2017 Feb 7^th

The Texas Rangers are on the case! And what case is that you may ask? It is a truly awful crime and it has, if ever so briefly, dominated the Texas news: Someone has pinched Tom Brady’s jersey. For those of you not familiar with football trivia, Tom Brady is the hero of Super Bowl 51, the man who erased a nearly insurmountable deficit and brought the New England Patriots a very unexpected Super Bowl win.

On a more important topic; many on the snarky left are still talking about two skits from “Saturday Night Live” that aired the night before the Super Bowl and was more enjoyable than football. Melissa McCarthy did an impersonation of Sean Spicer, the Trump administration’s press secretary. Spicer is known for his substantial bias toward reporters from TV networks and newspapers friendly to the administration. Spicer is also known to move very quickly to the next reporter’s question lest the previous questioner ask an embarrassing follow up. Melissa McCarthy’s take off is hilarious and if you missed it just Google Melissa McCarthy and a You Tube replay will come up.

Spicer himself is said to have found the skit humorous. OK, what else could he say? Trump, on the other hand was not laughing. Trump had a problem with the fact that this impersonation was done very effectively by a WOMAN! Trump needs his flunkies to be seen as strong and some are suggesting that this impersonation could jeopardize Sean Spicer’s employment. That’s possible; you remember Trump was unhappy with Spicer’s first performance because (1) he didn’t wear a dark suit;(2) the suit he wore didn’t fit and (3) he didn’t defend Trump’s version of his inaugural crowds forcefully enough. It would be a shame to lose Spicer. He, unlike Kellyanne Conway and most of the other Trumpians, does seem aware that he is acting in a farce.

Then SNL moved to the main event. Steve Bannon made the cover of “Time,” eclipsing the boss at least for this week. Alec Baldwin and the SNLers were right there with a skit. This one had Trump confronting a death character, presumably Bannon. Then Baldwin, wig in place and slack-jawed, had Trump moving from his big desk in the oval office to let the Bannon “death” character sit there while Trump slid into a doll size desk next to Bannon’s.

Trump is a numbers guy: the number of people at his inaugural ceremony, the number of dollars he’s worth, the number of “Time” covers he’s been on. Now he can start counting the number of SNL skits for which he, or his administration, has provided the humor.

Now we wait to hear how the legal fight against his Muslim ban comes out. The order against implementing the ban is only temporary but at last count, eighteen attorneys general had joined the action, Then there are also one hundred high tech companies that have told the administration they aren’t happy about the ban either. This is only partly a humanitarian issue for them, it is also the inability to get the high tech workers they want from these prohibited countries. Is it possible that some companies will open branch factories overseas where they can get these workers? Is Trump’s ill-advised anti-Muslim immigration program going to drive jobs out of the country?

2017 Feb 6^th

Donald Trump was on O’Reilly’s show on Fox news to declare that “we have killed people too.” This remark came when O’Reilly reminded him of the risk people ran if they disagreed with his dear friend Vladimir Putin. His seeming insistence on a moral equivalence between Putin’s Russia and the US has finally aroused the lethargic right wing to respond negatively to their hero, Donald Trump. Even somber Senator McConnell said that any equivalence was nonsense, or words to that effect.

In another attempt to bring the country together Kellyanne Conway continues to fume that none of those “lyin’ journalists” have been fired. Kellyanne does not specify the particular lies, nor the particular journalists, none of whom seem cowed by the possibility of being on Trump’s “enemies list.” We had a presidential enemies list once before; that was shortly before President Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment. Fighting with the press is not good for any politician’s tenure. Trump will learn this if he stays in office long enough…and it he has the ability to learn.

Now we have at least one Republican office holder throwing out physical threats against unruly protestors. (In the eyes of many Republicans, the phrase “unruly protestor” is clearly redundant.)

Dan Adamini, Secretary of the Marquette County, Michigan, Republican Party, made a pair of controversial remarks on his Facebook and Twitter accounts Thursday, Feb. 2. The tweet and Facebook post have since been deleted, but the Michigan Democratic Party shared a screenshot of each in a news release: 

“The violent protests at our universities certainly indicate Portage acacian (I have no idea what Portage acacian means; H) at the lower level. I’m thinking another Kent State might be the only solution protest stopped after only one death. They do it because they know there are no consequences.” (Actually, there were four deaths at Kent State.)

Afamini (Facebook)

Violent protesters who shut down free speech? Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery.

