;)
The Commentariat -- March 24, 2018
Afternoon Update:
The Washington Post is liveblogging March for Our Lives events in Washington, D.C. The Post's front page is carrying events live. ...
... Here's the New York Times' report, which is being updated. ...
... In response to MAG's comment below... Luis Sanchez of the Hill: "Asked about estimated attendance at the rally, which was expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people, [Sen. Chris] Van Hollen (D-Md.) told The Hill, 'I can tell you for sure, it's larger than the Trump inauguration.'"
... Perfect News for March for Our Lives Day. John Bowden of the Hill: "A Department of Justice (DOJ) agency has cancelled a pair of efforts to improve school safety after their funding was cut under the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that President Trump signed Friday. A message posted on the website for the DOJ's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) states that funding for the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI) and Research and Evaluation of Technologies to Improve School Safety solicitations was reapportioned under the recently-passed Stop School Violence Act of 2018."
AP: "Stocks around the world plunged Friday as investors feared that a trade conflict between the U.S. and China, the biggest economies in the world, would escalate. A second day of big losses pushed U.S. stocks to their worst week in two years.... It wound up being the worst week for U.S. indexes since January 2016. The S&P 500 index sank 6 percent. Among notable decliners was Facebook, which lost 13.9 percent, or $68 billion in value, as outrage mounted over its handling of user data. That’s about as much as the company was worth in in 2012, the year of its initial public offering." Thanks, Donald! Thanks, Mark!
*****
Marissa Lang of the Washington Post: "Students, teachers, parents and survivors of mass shootings have been streaming into the Washington area ahead of the March for Our Lives, an anti-gun-violence demonstration that could draw hundreds of thousands of protesters Saturday.... And on Friday, they participated in potluck dinners, tailgate parties, sign-making events and live concerts throughout the city on what District officials have described as one of the busiest weekends the city will see this year — thanks, as well, to the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which begins Sunday. The march, billed as a youth-led movement spearheaded by student survivors of school shootings, has galvanized many area families, businesses and organizations to lend their support. Families have opened their homes to visitors. Solidarity 'sibling marches' have been planned throughout the region and across the nation. The main March for Our Lives demonstration is scheduled from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, and due to the expected crowd size, organizers warned, the protest might be less of a march down Pennsylvania Avenue and more of a standing-room-only rally." Mrs. McC: MSNBC is planning wall-to-wall coverage. ...
... Luz Lazo of the Washington Post has the logistics: "Big crowds are expected in Washington on Saturday for the March for Our Lives, an anti-gun-violence rally organized by students, that could bring as many as 500,000 protesters to downtown Washington."
** This is the remarkable headline of the New York Times' top story Friday night: "After Another Week of Chaos, Trump Heads to Palm Beach. No One Knows What Comes Next." Mark Landler & Julie Davis: "President Trump left the White House for Florida on Friday after a head-spinning series of moves on national security, trade, the budget and his legal team that left the capital reeling, sent the stock market into another dive and left his own advisers nervous of what comes next. The decisions attested to a president riled up by cable news and increasingly unbound. Mr. Trump appeared heedless of his staff, unconcerned about Washington decorum, confident of his instincts and determined to set the agenda himself, even if that agenda looked like a White House in disarray. Inside the West Wing, aides described an atmosphere of bewildered resignation as they grappled with the all-too-familiar task of predicting and reacting in real time to the shifting moods of the president." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I don't know that the staid Times has ever before led a straight-news story with words & phrases like "chaos, head-spinning, reeling, nervous, riled, unbound, heedless, disarray, bewildered, shifting moods." But that's where we are. And, remember too, that Trump is thinking of firing John Kelly & "managing" the White House himself. ...
... Update: Trump Ends Work Week Bullying Transgender Troops. Jacquelin Klimas & Bryan Bender of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday issued orders to ban transgender troops who require surgery or significant medical treatment from serving in the military except in select cases — following through on a controversial pledge last year that has been under review by the Pentagon and is being fought out in the courts. The memorandum, which drew swift condemnation from gender rights groups, states that while the secretary of defense and other executive branch officials will have some latitude in implementing the policy, 'persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria — including individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery — are disqualified from military service except under limited circumstances.'” ...
