;)
The Commentariat -- January 3, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "On a day of pomp and pageantry, ebullient Democrats assumed control of the House on Thursday and elected Representative Nancy Pelosi of California to be speaker, returning her to a historic distinction as the first woman to hold the post at the pinnacle of power in Congress, second in line to the presidency. The investiture of Ms. Pelosi, whose talent for legislative maneuvering is surpassed only by her skill at keeping her fractious party in line, placed her at the fulcrum of divided government opposite an increasingly combative President Trump. With Mr. Trump, his presidential campaign and his businesses all under federal and state investigations, her handling of him will likely define the 116th Congress."
Drumpy by the Numbers. Ryan Koronoswki of ThinkProgress: "Here is the truth of how the Trump administration is doing, looking at the numbers.... America's trade deficit hit $55.5 billion in October, rising almost a billion dollars from September. This is a ten-year high.... For the first time in almost a decade, the rate of uninsured children in the United States increased.... <276,000 more kids didn't have coverage in 2017 than in 2016, raising the total to 3.9 million.... Zero miles of new wall have been completed.... [Trump] also signed legislation opening up 1.5 million acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration. This paired with some additional public lands changes ... adds up to 3.3 million acres which lost protections.... [A] survey found that 70 percent of people across the globe said they lacked confidence in Trump's ability to do the right thing in world affairs.... Obama's rating [was] 64 percent at the end.... [I]n 2018, more coal-fired electricity generation capacity will be shut down than ever before -- 15.4 gigawatts, to be precise.... [T]here are actually 17 total investigations targeting Trump and his businesses[.]" --s
*****
Monica Hunter-Hart of Bustle: "... new members of the House and Senate are about to take their seats. The election of the 116th Congress was a historic event for women's representation in the U.S. government, so you may want to tune in to its first day on Thursday.... C-SPAN and C-SPAN2 will be streaming the ceremony, which is set to begin at 12 p.m. ET.... There will be some other noteworthy events on the same day: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) will likely be elected the next speaker of the House.... A whopping 102 women will take their seats in the House, by Pew Research Center's count. That's nearly a quarter of its voting members. Of those women, 35 (or 34.3 percent) are entering Congress for the first time. Rutgers reports that the previous record for female representatives elected to the House was 87. Exactly a quarter of the Senate will now be made up of women, as 25 women, five of whom are new, will be sworn in on Thursday. The prior record was 23, per Rutgers. The vast majority of women serving in both chambers are Democrats." ...
... Clare Foran & Phil Mattingly of CNN: "There are record numbers of women who will be sworn in Thursday. Muslim women will be serving for the first time, as will Native American women. The state of Texas sent the state's first two Latina members to Congress, and two black congresswomen-elect from New England will also make history by coming to Washington.... The party breakdown in the new House of Representatives will be 235 Democrats and 199 Republicans, with one congressional race in North Carolina still unresolved. In the Senate there will be 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats, a total that includes two independents who caucus with the Democrats. The record number of women elected to Congress were key to Democrats' reclaiming the majority in the House. Though Republicans, on the other hand, lost female representation.... The new class also includes more women with young children.... NPR reported Tuesday that the new Congress opened a new child care facility exclusively for employees of the House of Representatives." ...
... John Bresnahan, et al., of Politico: "On Thursday..., [Nancy] Pelosi will be the first person in more than six decades, since the legendary Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn, to return to the speaker's chair after losing it. She will be surrounded by children as she does so, a replay of an iconic moment from her January 2007 swearing-in ceremony as the first female speaker in history.... Pelosi will also tie Rayburn on another front by becoming the oldest person ever elected speaker and the oldest to hold the post, a testament to both her staying power and the fact that her return engagement to the speakership will be limited.... Pelosi will face a whole new set of challenges during the 116th Congress -- a fractious caucus full of upstart progressives who want to move an ambitious agenda; the unpredictable ... Donald Trump, who has greeted Pelosi's return to power with an ongoing government shutdown; a determined, experienced foe in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who runs his own chamber with a tight grip; and self-imposed term limits on her speakership of four years. All that, however, shouldn't diminish the scale of what Pelosi has done."
Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "As they usher in the 116th Congress on Thursday, the new House Majority plans to hit the ground running with two packages to actually drain the swamp and take on the for-profit Trump administration. But with the Senate Republicans still controlling the majority there, one of those packages is likely going to run into the massive anti-reform roadblock that is Senator Addison 'Mitch' McConnell (R-KY).... Those changes include a prohibition on members of Congress -- like indicted New York Rep. Chris Collins (R) -- serving on corporate boards, mandatory annual ethics training for all members, an expanded ban on sexual relationships between members and committee staffers, a new ombudsman for whistleblowers, and a formal ban on non-disclosure agreements (which have been used to conceal sexual harassment)." --s
Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Two years [in], the Trump administration remains cruel, racist, and deeply corrupt. Yet its saving grace -- and that of its Republican allies in Congress -- is that it is so bumblingly incompetent, the GOP's toxic legislative agenda never really got off the ground.... Republicans squandered their best chance to ravage poor people the way they've always wanted.... Let us now pause to consider the unique incompetence of outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan.... Indeed no one, not even Donald Trump, embodies the stew of hucksterism, rigid ideology, dyscalculia, and superficial charm that drives the Republican Party more perfectly than Paul Ryan." --s ...
... The Hollow Man. Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Eyes I dare not meet in dreams, This is the way the job ends, not with a bang but a whimper:
... Chart via New York. No link.
