;)
The Commentariat -- January 6, 2019
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Boris Sanchez of CNN: "... Donald Trump is inclined to declare a national emergency to secure military funding for his long-promised southern border wall if talks between administration officials and top lawmakers from both parties continue to stall, a White House official told CNN on Saturday. While not the administration's preferred plan, the use of emergency powers to fund the wall 'provides a way out' amid a series of contentious meetings and disagreements among Department of Homeland Security officials and Democratic lawmakers over basic facts related to border security, the official said. 'We can only stay like this for so long,' said the official, who attended both meetings with congressional officials at the White House led by Trump this week, explaining that factual disputes have hung up discussions.... On several occasions, discussions became combative during presentations by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. According to the White House official, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi twice cut into Nielsen's presentations to dismiss DHS statistics on border security as inaccurate.... 'In presentations made, they have repeatedly used statistics not supported by fact. They're trying to cast every single migrant as a terrorist or someone with a violent criminal history. The secretary has proven herself to not be credible on these issues,' a Pelosi aide told CNN." ...
... See Bruce Ackerman's NYT column, linked below, on why a presidential attempt to usurp Congress's powers would be unconstitutional, particularly in this case where the "national emergency" is fake.
Mike Allen & Jim VandeHei of Axios: "With the departure of White House chief of staff John Kelly, the misinformation emanating from President Trump has only escalated.... Although Kelly was thwarted in many of his efforts to control the president, one place he made authentic inroads was clamping down on the paper flow to the Oval Office. 'Anyone who circumvented that process was going to have a serious problem,' said a former official who saw the transformation up close. 'It has devolved into anarchy,' added another alumnus of Trump's White House.... Wednesday was Kelly's last formal day in the White House, but his influence had declined since he announced his departure on Dec. 8. Since then, Trump has made several unusually specific factual assertions that were quickly shown to be inaccurate, suggesting more unvetted information may be reaching him than had been the case in the heyday of Kelly's control[.]" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: At the top of Allen & VandeHei's list is Trump's claim that the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan because "'because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there.' A Wall Street Journal editorial scolded: 'We cannot recall a more absurd misstatement of history by an American President.'" Since these & some other remarks Trump made about Poland/Belarus & Montenegro are Russian talking points, both Chuck Rosenberg & Joyce Vance said on MSNBC that it's highly likely Bob Mueller will want to know why Trump is parroting Russia's propaganda playbook.
Ha! Zeke Miller of the AP: "... Donald Trump's national security adviser said Sunday that the American military withdrawal from northeastern Syria is conditioned on defeating the remnants of the Islamic State group and on Turkey assuring the safety of U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters. John Bolton said there is no timetable for the pullout, but insisted the military presence is not an unlimited commitment.... Bolton's comments were the first public confirmation that the drawdown has been slowed. Trump had faced widespread criticism from allies about his decision, announced in mid-December, that he was pulling all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria. Officials said at the time that although many details of the withdrawal had not yet been finalized, they expected American forces to be out by mid-January. 'We're pulling out of Syria,' Trump said Sunday at the White House. 'But we're doing it and we won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So that would be never. ...
... Carol Lee of NBC News: "... Donald Trump will not withdraw American troops from northern Syria until the Turkish government guarantees it won't then attack Syrian Kurdish forces that have been critical allies in the fight against ISIS, national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday. Bolton said a commitment from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that protects the Kurds after American forces exit is something Trump is demanding, and that it's just one of several conditions that have to be met before U.S. troops leave.... Since Trump abruptly announced on Dec. 19 that all U.S. forces in Syria would exit immediately, administration officials have shifted the timing to say it would happen more slowly."
Trump, Bolton, Pompeo rely on AltWorld to decide US foreign policy. Mrs. McC: Okay, this is a portion of an unmarked photo accompanying Zeke Miller's story, so I don't know what these yahoos are really watching, but obviously, it isn't the real world.
