Jeffrey, appointed Friday "as the envoy to the global anti-Islamic State coalition.... Turkey wants the United States to disarm Syrian Kurdish forces it has trained and supplied for the fight against the Islamic State, and to provide air and logistical support for Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition forces.... U.S. strategy was thrown into confusion last month, when President Trump announced the immediate withdrawal of some 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria. For the past three years, those forces have advised and directed Syrian Kurdish fighters who, with the aid of U.S. airstrikes, have driven the Islamic State out of most of its Syrian strongholds." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump tweeted last month the U.S. was withdrawing because "We have defeated ISIS in Syria." Oddly enough, as Patrick points out in an essential comment below, DeYoung reports, "In an update issued Friday, the U.S. Central Command listed a total of 469 strikes conducted against the Islamic State in Syria between Dec. 16 and 29." If Trump was right, we'll have to assume that those strikes were simply "pounding sand."
Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: "Facing mounting criticism from Capitol Hill, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has rescinded an invitation to the controversial head of the Russian space agency to visit the United States.... [Dmitry] Rogozin was placed on a sanction list by the Obama administration in 2014 response to Russia's military actions in Ukraine when he was the deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation. After the sanctions were issued, he said Russia should stop flying NASA's astronauts to the International Space Station in retaliation. 'After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest the U.S. delivers its astronauts to the ISS [International Space Station] with a trampoline,' he wrote on Twitter. Given Rogozin's history as a bombastic Russian nationalist and presence on the sanction list, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and others said Bridenstine should have never invited him.... Earlier Friday, a NASA spokesman said that the visit, originally scheduled for February, would be postponed. But as the criticism mounted, the agency decided it was best to withdraw the invitation entirely."
Julie Ray & Neli Esipova of Gallup: "While Donald Trump has spent much of his presidency focused on the number of people who want to get into the U.S., since he took office, record numbers of Americans have wanted to get out. Though relatively average by global standards, the 16% of Americans overall who said in 2017 and again in 2018 that they would like to permanently move to another country -- if they could -- is higher than the average levels during either the George W. Bush (11%) or Barack Obama administration (10%). While Gallup's World Poll does not ask people about their political leanings, most of the recent surge in Americans' desire to migrate has come among groups that typically lean Democratic and that have disapproved of Trump's job performance so far in his presidency: women, young Americans and people in lower-income groups."
*****
Michael Tackett & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Trump threatened on Friday to keep the federal government partially closed for 'months or even years' if he does not get money to build a wall along the southern border, but he also expressed optimism he could reach agreement with congressional Democrats within days. Mr. Trump and Democratic leaders emerged from a two-hour meeting without a deal to reopen government agencies that have already been shuttered for 14 days and offered sharply contrasting views of where they stood. Democrats called the meeting 'contentious' while the president and Republican allies called it 'productive.'... Mr. Trump had no hostile words for the opposition. 'I found the Democrats really want to do something,' he said. He designated Vice President Mike Pence, Kirstjen Nielsen, the Homeland Security secretary, and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser to meet with congressional representatives this weekend." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump said Friday he is considering declaring a national emergency to help pay for his long-desired border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.... Earlier Friday, multiple sources familiar with the ongoing discussion told ABC News that options could include reprogramming funds from the Department of Defense and elsewhere -- a move which would circumvent Congress. Sources tell ABC News the discussions are still on the 'working level' adding that there's a range of legal mechanisms that are being considered before such a decision is announced." ...
... Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "As the government shutdown drags on, lawyers from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon are meeting to discuss whether ... Donald Trump can declare a national emergency to deploy troops and Defense Department resources to build his border wall, according to two sources.... One of the sources, a senior administration official, said the White House has kept this option on the table for some time, but is now considering it more seriously.... The numbers of border crossers are not at all-time highs." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: That's funny, because for the past two years, "wall" has not been a national emergency. The real "emergency" is Trump's fear that if he doesn't build "wall," he'll lose support from winger personalities & his bigoted voter base. While there's nothing illegal about "looking into" such a move, if Trump attempted to so abuse his ability to declare national emergencies by using it to usurp the Congress's Constitutional power of the purse in defiance of the Congress's wishes, such an act would be not only impeachable but unconstitutional, IMO. ...
