Wondering on Wednesday (v101)

What are we wondering about tonight? Let's see...

We've got a shot fired literally over the bow of Japan by North Korea, and we have, as usual, a couple of different responses from the Trump administration. The president himself reminded us, in a tweet, that

The US has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer.

Did he mean that we were done talking to Kim Jong Un now, in those back-channel conversations we've heard about, I wonder? Or, maybe he meant we're done talking at the UN and we're not going to push for additional sanctions, since they don't seem to be working anyway? Could he have meant we're done trying to talk China into doing something?  Or, dare we even wonder, did he mean we were now looking only at military options, all others having been removed from the proverbial table?

Well, maybe we don't have to wonder about that after all, not if the cooler head of Defense Secretary James Mattis prevails. In yet another seeming contradiction (Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has had a few of his own recently), Mattis allowed as how

We're never out of diplomatic solutions. We always look for more. We're never complacent. 

In a speech in Springfield (Missouri, not any of those other Springfields we know and love), Trump talked taxes, and the need for tax reform, and #MAGA stuff.  Here's an excerpt:

We cannot restore our wealth if we continue to put our businesses at such a tremendous disadvantage. We must reduce the tax rate on American businesses, so they keep jobs in America, create jobs in America and compete for workers right here in America -- the America we love.  Thank you. Thank you very much.

I understand that he was speaking at a private company, behind closed doors, and so he's guaranteed a pro-Trump audience - but I can't help wonder what he would have said if someone had asked what it would take for him to bring production of his branded products, and Ivanka ("My beautiful daughter, she's working very hard, I'm very proud of her") branded products, to America from China and all of the other countries where they're made? I know the question has been asked by the media, and ignored, but I really wonder what would happen in one of these closed-door sessions. Does he have any intention of bringing those jobs to America once we lower his taxes, or no?

We all know that the president has been tweeting! about how prepared he was! and his administration was for the epic! and historic! events taking place down there in the Gulf region. He even managed to get in a crowd size comment, in case you were wondering.

Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you. I just wanted to say, we love you, you are special. We're here to take care of you. It's going well. And I want to thank you for coming out. We're going to get you back and operating immediately. Thank you, everybody. What a crowd. What a turnout. 

I wonder, sometimes, if he will actually take credit for the magnitude of the storm, adding it to his list of superlative accomplishments?

And finally, as I write this, news is breaking that US District Judge Orlando Garcia issued a decision that will keep the Texas law barring sanctuary cities from taking effect while a suit against it proceeds.  The law is one of the strongest of its kind; major cities in Texas sued to block it. I wonder, how long before we see the first tweet from the president? Do you think he'll be able to wait until tomorrow morning?

OrangeVerse XV: Pardon Me

President Trump defended his decision to pardon former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio in the middle of a time when, many believe, he should have been focused on Hurricane Harvey which had just made landfall in Texas.

Here's the question he was asked:

In the middle of Hurricane Harvey hitting on Friday night, you chose to pardon former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. I wonder if you could tell us what was behind your thinking for issuing the pardon for the Sheriff. And, as well, what do you say to your critics, even some in your own party, who say it was the wrong thing to do?

Trump laid out his defenses, in verse. Note that, in the middle of his statement (right after the 'Crazy' verse below), he recited a number of pardons made by other presidents: Clinton (Marc Rich, Susan Rosenberg, Carlos Vignali) and Obama (Chelsea Manning, Oscar Lopez Rivera), as if by comparison (always by comparison) he stands alone and above all others who have come before.

 Rating and Raving

Well, 

a lot of people

think it was

the right thing

to do John.

And actually

in the middle of a

hurricane, 

even though it was a

Friday evening, 

I assumed the ratings

would be far higher

than they would normally be.

You know

the hurricane was just starting

and I put it out there

that I had pardoned,

as we say,

Sheriff Joe.

Why, You Ask?

He's

done a great job

for the people of

Arizona.

He's

very strong

on borders

very strong

on illegal immigration.

He

is loved

in Arizona.

Fairly Unfairly

I thought

he was treated

unbelievable unfairly

when they came down

with their big decision

to go get him

right before the election

voting started, 

as you know.

And he lost

in a fairly close

election.

He would have won

the election,

but they just 

hammered him just

before the election.

I thought

that was a

very

very unfair thing

to do.

Crazy

When I

mentioned him

the other night - 

(you saw the

massive crowd we had.)

The people went

crazy 

when I said

What do you think

of Sheriff Joe?

or something

to that effect.

The place went

absolutely

crazy

when I 

was in Arizona

last week.

Sheriff Joe

Sheriff Joe

is a patriot.

Sheriff Joe

loves our country

Sheriff Joe

protected our borders and

Sheriff Joe

was very

unfairly treated

by the Obama administration

especially

right before 

an election

an election

that he would

have won.

And he

was elected

many times.

So I stand by my pardon of

Sheriff Joe

and I think

the people of Arizona

who really know him best

would agree

with me.

Thank you

very much.

Sunday School 8/27/17

Not surprisingly, much of the talk this morning on the news shows centered on the devastation across Texas from Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm on Friday.

Things are continuing to deteriorate even as Harvey was downgraded to a tropical storm, because of the constant barrage of rain that's hitting the state. Some areas had 24-hour totals over 16 inches, 18 inches, with several more days of rain anticipated.

If you would like to make a donation, texting Harvey to 90999 will send $10 to the American Red Cross specifically for those in the storm's path. (Messaging and/or data charges may apply.)

Over on NBC's Meet the Press,  Chuck Todd interviewed Ohio Governor John Kasich about president Trump's comments on Charlottesville and his pardon of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt for disobeying n order to stop racial profiling Hispanics; according to reports, Trump did not discuss the pardon with officials in the Justice Department. Here's part of Kasich's answer:

Look, I think at the end, Chuck, we keep talking about the president. You know, maybe starting with the flood business, it is time for us to figure out what institutions we're a part of from the bottom up that can bring some unity in this country. We don't have to keep looking to Washington. Everybody focuses on Washington. What about everything else happening in this country? Where it's, it's gauging profits by businesses or whether it's the clergy that does things that are out of bounds. I mean, nobody's looking for sainthood. But the whole country needs to come together and stop looking at Washington. Figure out what you can do as part of your (community) to raise the country and bring some unity. 

