A Legacy of Service and Sacrifice
by paradox
Perusing the New York Times the last ten days two immediate government observations stay with me, the first that despite all the ferocious bluster and posturing around nuclear North Korea the United States has no ambassador to South Korea.
Despite not having a security clearance that disturbingly smirking Jared Kushner just met with high government officials of Mexico, yet the ambassador to Mexico—an amazingly qualified woman with 30 years of experience—was shut out of the meetings.
Continue reading "A Legacy of Service and Sacrifice"Democrats Use Trump Tax Cuts for Infrastructure Plan - Bravo!
by Deacon Blues
Back on February 11th, after Trump rolled out his limp infrastructure plan than had only $200 billion in real spending over ten years and no actual jobs, I argued that Senate Democrats should pounce on that decrepit plan and roll out a real infrastructure plan, and change the tax cut debate by repurposing the Trump tax cuts into infrastructure funding.
Today, I'm pleased to say that Chuck Schumer did exactly that, and set in motion a winning message for the midterms, whereby the Democratic Party can tell voters they can keep their middle class tax cuts and get 15 million new jobs along with big infrastructure spending, while Republicans want to keep corporate and wealthy tax cuts and offer almost no jobs and spending.
Take your pick. And as evidenced by the pathetic GOP response from both the White House and the Senate, along with the lame response from a corporate front group, the GOP message will lose this fall. Given that a recent poll showed nearly 90% support for major infrastructure spending, Democrats should be pounding this reframing of the tax cut debate every day until November.
Trump May Kill GOP's 2020 Chances
by Deacon Blues
Yes, it's early still, unless the Trump fatigue is already setting in with the electorate. But if you want to assess the damage that the Trump presidency has done to the modern GOP, consider this: At this early point in his presidency, Trump would lose the 2020 race by 8 points to a generic Democratic opponent. But that's not the half of it.
Even if the GOP gets rid of Trump between now and the 2020 election, they would lose worse, by 14 points.
Sure, the poll shows a large number of undecided voters as you would expect with a generic, nonspecific set of choices. But this poll shows how badly Trump and the GOP Congress have damaged the Republican brand.
Trump May Claim Credit on North Korea
by Deacon Blues
I want to give credit where credit is due: Donald Trump's amateurish yet consistent behavior towards North Korea may about to bear fruit. Yes, the rhetoric and approach have been scary and buffoonish at times, but it also is true that letting Seoul take the lead in working with Pyongyang, and implementing tough sanctions to back up that sophomoric rhetoric has apparently led North Korea to the bargaining table.
Let's hope Trump doesn't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
What I Want Most of All
by paradox
Out of a sense of duty to country and first amendment I subscribed to the New York Times and Washington Post last week. Putting aside their vast issues of incompetence and mismanagement it’s still vitally important for the country to have thriving, viable journalism living fully within the first amendment, it’s worth my tiny investment to subscribe.
I was obnoxious about it, of course, even though I was forking over hard-earned cash I let them know it wasn’t for them, it was for country. This heinously stupid stance of we didn’t do anything! regarding Election 2016 grossly diminishes us all but here, here’s a subscription, redemption and growth are elements that reside in all of us. Right?
Continue reading "What I Want Most of All"Sessions Boxes Trump In
by Deacon Blues
As the walls close in on son-in-law Jared Kushner, Dear Leader went nuts again this morning and blasted his own Attorney General for not using DOJ lawyers to pre-determine that FISA processes were abused by the FBI to nail campaign aide Carter Page. Instead, AG Jeff Sessions followed the process and turned the Devin Nunes' allegations that the FBI investigation was tainted over to the DOJ Inspector General's Office.
But Sessions went a little further this morning in defending himself from Trump's attack. He laid down a marker:
"We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary. As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution."By wording his pushback this way, Sessions has boxed Trump in. If Trump moves to fire Sessions, he tosses aside Sessions' acting with "integrity and honor," and in "a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution." And with House Oversight Committee chairman Trey Gowdy supporting the Justice IG, it leaves Trump out in the cold should he act against Sessions.
Blundering Into the Unknowns of Catastrophe
by paradox
As citizens of the United States begin to realize with growing levels of horror that the President is an owned Russian money-laundering traitorous felon (“code red” is the word from New York) I have been of the vociferous opinion that Special Counsel Mueller is too methodically slow. The very worst that could ever happen to the Presidency is now upon us, file the charges as soon as possible to start the fix process.
I have completely given up on this mental stance, still making no apologies for the impatience. Americans are a notoriously hurry-up, can-do, get-the-accomplishment-filed people, we didn’t get to our place as a country waiting for it to happen.
Continue reading "Blundering Into the Unknowns of Catastrophe"
