;)
The Commentariat -- January 16, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Michael Shear & Lawrence Altman of the New York Times: "President Trump's physician said Tuesday that the president received a perfect score on a cognitive test designed to screen for neurological impairment, which the military doctor said was evidence that Mr. Trump does not suffer from mental issues that prevent him from functioning in office. 'There's no indication whatsoever that he has any cognitive issues,' Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, a rear admiral in the Navy and the White House physician, told reporters on Tuesday. 'I've found no reason whatsoever to think the president has any issues whatsoever with his thought processes.' Dr. Jackson said that a cognitive test was not indicated for Mr. Trump when the president went underwent his annual physical on Friday, but that he conducted one anyway because the president requested it after questions from critics about his mental abilities. He said Mr. Trump received a score of 30 out of 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a well-known test used by the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and other hospitals." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So Trump is just an ignorant narcissist? I couldn't find a place to take the test but I found a copy on the test online & tried it. The only one I had trouble with was an easy subtraction question. It's the same trouble I would have had with the question when I was 10 years old, so probably not newly-diminished capacity.
In case you harbored hope anybody in the Trump administration planned to allow some form of DACA to be reinstated:
... ** Maria Sachetti of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would appeal a federal judge's ruling that temporarily derailed plans to phase out DACA, the Obama-era deportation protections for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States since they were children. The Department of Justice said it filed a notice of appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit seeking to overturn the judge's order in California, and said it will also 'take the rare step' later this week of asking the Supreme Court to directly intervene. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said 'it defies both law and common sense' that a 'single district court in San Francisco' had halted the administration's plans to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program starting in March." Mrs. McC: At least Trump will have a friend in the Inferno. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Democrats now must shut down the government. It is beyond clear that Trump has no intention of signing a bill to grant even permanent residency status to Dreamers, much less a path to citizenship. Every suggestion that he might cave was merely a tease. Trump has the backing of hardassed bastards like Kelly, Sessions & Miller, who would knock the pen out of his hand if he tried to sign the bill.
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Stephen K. Bannon ... was subpoenaed last week by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to testify before a grand jury as part of the investigation into possible links between Mr. Trump's associates and Russia, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The move marked the first time Mr. Mueller is known to have used a grand jury subpoena to seek information from a member of Mr. Trump's inner circle.... The subpoena could be a negotiating tactic. Mr. Mueller is likely to allow Mr. Bannon to forgo the grand jury appearance if he agrees to instead be questioned by investigators in the less formal setting of the special counsel's offices.... The subpoena is a sign that Bannon is not personally the focus of the investigation. Justice Department rules allow prosecutors to subpoena to the targets of investigations only in rare circumstances."
Ed O'Keefe & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed on Tuesday that President Trump used 'tough language' in an Oval Office meeting last week, but she said she did not hear him describe some African countries and Haiti as 'shithole countries,' as has been reported.... Later, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) began by telling Nielsen, 'I hope you remember me. We were at two meetings together' last week." A dry wit. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Earlier I wrote that Nielsen had finally, after repeatedly questioning by Durbin, confirmed that Sen. Graham had repeated the derogatory term Trump used but that she couldn't remember. In fact, she refused to admit anything more "specific" than "tough language." It was Durbin who informed her what Trump & Graham said. I don't know what "tough language" is. I think "tough language" could include your saying to your kid, in a stern voice, "That was a terrible thing to do! Go right to your room!" Or this is tough language: "Get over it, lunkheads. The only people who get into this country are Nowegians!"
*****
** The Party of Ignorance. Paul Krugman: "One way to think of Trumpism is as an attempt to narrow regional disparities, not by bringing the lagging regions up, but by cutting the growing regions down.... Today's Republicans -- for this isn't just about Donald Trump, it's about a whole party -- aren't just Know-Nothings, they're also know-nothings. The range of issues on which conservatives insist that the facts have a well-known liberal bias just keeps widening. One result of this embrace of ignorance is a remarkable estrangement between modern conservatives and highly educated Americans, especially but not only college faculty.... Conservatives don't see the rejection of their orthodoxies by people who know what they're talking about as a sign that they might need to rethink. Instead, they've soured on scholarship and education in general. Remarkably, a clear majority of Republicans now say that colleges and universities have a negative effect on America.... The 2016 election largely pitted these rising regions against those left behind, which is why counties carried by Hillary Clinton, who won only a narrow majority of the popular vote, account for a remarkable 64 percent of U.S. G.D.P., almost twice as much as Trump counties."
Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post issue a post-mortem on Trump's DACA meeting: "When President Trump spoke by phone with Sen. Richard J. Durbin around 10:15 a.m. last Thursday, he expressed pleasure with Durbin's outline of a bipartisan immigration pact and praised the high-ranking Illinois Democrat's efforts, according to White House officials and congressional aides.... But when they arrived at the Oval Office, [Durbin & Lindsey Graham] were surprised to find that Trump was far from ready to finalize the agreement. He was 'fired up' and surrounded by hard-line conservatives such as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who seemed confident that the president was now aligned with them, according to one person with knowledge of the meeting.... Trump told the group he wasn't interested in the terms of the bipartisan deal that Durbin and Graham had been putting together.... Trump's ping-ponging from dealmaking to feuding, from elation to fury, has come to define the contentious immigration talks between the White House and Congress, perplexing members of both parties as they navigate the president's vulgarities, his combativeness and his willingness to suddenly change his position. The blowup has derailed those negotiations yet again and increased the possibility of a government shutdown...." ...
... Mrs Bea McCrabbie: We should not lose sight of the fact that Trump -- at the urging of the equally execrable racist Jefferson Beauregard Sessions -- initiated this entire crisis by reversing President Obama's DACA program. ...
...NEW. Tom Boggioni of RawStory: "According to a moment-by-moment report of the contentious White House meeting over immigration reform, the Washington Post is reporting that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had ... Donald Trump's ear and convinced him to scuttle a bipartisan deal on DACA. While Trump's comments about Haiti and African nations being 'sh*tholes' got all the media attention -- with the Post now reporting Kelly didn't even blink when Trump said it.... The report states that Kelly was briefed on the proposed bipartisan deal before the meeting.... According to the Post, Kelly 'talked to Trump to tell him that the proposal would probably not be good for his agenda.'" --safari: It appears Kelly is on par with Stephen Miller (a.k.a. Grand Wizard-in-training) in his dedication to the white nationalist agenda. ...
... Mrs. McC: See report by Josh Dawsey and others linked above. Since the new DHS secretary Kristjen Nielsen is Kelly's protégé, it's highly unlikely she'll be helpful in getting DACA passed.
Emily Goldberg of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday tweeted..., 'Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can't be made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our military.'..." ...
... Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Trump's first stop Monday was Trump International Golf Club, apparently beginning the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with golf rather than the charitable service the slain civil rights leader's family has urged as the best way to memorialize him. The morning after declaring 'I'm not a racist,' Trump began his Monday the same way he has begun each day of the three-day holiday weekend: with tweets sent before leaving his private Mar-a-Lago estate and then a short motorcade to the golf club. Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago hours later, and drove from there to the airport in late afternoon. He was not seen in public until he boarded Air Force One." ...
... Jamie Lovegrove of the Charleston, S.C., Post & Courier: "In his most extensive comments yet about Thursday's explosive Oval Office meeting, [Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)] again declined to confirm whether Trump specifically used the term 'shithole' to describe the countries. But, in what appeared to be a direct jab at Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue, Graham said, 'My memory hasn't evolved. I know what was said and I know what I said.' Sen. Tim Scott, R-North Charleston, said Friday that Graham told him media reports of what Trump said were 'basically accurate.'" After initially saying they could not recall what the president said, Perdue of Georgia and Cotton of Arkansas said Sunday that Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who said he heard the 'shithole countries' comment, was misrepresenting Trump's remarks. They also contradicted Graham, who has not denied reports about Trump's comment.... When Trump made the incendiary remark, Graham ... [says he] 'tried to make it very clear to the president that when you say "I'm an American," what does that mean?... It doesn't mean that they're black or white, rich or poor. It means that you buy into an ideal of self-representation, compassion, tolerance, the ability to practice one's religion without interference and the acceptance of those who are different.... It's not where you come from that matters, it's what you're willing to do once you get here.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I wonder if new friends Trump & Graham are still BFFs or if Trump will toss the Graham cracker for not supporting this fable by the least racist person you've ever heard of.
... Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "A conservative columnist said President Trump called friends to brag after the meeting in which the president reportedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as 'shithole countries.' 'It's weird that people in the room don't remember Trump using that word when Trump himself was calling friends to brag about it afterwards,' Erick Erickson, who has in the past been critical of Trump, said in a tweet. 'I spoke to one of those friends. The President thought it would play well with the base.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's why I feel confident Erickson & his source were truthful: the first story out of the White House was that the "shithole" comment would "play well with the base." The source for this "analysis" was a White House staffer (or staffers). Trump copied the rationale from the staffer & turned it into a boast. He can't come up with this stuff himself. Update: Just discovered that as early as Saturday, Jim Sciutto of CNN reported on the "victory lap" Trump took just after the "shithole" comment came to light & before the denials started. In any event, Trump has managed to deny his own racism -- "I'm the least racist person you've ever interviewed. -- and accused all his fans of being racists. Well, he's half-right. ...
... Guardian: "A Maryland pastor denounced ... Donald Trump's alleged vulgar description of African nations from the pulpit on Sunday -- while Vice-President Mike Pence was sitting in the pews of his church.... WUSA-TV reported that Pence became red-faced at times during the sermon. In an email to the Associated Press on Monday, Pence's office denied that." Mrs. McC: So I guess we must infer that pence is okay with referring to other countries and a whole continent as "shitholes" (or "shithouses"). ...
... "Are You Effing Kidding Me?" ...
The Party of Trumpbots. Jonathan Chait: "When Robert Mueller was hired to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible connections to the Trump campaign, Republicans in Congress supported Mueller, and even warned Trump not to interfere with his work.... Many Trump critics assume at least implicitly that these conditions still pertain. But ... the Republican Party has largely coalesced around Trump. If -- or when -- Trump quashes Mueller's investigation, the veto-proof majorities to restore Mueller's power will almost certainly fail to materialize." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The evidence Chait presents is convincing -- and troubling. Here's a part I didn't know: "The moderate columnist David Brooks recently pronounced Trump more competent and informed than widely believed, and decried the excesses of his critics." The Constitution be damned; we do not have a system of checks & balances. The only way to return the Congress to checking the president is to vote for Democrats; even if your Democratic Congressman or candidate is a jerk, hold your nose & vote for him or her. I've done it myself: I voted for Bob Torricelli (D-N.J.), even when I knew the GOP candidate Dick Zimmer was a far more decent person. I was ashamed to do so, but it was the pragmatic thing to do -- control of the Senate hung in the balance.
#MAGA. Tami Luhby of CNN: "The uninsured rate rose 1.3 percentage points to 12.2% last year, according to the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index. That represents an increase of roughly 3.2 million Americans...The uninsured rate rose for all demographics last year, except for senior citizens, who all qualify for Medicare.... The rate for blacks soared 2.3 percentage points, while Hispanics saw a 2.2 percentage point jump. The annual increase is the largest single-year jump since Gallup and Sharecare began tracking the uninsured rate in 2008. The trend will likely continue this year." --safari
Republican "Leaders" Being Exposed as Moral Charlatans --safari
... ** David Corn of Mother Jones: "Trump became racist-in-chief because Republicans and conservatives embraced him and normalized his racism-driven politics.... As Trump pursued [his 'birther'] crusade, there were no Republicans and few members of the media who called out his racism -- or his nuttiness. In fact, Republicans and conservatives eagerly welcomed him into their circles.... In early 2012, Mitt Romney ... trekked to Trump's Las Vegas hotel for an event announcing Trump's endorsement.... With this meeting, Romney signaled that Trump was fine company for the GOP and that his over-the-top birtherism was no disqualification.... Hugged by Romney, cheered by CPAC, Trump the Birther was now a huge star in the Republican/conservative cosmos. His racist endeavor -- still underway -- did not matter. And Trump certainly learned a valuable lesson: Not only can I get away with this; I can bolster my political position with this schtick." --safari ...