Adamini (Tweet)

Adamini has apologized for his murderous suggestions claiming his words were a “poorly worded tweet.” No they weren’t; they said exactly what Adamini, and probably others like him, wanted to say. You will notice that he hasn’t been thrown out of his Republican Party job in Marquette County. I guess the folks up there believes that advocating the murder of those who disagree with you isn’t so bad…unless you actually do it yourself.

2017 Feb 5^th

The president is now even unhappier than he was yesterday when “so called judge” Hobart of Washington put a stay on his halt to immigration.. Trump asked for an immediate stay on Hobart’s order staying his ban. If this now sounds like a comic opera plot it is because it is a comic opera lot…although it wasn’t intended to be.

To hear the Trumpeters talk about this prohibition we are all of us in mortal danger every hour his ban on immigrants is delayed. When the ban was at least temporarily lifted a mini-flood of happy relatives began arriving. The news showed grandmothers happily greeting their daughters and grandchildren. (Of course we all know these elderly Muslim women were surely hiding Kalashnikovs under their coats.)

Vice President Pence was a guest on “Meet the Press” and he maintained a long face as he spoke of the dreadful dangers Americans faced from terrorists and of the president’s desire to make America safe again. He went into chilling detail about the terrible atrocities committed only a few days ago by a terrorist at the Louvre just outside Paris. At that point Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press” reminded Vice President Pence that the terrorist at the Louvre was Egyptian and that Egyptians were not part of the president’s ban. Then Pence did what every good politician is trained to do; he changed the subject.

Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to the president, presented us with an interesting bit of fiction. She referred to the Bowling Green Massacre, another alt-fact. When it was pointed out, non-too gently, that no such massacre had occurred, Kellyanne claimed that she had miss-spoken ”one word” she had meant to say Bowling Green terrorists instead of Bowling Green massacre. But she had gone on to claim that this non-event had not been covered by the press. But the fact was that two terrorists had been arrested in Bowling Green for providing weapons to foreign terrorists and that event had produced some 90 stories in the press; the massacre had not been covered because it didn’t happen.

Conway also reiterated claims from Trump that his refugee policy is similar to “what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months.” Conway said it was “brand new information” to people that Obama enacted a “six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program.” Breitbart also reported this week that “Obama suspended Iraq refugee program for six months over terrorism fears in 2011.”

As the Washington Post reported, that was not the case. Obama administration officials told The Post that there was never a point when Iraqi resettlement was stopped or banned. In the aftermath of the arrests of the two Iraqis living in Kentucky, the Obama administration imposed more extensive background checks on Iraqi refugees, and the new screening procedures created a dramatic slowdown in visa approvals.

State Department records show there was a significant drop in refugee arrivals from Iraq in 2011, The Post’s Glenn Kessler reported. There were 18,251 in 2010, 6,339 in 2011 and 16,369 in 2012. One news report said the “pace of visa approvals” had “slowed to a crawl,” indicating some were still being approved.

Perhaps there should be a prize for the best fiction from a White House flunky…only one entry per contestant please.

2017 Feb 4^th

It is hardly a surprise to find Trump’s high-handed edicts quickly running afoul of the judiciary. Judge James Robart, of Washington, an appointee of President G.W. Bush, has put a halt to Trump’s ban on immigration. The judge pointed out that no immigrant from any of the banned countries had harmed anyone in this country at least since 9/11. But there was more:
"I'm sorry, there's no other way to put it," Robarts said from the bench. "It's Keystone Cops. It really is. And that's not just me speaking, that's Republican members of Congress."

Well!! You can bet that Trump will rise to this bait and it didn’t take him long to do it. Here is his tweet in response: “The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!”

Of course Judge Robart’s ruling does no such thing; it is an attempt, albeit an unsuccessful attempt, to Keep Donald Trump from making a fool of himself and of his country. Then the Attorney General of Minnesota, Lori Swanson, added this:
“Five federal judges around the country have issued orders that restrict the travel ban executive order. I support strong measures to protect the security of the United States,” she said in a statement Friday. “I also support the bedrock of that security—namely, the Constitution of the United States.” There are now (7 pm) 16 attorneys general appealing Trump’s order.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said late Friday that the Justice Department would appeal the "outrageous" order” at the earliest possible time. Spicer quickly issued an amended statement that deleted "outrageous.” I guess Keystone Cops is about right. When will the congressional Republicans take action to end this national embarrassment?