... Rafi Schwartz of Splinter: "And as for all those people who actually own the property along the border where the president's wall would theoretically be built? Well, he's got something he likes to call the 'military version of eminent domain.' Neato! (also: not a real thing)." ...
... Off the Effing Rails. Asawin Suebsaeng & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "President Trump kicked off ... Friday's meeting at the White House over the ongoing shutdown standoff ... with a rant lasting roughly 15 minutes that included his $5.6 billion demand for a border wall, and threatened that he was willing to keep the government closed for 'years' if that's what it took to get his wall. He also, unprompted, brought up the Democrats who want him impeached, and even blamed [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi for new Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib saying at a party earlier this week that Democrats would impeach the 'motherfucker' Trump. (It is unclear why Trump would think Pelosi was responsible for this.) Trump proceeded to tell the room he was too popular to impeach. [Mrs. McC: Impeachment is not supposed to depend upon or measure popularity.] Along with saying the word 'fuck' at least three times throughout the meeting, the president bizarrely stated that he did not want to call the partial government shutdown a 'shutdown,' according to [a] source. Instead, he referred to it as a 'strike.' (Many of the federal employees affected by the weeks-long shutdown have been working without pay. That is essentially the opposite of a strike.)" ...
... Another Trump Whopper. Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "... Donald Trump claimed without evidence on Friday that past presidents have privately confided to him that they regret not building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. But at least three of the four living U.S. presidents -- Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama -- did no such thing. Asked if Clinton told Trump that he should have built a border wall, Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña said, 'He did not. In fact, they've not talked since the inauguration.' Bush spokesman Freddy Ford also said the two men had not discussed the matter. And Obama, for his part, has not spoken with Trump since his inauguration, except for a brief exchange at George H.W. Bush's funeral in Washington, D.C. Obama has consistently blasted Trump's pledge to build a border wall.... Spokespeople for George H.W. Bush, who died in November, and Jimmy Carter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.... Since taking office, Trump has had little contact with past presidents...." Mrs. McC: There is zero chance Poppy or President Carter told Trump they wished they'd spent billions on a quixotic wall. I would not say "claimed without evidence"; I'd say "lied." ...
... Nancy Cook of Politico: "... Donald Trump's new acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, is already putting his stamp on the West Wing after just a few days on the job. While his recently departed predecessor, Gen. John Kelly, often tried to restrain ... Donald Trump, Mulvaney -- who has said he won't seek to be a check on the impulsive president -- has been egging on the president in his confrontation with congressional Democrats over a border wall." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Never Mind All This. Damian Paletta & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Food stamps for 38 million low-income Americans would face severe reductions and more than $140 billion in tax refunds are at risk of being frozen or delayed if the government shutdown stretches into February, widespread disruptions that threaten to hurt the economy. The Trump administration, which had not anticipated a long-term shutdown, recognized only this week the breadth of the potential impact, several senior administration officials said. The officials said they were focused now on understanding the scope of the consequences and determining whether there is anything they can do to intervene. Thousands of federal programs are affected by the shutdown, but few intersect with the public as much as the tax system and the Department of Agriculture;s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the current version of food stamps." Emphasis added. ...
... OR This. "Blue Flu." Rene Marsh & Gregory Wallace of CNN: "Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration officers, who are required to work without paychecks through the partial government shutdown, have called out from work this week from at least four major airports, according to two senior agency officials and three TSA employee union officials. The mass call outs could inevitably mean air travel is less secure, especially as the shutdown enters its second week with no clear end to the political stalemate in sight.... Union officials stress that the absences are not part of an organized action, but believe the number of people calling out will likely increase....Two of the sources, who are federal officials, described the sick outs as protests of the paycheck delay. One called it the 'blue flu,' a reference to the blue shirts worn by transportation security officers who screen passengers and baggage at airport security checkpoints. A union official, however, said that ... officers have said they are calling in sick ... [because] single parents can no longer afford child care or they are finding cash-paying jobs outside of government work to pay their rent and other bills, for example." ...
