;)
The Commentariat -- September 5, 2017
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
... because it made no sense to expel talented, driven, patriotic young people from the only country they know solely because of the actions of their parents, my administration acted to lift the shadow of deportation from these young people, so that they could continue to contribute to our communities and our country. We did so based on the well-established legal principle of prosecutorial discretion, deployed by Democratic and Republican presidents alike.... Some 800,000 young people stepped forward, met rigorous requirements, and went through background checks. And America grew stronger as a result. But today, that shadow has been cast over some of our best and brightest young people once again. To target these young people is wrong.... It is self-defeating.... And it is cruel.... Let's be clear: the action taken today isn't required legally. It's a political decision, and a moral question. -- President Obama, in a statement, today. Thanks to Marvin S. for the link.
I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents. But we must also recognize that we are nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws. -- Donald Trump -- who recently pardoned Joe Arpaio for continuously breaking the law & violating a federal judge's order -- in a written statement released late this morning ...
Michael Shear & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday ordered an end to the Obama-era executive action that shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation and called on Congress to replace the policy with legislation before it fully expires on March 5, 2018. The government will no longer accept new applications from undocumented immigrants to shield them from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, administration officials announced Tuesday. But officials said about 800,000 current beneficiaries of the program will not be immediately affected by what they called an 'orderly wind down' of former President Barack Obama's policy. President Trump signaled the move early Tuesday morning in a tweet, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions formally announced the move to shift the responsibility for the immigration issue to lawmakers.... Mr. Sessions called the Obama-era policy an 'open-ended circumvention of immigration laws' and an unconstitutional use of executive authority. 'The executive branch through DACA deliberately sought to achieve what the legislative branch specifically refused to authorize on multiple occasions,' he said." ...
... Mark Stern of Slate: "At the heart of [Jeff Sessions'] speech were two lies, straight from Breitbart, explaining why DACA must end: 'The effect of this unilateral executive amnesty, among other things, contributed to a surge of unaccompanied minors on the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian consequences. It also denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same jobs to go to illegal aliens.'... A study published in International Migration, a peer-reviewed academic journal, found that the surge in unaccompanied minors actually began in 2008. (DACA was announced in 2012.)... Its authors concluded that 'the claim that DACA is responsible for the increase in the flow of unaccompanied alien children is not supported by the data.'... There is no actual evidence that DACA recipients have taken jobs from any Americans, let alone 'hundreds of thousands.' There is, however, strong evidence that killing DACA will significantly damage the economy -- a fact that Sessions conveniently omitted from his speech.... after Sessions' speech, it is difficult to view this move as anything other than an attempt to implement the white nationalism that Trump and Sessions campaigned on." ...
... The Word from the Weasel. Esme Cribb of TPM: "House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Tuesday said ... Donald Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program 'fulfills a promise.' 'Ending this program fulfills a promise that President Trump made to restore the proper role of the executive and legislative branches,' Ryan said in a statement.... 'The President has called on Congress to act,' he said. 'It is my hope that the House and Senate, with the President's leadership, will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country.'" ...
... Ben Smith of BuzzFeed: "President Trump, cornered, weakened, and apparently unable to get his hands on the usual levers of presidential powers, has adopted pretty much the worst possible strategy for someone trying to wield the power of the most powerful job in the world: He's shooting the hostages.... His remaining political leverage has come largely from the policies left to him as hostages by President Barack Obama: the Paris climate accord, the Iran nuclear deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and, most of all, DACA and the nearly 800,000 sympathetic young Americans it allows to live normal, and sometimes extraordinary, lives.... The administration's allies, who have sued to force a choice on whether or not to defend DACA ... have left him with the fairly ludicrous option of suggesting that he, Donald Trump, is simply too wedded to constitutional tradition to allow an executive order to reach into Congress's role of setting immigration policy." ...
... Cristian Farias of New York: "Without much of a moral compass to guide him, the president instead ducked responsibility for the needless suffering he'd be causing Dreamers by deferring to Congress, which since 2001 has tried and failed to pass legislation to shield these young immigrants -- who never had the intent to violate the law -- from a legal regime that otherwise treats them as deportable aliens that don't belong here. Does anyone really believe that Trump, whose rode into office by attempting to appease a nationalist base, will sign a codified version of DACA that would give more than 800,000 undocumented immigrants a chance of joining the polity? More cowardly still, he deputized the historically anti-immigrant [Jeff] Sessions to deliver the blow on DACA, which was couched in legalese and a veneer of compassion, and features a six-month 'wind-down. period.... Let's dispense with the meme that Trump was ever torn over DACA's future because he wanted to treat his beneficiaries 'with heart.' Or that his is a law-and-order presidency that believed DACA couldn't survive because it was contrary to the rule of law."
