Good Cops, Crazy Cop

Good Cops, Crazy Cop:  Trump has been dealt a pretty crappy hand with regard to North Korea so he has a point when he complains that his predecessors just pushed the Kim Jong Un dilemma forward to the next guy.  The problem is that he is the next guy and he is not up for the task.  He loves his generals, loves his bombs and loves his military.  Diplomats not so much.  Right about now he could use some really good diplomats and Asian experts because the military option is awful.  Tuesday when he threatened to throw fire and fury at North Korea it looked like he was reading from a prepared script.  He wasn’t, the paper in front of him had only bullet points related to the opioid crisis.  His staff and cabinet secretaries knew that he was seething over North Korea’s nuclear progress, but they had no idea that he was going to up the ante with his improvised inflammatory remarks.  Yesterday, they all tried to walk back his remarks. Secretary of State Tillerson defended Trump’s comments but said that there was no sign that the threat from North Korea had changed and that Americans should “sleep well at night.”  Defense Secretary Mattis issued a tough warning to North Korea but one that was missing inflammatory rhetoric.  Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that all of Trump’s advisers are in agreement over North Korea policy, their tones just differ with Trump’s being crazy and the others being normal. The world is relying on Trump’s generals and his oil executive Secretary of State to keep him in check.  Rumor has it they now have a baby sitting schedule posted on the office fridge which has at least one of them on hand at all times.  Sadly, it’s not clear that Kim Jong Un has any minders, he has asked his generals to prepare a plan to attack Guam later this month, one with four missiles that will first “fly over Japan.”   So much for sleeping better at night.

Knock, Knock:   On July 26 the FBI conducted a “no notice” predawn raid at former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s Alexandria, Virginia home.  The raid which took place the day after Manafort met with the Senate Intelligence committee was authorized by a search warrant obtained only after a judge had been shown there was probable cause to believe that Manafort was not planning to turn over all of his information.  Agents seized Manafort’s financial information, tax records and other documents related to Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the election.  Predawn raids are striking, they are used when targets aren’t being all that cooperative, when there is a concern about preserving evidence, and/or when pressure is being put on a target to implicate others.  All of those conditions could fit Manafort:  he has bigly legal exposure, his son-in-law has been accused of a real estate related Ponzi scheme that he may have funded, he didn’t disclose his lobbying for pro-Russian Ukrainians and he was present and took notes at the infamous Russian Lawyer meeting hosted by Donny Jr.  Manafort who was forced out of the Trump campaign under less than happy circumstances is probably being pressured to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation and given his problems and the way he was treated when Jared and Donny, Jr gave him the heave ho he’s likely to sign on.  While Manafort’s home was being raided, Trump sent out a number of unusually harsh tweets slamming Attorney General Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation and then Acting FBI director Andrew McCabe because his wife works with Democrats.  He also tweeted out his attention grabbing transgender ban.  It’s no wonder no one noticed the activity at  Manafort’s house.   

Lost Love:   Last week Majority Leader McConnell threw some shade at Trump when he told his constituents that Congress hasn’t accomplished much lately because of Trump’s unrealistic deadlines adding “our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before, and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process.”  Trump was less than pleased with McConnell’s criticism.  In the middle of his busy day threatening war against North Korea and announcing his “just say no” solution to the opioid crisis, Trump found time to slam McConnell back, tweeting “Senator Mitch McConnell said I had ‘excessive expectations.’ But I don’t think so.  After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?”  The McConnell-Trump battle continued yesterday with the assistance of a few of Trump’s favorite stand-ins. Fox’s Sean Hannity attacked McConnell for being weak and spineless, calling for his retirement.  Dan Scavino, Trump’s former caddy and current White House social media director tweeted that McConnell is just providing more excuses and is so weak at his job tht he probably needs four more years to repeal and replace Obamacare.  Trump’s bromance with McConnell is over at least until they realize they have to work together on something easy, like tax reform.

Other Washington Drama:  Even the Wall Street Journal has had it with Steve Bannon and his ongoing attack of security adviser McMaster.  Yesterday the paper’s Editorial Board called for Trump to push Bannon aside to rid the White House of his disruptive influence.  Breitbart News, Bannon’s former stomping ground and current tool, struck back by attacking the “globalist” WSJ and its owner Rupert Murdoch for trying to take over the White House.  The White House isn’t the only Washington institution housing disruptive influences.  Senator Ron Johnson took the low road this week by suggesting that Senator John McCain only voted against the skinny Obamacare repeal legislation because he was addled by a brain tumor.   McCain’s spokeswoman responded that it was “bizarre and deeply unfortunate that Senator Johnson would question the judgement of a colleague and friend.  Senator McCain had been very open and clear about the reasons for his vote.”   The bigger question is what was ailing so many Republican Senators that they actually voted for the skinny repeal legislation while acknowledging that none of them thought it was a real piece of legislation.

Also Crazy:  The US just expelled a few Cuban diplomats in retaliation for the Cuban government’s actions against US State Department employees based in Cuba.  Apparently the US guys had been targeted by sonic devices emitting acoustic soundwaves which left two of them so ill they had to go home.  You can’t make this stuff up.