** Mark Liebovich in the New York Times Magazine: Former Senate leader Harry "Reid, who is 79, does not have long to live." He has pancreatic cancer.... 'Trump is an interesting person. He is not immoral but is amoral.... No conscience.' There was a hint of grudging respect in Reid's tone, which he seemed to catch and correct. 'I think he is without question the worst president we've ever had,' he said. 'We've had some bad ones, and there's not even a close second to him.' He added: 'He'll lie. He'll cheat. You can't reason with him.'... I asked [Reid] if he could identify at all with Trump's dark worldview. 'I disagree that Trump is a pessimist,' Reid said, as if to allow him that mantle would be paying him an undeserved compliment. 'I think he's a person who is oblivious to the real world.'"
"I Would Look Foolish."
Julie Davis & Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump and Democratic congressional leaders dug in Wednesday for a lengthy partial shutdown in a newly divided government after a White House meeting -- the first in 22 days -- could not break an impasse over Mr. Trump's demands for billions of dollars for a border wall. During the contentious meeting in the Situation Room, Mr. Trump made his case for a wall on the southwestern border and rejected Democrats' proposals for reopening the government while the two sides ironed out their differences. 'I would look foolish if I did that,' Mr. Trump responded after Senator Chuck Schumer ... posed the question to him directly.... He said that the wall was why he was elected.... At one point, he said [Nancy] Pelosi should back [the wall] because she was 'a good Catholic' and Vatican City is surrounded by a wall...." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: "I would look foolish." What a remarkable admission; first, because he is unaware that every sensible observer already takes him for a fool, and second, because he sees nothing wrong with disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people so that he may, in his own twisted mind, save face. This is as clear a breach of a president's Constitutional duty "to faithfully execute the office of President" as is each & every criminal offense Robert Mueller's team may find Trump has committed since taking office. ...
... Sarah Ferris & Burgess Everett of Politico: "... Donald Trump and congressional leaders made no tangible progress on ending a 12-day government shutdown at a meeting on Wednesday, and Senate GOP leaders said they would not even take up House Democrats' bills to reopen the government -- underscoring the slim odds of quickly resolving the impasse in the new Congress. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate will not take up the House bills because the president opposed them.... After coming out of the White House, [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer] accused Trump and Republicans of using the shutdown as a 'hostage' to try to get money for his border wall.... Meanwhile, the stakes are getting higher for federal workers, with roughly 380,000 people told to stay home Wednesday. Another 420,000 people have been told to work without pay, with no guarantee that their next paycheck will go out." ...
... Allan Smith of NBC News: "Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi told NBC's 'Today' show in an interview set to air Thursday that she will not provide ... Donald Trump with the border wall funding he has demanded and shut down the government over.... 'We can go through the back and forth,' Pelosi said in a clip that aired on MSNBC on Wednesday. 'No. How many more times can we say no? Nothing for the wall.' Pelosi added that the shutdown has 'nothing to do with' Democrats, saying Trump is holding the federal government hostage so that he can fulfill his campaign promise to build a border wall -- one she noted he pledged Mexico would fund. 'That is so ridiculous: A. Mexico's not paying for it ... and B. We have better use of funds to protect our border,' Pelosi said. 'The president knows that.'" More on Pelosi's "Today" interview linked under "This Russia Thing, Etc., CTD." ...
... Michael Burke of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Wednesday cautioned President Trump against giving in on his demand for funding for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.... 'He's not going to sign a bill that doesn't have money for the wall. I can tell you exactly how this is going to end. The president is going to challenge Democrats to compromise and if they continue to say no, they're going to pay the price with the American people,' Graham said during an appearance on Fox News's 'Hannity.' 'If he gives in now, that's the end of 2019 in terms of him being an effective president,' he continued. 'That's the probably the end of his presidency. Donald Trump has made a promise to the American people. He's going to secure our border.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: You have to hand it to Lackey Lindsey; he's as two-faced & inconsistent as Trump. A couple of days ago, he said the wall was a "metaphor for border security"; now a concrete slab is an existential element of the presidency. Lindsey is as slippery as Trump; now he is conflating "wall" and "border security," whereas on Sunday, he made clear that -- as we all know -- "wall" and "border security" are two distinct things. In addition, Democrats are not proposing to eliminate or undermine border security; they're proposing to re-open the rest of the government while continuing to tangle on "wall." Lindsey knows it's important to confuse & bamboozle Foxbots, and he's happy to oblige. ...
... How Stupid Does Trump Think We Are? Damian Paletta & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "President Trump made two false claims about his demands for a new border wall just hours before he is set to meet with congressional leaders Wednesday.... In a Twitter post Wednesday morning, Trump wrote that Mexico would be paying for the wall along the U.S. border under the parameters of a trade deal he has tentatively inked with Mexico and Canada. This is not true. That deal has not been approved by Congress, which means the parameters of the pact are not in effect. And even if the trade agreement is approved, it would not in any way create a stream of money designated for the construction of a border wall. The second false point in Trump's Twitter post Wednesday is his statement that 'much of the Wall has already been fully renovated or built.' This is also not true. The U.S.-Mexico border is roughly 2,000 miles long. Trump's demand for $5.6 billion to build new sections of wall would finance 200 miles of wall, and less than 100 miles has already been constructed or renovated, according to Department of Homeland Security Officials." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's the funny part. "... the White House said the meeting was supposed to serve as a way for Democrats to learn more about the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border." Evidently, Trump thinks he going to mansplain the Great Wall of Trump to Chuck & Nancy by telling them he's asking them for a down payment on said Great Wall because Mexico is really paying for it & it's almost all built anyway. It is curious that Trump thinks these Washington veterans just fell off a turnip truck. Then again, what do I know? I don't have my face on the cover a book somebody else wrote titled The Art of the Deal. ...