... So There's Nothing Hypocritical about This: Mitt Romney "criticized President Trump over his alleged comment about immigration. In a tweet on the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr...., Romney wrote, 'The poverty of an aspiring immigrant's nation of origin is as irrelevant as their race. The sentiment attributed to POTUS is inconsistent w/ America's history and antithetical to American values. May our memory of Dr. King buoy our hope for unity, greatness, & 'charity for all.'" ...
... Deplorable. Brad Reed of RawStory: "Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a hero of the civil rights movement, says that white people have now started taunting him by yelling ... Donald Trump's name whenever they see him.... Lewis revealed that he had been on the receiving end of taunts by a white man who spotted him on a flight from Atlanta back to Washington DC. 'I was on a flight from Atlanta, and I'm walking down the aisle and the gentleman said as loud as he could, "Trump!"' said Lewis. 'So I didn't ... say anything.'" --safari
Gene Robinson: "A century ago, there were nativists who railed against Irish, Italian and Eastern European immigration, claiming that unwashed hordes from poor countries were 'mongrelizing' the nation. We now have a president who rejects American ideals of diversity and inclusion in favor of racial purity.... President Trump's intent could not be more explicit: He wants immigration policies that admit white people and shut the door to black and brown people. That is pure racism -- and the Republican Party, which traces its heritage to the Abraham Lincoln era, must decide whether to go along. Silly me. The GOP seems to have made its choice, judging by the weaselly response from most of the Republicans who were in the Oval Office on Thursday when Trump made vile and nakedly racist remarks."
Slum Hotelier. Jose Lambiet of the Miami Herald: "A year after the discovery of foods that could sicken people at ... Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, his Winter White House was just cited by inspectors for poor maintenance. Never mind that it costs $200,000 in initiation fees to join the exclusive club, which has two restaurants and a bed-and-breakfast. Fresh state records show the B&B needed emergency repairs in order to pass the latest inspection in November. Trump's club, located on a beachfront property where the historic main house was built in the 1920s for cereals heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, was cited Nov. 8 for two violations deemed high priority: the lack of smoke detectors capable of alerting the hearing impaired through flashing bright lights; and slabs of concrete missing from a staircase, exposing steel rebar that could cause someone to fall.... The November inspections of the club;s two main kitchens, meanwhile, yielded a total 15 violations."
Candy Man. Josh Dawsey & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: House Majority Leader Kevin "McCarthy, 52, has sought to position himself as Trump's indispensable man in Congress, an easygoing Republican who gets him -- and likes him.... While at Camp David earlier this month, McCarthy took up the task of explaining the obstacles facing Republicans ahead of the midterm elections in November, walking through the financial hurdles and bleak prospects in various races. He urged the president to do everything he could to raise money for vulnerable Republicans. According to two people familiar with the presentation, Trump appreciated McCarthy's use of pictures and charts rather than a memo." ...
... Steve M.: "... how difficult are the midterms to comprehend? A traditional memo on the midterms would probably be full of bullet points -- that's not good enough for Trump? He needs huge graphs with 64-point bold type before he can take in the fact that he's unpopular in many districts and states where Republican candidates are running for reelection?... Can't anyone with a newspaper subscription or Internet connection understand the state of play and the stakes? We knew Trump was an uninformed simpleton. This suggests just how little he really comprehends." ...
... Benjamin Hart of New York: "Be wary of Trump's moods; simplify everything as much as possible; reward him with play time. The people who can best manage the president really do treat him like a capricious child. Senator Bob Corker was onto something with that 'adult day care' bit." Mrs. McC: Again, I think Trump's behavior is an amplification of his life-long personality disorders, the amplification likely caused by a severe decline of mental acuity.
Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "At 9:30 on Tuesday morning ... the staff and members of the House intelligence committee ... will question [Steve Bannon].... [T]he interview will almost certainly touch on the substance of that particular meeting, which Trump Jr. had at Trump Tower in June of 2016 with a Kremlin-linked lawyer. Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner joined that meeting.... The widespread Washington speculation is that Bannon may consider using this opportunity to damage Kushner, his former West Wing rival.... It's all but certain investigators will also have questions for Bannon on the Trump family finances.... And then there's Cambridge Analytica." --safari
Zachary Basu of Axios: "In 2017, U.S. counterintelligence officials warned Jared Kushner that Chinese-American businesswoman Wendi Deng Murdoch could be using her close relationship to Kushner and Ivanka Trump to push the Chinese agenda, reports the Wall Street Journal.... The warning was part of an ongoing effort to alert Kushner of the risks of dealing with people with foreign connections. Murdoch, who kept her married name after divorcing Newscorp CEO Rupert Murdoch in 2013, has been on counterintelligence radars for years. U.S. officials assessed that she was lobbying for a $100 million Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in D.C., which was ultimately deemed a security risk because its 70-foot tower could be used for surveillance.... A representative for Kushner and Ivanka described the warning as a routine senior staff security briefing'...." ...
... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "... the [WSJ] report also mentions the old rumor that Wendi Deng Murdoch had an affair with Tony Blair when she was still married to Rupert Murdoch. While both parties have denied having any romantic involvement, according to the Journal the story caught the attention of intelligence officials.... Michael Wolff, whose book Fire and Fury is full of wild stories about Javanka..., [tweeted], 'Since their divorce, Murdoch has been telling anybody who would listen that Wendi is a Chinese spy -- and had been throughout the marriage.'"
NEW. Chris Strohm & Greg Farrell of Bloomberg: "The Justice Department's decision to give congressional Republicans access to documents about FBI investigations risks exposing sensitive sources or material and poses a critical early test for bureau Director Christopher Wray, current and former U.S. law enforcement officials say.... One agent said he's now concerned that forms identifying FBI informants would be handed over to Congress. If that happened, he said, it would cause him to think carefully about whether to withhold sensitive information from future reports. Another agent said recent statements about the bureau by Trumpand congressional Republicans have made it more difficult for him to get informants to open up.... Other officials said they're worried about an effort by Trump and his allies to oust anyone seen as being disloyal to the president." --safari
Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "Fifty senators have endorsed a legislative measure to override the Federal Communications Commission's& recent decision to deregulate the broadband industry, top Democrats said Monday.... It has the support of all 49 Democratic senators as well as one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.... The tally leaves supporters just one Republican vote shy of the 51 required to pass a Senate resolution of disapproval, in a legislative gambit aimed at restoring the agency's net neutrality rules. Those rules, which banned Internet providers from blocking or slowing down websites, were swept away in a December vote led by Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai."
Tom Lutz of the Guardian: "Simone Biles is the latest athlete to say she was sexually abused by former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar. Biles, who lit up the Rio 2016 Olympics as she won four gold medals, described the abuse in a statement posted on Twitter on Monday.... Nassar, a longtime US women's gymnastics team physician who has been accused of sexually abusing more than 140 women and girls under the guise of medical treatment, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in a Michigan court last year. He was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison in a separate case, regarding child abuse images.... Some of Biles's USA team-mates have said they were abused by Nassar, including gold medalists Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Gabby Douglas. Maroney filed a lawsuit against USA Gymnastics last month, alleging that officials paid her to sign a confidential financial settlement to remain silent on the abuse." --safari
Barbie Nadeau of The Daily Beast: "What is a boy to do when his spiritual mentor, part of a group that claims it is leading young people on the path of Christ, says that God, working in mysterious ways, wants him to fondle and be fondled, to lie naked with grown men, to be sodomized? Too often and for too long in too many parts of the world, those experiences have been kept as guilty secrets.... Such is the situation in Peru and Chile, where Pope Francis is paying a visit this week." --safari
Michelle Goldberg has quite a good column in today's NYT titled "The President & the Porn Star."