... OR This. Darryl Fears & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Three days after most of the federal workforce was furloughed on Dec. 21, a 14-year-old girl fell 700 feet to her death at the Horseshoe Bend Overlook, part of the Glen Canyon Recreation Area in Arizona. The following day, Christmas, a man died at Yosemite National Park in California after suffering a head injury from a fall. On Dec. 27, a woman was killed by a falling tree at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee. The deaths follow a decision by Trump administration officials to leave the scenic -- but sometimes deadly -- parks open even as the Interior Department has halted most of its operations. During previous extended shutdowns, the National Park Service barred access to many of its sites across the nation. National Park Service spokesman Jeremy Barnum said in an email that an average of six people die each week in the park system, a figure that includes 'accidents like drownings, falls, and motor vehicle crashes and medical related incidents such as heart attacks.'... Several former Park Service officials, along with the system's advocates, said in interviews that activities such as viewing animals and hiking outdoors can carry a greater risk when fewer employees are around." ...
... Peter Whoriskey & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "While many federal workers go without pay and the government is partially shut down, hundreds of senior Trump political appointees are poised to receive annual raises of about $10,000 a year. The pay raises for cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries, top administrators and even Vice President Mike Pence are scheduled to go into effect beginning Jan. 5 without legislation to stop them, according to documents issued by the Office of Personnel Management and experts in federal pay. The raises appear to be an intended consequence of the shutdown: When lawmakers failed to pass bills on Dec. 21 to fund multiple federal agencies, they allowed an existing pay freeze to lapse.... Cabinet secretaries, for example, would be entitled to a jump in annual salary from $199,700 to $210,700." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Frank Rich: "When Trump capitulates on the shutdown, he'll say he's 'won' no matter what the particulars are. He's already been readying that plan, at various times declaring that the wall is already nearing completion, or redefining the word 'wall' as 'steel slats' or 'barrier' or whatever.... He knows that his base will buy any victory he claims, and it's likely that the hard-liners at Fox News, including Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, will get with the program as well when there's no other way out."
How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong (no Collusion with Russia, it was the Dems that Colluded), had the most successful first two years of any president, and is the most popular Republican in party history 93%? -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Friday morning
I did not lift this from the Onion; this is a real tweet Trump wrote this morning. It represents either (a) one purposeful lie after another, or (b) grounds to immediately invoke the Twentyfifth Amendment. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
Jonathan Chait: "Basic facts about Trump's life, which would have been thoroughly plumbed were he any other presidential candidate, are only starting to be investigated.... One reason Trump has escaped scrutiny, of course, is that he has withheld his tax returns.... Trump has an obvious motive to conceal his decades of dependency on his father's largesse, as well as the apparent role played by Russian money laundering in replacing those cash infusions after his father's money ran out.... Measured in absolute terms, or against other candidates, Trump was subject to harsh, unrelenting scrutiny. But measured against the scale of his own dark past, he skated into office with barely any vetting at all, abetted by decades of friendly propaganda.... The review of Trump's life is only beginning now. It will probably tell us that Trump is not merely a politician who has abused his power, or a businessman who has cut corners. He is a criminal who happened to be elected president." Thanks to MAG for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Bob Just Keeps on Truckin'. Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's federal grand jury has been extended so it may continue to meet and vote on criminal indictments for up to six more months. The grand jury's initial 18-month term was set to expire over the weekend. The extension is the surest sign yet that the Russia investigation isn't finished. It means, broadly, that Mueller may continue pursuing alleged criminal activity related to the Russian government's interference in the 2016 presidential election, and that more indictments may be coming."