Wallace Plays Whack-a-Hack. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders ran into a buzzsaw Sunday morning when Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace challenged the Trump administration's repeated false claims about terrorism and the southwestern border of the United States.... Wallace attacked a central theme of Trump's push for a wall, the lie that tons of terrorists are streaming over the border with Mexico. He played a clip of Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen claiming, at this week's Rose Garden press conference, that 'CBP has stopped over 3,000 what we call special interest aliens trying to come into the country on the southern border....'... Wallace said ... that 'the state department says, quote, "there were no credible evidence of any terrorist coming across the border from Mexico,"' citing a report that was released in September. 'We know that roughly nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally, and we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is southern border,' Sanders began, but Wallace cut her off.... '“I know the statistic...," Wallace said. 'Do you know what those 4,000 people come where they are captured? Airports.'" And so forth. ...
OMG! Steve M. "On Wednesday, Tucker Carlson delivered a monologue on his Fox show that was not just white-nationalist populist but economically populist. It had many of the things Carlson's audience expects from him -- sexism, anger at immigrants -- but there was also this: 'We are ruled by mercenaries who feel no long-term obligation to the people they rule.... They're just passing through. They have no skin in this game, and it shows. They can't solve our problems. They don't even bother to understand our problems.... Not all commerce is good. Why is it defensible to loan people money they can't possibly repay? Or charge them interest that impoverishes them? Payday loan outlets in poor neighborhoods collect 400 percent annual interest....'... And then yesterday, in response to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's call for a return to top margin tax rates of 70% (i.e., the rates we had before the Reagan presidency), Ann Coulter tweeted this: 'Ocasio-Cortez wants a 70-80% income tax on the rich. I agree! Start with the Koch Bros. -- and also make it WEALTH tax.'... This is what right-wing populism might look like in America if it weren't completely co-opted by mainstream Republican corpocratic thinking.... I think this is a minority strain of conservatism that will never be dominant. But we'll see."
Florida. Election Officials Defy GOP Political Leaders. Langston Taylor of the Tampa Bay Times (via the Miami Herald): "Despite hedging from Florida's Republican leaders, an amendment that allows eligible former felons to register to vote will go into effect on Tuesday, state elections officials say. Considered to be one of the most significant voting rights acts in state history, Amendment 4 passed last year with 64 percent of the vote. Experts believe that the pool of those whose voting rights have been restored is at least 1.2 million people.... Elections supervisors reached by the Times said that, beginning Tuesday, they won't hesitate to implement Amendment 4 and will register those who, under the law, have regained their right to vote. 'By law, the amendment goes into effect Jan. 8, and the language was very clear that it restores voting rights to all who have completed their terms of sentence, except those convicted of murder or sexual offenses,' said Gerri Kramer, spokesman for the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections.... That elections supervisors are saying they will implement Amendment 4 helps dispel some of the confusion that arose last month.... At the time, Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, the new chairman of the Senate Ethics & Elections Committee, said the amendment 'may or may not' need legislative action for implementation. Later in December, Governor-elect Ron DeSantis told the Palm Beach Post the law should be put on hold until the Legislature passes 'implementing language.'"
*****
David Leonhardt of the New York Times Has Had Enough: "The presidential oath of office contains 35 words and one core promise: to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.' Since virtually the moment Donald J. Trump took that oath two years ago, he has been violating it.... The cost of removing a president from office is smaller than the cost of allowing this president to remain. He has already shown, repeatedly, that he will hurt the country in order to help himself. He will damage American interests around the world and damage vital parts of our constitutional system at home. The risks that he will cause much more harm are growing." Leonhardt breaks down Trump's offenses into four "articles of impeachment": "Trump has used the presidency for personal enrichment.... Trump has violated campaign finance law.... Trump has obstructed justice.... Trump has subverted democracy." Thanks to MAG for the link.
Michael Tackett & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "As a partial government shutdown entered its third week, negotiations between Vice President Mike Pence and congressional aides from both parties yielded little progress on Saturday while the impact on government services and on federal workers was worsening by the day." ...
... Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "Inside the meeting..., Pence refused to budge from the more than $5 billion President Trump has demanded from Congress to pay for a portion of his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to two Democratic officials briefed on the negotiations.... Pence was deputized by Trump to oversee Saturday's talks, but he did not have the president's blessing to float new or specific numbers as he did last month in a meeting with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).... Trump is annoyed by news reports about the negotiations that make it seem that he is backing away from his demands and wants to avoid stories about new numbers for wall funding being discussed, Trump aides said.... Trump exasperated members of both parties with his comments Friday, but Trump spent that evening boasting to friends that he was in a strong negotiating position because he was able to capture attention and make a flurry of points that he feels his core voters appreciate, White House officials said." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Once again, if the shutdown weren't hurting so many people, this would be hilarious. Remember how, at the initial meeting in December with Chuck & Nancy, pence never said a word? Apparently that was by design. Trump sent pence out to "negotiate" Saturday but ordered him to do nothing. There's no point in Democrats even talking to the designated bump-on-a-log. ...
... Josh Marshall: "... the President hasn't actually given Pence the authority to discuss specific numbers of even specific proposals. And this is compounded by the fact that no one would put much stock in such offers even if Pence were nominally empowered to make them because the President routinely overrules them in tweets.... At the moment, the President's main angle seems to be haranguing supporters and aides about how strong a position he's in." ...
... Jan Wolfe & Joel Schectman of Reuters: "U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats would pass new legislation to try to reopen parts of the government next week after talks between the Trump administration and Democratic negotiators on Saturday failed to end a two-week partial government shutdown.... Pelosi said House Democrats would seek to reopen government agencies next week through piecemeal appropriation bills, starting with the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service. 'This action is necessary so that the American people can receive their tax refunds on schedule,' she said.... A Democratic aide familiar with the meeting said Democratic staffers urged the administration to reopen the government, arguing that progress on the contentious issue of border security would be difficult while the government was closed. The aide said the administration instead 'doubled down on their partisan proposal that led to the Trump shutdown in the first place.'... Trump reiterated his demand for a border wall in a series of tweets on Saturday. 'The Democrats could solve the Shutdown problem in a very short period of time,' Trump said. 'All they have to do is approve REAL Border Security (including a Wall), something which everyone, other than drug dealers, human traffickers and criminals, want very badly!'" ...
... Ryan Koronowski of ThinkProgress: "[Mitch]McConnell's role as the wrench in the senatorial works and defender of Trump's shutdown is a curious one..., given his previous derision toward shutting down the government. In 2013, he went so far as to argue shutdowns were antithetical to 'conservative policy.'... In November 2018, McConnell dismissed the idea that the government would shut down in December. 'No, we're not going to do that,' he told reporters who asked about Trump's demand for wall funding. Less than two months later, nobody in Congress is doing more to keep the government closed than McConnell himself." --s ...
... Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Two weeks into the showdown over a border wall, Mr. Trump is now crafting his own narrative of the confrontation that has come to consume his presidency. Rather than a failure of negotiation, the shutdown has become a test of political virility, one in which he insists he is receiving surreptitious support from unlikely quarters. Not only are national security hawks cheering him on to defend a porous southern border, but so too are former presidents who he says have secretly confessed to him that they should have done what he is doing. Not only do federal employees accept being furloughed or forced to work without wages, they have assured him that they would give up paychecks so that he can stand strong. Never mind how implausible such assertions might seem. The details do not matter to Mr. Trump as much as dominating the debate.... He has told people that 'my people' love the fight, and that he believes he is winning." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Wait Till You Read the Real Reason for "Wall." Julie Davis & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Before it became the chief sticking point in a government shutdown drama that threatens to consume his presidency at a critical moment, President Trump's promise to build a wall on the southwestern border was a memory trick for an undisciplined candidate. As Mr. Trump began exploring a presidential run in 2014, his political advisers landed on the idea of a border wall as a mnemonic device of sorts, a way to make sure their candidate -- who hated reading from a script but loved boasting about himself and his talents as a builder -- would remember to talk about getting tough on immigration, which was to be a signature issue in his nascent campaign.... To many conservative activists who have pressed for decades for sharp reductions in both illegal and legal immigration -- and some of the Republican lawmakers who are allied with them -- a physical barrier on the border with Mexico is barely relevant...."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So Trump shut down the government because three years ago he didn't have the discipline to read his campaign speech notes. "Because it's a slogan a dimwitted candidate can remember" is the most absurd reason for a government policy I've ever heard. ...