Todd then wondered if Paul Ryan should have the House scrutinize the Arpaio pardon, referencing Ford's pardon of Nixon and Clinton's pardon of Mark Rich - both of which happened when the other party was in charge of Congress. Kasich wasn't falling for it:

Chuck, we've got enough problems. We have enough problems to start, you know, figuring out why he did this, OK? I don't know. I just think that we just keep grinding this down. And to me what Paul Ryan ought to figure out is how he can get his people together to pass a health care law that isn't going to cut 20 million people off the rolls. He out to figure out how we can being to deal with entitlement reform at the same time we pass the debt limit.  He's gotta, he's gotta figure out how we're going to, to do the things that we need to do to make sure that we begin to move the country forward. Can't keep looking backward, we've got to look forward.  I'm absolutely convinced that you cannot deal with those who are way out there playing politics all the time. You've got to build your coalitions from the middle out. And that includes involving Democrats. I mean, that is not a dirty word. The Republicans get to call the tune, but you can't just do it alone. How do you think you're going to get tax reform if you don't have both parties involved. It will not happen. Period. 

Hear, hear.

Chris Wallace had Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Fox News Sunday. Their discussion included the oil and gas implications of Hurricane Harvey; North Korea; and Afghanistan. He expressed confidence that the energy companies in the Gulf would be OK; he denied having any difference with Trump on North Korea, and also disavowed any disagreement on Afghanistan either.

The point of our mission in Afghanistan, whether it's described in Trump's language on obliterating ISIS or Tillerson's language on letting the Taliban know they can't win, Tillerson says, is simply this:

...all terrorist organizations have somewhat different objectives. So, whether it's ISIS, al Qaeda, the Taliban or others, our objective is to deny any terrorist organization any territory with which they can organize, raise financing, recruit new fighters, develop techniques for carrying out terrorist attacks and then deploying those. We know that if we deny them to space to do that, we protect the homeland. We also protect Americans and our allies as well... we have to secure Afghanistan in a way that that can never occur again because there's no territory available to organizations to do so.

And finally, Tillerson talked about values - those the State Department puts forward, and the ones that we hear from the president; the context for this part of the discussion was criticism from a UN committee on the administration's "failure at the highest political level to unequivocally reject and condemn the racist violent events and demonstrations" that occurred in Charlottesville. Wallace wondered if Trump made it harder to put our values out there.

Chris, we express America's values from the State Department. We represent the American people. We represent America's values, our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment to people the world over. And that message has never changed. 

Here's how the conversation wrapped up.

Wallace: And when the president gets into the kind of controversy he does and the UN Committee responds the way it does, it seems to say they begin to doubt...whether we're living those values

Tillerson: I don't believe anyone doubts the American people's values or the commitment of the American government or the government's agencies to advancing those values and defending those values. 

 Wallace: And the president's values?

Tillerson: The president speaks for himself, Chris.

Wallace: Are you separating yourself from that, sir?

Tillerson:  I've spoken - I've made my own comments as to our values as well in a speech I gave to the State Department this past week.

That's all the time we have for this week -- and it's a good discussion on which to end today's classroom work. How about a homework assignment? Does the president speak to your values? To our shared values as Americans? Or does he only speak for himself? Think about it, talk about it. comment if you like.

See you around campus.

We Have to Respect Each Other

We have to respect each other, and ideally we have to love each other, the president has said recently, in the aftermath of the hatred and racism displayed in Charlottesville.

I've been trying to take his words to heart, as I'm sure he would want me to. He also said we have to rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.

So today, for no real reason other than to test my ability to show respect, and affection, and love, and loyalty to each other, I decided to read the comments on this article about Malia Obama entering Harvard this week. (You'll may recall she took a 'gap year' after graduation from the Sidwell Friends school last June.)

Here's an unedited sampling of what I read:

Affirmative action at work.  I wish I could go to Harvard but I'm a white conservative.

Do you think she was really brilliant enough to get into Harvard, or was it just that she was Black and the daughter of an ex-President?

I doubt she's smart enough to do well at Harvard - she'll get an honorary degree in something like Tribal Basket Weaving simply because she's the spawn of the worst President in American history. Such a brave, entitled failure she will become.

When a rich white kid gets into Harvard it's called a family connection. When a rich black kid gets in it's called Affirmative Action.

She's kinda dumb. Not Harvard material, but she is black. 

No, what I see is a black daughter of a black ex president being granted admission to one of the most prestigious colleges in the world SUPPOSEDLY on her academic records and abilities. To eliminate any question of impropriety by the admissions office by making public her academic transcripts and the transcripts of say the top 10 applicants to the college that were denied admission. You want to eliminate the questions of racial bias then put up those transcripts and make it totally transparent process that dispels any favoritism due to race or family ties. 

Anyone have her SAT scores? Yeah that's what I thought.

Harvard's standards have dropped so low they really don't count as anything anymore.

She will be just another pregnant crackhead by her junior year.

Wow. Wish I could afford to send my daughters to Harvard but we are white and only make a six figure income. :(

 Was she breakdancing all the way there?

I can remember when going to Harvard meant something, but today anybody can get in with a little political influence.

Hopefully she shaved her mustache first. Most Americans can barely keep their homes, but at least the Obamas can vacation and go to Harvard. They're more deserving I'm sure.

She already has straight A's and a PHD. Ain't being black great?

Has Malia picked her gender out yet for college?