Your Tax Dollars at Work. DOJ Won't Retract Its Very Trumpy Anti-Immigrant "Report." Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department has acknowledged errors and deficiencies in a controversial report issued a year ago that implied a link between terrorism in the United States and immigration, but -- for the second and final time -- officials have declined to retract or correct the document.... The report was written in compliance with President Trump's March 2017 executive order halting immigration from six majority-Muslim countries.... Released by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, the report stated that 402 of 549 individuals -- nearly 3 in 4 -- convicted of international terrorism charges since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were foreign-born.... [But] it is unclear how many were foreign-born...." About 100 of the 402 were people accused of committing terrorist acts in foreign countries, then extradicted to the U.S. These would not be "immigrants." At least 189 of the 549 were convicted with crimes not related to terrorism. "One flaw the Justice Department acknowledged was the report's assertion that between 2003 and 2009, immigrants were convicted of 69,929 sex offenses.... [But] the nearly 70,000 offenses spanned a period from 1955 to 2010 -- 55 years, not six; the data covered arrests, not convictions; and one arrest could be for multiple offenses...." ...
... Another Very Trumpy Whopper. Julia Ainsley: "White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday that Customs and Border Protection picked up nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists last year 'that came across our southern border.' But in fact, the figure she seems to be citing is based on 2017 data, not 2018, and refers to stops made by Department of Homeland Security across the globe, mainly at airports. In fiscal 2017, the latest year for which data is available, according to agency data and the White House's own briefing sheet, the Department of Homeland Security prevented nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists from 'traveling to or entering the United States.' According to Justice Department public records and two former counterterrorism officials, no immigrant has been arrested at the southwest border on terrorism charges in recent years."
Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Congress is reviewing the Trump administration's decision to lift sanctions on companies owned by Oleg V. Deripaska, an influential Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin, Democrats said on Friday. The reviews could fuel a congressional effort to block the administration's decision, which came after an aggressive lobbying and legal campaign against the sanctions by Mr. Deripaska's corporate empire. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, laid the groundwork to block the lifting of the sanctions on Friday, filing a congressional resolution disapproving of the move by the Treasury Department.... To keep the sanctions in place, the resolution would have to be approved by both chambers of Congress before Jan. 18. That seems unlikely, given that it would require the Senate's Republican majority to split with the administration." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's not forget Deripaska's "close ties" to President* Trump; he was a big client of Trump's former campaign chair Paul Manafort, who sought to pay off a huge financial debt to Deripaska with special "favors." Lifting sanctions is a helluva favor.
Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Hours after she was sworn in to Congress, Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib used an expletive Thursday in pushing for impeaching ... Donald Trump. Speaking to a crowd at an event sponsored by the progressive group MoveOn, Tlaib recalled the moment she won her election in November. 'And when your son looks at you and says, "Mama look, you won. Bullies don't win," and I said, "Baby, they don't," because we're gonna go in there and we're going to impeach the motherf[ucke]r,' Tlaib said Thursday, speaking of Trump, according to a video posted on Twitter...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Leigh Ann Caldwell of NBC News: "... Nancy Pelosi on Friday shied away from moving forward with impeachment at this time, calling it a 'divisive' option and saying that a colleague's use of an expletive to describe ... Donald Trump was no 'worse' than some of the language the president himself has used. 'I do think that we want to be unified and bring people together. Impeachment is a very divisive approach to take and we shouldn't take it ... without the facts,' Pelosi said during an MSNBC town hall at Trinity University in Washington, her alma mater." (Also linked yesterday.)
Mrs. McCrabbie: I would not vote for any of these Republican Congressmen, two of whom are freshmen, but I would give them a heartfelt, humble vote of thanks:
5 eyes. 5 arms. 4 legs. All American.
