The Commentariat -- January 19, 2018
Late Morning -- Early Evening Update:
Sheryl Stolberg & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "President Trump and Senate leaders scrambled on Friday to avert a midnight shutdown of much of the government, with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, declaring that progress had been made in a private meeting with the president at the White House. But with the clock ticking, no votes were even scheduled before federal funds are to run out at midnight. 'We had a long and detailed meeting,' Mr. Schumer told reporters at the Capitol after leaving the White House. 'We discussed all of the major outstanding issues. We made some progress, but we still have a good number of disagreements. The discussions will continue.'"
Here are Trump's "thoughts" on the shutdown, as expressed in his Twitter novel: "Government Funding Bill past last night in the House of Representatives. Now Democrats are needed if it is to pass in the Senate - but they want illegal immigration and weak borders. Shutdown coming? We need more Republican victories in 2018!" Trumptweets, the Book will need a quasi-literate copy editor to get past "past." The New York Times is kinda updating developments here. Sadly, we learn. "Mr. Trump canceled plans to travel to his Florida resort on Friday and will stay in Washington until a spending bill is passed, a White House official said Friday morning." ...
... Update: "Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, went to the White House to reopen budget and immigration negotiations after President Trump reached out to him."
Gene Robinson has a pretty good column today on how Trump treats his allies & friends. Robinson doesn't feel sorry for the allies & friends.
Tamara Keith of NPR: "Turnover among top-level staff in the Trump White House was off the charts, according to a new Brookings Institution report. Turnover in Trump's first year was more than triple that in former President Barack Obama's first year, and double the rate in President Ronald Reagan's White House. A full 34 percent of high-level White House aides either resigned, were fired or moved into different positions in this first year of the Trump presidency. 'While some turnover is expected and possibly beneficial, excessive turnover portends problems,' writes Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a nonresident senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. '[President Trump] has valued loyalty over qualifications and suffered from a White House that has functioned in a chaotic manner. Both features have made it difficult to retain staff and have contributed to the governance difficulties he has encountered.'"
Here's the full In Touch interview of Stormy Daniels on her affair with Trump. We keep it classy here at Reality Chex. Just reporting on the President.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it would consider a challenge to President Trump's latest effort to limit travel from countries said t pose a threat to the nation's security, adding a major test of presidential power to a docket already crowded with blockbusters. The case concerns Mr. Trump's third and most considered bid to make good on a campaign promise to secure the nation's borders. But challengers to the latest ban, issued as a presidential proclamation in September, said it was tainted by religious animus and not adequately justified by national security concerns."
*****
The Comments function appears to be working again. Those who signed up may continue to use their exalted "membership" status, or not, as they prefer. I don't intend to sign up anyone else as it's no longer necessary. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
Thomas Kaplan & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The House approved a stopgap spending bill on Thursday night to keep the government open past Friday, but Senate Democrats -- angered by President Trump's vulgar aspersions and a lack of progress on a broader budget and immigration deal -- appeared ready to block the measure. The House approved the measure 230 to 197, despite conflicting signals by President Trump sent throughout the day and a threatened rebellion from conservatives that ended up fizzling. But the bill, which would keep the government open through Feb. 16, provided only a faint glimmer of hope that a crisis could be averted before funding expires at midnight on Friday." ...
... Mike DeBonis, et al., of the Washington Post: "The House approved a short-term spending bill Thursday to avoid a government shutdown, sending the measure to the Senate where Democrats said they have enough votes to block its passage. House Republican leaders prevailed in lobbying the conservative House Freedom Caucus and defense hawks who demanded more money for the military in exchange for their votes. The bill passed 230-197. But a government shutdown on the anniversary of President Trump's inauguration appeared likely as Democrats signaled they had rallied enough opposition to stop the measure from passing in the upper chamber." (Also linked yesterday evening.) ...
... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Democrats say they have secured the votes to block a House plan to fund the government through mid-February. A Democratic aide confirmed that the caucus will be able to block Republicans from getting the 60 votes needed to overcome an initial procedural hurdle." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
Caring for children in need goes beyond party lines -- it's unfortunate House Democrats didn't see it this way today.... I look forward to the Senate ... getting this done. The most vulnerable depend on it. -- Paul Ryan, in a cynical statement, yesterday ...