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Hillary Clinton slams Bernie Sanders in her new book. Mrs. McC: Whenever it accidentally occurs to me to say something nice about somebody, I close my eyes & summon my inner Hillary, and the moment of grace passes.
*****
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Say you just woke up from a year-long coma. After greeting your happy, teary-eyed family, the next thing you would do -- naturally -- is pick up the laptop Uncle Fred brought you & peruse today's Commentariat. After a moment of extreme cognitive dissonance at the very idea that Donald Trump is now President Trump, you would conclude, "This guy is the worst president in U.S. history." But then that would have been true if you came to almost any day since January 20.
Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "For seven decades, the United States and South Korea have been the closest of allies.... Now, as North Korea carries out a series of provocative missile and nuclear bomb tests, that alliance is straining at a time when both nations may need it more than ever. President Trump issued a blast of antagonistic comments in the last few days that have made South Koreans doubt that they can take the alliance for granted any longer.... [South Korea's president] Moon [Jae-in] has supported Mr. Trump's push for tougher sanctions against North Korea, and in a call on Monday, their first since the nuclear test on Sunday, the two leaders agreed to lift the weight limit on South Korean conventional warheads..., a spokesman for Mr. Moon, said. Removing the 500-kilogram restriction, part of a treaty with the United States aimed at preventing a regional arms race, could give the South greater power to strike the North in the event of military conflict." ...
... Anna Fifield of the Washington Post: "'Opinion polls show South Koreans have one of the lowest rates of regard for Trump in the world and they don't consider him to be a reasonable person...,' David Straub, a former State Department official.... 'In fact, they worry he's kind of nuts, but they still want the alliance.'" ...
... Jonah Shepp of New York: "The Trump doctrine, in a nutshell, is that the United States is by leaps and bounds the most powerful country in the world, and by all rights should be taking greater advantage of that power. Any agreement we make, with friend or foe, should favor us absolutely.... Trump's solutions to foreign policy problems are entirely coercive, based mainly on economic threats.... Nowhere is this doctrine working out particularly well for the Trump administration, but nowhere is it faring worse than in North Korea.... If Pyongyang really can launch a nuclear warhead at the U.S..., the U.S. will need to work extra hard to convince South Korea and Japan that we have their backs and so there is no need for them to pursue their own weapons programs and start a regional nuclear arms race. Instead, Trump -- blindly following the logic of his doctrine -- is threatening to withdraw from our free trade agreement with South Korea (which, like all things that contribute to U.S. trade deficits, he considers a bad deal). Even to speak of such a bewildering move in the midst of perhaps the most serious crisis of nuclear diplomacy since 1962 is a crime against common sense, but it is abundantly clear by now that threats are the only diplomatic moves Trump knows how to make.... Trump's approach to China is suffering from similar issues. His latest threat to halt all trade with China if it doesn't cut off North Korea's economic lifeline is transparently unconvincing...." ...
... Jeremy Herb & Joshua Berlinger of CNN: "US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was 'begging for war' as she urged the UN Security Council to adopt the strongest sanctions measures possible to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program. Speaking at a Security Council emergency meeting, Haley said North Korea's sixth nuclear test was a clear sign that' "the time for half measures' from the UN had to end."
Big- of the Hill: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions is slated to hold a news briefing Tuesday morning on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Justice Department announced the briefing late Monday amid mounting pressure over President Trump's decision on whether to end the Obama-era program. The department didn't provide any more information about the announcement." Mrs. McC: Today we're going to find out how unconstitutional DACA is. Don Donaldo seems to think we'll buy his chicken-shit alibi if his consigliere is caught on tape clipping the kids. Never has there been such a cowardly U.S. president. Chicken-Hearted Don Assigns Hit Job to "The Elf." Jesse Byrnes
... Update: Contributor Diane suggests Sessions wear the appropriate attire for the occasion, as pictured above right.