... Bruce Ackerman in a New York Times op-ed: "President Trump on Friday said that he was considering the declaration of a 'national emergency' along the border with Mexico, which he apparently believes would allow him to divert funds from the military budget to pay for a wall, and to use military personnel to build it.... Not only would such an action be illegal, but if members of the armed forces obeyed his command, they would be committing a federal crime." Ackerman explains why. ...
... Ellen Knickmeyer & Stephen Braun of the AP: "... despite the federal government shutdown, a historic clock tower at the Trump International Hotel [in Washington, D.C.,] remained open Friday for its handful of visitors, staffed by green-clad National Park Service rangers. The Trump administration appears to have gone out of its way to keep the attraction in the federally owned building that houses the Trump hotel open and staffed with National Park Service rangers, even as other federal agencies shut all but the most essential services.... A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the GSA, seeking documents explaining why the tower was open, how it continues to be funded, and any communications between the agency and the Trump Organization, the president's company.... 'We have not seen a satisfactory basis for why one park service property is opened when no others are,' [Noah] Bookbinder[, CREW's executive director,] said." ...
... Ha Ha. Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post: "Federal agencies have been told to suspend pay raises for top Trump administration officials after an uproar from critics who said it was unseemly to reward top political appointees while hundreds of thousands of workers are going without pay during the partial government shutdown. The raises had been set to go into effect on Sunday, after a long-standing pay freeze for senior officials lapsed. The turnabout on the pay hike came late Friday in a memo from Margaret Weichert, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management. The pay freeze for senior officials, she said, should be extended.... The Weichert memo followed a Washington Post story on Friday afternoon reporting that scores of senior Trump political appointees were poised to receive annual raises of about $10,000 a year.... 'It looks like Trump has protected his own appointees, and everyone else gets screwed,' said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), whose Northern Virginia district has 77,000 federal workers." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: And another "acting" department head. ...
... Scott Martelle of the Los Angeles Times: "Nothing untoward has happened to the president, and I hope nothing does, but the revelations that Trump National [in Bedminster, N.J.,] managers knowingly hired people who had entered the country illegally..., and then hid their status from even the Secret Service is the kind of security lapse that normally would have conservatives fuming. And then there's the blatant hypocrisy of the president profiting from the labor of such workers even as he rails against them as a threat to public safety. In fact, Trump has profited before from the labor of people working in the U.S. without permission, including clients of his modeling agency and Polish laborers who demolished a store to make way for his flagship Trump Towers project in Manhattan (Trump paid nearly $1.4 million in a legal settlement for that one). I'm still waiting for Trump to tell us which of the migrants working for him after entering the country illegally -- and whose names were withheld from the Secret Service -- were the rapists and the gang members." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump doesn't see anything hypocritical about his hiring undocumented workers. It's all about racism, not immigration per se. George Washington & Thomas Jefferson never dreamed of giving equal rights to their African-American slaves, but they were good with slave labor. Trump is very Washingtonian or Jeffersonian in that regard. He's good with underpaid workers. As one commentator said on MSNBC this evening, "Democrats would be stupid to fund the wall; it's a symbol of racism." Yes, it is. ...
... Eric Lach of the New Yorker: At his impromptu press conference Friday, Trump "hemmed, hawed, bragged, made arguments out of thin air, and seemed to be enjoying himself. When he was asked about the government workers who don't know when their next paycheck will arrive, he had no difficulty imagining that they loved him and what he was doing. 'This really does have a higher purpose than next week's pay,' Trump said. Putting himself in their shoes for a moment, he said, 'I think they'd say, "Mr. President, keep going. This is far more important."'" Mrs. McC: We should quit complaining that Trump lacks empathy for the federal employees he's furloughed or forced to work without pay. It turns out Trump does understand the common man! He completely gets it.
Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: National Security Advisor John Bolton & Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Joseph Dunford will travel to Turkey next week to discuss with Turkish officials Turkey's "concerns and expectations" regarding the U.S.'s planned withdrawal of troops from Syria. Accompanying Bolton & Dunford will be James Jeffrey, appointed Friday "as the envoy to the global anti-Islamic State coalition.... Turkey wants the United States to disarm Syrian Kurdish forces it has trained and supplied for the fight against the Islamic State, and to provide air and logistical support for Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition forces.... U.S. strategy was thrown into confusion last month, when President Trump
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump tweeted last month the U.S. was withdrawing because "We have defeated ISIS in Syria." Oddly enough, as Patrick points out in an essential comment yesterday, DeYoung reports, "In an update issued Friday, the U.S. Central Command listed a total of 469 strikes conducted against the Islamic State in Syria between Dec. 16 and 29." If Trump were right, we'd have to assume that those strikes were simply "pounding sand."
Robert Windrem of NBC News: "CIA Director Gina Haspel has appointed another woman to the top level of the agency, naming Cynthia 'Didi' Rapp as deputy director for analysis, essentially the top analyst in the CIA. The appointment means that the top three directorates of the agency, for operations, analysis and science and technology are now all headed by women. Haspel, the first woman director of the agency, had previously named Elizabeth Kimber, like her a 34-year veteran of the agency, as the first female deputy director for operations, responsible for the agency's worldwide spy network. Kimber and Rapp join Dawn Meyerriecks, the deputy director for science and technology, as the top executives in the agency's traditional power centers." Mrs. McC: "Direcorates"? Shouldn't that be "directorettes"? Ha ha. Girl power!
Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: "Facing mounting criticism from Capitol Hill, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has rescinded an invitation to the controversial head of the Russian space agency to visit the United States.... [Dmitry] Rogozin was placed on a sanction list by the Obama administration in 2014 response to Russia's military actions in Ukraine when he was the deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation. After the sanctions were issued, he said Russia should stop flying NASA's astronauts to the International Space Station in retaliation. 'After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest the U.S. delivers its astronauts to the ISS [International Space Station] with a trampoline,' he wrote on Twitter. Given Rogozin's history as a bombastic Russian nationalist and presence on the sanction list, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and others said Bridenstine should have never invited him.... Earlier Friday, a NASA spokesman said that the visit, originally scheduled for February, would be postponed. But as the criticism mounted, the agency decided it was best to withdraw the invitation entirely." (Also linked yesterday.)
Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "A clear sign of the Democratic leadership's direction on climate action came on Thursday when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) -- who reclaimed the House leadership position in the new Congress -- introduced a select climate committee that will be almost identical to the one she created a dozen years ago.... In fact, Pelosi's select climate committee will have fewer powers -- not more, as most climate activists expected -- than the committee she created during her first stint as House Speaker.... But as the Sunrise Movement highlighted, the committee will allow its members to accept political donations from fossil fuel companies, will have no mandate to lead the writing of a comprehensive bill to fight climate change, and will have no language on economic and racial justice -- all key elements of the proposed Green New Deal...[T]here will, however, be one major difference between the 2007 and 2019 select climate committees.... [T]he new climate committee, to be chaired Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), will not have subpoena power [as the previous one did]." --s
Paul Krugman: "... The right's denunciation of [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]'s 'insane' policy ideas serves as a very good reminder of who is actually insane. The controversy of the moment involves AOC's advocacy of a tax rate of 70-80 percent on very high incomes, which is obviously crazy, right? I mean, who thinks that makes sense? Only ignorant people like ... um, Peter Diamond, Nobel laureate in economics and arguably the world's leading expert on public finance (although Republicans blocked him from an appointment to the Federal Reserve Board with claims that he was unqualified. Really.) And it's a policy nobody has every implemented, aside from ... the United States, for 35 years after World War II -- including the most successful period of economic growth in our history."