— Rep. Brian Mast (@RepBrianMast) January 3, 2019
Welcome to Congress, @ElectJimBaird & @DanCrenshawTX. pic.twitter.com/NU7YnbAE4u
... Caitlin Doornbos of Stars & Stripes: "Army veteran and Florida Rep. Brian Mast tweeted a photo Thursday marking the swearing-in ceremony of fellow wounded veterans and Republican congressmen Jim Baird and Dan Crenshaw.... Mast lost both legs in 2010 while clearing improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan; Baird, R-Ind., lost an arm while serving in the Vietnam War with the Army; and Crenshaw, R-Texas, lost an eye in a 2012 IED blast while serving in the Navy SEALs in Afghanistan."
Tiffany May of the New York Times: "On the eve of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's swearing-in as the youngest woman ever elected to the House of Representatives, video footage from her college days suddenly appeared on the internet. The video showed Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 29, dancing barefoot on a rooftop. If it was meant to be an embarrassing leak, it backfired badly.... A dubbed and edited version of the original footage surfaced when a Twitter account with the handle @AnonymousQ1776 published it online. 'Here is America's favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is,' read the tweet from @AnonymousQ1776, which incorrectly described it as a video from her high school days. The account has since been deleted." And this: "When Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, dressed in white in homage to suffragists and pioneering women in politics, officially took office in Washington on Thursday, Republicans booed her. To which she replied on Twitter: 'Over 200 members voted for Nancy Pelosi today, yet the GOP only booed one: me. Don't hate me cause you ain't me, fellas.'" ...
James Arkin of Politico: "Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) announced Friday that he will retire in 2020 instead of running for reelection. Roberts, 82, has served four terms in the Senate and last won reelection in 2014 after facing a bruising Republican primary." (Also linked yesterday.)
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to take another look at whether the Constitution bars extreme partisan gerrymandering. The move followed two decisions in June in which the justices sidestepped the question in cases from Wisconsin and Maryland. Those earlier cases had raised the possibility that the court might decide for the first time, that some election maps were so warped by politics that they crossed a constitutional line. Challengers had pinned their hopes on Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who had expressed ambivalence on the subject, but he and his colleagues appeared unable to identify a workable constitutional test. Justice Kennedy's replacement by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh makes a ruling limiting partisan gerrymandering less likely, election law experts said. Indeed, the court could rule that the Constitution imposes no limits on the practice."
Stranger & Stranger. Paul Sonne, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Marine Corps found Paul Whelan, the American citizen detained by Russia on espionage charges, guilty of attempting to steal more than $10,000 worth of currency from the U.S. government while deployed to Iraq in 2006 and bouncing nearly $6,000 worth of checks around the same time [and other charges], according to records obtained by The Washington Post. The details of the charges against Whelan from a special court-martial two years later, which resulted in his discharge for bad conduct, add to an increasingly complex picture of the 48-year-old former Marine, whom Russian officials have accused of spying. His case grew more perplexing on Friday after Ireland became the fourth nation to acknowledge him as a citizen and seek consular access.... People who served alongside Whelan said he was learning Russian and traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg on vacation during the same deployment in which the Marine Corps accused him of attempted larceny.... Whelan also had an active profile for years on the Russian social media platform VKontakte.... [Besides his U.S. citizenship,] Whelan also carried passports from Canada, where he was born, as well as from Britain and Ireland."
Beyond the Beltway
Maine. Micheal Shepherd of the Bangor Daily News: "A state legislator from York County left the Republican Party on Thursday without explaining his decision to unenroll, reducing the party's minority in the Maine House of Representatives to 56 and becoming the seventh independent in the chamber. Rep. Don Marean confirmed that he left his party in a Friday text message, but he said 'out of respect' for House Republicans, he had no comment on his decision and would let it speak for itself.... Democrats won 89 seats in the 151-member chamber in last year's election."
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FUN FACTS FROM the bestest president ever!
Trump: Many presidents have told me that they think the WALL is necessary–-is a good thing.
Reporter: And those would be?
Trump: Clinton, Obama, Bush–-all told me building the wall was needed.
Reporter: Well, sir, we've checked after you made those claims a few days ago and the three you just mentioned say they never told you that.
