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JULY 29,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

GOOD WORK – FROM AP:  CANBERRA, Australia (AP) —  Police disrupted a terrorist plot to bring down an airplane and arrested four men on Saturday in raids on homes in several Sydney suburbs, the prime minister said on Sunday.  Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said security had been increased at Sydney Airport since Thursday because of the plot. The increased security measures had been extended to all major international and domestic terminals around Australia overnight.   The latest is that it was Islamist-inspired (shock!), but no specific groups have thus far been named.

ANOTHER GREAT MOMENT IN EDUCATION – FROM FOX:   University of California, Irvine officials have rescinded hundreds of admission offers for the upcoming fall semester.  The Los Angeles Times reported that offers to 499 UC Irvine students were withdrawn — 290 of them for transcript issues and the rest for poor senior-year grades, according to campus data.  KABC-TV reported Friday that the university’s Student Government Association has since demanded officials apologize to impacted students, reimburse all fees and guarantee future admission.  I love it.  Clearly, the university is saying that a number of admitted students had, uh, problematical transcripts.  Does that mean faked transcripts?  And the rest went down the academic tubes.  Please note that the so-called "student government" makes it plain it doesn't care about those little things.  Just admit the snowflakes.  Who needs standards?

A MAJOR POWER CENTER – FROM FOX:   Incoming White House Chief of Staff John Kelly plans to bring in one of his deputies from the Department of Homeland Security when he begins his new job Monday.  Kirstjen Nielsen, who has served as chief of staff under Kelly at DHS, will follow her boss to the White House, a Trump administration official told Fox News.  Nielsen will be White House deputy chief of staff, the source said.  "She’ll be the one person Kelly brings with him,” an administration official told Politico.   She's very well regarded.  Kelly is making it clear it will be his chief of staff's office, not beholden to anyone outside the White House.  An exciting moment.

July 29, 2017       Permalink

DEBBIE DOES D.C. – AT 2:29 P.M. ET:  As each day goes by, we learn more and more about some seedy Democratic activity in the runup to last year's election.  Investigate!   And that's what Republicans plan to do.  I hope they have a longer-than-usual attention span.  From the Washington Free Beacon:   

Congressional leaders are interested in conducting their own independent investigation into a growing scandal surrounding IT staffers working for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), who are accused of stealing sensitive computer equipment from House lawmakers' offices.

One of these IT staffers, Imran Awan, was arrested this week when trying to travel to Pakistan and charged with bank fraud after a months-long investigation that found he wired nearly $300,000 to that country. Several other staffers tied to Awan are the focus of an investigation into claims they stole sensitive equipment and illegally penetrated the House IT network.

Leading members of the House Judiciary Committee and Government Oversight Committee told the Washington Free Beacon that the appropriate congressional bodies should launch an investigation into the illicit IT activity, which could include asking for testimony from Wasserman Schultz on the situation.

Wasserman Schultz's testimony is of particular interest as she has come under fire for keeping Awan on the House payroll even after information about his actions became public and not cooperating with the investigation.

COMMENT:  The "not cooperating" part is key.  There are reports that Debbie is beside herself with anguish over Awan's arrest.  What does he know about her, and her operations when she was chairman of the Democratic National Committee?

After months of talk about collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russkies, not a single fact has emerged to back up that charge.  Maybe now, as the spotlight turns to the Dems, the real story of the campaign will come out. 

July 29, 2017       Permalink

ON TRUMP – AT 1:48 P.M. ET:  Rich Lowry is one of the best-known conservative writers.   He presents an unvarnished picture of President Trump and the characteristics that have landed him in political trouble and are driving supporters away.   This follows on our earlier post today.  We have tried so hard to be supportive of the president, but his behavior has now reached critical mass, and must be corrected.  Conservative writers like Lowry are speaking out.  From Newsmax: 

Jeff Sessions thought he was on the Trump team, but he was sadly mistaken.

For President Donald Trump, the world breaks down into three categories — there's family, who are part of the charmed Trump circle by blood or marriage; there are "winners," who have earned Trump's regard by making lots of money (often at Goldman Sachs); and then there's everyone else, who are adornments to be cast aside as Trump finds convenient.

Sessions is emphatically in the latter category. If the former Alabama senator wanted to be securely ensconced in Trump world, he should have had the foresight to marry Ivanka. Nothing else — not endorsing early, not carrying water in trying circumstances in the campaign — will ever make him anything more than some guy who happens to be attorney general of the United States.

Trump's treatment of Sessions is unprecedented in the annals of American government. Cabinet officials have been hung out to dry before. They have been forced to resign or fired. Never before has a Cabinet secretary been publicly belittled in an ongoing campaign of humiliation by the president who appointed him.