Oh Wow??? AND THIS IS NEW HOW??? AMERICA NOTICE THAT EX-Prez BARRACK HUSSEIN obozo IS SENDING THESE GIRLS TO A VERY EXPENSIVE AND EXCLUSIVE UNIVERSITY???!!! WHILE YOURS AND MINE HAVE TO ATTEND A STATE UNIVERSITY AND GET OVERLOADED WITH CLASSES THAT THEY CAN'T GET AND LOANS THAT THEY CAN'T PAY OFF???!!! WAKE UP AMERICA!!! YOU AND I ARE PAYING FOR THAT???!!! 

No chance for a white conservative with the best grades, talents and work ethic. Only elite trash.

Now she gets to be depressed for 4 years, after she finds out just how unqualified she really is. It happens at all the Ivies to the AA charity cases. Its really kind of mean. But heck, it makes the liberals "feel good" about themselves. And after all - that is all that really matters to them.

 Another happy Affirmative Action black person at a Historically White School! I wonder what will happen to the White or Asian kid who got passed over by Affirmative Action? If her Mother & Father hate Whitey so Bad, what is their daughter going to this school ?

they go to school to be able to take provision from their high paid positions Never enough they dont raise salary because if its for all how will they satisfy their sick ego to be superior

 bullwinkle junior by another name.

and what were her qualifications to get into Harvard? Did she write black lives matter a 100X? 

This girl will be so screwed up and confused after she played the role of daughter to a homosexual man and and a tranny mom.

Ah yes. Respect, and ideally love, and affection and loyalty and baseball and apple pie, all tied up with a pretty little bow, don't you think?

The president also said that jobs will solve the problem we have with not being able to respect and love each other.

We have many companies, I say, pouring back into the country. I think that's going to have a huge, positive impact on race relations. You know why? It is jobs. What people what now, they want jobs. they want great jobs with good pay. And when they have that, you watch how race relations will be.

Please, president Trump -- I beg you -- put these people to work, so you and I can start respecting them and demonstrating our loyalty to them.

Please.

Wondering on Wednesday (v100)

It seems somehow fitting that I would be doing my 100th Wondering on Wednesday post quoting president Trump.

Let us remember, for point of reference, that many in the punditry just got done telling us how 'presidential' Trump was on Monday night when he announced with almost startling clarity that it's different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office. And then,  he clarified that statement by telling us he meant "when you're President of the United States."  I wondered, a long time ago, if he would ever realize he won and it's his job. And now I wonder, has he finally turned the corner on that?

And then it was Tuesday and it was Phoenix. Wonder on these things, or others; you can read the entire transcript here, if you like.

• Trump went off the teleprompter for a diatribe against the sick, dishonest, America-hating media.
• He threatened to shut down the government over the (see-through) border walls
• He threatened (again) to pardon Sheriff Joe Arpaio; 
• He slammed both Arizona senators - John McCain, and the one who won't be named 
• He promised economic growth, jobs, lower taxes, good immigration, and more. 
• He talked about coal you wash after taking it out of the ground, showing his lack of understanding about energy (again) or his sense of humor; we'll be told it's the latter even if it's the former. 
• He wants to change Senate rules to have everything be a simple majority vote, showing (again) his lack of understanding of our government, or his sense of humor (ditto the comment above).
• He claimed Republicans resist, Democrats obstruct. Both do both; always have, always will.
• He claims a better legislative record than Harry Truman - as if it matters to anyone.
• He promised victory in Afghanistan (again).
• He respects Kim Jong Un for respecting him. R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
• He mistakenly stated that leftists "now" want to remove a statue of Teddy Roosevelt; this was a protest act unrelated to Charlottesville that occurred in 2016, proving (again) that he repeats fake news.

Can he really not just stick to the script, folks? How hard can it really be, I wonder? Or, was some of this actually IN the script? I wonder about that part, too.

We also learned yesterday, which was confirmed today, that the part of ESPN that live-streams college sports will not have a guy named Robert Lee narrate the live feed for an upcoming University of Virginia vs. William & Mary football game. UVA, you know, is the university in Charlottesville... The story goes that ESPN fired Lee (not true) or decided to pull him from the game so as not to offend anyone, given the similarity of his name to that of one deceased Confederate general.

Wondering immediately ensued -- what were they thinking? Are they insane? Is this the stupidest thing you've ever heard?

ESPN released a statement in which the noted the following: concerns were raised by the Charlottesville production staff that Lee would be subject to "social hectoring and trolling" as well as that it could become a "distraction" - and that Lee himself had "expressed some personal trepidation" about the game. Instead, we're told, he'll do a different game close to his Albany home.

Amnesty International photo

The last one that fits in tonight's wonder-full post (from a thematic perspective anyway), is the report that what helped drive Trump's Afghanistan decision included being shown a picture of hot Afghan women.

Seriously. There they are - this is believed to be the deal-clinching photo.

One of the ways McMaster tried to persuade Trump to recommit to the effort was by convincing him that Afghanistan was not a hopeless place. He presented Trump with a black and white snapshot from 1972 of Afghan women in miniskirts walking through Kabul, to show him that Western norms had existed there before and could return.

I can't help wondering what Trump wondered when HR McMaster handed him this picture. Or whether McMaster wondered if handing Trump a picture of young hotties was a good idea given his, well you know, given his self-confessed proclivities and all.

But mostly, I wonder how great it would be if it turned out this was just fake news, made up by someone at the White House? You know, to catch those dishonest, America-hating, failing, lying, crooked media elites who live in a much smaller apartment than Trump does, and who went to worse schools than Trump did in a lie?

Yeah, although it's not likely to happen, how much fun would it be?  

My Middle-aged White Lady Perspective: It's Not the Statues

I've seen this meme on Twitter, on Instagram and on Facebook in the past few days - you may have seen it too, if you spend any time on social media.

It's just one of several making the rounds these days, post Charlottesville, when self-proclaimed neo-Nazis, white supremacists and white nationalists from Union states and Confederate states gathered, with first with torches, and then with helmets and shields and clubs and a well-armed 'militia' of supporters to protest against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee.