... "The GOP's Doomsday-Machine Politics." Paul Krugman: "... a form of doomsday-machine politics -- in which you threaten to blow up things that you care about, because you think your rivals care about them more -- is playing out in Washington right now, courtesy of the Republican Party. Doomsday-machine politics made its first U.S. appearance in the 1990s, when Republicans shut down the federal government in an attempt to extract concessions from Bill Clinton.... Republicans tried again, with more success, in 2011, using the threat of refusing to raise the debt ceiling -- forcing the U.S. government into default, with possibly catastrophic effects on the world economy -- to win policy concessions from Barack Obama. And even though they now control the White House as well as Congress, Republicans are still in the doomsday-machine business -- and what they're currently threatening to blow up is health care for nearly nine million children.... This has to stop. And now is the time to draw the line." ...
... Brian Beutler of Crooked: "... if Democrats and Republicans team up to avoid [a government shutdown with a DACA bill], it is nearly certain that Republicans will quietly return to their longstanding but unstated opposition to protecting Dreamers, the Trump administration will begin deporting them, and Democrats will have no good answers for those caught up in the sweeps." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... The Dimwit at 1600 Pa. Ave, Ctd. Scott Wong & Melanie Zanona of the Hill: "President Trump undermined his own party's plan to avert a looming government shutdown on Thursday after tweeting that a key Democratic bargaining chip shouldn't be attached to the funding package. The 17-word tweet threw Capitol Hill into a state of confusion ahead of what is already expected to be a tight vote in the House Thursday night. Republicans on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue were trying to decipher what exactly the president meant by declaring a popular children's health-care program should be part of a 'long term solution' as opposed to a '30 Day, or short term, extension.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... A Minute Later. Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The White House on Thursday reiterated that President Trump supports stopgap spending legislation backed by House GOP leaders, an effort to clear up confusion caused by Trump's early-morning tweet about the effort to prevent a government shutdown." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Sarah Kliff & Tara Golshan of Vox: "... some [Congressional Republicans] have already written ... off [Trump's tweet] as inconsequential, likely the result of a news segment the president may have seen." Mrs. McC Translation: They know he's an ignorant moron, but he's their ignorant moron. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Eliana Johnson & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Democrats, whom Republicans were trying to pressure into supporting a stopgap measure to fund the government, were incredulous over the president's apparent ignorance about legislative details. 'He didn't realize that it's a six-year reauthorization? I mean, think about the exchange we're having now!' Sen. Chris Coons (D-Conn.) said. 'How are we supposed to negotiate responsibly?'... Republicans expressed deep frustration with the situation.... 'Certainty is always better than chaos and uncertainty' Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said of Trump's comments. Asked if Trump is being chaotic and uncertain, Shelby replied with a grin: 'I didn't say that.'... It is the second time in a week that a tweet from the president has threatened to undermine Republican-backed legislation on Capitol Hill and send GOP leaders and congressional aides into a frenzy." The writers try unsuccessfully to pinpoint just which Fox "News" "advisor" triggered Trump's tweet. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is just part of ("oh yes, he has no dementia") Trump's pattern of remembering only the last thing he heard. No doubt someone in the White House had previously briefed him on Ryan's excellent plan to make pawns of sick children, but once Doocy or Kilmeade or some other Fox "Friend" misstated the terms of the plan, that's all Trump "knew." You see the same pattern in Haberman & Davis's NYT story, linked below. ...
... Lachlan Markay, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Trump's Shutdown Plan Is Pretty Much: Jesus, Take the Wheel. As the federal government gets dangerously close to the first shutdown of the Trump era, the president has remained relatively calm behind the scenes and, according to those around him, seemingly ambivalent in a time of political disarray.... His level of preparation for an increasingly possible government shutdown seems to be focused mainly on shoveling the blame onto Democrats on Capitol Hill.... Agencies that would take the lead in dealing with the significant logistical challenges posed by a shutdown are suffering from significant staffing challenges at the highest levels. The White House Office of Management and Budget coordinates administration-wide shutdown procedures, and each federal agency must submit its shutdown plans to OMB.... But the office is currently operating without a full-time chief executive.... Of the nearly 130 agencies and offices that submit contingency plans, 66 of them had not publicly updated their proposals since 2015.... The Office of Personnel Management, which oversees a federal workforce that would be hit with large furloughs, currently has no permanent director." ...
