Jan. 20: Trump's one-year anniversary marked by government shutdown

The news of the day is whether or not the government will go into shutdown mode at 12:01 am on Saturday, Jan. 20th.

As I am writing this late Friday night, unless there is a major breakthrough in the next hour, this is what will happen.

The major point of disagreement is that Republicans want simply to do what the House has done:   pass a temporary funding bill without dealing with the fraught questions, like renewing the DACA program that protects "Dreamers" from being deported.

Just days ago, President Trump told a bipartisan group of legislators that he would sign whatever they put on his desk if both sides support it.   When they did just that, he reneged and went back to insisting that he will not agree to fixing DACA unless the bill includes funding for his Wall. 

That's where it's apparently stuck in the Senate.   The Dems know they won't have this much leverage on DACA again before the deadline Trump has already set for DACA to expire.   Why should anyone believe anything that Trump promises?  He's proved reoeatedly he won't keep his word.

We'll know in the morning -- or at 12:01 am if you're up that late.

Ralph

PS:  12:01 am.   The government is technically in shutdown.   But for the past hour there have been intense discussions and negotiations going on among senators informally gathered in small groups on the Senate floor.   They did take a vote beginning at 10:15 to proceed to debate on the House bill.   It failed to get the 60 votes necessary by Senate rules.   Five Republicans voted against their party's bill;  four Democrats voted for it -- all are up for re-election in states that Trump won.

Technically, they left the vote open with the possibility of persuading some members to change their votes.   But the Republicans were 9 votes short and didn't get any changes.  When the clock reached midnight, the shutdown was inevitable.

What is probably going to happen now is this:   Reports are that they are very close to some agreement that could pass.   So the likely plan, as of this time, is that they will try to come up with something by Monday to buy time for a bill, and then reopen the government with only a couple of days closure.  

But the image -- including a clip from 2013 of Donald Trump saying at that time:  "When there is a government shutdown, it is the president's fault" -- on the first anniversary of Trump's inauguration will be the image of the Trump Shutdown.  As Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pointed out, no one bears more responsibility for this failure than the president.  Twice he walked away from a bipartisan proposal, insisting that money for his border wall must be included.

Catching up

1.  Paul Ryan says he does not have the votes to keep the government running when the  continuing resolution expires on Friday.   So we have a government shutdown looming.  He will need to get some votes by compromising.   What the Democrats, and many Republicans, want is the bipartisan, compromise bill to renew the DACA program.  And throw in the renewal of the CHIP program as well.   Trump is holding on to the DACA card as his trump to try to get them to agree on his wall.   The fact is, a bipartisan senate committee has already proposed a compromise bill that could have passed.   But that's what Trump blew up last Thursday with his "shithole countries" slurs.

2.   Steve Bannon has been subpoened by House Intelligence Committee but refuses to answer most questions because the White House has put a gag order on him from testifying to them, even to conversations he had with the president after he left his job at the WH.

   However, Bannon has also been subpoened to testify before a Grand Jury by Robert Mueller.   A source has told the Daily Beast that he will talk freely to Mueller, and they may work out a deal that he will do that in an interview rather than the Grand Jury.   Some had thought Mie;;er's subpoena was a negotiating tactic.   Sounds like maybe that was right.

3.  Corey Booker gives a passionate rebuke to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen over her "failure" to remember what President Trump said in the meeting on immigration that has caused such an uproar of disapproval worldwide.   Both Sens. Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin have confirmed the language used.     Sec. Nielsen said, under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee, that she doesn't remember Trump making then specific "shithole" comment, but suggested that senators in the meeting were "talking over each other" and might explain her lack of hearing the word.

Booker, with intense emotion said:  "I've got a president of the United States whose office I respect, who talks about the country's origins of my fellow citizens in the most despicable manner.   You don't remember?   You can't remember the words of your commander in chief?   I find that unacceptable."

4.  In a special election for a state Senate seat in Wisconsin, Democrat Patty Schactner scored an upset victory in a district that Trump won decisively just over a year ago.  It is the latest in a string of election wins for Democrats, especially when the candidate is a woman;  and it increases the hope for big wins in the midterm elections.

5.  The number of murders committed in the U.S. by white supremacists more than doubled from 2016 to 2017 -- from 7 to 18, according to the Anti-Defamation League's report on "Murder and Extremism in the Unites States."  Included in their "white supremacists" groups are neo-Nazis, alt-right, alt-lite, and anti-government militias.

