TGIF 3/16/18

It's Friday! March Madness! St. Patrick's Day Eve!

What more could one ask for?  Well, let's see - not being these folks?

Donald Trump Jr.'s wife filed for divorce this week, which I'm sure was not a surprise to him, the way it came out so cleanly and without a whole lot of fanfare or acrimony.

Although, according to reports Mrs. Trump has retained a criminal attorney to handle her case. Divorce is rarely pleasant for anyone involved, especially kids (the Trump Jr.'s have five), and it would be worse if there were bad acts outside the ones that usually lead to the dissolution of a marriage.  If she truly needs a criminal attorney, versus your typical garden-variety high-powered divorce attorney, I hope she and the kids are OK.

Rex Tillerson is out as Sec State; a long running battle orchestrated by the president will soon be over; and  Tillerson, the man who allegedly called the president a bleeping moron can go off into the sunset with his ExxonMobil millions, and a healthy break on capital gains taxes, with the Christmas present we got from the Republican tax cut. There's still some confusion as to whether Trump's General John Kelly let Tillerson know he should resign before he got fired on Twitter, or whether he was just told to watch for a tweet that was related to him. Either way, I'm happy he's out and can go do something else, if he wants, or nothing if he'd rather.

Moving on to others in the Trump circle of influence, I learned this week (others who pay more attention were probably aware sooner) that Judge Roy Moore is broke.  Moore, an alleged sexual predator, was endorsed by the president, an proud sexual predator, but ended up losing his Alabama Senate race to Doug Jones.

In a social media post in which he spoke of  "the liberal media, in association with some who want to destroy our Country..." which apparently include "Gays, lesbians and transgenders" who "have joined forces with those who believe in abortion, sodomy and destruction of all that we hold dear", he asked for money for his legal defense from the women who allege Moore abused them.

Oh - there's this, too, in that plea for money..

PS. The political Left is filled with men and women whose sole aim in life is to overthrow our God-ordained rights which are guaranteed in the US Constitution. It is your responsibility and mine to stand up to this vile encroachment on our rights,and defend that for which the Founding Fathers sacrificed so greatly. Please send a generous gift today to the Roy Moore Legal Defence Fund to help me defeat, once and for all, those who would destroy America in order to usher in their anti-Christian "kingdom." May the lord richly bless you as you stand with me in this critical fight.

And, of course, just the other day another Trump endorsee (with no known sexual abuse allegations against him, as far as I know) lost another special election in a reliably red district.

TGIF.

Trump in Transition (v22)

The photo for today's TiT post is larger than usual, on purpose.

It represents the size of the president's IQ, which, we're to believe, is way more bigly higher than that of Rex Tillerson.

Or, maybe, it represents the size of the president's sense of humor, which, we're to believe, is what the whole "my hands are way more bigly than Rex Tillerson's" tweet was all about.

Oh wait -- did I say hands? I meant IQ. I meant IQ!

Or, maybe, it represents the size of the frustrationburger the president is eating because he's not being bigly recognized enough for what he's doing for Puerto Rico. After all,

Or, maybe, it represents the size of the sigh of relief that the president has sighed, as he's not really been called upon to comment on the Harvey Weinstein thing. Oh sure, Trump said

I've known Harvey Weinstein a long time. I'm not at all surprised to see it.

But that was about as far as things went, other than declaring again that locker room talk is nothing to worry about.

No one called upon him, as a leader, to condemn Weinstein's actions, as they have called upon Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and others to do. And while Weinstein was a Democratic donor, not a GOP donor, should that matter?

Shouldn't the president champion protecting women from all sexual harassment, and all harassers, whether it's  Harvey Weinstein, Bill Clinton, Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly or Donald Trump? And shouldn't he do that without prompting?

