Oops He Did It Again

Russian Influence:  During the presidential campaign, American spies listened in on conversations between Russian officials as they discussed efforts to exploit their relationships with Trump aides in order to exert influence over Trump. The Russians were caught discussing how they hoped to use former campaign manager Manafort and security advisor Flynn to shape Trump’s positions on issues important to Russia. It’s worth noting that at the Republican convention Manafort was influential in modifying the Republican Platform’s position on the Ukraine so that it was more favorable to Russian interests. Other members of the Trump team who had frequent contacts with Russian officials, oligarchs and government owned banks were likely targeted as well.  Yesterday it was also revealed that, like Jared Kushner, Attorney General Sessions failed to disclose his three meetings with Russian Ambassador Kislyak on his security clearance forms.  Trump just retained Marc Kasowitz to represent him on issues related to the Russia investigation,  Kasowitz also represents a Russian bank in an ongoing US lawsuit and a Russian billionaire with close ties to Putin.

Weirder and Weirder:  Last July FBI Director Comey announced that Hillary Clinton would not be indicted for using her private email server and then, because he promised Congress he would let them know if he received any other evidence, right before the election he announced that there were additional emails on the Anthony Weiner computer before saying that they weren’t significant.  After that Trump won the election.  Everything Comey did was unusual because indictment decisions generally rest in the hands of the Attorney General and announcements are only made if someone is actually indicted.  Last night, it was reported that Comey felt he had to go public with the decision not to indict because he had been shown  evidence that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, former head of the DNC, had sent emails to several colleagues saying that then Attorney General Lynch would do what she could to prevent Hillary from getting indicted.  It turns out that the evidence was fabricated probably by the Russians, the Wasserman-Schultz emails never existed, and that the FBI had questioned the validity of this so called “evidence” from the start.  Still Comey was so concerned that the bogus evidence would be leaked, tainting his investigation and decision not to indict Clinton, that he went ahead with the announcements anyway.  The rest is history. 

Beating Up Reporters in Montana:  Last night Greg Gianfonte the Republican candidate in today’s special congressional election assaulted Ben Jacobs, a reporter for the Guardian, when Jacobs asked a question about the new Trumpcare scoring report.   Gianfonte body slammed Jacobs, breaking his glasses and injuring his elbow. Gianfonte’s spokesperson claimed the assault was justified because the “liberal journalist” was “aggressive.”  Unfortunately for Gianfonte, Jacobs caught the whole incident on audiotape and reporters from Fox News who witnessed the incident confirmed Jacobs account of the assault. Overnight Gianfonte was charged with misdemeanor assault and lost the endorsement of three local newspapers.  It’s not clear if beating up a reporter is a good or bad thing in Montana but since more than half of the anticipated votes have already been cast by mail, it’s unlikely that Gianfonte’s actions will have much, if any, impact on the election that he is supposed to win.   

What’s the Score:  The Congressional Budget Office released its new Trumpcare scoring report on Wednesday.  The conclusions of this report aren’t dramatically different than the old report: the Trumpcare legislation that was passed by Congress is still a disaster.  The CBO expects about 23 million people will lose their insurance for a ten year savings of  $119 billion; last time around the numbers were 24 million and $150 billion respectively.  Essentially the CBO report concludes that Trumpcare would mean slightly less government savings and slightly more insurance coverage but would price out many with pre-existing conditions and would eliminate access for many people with low incomes.  About $1 trillion, mostly from tax cuts, would result in a $1 trillion reduction in health care spending.  A team of Republican Senators is currently rewriting Trumpcare legislation so at least for now this is all academic.

Trump-a-nomics:  The Trump budget plan isn’t just harsh it’s also based on faulty math and Alice in Wonderland economics.  The budget double counts $2 trillion, using it to both reduce the budget deficit and pay for proposed tax cuts. When asked about this Budget Director Mulvaney actually said that they did the double count “on purpose” because there were other areas where they were probably too conservative.   Additionally, by assuming an overly optimistic 3% growth rate, the plan projects that the federal deficit will be eliminated in ten years. The consensus among mainstream economists is that a 3% growth rate is unachievable, particularly when growth spurring immigration is being curtailed.  

Saudi Arabia:  Three Israeli-American reporters were supposed to cover Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia.  Their participation in the press pool had been approved by the White House.  The reporters were set to join the official press plane to Riyadh until Trump officials informed them that they were no longer invited because the Saudi embassy had refused to grant them visas due to their affiliation with Israeli media outlets.  The Trump administration could have stood up to the Saudis but instead went along with the visa denials in order to keep with the narrative that the “moderate” Saudis  will help with Trump’s grand Israeli-Palestinian peace plan and Trump remains dismissive of press freedom anyway.

Oops He Did it Again:  Trump discussed a few things when he spoke with his good friend Philippines President Duterte.  He congratulated him for his murderous drug crackdown, he invited him for dinner at the White House and he revealed the secret location of two US nuclear submarines.  Oops!