AFP: "In 1545 disaster struck Mexico's Aztec nation when people started coming down with high fevers, headaches and bleeding from the eyes, mouth and nose.... Within five years as many as 1 million people -- an estimated 80% of the population -- were wiped out.... Its cause, however, has been in questioned for nearly 500 years. On Monday scientists swept aside smallpox, measles, mumps, and influenza as likely suspects, identifying a typhoid-like 'enteric fever' for which they found DNA evidence on the teeth of long-dead victims.... European colonisers spread disease as they ventured into the new world, bringing germs local populations had never encountered and lacked immunity against. The 1545 cocoliztli pestilence in what is today Mexico and part of Guatemala came just two decades after a smallpox epidemic killed an estimated 5-8 million people in the immediate wake of the Spanish arrival. A second outbreak from 1576 to 1578 killed half the remaining population." --safari
AND Victoria, in today's Comments, reminds us of when we had a president we could all admire:
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Reader Comments (12)
From earlier today:
I asked the CW to forward my thanks to Akhilleus for his not one, not two, but three trenchant comments posted Jan.15. So now, with the CW's help, with a little assist from Bea, I think I'm on the way to doing it myself.
Have to deal with some family business tomorrow so may not have time to try this Robin Hood's barn approach again for a while, but while I'm at the keyboard will say it looks to me as if the Pretender is already fingering Senator Durbin as the whipping boy should the
DACA mess prompt a government shutdown Friday, as it seems increasingly likely.
Disfunction is never the Pretender's fault. Nothing is.
Over these last few days thinking about doing "service" on MLK day, I was not remembering the photo of Obama at the soup kitchen. I remembered the photo of Obama bending down to let that very young boy touch his hair. he knew how to put anyone at ease, because he had empathy and compassion.
And now we have golf.
Re the linked Michelle Goldberg' article in the NYTimes it has been interesting to me that this story broke in a Murdoch publication!
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that, a month before the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen arranged a $130,000 payout to the porn star Stephanie Clifford, known by the stage name Stormy Daniels, to stop her from discussing a 2006 dalliance with Trump .
(an aside, wonder if Stormy reported the $130,000.00 income on her tax returns? Did Trump claim a deduction on his?)
Interesting that Gene Robinson (WAPO) and Paul Krugman (NYT) tackle the background of the 'unwashed hordes' that came upon our shores. Krugman calls out the Irish and the Germans who were poorly regarded. So, looks like Trump's father emmigrated from what was once regarded as a sh*thole country.
Victoria,
Thanks for the Obama memory. I'll try to keep that picture of the man and they boy in mind as I go through the day, a counter maybe to some of the more dire and depressing thoughts I awakened to.
Reading RC this morning I was particularly and painfully struck by John Lewis' report of being being heckled. How appropriate that the Pretender's name was the weapon of choice. The Pretender is the essence of a blunt instrument.
Representative Lewis' sad experience reminds me of the "deplorable" days when the Right expressed such outrage at HRC's very true and politically truly unfortunate descriptor. As events have proven, boy, did she have it right.
But I understand the Right's outrage. For something to be deplorable, there has to be something to measure it against, some depth below which one will not go, and while the actions of the current edition of Republicanism suggest there is no such place left in their moral geography, it's probably not politic to admit it.
Not yet anyway. But I see that the Pretender's fellow huckster, Newt Gingrich, remarked recently that despite his low poll numbers, stuck as they are in the mid-thirties, the Pretender is sure to be re-elected as long as the economy continues to perform well.
If the country has truly jettisoned all other values, Newt may be right. Republicans are obviously betting on it. Each day they pull the curtain a little further aside on the fraud they're been perpetrating for the last thirty years, revealing that money is all they ever really cared about. Honesty, integrity, personal honor, and when it comes to Russia, even traditional notions of patriotism, all very publicly consigned to the national scrapheap.
A deplorable party for deplorable people.
Now that their new leader's own deplorable behavior has pulled the Republican Party mask away, forcing them to reveal themselves for the truly deplorable human beings they are, enduring a kind of oxymoronic purification, will the nation reject them out of hand?