Or, maybe, it represents the size of the ego that a person has to have to think that this administration, this president, and Republicans generally, are not getting their fair share of TV time on the late night shows. Look:

Shouldn't he know that when they're talking about him, constantly, it would be almost impossible for him to have more time? Shouldn't he be aware that Fox News is the 24/7 pro-Trump network (a few words from Shep Smith notwithstanding)? And that no one else - no elite Hollywood star, no other politician, no other social media star, has such a thing working in their favor?

In fact, when you consider the amount of coverage Trump gets, it seems that the late night hosts and the Dems should be begging for more time.

What does all of this have to do with Trump transitioning from something into a president? Nothing, I guess -- and everything.

I can't count how many times he told us all he was all about America First, but every day, he does his goodgoddamnest to show us how important it is that he put himself first.

Transitioning away from that might take a while longer.

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.

Wondering on Wednesday (v90)

Where do we start, this Wednesday?

The president is on a big foreign trip: he went to "Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East" and then headed off to the Vatican and Brussels, to meet with the Pope and NATO, respectively.

From all accounts, he was warmly welcomed, at least on the first part of the trip. There were Harleys, and horses, and limos and bigly red carpets everywhere. I wonder if even Trump thought his face would ever be splashed in lights on buildings in a foreign countries?

Social media had fun with the sword dance and the glowing orb, positing that the latter could have been the key to the sinkhole that mysteriously appeared outside Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida; many argued that it wasn't a sinkhole, but rather the gates of hell. I'm not religious, but I'm sure not going to stick my toes into that water.

What else is going on?

Well, the CBO released their assessment of the WeDon'tCare Act, also known the American Health Care Act. The Republicans retooled their plan, you recall, after it failed to garner support pass back in March, and April. When it was revisited earlier this month, it passed with no Democratic support, and 20 Republicans voting no. The new plan, according to the CBO, will cut the deficit by $119 billion, and leave 51 million people without insurance, over the next decade - including as many as 14 million who would lose coverage by next year.  That 51 million uninsured number? That's 23 million more than would be uninsured if the Affordable Care Act were left in place but better than the first version by 1 million people. Yay Republicans!

You know how politicians always claim to "know someone" or "are friends with someone" who is gay, or is looking for work because their job was sent to China or was taken by an illegal immigrant, or who is afraid of being attacked by a Muslim terrorist, or who was killed by the Clintons? Yeah, I wonder how many Republicans are going to be standing in front of  the TV cameras telling us they're "friends with someone" who's going to lose their insurance this year, or who will see an 800% increase in premiums, which is possible, per the CBO, for an older person in a waiver state? Any ideas?

And speaking of standing in front of the cameras, you'll remember the outcry when the president met with those Russian dudes? And allegedly shared military intelligence with them in what seems to have been an off-the-cuff, look-at-me way, according to sources?

I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day.

After initially saying there was nothing to see here, the Administration changed their tune and said that Trump could share intel if he wanted because he's the president, and so on. Detractors called him loose with classified info; supporters point to Obama and Clinton disclosures, as if two lefts make a right.

The point of all this? At that meeting, no members of the American media - not even Fox News or InfoWars - were in the room. Only someone, a photographer, I believe -  from the Russian media. I mean, Putin even offered to give us details on the call, since he had them and no one else did. But that's not what has me wondering.

Nope -- it's the press conference in Saudi Arabia that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held. Without any members of the American media present.  Now I know the Trump administration thinks that only they tell the truth, and that the main stream media is fake news, and they they prefer alternative facts, and they like to tape plastic over the windows at Mar-a-Lago so the press can't look out at the golfer in chief, but do they really think it's appropriate when traveling overseas to hold a press conference with foreign media only?

And finally, there are multiple reports, including one in my local paper, that Carrier will be laying off people at the plant Trump 'saved' in Indianapolis, including close to 300 just before Christmas. I wonder, can this air conditioning plant be saved? And how will the administration spin the job losses? Do they still get credit for the temporary save, if none of the positions move to Mexico?

And in which foreign paper will I find the story?

Sunday School 5/14/2017

It's Mother's Day, so there's only time to visit one classroom today. Let's see what's going on at NBC's Meet the Press, shall we?

