;)
The Commentariat -- March 11, 2018
Late Morning Update:
Oh Why Can't the U.S. Be More Like China. Chris Buckley & Steven Myers of the New York Times: "President Xi Jinping set China on course to follow his hard-line authoritarian rule far into the future on Sunday, when the national legislature lifted the presidential term limit and gave constitutional backing to expanding the reach of the Communist Party.... The party-controlled legislature, voted almost unanimously to approve an amendment to the Constitution to abolish the term limit on the presidency, opening the way for Mr. Xi to rule indefinitely. The amendment was among a set of 21 constitutional changes approved by the congress, which included passages added to the Constitution to salute Mr. Xi and his drive to entrench party supremacy. Mr. Xi is using his formidable power to dismantle parts of the political order set in place in the 1980s and 1990s by Deng Xiaoping, who led China on a path of economic opening and liberalization."
Luis Sanchez of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday blasted Democrats for obstructing his nominations and urged the Senate to move faster to confirm his nominees.... However, Democrats argue that a number of Trump's nominees have withdrawn or faced intense scrutiny for conflicts of interest or a lack of qualifications for their nominated positions."
John Bowden of the Hill: "More than a dozen top election officials across the country are raising concerns about a provision in a Homeland Security Department reauthorization bill that would allow President Trump to dispatch Secret Service agents to polling places. A letter signed by 19 bipartisan secretaries of state to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) demands the Senate leave out a proposal from final legislation that would allow Secret Service agents to accompany lawmakers to polling places when they vote.... A spokeswoman for the agency denied that the Secret Service agents would be used in a law enforcement capacity, stating that the clarifying language' was a response to a 2016 incident in which poll workers stopped agents from accompanying a lawmaker to vote over concerns it violated federal law. 'The only time armed Secret Service personnel would be at a polling place would be to facilitate the visiting of one of our protectees while they voted,' Secret Service spokeswoman Catherine Milhoan told the [Boston] Globe."
*****
All in the Family. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner's family company recently began construction on an oceanfront development in [Long Branch, New Jersey], a project that has the strong backing of local officials, who agreed to support it with $20 million in bonds. But unknown to Long Branch officials, the Kushners have been in talks to team up with another family-run company that has an even bigger presence in the White House: the Trump Organization. The Kushners are in private discussions to have President Trump's company manage atleast one hotel at the center of the development.... The long-running talks blur the line between family, business and politics in ways that lack precedent: Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner ... retain financial interests in their family businesses. The Trump Organization's outside ethics adviser has raised questions about a potential deal -- one reason the two-year-long discussions have not been completed." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Maybe Trump's desire to close the deal is one reason he's been letting Jared roam the West Wing & peek at all the nation's secrets -- despite Jared's lack of qualifications, or a security clearance, or good advice. Wherever in the world you may live, you could hear Congressional Republicans screaming "Impeachment!!" if Hillary were president & Chelsea's husband (who, like Jared, is the also son of a convicted felon) were dangling some multi-million-dollar contract over Hillary's head.
"Is There Anything More Fun than a Trump Rally?" Elena Schneider & Brent Griffiths of Politico: "... Donald Trump got business out of the way quickly Saturday night -- urging voters to elect Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone, who's locked in an unexpectedly tough special election battle in Pennsylvania – before turning to the main subject of the night: himself.... Trump made fun of Washington and congratulated himself for maintaining his iconoclastic style in office, despite critics who have called for him to take his job more seriously.... Trump touted his tax reform plan, his new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and his newly announced plan to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while slamming the news media -- including calling NBC host Chuck Todd a 'son of a bitch.'... He also talked about the size of the crowd, thanking the fire marshal -- a vintage campaign line -- and recounted how Pennsylvania sealed his 2016 victory. He also unveiled his own new slogan for the 2020 campaign: 'Keep America Great!' 'Is there anything more fun than a Trump rally?' he asked at one point." ...