I can't help thinking that the people who thought the original meme was funny would not think the same of the one to the left; would you agree?  Would we see a lot of high fives and "damn straight" and "exactly"and similar comments on this?

From my middle-aged white lady perspective, people (on both sides) don't care about the statues per se - certainly not because "the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!"

People do care, deeply, about what the monuments symbolize. And what they symbolize, if we are to believe the ones who protest in their favor, is a white heritage, where blacks are not taking over our country, where Jews are not replacing them, and where, it seems, whites would not be failing in procreative department, and would be popping out babies left and right to ensure that the white race does not get trampled by blacks, browns, and yellows.

And, they symbolize a country where whites are in control "culturally, politically, socially - everything. We define what America is."

The statues, particularly those that rise on government property, symbolize our history of racism, of institutionalized racism, not just the personal kind that people of color experience every day.  And it is our history, yours and mine, even though we were not alive at the birth of America, or during the civil war, or Reconstruction

Because in our lifetimes - for  Pete's sake, I'm only 59, my husband 10 years older - in our lifetimes, America struggled with racism, continues to struggle with racism, a century and a half after the Civil War.

Would it surprise you that there have been over 4,000 lynchings in America, from the 1870s to the 1950s?

In 1951, the family of 8 year old Linda Brown sued because the child was bused to a segregated school when she lived within walking distance of an all white school; this was the Brown vs. Board of Education case, which was sort of resolved in 1954, when the Supreme Court ruled that  'separate but equal' schools for blacks violated the 14th Amendment - which was adopted in 1868. The Court in 1955 ordered states to integrate their schools (Brown II). And finally, in 1958, the Court ordered desegregation of schools (Cooper vs Aaron case) was required, and that the threat of violence was not a reason for continued segregation.

Also in 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man. Several months earlier, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, was arrested for a similar offense. Parks' arrest led to the lengthy Montgomery bus boycott; in 1956 that the Supreme Court ruled that the bus segregation ordinance violated the 14th Amendment.

How about voting rights? Blacks were given the right to vote under the 15th Amendment, which was ratified in 1870. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 allowed the federal government to investigate and prosecute cases of voting rights infringement. Later, we had to enact the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to try and eliminate requirements such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and other inhibitors to voting, and also established the practice of federal approval of changes to voting laws in states where discrimination had historically occurred.

The VRA has been updated many times over the years, in part because of efforts to restrict voting rights continue to occur to this day.  According to the Brennan Center for Justice,

Overall, at least 99 bills to restrict access to registration and voting have been introduced in 31 states. Thirty-Five such bills saw significant legislative action (meaning they have at least been approved at the committee level or beyond) in 17 states.

Federal courts have called out in gory detail the extent to which several of these laws are driven not by any sense of urgency for protecting the sanctity of the ballot, but rather to limit the ability of blacks to vote.

In the 1950s and 1960s, African-American churches were regular targets of violence, including one incident in September 1963 that killed four schoolgirls. It didn't stop in the 1960s. In fact, Congress passed the Church Arson Prevention Act in 1996.  Not 1966, folks - 1996.  And it didn't stop then, either.

Yes -- in my lifetime, and yours, America has had issues with racism; we have issues with racism today, and we will continue to have issues with racism in the future, if we pretend that it's just the symbols that people are upset about.

It won't go away if we pretend it doesn't matter or doesn't impact us. It won't go away if we pretend the problem is violence, not racism. It won't go away if we pretend that speaking out against racism is the flavor of a day, rather than the flavor of several generations.

It won't go away unless we want it to.

TGIF 8/18/17

I've been tinkering with a post all day long, without getting past my own objections to my writing, so I'm throwing in the towel for now on that, and instead will just noodle about some random things tonight.

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump's main accomplishment,will be speaking to a conservative group at the end of September.

At Trump's Washington DC hotel.

Now, I've always been squeamish with SCOTUS justices giving speeches to ideological organizations - regardless of the ideology in question; something about that just doesn't smell right. Gorsuch's address to the Fund for American Studies at Trump's hotel comes just days before the first Monday in October, when the Court's term kicks off; their docket includes Trump's travel ban. That leaves a bad taste in my mouth, to go along with the smell.

In contrast, some organizations are coming to the decision that holding big charity functions at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Winter White House and home of the 'Have Your Photo Taken with the Football' event. David Farenthold, a reporter for the Washington Post who has been focusing on Trump businesses and charitable acts (or the lack thereof), is reporting that seven organizations have moved from the 'yes we'll be back' column to the 'no, we won't' column. Groups include the Susan G Komen Foundation, the Cleveland Clinic, the American Cancer Society, the Salvation Army, and the Red Cross, which has cancelled its event all together.

So here's a question for you: how long before the president starts attacking these organizations on Twitter? We all know how he hates when people do mean things to him, and taking high profile events away from his beloved Mar-a Lago sure counts as mean.  This has to be way up there on his list of acts requiring retribution. And not only that, but will his base stop donating to these organizations?

On another topic, it seems historians and others have noticed a striking resemblance between monuments to Union soldiers and to Confederate soldiers.  The Washington Post has a story today that includes these two pictures. I know people have long said that the Civil War had brother fighting brother - can you tell who's Blue and who's Grey?

from the Washington Post

That's Union on the left as you look at the pic, and Confederate on the right. The difference? The belt buckles - US for the North, CS for the South. As the article notes,

To the Monumental Bronze Co. in Bridgeport, Conn., it was all just business. Union or Confederate, a customer was a customer, another $450 for a zinc statue that could mean whatever you needed it to mean. It was a business model that could appeal to president Trump - a highly profitable product that could dress up a drab little town and make many Americans feel great again.

One American who's not feeling great again is Susan Bro. The mom of Charlottesville terrorism victim Heather Heyer, Bro has said in an interview that she has received death threats sand that she's not interested in talking to the president.

