What's going on with Trump?

1.  You know what else has gone missing since election day?  -- I mean something else besides the caravan bringing those "hordes of bad people" to storm our southern border.  Yeah, I mean those "hordes" of women with children in strollers, with nary a gun amongst them, that we were warned were so dangerous.    The hordes that Trump apparently forgot all about when election night was over.

Also MIA is the 10% middle class tax cut that President Trump trumpeted during another campaign stunt.   Republicans are acting as thought the less said about it, the better -- especially since they lost control of the House.  Newly elected Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy said it had been conditional on Republicans winning both houses of congress.   Didn't happen.    And the tax cut won't happen either.

Who would've ever guessed?

2.  Our president is reportedly in a bad mood.   It's beyond pouting and tweeting, they say.   It's gone to the level of raging and foot-stomping -- and firing people.   It seems that he blames his advisers for failing to convince him that he would get media criticism for not going to Arlington Cemetery to say a few words on Veterans Day.

Gee, what a surprise!   People actually want their president to honor our brave, fallen soldiers on Veterans Day?    And the media criticizing him for failing to do so?   Now who could ever have anticipated that?  Especially coming on the heels of his letting a little rain keep him from going to the U.S. World War I soldiers' cemetery in France -- and then that snotty little Emmanuel Macron dared to make a speech, with Trump sitting there, decrying the "nationalism" that Trump had himself embraced a few days before.   Such a weakling, that Macron.   We ought to cut off all deals with France.

3.   Last week, when he was already well into being pissed off about the increasing losses in the midterm election, the president held a news conference in the White House.    CNN's reporter Jim Acosta, who tends to be a bit tough with his questions, did it again, asking about that "nationalism" thing . . .  and it really made Trump so mad.   He called Acosta a terrible person and refused to take another question from him.   When Acosta balked at giving up the microphone, Trump railed at him for being rude -- and subsequently Acosta was barred from access to the White House -- even though he is CNN's chief White House correspondent.  Trump claims the prerogative to choose which reporters can come to the White House.

CNN has now sued the administration, citing an assault on the first amendment and interfering not only with Acosta's free speech but also CNN's.    Fox News was one of the first news organizations to file a similar brief in solidarity with CNN in support of a free press.  Now some 50 news organizations have signed or otherwise lent their support to CNN.    There was a preliminary hearing before a judge on Wednesday, asking for an injunction to prevent the barring, pending a full hearing.   The judge has not yet rendered his opinion.

4.   But you don't need all these stories to know that the president is in a foul mood.   Just look at his face whenever he appears in public.   Such a deep scowl, such anger and fear showing in his eyes.   I've never seen him so down.  Theories abound:    the midterm results;  the Mueller investigation coming closer and closer.   But perhaps the best explanation came from Matt Miller, former spokesman for the Justice Department speaking on Nicole Wallace's MSNBC show.

According to Miller's theory, Trump has spent the last three days huddled with his lawyers crafting his written answers to questions from Mueller (in lieu of an in person interview).   Miller suggests, quite rightly I think, that arrogant narcissists like Trump do not actually perceive the depth of their legal vulnerability until they are forced to answer questions, either in court or in writing for the court.   Then they finally get some inkling of what we've known all along.    Trump is in a whole lot of trouble, and he can't just click his ruby red shoes, hear the roar of his rally crowds, and suddenly make it all go away.

It's all very real . . . and it's bad.

Ralph

Trump has taught Lindsey Graham to lie

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) may be getting -- or hoping to get -- some important favor from President Trump.   It's not clear what -- either an appointment as Attorney General to replace Jeff Sessions or, as has been reported, Secretary of Defense, to replace Mattis when he leaves.

But one thing is not in doubt.   Lindsey Graham has sold his political soul to Trump . . . for something.    Remember his denunciation of Trump, during the presidential campaign, when he declared Trump totally unfit to be president.    Now he's one of Trump's chief defenders on TV and a frequent golfing buddy.

Here's the sad thing.  Trump's corruption is corrupting Lindsey Graham.   He's learning to lie, just like Trump.   And remember Graham's angry outburst during the Kavanaugh hearings that turned the tide back to Kavanaugh?  That was pure Trumpism.

Last week, when the new job numbers came out, Graham  bragged on social media about the number of jobs President Trump had created during his 21 months in office.   He said that, if President Obama's jobs numbers had been "anywhere close" to Trump's, " the media would stop the Earth from rotating to make sure everybody heard about it."

There's a problem -- as there always is with Trump's claims -- and now with Little Lindsey as well.  In Obama's final 21 months in office, the jobs numbers were better than Trump's by nearly half a million.   Obama added 4.47 million in 21 months, while Trump had only 4.05 million.