... Seung Min Kim & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Saturday again called for enacting the death penalty for drug dealers during a rally [in Moon Township, Pennsylvania].... During the campaign event in this conservative western Pennsylvania district, the president also veered off into a list of other topics, including North Korea, his distaste for the news media and his own election victory 16 months ago.... Trump was ostensibly here to inject some last-minute political capital behind Republican Rick Saccone, whose race against Democrat Conor Lamb could be a harbinger of the Republican Party's fate in the midterms. But in classic Trump fashion, he quickly steered away from his main reason for being there.... Trump also delivered a profane attack on the news media, calling NBC News anchor Chuck Todd a 'sleeping son of a bitch' and deeming CNN 'fake as hell,' as the enthusiastic crowd booed at the mention of journalists and chanted 'CNN sucks!' And he rattled off several falsehoods, such as a claim that 52 percent of women voted for him in his presidential win (it was 52 percent of white women, according to exit polling)." ...
... Katie Zezima & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post (March 9): "The Trump administration is studying new policy that could allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for drug dealers..., a sign that the White House wants to make a strong statement in addressing the opioid crisis." ...
... Chas Danner of New York: "'Some countries have a very tough penalty, the ultimate penalty, and they have much less of a drug problem than we do,' [Trump] explained during a White House summit on March 1. And Trump 'often jokes about killing drug dealers,' a senior administration told Axios last month. 'He'll say, "You know the Chinese and Filipinos don't have a drug problem. They just kill them."' And the president has long expressed admiration for how Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has encouraged the extrajudicial murder of anyone suspected of dealing drugs.... Trump has privately endorsed Singapore's policy of executing dealers, as well, and according to the Post, 'Singaporean representatives have briefed senior White House officials on their country's drug policies, which include treatment and education, but also the death penalty, and they provided a PowerPoint presentation on that country's laws.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe you noticed that the countries Trump cites -- China, the Philippines & Singapore -- are run by authoritarian figures. Aah, could be a coincidence.
Trump "Believes" Another Dictator. Emily Stewart of Vox: "On Saturday..., Donald Trump continued to congratulate himself over his agreement to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump touted calls with leaders in China and Japan, emphasizing that North Korea has promised not to do any missile tests through the meeting -- a promise he believes.... [Trump wrote in a tweet,] 'North Korea has not conducted a Missile Test since November 28, 2017 and has promised not to do so through our meetings. I believe they will honor that commitment!'... Trump in a separate tweet on Saturday reacted to the surprise at his agreement to meet with North Korea, including from the media. He said the press was 'startled' and 'amazed' at the events but now the news about it is 'fake.' It is unclear what is fake about it, or who he believes is saying, 'So what, who cares!'" ...
... Peter Baker & Choe Sang-Hun have the New York Times' story of Donald Trump's snap decision to meet with Kim Jong-un: "Mr. Trump accepted on the spot, stunning not only [South Korean envoy Chung Eui-yong] and the other high-level South Koreans who were with him, but also the phalanx of American officials who were gathered in the Oval Office. His advisers had assumed the president would take more time to discuss such a decision with them first. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the president's national security adviser, both expressed caution. If you go ahead with this, they told Mr. Trump, there will be risks and downsides. Mr. Trump brushed them off. I get it, I get it, he said.... The story of how this came about is a case study in international relations in the Trump era. A president with no prior foreign policy experience takes on a festering conflict that has vexed the world for years with a blend of impulse and improvisation, and with no certain outcome. One moment, he is hurling playground insults and threatening nuclear war, the next he is offering the validation of a presidential meeting." ...
... William Broad of the New York Times (March 9): "North Korea appears to be making new nuclear bomb fuel, satellite imagery shows, even as its leader, Kim Jong-un, has expressed willingness to negotiate atomic disarmament with President Trump. Two separate teams of American analysts examining satellite images from January and February have concluded that the North's reactor at Yongbyon, which had appeared to be dormant, is now making plutonium -- a principal fuel of nuclear arms." ...
... ** BUT. Mrs. McCrabbie: Gloria adds a teensy-weensy factoid (or you might call it an earthquake) that sheds a whole new light on Kim's generous invitation to the Best Negotiator Ever. It's something I didn't know, & I'll bet the Best didn't know, either: "It is my understanding (personal comms) that the main North Korea nuclear test site is now unusable. Promising not to do something that you physically can't do is not a huge concession. One needs to know stuff." The link is to an October 17, 2017, report by Christine Kim of Reuters: "A series of tremors and landslides near North Korea's nuclear test base likely mean the country's sixth and largest blast has destabilized the region, and the Punggye-ri nuclear site may not be used for much longer to test nuclear weapons, experts say." ...