It seems the White House has reached out a few times, including the first time which might have actually been during Heather's memorial service; there were others after that as well. Bro was too tired to watch the news, and when she did, her opinion changed dramatically - after all, she had thanked Trump earlier in the week for his kind words. But now?

I hadn't really watched the news until last night and I'm not talking to the president now. I'm sorry, after what he said about my child. It's not that I saw somebody else's tweets about him, I saw an actual clip of him at a press conference equating the protesters...with the KKK and the white supremacists. You can't wash this one away by shaking my hand and saying "I'm sorry." I'm not forgiving for that. 

She also offered some advice for Trump:

Think before you speak. 

And finally, one more touch on the #MAGA theme. Trump has been telling us that Foxconn, the foreign company that makes electronics (including Apple products) in Taiwan, was going to be opening a factory in Wisconsin. Jobs, jobs jobs, he told us - that'll keep us from treating each other like crap, quell the racism and white supremacy and whatnot.

For some reason, when I heard the president going on and on about these great Foxconn jobs, I wasn't thinking we were buying those jobs through a massive corporate welfare program, did you?
Well, that's exactly what happened.

The Wisconsin state Assembly reached a deal on the economic development package for Foxconn, which will be putting its new factory in House Speaker Paul Ryan's district. I kid you not. Anyway, the deal is worth $3B -- billion with a B - in mostly cash incentives. The plant will eventually employ 13,000 people (less than the 50K the company said they wanted to create here) and average wages will be around $54K for the first 3,000 hired.

Oh - those incentives? The break-even point on that investment is not expected to hit for at least 25 years.

TGIF.

Wondering on Wednesday (v99)

As I write this post, on lunch break from my day job, things seem pretty quiet out there.

Oh, sure - people are calling for Trump's impeachment or resignation; defenders are defending and detractors are detracting, and there's still a ton of head-shaking going on about the press conference yesterday. That all matters, somehow, but something else that happened today matters more.

A memorial service was held today to honor and remember Heather Heyer, the Charlottesville "road rage" victim. Honestly, that's how some on the alt-right are describing her murder. I won't go into details on other comments, nor will I provide the link to the article, but it's out there.

Heyer's mother, Susan Bro, spoke eloquently about how her daughter should be remembered.

My child’s famous Facebook post was: "If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention." She paid attention. She made a lot of us pay attention. Oh, my gosh, dinner with her, we knew, was going to be an ordeal of listening. And conversation. And perhaps disagreement, but it was going to happen. And so, my husband would say, "OK, I’m going to go out in the car and play on my video game for a while." And we would sit and would grill. And she and I would talk, and I would listen. And we would negotiate, and I would listen.

And we talked about all this stuff. We talked about politics. We talked about anything that caught her eye that she felt was fair, unfair. She’d talk about her feelings about the office and how things were going. I mean, she just talked. The girl loved to talk. And she was single, so there was nobody to listen at home, so mama got a lot of it. And that was wonderful.

You never think you’re going to bury your child. You never think to take those pictures. They asked me for pictures for this, and I struggled. I had pictures from her childhood. But I had to go to Facebook to find pictures of my child, because we were always together. I saw her a couple times a month, at least, and we would text each other fairly often, and we would Facebook message at bedtime, "I love you," "I love you. You doing OK?" "Yeah, I love you." So I have no regrets on that part. Take pictures of the ones that you love, because you don’t know when they’re not going to be there. 

But here’s what I want to say to you today. This could be a storm in a teacup, and it could all be for nothing. This could have—I could have said, "Let’s don’t do this publicly. Let’s have a small private funeral." But, you know, that’s not who Heather was. Anybody who knew Heather said, "Yeah, this is the way she had to go, big and large." Had to have the world involved, because that’s my child. She’s just that way. Always has been, and she will continue to be.

Because here’s the message. Although Heather was a caring and compassionate person, so are a lot of you. A lot of you go that extra mile. And I think the reason that what happened to Heather has struck a chord is because we know that what she did is achievable. We don’t all have to die. We don’t all have to sacrifice our lives. They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well, guess what. You just magnified her.  

So, here’s what I want to happen. You ask me, "What can I do?" So many caring people, pages of pages of pages of stuff I’m going through. I’m reading pages of pages of pages how she’s touching the world. I want this to spread. I don’t want this to die. This is just the beginning of Heather’s legacy. This is not the end of Heather’s legacy. 

You need to find in your heart that small spark of accountability. What is there that I can do to make the world a better place? What injustice do I see—and want to turn away: "I don’t really want to get involved in that. I don’t want to speak up. They’ll be annoyed with me. My boss might think less of me." I don’t care. You poke that finger at yourself, like Heather would have done, and you make it happen. You take that extra step. You find a way to make a difference in the world. 

My child had a high school education. My child was no saint. She was hard to raise, because everything was a negotiation. Not kidding. But you know what? She was a firm believer in whatever she believed. And let’s do that. Let’s find that spark of conviction. Let’s find in ourselves that action. Let’s spread this. Let’s have the uncomfortable dialogue.

It ain’t easy sitting down and saying, "Well, why are you upset?" It ain’t easy sitting down and going, "Yeah, well, I think this way. And I don’t agree with you, but I’m going to respectfully listen to what you have to say. We’re not going to sit around and shake hands and go 'Kumbaya.' And I’m sorry, it’s not all about forgiveness. I know that that’s not a popular trend. But the truth is, we are going to have our differences. We are going to be angry with each other. But let’s channel that anger, not into hate, not into violence, not into fear, but let’s channel that difference, that anger, into righteous action." 

Right now, down the road, there is a blood drive going on in Heather’s name. Right now, there are people who are here willing to listen to one another and talk to one another. Last night in New England, they had a peaceful rally in Heather’s name to have some difficult dialogues. If you ever want to see what one of those dialogues looks like, look at her Facebook post. I’m telling you, they were rough sometimes. But they were dialogues. And the conversations have to happen. That’s the only way we’re going to carry Heather’s spark through.