... Jill Colvin of the AP: "A plan ... Donald Trump is expected to announce to remove a shield from deportation for young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children is being embraced by some top Republicans and denounced by others as the beginning of a 'civil war' within the party. The response was an immediate illustration of the potential battles ahead if Trump follows through with a plan that would hand a political hot potato to Republicans on the Hill who have a long history of dropping it.... [Trump's] approach -- essentially kicking the can down the road and letting Congress deal with it -- is fraught with uncertainty and political perils that amount, according to one vocal opponent, to 'Republican suicide.'" ...
... NEW. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "By their fruits you will know them. At the Republican National Convention last summer, Donald Trump said he'd 'do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens.' Then he rescinded protections for trans students in public schools and issued orders to bar transgender people from the armed forces. Trump pronounced the House's health-care bill 'mean,' but that did not stop him from whipping votes for the measure and holding a rally in the Rose Garden to celebrate its passage. At a February news conference, Trump was asked about fears in the Hispanic community that he might get rid of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. 'We're going to show great heart,' the president promised.... Today the Trump administration is expected to announce plans to end the DACA program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 undocumented people who were brought to the United States as minors to live and work in the country without fear of deportation.... Trump has often talked about the need to be compassionate on social issues, but his rhetoric hasn't matched reality as he has repeatedly acceded to the wishes of his dwindling base since taking office." ...
... Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Monday threatened to sue the Trump administration if ... Donald Trump rolls back the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.... 'President Trump's decision to end the DACA program would be cruel, gratuitous, and devastating to tens of thousands of New Yorkers -- and I will sue to protect them,' Schneiderman said in a statement.... New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) also issued a statement supporting Schneiderman's lawsuit threat over DACA." ...
... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Urgency on Capitol Hill has mounted amid reports that Trump will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 people to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation. Trump, who is scheduled to announce his decision Tuesday, is leaning toward terminating the program but delaying enforcement for six months to give lawmakers time to find a solution, according to people briefed on the White House's deliberations.... Attorney General Jeff Sessions ... has suggested that the Justice Department would not be able to defend the program's constitutionality in court and has lobbied Trump to end it. Other top advisers, including Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, have pushed him to maintain the program until lawmakers act. Yet the odds that a sharply polarized Congress could strike a deal -- steep in the best of times -- are considered especially difficult at a time when lawmakers face a busy fall agenda." ...
... From the Left. Paul Waldman: "As we awaited Trump's decision, we were told in one news report after another that the [DACA] dilemma was just tearing him up inside, because he had such sympathy for the young people known as 'dreamers.'... The only appropriate response is: Give me a break. There is precisely zero evidence that Trump feels anything for dreamers. More importantly, none of us should give a damn what's in his heart. What matters is what he does. And no president in our lifetime has encouraged, promoted, celebrated and exploited bigotry and hatred -- particularly against immigrants -- to the degree Donald Trump has. That's who he is....' ...
... From the Right. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Some in the media take seriously the notion that [Trump] is 'conflicted' or 'wrestling' with the decision, as though Trump were engaged in a great moral debate. That would be a first for Trump, who counts only winners and losers, never bothering with moral principles or democratic norms.... Let's not think Trump -- who invites cops to abuse suspects, who thinks ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio was 'doing his job' when denying others their constitutional rights and who issued the Muslim ban -- cares about the Constitution (any of the 'twelve' articles). Trump says, 'We love the dreamers.... We think the dreamers are terrific.' But in fact he loves the applause he derives from his cultist followers more than anything. Otherwise he'd go to the mat to defend the dreamers and secure their legal status.... No, if Trump cancels DACA, it will be one more attempt to endear himself to his shrinking base with the only thing that truly energizes the dead-enders: vengeance fueled by white grievance.... The party of Lincoln has become the party of Charlottesville, Arpaio, DACA repeal and the Muslim ban. Embodying the very worst sentiments and driven by irrational anger, it deserves not defense but extinction." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Now let us turn from tales of Trump's screwing innocent young people ... to tales of Trump's administration's screwing innocent sick people. And us innocent taxpayers, too:
... Audrey Carlsen & Haeyoun Park of the New York Times: "But the Department of Health and Human Services -- an agency with a legal responsibility to administer the [Affordable Care Act] -- has used taxpayer dollars to oppose it. Legal experts say that while it is common for a new administration to reinterpret an existing law, it is unusual to take steps to undermine it. Here are three ways the health department has campaigned against Obamacare. 1.... Instead of using its outreach budget to promote the Affordable Care Act, the department made videos critical of the law.... 2.... In addition to the YouTube videos, the department has used Twitter and news releases to try to discredit the health law. Since being sworn in as health secretary on February 10, Tom Price has posted on Twitter 48 infographics advocating against Obamacare, all of which bear the health department's logo.... 3.... The department removed useful guidance for consumers about the Affordable Care Act from its website." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Insurance companies are rolling dough, so they can afford to sue TrumPrice & HHS. They should. They wouldn't have a case if all TrumPrice did was reduce spending on ObamaCare outreach programs. But they do have a case, I think, against the administration when it is misusing money designated by law to promote ObamaCare. Meanwhile, HHS's inspector general -- if s/he isn't a slimy Trump stooge -- should fault Price for dereliction of duty & embezzlement of government funds.
** Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Environmental Protection Agency has taken the unusual step of putting a political operative in charge of vetting the hundreds of millions of dollars in grants the EPA distributes annually, assigning final funding decisions to a former Trump campaign aide with little environmental policy experience. In this role, John Konkus reviews every award the agency gives out, along with every grant solicitation before it is issued. According to both career and political employees, Konkus has told staff that he is on the lookout for 'the double C-word' -- climate change -- and repeatedly has instructed grant officers to eliminate references to the subject in solicitations. Konkus, who officially works in the EPA's public affairs office, has canceled close to $2 million competitively awarded to universities and nonprofit organizations. Although his review has primarily affected Obama administration priorities, it is the heavily Republican state of Alaska that has undergone the most scrutiny so far.... Earlier this summer, on the same day that Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined with two other Republicans in voting down a GOP health-care bill, EPA staffers were instructed without any explanation to halt all grants to the regional office that covers Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Idaho. That hold was quickly narrowed just to Alaska and remained in place for nearly two weeks.... several officials from the Obama and George W. Bush administrations said they had never heard of a public affairs officer scrutinizing EPA's solicitations and its grants, which account for half of the agency's roughly $8 billion budget."
Ken Klippenstein of the Daily Beast: "During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump attacked Hillary Clinton for accepting money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, complaining during one of the debates, 'These are people that kill women and treat women horribly and yet you take their money.' That was, of course, before he made his first foreign visit as president to Saudi Arabia and accepted dozens of gifts from the kingdom. In fact, during Trump's visit, the White House accepted at least 83 separate gifts from Saudi Arabia, according to a document The Daily Beast has obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request to the State Department. The gifts range from the regal ('Artwork featuring picture of President Trump') to the martial (multiple swords, daggers, leather ammo holders and holsters), to the baroque (tiger and cheetah fur robes, and a dagger made of pure silver with a mother of pearl sheath). Amusing as the gifts may be, they are emblematic of a more serious issue: Trump's embrace of the Saudi regime, a stark reversal from his campaign rhetoric.... Trump's decision to make his first foreign visit to Saudi Arabia was a singular one, breaking with a long-standing presidential tradition of first visiting Mexico or Canada.... No less noteworthy than the visit itself was the administration's conduct during it. During the visit, the Trump administration announced a $110 billion arms deal with the Saudis, totaling $350 billion over 10 years." Klippenstein provides a complete list of the Saudis' gifts to President Bling.
Mallory Shelbourne of the Hill: "The House on Wednesday will vote on supplemental appropriations for Hurricane Harvey disaster relief, according to a senior House leadership aide. The news comes one day after House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the House Appropriations Committee introduced a new bill to match President Trump's first request for relief funding for Hurricane Harvey."
Austin Wright & Ali Watkins of Politico: "The congressional Russia investigations are entering a new and more serious phase as lawmakers return from the August recess amid fresh revelations about contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. In the coming weeks, both intelligence committees are expected to conduct closed-door interviews with high-ranking members of the Trump campaign, and potential witnesses could include Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort and Donald Trump Jr."
Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "For the first time in 36 years, a sitting United States Senator [Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)] is facing a federal bribery trial, one that comes as a bitterly divided Congress reconvenes amid the unrelenting turbulence of the Trump administration. Since his indictment more than two years ago, Mr. Menendez has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence, and last week, he reiterated that.... Mr. Menendez is charged with 12 corruption-related counts, including six counts of bribery and three counts of honest services fraud.... Opening statements are scheduled for Wednesday, but legal sparring began picking up last week, as Mr. Menendez's team took exception to a pretrial brief from prosecutors...."
Beyond the Beltway
Fred Barbash & Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "The University of Utah Hospital, where a nurse was manhandled and arrested by police as she protected the legal rights of a patient, has imposed new restrictions on law enforcement, including barring officers from patient-care areas and from direct contact with nurses. Gordon Crabtree, interim chief executive of the hospital, said at a Monday news conference that he was 'deeply troubled' by the arrest and manhandling of burn unit nurse Alex Wubbels on July 26.... 'This will not happen again,' Crabtree said, praising Wubbels for 'putting her own safety at risk' to 'protect the rights of patients.'"
News Lede
Washington Post: "Hurricane Irma strengthened overnight to a dangerous Category 5 as it barrels toward the Greater Antilles and Southern Florida. It's likely that Hurricane Irma will affect the U.S. coast -- potentially making a direct landfall -- this weekend. Tuesday morning, NOAA Hurricane Hunters found the storm's maximum wind speeds are 175 mph. It now ranks among the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. Forecasts suggest it will reach southern Florida and the Gulf of Mexico this weekend."
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Reader Comments (28)
If we survive long enough to find out, it will be interesting to see how a Pretender who governs only to please the needs of his own ego and the desires of his base, no more than the third of the nation that stokes that fragile ego by seeing him as admirable or even tolerable, can possibly survive for four years in office.
Then we may even learn if that overused word "resiliency" applies to what remains of our democracy.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1650053601692526&set=a.100930073271561.2136.100000637053711&type=3&theater A prime source of inequality, outsourcing, illustrated by 2 janitorial staff. Yesteryear, a Kodak janitor whose job was step one on ladder to the top in business. Today a janitor who works in a dead-end job cleaning Apple for a sub-contractor for minimum wage.
A comment on Krugman's Houston-SF comparo. I'd like to throw in Vancouver in comparison to San Francisco. Vancouver, for many years now in the top5 of the Economists "most liveable cities in the world"(#3 this year) versus San Francisco not in the top 10. Vancouver has the ocean to the west, Mountains to the north and east and most flatland denied to developers by legislation to preserve agricultural lands. The average house price is $1.25 million US compared to San Francisco's $1.5 million. It recognizes a housing problem and tries to encourage low cost development. Certainly it has it's share of apartment/condo hi-rises. Apartment rentals are 1/3 the price of those in SF. A 2 bedroom in a hi-rise for $2,400us/mo. Still not affordable but they're trying.
Trump's vacillation on DAKA seems to me to be a ploy. It smacks of "I'm holding the keys here and you're not," just another bluster and bombastic show of who's boss.
A farewell to John Ashberry, a poet extraordinaire:
…and yet another day has consumed itself,
brisk with passion and grief, crisp as an illustration
in a magazine from the thirties, when we and this light
were all that mattered.
When Sessions suits up this morning for the DACA announcement, will it be formal attire? The confederate uniform for such a gleeful occasion.
A Day at the Beach with the Little King
The Age of Trump has visited many exotic developments upon the body politic, rather like a hitherto unknown toxic substance precipitating painful sores and suppurating wounds. Marie's scenario of a previously comatose person recovering sensibility only to discover, to their horror, that a small child with the attention span of a gnat, the heart of a tin-man, and an ego, the size of which is in direct inverse proportion to his abilities and accomplishments, has been handed the reins of power, is apt in too many ways.
But it's not just the gathering horrors of the Trumpicon that likely make the newly awakened citizen wish to be recomatized, STAT, it's the ideology that allowed him to come to power in the first place that piles misery upon misery. Unless you're one of the select few.
This morning, several reports brought this to mind. The gist of these stories can be easily outlined in simple tenets that underlie almost everything coming out of Right Wing World for decades, but which have developed even more of a warping ability under the Little King. First, Money Over People. Second, Hatred and Fear. One can trace the development of almost every fundamental ideological principle, and thus policy choices of the Right, to these two precepts. To wit:
Appointing David Zatezalo to head the government effort ensuring that mines are safe to work in is all of a piece with almost all of Trump's other appointees, like the guy he wanted to run Labor who had been sued for illegal labor practices, or the guy who now runs the EPA who lives to destroy it, or the guy running Energy who is not only an anti-science ignoramus, but someone who once declared that he wanted to abolish the department. It's like putting criminals in charge of the FBI (and that may come to pass as well). The Little King claims to "love my miners" but making sure their lives could be more easily ended is, well, a different kind of love. Call it Trump Love.