... For Example ... Lisa Rein & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "With government funding set to expire at midnight Friday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was still working out details of a plan to permit the parks to function without rangers or other staff on site. With many parks in peak season, drawing thousands of visitors, the lack of finality was causing wide confusion across the park system. Officials from three sites said Thursday they were unsure how to proceed. 'We don't have a plan yet,' said Abby Wines, spokeswoman for Death Valley National Park in California, which is seeing 80,000 visitors a month. 'We just got a memo about this yesterday. Today's the first day we're seriously thinking about this.'... The shuttering of iconic parks proved to be a political flash point during government shutdowns in 1995 and 2013. On both occasions, Republicans controlled Congress and a Democratic president sat in the White House; both times, Republicans shouldered much of the blame for ruining people's vacations." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, here's some good news from the WashPo report: Although about 800,000 federal employees are expected to be furloughed, "... Robert S. Mueller III would continue his probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election uninterrupted, since it is funded with a permanent, indefinite, appropriation."
Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "President Trump reportedly ordered that ... Stephen Bannon limit his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. Trump's decision came after receiving advice from Uttam Dhillon, a deputy White House counsel, Foreign Policy reports. Dhillon reportedly thought the administration could have legitimate executive privilege claims in the situation, sources told Foreign Policy. But Dhillon also found the administration doesn't have legitimate executive privilege claims to limit the testimony of Bannon and other officials from giving information to special counsel Robert Mueller. Foreign Policy's findings come after it was reported earlier this week that an attorney for Bannon relayed questions to the White House in real time while his client was testifying before the House Intelligence Committee.... White House chief of staff John Kelly said Wednesday the White House didn't tell Bannon to invoke executive privilege and refuse to answer questions in Congress's investigation into Russia's election meddling." Mrs. McC: ... which is okay because we already know Kelly is a lying sacko'.
How to Hush up Hush Money. Bryan Logan of Business Insider: "Michael Cohen, one of ... Donald Trump's top lawyers reportedly organized a Delaware-based limited-liability company to transfer a $130,000 payment to the adult-film star 'Stormy Daniels,' who claimed that she had a sexual encounter with Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.... To get that payment to a lawyer representing the porn actor, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, Cohen created the company, Essential Consultants LLC, on October 17, 2016 and used a bank account attached to the company to transfer the money. Delaware is a favored venue for limited-liability company transactions because it does not require that people connected to the entities be publicly identified. The Journal reported that Cohen also attached pseudonyms to Clifford in reference to the transaction. Cohen denies this, according to the newspaper." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: You might think this ruse makes Cohen look pretty smart, but he's been working for Trump for a long time, so you can bet he's honed his hush-money methods over years of practice. ...
... Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "In early 2009, [Stormy] Daniels announced that she was considering challenging Sen. David Vitter, the Louisiana Republican who two years earlier had been snared in a sex scandal.... Vitter ... opposed abortion and gay marriage. Daniels, who grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told reporters she wanted to highlight his hypocrisy.... Daniels ... held discussions with local political consultants. According to a May 8, 2009, email written by an operative advising Daniels..., Daniels at one point scrolled through her cellphone contacts to provide her consultants with a list of [possible campaign contributors].... On the list: Donald Trump. This email was sent to Andrea Dubé, a Democratic political consultant based in New Orleans.... Dubé expressed surprise [to the other consultant] that Daniels was friendly with Trump. 'Yep,' the other consultant replied. 'She says one time he made her sit with him for three hours watching 'shark week.' Another time he had her spank him with a Forbes magazine.'... The campaign consultant who wrote the email to Dubé tells Mother Jones that Daniels said the spanking came during a series of sexual and romantic encounters with Trump and that it involved a copy of Forbes with Trump on the cover. A fall 2006 cover of Forbes does feature Trump and two of his children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka.... [Michael] Cohen told the Wall Street Journal there had been no affair between Trump and Daniels: 'These rumors have circulated time and again since 2011. President Trump once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms. Daniels.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Daniels' claim -- substantiated by the contemporaneous Forbes cover -- takes the "golden shower" story from humorous to highly likely. As Jason Le Miere of Newsweek reminded us last October, "the [Steele] dossier claims that the Russian FSB spy agency possesses a video of Trump successfully requesting prostitutes to urinate on a bed while staying in a Moscow hotel room once occupied by the former president and first lady, Barack and Michelle Obama." Trump has repeatedly "vehemently denied" all of the contents of Christopher Steele's memos. But the Daniels & Moscow stories display the same type of symbolic sex play -- once using a magazine that touted him as one of the country's richest men & once using prostitutes to defile the Obamas. And yeah, it's likely Moscow has the videotape. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, I see Slate's Jacob Weisberg & MSNBC's Ari Melber agree with me. Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade carries it a step further:
... ** Russia, Russia, Russia. Mob, Mob. Mob. Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday released the transcript of the panel's November interview with Glenn Simpson, the cofounder of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS.... Rather than home in on the nature of Simpson's relationship with Christopher Steele -- the former British intelligence officer hired by Fusion to research Trump's Russia ties -- [Ranking Member Adam] Schiff and his Democratic colleagues asked Simpson pointed questions about Russian money laundering, Russian organized crime, and whether Trump could be susceptible to Russian blackmail." Bertrand's report highlights many of the details & includes a full ScribD copy of the transcript. (An embedded link to the House's transcript leads to a "Page Not Found.") ...
