Six Months and Counting

Repeal and Replace:  Inhumane, unjust, unchristian.  Just some of the words being used to describe Trump’s decision to rescind DACA, a program that two thirds of Americans support.  No wonder that six foot two Trump, who generally loves the limelight, was too weak kneed to announce his own decision.  Instead he hid behind the diminutive Jeff Sessions, sending him out to meet the press.  For his part squeaky little Sessions was happy to front for Trump.  Together with Stephen Miller, his xenophobic soulmate, the anti-immigrant Sessions has spent months convincing Trump to dump the “illegal” DACA program so he was positively gleeful at the opportunity to announce Trump’s decision.  Sessions lauded the decision as a way to get rid of those 800,000 illegal miscreants, the guys responsible for crime at the border, the beneficiary leeches who steal jobs from white Americans and, in an effort to stir the racial divide, he went on to claim that they are single handedly responsible for black unemployment.  Except none of that is true.  The DACA recipients are survivors of extreme vetting, they are educated, some are students, some are in the military, they pay taxes, add to the social security base, fuel economic growth and mostly fill jobs that would go unfilled without them. As expected the Trump mandate won’t go into effect for six months, giving Congress, who has yet to pass anything during the Trump term, a chance to pass some version of Dreamers legislation.  Repeal and replace worked so well for Obamacare that Trump decided to try it again with immigration, so what if 800,000 lives are hanging in the balance. A number of legislators on both sides of the aisle have announced that they will introduce legislation to help the DACA beneficiaries.  The “sympathetic” Republican position, one held by Senator Lindsay Graham, is that Obama’s decision to authorize DACA through executive action was wrong but that new legislation is warranted because the DACA recipients are deserving.  The unsympathetic Republican view is that Obama was wrong, everything he did was wrong, and so is immigration. They’re furious that Trump didn’t just kill the program, effective immediately.  For his part, Obama emerged from his self-imposed silence to say that Trump is being cruel and self-defeating. The best hope for the DACA kids would be a joint legislative effort between the sympathetic Republicans and Democrats, who are largely supportive of the program.  A number of legislators including Graham and Democratic Senators Durbin and Harris are planning to introduce Dreamer legislation.  House Majority Leader Paul Ryan appears to support that strategy, however Senate Majority Leader McConnell who applauded Trump’s decision to rescind Obama’s “illegal” DACA remains silent about any replacement legislation.  Instead he detailed legislative priorities, studiously leaving any form of DACA legislation off of his long to do list.  Trump’s decision is being widely denounced by religious leaders, corporate CEOs and virtually anyone with any sense of decency.  Yesterday, the NY Times reported that his staff believed that he didn’t understand the full repercussions of ending DACA, they may be right.  Last night Trump tweeted “Congress has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do)  If they can’t I will revisit the issue!”  Sadly, while Trump tries to have it both ways, his Department of Homeland Security has already issued talking points that advise DACA beneficiaries to start preparing for their exit from the United States.       

No More Crazies Please:  After David Clarke, Trump’s second favorite abusive sheriff resigned from his Milwaukee position, it was rumored that he would be joining the White House staff.  Chief of Staff Kelly put the kibosh on that idea. Kelly, who previously prevented Clarke from joining the Department of Homeland Security,  has been methodically eliminating disruptive influences from the White House, most recently limiting eccentric and disruptive former apprentice Omarosa Manigault’s access to Trump.  The last thing he wants is another crazy near Trump so instead Clarke will be joining the America First Action super PAC, which is devoted to getting Trump/Pence friendly candidates elected to office, as a senior adviser and spokesmen.  Steve Bannon, one of the crazies that Kelly got booted from the White House, is still up to no good.  Yesterday, Mark Meadows the head of the right wing Freedom Caucus member met Bannon at his Breitbart bat cave.  Together they are plotting to take on Republican leadership over the debt ceiling, hurricane relief, tax reform, health care payments, the budget, the government funding bill and anything else that crosses their path. Congress plans to take up Hurricane Harvey legislation today.  September just got even more interesting.  

Congressional Interference:  The House Intelligence Committee continues to be dysfunctional, rife with disagreements between Republican and Democrat members.  Without the consent of any Democratics, Republicans on the Committee subpoenaed the FBI, requesting that the FBI and the Justice Department turn over all documents related to the somewhat salacious Christopher Steele dossier, part of their effort to discredit the Russia investigation by first discrediting Steele.  So far the Justice Department has not complied. This is the same committee that sent two of its staff members over to London during the summer in a futile attempt to front run Special Counsel Mueller by getting to Steele first.  Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the Committee believes that this is a diversionary tactic intended to derail the Russia investigation.  At least so far, the Senate Committees are still functioning in a bipartisan manner and Mueller toils on.  

Back On the Korean Peninsula:  South Korea believes that North Korea has plans to launch another ballistic missile this weekend in celebration of its National Day holiday.  Japan is now developing a plan to remove 60,000 of its citizens if things get worse.  The US has no plans to evacuate anyone from Korea at this point but is evacuating 5000 of its personnel from the Florida Keys in anticipation of the impact of Hurricane Irma, a massive category 5 storm. Storms are brewing everywhere.