Not surprisingly, Chuck Todd and his gang had some discussion on the firing of FBI Director James Comey, and the ever-changing reasons why it happened, and the tweet about "tapes" that Comey better be sure don't exist.

And about their new NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll which shows

• 29% say they approve of Trump's decision to fire Comey;
• 38% say they disapprove;
• about a third say they don't know enough to say;
• 6% say they now have a more favorable opinion of the president;
• 30% say the firing gave them a less favorable opinion;
• 61% say Trump firing Comey had no impact on their opinion of him;
• 46% say Trump did it to slow down the Russia investigation; and 
• 38% believe the original excuse, er, explanation.

Interesting what that says about us, isn't it?

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham was on the show; one of the key points he made was that the next director should come from within the ranks of the FBI and not be a political person.

I think it's now the time to pick someone who comes from within the ranks or has such a reputation that has no political background at all that can go into the job on day one. You know who does the FBI director work for? To me, it's like appointing a judge.  The president actually appoints the judge, but the judge is loyal to the law. The president appoints the FBI director, but the FBI director has to be loyal to the law... We got a chance to reset here as a nation. The president has a chance to clean up the mess that he mostly created. He really I think did his staff a disservice by changing the explanation. So I would encourage the president to pick somebody we can all rally around, including those who work in the FBI.

I can't agree with him more, on that. Trump, on the other hand? According to Reuters, there are eleven candidates to replace Comey, including these overtly political choices  Rep. Trey Gowdy (because Benghazi!) and Senator John Cornyn (because Texas, I guess) as well as former Rep. Mike Rogers, who was on the transition team. Acting Director Andy McCabe is on the list, likely as a courtesy, since he was a little too honest (and therefore disloyal to Trump) in his testimony before Congress. 

Graham also suggested it was premature to call for an independent examination, and that so far he has not seen any evidence of improper business dealings between Russia and the Trump Organization. 

Also on the show? NY's Chuck Schumer, senior Democrat in the Senate. Schumer prefers a special prosecutor, someone who could only be fired for cause, among other reasons, and he agrees with Graham that the new director should be apolitical. 

Rex Tillerson appeared via pre-recorded interview. He talked about how he and Trump and the world need a better relationship between America and Russia.

I think it's largely viewed that it is not healthy for the world. It's certainly not healthy for us, for the America people, our national security interest and otherwise, for this relationship to remain at this low level. Whether we can improve it or not remains to be seen.  It's going to take some time. It's going to take a lot of hard work. But I think the president's committed, rightly so, and I'm committed with him as well, to see if we cannot do something to put us on a better footing in our relationship with Russia.

He also got into the whole 'values vs. policy' conversation, stemming from his message to State Department employees that placing too much emphasis on our values, while trying to conduct foreign policy "creates obstacles" to moving our national interests forward.

To clarify, here's what he said.

...America's values of freedom, of treatment of people, human dignity, freedom of expression throughout the world, those are our values. Those are enduring values. They are a part of everything we do... But I make a distinction between values and policy. A policy has to be tailored to the individual situation. To the country. To its circumstances. To the broader issues that we are addressing in terms of advancing our national security interest, our national economic interest. 

And so policies have to be adaptable. They have to change. They have to adjust to conditions. But our values can never change. Our values can never put in a position of having to be compromised. And so the values guide our policy, but if we put our values in the front of our policies and say "this is our policy" we have no room to adapt to changing circumstances to achieve our ultimate objective.  And I think if we are successful in achieving out ultimate diplomatic and national security objectives, we will create conditions for the advancement of freedom in countries all over the world.  

Part of me understands what he's saying. I mean, we've long dealt with distasteful allies when it was expedient to do so; sometimes it's been covertly, sometimes overtly.

But another part of me hears what he's saying, and thinks this is the type of thinking that allows people and companies to do the wrong thing to advance their interests. This is why people, and companies, do things to get ahead that they know is wrong.