... The Trumperantrum Is Not about Border Security. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Tens of thousands of U.S. immigration officers and agents are showing up for work each day to guard the Mexico border, where President Trump insists on putting a wall. But the government is shut down, so no one is getting paid. The paralysis in bank accounts extends to overburdened U.S. immigration courts. New filings are piling up on dockets already backlogged by nearly 1 million cases, but many of the judges and clerks who process them have been sent home. And when U.S. companies and employers want to check the immigration status of potential hires, they are greeted by a red banner across the top of the government's E-Verify website. Those services are 'currently unavailable due to a lapse in government appropriations,' it says. Twelve days into the standoff over Trump's $5 billion border-wall demand, major components of the U.S. immigration system are offline, out of order or under worsening strain." ...
... Couples Can't Get Marriage Licences in Washington, D.C. -- Thanks, Donald! Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "The local court system in DC is funded by Congress, one of a number of city government operations that still interact in some way with the federal government. When congressional leaders failed to reach a funding agreement by midnight on Dec. 21, DC court officials, like those at federal agencies, had to put a shutdown plan into effect. Workers not deemed 'essential' were furloughed, and that included Marriage Bureau employees."
"The Most Popular President in the History of the Republican Party." Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Trump ... inaugurated the new year Wednesday with a Cabinet meeting. It quickly became a 95-minute stream-of-consciousness defense of his presidency and worldview, filled with falsehoods, revisionist history and self-aggrandizement.... Trump added confusion to the [wall] debate by undercutting Vice President Pence, seated nearby, in dismissing the offer he and other administration officials made to Democrats late last month of accepting $2.5 billion for the wall. He described the recent stock sell-off as a 'glitch' and said markets would soar again on the strength of trade deals he plans this year.... He took credit for falling oil prices, arguing they were the result of phone calls he made to the leaders of oil-producing nations.... 'They say I am the most popular president in the history of the Republican Party,' Trump said.... He claimed that if he wanted to, he could have any government job in Europe and be popular there. He cast his unpopularity among European publics as a sign he is doing his job well." ...
... The Reward for Serving in the Trump Administration. Ryan Pickrell of Business Insider: "... Donald Trump said Wednesday that he essentially 'fired' former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, criticizing the outgoing defense chief's service in the Marine Corps and his two years leading the Defense Department. 'What's he done for me? How had he done in Afghanistan? Not too good,' Trump said at a Cabinet meeting.... 'As you know, President Obama fired him, and essentially so did I,' he explained to reporters, contradicting an earlier statement. 'I think I would've been a good general, but who knows,' the president, who has not served in the military and sought five deferments to avoid being sent to Vietnam, further remarked.... While Mattis was initially expected to serve until the end of February, President Trump decided to force him out early, tweeting that Patrick Shanahan, previously the deputy secretary of defense, would take over as acting secretary of defense on Jan. 1, which he did. In a string of tweets on New Year's Eve, Trump trashed 'failed generals' who dared to criticize his policy decisions, a shot at retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal in particular." ...
... Tom Nichols in the Atlantic: "We've gotten used to so much in Donald Trump's two years in office, from the cruelty of his immigration policies to his childlike understanding of international trade, and from his apparent fear of Vladimir Putin to his whipsawing of the financial markets.... Now, however, the president has opened a Pandora's box by escalating his attacks on senior U.S. military leaders. No American president has ever dared risk the American civil-military relationship for less cause or with such childish malice.... The president has taken a dangerous path, excoriating retired military leaders who criticize him and lavishing praise and make-believe pay raises on the active-duty military voters who he believes support him.... He is impugning the character and competence of senior U.S. military leaders purely for political reasons.... When Trump said he knew more than the generals -- a laughable claim from almost any civilian when it comes to military affairs -- he apparently meant it. And that means he has no respect for military advice, from any direction." Mrs. McC: This essay was published before Trump trashed Mattis Wednesday. ...
... Trump Takes Russia's Side against the U.S. Again. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Trump said a lot of strange, untrue things after Wednesday's Cabinet meeting. But the most bizarre snippet might have been his 'history' lesson on the Soviet Union. Trump, who has assured us he is the foremost expert on many topics for which he has no formal education or training, gave his own version of why the USSR collapsed. And to be clear, it is his own version....'Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia, because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia.... The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there. The problem is, it was a tough fight. And literally they went bankrupt; they went into being called Russia again, as opposed to the Soviet Union. You know, a lot of these places you're reading about now are no longer part of Russia, because of Afghanistan.'" ...