... Mark Stern of Slate: "Four federal courts have blocked the Pentagon from discriminating against transgender individuals, and those orders remain in place. In fact, it is doubtful that this plan, or any effort to ban transgender troops, will ever take effect. Those federal courts have found that discrimination against trans service members violates the Constitution, and the new proposal does nothing to ameliorate the ban’s grave constitutional flaws. Instead, the policy issued by the White House on Friday combines anti-trans propaganda with baseless, discredited concerns about the alleged danger of open transgender service. That might satisfy Trump’s base. It will not satisfy the federal judiciary."
Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Friday that the Justice Department was proposing to ban so-called bump stocks through regulations rather than wait for Congress to act, a move that defies recommendations by federal law enforcement officials. Mr. Sessions’s announcements came moments after President Trump said on Twitter that the Justice Department would imminently announce a rule banning bump stocks.... A bump stocks ban would defy the conclusion of Justice Department officials, who have said they could not, under existing law, stop the sales of bump stocks, accessories that allow semiautomatic guns to mimic automatic fire, and that congressional action was needed to ban them. But Mr. Sessions said the department had worked around those concerns." ...
Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns. -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Friday afternoon
Really? Trump got this talking point from the NRA. According to Manuela Tobias of PolitiFact, the "ATF, a bureau within the executive branch, decided it could not regulate bump stocks during the Obama administration.... It’s important to note this was not a statement of [President] Obama’s preferred policy, which called for more regulation of guns, but was what the agency determined it had to do under the language of current law." Mrs. McC: Yeah, that would be "important." What Sessions did was overrule the ATF's analysis & Congress's "judgment." Trump & the NRA, of course, mean to leave the impression that President Obama was cool with bump stocks. As for me, I'm fine with Sessions' ruling, but I suppose the two companies that sell bump stocks in the U.S. could prevail in a lawsuit.
GOP Leaders Coax POTUS out of Trumpertantrum. Julie Davis & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill into law on Friday, avoiding a government shutdown that had suddenly become a possibility when the president vented angrily on Twitter about his frustration with the bipartisan legislation. The president abruptly backed down from his threat to veto the spending bill in a head-spinning four hours at the White House that left both political parties in Washington reeling and his own aides bewildered about Mr. Trump’s contradictory actions. Speaking at the White House, Mr. Trump said the spending bill was important for increasing military spending.... It was the latest instance of the president parting ways with his advisers in a sudden reversal that could have serious consequences.... The president’s apparent change of heart came as a surprise but hardly a shock to Republican leaders, who spent much of a snowy Wednesday privately imploring an agitated Mr. Trump to put aside his objections and back the measure, claiming it as a win." ...
... Elana Schor, et al., of Politico: "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Chief of Staff John Kelly were key in convincing Trump not to veto the legislation, according to a source.... Speaker Paul Ryan also put in a call to Trump from Wisconsin.... 'I will never sign another bill like this again,' he said, calling it a 'ridiculous situation.'... The president had been concerned by conservative outcry on Fox News about the limited amount provided for the border wall and interior enforcement and the way in which Amtrak funding was being framed as a victory for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).... 'I've had lunches and dinners with all the congressional leadership,' another White House official said. 'They just can't deal with him anymore. They're done.'... According to one legislative source, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and conservative lawmakers had been trying to persuade Trump to reject the spending deal."
... Ed Kilgore IDs "The Eight Zaniest Things about Trump's Omnibus Veto Threat:... 1) It directly contradicts a presidential tweet from Wednesday night in which Trump conveyed his grudging support for the bill.... 2) It directly contradicts Trump’s own personal assurances to Republican congressional leaders, and the White House’s public assurances to the whole world soon after.... 3) Trump himself caused the DACA problem that he’s now pitching a fit about Congress not fixing.... 4) Negotiations leading to the omnibus — including the immigration provisions and the lack thereof — have been going on for more than six months.... 5) Trump has moved the goalposts on immigration policy, making a deal all but impossible.... 6) Trump waited until Congress was heading out of town before his latest veto threat.... 7) Trump may have issued his veto threat because of a Fox and Friends segment.... 8) If Trump vetoes this bill, his biggest fan will be Bob Corker [who encouraged the veto]."
