The Commentariat -- January 7, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Catherine Lucey & Lisa Mascaro of the AP: "With the shutdown lurching into a third week, many Republicans watched nervously from the sidelines as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went without pay and government disruptions hit the lives of ordinary Americans. White House officials affirmed Trump's funding request in a letter to Capitol Hill after a meeting Sunday with senior congressional aides led by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress. The letter from Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought[*] sought funding for a 'steel barrier on the Southwest border.' The White House said the letter, as well as details provided during the meeting, sought to answer Democrats' questions about the funding request. Democrats, though, said the administration still failed to provide a full budget of how it would spend the billions requested for the wall from Congress. Trump campaigned on a promise that Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico has refused." ..
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yet another "acting" official. ...
... Washington Post Breaking News: Trump plans to visit the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday, Sarah Sanders announced in a tweet. Mrs. McC: This way he can get on the teevee again & tell more lies. ...
... How to Get the Turtle to Peek out of His Shell. Greg Sargent: "President Trump would almost certainly not be able to continue shutting down the government over his megalomaniacal border wall obsession if it weren't for Mitch McConnell. The Senate majority leader is refusing a Senate vote on the bills that House Democrats have passed funding the government -- shielding Trump from possibly having to veto a bipartisan measure reopening it, which would be politically disastrous for him.... Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) tweeted over the weekend that Senate Democrats should block any and all measures in the Senate that are unrelated to funding the government until the Senate votes on reopening it. Since then, several progressive groups and a handful of Democratic senators have endorsed the strategy.... 'McConnell and Senate Republicans have to stop contracting out their votes to Donald Trump,' Van Hollen [told me]. 'They have an important constitutional role, and we should not have business-as-usual in the Senate until we open the entire federal government.'"
From the Alternative Reality of Donald J. Trump. Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday pushed back against media reports that he had altered the timeline for removing U.S. troops from Syria, denying his administration had issued a series of contradictory statements about plans for ending America's role in the war. 'We will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!' the president said in a message on Twitter, referring to the Pentagon's ongoing operation to defeat the Islamic State. His comment, which differed from earlier promises of a swift departure for the more than 2,000 U.S. troops stationed in Syria, was the latest iteration of an envolving roadmap for concluding the military mission there. Trump's statement came a day after national security adviser John Bolton, speaking to reporters during a tour of the Middle East, said the troop departure would occur only after Islamic State militants are fully routed. Both his comments and Trump's conflict with officials' initial statements following the president's unexpected Dec. 19 announcement that all troops would come home in short order. Trump also declared victory against the Islamic State, contradicting military assessments."
Uh-Oh. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who underwent cancer surgery last month, was missing from the bench on Monday for the Supreme Court's first arguments since the court returned from its four-week holiday break.... Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. announced his colleague's absence at the start of Monday's session, saying that 'Justice Ginsburg is unable to be present today.' He added that she would take part in the court's consideration of the day's two cases based on the briefs submitted by the parties and transcripts of the arguments." ...
... Mark Sherman of the AP: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is missing arguments for the first time in more than 25 years as she recuperates from cancer surgery last month, the Supreme Court said."
Judiciary for Sale. Lachlan Markay of The Daily Beast: "A top conservative judicial activist used a sprawling web of interconnected groups to not only help fund ... Donald Trump's inauguration but to help pave the way for the confirmation of his Supreme Court nominees....Previously unreported documents obtained by The Daily Beast provide the first glimpse into the finances of a key node in that network, traced to Federalist Society president Leonard Leo, a major player in Washington's wars over the makeup of the federal judiciary. Those documents ... underscore the degree to which anonymous, high-dollar donors have bankrolled the advocacy behind Trump's highly successful efforts to reshape the federal judiciary.... [T]he full extent of the network Leo built is only now becoming clear." Read on to see how much judges cost these days. --s
*****
Michael Tackett & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "President Trump's evolving definition of a border wall animated negotiations to end a partial government shutdown on Sunday, while House Democrats moved to increase pressure on the president by vowing to pass individual bills to reopen targeted departments that handle critical functions like tax refunds and food stamps.'I informed my folks to say that we'll build a steel barrier,' Mr. Trump told reporters after returning to the White House from a senior staff meeting at Camp David. He added of the Democrats, 'They don't like concrete, so we'll give them steel.'... But Mr. Trump also said that, if no deal could be reached over his demand for $5.7 billion for the border wall, he was still considering using 'emergency' authority to build the barrier with other government funds. For their part, Democrats said there was no progress as the shutdown entered its 16th day, and said again that the government must be reopened before negotiations on border security money could begin." ...