... Blake demolishes Donald's "history lesson." Russia & the Soviet Union are not the same places. Russia didn't "go bankrupt"; its economy collapsed. (Mrs. McC: President Serial Bankruptcy, of all people, should know the difference.) Russia's war in Afghanistan was hardly the sole cause of the USSR's collapse. "The Soviet Union ventured into Afghanistan as part of its effort to prop up communism abroad, not because terrorists were striking the Soviet homeland.... It's remarkable and unprecedented for a president of the United States to argue that the Soviet Union was right to be in Afghanistan, regardless of the purported reasons. The United States, after all, was on the other side, aiding the mujahideen." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Americans don't agree about the U.S. response to the [Russian] invasion [of Afghanistan] -- a grain embargo by the Carter administration, and then arming anti-Soviet guerrillas, many of whom had radical Islamist views. But there has been little disagreement that the Soviets did something bad by invading. Until now. Meanwhile, the Russian government is moving an official resolution defending the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. (The approval is scheduled to take place next month.) Russians have previously called the invasion a tragic error, but Vladimir Putin's regime ... is systematically rehabilitating various Soviet crimes. Trump is almost certainly not carrying out some kind of favor for Putin by weirdly defending the invasion of Afghanistan... Still, it raises the question of just where Trump is hearing this stuff. He's not getting pro-Soviet revisionist history from Fox & Friends. He's also probably not reading alternative histories of central Asia. So who planted this idea in Trump's head, anyway?"
I will provide lockstep support for Donald Trump's agenda, regulatory appointments, and oppose all oversight because this might undermine #1 and #2, but I will occasionally Express Concern About Tone. -- Scott Lemieux, in LG&M, translation of Mitt Romney's op-ed, linked yesterday ...
... Eli Okun of Politico: "... Donald Trump responded to a harsh op-ed from Sen.-elect Mitt Romney Wednesday morning, admonishing him to 'Be a TEAM player & WIN!' 'Here we go with Mitt Romney, but so fast! Question will be, is he a Flake? I hope not,' Trump tweeted. 'Would much prefer that Mitt focus on Border Security and so many other things where he can be helpful. I won big, and he didn't. He should be happy for all Republicans.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Given Trump's usual disparagement of nearly everyone who crosses him, this is a pretty mild reaction to Mitt's critique, especially considering that Mitt didn't complain as much about Trump's actions as about his essential character. So I'm thinking Trump made a wise calculation in his self-interest: it has dawned on Trump that those Mittens hold Trump's fate -- Mitt is one who could and possibly would vote to oust Trump after an impeachment trial.
... Trumpery Is Thicker than Blood. Emily Stewart of Vox: Mitt's niece Ronna Romney McDaniel, who is the chair of the Republican National Committee, sided with the boss: In a tweet she wrote, "POTUS is attacked and obstructed by the MSM media and Democrats 24/7. For an incoming Republican freshman senator to attack @realdonaldtrump as their first act feeds into what the Democrats and media want and is disappointing and unproductive." Stewart notes, McDaniel "stopped using her full name publicly after Trump reportedly joked about the matter with her.... In June 2018, McDaniel tweeted that anyone who does not embrace Trump's 'agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake.'" ...
If you want to know which way the wind blows, it doesn't hurt to look at the weather vane. -- Robert Farley, in LG&M ...
... Jack Crosbie of Splinter: "You can see by the headline [on Romney's op-ed], which is way too long, that this is going to be a lecture from America's stern conservative dad on how President Trump is bad and uncouth. Romney prefers the gentler Republican cruelty of past decades -- you know, the kind that doesn't endorse statements like 'grab them by the pussy' but still tries to erode women's rights and expand the gap between rich and poor at every possible opportunity." ...
Romney thing is just this: he's ostentatiously shorting Trump, ie, betting he is impeached/convicted or forced to resign. And reminding party he would do all the usual stuff the donors and activists want without the drama. And figuring that's how he wins nomination in '20. -- Richard Yeselson, in a tweet, via Martin Longman, linked below ...
... Steve M.: "Romney is sticking to a position so indefensible that even most mainstream media pundits have abandoned it: that Trump's presidency isn't a crisis and that it's still possible for him to be a good president and a decent person, at which point Romney will readily embrace him.... But if Romney thinks this puts him in a good position for 2020 in the event of Trump doesn't run again, I think he's mistaken.... GOP voters will never abandon Trump no matter what he does, which means that only a Republican perceived as pro-Trump ... will be able to take the nomination if Trump falls. No one will beat Trump in the 2020 primaries if he runs -- certainly not Romney. And no one who seemed in any way aligned with the evil Democrats and Deep Staters who brought about Trump's downfall will stand a chance if Trump is gone. Romney may be acting in a calculated way, but if so, he's calculating wrong." ...
... Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "... while it is only implied [in Romney's op-ed], the verdict is clear. If we must start by repairing our highest office because the person presently serving in that position is a no-character lying racist and sexist who is destructive to our democratic institutions, then the highest priority must be the removal of Trump from office.... Before Donald Trump came along, Mitt Romney held the land-speed record for mendacity in American politics. In 2012, our own Steve Benen tallied 917 falsehoods from Romney, which was a lowball and partial estimate of the actual number.... Romney is replacing Orrin Hatch in the Senate, and we last saw Sen. Hatch trading away his posterity for a Medal of Freedom. At least Romney isn't saying that Trump is a great president or that he doesn't care if he committed a few felonies during the campaign.... The unmistakable message is that Romney has no interest in carrying water for Trump and he'll vote to remove him from office with enthusiasm. In fact, he's basically committed to that now because the last thing Romney needs is for Trump to get reelected so he can exact revenge on him a second time. However cynically you look at this, it's not what Orrin Hatch would have done."