... Trump's Gift to Kim. Barbara Demick of the Los Angeles Times: "No matter what else comes of it, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has scored a huge win with President Trump's agreement to sit down for a face-to-face meeting. For decades, North Korean officials have angled to meet with a high-level U.S. representative using all measures of persuasion, whining, wheedling, threatening and even hostage-taking. To secure a chance at that meeting with a sitting U.S. president, no less, amounts to success beyond their wildest dreams. From a propaganda standpoint, getting into the same room with Donald Trump would elevate the 34-year-old Kim, a pariah and terrorist in the eyes of much of the world, to the status of a world leader." ...
... Trump's Gifts to Xi. Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "... in a single day, President Trump managed to unsettle [Asia] on not just one front but two. Hours after he signed orders to impose stiff and sweeping tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, including from key allies like Japan and South Korea, he accepted an invitation to personally meet North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, for negotiations over the North's nuclear program. For allies who have long looked to the United States to provide security and stability, it was a dizzying jolt of drama that injected fresh uncertainty into strategic calculations in the region, where China is seeking to supplant the United States as the major power. 'This is without question a big opportunity for China,' said Ian Bremmer, the president of the Eurasia Group, a New York-based research firm that forecasts global risks. 'The United States has become a less certain partner for a while now.' By all accounts, Mr. Trump made improvisational decisions about both the tariffs and the talks, either against the advice or without the knowledge of key administration officials and advisers."
This Russia Thing, Ctd.
Trump Hopes to Hire Impeachment Lawyer. Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Trump is in discussions with a veteran Washington lawyer who represented Bill Clinton during the impeachment process about joining the White House to help deal with the special counsel inquiry, accordin to four people familiar with the matter. The lawyer, Emmet T. Flood, met with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office this past week to discuss the possibility, according to the people. No final decision has been made, according to two of the people.... Mr. Flood would not replace Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer who since the summer has taken the lead role in dealing with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. But Mr. Cobb has told friends for weeks that he views his position as temporary and does not expect to remain in the job for much longer." ...
... Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Here's a step-by-step guide of how the [Stormy] Daniels affair could potentially creep into the Mueller probe:... 1.... [Trump's attorney Michael] Cohen [-- who paid Daniels $130K in hush money --] is under FBI scrutiny in the Russia investigation.... 2.... It is possible [investigators] could broaden their inquiry to include his financial arrangement with Daniels.... 3.... The next step would be for Mueller to investigate the arrangement between Cohen and Daniels.... 4.... If Mueller has the evidence, he could threaten to bring criminal charges against Cohen, stemming from the payments. At that point, Cohen would need to decide between protecting Trump and protecting himself...." ...
... Daniel Politi of Slate: "In an interview with NBC, [Vladimir] Putin said the 13 Russian nationals who were indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller may not even be ethnically Russians, which would apparently mean they're not real Russians at all. 'Maybe they're not even Russians,' Putin told NBC&'s Megyn Kelly. 'Maybe they're Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, just with Russian citizenship. Even that needs to be checked. Maybe they have dual citizenship. Or maybe a green card. Maybe it was the Americans who paid them for this work. How do you know? I don't know.' During the interview, Putin said that he 'couldn't care less' about the accusations because none of them have ties to the Kremlin. 'Why have you decided the Russian authorities, myself included, gave anybody permission to do this?' Putin asked, noting at one point that 'there are 146 million Russians.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So there's something else Putin & Trump have in common: racism & xenophobia.
This Should Go Well. Maggie Haberman: "President Trump will make the first visit of his presidency to Latin America next month, the White House said on Saturday, traveling to Peru for a summit meeting of Western Hemisphere nations where he will convene with a group of leaders who have criticized his statements and policies on immigration. The president will also visit Colombia and meet with President Juan Manuel Santos, the White House said in a statement." ...
... MEANWHILE, Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post has a story on Colombia's plans to become the world's provider of legal cannabis. Mrs. McC: Maybe President Santos will want to discuss with Trump the U.S President's hope to execute drug dealers.