Peter Goodman of the New York Times: "As the United States accuses China of predatory trading practices while doling out unilateral punishment, the [World Trade Organization] tasked with preserving the peace appears marginalized. Diplomats and trade officials said the American action — if followed through — would flout W.T.O. rules, given that the United States would be imposing tariffs without first adjudicating its grievances. Chinese retaliation would similarly deviate from W.T.O. rules. The W.T.O. fancies itself a United Nations for global commerce, a place where its 164 member nations convene to hash out clear rules of engagement, seeking to defuse conflict. But as the United States and China, the two largest economies on earth, edge closer to a trade war, the organization established in 1995 to prevent such hostilities appears increasingly impotent.... Mr. Trump appeared to acknowledge on Thursday that he was circumventing the rules-based trading system, asserting that the W.T.O. 'has actually been a disaster for us.' 'It’s been very unfair to us,' he said.”
Michelle Kosinski of CNN: "... Donald Trump is expected to receive a recommendation from his National Security Council on Friday that he expel a yet-to-be-determined number of Russian diplomats from the US in response to the poisonings of a former spy and his daughter on UK soil, a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN. The decision to send that recommendation to the President comes after a high-level meeting at the White House on Wednesday during which the NSC drew up a range of options to take action against Russia, according to multiple State Department officials and a source familiar with the discussion." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course Wednesday was way back when H.R. McMaster chaired the NSC.
Rosalind Helderman & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "When a Russian news agency reached out to George Papadopoulos to request an interview shortly before the 2016 election, the young adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump made sure to seek approval from campaign headquarters. 'You should do it,' deputy communications director Bryan Lanza urged Papadopoulos in a September 2016 email, emphasizing the benefits of a U.S. 'partnership with Russia.' The exchange was a sign that Papadopoulos — who pushed the Trump operation to meet with Russian officials — had the campaign’s blessing for some of his foreign outreach. Emails described to The Washington Post ... show Papadopoulos had more extensive contact with key Trump campaign and presidential transition officials than has been publicly acknowledged. Among those who communicated with Papadopoulos were senior campaign figures such as strategist Stephen K. Bannon and adviser Michael Flynn, who corresponded with him about his efforts to broker ties between Trump and top foreign officials, the emails show.... In a tweet after Papadopoulos pleaded guilty, Trump wrote that 'few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar.'”
Andrew McCabe, in a Washington Post op-ed, described his eleventh-hour firing, which he learned of "third-hand, based on a news account." He devotes a graf to criticizing the "unhinged," "cruel" POTUS*. ...
... ** Al Franken comments on his Facebook page about Sessions' firing McCabe: "That the attorney general would fire the man who was tasked with investigating him raises serious questions about whether retaliation or retribution motivated his decision. It also raises serious questions about his supposed recusal from all matters stemming from the 2016 campaign. But the fact that Attorney General Sessions would claim that a 'lack of candor' justified Mr. McCabe’s termination is hypocrisy at its worst." Franken writes an excellent rundown of Sessions' known lies lack of candor about his ties to Russia.
Hannah Summers of the Guardian: "Eighteen enforcement officers have entered the Cambridge Analytica headquarters in London’s West End to search the premises after the data watchdog was granted a warrant to examine its records. Four days after the information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, first announced plans to raid the offices, a judge issued a warrant on Friday evening. Denham has been seeking access to records held by the London-based data analytics company which faces allegations it may have illegally acquired the information of millions of Facebook users and used it to profile and target voters during political campaigns." ...
... Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The political action committee founded by John R. Bolton, President Trump’s incoming national security adviser, was one of the earliest customers of Cambridge Analytica, which it hired specifically to develop psychological profiles of voters with data harvested from tens of millions of Facebook profiles, according to former Cambridge employees and company documents. Mr. Bolton’s political committee, known as The John Bolton Super PAC, first hired Cambridge in August 2014, months after the political data firm was founded and while it was still harvesting the Facebook data. In the two years that followed, Mr. Bolton’s super PAC spent nearly $1.2 million primarily for 'survey research,' which is a term that campaigns use for polling, according to campaign finance records.... The contract [between Bolton's group & Cambridge] broadly describes the services to be delivered by Cambridge as 'behavioral microtargeting with psychographic messaging.'” Whistleblower Christopher Wylie said Bolton's group told them they wanted to make "people more militaristic in their worldview.” ...
... New York Times Editors: "There are few people more likely than Mr. Bolton is to lead the country into war. His selection is a decision that is as alarming as any Mr. Trump has made so far. Coupled with his nomination of the hard-line C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, as secretary of state, Mr. Trump is indulging his worst nationalistic instincts. Mr. Bolton, in particular, believes the United States can do what it wants without regard to international law, treaties or the political commitments of previous administrations." ...
