TGIF 8/14/20

Last week's TGIF was all 'good week' stuff, but that's not the case this week. The pendulum swings, as they say. 

For example, here's a list of fun things from Fox News, recapping some headlines:

Trump Seeks to Starve Post Office to Limit Mail-in Voting (WaPo): “President Trump said Thursday that he does not want to fund the U.S. Postal Service because Democrats are seeking to expand mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic, making explicit the reason he has declined to approve $25 billion in emergency funding for the cash-strapped agency....

Trump tells Barr and prosecutor to bring Biden down quickly (TPM): “President Trump on Thursday issued an ultimatum to Attorney General Bill Barr over the months-long probe led by U.S. Attorney John Durham, whom Barr tapped last year to investigate the origins of the Russia probe... The President added that Barr is ‘great most of the time’ but that ‘he’ll be just another guy’ if he ‘wants to be politically correct.’ 

Personnel office clears Trump acceptance speech at White House (CBS News): “The U.S. Office of Special Counsel confirmed federal law does not preclude President Trump from delivering a speech at the White House to accept the GOP's presidential nomination during this month's Republican National Convention. The president and the vice president are not covered by any provisions of the Hatch Act,’ Erica Hamrick, deputy chief of the office's Hatch Act Unit, told Maloney in a letter Wednesday. ‘Accordingly, the Hatch Act does not prohibit President Trump from delivering his RNC acceptance speech on White House grounds.’”

That last one, though? I mean, the president has multiple properties where he could host his own party - heck, he held an official press conference with hooting and hollering from members of his golf club in the back of the room.

To the delight of club members in pastel-colored polo shirts and golf cleats who, at times, sounded like a sitcom laugh track for the president’s jabs at Democrats and the press, the president put on back-to-back shows in the ballroom of his property.

How about the new birther attacks, suggesting that Kamala Harris is not eligible to be Joe Biden's VP because, you know, she was born in the USA.  Does that sound familiar to anyone, maybe from a few years ago? And now, maybe trying to keep another person of color out of the White House? This is a tried and true tactic of the Trump squad; you can hear Tamara Keith's reporting that it's playing out in living color - again from tonight's All Things Considered.

And speaking of things being considered, it seems that the president's propensity to surround himself with 'acting' officials (he likes them a LOT) may have finally bitten him in the proverbial behind.  Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, the top two guys at DHS, are "serving unlawfully in their roles," according to the Government Accountability Office.

According to the GAO, Trump’s installation of Wolf and Cuccinelli violated the law because of the sequence of events following the resignation of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in April 2019. The official who assumed the title of acting secretary at that time, Kevin McAleenan, had not been designated in the order of succession, the GAO said. 

Subsequent personnel moves were also therefore illegitimate, and Wolf and Cuccinelli are serving under “an invalid order of succession,” the agency found. The GAO said that it was referring the matter to the DHS inspector general for review and that any further actions would be up to Congress and the IG’s office.

Now, we can almost predict what'll happen next, right? The DHS IG will get the report soon, and then the IG will be demoted and reassigned to working the night shift at some East Podunkian outpost or something, or will be stonewalled by the DHS and or the AG or the Oval, and then Mitch McConnell will suddenly bring these applicable committee back to approve the appointments and blahdittyblahblahblah and no one will pay attention to just another footnote in the annals of the unethical, unprofessional acts that have occurred in the Trump era.

But wouldn't it be nice if these two had to step aside and the rules actually were followed?  A girl can dream, can't she?

Speaking of ethics and golf and Trump, he's said to be visiting his brother in a NYC hospital before heading to his Bedminster property once again. Bedminster, in New Jersey, is where he'll receive the endorsement of the NYC Police Union.

This weekend’s trip to Trump National Bedminster is the president’s 23rd since taking office, and will increase his golf-related taxpayer tab to $142 million in travel and security expenses. Each trip to Bedminster costs taxpayers about $1.1 million, compared to $3.4 million per trip for his visits to Mar-a-Lago, of which there have been 30. Trump has also visited his golf courses in Los Angeles, Scotland, Ireland and Doral, Florida, beside the Miami airport, all on the taxpayer dime.

Trump frequently criticized his predecessor, Barack Obama, for playing too much golf, and promised during his campaign that he would be too busy to take any time off. “I just want to stay in the White House and work my ass off,” he said at a February 2016 rally.

I think it's safe to say that he's totally missed the mark on that last statement.

TGIF, everyone.

Sunday School 7/7/19

I visited two classrooms today, Face the Nation on CBS and Fox News Sunday on the Trump News Network. In both cases, the guest I was interested in hearing was Ken Cuccinelli. He's the acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services - they're the folks who decide who can legally come into the country.

Cuccinelli has not been officially nominated to his role, and so has not had any Senate committee confirmation hearings; he's been on the job only since June, but he has a record as an immigration hard-liner and of defending the president on television, so I would presume he's one of those 'only the best people' people. Hopefully, we might be able to find out if that's the case.

On Fox News Sunday, Dana Perino was sitting in for the "anti-Conservative" Chris Wallace (that according to a social media comment I saw earlier today), and asked about the citizenship question on the census. Cuccinelli said he thinks the question will be on the census, adding

I think the president has expressed determination. He's noticed the Supreme Court didn't say this can't be asked, They said they didn't appreciate the process by which it came forward the first time. So the president is determined to fix that, and to have it roll forward in the 2020 census. 

Perino had played the tape of the president stating his new favorite reason for adding the question, since the Supremes shot down the fake "protect the Voting Rights Act" nonsense the administration tried the first time. Here's what Trump said the other day.

You need it for Congress for redistricting. You need it for appropriations. Where are the funds going? How many people are there? Are they citizens? Are they not citizens? You need it for many reasons.

When asked if there was any kind of legal concern the president's statement given that the big question is why they wanted to ask it in the first place, Cuccinelli said

Well, and I think the answer is there are many reasons. He listed a few there, starting with the one you mentioned. But it isn't -- it isn't the only one. There are lots of reasons. For my agency, distribution of work can be considered. I mean, there's all sorts of other things. Right now, we are redistricting our workload among our district offices and our regional offices to level that workload and as it shifts around the country we shift, and knowing where that work is coming from is helpful.

Perino stated, without offering any evidence, "I know that there are some groups that have been trying to help people who are here illegally to be able to not be found by our government," which Cuccinelli referred to as 'harboring.' Perino wondered if the raids could be successful it people knew the feds were coming for them. Cuccinelli said that was a potential threat to officer safety. And, he said,

And the president commented, I don't call these raids, I would agree with him. This is just what ICE is supposed to do. The fact that we've fallen to the point where we're talking about it like it's news tells you how far we have fallen in the enforcement side. I mean, it's the most violated federal court order in America.