Trump's "Great" Dinner Guest. Stephen Brown of the New York Daily News: Fox "News" "prominent host Jesse Watters -- who dined on Monday with President Trump -- is in the midst of divorce due to an affair with a 25-year-old associate producer. Watters' wife, Noelle Watters, filed for divorce in October.... Sources said the 39-year-old host informed the network of his adulterous relationship with Emma DiGiovine shortly after Noelle filed divorce papers.... Watters has pursued his on-the-job romance as Fox News struggles to move on from a barrage of shocking allegations about its workplace culture.... Watters ... tweeted a photo Thursday of a dinner menu from The White House signed by Trump. 'To Jesse you are great!' Trump wrote on the menu."
Kelly Takes Cabinet Members to the Woodshed. Cristina Alesci of CNN: "The White House held private meetings with four Cabinet-level officials last month to scold them for embarrassing stories about questionable ethical behavior at their respective agencies, sources familiar with the sessions tell CNN.... Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt all met with officials from the White House counsel's office and the Cabinet liaison. The meetings, held at chief of staff John Kelly's request, were intended to provide 'a clear message that optics matter,' the sources said. The White House gave the agencies a set of guidelines in a document titled 'creating a culture of compliance,' according to portions of the document obtained by CNN." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Lisa Friedman & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has killed an effort by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency [Scott Pruitt] to stage public debates challenging climate change science, according to three people familiar with the deliberations, thwarting a plan that had intrigued President Trump even as it set off alarm bells among his top advisers.... At a mid-December meeting set up by Mr. Kelly's deputy, Rick Dearborn, to discuss the plan, Mr. Dearborn made it clear that his boss considered the idea 'dead,' and not to be discussed further.... 'The chief doesn't want it,' Mr. Dearborn said, referring to the White House chief of staff, according to one person who attended. E.P.A. officials were taken aback, the person said. While the words 'climate change' have been removed from many federal websites, and Mr. Trump has mocked global warming in tweets, the administration has stopped short of using the power of the federal government to attack the science." (Also linked yesterday.)
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "While attention has been focused on President Trump's disputed decision in January to reverse drilling restrictions in nearly all United States coastal waters, the administration has also pursued a rollback of Obama-era regulations in the Gulf. Those rules include safety measures put in place after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig in 2010, a disaster that killed 11 people and resulted in the largest marine oil spill in drilling history. Smaller oil and gas companies, many backed by Wall Street and private equity firms, say they need the relief to survive financially, and the top safety official at the Interior Department appointed by Mr. Trump has appeared an enthusiastic ally.... But an analysis of federal inspection data by The New York Times found that several of the independent companies seeking the rollback ... had been cited for workplace safety violations in recent years at a rate much higher than the industry average. Their offshore platforms suffer in some cases from years of poor maintenance, as well as equipment failures or metal fatigue on aging devices, records show. In addition, there was a string of serious environmental and safety episodes in the last six months involving independent operators, \ including the death in February of a worker who was removing firefighting equipment from a platform about 30 miles offshore, and an oil spill in October that is considered the largest since the Deepwater Horizon event, according to Interior Department records."
Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Wednesday that it was 'immoral' to help poor nations shift off of fossil fuels. 'Look those people in the eyes that are starving and tell them you can't have electricity,' said Perry ... at the annual CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. 'Because as a society we decided fossil fuels were bad. I think that is immoral.'.... [A] 2017 Lancet study concluded that globally, air, water, and soil pollution kill more than 9 million people a year.... What's immoral are the efforts by Rick Perry and his boss President Trump to undermine clean energy, reverse U.S. climate action, and thwart the Paris climate accord." --safari ...
... Kirsta Langlois in Mother Jones: "Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski ... [is] a lifelong Alaskan who believes that her constituents' well-being is inextricable from access to the state's natural resources.... Now, with help from an exceedingly development-friendly administration, Murkowski is ... ushering in huge changes to some of America's wildest landscapes. Nicole Whittington-Evans, Alaska regional director of The Wilderness Society, says she's never seen 'anything comparable to the full-on assault of Alaska's land and waters that we've seen in the last year'.... And Murkowski's reach isn't limited to the 49th state. What happens here sets the tone for what's permissible on public lands elsewhere." --safari ...
... Juan Cole: "The 'Letter Warning Humanity' from scientists has now been signed by over 20,000 scientists, as The Independent notes.... Only a redesign of our energy grid and the way we do industrialized society, including giving up most use of plastics and many pesticides and burning fossil fuels, can avert the catastrophes they describe. So far, no sign they are being taken seriously." --safari: Includes the key charts and evidence in an easy-to-understand form.