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
Mike Allen of Axios: "In an interview to air on NBC's 'Today,' co-anchor Savannah Guthrie asks Nancy Pelosi...: 'Do you believe the special counsel should honor and observe the Department of Justice guidance that states a sitting president cannot be indicted?'... Pelosi replied, according to an excerpt from NBC: 'No, I mean I don't think -- I do not think that that is conclusive. No, I do not.' With that response, she becomes the highest ranking official to suggest President Trump could be indicted while in office."
Lauren Fox of CNN: "Democrats are making presidential tax returns a focal point in one of their first pieces of legislation, an effort to build the case to the American people that time is up on ... Donald Trump keeping his own tax returns from the public, shutting what could be a window into his personal wealth. According to two sources familiar with the discussions, Democrats will include a provision in their new bill that would require presidential nominees to disclose 10 years of tax returns shortly after they become the nominee. Vice presidents would also be required to disclose a decade of returns. The tax returns would then be posted on the Federal Election Commission's website for public viewing. The 10-year requirement is new marker. At the end of last year, Democrats had disclosed H.R. 1 would require presidential candidates to release just three years of tax returns.... The provision would be included in H.R. 1, a far-reaching bill that makes sweeping ethics changes as well as lays out Democratic priorities on voting rights and health care. The legislation isn't expected to pass the Republican-controlled Senate or be signed by Trump...." More on HR 1 linked below.
How Convenient. Jennifer Yachmin of E&E News: "President Trump ... triggered the partial federal government shutdown that closed national parks and facilities late last month -- but his namesake hotel in the nation's capital will see its own National Park Service site reopen this week. The Old Post Office Tower, which shares facilities with the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, is slated to reopen by Friday thanks to funding from the General Services Administration.... It is not clear whether the Trump Organization attempted to pay to reopen the facility itself. Multiple telephone calls and emails to representatives of Trump Hotels were not returned." --s
Fred Wertheimer & Norman Eisen in the USA Today: "Prosecutors triggered a national firestorm last month when they asserted that President Donald Trump conspired with his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, to commit campaign finance crimes involving hush money payments to two women. But the discussion has so far overlooked another Trump campaign finance offense -- one that is even easier to prove because it occurred in plain sight. On July 27, 2016, Trump called on Russia to find presidential Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's missing emails.... Federal campaign finance law prohibits any person from soliciting campaign contributions, defined as anything of value to be given to influence an election, from a foreign national, including a foreign government.... The law provides that such a solicitation is illegal regardless of whether the person soliciting the help receives anything in return." --s
Eli Okun: "Incoming House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler blasted the Trump administration Wednesday for the recent deaths of two migrant children in government custody, placing the blame squarely on the White House and its policies.... The zero-tolerance policies [are] ... 'a deliberate creation of the Trump administration, which is trying to make things as miserable as possible. And if kids die, they're apparently willing to have that.'"
Emily Atkin of the New Republic: The Trump administration has removed federal funding from a University of Maryland database that tracked violence by white supremacists & white nationalists, as well as cut funding to other groups that aimed to eradicate violence by these groups.
Sarah Okeson of DC Report: "Archaeologists helped draft the [Antiquities Act in 1906] that presidents use to protect areas like the Grand Canyon, but today's Republicans want to muzzle archaeologists and others to keep them from weighing in on a lawsuit over Trump's yanking protections from Utah sites that date back to the end of the last Ice Age.... Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jean Williams asked a federal judge not to accept legal documents from archaeologists objecting to Trump's largely dismantling two national monuments in Utah. She said the blitz of documents was 'inherently prejudicial' to Trump and the other defendants.... Williams works in the environmental division, led by Jeffrey Bossert Clark, who represented BP in lawsuits over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the nation's largest oil spill." --s
Susan Davis of NPR: "Top Democrats announced late Sunday a series of changes to House rules that could eliminate causes of major instability during the previous eight years of Republican rule in Congress. 'We are proposing historic changes that will modernize Congress, restore regular order and bring integrity back to this institution,' said incoming House Rules Chairman James McGovern, D-Mass., in a statement explaining the changes.... Democrats will revive the 'Gephardt Rule,' introduced in the late 1970s by Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., that automatically raises the debt ceiling -- the nation's borrowing limit -- once the House passes a budget.... Additionally, Democrats are changing the rules regarding motions 'to vacate the chair,' a procedural tool that could be used to force out a sitting House speaker." Smith outlines "other notable House rules changes".
Beyond the Beltway
Kansas. AP: "A county in western Kansas has paid more than $70,000 so far to a legal firm hired to defend an official who moved Dodge City's only polling place to outside the iconic Wild West town ahead of the November election. Ford County paid the Hinkle Law Firm $71,481 in October and November to defend County Clerk Debbie Cox, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.... The American Civil Liberties Union sued Cox in late October after she moved Dodge City's polling place..., but the lawsuit is continuing as the ALCU seeks to ensure Cox opens a second voting location in 2020. Cox hired attorney Bradley Schlozman, who is well-known in the legal community for defending states and towns accused of trying to restrict voting. She said money for his Wichita-based firm comes from the county's general fund." --s
Texas. AP via TPM: "'Black Girl Magic' has met the bench with the swearing-in of 17 African-American female judges in the Houston area. The 17 women all won races in last year's election to be judges in various Harris County courts. Their 'Black Girl Magic' campaign debuted over the summer with a viral photo that featured the 17 women and two other sitting Harris County judges inside a courtroom. The women were sworn in on Tuesday." --s
Virginia. Casey Michels of ThinkProgress: "On Monday, Dick Black announced on Facebook that he would not seek re-election to the Virginia State Senate, where he's served for seven years.... While Black isn't a household name, he has made a name for himself in national security circles for the past few years. He became an outspoken defender of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and Russian propaganda alike, and lately took on a notable role in pushing pro-Trump conspiracy theories about former FBI official Andrew McCabe." --s
Way Beyond
Mauricio Savarese of the AP: "Newly installed President Jair Bolsonaro targeted Brazil's indigenous groups, descendants of slaves and the LGBT community with executive orders in the first hours of his administration, moving quickly after a campaign in which the far-right leader said he would radically overhaul many aspects of life in Latin America's largest nation.... One of the orders issued late Tuesday, hours after Bolsonaro's inauguration, likely will make it all but impossible for new lands to be identified and demarcated for indigenous communities. Areas set aside for 'Quilombolas,' as descendants of former slaves are known, are also affected by the decision. Another order removed the concerns of the LGBT community from consideration by the new human rights ministry." ...