It is clear that the issue is far from settled; it is also clear that the very pushy political types like Bannon, Conway and Miller have met their match in the former generals and the secretary of state. Bannon is said to have visited Homeland Security Secretary General Kelly to tell him to ease off on his opposition to the green card holder ban. Kelly told Bannon that he was not in the homeland security secretary’s  chain of command, that his only superior was President Trump; bye, bye Bannon.

On a different topic, this one on Black History Month, we have the president commenting about Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born a slave and died in 1895. Trump’s comments about this long-dead man are below:

"I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things," Trump said. "Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice."

Trump added: "Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more black Americans who made America what it is today. Big impact."

Sean Spicer, asked about Trump's comment on Wednesday, sought to clear up how Trump thinks Douglass will be recognized "more and more."

"I think he wants to highlight the contributions that he has made and I think through a lot of the actions and statements that he's going to make, I think the contributions of Frederick Douglass will become more and more," Spicer said.

It is not clear to me, or to others reading Trump’s remarks, that either Trump of Spicer know that Douglass has been dead for over 120 years.

2017 Feb 3^rd

President Trump took advantage of the National Prayer Breakfast to congratulate himself again. An insatiable ego is, by definition, insatiable. Arnold Schwarzenegger has replaced our president at one of his previous jobs, host of “Celebrity Apprentice.” Arnold’s ratings, a critical measure of success, are not as high as Trump’s were when he left that gig some time ago. Naturally, besting another human being at much of anything is a cause for a chortle by our new president, so of course he had to chortle. He suggested that the prayer breakfast attendees should pray for Arnold’s ratings to improve. This, to some of the humorless, might seem like a trivial suggestion for prayer, but a spokesperson for the president assures us that he “was just being light hearted.”

Arnold, who attended the prayer breakfast, responded: This was a dangerous thing to do but Arnold did it anyway. He said that perhaps he and the president should change jobs so that both of their ratings could improve. Ouch! Trump’s ratings as president are in the 40s, the lowest for any newly elected president since new presidents have been rated. You can be sure that our newly minted commander-in-chief is unhappy about that and that this uppity response by Arnold would get a quick reply…and so it did.

Trump doubled down on criticism of his reality TV replacement, writing on Twitter at 8 o‘clock Friday morning that Arnold Schwarzenegger “did a really bad job as governor of California” but is “even worse” as the host of “The Celebrity Apprentice.” So there, Arnold Schwarzenegger, take that. It is now two P.M. Friday afternoon and Arnold has yet to respond. He should quit while he is ahead…and he is way ahead.

Trump continues to be the perfect Russian agent. He has now begun undermining our relationship with one of our oldest allies, Australia.  He had a phone call with Prime Minister Turnbull and he managed to throw a temper tantrum while on the phone. He finally ended the conversation but not before telling Prime Minister Turnbull that this phone conversation was the worst one of the several he had that day. Several Senators, McCain included,  hastened to tell Australians that they are still important to us.

Trump is famous for his unpredictability. He claims this is an advantage because one should not advertise plans to the enemy…but what about friends? This unpredictability could well be unplanned. What evidence is there that Trump, himself, knows what he plans to do from one day to the next, perhaps even one hour to the next. His “unpredictability” has another description… his behavior is erratic. The description of him as “unpredictable” sounds better to his admirers but it still means that the man is erratic. That is a serious concern for someone who has the power to unleash our nuclear arsenal.

2017 Feb 2^nd

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, was on a talk show this morning.  The issue was General Flynn’s recent remarks to Iran following one of their missile launches; he told them that they “were on notice.” This is like a nervous kid shaking his fist at an antagonist who is two full blocks away. Corker was asked about Iran and asserted that there needed to be “pushbacks” against Iran’s many offenses. One of the program’s pundits, Willie Geist, asked the Senator what these “pushbacks” should be, if there should be more sanctions or if there should be military action.

The Senator was obviously blindsided by this unexpected need to be specific. No one should ever ask a politician to be specific. Corker has never served in the military so he isn’t going to discuss a military option. He had, in the run up to Geist’s embarrassing question, been quick to disparage “the previous administration” for taking no action on Iran’s perfidious misbehavior.  Now the Trump administration is fully prepared to inflict, at least, some hard words on these Iranian miscreants.

Betsy DeVos will probably squeak through as Education Secretary with absolutely no votes to spare. Andy Puzder, potentially Secretary of Labor, might not be so lucky. Andy has some 500 food and farm groups in an uproar about the possibility of his appointment. Andy has become controversial for several reasons:  He has commented publicly that his restaurant employees are “the worst of the worst’ and that he looks forward to robots replacing them. Such comments do not endear him to working people, but hen since he is a multi-millionaire, why should he care?

