News of Robert Mueller's three indictments dominated the news on Monday -- some say it's a historic moment, even more than the first indictments in the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation. In this crisis-a-day Trump news era, other important (or just interesting) news items tend to get over-looked. So here are a few short takes to catch up.
1. The ever expanding Amazon company is conducting a search for a second headquarters city, to be called HQ2. They project 50,000 new jobs, huge warehouse and office space needs, and a boost to the local economy. Over 200 cities submitted proposals by last week's deadline. Some pundits are saying that Atlanta is a front runner, because of it's geographic location, it's airport hub, it's wealth of young, tech work force, and the state's business-friendly, tax-break inducements. To be honest, other predictors didn't even mention Atlanta. Drawbacks would be its local traffic/commute problems and its legislature still trying to pass "religious-freedom" laws.
2. A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against implementing President Trump's ban on transgender people serving openly in the military. The judge stated that plaintiff's seeking to overturn the ban were likely to prevail in a trial based on their argument that it violates due process under the 5th amendment. President Obama had removed obstacles to trans troops last year, and then Trump issued his ban in August this year. Five plaintiffs have sued, and that trial will go forward; but the judge's order means Trump's order cannot be implemented prior to the trial.
3. A study done by the Kaiser Foundation has determined that President Trump's threatening to cut off subsidy payments to offset high health insurance premiums purchased through the ACA exchanges -- as well as other uncertainties he has injected into the market -- have led to increased premiums from 7% to 38% in different state markets. Web sites for signing up begin today. Enrollments are expected to be reduced due to all the interference from Trump and his team, who are trying to make the program fail.
4. Former House Majority Leader John Boehner, a victim of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus that blocked Boehner efforts to get legislation passed, has begun to speak his mind about fellow Republicans . . . quite openly, often with pithy expletives. He called Rep. Jim Jordan, founder of the Freedom Caucus, "an a--hole" and "a legislative terrorist." About Jason Chaffetz, former chair of the House Oversight Committee, Boehner said he was "a total phony. . . . It's always about Chaffetz." He said that in general the Congress is a mixed bag. "We've got some of the smartest people in America . . . and we've got some of the dumbest," he told Politico. Regarding the "deep, troubling divisiveness" in America now, he blamed an increasingly polarized media. He took particular aim at radio host Mark Levin, whom he blamed for dragging Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity "to the dark side."
5. Georgia's junior senator, David Purdue, continues to be a Trump admirer and advocate, even likening him to Winston Churchill as "nobody's choirboy . . . [but] a man of destiny" who pulled his country through in dangerous times by being "willing to break some eggs." Purdue continues, about Trump: "Here we've got, I believe, a man that's willing to break some eggs in Washington. He doesn't know what the traditions are or the rules or anything else. He's just trying to get results. That's why the people back home relate to that so strongly, I believe."
Yes, but throughout history, crowds have flocked to populists who promised to break up the established order; but some of them turn out to be dictators. The danger from Trump and his ilk (Bannon, Bussey, and Miller), and from the ambitions of the money behind him (the Mercers) is that the eggs they're trying to break are the very building blocks of democracy: the Constitution, the rule of law, voting rights, civil rights, and due process.
6. Trump's first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski is blaming the FBI for not warning the campaign that Paul Manafort was under investigation for some of the multiple charges on which he was indicted on Monday. What's becoming clear is that the Trump campaign didn't even try to vet people it was putting in high places. That put our national security at great risk. We had people, like Manafort and Flynn and their underlings, with ties to Russians who wanted nothing more than to gain influence, and perhaps blackmail power, over the Trump administration.
Even a cursory attempt would have found red flags about Manafort. Just from reading news accounts, I found it strange that they would make a person campaign manager who had come to them, offering to work for no salary -- following his close involvement with the pro-Russia, deposed Ukraine president. Was anybody even slightly suspicious about that? Now we know that, shortly after he became Trump campaign chair, he was emailing a Russian oligarch close to Putin talking about how they can make use of Manafort's new position, it now seems likely, in order to settle some financial obligations between Manafort and the oligarch. Same story for Michael Flynn regarding what was missed by not vetting him -- ties to Russians.
In his self-serving plaint about the FBI for "not warning" them, Lewandowski explained that the campaign "didn't have the ability" to discover such things. True, they didn't have access to secret FBI files; but that's one of the things a responsible campaign makes provisions to do. Team Trump either didn't care or wanted it that way. Besides, there was enough in the free press and common sense to have warned them off -- about both Manafort and Flynn. The other suspicion is that maybe they did know -- and wanted them anyway because of their connections to Russians close to Putin.
Ralph
PS: Yes, I'm aware that four of my six "other" news stories are Trump-related. Even when I try to avoid news about him, he is malignantly invasive . . . everywhere. Really, he's like a cancer.
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