Trump Love is also evident in the ending of the DACA program. He has a big, hairy sad about it, but never mind. He's promised the mouth breathers, the bigots, and the haters that he'd get rid of those brown kids, the little moochers. We won't mention the cost of doing so. We don't need kids who grow up to get a good education, go to work, pay taxes, become good citizens. Hey, it's only money. Also, the cost of booting transgendered military personnel. Hatred and bigotry enshrined into law.
I heard another report this morning about one of the many, many expensive fallouts of Hurricane Harvey, a disaster made far worse by Right Wing intransigence on climate science as well as the "business friendly" policies passed in order to support the Money Over People mandate. Development in Houston went on without the "unnecessary" and "too costly" recommendations made over the last 20 years to help deflect the human and economic savagery imposed by super storms. So, short term gain for the shareholders and investors, and when the bill arrives from the disaster recovery, send it to the taxpayers. Simple, right? And so cheap, too!
And here's another bill we'll all be paying so that Money Over People can keep on keepin' on as a guiding principle of Right Wing World: "In the aftermath of Harvey, more than half of U.S. ethylene production is now offline. Ethylene is key to the things that surround you — everything from what you're wearing to household cleaners." This because the many chemical plants in that part of Texas have been operating with next to no safety or disaster plans. But hey, what's a 30% increase in consumer goods? People better pay up because those shareholders need their money, and they're the only ones who really count.
Which brings us to another storyline I came across this morning. In London, after a major flood back in the 50's, people there decided to do something about it. They built enormous flood gates to prevent the Thames from overflowing, a too regular historical event that became prohibitively expensive. Yes, the gates were expensive as well, but not nearly as costly as post-flood clean up and recovery. The Netherlands has created a similar flood control system. But here? Fuck that. Why? Because after every disaster, we pass that cost on to the taxpayer. Because prevention is a dirty word. Also, it would force the climate change deniers to admit that there was a reason this shit keeps happening and that ain't ever gonna play in Oklahoma. Or the current White House.
Oh, there are many more tales of horror and it's only gonna get worse. And when you wonder how it is that an ignorant bully could do so much damage so quickly, remember, it's not very much different from a day at the beach.
How often have you been at the beach and seen the work of some creative and careful builders who craft wonders out of sand and a little water? A castle, a mermaid, a mountain with roads and bridges, a whale, or some amazing flight of fancy, only to have it all destroyed in a flash by some spoiled, bratty, snot-nosed little kid, jealous that someone else can do something he can't. The solution? Kick it over. It takes only a tiny fraction of the time it took to build those wonders. And snot-nose can stomp off satisfied that he showed those guys who's boss!
And that's life with the Little King. A day at the beach. Except with hurricanes, typhoons, sharks, shrapnel, shit all over the sand, and no sun. Trump Love. Can't you feel it? That coma's looking pretty good right about now.
I was on St. Croix after hurricane Hugo years ago. It was surreal: there were no leaves on the trees - aside from all the destruction.
Maximum strength of Hugo: 160 mph; Irma now: 150mph, and it is strengthening.
Minimum eye pressure of Hugo: 919 mb; Irma now: 929 mb.
Irma is heading directly for STX again. People are preparing, but there are no defenses against something like this.
While not forgetting that FL needs attention, I hope FEMA remembers that the USVI and PR are US territories.
Diane,
I'm thinking the Little King would love to have the Little Colonel suit up in his best dress grays with his battle sword strapped to his side (he'll have to sit on a horse so it doesn't drag on the ground), and line up all those brown moochers and march them back, Trail of Tears style, to wherever they came from. Old Hickory would be so proud!
The South will raze again.
That boo-hooing sound you hear from some Confederate phonies in congress about the demise of DACA is all bullshit designed to try to insulate them from the coming fallout against their party's institutional hatred and bigotry.
