Karl Rove, The Wall Street Journal: "This past tumultuous week should wake up the president and all those around him. If Mr. Trump continues this self-destructive behavior, he will drown out his message and maybe even blast his presidency to bits before his first year in office is even out."
together we can do anything...
The Washington Post: "Republicans are starting to draw red lines" As Trump weighs firing one or both of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and special counsel Robert Mueller, a pair of GOP senators is promising measures to thwart or dissuade him. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said Wednesday that his panel would not confirm a new attorney general to replace Sessions this year. Then Thursday morning, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said he would introduce legislation to protect Mueller and warned it “could be the beginning of the end” of Trump's presidency if he tried to fire the special counsel.
WSJ : "Lindsey Graham will introduce a bill next week that curtails Trump's power to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller without first getting approval from a federal judge. “We need a check and balance here,” Graham said. "A special counsel cannot be fired when they were impaneled to investigate the president or his team unless you have judicial review of the firing."
WSJ : WASHINGTON—Senate Republicans on Thursday moved to block every path President Donald Trump might try to use to fire and replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a step they worry would disrupt the independence of the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Democratic senators are aligning with them in an effort designed not only to protect Mr. Sessions, but also to shield the work being done by special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
LA Times: "White House infighting breaks into public view over leak allegations"
New York Times / Politico / CNN: Scaramucci said that "if Reince wants to explain he's not a leaker, let him do that." Later in the interview, he added that foreign policy leaks "are the types of leaks that are so treasonous that 150 years ago, people would have actually been hung for those types of leaks." "Scaramucci responded to a Politico report about the financial disclosure form he filed during his stint at the Export-Import Bank earlier this year. The public can request to see these documents, and the article notes that the form is “publicly available upon request.” Scaramucci tweeted that “In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony I will be contacting FBI and the The Justice Dept.” He later deleted the tweet after the internet pointed out that it was called a public disclosure for a reason.
WSJ : "Scaramucci Says Priebus Split May Not Be Reparable"
and do it with class...
NPR: The Trump administration threatened retribution against Alaska over Lisa Murkowski's no vote on health care. Hours after President Trump criticized fellow Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski's vote on debating health care legislation, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke reportedly called Murkowski and her fellow Alaskan, Sen. Dan Sullivan, to say their state could run into trouble with the Trump administration. Zinke's message was that Murkowski's vote "had put Alaska's future with the administration in jeopardy."
Variety / The New Yorker: In an interview with The New Yorker on Thursday, Scaramucci took aim particularly at chief strategist Steve Bannon and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus. Speaking on whether or not he took the White House job for media attention, he jumped on Bannon. “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own c–k,” he said.
The Guardian: Anthony Scaramucci in furious, foul-mouthed attack on White House rivals: Scaramucci attacks Bannon and calls Priebus ‘fucking paranoid schizophrenic’. Extraordinary tirade raises prospect of all-out civil war at the White House.
but let's be fair!
LA Times editorial: Jeff Sessions' asset forfeiture plan is a return to the storm-trooper days of anti-drug frenzy. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions recently took a giant step backward... in basic principles of justice. The object of his strange nostalgia is the practice known as civil asset forfeiture, under which police confiscate private property from people they suspect of being drug dealers or other criminals. The key word is “suspect.”
USA Today editorial: Forget Russia. I'd fire Jeff Sessions over civil forfeiture. Once in America, we had a presumption of innocence. Now all it takes is the feds having a 'suspicion' for them to take your stuff.
we're working nicely with our friends...
WSJ: : "EU Cautions U.S. on Russia Sanctions Bill" BRUSSELS—The European Union stands ready to act against the U.S. within days if the bloc’s concerns about American legislation to impose new sanctions on Russia aren’t addressed, the top EU official said.
and at least we irritated these guys...
The Washington Post: "Senior Russian officials and lawmakers on Wednesday attacked new financial sanctions passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, saying they ended hopes for the detente between Moscow and Washington that President Trump promised during his campaign. The sanctions also may prove to be an inflection point. Even for a relationship characterized by saber-rattling and dire predictions, the Russian response was notably stark."
“Washington is a source of danger,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, whose portfolio includes relations with the United States, told a state news agency in an interview. Later, he added, “Essentially, the possibilities for normalization of relations in the foreseeable future are closed.
health care (or maybe just a complete lack of caring)...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Battered by repeated failures to repeal or replace "Obamacare," Senate GOP leaders retreated to a narrow approach Thursday that would undo just a few of the most unpopular elements of Barack Obama's law. The so-called "skinny repeal" was being touted as a way for Republicans to get something, anything, out of the Senate after frittering away the first six months of Donald Trump's presidency trying unsuccessfully to get rid of the current law.