... Eric Levitz: Thursday "night was the darkest of the past 14 months. From day one, it was clear that America’s election of Donald Trump was an act of self-harm. But the president’s hiring of John Bolton has radically increased the risk that it will also prove to be one of mass murder on a world-historic scale. The top national security adviser to the most ignorant and impressionable president in modern memory is a man whose lust for war is so rabid, it makes Senate Republicans uncomfortable. Bolton wants to bomb Iran and North Korea, and he wants to do it yesterday. Just this month, the former U.N. ambassador told Fox News that Trump’s upcoming summit with Kim Jong-un was a positive development — because moving right to high-level talks would accelerate the inevitable failure of diplomacy, thereby clearing the way for war between the United States and a nuclear power." ...
... Republicans Don't Learn from Their Party's Classic Mistakes. Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg: "The most striking thing about how President Donald Trump chose his new national security adviser, John Bolton, and new director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, isn't about either of them personally, although neither is well suited to the honest-broker role that their position calls for.... What is striking is that both are essentially within the mainstream of the Republican Party on policy approaches that ended in disaster during the last Republican presidency."
Ellen Nakashima & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration on Friday announced sanctions and criminal indictments against an Iranian hacker network it said was involved in 'one of the largest state-sponsored hacking campaigns' ever prosecuted by the United States, targeting hundreds of U.S. and foreign universities, as well as dozens of U.S. companies and government agencies, and the United Nations. None of the alleged hackers were direct employees of the Iranian government, but all worked at the behest of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, officials said. While not the first such punishments imposed on Iran for malicious cyber acts, the new measures address more extensive Iranian efforts than previously alleged."
Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "... Donald Trump’s top White House lawyer, Don McGahn, is expected to step down later this year, though his resignation is contingent on the president finding a replacement and several other factors, according to four sources familiar with McGahn’s thinking. McGahn, according to two of the sources, has signaled interest in returning to the Jones Day law firm where he previously worked and reprising a role he had during the 2016 campaign by handling legal matters for Trump’s reelection.... Sources said Trump wants to have a new White House counsel in place who he’s comfortable with before clearing McGahn for the exits."
Why Mattis Still Has a Job. Eliana Johnson in Politico Magazine: "Last July, James Mattis and Rex Tillerson arranged a tutoring session at the Pentagon for ... Donald Trump in the secure, windowless meeting room known as 'The Tank.' The plan was to lay out why American troops are deployed in far-flung places across the globe, like Japan and South Korea. Mattis spoke first.... The secretary of defense walked the president through the complex fabric of trade deals, military agreements and international alliances that make up the global system the victors established after World War II, touching off what one attendee described as a 'food fight' and a 'free for all' with the president and the rest of the group. Trump punctuated the session by loudly telling his secretaries of state and defense, at several points during the meeting, 'I don’t agree!' The meeting culminated with Tillerson, his now ousted secretary of state, fatefully complaining after the president left the room, that Trump was 'a fucking moron.'... Mattis ... manages to disagree with the president without squandering his clout or getting under Trump’s skin.... White House aides say Trump is cowed and intimidated by Mattis, who peppers his comments with aphorisms and historical arcana gleaned from his extraordinary personal library.”
Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: Donald Trump has repeatedly denied news stories that turn out to be true.
All in the Family
Kate Bennett of CNN: "The day after a CNN interview with a former Playboy model who claims to have had a 10-month affair with her husband, first lady Melania Trump opted to leave ... Donald Trump alone for the ride from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base. The official White House schedule, released Thursday evening, stated the first couple would depart the White House together aboard Marine One en route to Joint Base Andrews, but Mrs. Trump did not appear beside her husband.... The President plans to remain for the weekend and the first lady is slated to stay for at least a week while the couple's son has a scheduled spring break vacation from school."
Lisa Ryan of New York: "Ivanka Trump often winds up trying to defend her dad ... in the press.... But according to a new report from Vanity Fair, Ivanka sometimes confronts her dad behind-the-scenes and ends up defending ... her husband, Jared Kushner, who apparently doesn’t feel supported by his father-in-law.... And so, for now, Kushner still has a job in the White House (even though his security clearance has recently been downgraded and the president is reportedly trying to undermine the Kushner and Ivanka behind closed doors, whoops). According to Vanity Fair, the president is keeping his son-in-law around because he 'fears letting him out of his sight — particularly if he gets indicted.'” Mrs. McC: The linked Vanity Fair piece, by Emily Fox, is long & I didn't care to read it.