In contrast to all the anti-Muslim rhetoric, the 18 killed by white supremacists is double the nine people killed in the U.S. in 2017 by domestic Islamic extremists.  And eight of those were killed in one single attack in New York -- meaning that there were only two separate, fatal attacks by Islamic extremists in 2017

Ralph

The color of money.

Eric Trump has been type-cast by the media, very unkindly and probably unfairly, as the dumb one, the odd one, the unloved one.  Perhaps he's been misunderstood -- or at least he has acquired a better message guru.   Eric told Fox and Friends:

"My father is not a racist.   He sees only one color:  green."

I'd suggest an additional color, the one for winning.  Gold?

At least a few are breaking their silence; but when will they do something?

Some Republicans in Congress are beginning to speak out against the president's many many demonstrations of his unfitness for the office of president.   Want to guess which senator said this from the Senate floor on Wednesday?   As reported by Daniella Diaz for CNN.

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". . . [Sen. --------], a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, took to the Senate floor Wednesday morning to rebuke the President for his repeated remarks on 'fake news.'

"'No longer can we compound attacks on truth with our silent acquiescence. No longer can we turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to these assaults on our institutions,' [--------] said in his speech.  'An American president who cannot take criticism -- who must constantly deflect and distort and distract -- who must find someone else to blame -- is charting a very dangerous path. And a Congress that fails to act as a check on the President adds to the danger.'

"[--------] also compared Trump's attacks on the news media to the rhetoric of late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

"He criticized the President for calling the news media the 'enemy of the people,' calling it 'an assault as unprecedented as it is unwarranted.'

"'It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own President uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies,' he said. 'It bears noting that the phrase 'enemy of the people' was so fraught with malice that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of 'annihilating such individuals' who disagreed with the supreme leader."

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Sounds like one courageous dude or dame, no?   Well, yes, but I would have a lot more respect and admiration for his leadership ability if Sen. Jeff Flake had not already announced that he will not run for re-election this fall.   But at least he said it, and he said it in the hallowed halls of the United States Senate.  And he is a Republican.

To be realistic, Flake already has formidable opposition in Arizona and might very well lose.   Or, on the other hand, he might rise to the occasion, become one of the necessary, courageous leaders who sets things right in our government to stop the attacks on our democratic institutions.

These are very troubling times -- not just for the next DACA deadline (but for that too);  and not just for the next government shutdown deadline (but for that too);  and not just for the next year, the next election, the next decade.

The future of our country is at stake.   Will we reaffirm, by deed and not just by words, the ideals on which it became a moral and an economic leader of the world?   Or will we drift into a second rate, authoritarian oligarchy of corruption and classism, abandoning the founding principles of the United States?

Ralph

Beyond the shocking racism, Trump also revealed what a poor executive he is.

Enough of the back and forth about Donald Trump's revealed racism, his vulgarity, and his dishonesty.   Peel all that away, and we still have a man who claims to be the world's best deal maker, yet who is proving that he doesn't have the basic skills necessary to be an effective executive.

E. J. Dionne, Jr. wrote about it in his Washington Post opinion essay on Monday.  Dionne pointed out Trump's obvious racism, but also his lack of credibility even in his denial -- "especially because he called around first to see how his original words would play with his base."    Then the essay moves on to look at Trump's  mismanagement of the negotiations with the senators.  So much for The Art of the Deal.

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Dionne writes:  "But notice also what Trump's outburst did to our capacity to govern ourselves and make progress. Democrats and Republicans sympathetic to the plight of the 'dreamers' worked out an immigration compromise designed carefully to give Trump what he had said he needed.

"There were many concessions by Democrats on border security, 'chain migration' based on family reunification, and the diversity visa lottery that Trump had criticized.  GOP senators such as Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.) bargained in good faith and were given ample reason by Trump to think they had hit his sweet spot.

"Trump blew them away with a torrent of bigotry. In the process, he shifted the onus for avoiding a government shutdown squarely on his own shoulders and those of Republican leaders who were shamefully slow in condemning the president's racism.

"There are so many issues both more important and more interesting than the psyche of a deeply damaged man. We are capable of being a far better nation. But we need leaders who call us to our obligations to each other as free citizens. Instead, we have a president who knows only how to foster division and hatred."