And this is why, when the president thinks of himself as the deal maker in chief and fills his cabinet with businessmen of the same ilk, we wonder when the values and ethics part will move to the front of the room.

Speaking of the front of room, that's where the light switch is. See you around campus.

Trump in Transition (v9)

I've been neglecting the Trump in Transition (TiT) posts, sorry. Let's see if I can pick up where we left off.

I covered the once-a-racist Attorney General, and the public education dismantler, and I covered the guy who actually shared our secrets with foreigners, and I covered the climate change denier at EPA, and the public humiliation of Mitt Romney, who was paraded in and out of Trump Tower and a nice restaurant, only to be passed over for Secretary of State.

The man who was chosen? Rex Tillerson.

You mean, before the announcement last week, you had never heard of him? That's OK. Here's what you need to know:

Rex Tillerson's career is the embodiment of the American dream. Through hard work, dedication, and smart deal making, Rex rose through the ranks to become CEO of ExxonMobil, one of the world's largest and most respected companies. His tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics make him an excellent choice for Secretary of State. He will promote regional stability and focus on the core national security interests of the United States. Rex knows how to manage a global enterprise, which is crucial to running a successful State Department, and he relationships with leaders all over the world are second to none. I can think of no one more prepared, and no one more dedicate, to serve as Secretary of State at this critical time in our history.

Feel better now? Well, he was an Eagle Scout. And he's got YUGE times to Vlad Putin, so he's got to be good, right?

In those roles (production advisor, president of Exxon Yemen and Esso Exploration, etc.), he was responsible for Exxon's holdings in Russia and the Caspian Sea as well as the Sakhalin I consortium operations offshore Sakhalin Island, Russia.  

Miraculously, Tillerson was independently recommended by both Condi Rice (to Mike Pence) and Robert Gates (to Trump) a day later. The two are consultants to ExxonMobil, by the way - not that there's anything wrong with that. There's also nothing wrong with how Saturday Night Live handled the subject.

There may be something wrong with Tillerson's personal gain if we, say, lift sanctions against Russia, and stuff like that, which will have to be addressed in the extreme vetting process.

Then there was our new ambassador to Israel, NYC bankruptcy attorney David Friedman.  Per the GreatAgain website announcement of the appointment,

With Mr. Friedman's nomination, President-elect Trump expressed his commitment to further enhancing the US-Israel relationship and ensuring there will be extraordinary strategic, technological, military and intelligent cooperation between the two countries.

The announcement also noted that Friedman has "been a long-time friend and trusted advisor" to Trump. As in, he helped Trump with a casino bankruptcy or two.

According to an article in The New Yorker, he also writes for a pro-Israeli settlement website; is supported by the SILOTUS, Jared Kushner; believes the American embassy should be in Jerusalem; has said that President Obama is an anti-Semite, and has said that some liberal Jews, such as those who support a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, are worse than some during the Nazi era.

Finally, are J Street supporters really as bad as kapos? The answer, actually, is no. They are far worse than kapos - Jews who turned in their fellow Jews in the Nazi death camps. The kapos faced extraordinary cruelty and who knows what any of us would have done under those circumstances to save a loved one? But J Street? they are just smug advocates of Israel's destruction delivered from the comfort of their secure American sofas - it's hard to imagine anyone worse.  

Naturally, as with every Trump appointment, there is a great deal of passion from supporters and detractors. And sometimes, there's some interesting insight, like this from the same New Yorker article.  Speaking to David Remnick, who wrote the article, Israeli philosophy professor Avishai Margalit said this about the Trump team.

Everything is an outlier. No one can predict anything. It's not as if there is a deviation and you try to explain it. Everything is deviation.You cannot rationalize it. It's a family business, and they treat the White House as a family business, like Don Corleone. He (Trump) doesn't feel that he has to please anybody. You bully everyone and see what happens. 

And that, my friends, is a fascinating take on how this administration is taking shape.