... Update: The House links here to more-easily readable pdfs work. ...
... "This One Is Big." Josh Marshall: "Going back more than a year there have been a number of as yet uncorroborated claims that Russia funneled a vast sum of money into the NRA to support get out the vote activities to elect Donald Trump.... It's pretty clear that the NRA played a very important part in securing Trump's razor-thin victory.... There's little question that this effort (Russia courting the NRA and vice versa) is at some level an influence operation, an effort to cozy up to and develop relationships with a major right-wing organization in the US. Whether it goes beyond that into clearly illegal efforts on behalf of Russians or Americans is as yet a fact not in evidence." See also McClatchy's report, linked below & Jonathan Chait's commentary. Mrs. McC: As Marshall warns, these are claims at this point. But it matters that Mueller's team is taking these claims seriously. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jennifer Jacobs & Bill Allison of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump will mark the government shutdown first anniversary of his inauguration on Saturday with a celebration at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, with tickets starting at $100,000 a pair. That amount, according to the invitation, will pay for dinner and a photograph with the president. For $250,000, a couple can also take part in a roundtable.... The event, hosted by Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, and the casino mogul Steve Wynn, will benefit the Trump presidential campaign and the RNC. McDaniel's maiden name, Romney, is not written on the invitation. Trump has had testy relations with her uncle Mitt Romney. Wynn is the RNC's finance chairman." ...
... Surprise! Linley Sanders of Newsweek: "Almost one year after President Donald Trump took the oath of office, millions of dollars from his leftover inauguration funds have still not been donated to the charities they were promised to. Trump's inauguration committee raised a record-breaking $107 million as his administration prepared to assume the White House last year, but very little has been disclosed about where the remaining money was allocated. Nearing the one-year anniversary of Trump's inauguration, a government watchdog group is questioning why the funds disappeared." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)
When Tyrants Collide. Maggie Haberman & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "... early Wednesday evening, after learning from a White House aide that his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, had described his views about his signature, base-pleasing campaign pledge to build a wall on the Mexico border as 'not informed,' and his thinking as 'evolving,' the president was initially calm. It did not last. By Wednesday night, Mr. Trump had become convinced by a string of allies and friends he had talked to on the phone that Mr. Kelly had undermined him.... And by Thursday morning, after digesting accounts of Mr. Kelly's comments on cable news, the president was riled up. As the television blared, he typed out a series of tweets that rebutted Mr. Kelly without actually naming him. 'The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it,' Mr. Trump wrote at 6:15 a.m. Later in the morning, the president spoke to his chief of staff, and made his displeasure clear.... That kind of conflict has played out infrequently since Mr. Kelly replaced Reince Priebus as chief of staff in July. For different reasons, both Mr. Kelly and Mr. Trump have an interest in preserving their relationship, according to people close to both men.... Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Kelly are used to being in charge, and both are prone to dramatic outbursts of temper.... Both have a tendency to say different things to different audiences, and Mr. Kelly is ... strident about the need to restrict immigration .... They depart over management philosophy: Mr. Trump favors chaos, and Mr. Kelly believes in strict command and control." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yesterday in the Comments section, we discussed the nature of "The Wall is the Wall," but perhaps we might have discussed other parts of Trump's claims, like his boast, "from the first day I conceived of it." Throughout the Obama administration, a number right-wing nut jobs like Michelle Bachmann proposed a Great Wall on the U.S.-Mexican border. Perhaps the best known is the design by former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain who said, "Now, my fence might be part Great Wall and part electrical technology.... It will be a twenty foot wall, barbed wire, electrified on the top, and on this side of the fence, I'll have that moat that President Obama talked about. And I would put those alligators in that moat!" Obama's "moat" was a sarcastic jest, but Cain got the alligator idea from another nut, one-term Congressman Joe Walsh. But still. It looks like Trump's "conception" of a wall not only was nothing new, its best-known designer was a black guy. (Cain's presidential bid went down in flames when reports of his extra-marital dalliances surfaced; four years later, even worse stories about Trump didn't preclude his win. Even the right wing has "evolved.") ...