Had there been the tiniest sliver of support from Confederates during the Obama administration, DACA would perhaps never have required an executive order to come into existence. And Republicans now claiming that it's all Obama's fault (Christ, what isn't?) that he chose the EO route, arrogantly bypassing any attempts at bipartisan consensus, are opportunistic lying bastards.
What else is new? They can't help it. It's in their DNA.
Obama, contrary to the wingnut echo chamber's current spin, spent far too much energy trying against all odds to get bipartisan consent for his agenda. Somehow, these crocodile tear babies forget that their party's "brain trust" (such as it is) decided, before the inauguration balls were over, to do whatever they could to destroy any and all Obama initiatives.
If he decided, at long last, that he had to do things on his own, it's not for lack of trying.
Crying and moaning now, trying to pretend that they really aren't bigoted bastards and it's all the fault of that evil blah guy, is too little too late and too stupid.
Are the Trumpies really trying to start a war with North Korea? Bluster and braggadocio and line-in-the-sand drawing are all he seems to know, and his UN ambassador seems to be equally at home poking her finger in the eye of an unstable whackjob. Someone better make sure Trump doesn't overdose on cough medicine or we could all wake up covered in blood.
(Too bad for the Little King someone already used the "Cough Medicine Defense". It would have been perfect for some upcoming debacle. "Shit! I didn't mean to nuke those guys. The Nyquil made me do it!")
Has there ever been a more feeble, feckless, incompetent liar than the present Speaker in that office? A whining, impotent fraud. McConnell is no better. "Gee, too bad about those dreamers. Such a shame. Someone should do something!" How about you, Huckleberry? Oh, too busy thinking deep thoughts about budget stuff. I get it. Maybe next year. Talk about lazy moochers. Out of those 800,000 dreamers there has to be a few thousand who could do that job better than Ryan or any of those useless Confederate bigots.
And....here comes Irma.
The statistics Victoria passes on are scary enough, but the satellite images of this monster are even scarier. Have we heard anything yet from the "Wower-in-Chief"? No "Wow, oh boy, this is a big one?" or "I make the BEST hurricanes!"? I guess we'll have to wait until Florida is in the direct path (I'll bet he has no idea Puerto Rico is part of the United States, and if he does, he doesn't care) before President* Fox Weather Report chimes in with his usual blend of puerile pablum and simplistic tedium.
I'm reminded of a scene all you veteran West Wing fans may recall, the one where the Florida Governor Ritchie (played by James Brolin; writer Aaron Sorkin based this character--an arrogant, not very bright, faux populist smartass--on the Decider), in response to news of the murder of a secret service agent says to his presidential opponent "Boy. Crime, I don't know." To which President Bartlet says, as he walks out, "By the way, in case you're wondering in the future, 'Crime, I don't know' is when I decided to kick your ass."
We've got plenty of Governor Ritchies (and a president that makes him look like one of the Founders). Now what we need are a few more Jed Bartlets.
Okay, just one more.
I see where Putin says that Trumpy is "not his bride". Does this mean that they've been having sex out of wedlock?
Horrors! What will the Religious Right say? Probably "And remember, Donna, oops, we mean Donnie, condoms are a sin!"
(Has Trump been looking for a wedding gown? Poor dear, looks like Putin will be leaving him stranded at the altar...)
Akhilleus, "They can't help it. It's in their DNA." I have to disagree. Mom and Dad made them lying bastards, not their DNA. My proof is the story of Nicole "Snooki" LaValle, that classic Italian Jersey Girl. She was born in Argentina and adopted at 6 months by an Italian American couple.
From Obama's facebook page. Says it all about Dreamers and America.
https://www.facebook.com/barackobama/?hc_ref=ARRsFjkLa_4vvqafwIj0icL08ZtveUdDIgxW5RSI8nH06PI5zDwxCklvGgCJZtyJ2ek&fref=nf
@Akhilleus: re the london gate and the Netherland's sea wall. Both of these are defenses against the sea and rare high tides/storm surges. Houston doesn't suffer the same problem. The floods of 2015, 2016, and Hurricane Harvey all came from inland. How do you dig deeper drainage ditches when you are only a few feet above sea level? Make it 3 feet deep and 10 miles wide? When major flooding turns into an annual event I think it's time to leave, not rebuild.
Once I thought I couldn't abhor anyone worse than I disliked people like Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and the entire entourage during the Bush administration.