Or are we becoming a deplorable country?
@MAG: Not only did Trump's paternal grandfather emigrate from Germany, so did his wife. Trump's father Fred knew this because he started a real estate business with his immigrant mother after his immigrant father died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. Many of the customers for their homes & apartments were Jewish, so Fred started pretending the family was Swedish. Donnie so preferred to be Nordic that he claimed to be Swedish in "The Art of the Deal." Now, this via the Daily Beast, is hilarious:
"A reporter in Vanity Fair asked him in 1990 if he were not in fact of German origin.... Donald responded..., 'Actually, it was very difficult,'... 'My father was not German; my father’s parents were German… Swedish, and really sort of all over Europe… and I was even thinking in the second edition of putting more emphasis on other places because I was getting so many letters from Sweden: Would I come over and speak to Parliament? Would I come meet with the president?'”
Uh-huh. I too wish the Swedish Parliament would quit calling me. I'm sure the "Swedish president" would be pestering me, too, if only there were one. Dimwit.
So, um, let me get this straight.
There is the possibility that Sir Rupert Murdoch (Lord of darkness and Lies) was married for many years to a Chinese spy? Okay, the line about him admitting as much in the Wolff book might be questionable, but now it comes out that the US government warned Javanka of the same thing?
So, not only has Fox been behind the evisceration of democracy, truthfulness, and civic decency, they may also served as a pipeline for the Chinese?
This gets worse and worse.
So now we have not one, but two mortal adversaries of the United States working inside the right-wing echo chamber and getting wingers to work on their behalf.
Nice.
I'm beginning to really worry about midterms. There is still far too much he said/she said and both siderism at play in the media. Still far too much "let's all just give Trump a chance" and far too much "he's actually a very smart guy" (Lookin' at you Miss Brooks, you moron--what's that all about? Did Brooks find life outside the bubble too challenging? Was he jonesing for the safety of the Confederate womb? Were Trumpbots throwing brickbats at his new walled-in townhouse in Lincoln Park? Fucker.)
The Party of Traitors is getting ready to put a halt to the Mueller investigations. No one can stop them. Their pals in the media will rise to their defense and suddenly there'll be a dozen congressional investigatory committees looking into Mueller, Clinton, Obama, and My Little Pony, if it pisses off the Orange Baboon.
Trump is starting to obsess over who will run against him in 2020. He's already declaring victory. I haven't a clue who will run. But I know if Oprah runs, we're screwed. If Mark Cuban runs, same thing. If Cory Booker runs....oh god. As soon as someone declares, Trump and his media minions will begin the character assassination. Tweets will be fast and furious and fantastical.
Whoever it is, they better start working at it, pronto. Maybe there are a few out there putting together some game plan and beginning to plan for fundraising, but wingers and their supporters in business (almost everyone) are circling the wagons around the racist-crackpot-in-chief. They all want their piece of the pie and they want the entirety of the next pie and all the pies after that one.
There are a few in the media raising the red flags about the liar-in-chief and his horde of dangerous, duplicitous incompetents, but not nearly enough. A report card out today in Politico is startling. "More than 7 in 10 Republicans, 72 percent, would give Trump an 'A' or 'B,' while just 10 percent of Republicans would give Trump a 'D' or 'F.'"
Got that? Seventy-Two Percent! give this dangerous idiot an A or a B! These aren't Kool-Aid drinkers, they're Kool-Aid addicts. They can't live without the Kool-Aid. If Jim Jones knocked on their door with a pitcher of it, they'd down it without a thought as long as he wore a MAGA hat (Made in China).
There has been zero indications that the holy rollers who supported a liar, misogynist, and serial adulterer last time around have changed their minds. They'll vote for Trump no matter what. Why? Because for all their blather about sin and virtue and Jesus and the Bible, they're hypocrites. Religion doesn't matter a whit to them. What matters is revenge. Revenge against hippies and women who dare to think they can make decisions about their own lives without asking permission first. Revenge and hatred. That's what matters.
And that's what Trump is counting on. That's what he serves up.