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And, worse yet, Trump seems unwilling or incapable of listening to advice, of learning from experience, and of self-reflection even on an elementary level.  Yes, the racism and divisiveness are terrible;   but that's only one part of the problem with this president.

Meanwhile the future lives of some 800,000 DACA young people are on hold, with time running out to fix the problem that Trump created last fall when he said he was scrapping the program and gave Congress until March to come up with a solution.   But there are even earlier deadlines -- like Friday this week -- for new applicants for the program.

Ralph

Trying to make sense of the immigration dispute and why it may kill the plan.

All we knew of what Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said to the president, following his "shithole" comment about Haiti and African countries, was that Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) said he admired Sen. Graham for having spoken up to the president directly in the moment.  But he did not quote him.

On Friday, Graham released this:  "Following comments by the president, I said my piece directly to him yesterday.  The president and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel.  I've always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals."

Now we have a little more detail, and Graham comes out seeming both courageous and circumspect for not blabbing to the media.  The New York Times quotes from three sources who were briefed on the meeting, saying that Sen. Graham responded to the president "with an impassioned defense of immigrants and immigration as pillars of the American ideals of diversity and inclusion."

They further quote Graham as saying, "America is an idea, not a race," adding that diversity is a strength, not a weakness.  He said he himself is a descendant of immigrants who came to the United States from "shithole countries with no skills."  The report did not say how the president responded to Sen. Graham's comments.

This is in contrast to the duo of Senators Tom Cotton (R-AK) and David Perdue (R-GA), Trump allies who have their own proposal as a rival to the bipartisan Graham-Durbin plan.   Durbin is the one who directly quoted Trump's "shithole" comment.  Cotton and Perdue initially put out a statement saying they couldn't recall the president "saying that specifically."  (There's a lot of wiggle room there.)  By the Sunday talk shows, they were both adamantly saying that the president did not use that word.

So Graham's words, coming from the only Republican in the room who has criticized Trump, have significance in this.  But there's much more to it than "he said, no he didn't."   The meeting in question was for the purpose of Sens. Graham and Durbin -- one Republican and one Democrat -- presenting to the president the bipartisan plan for immigration reform.   Cotton and Perdue also were in the meeting, presumably to try to shape the president's thinking in the merit-based and conservative direction of a plan they are working on.'

Jim Galloway, in his "Political Insider" column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, explains it this way:

"Why, Trump reportedly had asked, did the bipartisan compromise before him allow immigrants from 's---hole' countries in Africa and from Haiti rather than Norway?"  [Galloway then described the 'evolving' memories of Cotton and Perdue as to what Trump said, pointing out that they went from "having no recall of him saying that" to absolute certainty that he did not by the Sunday talk shows, which Galloway referred to as "group amnesia."]

[Galloway]:  "Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon often employed the n-word.  The difference is that their policies, generally speaking, contradicted their internal prejudices.

"Trump's remarks weren't made at a dinner party or in a locker room.  They were made during the formal presentation of a bipartisan compromise on 'dreamer' kids and legal immigration.  His 's---hole' language was a key portion of a policy discussion.

"Perdue and Cotton have allied with Trump to change the way we treat immigration.  Currently, one might describe our manner of importing new citizens as a matter of self-selection.  Those who want the American life badly enough make the effort. . . .

"Perdue and Cotton want a merit-based immigration system.  Entry would be granted to those who, according to some government standard, fit a particular national need.  You can disagree with Perdue and Cotton, but the approach is legitimate and has its precedent in many other countries.

"But we do not permit immigration quotas by race.  Congress has passed laws forbidding it.  And that is precisely what a desire to restrict African immigration in favor of northern European immigration would be.

"This is likely why Perdue's memory of that White House meeting, at first foggy, later hardened into denial.   Because he has the president as an ally, acknowledging Trump's remarks, even with an accompanying condemnation, could call into question the underlying purpose of Perdue's [and Cotton's] own bill. . . .

"Court challenges of federal actions often hinge on legislative intent.  Motivation -- ie, remarks made during debate and formulation -- is important.  Trump's remarks on Thursday will no doubt become part of multiple legal arguments that already accuse him of racial or religious animus.

"Perdue's word dance this weekend, however awkward and -- if others are to be believed -- disingenuous, was the senator's attempt to keep his signature piece of legislation out of that mire."

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First, let me point out that Galloway's use of Perdue's name, so much more than Cotton's, likely is due to the fact that Perdue is one of Georgia's two senators.  The political editor of the Atlanta newspaper was trying to answer questions a lot of Perdue's constituents have been asking.