The drama hangs a lantern on Trump's flaws. Trump lacks gratitude, dismissing Sessions' endorsement of him in the primaries as merely the senator's reaction to the size of Trump's crowds. He obviously doesn't feel any respect for someone who, as an honorable person with a long career in public service, deserves it. He doesn't care about propriety, which would dictate dressing down Sessions in private, not flaying him in public. And, finally, he doesn't feel any obligation to Sessions, despite the fact that Sessions gave up a safe Senate seat to serve in his administration.

For Trump, loyalty is unilateral, not reciprocal, and it has a very particular content. It's not loyalty to the agenda or to the party, but to Trump, specifically his personal interests and honor.

COMMENT:   Read the whole thing.  It's important.  We are doing now what the Democrats refused to do under the cynical, incompetent administration of Barack Obama.  They refused to correct mistakes, and gave Obama the blind loyalty of the dictatorial society.  We must not do the same.

People forget that it was Republicans who stopped Joe McCarthy in the 1950s.  It was Republicans who made it clear to Richard Nixon that he could not continue in office.

Democrats go down with the Titanic.  Republicans try to avoid the iceberg.

July 29, 2017       Permalink

THE CRISIS – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  We cheer the appointment of John Kelly, retired Marine four-star general, to be White House chief of staff.  His appointment provides great opportunity for the White House to be brought under control, and relieved of its day-to-day chaos.

But his appointment also underlines the crisis we face:  We have a creative, hard-working president with some terrific ideas, but he is a terribly flawed, undisciplined, egotistical man who is destroying his own administration.  Why, just yesterday, the president was on Long Island, speaking about the need for border control, sane immigration, and the fact that we must support our police officers.  Good stuff, especially his concern for the men and women who protect us every day.

But then, typical of Trump, he went off-message and started urging officers to rough up those they arrest, an absolute violation of accepted police procedure.  In this democracy, punishment is meted out by courts, not arresting officers.

A police organization immediately rebuked the president. 

Imagine, he came to praise police, and wound up being slapped on the wrist by a major police group for his irresponsible advice.

That's Trump, and Trump is becoming a tragedy.  He is heading into Nixon territory.  Nixon was driven from the presidency not by the smallish sins of Watergate, but because he was Richard Nixon.  If Jack Kennedy had done what Nixon did, it would have been on page 46.  Nixon was disliked, even within his own party.  A remarkably capable and knowledgeable man, he was the author of his own disaster.

Trump is writing his presidential book now.  If the Democrats gain control of the House next year, they will impeach him.  They will find some flimsy reason.  And then he will have to fight for his presidency in the U.S. Senate, which judges impeachment cases.   Senate Republicans are increasingly distancing themselves from this president.  He bashes them individually, and is publicly humiliating Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a former senator highly regarded in that body.

The president is in danger, and cheering crowds in Ohio won't save him.  Maybe John Kelly can.

July 29,  2017     Permalink

JULY 28,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

SHAKEUP IN THE REGIME – All the buzz is about the ouster of Reince Priebus and his replacement by Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, a retired Marine four-star general.  And the big question is:  Who's next?  It's unlikely Kelly would take the job unless he had real command authority to run the White House, including authority to send folks into the wilderness.  There are stories that Steve Bannon might be the next chap to be separated from his head.  There are also stories – serious ones – that Lt. Gen. Herbert McMaster, the national security adviser, isn't long for his post.  The rap against McMaster is that he leans more toward the Obama school than the Trump school.  With Kelly in command of the White House, he might not want another general around.  This is all juicy copy.  Newt says that if Trump and Kelly can work as a team, we may see a truly great administration.

THE PARTY OF CRACKPOTS – FROM THE HILL:    Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) slammed President Trump's decision to appoint Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly as his new chief of staff on Friday, saying the appointment "militarizes the White House."   "By putting Gen John Kelly in charge, Pres Trump is militarizing the White House & putting our executive branch in the hands of an extremist," Lee tweeted.  Extremist?  Who's the extremist?  Barbara Lee, former head of the Congressional Black Caucus, is a pro-Castro Marxist, and the only member of Congress to vote against military action after 9-11.  She's another Democratic Party embarrassment.  I hope they keep putting her out there.

WORLD OF ILLUSIONS – FROM THE DAILY MAIL:  A man wielding a large kitchen knife killed one and wounded four others after storming into a supermarket in the German city of Hamburg.   The attacker is reported to have screamed 'Allahu Akbar' before running into the Edeka shop where he stabbed one person and slashed at four others while trying to flee.   He was pursued by passers-by who wrestled him to the ground and called the police, who later arrested him.   One officer said there was 'no valid information on the motive of the attacker' who has yet to be identified.   German daily Bild published a photo of the attacker in the back of a police car with a white, blood-soaked bag over his head.  Now let's see:  The guy shouted Allahu Akbar, and the police say there's no valid info on his motive?   Not exactly a Sherlock Holmes-level police force.   No matter how many attacks there are in Europe, the denial continues.  Let's not speak the truth.  If we do, we might have to do something.  Or have some trade contracts with Iran canceled. 