The Washington Post: House conservatives said the skinny repeal is untenable. Even if Senate Republicans can pass their minimalist plan to alter the ACA, uniting with their House colleagues to enact a bill would be far more challenging. Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said a skinny repeal would be “dead on arrival” in the House.
WSJ: WASHINGTON—Republican efforts to overhaul the Affordable Care Act approached chaos Thursday when GOP senators made an unusual 11th-hour demand: If the Senate passed a scaled-down repeal bill, House Republicans had to promise not to pass it also. “The skinny bill as policy is a disaster,” Mr. Graham said. “The skinny bill as a replacement for Obamacare is a fraud.”
why not start this stuff all over again...
LA Times: "Trump bars transgender people from serving 'in any capacity' in the U.S. military"
SF Chronicle: "No immediate military transgender change, top officer says"
"The U.S. military will keep permitting its transgender members to serve openly until Defense Secretary Jim Mattis receives President Donald Trump's actual direction to change its policy and then figures out how to implement it, America's top military officer said Thursday."
New York Times / BuzzFeed News: The Department of Justice is arguing that the Civil Rights Act does not protect gay employees from discrimination. They argue that while Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act bars the discrimination in the workplace based on “race, color, religion, sex or national origin," it does not protect employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation despite “notable changes in societal and cultural attitudes.”
and finally, something for the young folks too:
SF Chronicle: Trump administration slashes funds for reducing teen birth rates The Trump administration has abruptly slashed federal funding for programs to reduce teenage pregnancy rates, including three Bay Area projects that had been promised money under the Obama administration to operate through 2020. The Bay Area programs were among 81 nationwide that learned this month that the five-year grants handed out by President Barack Obama’s administration in 2015 were being canceled as of June 2018.
Reuters / The Guardian: Boy Scouts chief apologizes for Trump's 'political rhetoric' at national jamboree... Trump gave odd partisan speech in front of 40,000 12- to 18-year-olds The head of the Boy Scouts of America has apologized to the organization for the “political rhetoric that was inserted” into its national gathering this week by Donald Trump.
Comments
Regards,
Ted
Pictures are hung, traitors are hanged. Communications director, huh?
Also had two consecutive gov fellowships in WDC Aug '72 and Aug '73, w/ sleepy sultry burglary buzz at first (WDC is no place to be in August) and a year later the drama of Nixon refusing to turn over the tapes.
I was certain that the '68-'74 destructiveness and hatreds and Woodstock payback would never return. Yet here we are.
And all of this is much more than anything Nixon ever did. Throwing an election with impunity and with the Trumpflake base still in reactionary support, seriously?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/28/trump-business-past-ties-russian-mobsters-organized-crime/98321252/
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a56666/russia-putin-oligarchs/
http://theweek.com/speedreads/714374/when-comes-acting-presidential-trump-says-hes-second-only-late-great-abraham-lincoln
Calls to mind Lloyd Bentsen's 1988 rebuke to Dan Quayle: "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senator,_you're_no_Jack_Kennedy
In response, the Teddy Rooseveltian Sen. M. (speaks softly, stands her ground, not afraid to use the stick) has put a pack of DOI and DOE nominations on ice, at least temporarily.
The Trumpsters apparently don't know the senator's election history: she was reelected in 2010 as a write-in in the general after a certifiable lunatic outpolled her in the R primary, and won by a mile in 2016 (in Alaska terms, where elections are often decided by a few dozen votes). She doesn't owe the party a red cent; if anything, what she's doing is boosting her popularity with AK's general election voting population.
"Murkowski ... took it one step further and demonstrated that she has more leverage over Zinke than he has over her. As chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Murkowski indefinitely postponed a nominations markup that the Interior Department badly wants.
"This demonstrated the degree to which Zinke’s ham-handed phone call was political malpractice. The secretary, or whoever at the White House ordered him to make the calls, clearly doesn’t understand the awesome power that comes with being the chairman of a Senate committee. Only an amateur would threaten the person who has oversight over his agency! If she wants, Murkowski can make Zinke’s life so unbelievably miserable. He has no idea."
Battling an aggressive form of brain cancer, (John McCain) was willing to vote “no” on the “skinny repeal” amendment so that other GOP colleagues who were also opposed to the measure could vote “yes” to save face with the conservative base. To this day, Trump has never apologized for saying that the former fighter pilot was not a war hero because he got captured in Vietnam. It gets less attention, but the president also besmirched the Arizona senator’s character by repeatedly accusing him of not taking care of other veterans. McCain has never forgotten.
Forgive - but don't forget.