Now Lindsey Graham is not my favorite senator.   In fact, probably the best thing about him was that John McCain seemed to like him a lot.   But, now that this best bud is gone from the earth, Lindsey seems to have turned to Trump as a replacement.

How ironic, given Trump's cruel and small-minded insult to McCain -- saying that McCain was a hero only because he was captured by the Vietnamese;  and he, Donald Trump, preferred those who didn't get caught.

Trump has absolutely no standing to pass judgment on McCain's heroism, given that he avoided the war altogether by getting a doctor to say he had "bone spurs" in his heel  (that same long-haired dude, perhaps, who declared Trump's health to be "extremely excellent"?   No doctor uses language like that.)

So, Lindsey, what is it that you're angling for by kissing up to Trump?    Or does he perhaps have something incriminating on you?

Ralph

Why Trump's Acting AG is unqualified

As expected, after the midterm election, President Donald Trump wasted no time in ousting his Attorney General Jeff Sessions and installing Sessions' Chief of Staff, Matthew Whitaker as Acting AG.   But on multiple counts, Whitaker is not qualified to hold the post, even as a temporary appointee.

1.  The Constitutional Argument:  A New York Times op-ed on Friday, by constitutional scholars Neal Katyal and George T. Conway, argues that Whitaker is not qualified because, even as Acting Attorney General, he is a "principle officer" in the federal government but has not been vetted and confirmed -- as required -- by the U.S. Senate.   A principle officer is one who reports directly to the the President and has no other supervisor.

Katyal and Conway back up their claim with analysis of Supreme Court decisions, which I won't detail here;  but their reasoning seems sound to me.  Just last year, SCOTUS held that the general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board had not been legally appointed because he did not have Senate confirmation.    What applies to a mere lawyer for the NLRB should apply in spades to the Attorney General himself -- the highest law enforcement individual in our country.   Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas himself wrote this opinion.

There could some time be an emergency situation where a vacancy had to be filled by a non-confirmed officer for a very short time.  But there was no such urgency last week, since the timing of Sessions' "resignation" was nothing more than Trump's finally accepting the letter written by Sessions months ago at Trump's own request.   And there was a whole line of succession of better qualified Justice Department officials who do have Senate confirmation that could have stepped into the position:    the Deputy AG, the Solicitor General, and others.

2.   The Lack of Legal Qualification Argument:   The highest position Whitaker had occupied in the DoJ was as Chief of Staff for Sessions.   He is not known as a legal scholar, nor does he have significant experience even in law enforcement or as a prosecutor.

3.   The Conflict of Interest Argument:    It's quite clear that Trump chose Whitaker for one reason:   his past public statements -- and probable private assurances -- that Whitaker will do what Trump wants to kill or severely limit the Mueller investigation.   He has made TV appearances in which he called it a "witch hunt," spoke about how the DoJ could limit funding for it, and how the AG could restrict areas that Mueller could investigate.   Specifically, he also has said that, like Trump himself, he would consider Mueller was crossing a "red line" into forbidden territory if he investigated Trump's finances.

Further, Whitaker has said publicly and adamantly that he will not recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation.  This then would also give him control over what happens to any report Mueller might write.

4.   The Lack of Independence Argument:   From all of the above -- plus reports just out that allege, despite Trump's having told reports "I don't even know Whitaker," that he has met with Trump multiple times, secretly, in the White House;  and that they have talked multiple times on the phone.   Speculation is that he has been Trump's "mole" in the Justice Department as Sessions Chief of Staff, reporting to the president what's happening in the investigation.   This is highly improper.   The Justice Department must have a certain distance and independence from the president and the White House staff.

5.  The shady and improper financial past of Whitaker:   Mr. Whitaker, rather than having followed a career path primarily as a lawyer, has dabbled in many business ventures.   He was a paid member of the Board of World Patent Marketing, which was charged by the Federal Trade Commission with fraud for misleading customers.   A federal could ordered the company to pay a settlement of $25 million and close up shop.   The company accepted the judgment without admitting guilt.

So . . . the handwriting on the wall is easy to read.    Trump's complaint about Sessions' recusal was that it left him without an AG that would "protect" him from investigations and DoJ scrutiny -- i.e., putting Trump above the law.   Now Trump has installed -- probably illegally, and at least politically untenable -- his own lackey who has most likely already assured his loyalty to the president rather than to the country.

Within three days, protest marches had been organized in multiple cities around the country.   Members of both parties in congress are speaking against this appointment.   At the very least, we will now have a Democratic majority in the House, which can open its own investigation and pick up whatever Mueller can't get finished.