Clayton Swisher & Ryan Grim of the Intercept: "Joshua Kushner, a venture capitalist and the younger brother of White House adviser Jared Kushner, met with Qatari Finance Minister Ali Sharif Al Emadi the same week as his father, Charles Kushner, did in April 2017, in an independent effort to discuss potential investments from the Qatari government. Both meetings took place at Al Emadi’s St. Regis Hotel suite in Manhattan.... The Qataris declined to invest, saying that the investment was not significant enough to warrant making, two sources familiar with the decision told The Intercept."
** "A Detailed Account." Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Sen. John McCain, whose experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam has established him as Congress’s moral conscience on torture, asked CIA director nominee Gina Haspel to detail her role in the agency’s enhanced interrogation program. Haspel’s tenure at the CIA, where she serves as deputy director, has been tied to its history of using enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, on terrorism suspects in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. At one point, Haspel was in charge of a 'black site' prison where such measures — often referred to as torture — were used. Haspel is also part of a group of CIA officials who were involved in the decision to destroy videotaped evidence of some of the interrogation sessions with detainees. In a letter to Haspel on Friday, McCain (R-Ariz.) asked for 'a detailed account' of her role overseeing the CIA’s interrogation programs between 2001 and 2009.... He also asked her to list the steps she did not take to prevent the CIA from using such measures — and for the names of those who asked her to destroy evidence related to the sessions."
Matthew Daly of Politico: "The chairman of the House Oversight Committee is seeking details from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke about a $139,000 project to upgrade doors in Zinke’s office. Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina asked Zinke to explain the need for the replacement doors and provide details about the project’s cost estimates, bids and final contract.... An Interior spokeswoman said Friday that Zinke has directed changes in the project’s scope to save money. The new estimate is about 50 percent lower than the initial amount, spokeswoman Heather Swift said."
The Alabama Way. Shawn Boburg & Dalton Bennett of the Washington Post: "Days after a woman accused U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual impropriety, two Moore supporters approached her attorney ... Eddie Sexton to drop the woman as a client and say publicly that he did not believe her. The damaging statement would be given to Breitbart News, then run by former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon. In exchange, Sexton said in recent interviews, the men offered to pay him $10,000 and promised to introduce him to Bannon and others in the nation’s capital. Parts of Sexton’s account are supported by recorded phone conversations, text messages and people in whom he confided at the time."
Daniel Camacho in the Guardian: "If a Muslim man planted bombs in predominately white neighborhoods before blowing himself up, you could bet that the White House and various media outlets would label him a terrorist and draw some connection between his religion and his violent acts. But the case of the Austin bomber reveals an enduring double standard: white Christian terrorists continue to get a free pass. According to a Buzzfeed report, 23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt – the one responsible for the recent bombings in Austin – was part of conservative survivalist circles. An acquaintance of Conditt confirmed he was involved in a group called Righteous Invasion of Truth, 'a Bible study and outdoors group for homeschooled kids, created and named by the kids and their families that included monthly activities such as archery, gun skills and water balloon fights.'... Because he is white, his acts are reduced to a personal problem even though white American men have consistently posed a bigger domestic terrorist threat than Muslim foreigners who get treated as systemic threat.”
Beyond the Beltway
The Littlest Dictator. Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Republican legislative leaders in Wisconsin called lawmakers back to the Capitol Friday afternoon to change state law governing special elections. The move comes a day after a court ruled that Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, must hold a pair of special elections, which Walker has sought to avoid. Democrats called the plan to change the law an 'attack on democracy.'”
News Ledes
New York Times: Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, "a French police officer who was badly wounded on Friday after taking the place of a gunman’s hostage has died from his injuries, Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said on Saturday.... The death of Colonel Beltrame, 44, brought the toll from Friday’s outburst of violence to five, including the gunman, who the authorities said had hijacked a car, shot at police officers and taken hostages in a supermarket in southwestern France." (See also yesterday's News Ledes.)
New York Times: "Zell Miller, a cantankerously independent politician from the mountains of northern Georgia who disdained backslapping and baby-kissing as he snarled at journalists and battled fellow Democrats in his four years as a United States senator, died on Friday morning at his home in Young Harris, Ga. He was 86." ...
... Zell's Greatest Hit. At the 2004 Republican convention:
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Reader Comments (14)
I feel so assured that Ivanka is in the White House standing up to her dad and fighting for....Jared Kushner.