... ** David Wallace-Wells of New York: "... Brazil's newly elected president just might test the proposition that no individual matters all that much to the climate. Often called the 'Trump of the Tropics,' the cartoonish quasi-fascist Jair Bolsonaro is almost certain to be worse on global warming than Trump himself.... Bolsonaro wants to do as he'd like in the Amazon, 60 percent of which sits within Brazilian borders. There, he plans to open the rainforest to agricultural development, essentially putting a match to an entire rainforest of stored carbon by inviting rapid deforestation -- the industrial-scale felling of trees, which, in dying and decomposing, will release into the atmosphere all the CO2 they have stored inside them.... As Emily Atkin put it at The New Republic, 'The livability of the entire planet is at stake.'"
On the Far Side of the Moon. Ken Moritsugu of the AP: "China's burgeoning space program achieved a first on Thursday: a landing on the so-called dark side of the moon. Three nations -- the United States, the former Soviet Union and more recently China -- have sent spacecraft to the near side of the moon, which faces Earth, but this landing is the first-ever on the far side."
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Reader Comments (19)
“I would look foolish.” That fucker is so much less of an American than any of the TSA people who just passed me through security at 4:45 am. He has no idea what it means to serve another person, let alone a whole country.
Happy New Year to all the reality-based commenters and editors.
"I would look foolish."
Little to say about that this morning. It's an old, tired recording, inspiring nothing new and nothing worth RC'ers time--but this:
Thank you, Marvin!
Boy, did you nail it from the get-go.
Oops!
Didn't mean to discourage other comments on the Pretender's latest exhibition of NPD. Meant the absence of inspiration to apply only to myself.
The rest of you: Have at it.
I think that calling the Clown "ill" with a real disorder is letting him off the hook. Please to remember that he is a nasty, thuggish, horrible person, interested only in himself and his petty, belligerent, criminal, useless, selfish life. He needs to be removed NOW and any delay is fatal to the country. (The photos from the parks are disgusting. Who are the selfish people in there pooping on the sidewalks-- Red Staters??) Ken, I am with you-- I don't see any good, any inspiration, any future. Yes, we have the House, and unless there are experts in finagling, nothing will happen with legislation passed there. Yup, pessimist-leaning today...
But Jeanne, unlike the Pretender, you do inspire.
That difference, that uncertain line between illness and moral failing, outright turpitude even, is sometimes/often hard to pinpoint and open to question.
I've often thought society would benefit if a harsher line were to be drawn: If a behavior is socially destructive, sin or syndrome, whatever, it should not be tolerated. Lock 'em up, that part of me says.
But that reaction presents such a slippery slope. What or who is socially destructive? Who defines it? I say it's the Pretender.* The Pretender says it's brown people. Many of his supporters say, Jews.
And for what it's worth (I know I keep saying it here) it seems to me that the very economic system in which we are all enmeshed, as practiced anyway, encourages sociopathic behavior, immorality, call it what you will. That so many sing its praises nonetheless would seem to indicate a deeply seated pathology--or is it Original Sin? (If greed is an animal response to fearing death, maybe it is the Original Sin, and not limited to humans. I've seen our otherwise kind and gentle dog go immediately to his food dish and wolf the remaining kibble, when a neighbor dog comes in the house.)
The Catholic Boy still lurks.
*I'm right, of course.
To piggy back on Ian Millhiser's piece (see above and yes, Paul Ryan, you are a schmuck!) here's Thom Hartmann whose essay involves revealing once again GOP's favorite scam: it's that nifty strategy that is both simple and elegant known as the trickle down theory, something the Republicans have used when in power:
Run up as much debt as possible, mostly by borrowing and giving that cash to the Republican donor class through tax cuts and corporate subsides; when Dems are in power––WHAM!–-suddenly Reps become hysterical––the debt!!! demanding that Dems keep taxes low while cutting social spending.
Keep an eye on Lindsey who might weep copious tears while tearing into the new House's format on this and its investigations.
Hartmann goes into the history of this –-a refresher course I'm sure for most of you but worthwhile to revisit.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/thom-hartmann-the-gop-is-reviving-one-of-its-favorite-scams/
From yesterday:
Some gems from youse guys:
"Romney was barking at the back door for a bone. Trump opened the door, Romney lay down, played dead, rolled over, and jumped through a few hoops. Trump smacked him with a rolled up newspaper, chased him out of the yard, and told him to pee somewhere else." Ak
"It is curious that Trump thinks these Washington veterans just fell off a turnip truck." Mrs. M.