... Boris Sanchez of CNN: "... Donald Trump is inclined to declare a national emergency to secure military funding for his long-promised southern border wall if talks between administration officials and top lawmakers from both parties continue to stall, a White House official told CNN on Saturday. While not the administration's preferred plan, the use of emergency powers to fund the wall 'provides a way out' amid a series of contentious meetings and disagreements among Department of Homeland Security officials and Democratic lawmakers over basic facts related to border security, the official said. 'We can only stay like this for so long,' said the official, who attended both meetings with congressional officials at the White House led by Trump this week, explaining that factual disputes have hung up discussions.... On several occasions, discussions became combative during presentations by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. According to the White House official, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi twice cut into Nielsen's presentations to dismiss DHS statistics on border security as inaccurate.... 'In presentations made, they have repeatedly used statistics not supported by fact. They're trying to cast every single migrant as a terrorist or someone with a violent criminal history. The secretary has proven herself to not be credible on these issues,' a Pelosi aide told CNN." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Justin Sink & Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News: "Trump on Sunday renewed his threat to bypass negotiations with Democratic lawmakers and instead declare a national emergency on the southern border with Mexico. While the possible move was revealed just days ago, White House lawyers and key budget staff have been looking into it for weeks, a person familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. Some advisers close to Trump are recommending that he declare a national emergency, despite wide recognition that it would be immediately challenged in court -- Democratic lawmakers said so last week after Trump floated the idea publicly.... The president reiterated that he had no interest in resurrecting a deal that would trade wall funding for legal protections for undocumented children -- one of the few issues that could move Democrats toward compromise." ...
... See Bruce Ackerman's NYT column, linked yesterday, on why a presidential attempt to usurp Congress's powers would be unconstitutional, particularly in this case where the "national emergency" is fake. ...
... BUT. Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center in the Atlantic: "Unknown to most Americans, a parallel legal regime allows the president to sidestep many of the constraints that normally apply. The moment the president declares a 'national emergency' -- a decision that is entirely within his discretion -- more than 100 special provisions become available to him. While many of these tee up reasonable responses to genuine emergencies, some appear dangerously suited to a leader bent on amassing or retaining power.... Other powers are available even without a declaration of emergency, including laws that allow the president to deploy troops inside the country to subdue domestic unrest. This edifice of extraordinary powers has historically rested on the assumption that the president will act in the country's best interest when using them. With a handful of noteworthy exceptions, this assumption has held up. But what if a president, backed into a corner and facing electoral defeat or impeachment, were to declare an emergency for the sake of holding on to power? In that scenario, our laws and institutions might not save us from a presidential power grab. They might be what takes us down." ...
... AND. Masha Gessen of the New Yorker: "Trump apparently imagines that such a move would allow him to govern the way he thinks he wants to: by barking commands rather than by throwing tantrums. Technically, he probably wouldn't need to declare a national emergency -- there are thirty states of emergency effective in the U.S. right now, many of them in effect for many years. (Presidents renew states of emergency annually, and though Congress is legally required to meet every six months to reassess a state of emergency, this has not happened since the relevant law was passed, in 1976.)"