And great to hear Deflection Don has entrusted Jared with world peace among other initiatives because he is so confident Jared....won't rat him out if he keeps his access to the White House.
So soothingly to know Mattis is still in place because he has an intimate knowledge of how....to not have it leak that he thinks the Pres. is an unstable manchild.
So satisfying to know the Congressional leadership can't handle the President's constant clusterfucking and they're ready to....do aid and abet him more.
All #MAGA all the time. Trump still enjoys upper-80% approval rating by Confederates across the nation. Liberal eye-poking is literally the only thing that matters in their small I.Q. lizard brains.
I see the Confederates in Congress are “done with” the president* and Donaldo “will never sign another bill like this again!”
Such liars.
Winger invertebrates in the House and Senate will never be “done with” the dictator Trump as long as he commands the blind, ignorant loyalty of the mouth breathers. They are scared shitless of being marked unclean by the Trumpbots. As for Prez Moron, he will sign whatever Fox tells him to sign. Since he never read the thing himself, he left it up to idiots at Fox to tell him what to think about it. If they told him to sign his own commitment papers he’d do it, because he’s afraid of what they might say about him.
So we have a government of cowards led around by ignorant jerks who themselves are afraid of women, minorities, immigrants, and kids demanding protection from the NRA.
This is life in right wing world: liars, cowards, morons, and peddlers of death all making America great again.
Jeet Heer spells out the three major foreign policy wings:
Prudential realists; neoconservatives; radical nationalists.
https://newrepublic.com/article/147640/scarier-neoconserative-john-bolton-radical-nationalist
"The fact that Bolton is a radical nationalist rather than a neoconservative puts him in close alignment with his new boss...who has NO [emphasis mine] deep foreign policy knowledge, but his instincts are hyper-nationalistic."
Ever since Trump began flouting his flimsy Dick Stick at Iran and N.K. my husband would say under his breath, "We are going to war." Oh, surely not, I'd say––-that would never happen. Congress would have to give the green light and they wouldn't be that bellicose –-that stupid! My husband gives me that look––the one that says, "Are you fucking kidding me?"
A word about how Melania is dealing with the women who are coming out (on T.V.) with their stories of sexual romps or/and sexual harassment with her husband. Haven't heard a word about this. We have said here on R.C. that yes, she made a bargain with the devil but, holy cow, how about some sense of pride? This has got to affect her deeply, shouldn't it? And something that roils me no end: All the chatter about this from the T.V. pundits rarely mention the absolute disregard and disrespect of a man involved in two sexual liaisons while his wife is pregnant and then right after she gives birth. Yes, of course the money issue in these cases is key, but how about character––far more important but then we are in new territory where that has been given short shrift and his base doesn't give a shit. (But aren't they Christian. she asks?)
When you can't change reality, you can always change the discourse.
When you can't change reality, you can always change the discourse.
"As for me, I'm fine with Sessions' ruling..."
Yes, I suppose as for its intent, but I don't think we should countenance it. And we shouldn't countenance the ruling for the same reason Obama felt he had to allow the sale of bump stocks: the law doesn't give the executive the authority to ban them.
We have to hold Trump's feet to the fire when he does things outside the law which harm our society. We also need to hold his feet to the fire when, on rare occasions, he does things outside the law that may be beneficial.
@Schlub: You're right. What I hope happens is that Sessions' ruling inspires some lawsuits, & as the suits snailslide thru the courts, TrumpSessions begs Congress to properly ban bumpstocks (& maybe magazines of a certain size, and whatever other limp concessions the yahoos are willing to make. In the meantime, no bumpstocks.
Of course, I suppose the plaintiffs might be able to get an injunction against Sessions' ban, in which case it wouldn't matter much. AND, since his bumpstock ban was meant to impress the kids on the Mall today, Sessions might not have much enthusiasm for defending his ban.
Purism would have me agree with Shlub for the reason he gives and for two more. This extra-legal maneuver, if successful, implies the Obama administration could have done something about guns and for their own dark reasons did not....and it also provides more cover for a cowering Congress, whose own feet ought to be held to the fire over their unwillingness to do anything about our national gun addiction...and all those other things they're afraid to do.
Speaking of guns, my wife and I will be marching with the students in our local town around noon today. My sense that that the rain and lowering skies will not much diminish the enthusiasm. I'm expecting hundreds of students, children and adults. We'll see.