Heck, they could probably even hire Muller to be the lead investigator for them.

Ralph

PS:   These arguments don't even address obvious, out-in-the-open evidence of (1) abuse of power of office and (2) obstruction of justice arguments against both Trump and Whitaker through their attempts to interfere with an ongoing investigation.

The Magic of the Midterms

As MSNBC's Churk Todd pointed out yesterday, in all the pundits' analysis of the results of the midterm elections, everyone has missed the big, magical story that happened:

The caravan has gone missing.

President Trump filled his raucous rallies with frightening tales of a caravan of "hordes of bad people marching toward our southern border," intent on invading our country to do us great harm.  He bombarded his crowds with vivid descriptions of "blood-thirsty" MS13 gang members who are "killers."  Terrorists from the Middle East.  And just the sheer numbers of them "overwhelming your schools, depleting your resources, and damaging your communities."

Where is the caravan now?    It seems to have vanished, says Chuch Todd, who goes on to quote some facts.   Last Friday, there were 11 mentions of the caravan on "Fox and Friends."  On Monday there were 10, and on Tuesday (election day) 9.     Since then, they were mentioned once on Wednesday -- and not again since then.  Not once.  We're saved!

It's a miracle!!!    How else can it be explained?

Ralph

PS:  But, be wary, Chuck also warns.   He says he has a feeling we may hear about them again as the 2020 election draws nigh.

Democrats take control of the House

It's hard for me to feel joy right now, having to accept the defeat of both Beto O'Rourk, in his race against Ted Cruz in Texas, and of Andrew Gillum in his race to be governor of Florida.   Both of these men brought a freshness and a spirit of authenticity and compassion and competence to politics.

I'm also sad that, although Stacie Abrams' race for governor of Georgia is still too early to call, she is trailing pretty badly.   Maybe she will still pull out a win as the metro Atlanta votes get counted.    Abrams is smart, politically adept, knows her way around the Georgia legislature -- and she would be an inspiring first African-American woman ever to be governor of a U.S. state.

However, putting those aside, this was a very good night for Democrats.   As of 11:30 Tuesday night, the Democrats have flipped enough seats to take control of the House of Representatives, with some to spare.

The real significance of this is that, come January, Democrats will control the agenda, the budget, and will become chairs of all the House committees.    And that means that now they will provide oversight and investigative powers, including subpoena power, over the Trump administration.  This is an important constitutionally established function of the House, something Republicans have refused to do with Trump as president.

More about all of this later.   Now to bed.

Ralph

UPDATE:    With 100% of precincts reporting, the Georgia governor's race now has Kemp with 50.8%, Abrams 48.3%, and Metz 0.9%.

UPDATE #2:   Those results do not, however, include all of the absentee ballots nor the provisional ballots.    So it is still mathematically possible for Abrams to win;  but not very probable.

Every vote counts.

  VOTE!   VOTE!   VOTE!   VOTE!

No, I don't mean vote four times.    But do vote -- and take three people with you to vote also.

We're facing so much effort to suppress the vote that we must fight in the courts and at the polling places.    If you are told your registration is on hold, demand to have a provisional ballot.   And then do what's required to clear up any problem.

The problem we face here in Georgia, as well as in some other states , is that the Republican candidate for governor is also the Secretary of State, who is also in charge of the whole election process.   He has refused to relinquish control of that during the election he is running in, even though some of his policies have been shot down by federal court challenges.

But we have an 11th hour wrinkle.   The office of Georgia Sec. of State has issued a statement less than two days before the election accusing the Democratic Party of having hacked into the election registration system.

What this appears to be is that a cyber-vulnerability was discovered by a group that tests voting systems for just such vulnerabilities.   Of course, their method is to try to hack a system to see where it is vulnerable.   The difference is the use to be made of this.   Legitimate testing is then duly reported to the authorities;  it is not used to alter the results.

Somehow Kemp's campaign has twisted this into accusing the Democrats of something nefarious, although there is no evidence they did anything except pass along information that was given to them about the discovered vulnerability.  It's unclear what their supposed motive was -- perhaps to make the Secretary of State look incompetent?    That wouldn't be too hard.  I'll update this as we get new information.

As of late evening Monday, we're told the GBI is investigating;  but they have released no statement;  neither has the FBI, if they are involved.   Stacie Abrams has denounced this as a political stunt on the part of the Kemp campaign -- and that's where it stands unless and until something turns up as evidence against one side or another.   Will it affect the vote?   Probably any effect will be more or less evenly split -- those who believe the Kemp charge and those who agree with Abrams that it was a political stunt on Kemp's part.