So, remember in your heart: If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention. And I want you to pay attention, find what’s wrong. Don’t ignore it. Don’t look the other way. You make it a point to look at it, and say to yourself, "What can I do to make a difference?" And that’s how you’re going to make my child’s death worthwhile. I’d rather have my child, but, by golly, if I got to give her up, we’re going to make it count.

You know what I'm wondering today, right? The questions are right in front of us.

Will we poke that finger at ourselves, and make something happen, 

make a difference?

Will we find the spark of conviction, and be true to our values,

even if it's hard?

What about those difficult dialogues? Can we have those? Will we?

Will we pay attention, or just turn on the TV 

and watch football, as a friend of mine suggested (probably correctly)?

Will we really make Heather Heyer's death count for something? 

The alternative, as the president seems to have suggested, is that we go back to our selfish worlds, focusing on those great jobs, our great deregulated economy, our own individual universes, Made Great Again? 

I wonder: Are we Heather, or are we Trump?

Trump Charlottesville Take 3

The more he speaks, the more I cringe. Trump let his freak flag fly at a press conference today, addressing again the murder in Charlottesville of Heather Heyer, who died when a white supremacist apparently purposefully gunned his car into the back of a group of people.

Want some examples? Here's why it took 48 hours to get his second statement out. 

I wanted to make sure — unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct. Not make a quick statement. The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement. But you don't make statements that direct unless you know the facts. It takes a little while to get the facts. You still don't know the facts, and it's a very, very important process to me, and it's a very important statement, so I don't want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts. If you go back to — I brought it. I brought it. I brought it. As I said — remember this, Saturday — we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America, and then I went on from there. Now, here's the thing. Excuse me, excuse me. Take it nice and easy. Here's the thing. When I make a statement, I like to be correct. I want the facts. This event just happened. In fact, a lot of the event didn't even happen yet, as we were speaking. This event just happened. Before I make a statement, I need the facts, so I don't want to rush into a statement.

So, making the statement when I made it was excellent. In fact, the young woman, who I hear is a fantastic young woman — and it was on NBC — her mother wrote me and said — through I guess Twitter, social media — the nicest things, and I very much appreciated that. I hear she was a fine, really actually an incredible young woman. But her mother on Twitter thanked me for what I said. And honestly, if the press were not fake and if it was honest, the press would have said what I said was very nice. But unlike you and unlike — excuse me — unlike you and unlike the media, before I make a statement I like to know the facts.

Um... I don't even know where to start. Maybe birtherism? I'm pretty sure you still owe us the 'facts' on that one.  And the young woman who you hear is a fantastic young woman, a fine, really actually an incredible young woman? Her name is Heather Heyer. Say her name. Pick up the phone, have a conversation with her mother. 

Here's another, on whether the CEO of WalMart was correct that a critical opportunity was missed in helping bring the country together. 

Not at all. I think the country — look, you take a look. I've created over a million jobs since I'm president. The country is booming, the stock market is setting records. We have the highest employment numbers we've ever had in the history of our country. We're doing record business. We have the highest levels of enthusiasm. So, the head of WalMart, whom I know, who is a very nice guy, was making a political statement. I mean, I do it the same way. You know why? Because I want to make sure, when I make a statement that the statement is correct, and there was no way — there was no way of making a correct statement that early. I had to see the facts, unlike a lot of reporters — unlike a lot of reporters. I know, David Duke was there. I wanted to see the facts, and the facts as they started coming out were very well-stated. In fact, everybody said his statement was beautiful. If he would have made it sooner, that would have been good. I couldn't have made it sooner because I didn't know all of the facts. Frankly, people still don't know all of the facts. It was very important — excuse me, excuse me. It was very important to me to get the facts out and correctly, because if I would have made a fast statement — and the first statement was made without knowing much other than what we were seeing. The second statement was made with knowledge, with great knowledge. There's still things — excuse me, there's still things that people don't know. I want to make a statement with knowledge. I wanted to know the facts. Okay.

No, no, no, no -- seriously: you were asked if you missed a critical opportunity to bring the country together, and THAT was your answer? #WhatTheEverlovingSniff

How about throwing Steve Bannon under the bus, are you willing to do that? Sorry, that was the answer, not the question - the question was "do you still have confidence in Steve?"

Well, we'll see. Look, I like Mr. Bannon, he's a friend of mine, but Mr. Bannon came on very late — you know that. I went through 17 senators, governors and I won all the primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that, and I like him, he's a good man. He is not a racist, I can tell you that. He's a good person, he actually gets a very unfair press in that regard. But we'll see what happens with Mr. Bannon, but he's a good person and I think the press treats him frankly very unfairly.

Hey Steve, get Reince on the phone, maybe he can pick you up and give you a ride home? Unless, I drag you on a junket with me and kick you out of the big boy car like I did to him, that was fun.

Is the president concerned about race relations, are they better or worse since he took office? 

I think they have gotten better- or the same- I- look. They've been frayed for a long time, and you can ask President Obama about that because he'd make speeches about it. But, I believe that the fact that I brought in, it will be soon, millions of jobs — you see where companies are moving back into our country — I think that's going to have a tremendous positive impact on race relations. We have companies coming back into our country, we have two car companies that just announced, we have FoxConn in Wisconsin just announced. We have many companies, I say pouring back into the country. I think that's going to have a huge, positive impact on race relations. You know why? It's jobs. What people want now, they want jobs. They want great jobs with good pay and, when they have that, you watch how race relations will be. 

I gotta tell you, I think people marching around giving Nazi salutes don't really give a good goddamn about jobs. Unless "Jew will not replace me" means "I can't wait to go work in a coal mine."

How about reaching out to Heather Heyer's family, have you done that yet?

No, I'll be reaching out. I'll be reaching out. 

When will you be reaching out?