... As for Trump's claim that his conception of the wall "has never changed or evolved," Ron Nixon & Linda Qiu of the New York Times write that "a review of Mr. Trump's public statements on Twitter, in campaign speeches and during interviews shows that the president's views on the border wall have shifted repeatedly since he raised the idea nearly four years ago, on Aug. 5, 2014." They present the evidence to prove it, & some of that evidence is pretty comical.
Annie Gowan of the Washington Post: "Prospective buyers of luxury apartments in the new Trump Towers project outside India's capital are being lured with an unusual promise: If you buy a flat, we will fly you to the United States to meet Donald Trump Jr. The developers of the 600-foot high-rises unveiled a sleek sales office in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon last week, claiming they racked up $23 million in sales -- more than 20 units -- i the first day.... One of the developers, Pankaj Bansal, told the Press Trust of India that 'Donald Trump Jr. will host' the first 100 buyers in the United States.... he launch of the new towers comes amid rising concerns that President Trump's children -- including Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who are running their father's business while he serves as president -- are using their names to profit from their father's presidency, and that foreign officials and others may stay in Trump hotels or buy Trump properties in attempts to curry favor or gain special access to the first family."
The Best People, Ctd. Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Trump administration appointee Carl Higbie resigned Thursday as chief of external affairs for the federal government's volunteer service organization after a CNN KFile review of racist, sexist, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT comments he made on the radio.... Higbie, a former Navy SEAL and conservative media personality, was a surrogate for Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, appearing on cable news and serving as the spokesman for the Trump-aligned Great America PAC." Kaczynski reports on many comments Higbie made. ...
... Mrs. McC: Higbie's views are all sickening & stupid, & a number of them suggest a vague grasp of the English language. For instance, it turns out that "the black race" has "a lax of morality." And his claim that he was "molested by a gay guy" when he was young "set the precedence for me," the "precedence" being extreme homophobia. In fairness to Higbie, his prejudices are wide-ranging. For instance, if you receive government assistance in any form, you shouldn't be allowed to vote. Since most of receive some kind of federal assistance -- that would include Higbie who had a gummit job up till yesterday -- that has to be the most extreme form of voter suppression on record.
Michael Grunwald of Politico: "Every quarter, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau formally requests its operating funds from the Federal Reserve. Last quarter, former director Richard Cordray asked for $217.1 million. Cordray, an appointee of President Barack Obama, needed just $86.6 million the quarter before that. And yesterday..., Donald Trump's acting CFPB director, Mick Mulvaney, sent his first request to the Fed. He requested zero." (Also linked yesterday.)
Another Negative Effect of the Tax Heist. Conor Dougherty of the New York Times: "The last time that Congress approved a sweeping overhaul of the federal tax code, in 1986, it created a tax credit meant to encourage the private sector to invest in affordable housing. It has grown into a $9 billion-a-year social program that has funded the construction of some three million apartments for low-income residents. But the Republican tax plan approved last month amounts to a vast cutback, making it much less likely that such construction will continue apace. Because the tax rate for corporations has been lowered, the value of the credits -- which corporations get in return for their investments -- is also lower.... According to an analysis by [an accounting] firm, the new tax law will reduce the growth of subsidized affordable housing by 235,000 units over the next decade, compounding an existing shortage."
Adam Liptak & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked a trial court's order requiring North Carolina lawmakers to produce a revised congressional voting map, making it likely that the midterm elections this year will be conducted using districts favorable to Republican candidates. The trial court had found that Republican legislators in the state had violated the Constitution by drawing congressional voting districts to hurt the electoral chances of Democratic candidates. The Supreme Court;s move was expected and not particularly telling. The court, which is considering two other major tests of partisan gerrymandering, has granted stays in similar settings. Its decisions in the pending cases, from Wisconsin and Maryland, are likely to effectively decide the North Carolina case, too. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor noted dissents from Thursday's order, which was brief and unsigned."
Trump & JeffBo Really Want Those Dreamers OUT. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration on Thursday night took the unusual step of asking the Supreme Court to immediately review and overturn a judge's ruling that said the administration may not dismantle a program that provides work permits to undocumented immigrants raised in the United States. Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco asked the court to add the case to its docket this term. That would be unusual because the justices usually wait for an appeals court to act before accepting a case, and because it is late in the game for the court to add cases to its oral argument calendar, which ends in April."
Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: "2017 was among the hottest years ever recorded, government scientists reported Thursday.... The 2017 results make the past four years the hottest period in their 138-year archive.... The renewed evidence of climate change, driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases, comes as the Trump administration moves to open new areas for oil drilling and rolls back regulations that sought to reduce global warming, most prominently by moving to repeal the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan. The administration said it would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement last year." Mrs. McC: Yes, but science at best is a series of evolving theories, but in fact is a total hoax, promulgated by a bunch of pointy-headed hucksters hustling for cushy research grants. (Also linked yesterday.)
David Folkenflik of NPR: "The Los Angeles Times has given prominent coverage to recent revelations of sexual harassment of women by prominent men, particularly in entertainment and media. Yet a review by NPR finds that the newspaper's own CEO and publisher, Ross Levinsohn, has been a defendant in two sexual harassment lawsuits and that his conduct in work settings over the past two decades has been called into question repeatedly by female colleagues.... The portrait that repeatedly emerges is one of a frat-boy executive, catapulting ever higher, even as he creates corporate climates that alienated some of the people who worked for and with him."
Beyond the Beltway
Elise Young of Bloomberg: "Meet Chris Christie, former New Jersey governor and current nobody at Newark Liberty International Airport. The two-term Republican, who left office on Jan. 16, was blocked from a VIP entrance he had used for eight years, and directed to stand in Transportation Security Administration screening lines at Terminal B like anyone else, according to a person familiar with the incident. The order came from police for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport." Mrs. McC: As you may recall, this is not the first time Christie has had a little trouble with the Port Authority, which as governor he controlled jointly with New York's governor.
Share Article
Reader Comments (17)
Tillerson's State Department shutdown plan: show up Monday and figure it out from there.
That's a good plan, if there is in fact no shutdown. Otherwise, it keeps about 70,000 people in suspense.
The horrific story about the Turpin family, under (again) normal circumstances would be all over the news. As it is, it is one of many in an array of abnormal stories that we encounter every single day. We would be discussing the loose home schooling laws in California and Texas, we would be crying havoc at the abuse rendered by those parents and ask how could this have been going on for years without anyone being privy to the circumstances. And even though these questions are being asked they are but a side-line to more Trumpisms, more dead-locked Congress, more Stormy smut stories (although in this case following the money is now crucial). So when I read this morning about HHS's new rule that allows health care workers to discriminate against LGBTQ people and abortion seekers I thought here's another story that probably will slide into that side-line. Religious liberty trumps again!!!!!!.
https://slate.com/technology/2018/01/trumps-new-hhs-rule-is-a-license-to-discriminate-against-lgbtq-people-and-abortion-seekers.html
Is it possible that the Pretender--our self-anointed (and possibly baptized in a Russian bed) "love" leader--and his sidekick Jeff (the one the Pretender occasionally kicks to the curb just for fun) want the Dreamers out of the country because their eventual citizenship would surely translate into more than half a million votes for the other team?
Or, since this is demonstrably an administration with no thought whatsoever for the future, is it just because they're brown?
God bless, asshole.
So this morning I'm listening to NPR when all of a sudden, some maniac comes on and starts screaming about Democrats wanting to hurt children and how Republicans are the only thing standing between these poor children and disease and death. This crazy person went on and on and on, not allowing the host to get a word in. He was Tom Garrett (FC-VA), a Freedom Cock-us sonovabitch if I've ever heard one.
Normally the NPR hosts are polite to the point of obsequiousness when interviewing Confederates. It makes me want to scream some days. I'm not for anyone being impolite, but when these people come on day after day and lie to your face and push back against any attempt to get them to answer questions, then snicker about it, I think the interviewer has a duty to listeners to try to elicit a straight answer and not just sit there and take it.
This morning, it was clear that Rachel Martin, the host, was not thrilled with Garrett's attempt to bulldoze her into silence. She tried several times to get him to answer questions he clearly wanted no part of, such as, why, if your party runs the whole show, should we blame Democrats for a shutdown? He ignored the question. He talked right over her, practically yelling at her. "Nancy Pelosi! Democrats! Poor children! Republicans are good people! Democrats evil!" and so on.
So what's going on? First, you can just smell the fear and desperation. These people are arrogant bullies but they're also incompetent cowards. They're horrified that their incompetence will become topic one, that voters will blame them, as they should, for any shutdown, and they can't take it. They can't take any responsibility so it has to be someone else's fault.
The fact is, if this flaming asshole and his treasonous pals in congress cared so much about the children on the CHIP's program, they could have reauthorized it months ago. Instead, they let it expire and are now engaged in a scurrilous attempt to hold these kids hostage to get what they are too stupid and incompetent to do themselves. There isn't a one of them with the ability to govern a game of Parcheesi.