It's a sign of the times when satire seems to be the solution. -- Forrest M., in today's Comments:
... Andy Borowitz of the New Yorker: "In a bold gambit to end the government shutdown, the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said on Saturday that she would bypass Donald J. Trump and negotiate directly with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. 'I owe it to the American people to bring this shutdown to the swiftest possible conclusion, and so I'm avoiding the middleman,' she said."
Jonathan Blitzer of the New Yorker: "There is an immigration crisis at the border -- it's just not the one the President keeps talking about. In the last half decade, while immigration at the U.S. border has dropped significantly compared with earlier years, the profile of migrants has changed in ways that the U.S. immigration system has never been designed to address. Instead of young men and seasonal workers, most of whom migrated from Mexico, the majority of people now arriving are asylum-seeking families and children from Central America." Mrs. McC: If you want to understand what's going on at the U.S.-Mexico border (and Donald Trump does not), Blitzer provides a helpful sketch. Trump wants to build a multi-billion-dollar wall to keep out immigrants who have a legal right to enter at the gate. That's how stupid this shutdown is.
Tweet, Retreat. Repeat = "Government" by Trump.
David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump's national security adviser, John R. Bolton, rolled back on Sunday Mr. Trump's decision to rapidly withdraw from Syria, laying out conditions for a pullout that could leave American forces there for months or even years. Mr. Bolton, making a visit to Israel, told reporters that American forces would remain in Syria until the last remnants of the Islamic State were defeated and Turkey provided guarantees that it would not strike Kurdish forces allied with the United States. He and other top White House advisers have led a behind-the-scenes effort to slow Mr. Trump's order and reassure allies, including Israel.... [Bolton's] remarks also reflected the disarray that has surrounded the president's decision, which took his staff and foreign allies by surprise and drew objections from the Pentagon that it was logistically impossible and strategically unwise. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned within hours of the announcement, and the Pentagon chief of staff, Kevin M. Sweeney, said on Saturday evening that he was also leaving.... The move to reverse course on Mr. Trump's promised swift withdrawal picked up in recent days, even as Mr. Bolton worked to avoid openly confronting the president the way Mr. Mattis did." ...
... Zeke Miller of the AP: "... Donald Trump's national security adviser said Sunday that the American military withdrawal from northeastern Syria is conditioned on defeating the remnants of the Islamic State group and on Turkey assuring the safety of U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters. John Bolton said there is no timetable for the pullout, but insisted the military presence is not an unlimited commitment.... Bolton's comments were the first public confirmation that the drawdown has been slowed. Trump had faced widespread criticism from allies about his decision, announced in mid-December, that he was pulling all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria. Officials said at the time that although many details of the withdrawal had not yet been finalized, they expected American forces to be out by mid-January. 'We're pulling out of Syria,' Trump said Sunday at the White House. 'But we're doing it and we won't be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So that would be never. ...
... Carol Lee of NBC News: "... Donald Trump will not withdraw American troops from northern Syria until the Turkish government guarantees it won't then attack Syrian Kurdish forces that have been critical allies in the fight against ISIS, national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday. Bolton said a commitment from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that protects the Kurds after American forces exit is something Trump is demanding, and that it's just one of several conditions that have to be met before U.S. troops leave.... Since Trump abruptly announced on Dec. 19 that all U.S. forces in Syria would exit immediately, administration officials have shifted the timing to say it would happen more slowly." (Also linked yesterday.)
Trump, Bolton, Pompeo rely on AltWorld to decide US foreign policy. Mrs. McC: Okay, this is a portion of an unmarked photo accompanying Zeke Miller's story, so I don't know what these yahoos are really watching, but obviously, it isn't the real world.