Maggie Haberman & Jim Tankersley: "President Trump is strongly considering Christopher P. Liddell, a White House official who was an executive at Microsoft and General Motors, to succeed his departing top economic adviser, Gary D. Cohn, according to two people briefed on the discussions."
Congratulations, Ladies Women. Amanda Arnold of New York: "In an Instagram post dedicated to Women's History Month, the GOP attempted to bolster its dubious claim that Donald Trump has excelled at appointing women to senior-level positions by featuring photos of women who are not political appointees. While Trump did in fact name some of the women in the 10-photo post -- men's-rights activists ally and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, RNC Chairwoman Ronna [Romney] McDaniel, and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, for example -- he did not appoint First Lady Melania Trump or Second Lady Karen Pence. Oh, and Ivanka, who is technically an unpaid government employee, is also in there. Congrats to Trump on "empowering" the women in his family! (Sorry, Tiffany.)"
Kim Willsher of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon has told France's far-right Front National that, 'history is on our side and will bring us victory' in an address to the party's conference.... Bannon ... has been doing a tour of European cities including Zurich, Milan and Rome." --safari...
...The Daily Beast: "Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Saturday said that being labeled a racist should be a point of pride.... Bannon told the crowd those who are called 'racists,' 'misogynists,' 'homophobes,' and 'xenophobes' by their critics are only given such labels because they've left their opponents stumped with provocative questions. 'Let them call you racist.... Wear it as a badge of honor. Because every day we get stronger, they get weaker,' he told the audience.... Bannon has embarked on an international mission to launch a 'global populist movement.'" --safari
Tierney Sneed of TPM: "In order to impeach the testimony of Hans von Spakovsky, a witness called to defend Kansas' proof-of-citizenship requirement, ACLU lawyer Dale Ho introduced as evidence an email von Spakovsky wrote about the now-defunct Trump voter fraud commission. In the email, von Spakovsky said that putting Democrats or even 'mainstream Republicans' on the commission would result in 'abject failure.'... Ho also presented a transcript of an audio recording in which von Spakovsky denied to a reporter that he had sent the email. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is defending the law, objected, unsuccessfully, to the admission of the transcript." --safari
Everything Is Going So Smoothly. Jim Tankersley & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The legislative blitz that rocketed the $1.5 trillion tax cut through Congress in less than two months created a host of errors and ambiguities in the law that businesses big and small are just now discovering and scrambling to address. Companies and trade groups are pushing the Treasury Department and Congress to fix the law's consequences, some intended and some not, including provisions that disadvantage certain farmers, hurt restaurateurs and retailers and could balloon the tax bills of large multinational corporations. While Treasury can clear up uncertainty about some of the murky provisions, actual errors and unintended language can be solved only legislatively -- at a time when Democrats seem disinclined to lend votes to shoring up a law they had no hand in passing and are actively trying to dismantle. On Thursday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent the Treasury Department 15 pages of detailed requests for clarification on how the law affects multinational corporations, mutual fund investors and mom-and-pop pass-through entities."
Coming to a School Near You. Alvin Chang of Vox: "There's the old truism that public school teachers aren't paid enough, but th[e] strike in West Virginia highlights a trend that we're seeing nationwide: Public school teachers aren't getting raises that keep up with inflation -- and over time, this essentially amounts to massive pay cuts.... But like in West Virginia, teachers in Oklahoma and Arizona have taken notice and may be planning strikes of their own, my colleague Alexia Fernández Campbell reports.... Chances are it's happening in your state too." --safari: Includes database to check out the data for each state.
Danielle McLean of ThinkProgress: "The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the Trump administration for forcibly separating parents awaiting asylum proceedings from their young children. The ACLU, which filed the class action lawsuit at the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of California on Friday, claims the practice by government agencies of separating young children from their families violates the Process Clause and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The lawsuit represents a proposed class of 'hundreds of individuals whose minor children have already been taken from them.' The class-action suit broadens an existing ACLU lawsuit that attempted to reunite a woman with her 7-year-old daughter after they were detained separately by U.S. officials.";
Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "The US mining industry has asked the supreme court to overturn an Obama-era rule prohibiting the mining of uranium on public lands adjacent to th Grand Canyon.... In December, the ninth circuit court of appeals upheld the ban after a legal challenge by the industry, to the relief of environmental groups and Native American tribes in northern Arizona. Ken Salazar, then secretary of the interior, instituted the ban for 20 years on public land that the Havasupai tribe relies on for water.... The global uranium market is currently flooded, meaning that mining in the US is not profitable. That could change as the Trump administration considers protections that could increase domestic demand." --safari
Character is about what you do when no one is watching. According to Rebecca Savransky of the Hill, the photo of Joe Biden & a homeless man has gone viral.