"I never read Art of the Deal so I have a low I.Q. when it comes to negotiating deals, but I am dreading the idea of the Dems coming out of Trump's shutdown debacle by giving him some $$$ for his limp dick wall while securing some sort of DACA deal (that Fats would probably slow walk and knee cap later anyways)" safari
"I am constantly screaming as I dry my hair..."Jeanne
"And here I had thought the Parscale tweet was just another joke I didn't get...
...The R's are known for their rarified sense of humor." Ken
And Pelosi's daughter said today on CNN when talking about how her mother will deal with the likes of the Art of the Deal guy:
"She'll cut your head off and you'll never know you're bleeding."
P.S. @AK: I say "mach schnell" whenever I want people––usually little people–-to hurry up and get going. My mother used this phrase repeatedly in my youth––everybody was too slow moving in her book.
Listening to the Turtle this morning whining that Democrats are terrible for not giving in, but what can you expect from disloyal, lowlife Democrats?
This, from the pettiest schemer, the most sycophantic coward, the most malignant open sore in present American politics.
There is no doubt in my mind that McConnell does not believe for a second that the Trump Wall is worth the powder to blow it to hell, but he'll shill for Trump out of a combination of fear and hunger to remain powerful. Were he to do the right thing and stand up to Fatty, he'd be persona non grata at the Blight House. He knows he'd lose that fight, so he knuckles under just as he did when the teabaggers were ascendant in his state. He all of a sudden became a far-right holy roller. And now, the guy who at first saw Trump as a threat, waits on him hand and foot. I'm sure, in his mind, he sees this as the practical way to go, the politic thing; go along to get along.
I'm equally sure plenty of Weimar politicians thought the same thing.
Ken,
One of the more striking qualities of ideology is its ability to hide its true nature, its raison d'etre, if you will. A successful ideology appears to come full-blown into existence, like Athena from the head of Zeus, fully armored and ready to rock and roll, and seems as if it had always been there so there was no need to question its nature or its operations.
Such is the nature of capitalism. This is the way it should be. End of story. What's to question? This is the perfect system. It needs no tweaking or adjustment and most definitely never seek to ask for self-interrogation. When the Berlin Wall came down, right-wingers proclaimed the event the crowning achievement of capitalism. Some (Francis Fukuyama, for one) called it the End of History, the idea being that the one true ideology had triumphed and it was a given that it was perfect in all ways, that it had evolved to a point where there was no need for social historians or economists or theorists to investigate it further. Western democracies, girded by the god of capitalism, would simply go on forever.
The end.
Yeah.
The original usage of the concept came about during the French Revolutionary era. Thinkers and political and social activists saw, in the work of Locke and Condillac, a way out of a metaphysical view of the universe (which, at the time, included religion, so yeah, they had a point). They sought a more "scientific" plan. The ideologues sought to construct a new world from the ashes of the Ancien Regime, a world contoured by reason, enlightenment, and empiricism. Rules of social order and constructs of proper citizenship would be handed down, not from some metaphysical authority (god), but from natural laws.
And that right there is where it all went wrong. Did you get it? Natural Laws. The idea, resplendent in the first use of ideology is that it's not something man-made. It's the perfect system that aligns with nature, the way things should be.
I admit that when, as a much younger man, I started reading Isaiah Berlin, I was taken aback that such a liberal thinker should evince such hostility to the enlightenment. Did he forget that the American Experiment, that greatest achievement of social and political structures, was birthed with the help of people like Locke and the Enlightenment thinkers?
It took a better understanding of history to finally see his point, but I get it now.
It's not so much the idea of enlightenment itself, but he saw in the work of the ideologues the same sort of self-assured perfection handed down by "natural laws" that also helped create fascism and communism.
And, in large part, capitalism. And for his followers, Trumpism. It's perfect. There's no need for concern or for tinkering. And definitely, NO QUESTIONS.
And this is the victory of ideology. Like the wingers who write textbooks hiding the viciousness and racism in American history in order to "protect" their idea of a perfect America, where everything is aces (for white Christians, that is), those who pretend that there is nothing ideological about America or about western capitalism seek to keep the curious and the skeptical at bay, to make sure no one gets too close to be able to question that man behind the curtain.
The truth is that only by questioning our most dearly held concepts can we be sure they have value and fix what needs fixing. If we are just told to shut up, go to work, put your head down, do what you're told, your betters are in charge, and leave it at that, we are perpetually immured, with no hope of escape.
This is a big reason the Masters of the Universe hate Elizabeth Warren so much. And why they fear minorities and uppity women, groups on the outside who are able to see the essential flaws in a system that has shut them down and kept them out. If only those people would shut up and go away, everything would be jake!
There is no cure for ideology, but if you're aware of its workings and understand how it operates, you're able to make much more reasoned and responsible decisions.
Something else they don't want.
so who is running the show?
mitch the bitch
trump the lump
nancy the fancy
chuck the puck
lindsey the flimsy
paul the fall
and mitt the flip
@AK: the Turtle has always been for his safe shell of a home and has been willing to sell his soul in small increments throughout his career.
As for Weimar politicians let's not forget how business men were Hitler's indispensable financiers. Those rich industrialists and bankers whom Hitler shook down in 1933 were no strangers to political contributions. Elizabeth Warren has railed about our similar situation for decades ––was on Rachel last night and is out for bear but it remains doubtful whether she and other like-minded would be able to change our system. She's talking about a revolution of sorts. I'd like to believe we could ––-but my Yellow Brick road red shoes have trouble coming together.