So rather than be a man and take at least some of the blame, he comes on and screams at the host and demands that everyone hold the Democrats to account for any possible bad outcomes from Confederate--and Freedom Cock-us--inadequacy and stupidity.
Later on Martin did a phoner with White House something, something, Mark Short who is supposed to be the congressional liaison. He lied through his teeth, blaming the entire problem of a shutdown on Democrats. Martin then asked, if they need Democratic votes, why not just compromise on some issues. Short almost swallowed his tie. "Comormise!?" (he couldn't even pronounce the word). "We comormise all the time!" "What?" she asked. "What have you compromised on?"
He couldn't name anything. He ignored the question and continued to rattle on about Democrats this and Democrats that. She asked him about the confusing messages from Trump. This really made him mad. "The president is in charge! blah, blah, blah..."
It was embarrassing to listen to. They're desperate and they're afraid. And if not, they're even stupider than I think.
Oh, and at the end of that Garrett screed, continuing to talk over Rachel Martin, he realized, finally, that she was pulling the plug and he slowed down for a second to close with "God bless!"
Yeah, after five minutes of yelling and screaming and bullying and lying and trying to shield himself and his party from well deserved blame, he wants everyone to know that he really is a good god-fearing Christian. What an asshole.
Jesus, I hate these fucking people.
@Akhilleus: And then there are the nice Trumpophiles. These are hard-working people you'd probably be glad to have as neighbors, if not bosom buddies. They don't have time to read the news; they never heard of Paul Krugman, much less or Jonathan Chait or Brian Beutler. They are mystified or dismayed by some of Trump's actions & his language.
And yet, and yet. They're sure Trump has a "plan" to save them from some rumored GOP plan to ruin them. Ha ha ha. Trump hasn't got a plan to brush his teeth. He has no idea of what's going on other than what his friends tell him or he hears on Fox "News," no matter how inaccurate. And they'll vote for him again.
Marie,
The Wall is not the only thing Trump stole but claims to have invented. I doubt this guy has ever had an original idea in his life. His early tutorials in ratfucking all came at the feet (ewww) of Roy Cohn. His money came from daddy as did the start of his real estate empire. I suppose you can credit him with the Trump Tower, but he tore down a revered landmark to build it, stiffed the guys who worked on it, stuck his name on it and said "What a good boy am I", but giant egos have been striving for centuries to build something big with their names attached to it. Cheops' Pyramid (or Khufu's) wasn't built to sell sloppy joes to hungry camel drivers. The Eiffel Tower is another eponymous structure, as are many others. Trump didn't come up with that idea either.
He claims to have invented the word "fake". Yeah, okay. Also he takes credit for coming up with an economic term that's been around since the early 20th century, "priming the pump". Good one, Donnie! Even his MAGA bullshit was stolen from a Ronald Reagan campaign slogan.
He's not just a liar. He's an entirely unoriginal liar.
The Fox-Fool Feedback Loop
Andrew Marantz, writing about television in this week's New Yorker, traces the steps in the Fox-Fool Feedback Loop.
So here's how it works. Idiots on Fox and Friends say "X--whadaya think about X?". A fool sitting around in his jammies, eating Cocoa Puffs and enjoying Egg-zecutive Time, tweets that "Everyone is talking about X!" The idiots interrupt their next line of pablum to shout that "Look! The Fool is saying X too!" Then the Fool tweets back, "See! I toldja everyone was talking about X!"
This really is how it works. The Three Stooges say "Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck". Trump hears it and tweets "Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck, too" to which the Stooges respond "OH! Wow! Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck, that's right!" followed by Trump tweeting back "EVERYONE is saying Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck! Amazing!"
It's like sitting in a college dorm room where everyone is on mushrooms and talking about why it's dark at night. One kid says "Well, because there's no sun" and another says "But what happens to it?!!" "Well" says the third, "It goes away because it's afraid of the dark". "Oh" says the first kid "That's why it's dark at night".
Which is pretty sad even for a bunch of high-as-a-kite college kids, but when you have national policy decisions being made in exactly this way, things are waaaay out of control.
This sounds like a form of circular reasoning (Washington DC is the capital of the United States because the capital of the United States is Washington DC), but it isn't even that sophisticated. Think about THAT for a minute.
Re: The Slate article that PD Pepe linked. I find it curious that rules
like this which are put forth by a bunch of old, white men, are the
rules that never affect old, white men. It's women, children, LGBTQ,
poor people, etc. Let's cut back on things like Viagra, Prostate
treatments and anything affecting old, white men and see how far
that would fly. Just sayin'.