Presidential Election 2020
Natasha Korecki of Politico: "Just two months ago, Sen. Elizabeth Warren risked political backlash ... by opting to avoid a trip to Iowa during the critical midterm elections -- the only major potential 2020 candidate to do so. But less than a week into the new year, Warren already flipped that on its head, becoming the first major candidate to land on the ground in the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus state, lapping up media attention, locking down key staff and organizers, and capitalizing on pent-up 2020 Democratic excitement.... Her early-out-of-the-gates visit looked more than promising. [In Des Moines], hundreds of people snaked around one block then wrapped around another, waiting outside for her evening appearance. In all, more than 1,000 people packed into the venue and spilled into an overflow area." ...
... Annie Linskey, et al., of the Washington Post: "People stood in parking lots, jostled into front yards and packed into the rafters to witness Sen. Elizabeth Warren's inaugural appearances [in Iowa] in the first presidential caucus state.... The Iowa caucuses remain 13 months away, but a pent-up demand for change in the White House is tangible among Democrats eager for the 2020 campaign to start in earnest."
Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will hear challenges to two aggressive partisan gerrymanders -- one created by Democrats in Maryland and another by Republicans in North Carolina.... [Justice Anthony Kennedy's loss is likely to have devastating consequences for opponents of gerrymandering.... Kennedy['s] seat is now held by Brett Kavanaugh, a far more conservative judge who is unlikely to vote against partisan gerrymandering.... During his confirmation hearing last year, Kavanaugh appeared to threaten revenge against Democratic senators who probed credible allegations that he tried to rape future psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford when the two were in high school. 'As we all know in the political system of the United States in the early 2000s,' Kavanaugh told these Democrats, 'what goes around comes around.'" --s
Julie Ray & Neli Esipova of Gallup: "While Donald Trump has spent much of his presidency focused on the number of people who want to get into the U.S., since he took office, record numbers of Americans have wanted to get out. Though relatively average by global standards, the 16% of Americans overall who said in 2017 and again in 2018 that they would like to permanently move to another country -- if they could -- is higher than the average levels during either the George W. Bush (11%) or Barack Obama administration (10%). While Gallup's World Poll does not ask people about their political leanings, most of the recent surge in Americans' desire to migrate has come among groups that typically lean Democratic and that have disapproved of Trump's job performance so far in his presidency: women, young Americans and people in lower-income groups." (Also linked yesterday.)
Will Sommer of The Daily Beast: "Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes is still struggling to distance himself from his extreme image. After stepping down in November from the far-right group he created, McInnes now wants neighbors in his tony New York suburb to take down yard signs [denouncing hate] aimed at him and his former group.... In [a] letter [to his neighbors]..., McInnes claims that his neighbors won't find anything 'hateful, racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic or intolerant' in 'any of my expressions of my worldview.'... In fact, though, McInnes ... has ranted about Jews, saying that he was 'becoming anti-Semitic' after a trip to Israel. He has called trans people 'gender n**gers,' and once wrote that women want to be 'downright abused.'... Despite his conciliatory tone in the letter, though, McInnes ... devoted an hour-long podcast ;on Friday to the signs, with a decidedly less neighborly tone. 'If you have that sign on your lawn, you're a fucking retard,' McInnes said." --s
News Ledes
New York Times: "Harold Brown, a brilliant scientist who helped develop America's nuclear arsenal and negotiate its first strategic arms control treaty, and who was President Jimmy Carter's secretary of defense in an era of rising Soviet challenges, died on Friday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. He was 91."
Deadline: "Christine McGuire, whose pop hits propelled her and her singing sisters to many radio and television appearances, died Dec. 28 in Las Vegas, where she lived. She was 92 and her family confirmed the death, but did not provide a cause."
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Reader Comments (10)
As I was reading David Leonhardt's very excellent piece what flashed through my mind were the early scenes of "A Handmaid's Tale", the series we just finished watching last night. Before Trump, if I had seen this series, I would have enjoyed it as pure fiction, but since what we are now experiencing in this country–– experiences we never thought possible––it sends chills through me. All the salient points that Leonhardt spells out re: reasons for getting rid of Trump presents once again of how we let this guy off the hook from the get-go. Corruption and deceit coming at us in small increments that were criticized but ignored by those that had cards in the game. It's like anything else that we patch up, cover up, until it spills over and drowns us. I applaud loudly for those like Leonhardt to take up the cudgel and wham it in the public sphere.