July 28, 2017       Permalink 

BULLETIN:  AT 5:50 P.M. ET:  Reince Priebus is out as White House chief of staff, to be replaced Monday by retired Marine General John Kelly, the secretary of homeland security.  From ABC News: 

President Donald Trump has named Ret. Gen. John Kelly as the new White House chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus in the role.

"I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration," Trump said in a series of tweets Friday afternoon. 

And...

After walking off Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Trump briefly spoke to reporters.

"Reince is a good man. John Kelly will do a fantastic job. General Kelly has been a star. Done an incredible job thus far. Respected by everybody. A great, great American. Respected by everybody. Reince Priebus [is] a good man," Trump said.

The personnel shift came amid growing acrimony inside the White House, which was made public most clearly when new communications director Anthony Scaramucci called a reporter for The New Yorker and gave a series of expletive-ridden criticisms of Priebus, among others.

COMMENT:  Kelly has a superb reputation.  Maybe he can bring out the best in Trump and repress the worst.  But he comes into office with great prestige and a military background.

No definitive word yet on whether Priebus resigned, was fired, or was gently eased out.

Now the White House will get even more interesting.

July 28, 2017       Permalink

SUICIDE – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:  Urgent Agenda did not support Donald Trump's nomination for president, and was only lukewarm to his election.  But once he began as president, we tried to be as supportive as possible. 

He has accomplished a great deal in his first six months, bringing back manufacturing jobs to America, building confidence in the economy, rolling back harassing regulations, and resetting our foreign policy on a pro-American course.  But, sadly, he has a Nixonian tendency to self-destruct.  He also has a tendency to step all over his own accomplishments.  He never lets an achievement stand on its own.  He adds to it by an irrelevant tweet or action that diminishes the good he has done.

Republicans in Congress show little respect for him.  He has not won their loyalty, and going after individual senators who oppose him on something or other has not helped.  Neither has personally attacking, in a stunning, vicious manner, his own attorney general, a former senator who is respected in the Senate, a body whose backing the president needs.  And now, one of the president's personal aides, in office less than a week, has totally lost it, and done real damage.

This site applauded Anthony Scaramucci when he was appointed as an aide to the president last week.  The tough-talking, New York-sounding Harvard Law graduate had a great few days bashing Trump's enemies in a strong but engaging tone.  Then...he gave an interview to the New Yorker, an anti-Trump magazine.  It's all over the place this morning.  He apparently didn't insist that the interview be off the record.  It was laced with filth and profanity.  He went after White House staffers, citing Reince Pieibus by name, in a manner more suited to the streets of a crime-ridden city than the style of the White House.     

If you wish, you can get more details on the interview here, but I firmly caution that the text is filled with the worst profanity.

I don't know where Scaramucci goes from here.   Once again we're not talking about Trump's program, but about personal behavior and the internal wars within the administration.

It's being reported that the president actually liked the profane remarks.  If so, shame.  Mr. President, you're heading for the exits if this doesn't stop. 

July 28, 2017       Permalink

GONE – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  The Republican Party, which for seven years promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, last night failed to pass a repeal measure in the U.S. Senate.  Three senators, Collins of Maine, McCain of Arizona, and Murkowski of Alaska, failed to go along.  All Democrats, like the robots they are, voted against.  From Bloomberg: 

A months-long effort by Senate Republicans to pass health legislation collapsed early Friday after GOP Senator John McCain joined two of his colleagues to block a stripped-down Obamacare repeal bill.

“I regret that our efforts were simply not enough, this time,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor after the vote. “This is clearly a disappointing moment.”
“It’s time to move on,” he added after pulling the bill from the floor.

The decision by McCain to vote no came after weeks of brinkmanship and after his dramatic return from cancer treatment to cast the 50th vote to start debate on the bill earlier this week. The GOP’s “skinny” repeal bill was defeated 49-51, falling just short of the 50 votes needed to advance it.

Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also voted against it.

It wasn’t immediately clear what the next steps would be for the Republicans. The repeal effort had appeared to collapse several times before, only to be revived. And several Republicans pleaded for their colleagues not to give up, even as President Donald Trump blasted the vote.

COMMENT:  We can't blame only the Republicans, and certainly not only Senator McCain.  The party's lack of preparation, and the utter refusal of the Democrats to assist constructively, guaranteed failure.

As the story said, it's hard to know what the GOP will do next, but one thing it must do is turn to tax reform and give the American middle class a tax cut by the end of the year.  If it cannot do that, it has no argument for re-election, and we may well see a Democratic House elected next year, a House whose first item of business will be to impeach the president.

Republicans in Congress hold both houses.  They have a president willing to sign legislation.  So far, on important items, they're batting zero.

July 28,  2017     Permalink