Mike Allen & Jim VandeHei of Axios: "With the departure of White House chief of staff John Kelly, the misinformation emanating from President Trump has only escalated.... Although Kelly was thwarted in many of his efforts to control the president, one place he made authentic inroads was clamping down on the paper flow to the Oval Office. 'Anyone who circumvented that process was going to have a serious problem,' said a former official who saw the transformation up close. 'It has devolved into anarchy,' added another alumnus of Trump's White House.... Wednesday was Kelly's last formal day in the White House, but his influence had declined since he announced his departure on Dec. 8. Since then, Trump has made several unusually specific factual assertions that were quickly shown to be inaccurate, suggesting more unvetted information may be reaching him than had been the case in the heyday of Kelly's control[.]" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: At the top of Allen & VandeHei's list is Trump's claim that the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan because "'because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there.' A Wall Street Journal editorial scolded: 'We cannot recall a more absurd misstatement of history by an American President.'" Since these & some other remarks Trump made about Poland/Belarus & Montenegro are Russian talking points, both Chuck Rosenberg & Joyce Vance said on MSNBC that it's highly likely Bob Mueller will want to know why Trump is parroting Russia's propaganda playbook.
Trump Is Nastiest to Those Who Work for Him. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Sunday said he's in no rush to name permanent members of his Cabinet after a series of departures.... 'Well, I'm in no hurry,' Trump told reporters outside the White House before departing for Camp David. 'I have "acting." And my actings are doing really great.... I sort of like "acting,"' Trump said. 'It gives me more flexibility; do you understand that? I like "acting."'" Mrs. McC: In other words, he wants these people, most of whom work their tails off, to be aware at every moment just how expendible they are.
Peter Goodman of the New York Times: "Across the industrial United States, including in the crucial political battleground state of Michigan..., complaints [about Donald Trump's tariffs] are intensifying as the trade war disrupts factory operations that depend on imported parts. The tariffs have also begun to hurt China, contributing to anxieties about a slowdown in the world's second largest economy. Those worries have filtered back to the United States, amplifying concerns about the global economy, sending stock markets plunging, and putting pressure on American companies, like Apple, that sell goods in China.... Weakening factory orders in the United States, China and Europe have deepened the sense that global growth is slowing.... [U.S.] companies that import electronics and other parts are scrambling to remain profitable while exploring alternatives, such as moving plants beyond reach of the duties."
Wallace Plays Whack-a-Hack, Wins. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders ran into a buzzsaw Sunday morning when Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace challenged the Trump administration's repeated false claims about terrorism and the southwestern border of the United States.... Wallace attacked a central theme of Trump's push for a wall, the lie that tons of terrorists are streaming over the border with Mexico. He played a clip of Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen claiming, at this week's Rose Garden press conference, that 'CBP has stopped over 3,000 what we call special interest aliens trying to come into the country on the southern border....'... Wallace said ... that 'the state department says, quote, "there were no credible evidence of any terrorist coming across the border from Mexico,"' citing a report that was released in September. 'We know that roughly nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally, and we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is southern border,' Sanders began, but Wallace cut her off.... 'I know the statistic...,' Wallace said. 'Do you know what those 4,000 people come where they are captured? Airports.'" And so forth. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... We know that roughly -- nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally. -- Sarah Sanders, to Chris Wallace, Sunday ...
... Matt Shuham of TPM: Sanders' "claim is wrong in multiple ways: The individuals Sanders is referring to, according to DHS spokespeople, were prevented from entering the United States -- many before even obtaining a visa or boarding a plane. A DHS official told TPM in October: 'CBP prevented 10 known or suspected terrorists from traveling to or entering the United States every day in fiscal year 2017.' And while Sanders referred to 'known or suspected terrorists' ... she was responding to a clip of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen using the term 'special interest aliens' (SIAs), which refers to a broad group of people specified only by their country of origin, most of whom have no connection to terrorism at all."
Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "An American airstrike in Yemen last week killed one of the suspected plotters of the deadly Qaeda bombing of the United States Navy destroyer Cole in 2000, President Trump and military officials confirmed on Sunday. On Friday, the military's Central Command said it had conducted a strike on Tuesday in the Marib Province of Yemen that targeted the militant, Jamal al-Badawi, but added that it was still assessing whether he had been killed. By Sunday, the military was confident that Mr. Badawi was dead, Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for the command, said in an email."
Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times: "A 34-year-old man from Houston [-- Warren Christopher Clark --] who is said to have sent a résumé and cover letter seeking a job with the Islamic State has been seized on a battlefield in Syria, an American-backed militia fighting the militants said Sunday.... Mr. Clark's résumé ends in June 2015, indicating that he probably joined the Islamic State after that.... The militia that announced Mr. Clark's capture, the Syrian Democratic Forces, said he had been seized along with a man they described as another American, Zaid Abed al-Hamid. The militia said it had also detained other foreign fighters, including citizens of Ireland and Pakistan."
Adam Cancryn of Politico: "The threat of subpoenas, investigations and oversight hearings will dominate the new House Democratic majority agenda, targeting the White House's most controversial policies and personnel, spanning immigration, the environment, trade and of course, the biggest question of them all: Russian collusion.... Here are some of the biggest targets for House Democrats so far[.]"
OMG! Steve M. "On Wednesday, Tucker Carlson delivered a monologue on his Fox show that was not just white-nationalist populist but economically populist. It had many of the things Carlson's audience expects from him -- sexism, anger at immigrants -- but there was also this: 'We are ruled by mercenaries who feel no long-term obligation to the people they rule.... They're just passing through. They have no skin in this game, and it shows. They can't solve our problems. They don't even bother to understand our problems.... Not all commerce is good. Why is it defensible to loan people money they can't possibly repay? Or charge them interest that impoverishes them? Payday loan outlets in poor neighborhoods collect 400 percent annual interest....'... And then yesterday, in response to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's call for a return to top margin tax rates of 70% (i.e., the rates we had before the Reagan presidency), Ann Coulter tweeted this: 'Ocasio-Cortez wants a 70-80% income tax on the rich. I agree! Start with the Koch Bros. -- and also make it WEALTH tax.'... This is what right-wing populism might look like in America if it weren't completely co-opted by mainstream Republican corpocratic thinking.... I think this is a minority strain of conservatism that will never be dominant. But we'll see." (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Election 2020
Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is in the final stages of deciding whether to run for president and has told allies he is skeptical the other Democrats eyeing the White House can defeat President Trump, an assessment that foreshadows a clash between the veteran Washington insider and the more liberal and fresh-faced contenders for the party's 2020 nomination."
Annie Linskey & Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren's first presidential campaign foray to [Iowa] ... merged the economic views she has honed for years and the lesson learned by successful Democratic candidates in the midterm elections two months ago. She aimed directly at voters tempted by President Trump's angry populism in 2016but avoided mentions of Trump himself almost entirely. 'Our 2020 issue will be how we talk about what we stand for,' Warren said, when asked why she was not taking on Trump, something she has not been shy about doing in the past.... For Warren, virtually every position she advocated was, in policy terms, a repudiation of the president and the course he has set for the nation in his first two years. That was true from specifics -- her demand that presidential candidates release their taxes, which the president has refused to do -- to the generic -- her repeated lament that the middle class has been hollowed out as economic and political fairness has been lost."
Election 2018. Scott Shane & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "The 'Dry Alabama' Facebook page, illustrated with stark images of car wrecks and videos of families ruined by drink, had a blunt message: Alcohol is the devil's work, and the state should ban it entirely. Along with a companion Twitter feed, the Facebook page appeared to be the work of Baptist teetotalers who supported the Republican, Roy S. Moore, in the 2017 Alabama Senate race. 'Pray for Roy Moore,' one tweet exhorted. In fact, the Dry Alabama campaign, not previously reported, was the stealth creation of progressive Democrats who were out to defeat Mr. Moore -- the second such secret effort to be unmasked.... They thought associating Mr. Moore with calls for a statewide alcohol ban would hurt him with moderate, business-oriented Republicans and assist the Democrat, Doug Jones, who won the special election by a hair-thin margin.... The discovery of Dry Alabama, the second so-called false flag operation by Democrats in the fiercely contested Alabama race, underscores how dirty tricks on social media are creeping into American politics."