"The unrelenting chaos that Trump creates can sometimes obscure the big picture. But the big picture is simple: The United States has never had a president as demonstrably unfit for the office as Trump. And it’s becoming clear that 2019 is likely to be dominated by a single question: What are we going to do about it?"
P.S. Apropos of the mention of the THT series, Catherine Rampell wrote a piece in the Wash Po citing the demographic time bomb that could hit America: fewer babies are being born here ( Japan has a bigger problem with this). It's hard for an economy to grow with fewer workers, and as people age and retire they depend on younger workers to continue in the work force.
We need immigrants just as we needed them decades ago. But since we are preventing them in large part from becoming a part of us, better warn our young females to get ready to don a red cloak and a white headdress. Babies on demand––just like Comcast.
I believe I erred when predicting that the Lyin' King's big war would
be someplace like Monaco or Liechtenstein. Looks like it will be
on the Texas-Mexico border if he pushes for eminent domain.
A lot of this land is productive farm and ranch land. Most of our
veggies come from there in the winter months. Maybe he means to
build the wall on the Mexico side so our farmers will still have
access to the Rio Grand water for their crops.
Has he familiarized himself with where the border actually is?
Most of it is in the middle of the river and dams.
I'm sure he has studied this thoroughly and has a secret plan.
@forrest morris: According to Wikipedia, 1,260 miles of the border are smack dab in the middle of the Rio Grande, & another 24 miles are in the Colorado River. I guess those steel slats had better be stainless steel slats.
Given how we can't dismiss any absurdity in the current clusterfuck, maybe someone (Mueller) should actually monitor the presidunce*s communications during "executive" time. Kushner already made a preposterous play for a "back channel" to the Kremlin.
Maybe he was successful.
What a remarkable day.
Large spruce on the corner uprooted by an extraordinary squall that hit in the middle of last night, whose winds brought lightning and thunder that shook our house, knocked down power lines, and left us powerless this morning. Equal devastation in our back yard that might have destroyed two apple trees but I can't tell because that area is wholly obscured by the pines that fell over them and likely bore them to the ground.
And now, sitting comfortably by the fire, at our Camano Island cabin where there is power, I read that crazy John Bolton is flying around the world cleaning up the Pretender's messes.
More proof that absolutes are hard to come by these days.
The Pretender makes Bolton seem sane.
And then the Wallace grilling of Liar Huckabee, not to mention some sense dribbling from the the foaming mouths of T. Carlson and Coulter whack-a doodles?
The Pretender as an ill wind, maybe?
@Ken Winkes: Sorry about your apple trees. I hope they made it. New pine will soon sprout, but apple trees are an investment of time (and sometimes care). Nice you have an alternate residence to wait out the power company.
@Mrs BM: Not only must those steel slats be stainless steel, but since both rivers flood annually they'd netter be far heftier than the 1" that was mentioned, not to mention being firmly anchored in the bedrock.
Appropos the river versus the wall, this piece in Thinkprogress is about Beto's latest viral video on the subject.
@PD It was just a year ago that Paul Ryan was saying that we need more baby makers here in the good ol' US of A. He did his part. Now the rest of us need to start poppin' 'em out.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/paul-ryans-recipe-for-a-robust-economy-have-more-babies/2017/12/15/dcd767b4-e1dc-11e7-89e8-edec16379010_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bc8380ee67bb
Krugman's article on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's "insanity" reminded me of the Daily Caller reporter that went to one of her and Bernie's rallies. "They say things -- I mean, they talk about things that everybody wants, especially like if you are a parent" was the reporter's reaction to the rally. She almost fell into the trap, but luckily got back to the conservosphere before deprograming set in. Apparently Ocasio-Cortez's not quite as insane when you are listening to her actual policies or are looking at the facts. Who would of thought?
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a22527150/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-fox-news-education-healthcare/