Beyond the Beltway
Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Corey Stewart, chairman of the of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and current U.S. Senate candidate, has a long history of extremist statements. His latest may take the cake. The man who raffled off an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle last January ... tweeted on Thursday night that the gun ... was actually less deadly than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton..... He later clarified that while Clinton has 'not personally killed anyone,' neither has the AR-15." --safari
Way Beyond
Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, has succeeded in abolishing presidential term limits, a momentous political coup that paves the way for him to stay in power for years to come. Nearly 3,000 members of China's National People's Congress voted the highly controversial constitutional amendment through during a Sunday afternoon ... three delegates abstained and two voted against, a small hint of the outrage the move has caused in some liberal circles.... Opponents, however, call the decision to scrap the two-term limit -- introduced in 1982 to prevent a repeat of the horrors of the Mao era -- a calamity that risks plunging China into a new age of political turbulence and one-man dictatorship." --safari
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Reader Comments (10)
It is my understanding (personal comms) that the main North Korea nuclear test site is now unusable. Promising not to do something that you physically can't do is not a huge concession. One needs to know stuff.
Death To Drug Dealers!!!!
Let's look at who these Drug Dealers are:
The vast majority of current opioid users got their opioid derivatives from their own MD's, or for free from people they knew. THEN they got into trouble with addiction.
So it looks like there will be a sudden worsening of the doctor shortage in non urban areas after Trump executes all the doctors out there.
Victoria, add to that another group. I was in Oregon in Sept. and visited two new 'drug' stores. Since Sessions believes pot is illegal, maybe they will kill all the store clerks. And is Trump suggesting we follow his friend and just kill them on the street?
Trumptown, a place where reality just floats in the air.
"Trump insults Chuck Todd again". Not quite correct. A Trump insult is actually a serious honor.
When Bob Woodward complained to Mark Felt (Deep Throat) that the Nixon White House was such a chaotic mess, Felt said this:
CONFUSION IS CONTROL
Something to keep in mind.
So let me get this straight. Someone who sells a joint should be executed, but someone who sells out the country to a foreign power for personal gain should be left alone.
Didn’t we used to hang traitors?
I vote we bring that back. After the tarring and feathering. They’d need a pile of feathers to cover all that fat. And the whole thing should be done in public, and on TV. Trumpskyev would finally get some good ratings.
Next week is infrastructure week, at least it's 'infrastructure
hearing' week. That sounds much easier than actually doing
something about infrastructure. They already have a $1.5 trillion
plan (that number sounds familiar-1.5 trillion tax cut). Sounds
like part of the money will be doled out as matching grants to
states (red or blue?).
There's going to be a lot of money floating around just for the
taking. Follow the money.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/377676-five-cabinet-members-
to-testify-at-infrastructure-hearing-next-week
Forrest,
As the Trumps have proven many times, you don’t have build anything, or at least anything that’s not half-assed and shoddy, in order to skim a fortune off the project. You remember the Bridge to Nowhere? Trump and his cronies will make a killing off No Bridges to Anywhere. Infrastructure, Trump style. And if anything does get built, look for it to be some completely unnecessary patronage and pork special in a red state, like brand new shooting ranges so’s all them teachers can practice hitting the side of a barn with their taxpayer-purchased deadly weapons. Things like fixing collapsing bridges or rutted out highways in blue states you can forget about.
Oh yeah, and since “infrastructure week” has been downgraded to “infrastructure heating week”, expect the next iteration to be “thinking about infrastructure hearing week” followed by “commissioning expensive consultants’ reports to help start thinking about infrastructure week”.
By the way, Gloria, great pick with that story about North Korea’s nuclear testing site. Kim and his guys must be busting a gut over that one. It’s not often a professional snake oil salesman is positioned into buying some other con man’s snake oil. I guess this is how he keeps America great.