But, second, understanding the political motivation does not make this right.  I fully support the empirical data that show, in general, that immigrants make good citizens.   Despite Trump's continual lying about it, immigrants have a lower crime rate than natural born citizens.   They work harder and, in general, also attain a high educational and economic status.

I'm with Senator Graham and Durbin on their bipartisan plan.  Unfortunately, all of the furor and distraction of the president's language and attitude may kill it.   The DACA deadline runs out very soon.   Graham is probably the key figure here.  Let's hope he has the negotiating skill and the ear of the president -- and uses them well.

Ralph

Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968

Today is the official national holiday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which is observed on the third Monday in January each year -- and which this year falls on his actual birthday, January 15th.

Fifty years after his assassination (yes, it was April 4, 1968), what is there left to say that might be new or have a different slant?   Perhaps nothing.   But I am particularly mindful today of how far our country has strayed from King's dedication to bringing truth and justice to all people.

In a way I had not thought of until now, Donald J. Trump is a sort of anti-MLK.   Trump is basically a "me-first" guy, extending that to "my family," "my wealth," "my country," and "my kind of people."

That's what I'm going to reflect on today and on redoubling efforts to elect those who better fit the image of a moral leader that Dr. King left for us.

Ralph

Now this is some good news

Amid all the ruckus over sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood, there lurks the other power-related issue -- unequal pay for men and women actors.  The two issues linked up in this one story -- with a good outcome.

When Kevin Spacey was exposed as having been a serial sexual harasser of young men in the theater/movie world, the producers of his completed -- but not-yet-released -- movie, "All the Money In the World," decided to delete him from the film by reshooting all his scenes and replacing him with Christopher Plummer.

This meant the other actors in the movie had to cooperate and redo their parts in those scenes as well.   Supposedly a group of them agreed to do whatever it took to salvage the film, including working for free if necessary.  They had already been paid their original, contracted fee for the film.    But somehow Mark Walhlberg's agent reached a different agreement, and he was paid $1.5 million for the reshoots.

Michelle Williams was one of the others who agreed to reshoot for free, even though she is represented by the same William Morris agency as Wahlberg.  There's been much discussion about this disparity.   Williams was paid the required minimum per diem, which amounted to less than $1,000 for the entire reshoot -- vs. Wahlberg's $1.5 million.

Wahlberg made a decision and released this statement:

"Over the last few days my reshoot fee for All The Money in the World has become an important topic of conversation. I 100% support the fight for fair pay and I’m donating the $1.5 million to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund in Michelle Williams’ name."

His agent, WME, also chipped in a $500,000 donation to the defense fund, also in Williams' name.

This does not solve the larger problem of unequal pay for men and women actors, but it's a good outcome for this particular situation.

Ralph

Ironic juxtaposition: Trump's "shithole" comment and MLK Day commemoration

I cannot improve on Rachel Wolfe's description of the Oval Office scene, so I'll just quote her words from Vox.com.

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 "The irony of President Donald Trump signing a proclamation declaring Martin Luther King Jr. Day, hours after denying he had used the term 'shithole' to refer to Haiti and countries in Africa, wasn't lost on those in the room with him.

"In an opening speech, the president called King 'a great American hero' who would go on to change the course of human history.  He also noted King's courage to stand up for the 'self-evident truth Americans hold so dear' that all people are 'created equal by God.'

"After statements from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and King's nephew, Pastor Isaac Newton Farris, Trump gleefully signed the proclamation, handing the black marker to Farris as a keepsake, as is presidential tradition.

"The president then tried to book it out of the Roosevelt Room, stopping only for a few handshakes from attendees.   But no speed was speedy enough to get past reporters' unanswered questions concerning the statements Trump reportedly made to a group of senators on Thursday regarding immigration policy for black and Latino countries.  [Trump's words were later confirmed by Sen. Dick Durbin, one of those in attendance.] 

"'Mr. President, will you give an apology for the statements yesterday?'
"'Mr. President, did you use the word 'shithole' to refer to African nations?'
"'Are you a racist?'
"'Mr. President, will you respond to these serious questions about this statement, sir?'
"'Mr. President, are you a racist?'

"The journalist's last question rang out over the room as Trump closed the door behind him, and a clipped 'Thanks, press,' presumably from a White House staff member didn't resonate as particularly thankful at all."

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