Trump: Well, and I hate to say this, but they are lying.
Reporter: Mr. President, just got word in my ear that they have confirmed their stance.
Trump: You can believe me or not although maybe I was mistaken–-could have been Carter –-or wait a minute! Now I remember –-it was Andrew Jackson who said we needed a wall on the Southern frontier–-to keep all those Indians from infiltrating our country.
Reporter: With all due respect, sir, the Indians were IN the country–-in fact they were here before we were.
Trump: You may very well believe that but I know Jackson wanted to keep them out–-their removal strengthen this country's security.
Reporter: So, just to clarify, sir, did you read this in some history book?
Trump: No, stupid–-Jesuzzz–-you fuckers ask the dumbest questions. You see that portrait in back of me on the wall? You know who the fuck that is?
Reporter: Yes, sir, Mr. President–-that's Andrew Jackson.
Trump: Right you are, and Andrew and I have many a conversation so when you go out there and write up your fancy fake news you can say Andrew Jackson told Trump to build his WALL.
Reporter: would it have been Jackson who schooled you on the reason the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and that Montenegro could start a war?
Trump: What? are you nuts? How would he know about that? No–-I have other means –-you, by the way, can see yourself out and don't you dare snitch any of those jellybeans –-those are MINE and mine alone–-my favorites are the black ones but sometimes the yellow ones taste really good and........
Door closes on the "most popular Republican president in party history." Amen
Is this finally going to be the climate election we've been waiting for?Emily Atkins from TNR says the Green Leftists are preparing to give Democratic candidates hell!
https://newrepublic.com/article/152844/green-leftists-prepare-give-democratic-candidates-hell
PD,
Or at least make it hot for them?
On December 19, DiJiT said the US would leave Syria because ISIS was defeated.
In a WaPo article on Bolton's planned trip to Ankara to talk about it, there's this:
" ... In an update issued Friday, the U.S. Central Command listed a total of 469 strikes conducted against the Islamic State in Syria between Dec. 16 and 29."
That averages about 36 "strikes" a day, after they were defeated.
Whatever a "strike" is, it is probably not beating a dead horse.
Read the article. Between the lines you can hear DoD and State desperately trying to avoid a catastrophe and at the same time not contradict the idiot in chief. You can also see that Pompeo is trying to persuade the Gulf Cooperation countries (Saudi, Kuwait, Oman etc.) to "step up" and fill in in Syria. Good luck with that, Mikey.
Today's joke on joke/advertisement-
A little boy goes to his dad and asks, “What is politics?” Dad says, “Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I’m the breadwinner of the family, so let’s call me capitalism. Your Mom, she’s the administrator of the money, so we’ll call her the Government. We’re here to take care of your needs, so we’ll call you the people. The nanny, we’ll consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we’ll call him the Future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense.”
So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said.
Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parents’ room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy says to his father, “Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now.”
The father says, “Good son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.”
The little boy replies, “Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in deep poo.”
Nancy should tell Trump that he doesn't have protection from prosecution during a government shutdown. Only working presidents cannot be indicted. Then he would be quick to open the government back up. Though maybe he thinks that these shutdown days will just be added on to the end of his presidency so he can avoid jail just a little
longer.
Just had a chance to watch the video posted to try to humiliate Alexandria Orcasio Cortez.
Huge fail, morons.
So, a couple of things. First, the GOP addlepate who called AOC a "commie nitwit" claimed this was from her high school days. Wrong, oh Trumpy-backwash-breath. If you really watched the video, almost everyone in it is wearing something with "BOSTON UNIVERSITY" clearly visible. Last I looked, BU wasn't a high school.
Second, and more importantly, this asshole is too much of a coward to own up to his smear. His Nom de Scumbag is "AnonymousQ" something. At least have the porridge of your convictions, Trumpy Boy.
Finally, he (I'm assuming it's a he; women can sometimes be just as stoopid as men--Michele Bachmann, anyone? Sarah Palin?--but mostly, such postings come from woman-hating misogynistic winger asshats) seemed to believe that his "outing" of AOC dancing and having fun would destroy her congressional ambitions.