It's not all darkness and brimstone though. Democrats, if they show up, can beat these treasonous bastards. We did it in Ala-fucking-bama, fer crissakes. If we can win there, we can certainly take back those purple states and those areas that went for Trump because they hated Hillary. They'd have voted for a dead person rather than Clinton.
So here's what we need. We need a good candidate, obviously (sorry, Bernie, it ain't gonna be you; you neither, Joe), we need organization on the ground, we need a critical mass of truthful media coverage, and we need voters to get off their asses and go to the polls, dammit.
This will truly be a winner take all for the soul and future of America.
We cannot let the Party of Traitors win again. We already have China and Russia making policy for them. What's next? The Aryan Brotherhood running ICE (oh wait, they already do).
We just have to believe we can win. Actiones secundum fidei!
In his view:
Charles McGrath' in the NYTimes has 'interviewed' author Philip Roth: "No Longer Writing, Philip Roth Still Has Plenty to Say...In an exclusive interview, the (former) novelist shares his "novelist thoughts" on Trump, #MeToo and retirement."
(...he covers some sex stuff! and like attitudes!—today!)
Somebody, anybody…send the Trumps a Merriam-Webster Dictionary. See: Like father, like daughter!
The president appeared to ease his anger toward Mr. Bannon at the end of last week. When asked in an interview with The Wall Street Journal whether his break with Mr. Bannon was “permanent,” the president replied, “I don’t know what the word ‘permanent’ means.” "define Permanent:"
“I don’t know what it means to be complicit, but I hope time will prove that I have done a good job and much more importantly, that my father’s administration is the success that I know it will be,” (Ivanka) Trump told CBS News’ Gayle King in an interview taped Tuesday. "whatever that is, I'm not..."
Battle for Infinity in Trump World
If one were looking for data points on which to map the current trends in Trump's Amerika, a glance at Krugman's column in today's Times could be instructive.
As usual, Krugman plies readers with nutso things like facts, as anathema in Trump World as Haitian advisors or three days without golf. But one fact clearly illustrates the direction in which Trump is taking us.
The counties that voted for Hillary Clinton account for over 2/3rds of all productivity in America. Trump's counties? Less than a third, and dropping. The return to antediluvian ignorance, superstition, and conservative "common sense" (ie, whatever spoiled meat Fox and wingnut radio screamers have on offer that day), drops productivity, innovation, creativity, progress, and critical thinking into the toilet. Even if it's a faux gold-plated Trump toilet, it's still....wait for it!....a shithole!
As Krugman further makes clear, Trump's Plan (such as it is) for "making America great again" does exactly the opposite.
Add to this the fact that Russia and China have their hands in the Confederate pot--and Confederate congress creatures are fine with that and with ignorance, misogyny, racism, and treason--and you've got all the data points you need to graph a vertiginous line that plummets from American Excellence to Medieval Outhouse. It's a kind of Confederate asymptote: as the line of wingnut data points approaches zero, one, or both, of the x and y coordinates, approaches infinity.
That's a long fucking time if we allow this shit to go on.
A few quickies:
Victoria,
Empathy and compassion? Add those to the (long) list of words Trump doesn't understand.
MAG,
This Stormy Daniels person, if she really did do the nasty with Trump (and nasty must be the word), I think she should be able to claim that as a deduction. For life. As for Trump, I doubt there's a "paid sex with porn stars" deduction, but hey, he might have slid it in on this new tax bill.
Ken,
A nation of deplorables? No. The deplorables are still in the minority, but they're no longer a silent minority. They're loud, crude, rude, base, bogus, and barbaric. We are still a nation of mostly decent human beings even if we are temporarily under the control of idiots, liars, and traitors.
Marie,
Hey, is the Swedish parliament bugging you? Whadaya know? Me too! They must be lonely way up there. I told them to forget it. I'm worried that if I went to Stockholm I might catch that syndrome thingy.
Trump's major accomplishment. The one that will remembered for all time. His power as POTUS has made the word 'shit' acceptable to virtually all media outlets. I will always remember the moment NBC
news put it behind Lester.