In the meantime, get as many legitimately qualified voters you know to the polls to cast a legal ballot.   Let's overwhelm the attempts to suppress and steal this election.   After all, we also have gerrymandering to overcome, which takes even more Democratic votes to win congressional races.

Ralph

Trump's end of campaign message

photo by Associated Press

President Trump has certainly thrown himself into the final few weeks of the campaign for the midterm elections.   Polls open in eastern states in about 31 hours from the time of this posting.   Some 28 million people have already cast their ballots in early voting.  This is almost 10 million more than at a comparable time in the 2014 midterms early voting.

But what is the message that the president is proclaiming -- by tweet and by rally?

"Be afraid."   Be very afraid of the Democrats and what they will do if they take control of the House.   And perhaps the real message is to himself:    Be very afraid of what will happen in 2020 to my prospects for a second term if the Democrats get control of even one House of Congress.

 Because that will give them subpoena power and investigative power.    And they will expose what Robert Mueller finds -- and they will hold hearings and lay it all out there on CSPAN.

And, given that, what are the issues that Trump is emphasizing?    Not the things he could legitimately call the successes of his time in office:   an economy that, for the short term anyway, is looking good.   Unemployment so low that need for workers is becoming a problem.

The tax cut for corporations and the wealthy didn't do much trickling down for the middle class and working people's wages (netting roughly $120 a month) -- but it sure did please his donors and friends.  For example, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson's businesses got a $670 million windfall from the tax cut in the first quarter alone -- set to go over $2 billion for the year.    So Adelson has rewarded his Republican friends in Congress with over $100 million in donations for the midterms.

The discrepancy between what Sheldon Edelson got from the tax cut and what his kitchen workers got was somewhere in the range of 1.87 million dollars to 1 dollar.

Let's compare what Trump does seem to think is important to focus on with what people say are the issues that are important to them in how they chose to vote.

A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll asked people just that:   what issues are important influences on how you will vote.   Here are the results.

   Health Care                                78%
   The Economy                             76%
   Reducing divisiveness              69%
   Taxes                                            66%
   Border Security                          59%

It's almost as if Trump turned the chart upside down.   His #1 topic to rev up his base crowd is border security and the "hordes" that he sees invading our country -- the bottom of the people's list, border security.   Embedded in that, whether the pollsters meant to or not, is racism.   A lacerating, xenophobic, rejection of the Other as inferior, violent, diseased.   It's an invasion by those "others," not only taking over our way of life, but destroying it.    I'm not sure Trump is racist;  but he is using racist memes to stir up his base, for crass political purposes, no matter who gets hurt.

And it's not even true.   The narrative of the caravan, the "hordes" of people banded together is a dangerous exaggeration created by the Trump administration for political purposes.   It's all part of con game to paint these refugees as dangerous and diseased and set on doing us harm --- all to stoke the fear of Trump's political base for political purposes.

As to taxes, he has made the facile promise of a 10% tax cut to the middle class -- with no plan or any hope of getting congress to do that.   It's an empty promise for the election;  nothing more.  And he certainly is doing nothing to reduce divisiveness in our society;   rather, he's the Divider in Chief.

As to the economy, he does occasionally mention how well it's doing -- mainly to give himself credit for the trend that began during Obama's term and, in general has failed to fulfill the promise with which Republicans sold their trillion dollar tax cut for corporations and the wealthy.   So they keep that one pretty quiet.   Instead, Trump trots out the empty promise of a 10% tax cut for the middle class, while Paul Ryan talks about having to cut entitlements because of the huge deficit that has resulted from their other tax cut.   It seems there one message for the campaign rallies, an opposite one for congress.

As to the people's #1 choice, Medical Care, at least for the duration of the campaign, most Republicans and Trump himself have stopped promising to overturn Obamacare.   Instead, they're making "Medicare for All" the boogey-man.  Now they're giving lip service to "saving coverage for pre-existing conditions" and even having the chutzpah to accuse Democrats of endangering it.   But Medicare for All?   Too expensive;  and, even worse, it will lead to Socialism.

Trump's upside-down rhetoric from what people say is most important to them is odd.   Or maybe not.   What Trump is really selling is fear.   And the promise that only he can take care of them.   It's the tactic of nascent fascism and the rising dictator. So he's picking issues that he can use most easily to scare people.  And making empty promises that he can't keep on things that benefit most Americans.

Will the con work?    We'll know soon.   This election is the most important one at least since 1968 -- and perhaps ever further back than that.   Because this is, in large part, a referendum on democracy itself.   Do we want to keep it?   If so, then we have to make some changes from the direction we're heading.

We are at a crisis point.   We, the voters, will decide.

Ralph