Okay class, what other nation does not allow women to dance in public and have fun? Hmmm.....could it be....SAUDI ARABIA????
So, what is this, the right-wing religious fun police?
I also noticed that Brave Boy Anonymous Q (Q for quailed) ran away as quickly as he could, deleting his Quitter account as soon as he became scorned nationally as a contemptuous maggot.
In any event, the video is a lot of fun. If wingers had had that much fun in college maybe they wouldn't be wingers today. Maybe if they recognized the importance of joy and love and happiness (without guns, of course), they wouldn't be all in on King Grumpelthinskin.
And not for nothin' but this video is much better than the scene in "The Breakfast Club" they were referencing.
Clearly, Fatty is not one of the History Boys. He's not even a history baby. Describing the Trump/McConnell shutdown as a "strike" illustrates the appalling rift between the real world and Fatty's fatuous impressions of that world. "Strike" indicates a decision on the part of workers to walk off the job for better wages or work conditions or both.
Nothing of the kind is happening now. This would be like mine owners in 1920 Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia calling a halt to work in order to get, from some third party, some sort of agreement to fund some ludicrously stupid plan. The workers have nothing to do with such a blackmail scheme. So trying to describe such action as a strike means that you've got a situation in which the workers are happy to lose pay for months or years so that the mine owners can weasel their way into money for a useless, unnecessary project.
Does this sound remotely reasonable or believable? Or close to what is happening now, which is Trump and McConnell forcing federal workers off the job so the two of them can benefit?
Of course not. We're talking Trump here.
@PD Pepe: Anthony Bergen wrote in Medium on the final hours of Nixon's presidency: "On August 6, 1974, Edward Cox [-- Nixon's son-in-law] called Michigan Senator Robert Griffin, a friend of Nixon’s who was urging resignation. Notifying the Senator that Nixon seemed irrational, Griffin responded that the President had seemed fine during their last meeting. Cox went further and explained, “The President was up walking the halls last night, talking to pictures of former Presidents — giving speeches and talking to the pictures on the wall.”
Maybe the former presidents who secretly told Trump they wished they had built a wall were, like, Andrew Jackson & Calvin Coolidge. I hope this means these are Trump's final days, but I have a feeling he has a whole lot further to sink.
Marie and PD,
It's likely that Fatty has been talking to former presidential candidates (all losers) Wendell Wilkie, Alf Landon, Strom Thurmond, and Ross Perot, as he wanders around the Blight House, "all alone" sniff, sniff.
It's also possible that he's been talking to the pictures of Putin and Duterte he keeps in his wallet with smudgy lipstick smacks on them, asking them for direction as to how they would dispatch those who would stand in the way of their greatness.
He may also have been conjuring up the spirits of the French Marshals Joffre and Petain, supporters of the ridiculous and laughably feeble Maginot Line. Fatty is sure that those frogs just fucked up. HE, the Great Donaldo, would do it right.
It's most likely that he's just a lying sack of shit trying to save his fat ass from the disgrace and humiliation that have always been, and will always be, his lot.
Oh it's a strike all right. An all out strike on the livelihood and well being of federal workers.
The longer this goes on the greater the chance of people saying "screw this, I can make more working for XYZ corporation" and leaving a vacancy to be filled. And the more capable and talented will be the first to go.
New York Times has an op-ed by David Leonhardt
"The People vs. Donald J. Trump. He is demonstrably unfit for office. What are we waiting for? It one on the longest pieces, but Leonhardt lays out the arguments, elements that have been made by many—especially RC-ers.: "Will Republicans stand up> "
While many argue for impeachment, the process isn't likely to bring us the hoped for result. Leonhardt reminds us that Nixon was not impeached...but with a growing number of members in his own party who finally spoke up did he opt for resignation. The current Republican party is tongue-tied and damned by their own intransigence.