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Election Officials Defy GOP Political Leaders. Langston Taylor of the Tampa Bay Times (via the Miami Herald): "Despite hedging from Florida's Republican leaders, an amendment that allows eligible former felons to register to vote will go into effect on Tuesday, state elections officials say. Considered to be one of the most significant voting rights acts in state history, Amendment 4 passed last year with 64 percent of the vote. Experts believe that the pool of those whose voting rights have been restored is at least 1.2 million people.... Elections supervisors reached by the Times said that, beginning Tuesday, they won't hesitate to implement Amendment 4 and will register those who, under the law, have regained their right to vote. 'By law, the amendment goes into effect Jan. 8, and the language was very clear that it restores voting rights to all who have completed their terms of sentence, except those convicted of murder or sexual offenses,' said Gerri Kramer, spokesman for the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections.... That elections supervisors are saying they will implement Amendment 4 helps dispel some of the confusion that arose last month.... At the time, Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, the new chairman of the Senate Ethics & Elections Committee, said the amendment 'may or may not' need legislative action for implementation. Later in December, Governor-elect Ron DeSantis told the Palm Beach Post the law should be put on hold until the Legislature passes 'implementing language.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
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Reader Comments (16)
The WaPo is being too kind.
In today's lead story about Bolton contradicting DiJiT on US withdrawal from Syria, there's this text:
"Plans and assurances offered by Bolton in Israel were additional confirmation that withdrawal plans are on hold until conditions on the ground match the president’s stated assessment of the situation in Syria."
That is an extremely polite way for the reporters to say that DiJiT's assessment of the situation is wrong, but the administration will work to make it right. And won't leave Syria until DiJiT's BS is no longer BS.
Why would the reporters be so circumspect? Maybe they're just tired, as we all are, of noting that our prezdet* is a fool and the people working near (with? for? around?) him are sycophants and fools as well.
It is getting tiresome.
Patrick,
Too true.
And as I said yesterday, for me the jaw-dropping aspect of this very embarrassing and counter-productive Syrian performance is that once again on the world stage we perforce must cast a man with distinct lunatic tendencies as the adult in the room-- because he is.
It's a sign of the times when satire seems to be the solution:
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/pelosi-says-
she-will-skip-trump-and-negotiate-directly-with-putin-shutdown
National emergency? Of course there’s a National emergency. There’s been one since Election Day 2016. It gets worse by the hour.
Don’t you love the Fox whiners and Confederates in congress demanding that Democrats compromise on the wall to end the Trump/McConnell shutdown? Li’l Randy, who considers himself a Solomon, sez “Let’s split the difference. Trump wants $5.6 billion, just give him half”. Good idea Randy, you stupid schmuck. “We won’t have quite so much racism. We’ll cut it in half. It’ll be great.”
So, Randy Solomon, which half of the baby do you want?
Then I hear some pundits saying that the wall is just a symbol. What do Democrats care about a stupid symbol? The flag is a symbol too. Let’s compromise on that, Foxbots. I’ll bring the lighter fluid, you bring the matches.
Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessing says Trump is the REAL National Emergency:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lawrence-lessig-donald-trump-national-emergency_us_5c32b2eae4b0d75a98320eae
And Ocasio tells Anderson Cooper last night on Sixty Minutes that yes, Trump IS a racist.
And what floated around during the Golden Globes was the clear sense of feminine power along with embracing of "the other." And the devil got his due: Christian Bale thanked the devil for giving him the role of Cheney in "Vice"-––in turn the devil bowed and returned to the White house from whence he resides.
@PD Pepe: So then Liz Cheney, the Daughter of Satan, tweeted this: "Satan probably inspired him to do this, too. Christian Bale arrested for 'assault on mother and sister'|." The problem with Liz's claim: authorities dismissed the charges as baseless. There's no cheap shot too bargain-basement for Liz Cheney.