I was very — I thought that the statement put out, the mother's statement, I thought was a beautiful statement. I must tell you, I was- it was something that I really appreciated. I thought it was terrific, and really under the- under the kind of stress that she's under and the heartache that she's under, I thought putting out that statement to me was really something I won't forget. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.

One more. When asked if he was going to go to Charlottesville, not for a golfing vacation or anything like that, but you know, to help heal the wounds and presidential stuff. 

I own a house in Charlottesville. Does anyone know I own a house in Charlottesville?  (Reporter: Where is it?)

Oh, boy, it's going to be- it's in Charlottesville, you'll see. (Reporter: Is it in the winery or something?)

It's a- it is the winery.

I mean, I know a lot about Charlottesville. Charlottesville is a great place that's been very badly hurt over the last couple of days. I own- I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States that's in Charlottesville.

Before you make a statement, you need to know the facts. You would not want to make a statement without knowing the facts. You still don't know the facts, and it's a very important process to me. 

Trump Charlottesville, Take 2

The president, after being hammered left, right and center for his wishy-washy condemnation of the 'Sad!' actions in Charlottesville on Saturday, took another stab at it today. 

His initial comments, which you can see in their entirety here, did not specifically condemn the alt-right, KKK, Nazi, White Supremacist, White Nationalist provocateurs who were behind the 'Unite the Right' rally that ultimately led to the murder of Heather Heyer, and peripherally the accident which took the lives of Virginia State Troopers Jay Cullen and Berke Bates. Instead, he mentioned the 'many sides' who, by his comments, were equally responsible for the death and destruction. 

An anonymous spokesperson at the White House on Sunday tried to help the president out, saying that those specific groups were included in Trump's comments, even though he didn't actually say name them, or any others. 

So, today he did - after, of course, patting himself on the back about the stock market and optimism, and companies moving back to America, yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah. 

...We will be discussing economic issues in greater detail later this afternoon, but, based on the events that took place over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, I would like to provide the nation with an update on the ongoing federal response to the horrific attack and violence that was witnessed by everyone.

I just met with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American and wounded 20 others. To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered.

 As I said on Saturday, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence. It has no place in America.

And as I have said many times before: No matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God. We must love each other, show affection for each other, and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry, and violence. We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.

Racism is evil.  And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans...

That he can lash out at radical Islamic terrorism immediately, no matter where it occurs around the world and have to be prodded into saying Nazi, KKK and White Supremacist speaks volumes. That his daughter responded significantly more appropriately on Saturday than he did speaks volumes. 

Also speaking volumes? Two members of his American Manufacturing Council have resigned. Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour, was the second to leave the group, posting this message on Twitter this evening:

The first to resign was Kevin Frazier, the head of Merck, who offered his statement this morning, before Trump's comments:

Trump's response was predictably quick and predictably personal - in fact, he had to respond twice, some nine hours apart:

We'll have to see how long it takes Trump to attack Under Armour, if he does at all. Kevin Plank, after all, supported Trump shortly after the inauguration, causing a great deal of angst among the company's stable of athletes and personalities. Plank has since commented publicly and politely about the Muslim ban (against) and about Trump leaving the Paris Accord (against), but as a businessman I suspect Trump would understand the need to protect a brand.

However, UA's list of suppliers is prime for a Trump attack: only one American supplier. The rest: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Columbia, Egypt, El Salvador... you get the drift. We'll have to see if we get a tweet storm tomorrow morning. 

Oh -- speaking of Twitter, I'll leave you with this loving and affectionate shot at the media from Trump.

No Skin in the Game

The president's full statement yesterday afternoon on Charlottesville makes it pretty clear he has no skin in the game. 

A man apparently incapable of speaking with any emotion unless he's talking about himself, bashing others (bad hombres, Muslims, members of the judiciary, his opponents, other Republicans, a Gold Star family, a bona fide American hero, members of his cabinet, former presidents, foreign allies, members of the media, etc.) or gushing about dictators and other horrible people, had this to say yesterday afternoon.  The words are his; the emphasis is mine. 

Thank you very much. As you know, this was a small press conference, but a very important one. And it was scheduled to talk about the great things that we're doing with the secretary on the veterans administration. And we will talk about that very much so in a little while. But I thought I should put out a comment as to what's going on in Charlottesville. So, again, I want to thank everybody for being here, in particular I want to thank our incredible veterans. And thank you, fellas. Let me shake your hand. They're great people. Great people.

Yeah, I guess as president, you should say something about a clash between White Supremacists, or White Nationalists (sorry - it seems they prefer the less direct term) carrying Nazi flags, Confederate flags, some wearing KKK regalia, and counter-protesters, the 'antifa' or anti-fascists. 

 But we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence (on many sides--on many sides). It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, this has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America. What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives. No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society. And no child should ever be afraid to go outside and play or be with their parents and have a good time.

Many, many sides? Really? What side is it that drove the car into the crowd? Was that many, many sides, or was it just one side?  And whatever are you thinking, talking about children going outside to play or "have a good time" with their parents? Is that what they were showing on Fox News? 

I just got off the phone with the governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, and we agree that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now. We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation and true affection-- really, I say this so strongly, true affection for each other.

Have I missed your affectionate offerings of olive branches to any of the millions of Americans you have offended since becoming a presidential candidate (and before).

Our country is doing very well in so many ways. We have record -- just absolute record employment. We have unemployment the lowest it's been in almost 17 years. We have companies pouring into our country, Foxconn and car companies and so many others. They're coming back to our country. We're renegotiating trade deals to make them great for our country and great for the American worker.

An act of terrorism just occurred in Charlottesville, and as president you can't help talking about your record, such as it is, after seven months in office? Do you really think that anyone gives a rat, at the moment domestic terrorism occurred in Virginia, about NAFTA and China? 

We have so many incredible things happening in our country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me it's very, very sad. I want to salute the great work of the state and local police in Virginia. Incredible people. Law enforcement, incredible people. And also the National Guard. They've really been working smart and working hard. They've been doing a terrific job. Federal authorities are also providing tremendous support to the governor. He thanked me for that. And we are here to provide whatever other assistance is needed. We are ready, willing and able. 