His soft-porn ads for CK restaurants are on the internet and Andy says that if they don’t disgust people he’ll make them even racier. His aim is to attract the attention of hungry young men. (He might be confused about which appetites his restaurants are supposed to satisfy.)

Finally, we have some interesting remarks from our national embarrassment in the White House. Trump’s decree banning refugees from seven countries was issued Friday February 27^th. There was enormous civilian resistance. At fully fifty airports, there were massive protests as green card holders and others with papers showing they had been cleared to enter the country, some who had worked for our armed forces as translators at great risk to their lives and their family’s lives were denied entry.  When Trump was asked how his edict had been received, he said, “It’s working out very nicely.”

Nearly every avenue of communication was showing masses of people at airports protesting Trump’s action, yet he said, “it’s working out very nicely.” This large a disconnect with reality on an issue of major importance is symptomatic of mental health issues.

We also have his largely hostile phone call to Australian Prime Minister Neil Turnbull. This country had agreed to accept 1250 Muslim refugees currently living on Pacific Islands just off the Australian coast. These people have been carefully screened by the Australians.

Yet shortly after the phone call, Trump took to Twitter to slam the agreement, tweeting: "Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!"

Again, the reality is less than two thousand screened refugees has, in Trump’s xenophobic mind, morphed into “thousands of illegal immigrants.” Is there a doctor in the house?

2017 Feb 1^st

With considerable fanfare, President Trump has announced his choice for the Supreme Court; it is Neil Gorsuch of the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Gorsuch is by all accounts very well qualified; he was a classmate of President Obama’s at Harvard Law School. He is conservative but not hopelessly immune to logic.

His opinions of interest so far have to do with assisted suicide to which he appears opposed in all circumstances. Six states now permit assisted suicide and the list may grow, so Gorsuch could be on the wrong side of history, a not unusual position for conservatives.

He also sided with a privately held company, Hobby Lobby when the company objected to providing certain forms of birth control devices and drugs available under the Affordable Care Act. The issue here, glossed over by the fury on both sides, is that Hobby Lobby has religious objections to drugs that interfere with a fertilized egg’s implantation in the uterus. They have no objection to forms of birth control and indeed provide it, if the method physically blocks the sperm’s passage to the egg.

The logic here is apparently that the fertilized egg is a human being and to interfere with its normal development is murder; but to block the fertilization is permissible. A similar logic would hold squirrels responsible for decimating oak forests because they eat acorns…but then I’m not a constitutional lawyer.

This distinguished attorney’s mother was severely ahead of her time.  Anne Gorsuch Bufford headed the Environmental Protection Agency under President Reagan. She believed that the EPA was over-regulating business and that the agency was too large and not cost-effective. During her 22 months as agency head, she cut the budget of the EPA by 22%, reduced the number of cases filed against polluters, relaxed Clean Air Act regulations, and facilitated the spraying of restricted-use pesticides. She cut the total number of agency employees, and hired staff from the industries they were supposed to be regulating. Environmentalists contended that her policies were designed to placate polluters, and accused her of trying to dismantle the agency.

In 1982, Congress charged that the EPA had mishandled the $1.6 billion toxic waste Superfund and demanded records from Gorsuch. Gorsuch refused and became the first agency director in U.S. history to be cited for contempt of Congress. At that point, Gorsuch resigned her post, citing pressures caused by the media and the congressional investigation.

Just imagine how splendidly Anne Bufford Gorsuch would fit into President Trump’s cabinet as the Director of EPA now in 2017, just nineteen years later. Trump’s current appointee is suing the agency he now heads and is surely reviewing Anne Bufford’s distinguished career as that agency’s head for ideas about how to proceed.

On another front we have had a series of murders at a Quebec Mosque in Canada.
Canadian police have since charged one suspect with the murders. Reuters reports that his name is Alexandre Bissonnette, and he's a 27-year-old college student who grew up in Quebec. He also happens to be white, a non-Muslim, and a fan of Donald Trump--- on Facebook, anyway. A second person who had been taken into custody, Mohamed Belkhadir, has since been declared a witness and not a suspect.

Sean Spicer claims that these murders are evidence that Trump is right to crack down on immigrants in spite of the obvious fact that the shooter here was not an immigrant and could have been influenced to do what he did by Trump’s xenophobia.