Yesterday, had an opportunity to participate in another local action. Seems Mr. Zinke was making an unpublicized visit to the North Cascades National Park Headquarters in Sedro Woolley, WA, and some who got wind of it thought it would be nice to greet him with bodies and signs letting him know he and his policies were not universally loved and admired. Sixty to eighty of the faithful showed up on short notice, stood for a couple of hours in the cold, chatting, saying hello to old friends and making new acquaintances, while Mr. Zinke entered, made his announcement about grizzly bear restoration, a contentious issue here in the hinterlands, and left by the back door.
I had gotten there early and and though it was a Friday during regular business hours, when I arrived the headquarters was already closed down. Uniformed guards securing the building and visitor parking area were already posted. They were friendly enough but it was clear Mr. Zinke had no intention of mixing with the hoi polloi or discussing his park polices with anyone out of his closed circle of zealots.
But I'm sure he knew we were there. Park personnel, some of whom I talked with, certainly did, and though they could say nothing I sensed they appreciated our presence. They have to feel embattled, too.
A few month back, my wife had 100 or so "Proud Owners of America's Public Lands" bumper stickers printed up, and I saw a few at the rally sported by people I didn't know, and I just learned we've been asked to have more printed. Will do. All in all, a very pleasing day.
I'm sure today's march will be equally rewarding.
As much as I enjoy turning out cranky letters to the editor, there's something very satisfying about the physical act of getting out and doing.
Trump is hiding in Florida
Congressional Repubs are hiding everywhere
The NRA will have nothing say
So who speaks for America- High School kids? This is a big event not just because it is a true reflection of democracy. I am pretty sure that all of those cowards in hiding do know one thing. In 1-4 years all of these 'kids' will be able to vote. And thanks to the cowards in hiding, we are producing a young but serious generation of real Americans.
Hope that March For Our Lives draws a bigger crowd than the liar's inauguration! Not that he'd concede.
Yeah! What Marvin said.
Still, look for the Party of Traitors to unleash a barrage of impediments to new voters trying to register in the next three years. We can’t have all these brats voting against the Glorious Leader and his party of cowards and liars! What would Wayne-O say?
@Ken Winkes: Thank you to you & your wife for your activism. Keep up the good works.
MAG,
Look for little Donnie, the NRA shoeshine boy, to complain loudly, via one of his tweetie bird chirps, that no crowd in the history of the world could compare with the 15 or 20 people who straggled in to watch his half-assed coronation.
Still and all, it’s great that the turnout was so stupendous, even though Trumpy and his fellow traitors all raced out of town as fast as their little chicken legs could carry them, so as not to have to see what an actual democratic event looks like, or to hear what Americans have to say, Americans who don’t take their cues from the gun lobby.
I belong to a small political resistance group of friends and neighbors who have been meeting every Saturday since January 21, 2017. (Our first meeting was held as part of the Women's March that Saturday.) Today, we attended the March for Our Lives at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School (my alma mater, as it happens) where over 4,000 people -- of all ages -- showed up. It being Ann Arbor, there were dogs galore, who all looked like they couldn't wait for the actual march. Similar marches were held in 28 Michigan cities.
From the report at MLive.com:
"In Ann Arbor, people started gathering in a parking lot at Pioneer High School, 601 W. Stadium Blvd., before 11 a.m. for a rally to hear from students, a teacher, a pediatrician, a social worker, gun violence survivors and state Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn." (Our group is in agreement: we love Debbie Dingell. She's one of those who walk the talk.)
Unfortunately, we had to peel off just as the march began, because it was time for our weekly meeting, where we discussed the rally and other issues of importance. We have an exciting election coming up in Michigan in November, with gerrymandering on the ballot, as well as a gubernatorial race, in which there are two outstanding progressive candidates running in the August Democratic primary. Three of us were at an organizational meeting last night for one of them, but either one would be an outstanding candidate in November.
It's almost enough to give one hope.
@Rose. And thank you to you, too, Rose.
In our rural county about 350-400 marched from Mt. Vernon, WA, high school to the courthouse in the center of of the city and assembled at its entry. The crowd spilled into the street, which the local police had kindly blocked off.
Made me think of "time for some traffic problems" Chris Christie (remember him?). This was the right kind of traffic problem, caused not by arrogant oligarchs arbitrarily exercising their power, but by the people taking to the streets.
There'll be more of it in Pretender Land.