Never mind that some question the response of law enforcement during the altercations before the 20-year old terrorist drove his car into a crowd marching in the opposite direction, including a hands off, stand down approach according to some - just make sure to mention yourself.

Above all else, we must remember this truth: No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our country. We love our god.

Never mind that the Unite the Right rally participants apparently don't share your thinking that we all love the same god - nor do many Americans who don't worship 'your' god. Never mind that many of us don't worship a god at all - and we too, are Americans, just like you. 

We love our flag. We're proud of our country. We're proud of who we are, so we want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it. And we want to see what we're doing wrong as a country where things like this can happen.

For starters, I suggest you study your own words, your campaign rallies, your tweets, your interviews, and more. And then study this Michael Jackson classic.  Or, you could study David Duke; he's certainly studied you:

We are determined to take our country back... We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That's what we believed in. That's why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he's going to take our country back.

Or, maybe you could study Steve Bannon, or Sebastian Gorka or your friend Alex Jones. Anyway, let's continue with your statement:

My administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this nation and its citizens, but our citizens must also restore the bonds of trust and loyalty between one another. 

#WhatTheEverlovingSniff are you even talking about - "the sacred bonds of loyalty" between the country and its citizens? That's truly laughable given your appointments, your pronouncements, your actions, your exhortations of division throughout your official political career.

We must love each other, respect each other and cherish our history and our future together. So important. We have to respect each other.

If you had any skin in this game, you'd know that it is our very history that brought the alt-right and the antifa groups to Charlottesville in the first place. It is our very history - slavery, discrimination, criminalization, and more - that the alt-right and others absolutely do not agree on, will never agree on, and will never 'cherish together.'

And our future is a joint venture only in that it is our future - but it is not, again, a 'cherish together' future in the eyes of many, when one group wants to eliminate the other, oppress the other, stake a higher claim on their Americanism than the other - or it feels that way to the other side, whether it's angry white men like the ones on the alr-right or their opponents like the ones that were mowed down. What history and future are you cherishing, and with whom?

If you had any skin in the game, you would not be spouting emotionless, #MAGAfortunecookiebullshit -- you'd be screaming "radical right-wing terrorism" from the roof of the White House as you did "radical Islamic terrorism" so many times over the years.

Ideally, we have to love each other.

You actually said that? Tell you what -- you go first. Move on us like a bitch and show us the love.

Get rid of the alt-right members of your administration. Take back a single hateful discriminatory, sexist, violent comment you've made just in the last two years. Apologize to a single person - not a whole race, religion, or country - just a single person.

Try loving someone else for a change.

OrangeVerse XIV: The Apprentice

The working vacation at Bedminster has been a goldmine for poetry lovers. Here's one exercise in free verse, on jobs and women and stuff. With Trump were Labor Secretary Rene Acosta, Secretary of (destroying) Education Betsy DeVos, and the First Daughter.  

This Stuff is Very Hard

Thank you...for joining us today.

And thank you 

all because we 

have been working

very hard on being sure that

Americans have the training

they need for

the jobs in the future.

Namedropping

I also want to thank Ivanka,

my daughter,

for her leadership

on workforce training

and her efforts.

You're working very

very hard

to create new economic opportunities

for women across America

and, actually

for women across the world.

You've been working with the 

Chancellor of Germany

on helping women all over the world.

Enormously Optimistic

In the past seven months

we've made enormous gains

in getting Americans

back to work.

The stock market is

at record highs

Unemployment is at a 16-year low

And manufacturers have never

expressed more optimism about the future.

The optimism

has been incredible.

Moving on Back

We have a lot of companies

moving back to our country.

You're probably seeing that.

Two major automobile companies

just announced they're moving back...

and they're going to build

major plants.

They're looking for the site.

They're putting it out

to seven or eight

different states

and they're going to be

very happy

building in the United States.

It's going

to work out

very well for them.

Who More Than Me?

That's why...

we began a historic initiative

to expand apprenticeships and

workforce training programs

in all industries. 

We're expanding

pathways to success.

So important.

And apprenticeships are one of the

many avenues that lead to the great jobs

completely debt free.

And who knows more about 

the work 'apprentice' 

than Donald Trump?

The Best Part of Waking Up

In fact, under the apprenticeship

you earn while you learn.

So important and so great.

And you love getting up

in the morning

and going to work

and a lot of great things

involved here.

Grab the Brass, er, Ring 

We're also here today

to discuss additional steps

we will be taking to

expand apprenticeship programs,

especially for women and minorities

in STEM fields where

women have been 

truly under-represented - really

I guess you could say

under-represented

for many, many decades.

 You Go, Girls!

Technology has become a part

of nearly every industry

from manufacturing

to retailing.

And we want

all of our citizens

every single citizen

including women and minorities

to have access to 

high paying tech jobs and

other STEM related jobs.

You Are Aware, Right?

American workers are the best

there is anywhere in the world

and we're finding work for them.

They built the

skyscrapers of our cities

the roads and bridges

across our land

and we'll be building plenty of

new roads and bridges

by the way - 

the technology that has

revolutionized the glob

and so much more,

as you're well aware.

 I Like it on Top...

Their skills, talent and grit

have always put America on top.

And we're going to 

remain on top

at a much higher level

than we are right now.

And speaking of now

it is our job

to make sure that

they have the training

immediately!

to lead us to the future.

And I Like it Down Low

We have

great, great hope

We have a

great, great future

in this country.

There's never been

more optimism.

And again, unemployment at

a 16-year low.

Any Questions?

So we're honored to have all of you.

Mr. Secretary, thank you

very much.

Betsy, thank you

very much.

We appreciate it.

And Ivanka,

congratulations on

working

so hard. 

We really do

appreciate it.

Thank you.

Any questions?