All Aboard the Nihilism Train
They're all in. And they are pulling out all the stops to make sure they can wheedle, threaten, cajole, or scare anyone else not going along that they better smarten up and get aboard.
Who is "they"? Just in the last couple of days we have Jerry Falwell, Jr. (a stinking, rotten apple from a diseased tree if there ever was one) is lecturing evangelicals that they better get behind Trump, or else they'll be committing a sin. Got that? If they don't support a serial adulterer and liar, a crook, and career con man, they're sinners. If this isn't Bizarro World, one doesn't exist. Then we have the Rat's niece warning that every R better get with the program and support the Glorious Leader. Apostates will not be treated kindly! Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Confederate "leadership" (lookin' at you, Lyin' Ryan) have all put their integrity, courage, and patriotism in a blind trust and burned the paperwork. They insist that Trump is the way, the light, the source of all good things.
What in the holy hell is going on?
Simple answer? They're scared. Shitless.
They've signed in blood with a moronic demon and now they can't get out so they're hoping that enough additional lackeys will stop up the breaches. Students of Shakespeare know how that one goes: "...close up the wall with our English dead..." And forget Hank Cinq. Ain't no Agincourt in their future. These guys are the heavily armored French mired in the muck. Mueller and his guys and Pelosi are the Welsh longbowmen.
So the die is cast. No doubt, as things progress, rats will desert the ship as it founders and begins to sink. Lindsey Graham will announce that he was never in Trump's camp, how dare anyone suggest such a thing. He knew all along that wall was a stupid idea. McConnell will do some sort of jig and skip away from the consequences of his treason. Liarbee will be a Fox superstar, and Ryan will be raking in a seven figure salary telling some trust fund babies exactly what they want to hear about how an economy should work.
And Falwell?
If there is a hell, I'm hoping he gets a one bedroom overlooking a sulfurous lake of fire.
Akhilleus,
Natural Law? An apprehension of how the universe really works? Or childish wish fulfillment? The latter methinks, and when empiricism is no more than the handmaiden of belief we're back to religion again, reasoning not from observation and experiment but from unproven assumptions.
The Enlightenment was revolutionary, but it didn't jettison entirely the religious undergirding of previous human history, a failure of reason far more forgivable in the 1700's than now. At the time, to have done so would have been a bridge too far.
Successful ideologies are held by those who have accrued power. The Church sure did for more than a millennium.
Colonialism and the dominance of Caucasians? Mercantilism and its more democratic outgrowth, Capitalism? Both proved to be successful systems of behavior and thought, but which came first, the actions or the ideology is an open question, open at least to those who haven't succeeded in deconstructing everything. That is, to me.
BTW, as I understand it, The Federalist Society is still big on Natural Law...and therefore still nuts.
There oughta be a law against them.
@Akhilleus: I'm pretty rusty on the European foundations of the Enlightenment, but I know more about our vaunted "founding fathers"' views. While they prided themselves for their embrace of Enlightenment thinking, they thought the "natural order" meant elite men of European stock were the be-all & end-all. Slavery was okay and so was indentured servitude of non-elite Europeans of both sexes. Wives were chattel. Our founders were good with a class-based society and debtors' prisons. They thought war was the "natural" way to settle conflicts (and in some cases, their own debts) and to expand the country (i.e., confiscating the lands of indigenous people).
Although Trump would look even more ridiculous in knee-breeches than he does in those expensive, ill-fitted suits, the powdered wigs would solve another of his problems, so I think he'd fit right in. He would still be a buffoon and Sir Mitt & Lady Ann would not invite him and his mistress to the society ball, but he probably would have got away with a lot more of his crooked schemes.
You can see why Republicans drool over the founders. Today's Republicans still hold the late-18th-century beliefs of "all the best people."
Ken,
"The Federalist Society is still big on Natural Law...and therefore still nuts."
Favorite quote of the day so far.
Marie,
Quite. Philosophy only gets you so far. It still has to contend with a lot of old furniture and bric-a-brac up in the intellectual attic. And if enlightenment only works when the lights are on, then it's not the source of light, but something needing some outside illumination, and one is still likely to bump into all that crap up in the attic on a regular basis.
One might think, in a philosophical way, that all men are created equal, but if you're down with slavery (and, as they used to call it, miscegenation--forced at that, lookin' at you, Tom) you ain't walkin' the walk.
(Just as an aside, you probably remember the conniption fit Confederates had when it came out that Jefferson had black descendants, and how winger "historians" tried to fight that revelation, the better to maintain the racial purity of the sainted founders' legacy. Another attempt to jigger history to correspond to modern tribal requirements.)
As for the R love affair with the founders, it's still a cherry picked affair. Anything in, say, the Federalist Papers (or the Constitution!) they don't cotton to is right out.
I gots me two words to say to Nancy (The Big Boss) Pelosi:
Tax returns. Tax returns, tax returns, tax returns. (Okay, so eight words.)
Oh, and one more word: yesterday.
Amusing commentary on our logorrheic Pretender’s latest performance.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/03/politics/donald-trump-cabinet-meeting/index.html
The stories on Bolsonaro made me think of an article by national geographic on what the could be like when the ice caps melt.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2013/09/rising-seas-ice-melt-new-shoreline-maps/