Even crony capitalism, as protected as it is from the market forces it purports to worship, is occasionally forced to indulge in a reality check:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/07/investing/dollar-tree-family-dollar-starboard/index.html
The true national emergency stems from the Party of Traitors and their never ending attempts to steer attention away from the truly important issues that bedevil the country and drive the nation into the arms of Fox screamers who whine about all the red herrings they would rather talk about.
The amount of energy consumed, nationally, by Congress, the media, and citizens over this ridiculous wall is a true tragedy. The amount of money being discussed ($5.6 billion is just the start. Fatty will want a lot more) is atrocious. Money for Trump's reelection is all it is.
The Party of Traitors spends most of its waking hours thinking of ways to give handouts to the rich and corporations and figuring how to make the poor and middle class pay for them.
The one percenters are not "job creators". They are wealth accumulators. This isn't the 19th century anymore, when a few gilded age giants did build factories and steel mills. They created jobs, but the jobs were mostly low wages, long hours, and no benefits. As soon as unions came in and demanded fair treatment, they hired thugs to come and shoot their members. There's no shooting today, but what there is is plenty of reduction in wages and benefits, to the point where a huge number of Americans work without insurance or retirement benefits, or a decent living wage. Walmart workers, for example, often rely on government assistance to make ends meet, which means taxpayers finance the Walton family's further accumulation of wealth. When Democrats were finally able to make sure those Americans did get healthcare, Republicans went to work to take it away. It pissed off the wealth accumulators. "Let them eat cake and take an aspirin.'
And now their entire stores of energy are directed at keeping poor brown people out of the country and making sure the entire country stays riled up about something that, on a real world scale, is far, far down the list of items we should be THAT concerned about. (Immigration is a problem, certainly, but it doesn't outweigh the plethora of other problems we face on a daily basis.)
No need to be concerned about education, economic equality, the real problem of responsible immigration reform or racism or the infrastructure (will it be "Infrastructure Week" again soon?), or fixing the broken election system (broken by the POT, by the way).
Nope. It's bread and circus. Without the bread.
Just the clowns. Just the way they like it.
The latest four alarm fires for wingers are two women (natch), one of whom called Trump a motherfucker, and the other who called him a racist.
Both true.
What's the problem?
Ken,
I'm guessing "Two Dollars and Thirty Cents Tree" just doesn't have the same ring as "Dollar Tree". Go figure.
"many Republicans watched nervously from the sidelines" ... with their backbones shoved tight up their puckered ass cheeks.
So if the Senate is stuck waiting on "wall" impasse, does that mean each day closed increases the probability of sitting fewer right-wing activist judges? That'll get the Turtle all in a tizzy as his legacy, written by Koch University Press, rests in large part on conservative judicial activism.
I bet Leonardo Leo of Judicial Watch fame is getting all hot under the collar as his down payments on the dark money judicial pipeline are getting lower returns on investment.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-trump-backer-financed-supreme-court-confirmation-fights-through-shadowy-network?ref=home
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/us/politics/trump-address-border-visit.html
Should this come to pass, I'd hope the networks would provide equal time for a sane response to the Pretender's lies--or at least an immediate fact check.
Maybe that check could start with all those Liarby "terrorists" swimming across the Rio Grande . If so, the counter would likely have to be longer than the Pretender's blather, whose lie density is record setting.
@ Ken
Since everything in TrumpWorld is fake, I'm imagining the Orange Blob in his red MAGA hat standing at the border waving his little hands and barking about drugs and crime while in the distance, right on cue, some brown-skinned actors tumble out of some bushes and make a run for it. It'd be a whole episode of Cops while Drumpf runs (yeah, I know, fat chance) after them while directing the officers to apprehend the illegals in real time. The episode ends with him looming over them with his scowl, just like Donny Jr. does after he kills his fenced-in antelopes.
Teevee magic!
In the Comment Section from "ThomGR" today, after an article about DiJiT's "crazed Lunatics" tweets:
1. "Don't take his words literally."