But, for Trump and his cohorts....I am spittingly angry at everything they do, have done, and are doing. They have a "...if it ain't broken, let's break it" attitude that is beyond deplorable. Despicable. Cruel. Nasty. Appalling shits. All of 'em.
@ Marvin: re "the jersey girl" Are you saying there are no Italian Argentinians? :-)
@Cowichan: Quit finding fault with everybody's opinions & examples. It's obnoxious but not worth a response.
Cowichan,
What the fuck. I'm not, and never was, suggesting that Texas build Thames-style flood gates. Did I say that? No. The whole point was that other countries--and their leaders--take climate related disasters seriously and we do not. We kick it down the road. They take it seriously enough to spend money up front so that they don't have to get deplete the coffers, time and again, to clean up the mess. There are plenty of things (as I suggested in my comment) we could do--and have not--to stave off some aspects of disastrous storms (not to mention taking steps to help keep such storms from happening in the first place). None of these involve building flood gates.
But hey, if want to nitpick certain letters of my comment and willfully ignore the fundamental point, then I don't really know what else I can say.
Jesus.
@Akhilleus: Amen, brother.
MAG,
"If it ain't broken, let's break it."
And not just break it. Spit on it, kick it, and declare it unconstitutional.
Sometimes things need to be broken. Things like, oh, let's say, the way sanctimonious racist piggy AG Confederate Colonel Beauregard approaches his job. His "job", as King Trumpy would have it, is to help the King tear into non-whites, especially those who don't, won't and will never, vote for his cowardly white racist ass.
But that sort of thing will never be broken, at least while King Trumpy is pissing on those whom he believes don't deserve his saintly largesse.
Other things, however, decency, ethical and moral behavior, an adherence to what America is truly all about, should never be broken, but should be supported and upheld as an example of what it means to be an American. But this sort of existence can, and will, be broken with impunity--so they think--by these fucking criminals.
An excellent explanation of the Trumpy Way. (Sorry, but I'm gonna have to steal that one...).
And one more thing. The DACA kids now being tortured by the King and his Evil, racist elf, and his entire administration, the Americans (because they ARE Americans) who work hard, go to school, don't mooch off the guv'mint, strive to make themselves better and contribute to their neighborhoods, state, and nation, stand miles beyond the knuckledragging bigoted redneck assholes, many of whom have no jobs, live off the government, do drugs, get drunk, shoot their guns, and despise anyone not like them, all of whom voted for the Orange Headed Baboon.
How 'bout we pick 800,000 of them and send them to Guatemala, or Mexico?
King Donna would never hear of it. Who'd vote for him?
Wouldn't it be awful if Mard-a-Lago were hit by Hurricane Irma?
But guess who would be paying for it? I swear, I quit paying taxes.
Missing from Krugman's SF v Houston comparison: The population of the US has doubled since 1960. While the growth rate has slowed some, it continues exponential. Not sustainable. During the same period the Bay Area has more than doubled and continues to grow at 7%/y. Beyond unsustainable. Even if SF et al. were to de-regulate building codes, including the very expensive earthquake mitigation designs, there is no way for building to keep pace with population growth. Until that is reversed, we are just whistling in the wind.
Forrest,
Hahahaha. I'm with you there. He'd probably add in a few mill extra for things that weren't even touched. Marred a Lago would become ground zero for hurricane assistance. Front of the line. Screw all those poors living in trailers who were blown off the map. Donna would need to call in the national guard to make sure his golf course was properly drained before they could help anyone else. It's good to be king. Or is that queen? Better ask Vlad. Maybe it's more like princess. I think Trumpy'd be pretty in pink. What do you guys think?
Worthwhile piece from the weekend by Michael McFaul, former Ambassador to Russia on a "3rd way" with North Korea: "coercive diplomacy."
https://medium.com/freeman-spogli-institute-for-international-studies/cold-war-lessons-in-coercive-diplomacy-for-dealing-with-north-korea-today-5a729f719ce
If you have a notion to follow him, McFaul's twitter is @McFaul.
@Ak: Sorry, trump wouldn't be pretty in anything, especially pink.
His color is black, as in morbid, or morbidly over weight, or a near
death diet. Can't eat that way without lots of red wine to compensate.
@Forrest, on that note I think I'll open a bottle of Screaming Eagle.