Good for Dems for sticking together and (hopefully) shutting the whole shitshow down. Paul Ryan and Turtle Man are conjuring up their darkest strands of propaganda and disinformation to deflect blame for being utterly partisan charlatans, that's to be expected. But little attention is being paid to the unstable occupant in the White House... I'm willing to bet that the whole GOP blame game messaging is going to go up in flames within a day or two max. when Donnie Diapers can't hold his rage in after hours of nonstop, nationwide negative press...on his 1st year anniversary! We should be kissing his ring but everyone's "loyalless" and talking shit!
If DD does stay at the White House he's going to pitch a temper tantrum for the ages because he'd rather be "golfing" and having soulless zombies compliment him incessantly. He'll hate tweet and fume in his jammies, flailing around with his beady eyes scsnning the hallways for any signs of life to denigrate.
If instead he decides to throw out all his advisors, he'll head to Mar O Lago anyway and the optics would be atrocious, with Trump on "vacation" as his government is closed.
Either way, the GOP "leaders" are trying to lay down their message of hysterics ASAP because they know Donny Diapers is going to shit his pants soon enough and their messaging will drown in a sea of Twitter bursts with Trump spreading his fire and fury to burn the dingleberries of his weasel "friends" too.
He's going to blow this Dems, hold firm.
Emoluments clause? What emoluments clause?
Just a question, because it appears the courts are helping the Trumpies stave off constitutional criminality by declaring that those who have already brought suit against president* Crook for using his Washington hotel as a nice way to gather kickbacks from foreign potentates and representatives and domestic lobbyists who seek to curry favor with the White House, don't have standing.
But as a matter of common sense, who in their right mind would buy a yuuuuugely expensive condo in a Trump Tower in New Delhi just so they could meet a jag-off like Junior? But a meet and greet with the son of the president* of the United States? That's a much different story.
So, are they or are they not cashing in on Daddy's residency in the White House?
And they'll keep doing it until Mr. Impeachment knocks on the door. Or until Democrats can oust the current band of crooks running congress and start their own investigation into Trump connivance and unconstitutional, criminal activity. Then the issue of standing is no longer a problem.
Hey, I wonder if Junior will introduce the buyers to Stormy Daniels? I understand she'll be happy to watch three hours of Shark Week with the highest bidder.
If the government shuts down shouldn't AF1 be grounded?
When the government shuts down, no one gets paid. But government workers who are deemed necessary workers have to keep working anyway. So AF-1 pilots would have to keep working.
And don't be surprised if Mr. Stormy found a way to get taxpayers to foot the bill for the groundskeepers and staff at his golf courses. I'm sure they'll be considered essential personnel.
A beautiful vision:
If the Pretender often (always?) agrees with the last person he "negotiates" with, can't wait to see the deal he works out with Schumer, and if Schumer plays it right, many House Repugnants are in line for immediate coronaries.
I'll smile while I can.
I see the Schumer-Pretender meeting ended with no deal, and the nitwit in chief "solved" the problem by telling Schumer to work it out with McConnell and Ryan.
Whadda negotiator!
Think the Pretender is done now, has washed his hands of it and is Mara-lago bound for the weekend?
Or will he refund the hundreds of thousands his guests paid to be in his slimy presence as he celebrates his first year in office?
Even if Schumer had come to some agreement on DACA Deal Breaker Trump would cave at the first angery tweet from his knuckle dragging troll constituency. The sad thing is that after a day or two of screaming they would all forgive (Trump) and forget and move on. Trump can do no wrong in their eyes. They still think he's playing some long game that the rest of humanity is blind and ignorant to.
"And I asked him about his hair. I was like, “Dude, what’s up with that?” and he laughed and he said, “You know, everybody wants to give me a makeover and I’ve been offered all this money and all these free treatments.” And I was like, “What is the deal? Don’t you want to upgrade that? Come on, man.” He said that he thought that if he cut his hair or changed it, that he would lose his power and his wealth. And I laughed hysterically at him." Stormy Daniels
Now we know. Donaldo actually envisions himself as Samson––all the power is in that hair. Oh, for some Delilah to snip, snip, snip on some stormy night gently tossing that fine golden fleece hither and thither for our fine feathered friends to build their nests– a real golden opportunity. Bald, broke, beleaguered, the poor man stumbles forth and has a teeny tiny tantrum that no one gives a shit about. He's done for. He's through. "Hair today, gone tomorrow" as maybe some comic said on the stage back when America was maybe a little great.