2. "He intended it as a joke. Maybe you should get a sense of humor."
3. "I think what he meant was . . ."
4. "What he said is not entirely supported by the facts."
5. "He fights fire with fire."
6. “Genuine president expressing himself genuinely.”
7. "Just trump being trump."
8. "Wait until he matures in office."
9. “It’s not terrible but it’s kind of the classic Trump in that he overstates things.”
10. “Maybe he was being sarcastic.”
11. “It is not unusual for staffers to hear him bluster about things. That doesn’t mean it’s real.”
12. “The president speaks for himself,”
13. “The tweet speaks for itself.”
14. “He wasn’t meaning to give a factual statement.”
15. “He was misinterpreted.”
16. “He was being rhetorical.”
17. “He was trying to be whimsical.”
18. “The president's style is the president's style.”
19. “Mar-a-Lago stirs him up,”
20. “He was paraphrasing.”
21. “The tweet was simply sloppy and unfortunate.”
22. “He was trying to be cute.”
23. “He misspoke.”
24. “His comments were unfortunate but his heart is in the right place.”
25. “This is how the forgotten men and women of America talk at a bar,”
26. “It will actually resonate with his base, not alienate it,”
27. “Let's judge the President after 4 years and not on what he says.”
28. “I don’t recall him ever saying that specifically.”
29. “He is a flawed man, I am a flawed man. God will take care of it...”
30. “President Trump was speaking “tongue in cheek””
31. “He lacks precision.”
32. “It was locker room talk.”
33. “He was speaking off-the-cuff.”
34. “He misunderstood the question.”
35. “He is being misled by his staff or misunderstood something in a briefing.”
36. “He is not moored by real-world facts.”
37. “His statement was “evidence free.””
38. “I don’t think he is lying. He gets excited when he’s talking, and he likes to exaggerate a little bit. But that’s just his way.”
What It Is
I think it's vitally important to remind Americans that the National Emergency being pushed by Fatty and his sycophantic ass kissers both in the White House and in the repressive, knee-jerk right-wing fascist media is that the Wall is nothing more than a mnemonic device developed by some Trumpy consultant to remind him to take advantage of the built-in racism and innate hatred of his base, those likely to vote for him, an undoubted white supremacist.
The consultants' idea was that Trump was too unfocused and unprepared (read: stupid) to remember to sell the con that immigrants are the white man's burden, that they're to blame for everything. In order to keep him fixated on racism, xenophobia, and hatred as winning strategies, some consultant or other embedded in his tiny, narcissistic orange dome the idea of a WALL, hoping that the image of a gigantic, fantasy barrier would remind him to flog the fear.
But, as is typical with Trump, he took this device literally (since he seems unable to master the concept of metaphor) and once he started getting positive (read: immediately violent and hate-filled) responses from the knuckledraggers and racist yahoos, he knew he had a winner. The "Wall" went from being a placeholder for "Immigrants are stealing your jobs" to "Mexico will build it!" and "Democrats want open borders and love terrorists!!".
At some point, "The Wall" became too real to Fatty's fans (see: Hannity, Sean, and Limbaugh, Drug Addict) for him to rejigger his promise or to offload an amazingly impractical and clearly deceptive commitment. Also, he's not smart or cagey enough to negotiate such precarious political prestidigitation.
Thus, at this point, a good portion of the government is shut down, many Americans are suffering, and others have no idea where their next paycheck or foodstamps will come from, their children starving, all because Trump latched on to a shabby mnemonic device, and because shouting about it at Bund rallies gave his tiny, deformed organ (see: Daniels, Stormy) a quiver, and he is unwilling to admit as much and get on with the business of governing. Better to let everyone fuck themselves to ensure that he doesn't "look bad".
Introducing hardship and tragedy into the lives of decent Americans all to get out of admitting what an inept, fraudulent cretin he is...
This is truly evil shit. And every R who supports this vicious canard deserves eternity in sulfurous pits.