Free Fallin'

While My Guitar Gently Weeps:  Las Vegas is the home of the weekly gun show so no one cared when Stephen Paddock, a run of the mill high roller dragged twenty-two guns a few converted to automatic, a couple of tripods and lots of bullets through the lobby of the Mandalay Bay Resort.  He finally got noticed but only after he blew out some windows and rained bullets down on a crowd of concert goers, killing 59, injuring 527 more, in another deadly US mass shooting. Trump responded with presidentially appropriate somber words calling the murders an “act of pure evil,” throwing in a few words of the Scriptures for good measure. Tactfully, he didn’t repeat his campaign exhortation that Second Amendment advocates could “do something” about Hillary Clinton to prevent her from taking away their rights to bear arms.  His press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders choked up during her daily news conference before saying that now “is not the time to talk about gun control.”  She didn’t suggest an alternative time but did manage to squeeze in a snide remark about gun deaths in Chicago, reminding the assembled press that people get shot there every day despite tough local gun laws. VP Pence, another recipient of NRA largesse, tweeted that he was praying for the victims and their families because that’s what he does.  Republicans in Congress responded with shock and grief and the obligatory moment of silence and went home frustrated that their plans to vote on a bill that would eliminate restrictions on the sale of silencers would have to be pushed off a few days.  Democratic Senator Murphy, an advocate for gun control laws from Connecticut, the state that brought us the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, simply said “This must stop….the thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference.  It’s time for Congress to get off its ass and do something.” The NRA did something, they temporarily pulled a few ads they planned to run in support of the pro-gun candidate for Governor in Virginia. No doubt their ads will be back soon because the NRA has never let a massacre get in the way of promoting rampant gun ownership. Gun sales and gun company stocks, which had been in the doldrums ever since gun friendly Trump won the election, shot up as people rushed to buy convertible semi-automatics, fearing that the Las Vegas tragedy would result in some kind of limitation on gun purchases.  Just to confuse matters and because they are probably laughing at our self-inflicted wounds, ISIS took credit for the Las Vegas killings.  There is no indication whatsoever that they had anything to do with it, but their assertions will probably fuel conspiracy theorists, like right wing radio host Alex Jones who claims that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged, a claim that Trump refuses to repudiate.  Given the large number of patients in Las Vegas hospitals, Nevada’s Governor Sandoval waived requirements, making it easier for trauma surgeons from neighboring states to provide much needed help.  It turns out that Nevada has a doctor shortage, one that is exacerbated by Trump’s immigration restrictions and Muslim travel ban, the one that’s supposed to protect the US from mass shootings.          

Hoy en San Juan:  Today Trump plans to travel to Puerto Rico, an island in a really big ocean, where he will pretend to show concern for everyone with the possible exception of Carmin Yulin Cruz, the Mayor of San Juan who's outspoken criticism has earned her a spot on Trump’s enemies list.  Trump may or may not notice that 95% of Puerto Rico still has no power, that 85% of cell towers are not working, that 53% of the water and sewer system is still down and that only half of the gas stations have any fuel.  And he probably won’t acknowledge what the US military has already admitted, that they were late to the Puerto Rico scene.  No doubt, he will get a warm welcome from Puerto Rico’s Governor Rosello, who has been obsequiously flattering Trump in order to secure more desperately needed aid.  Trump will also be traveling to the American Virgin Islands which are also surrounded by big water, to meet with their Governor, Kenneth Mapp, who is planning to ask for more aid. Over the weekend when Mapp was asked about Trump’s ruthless tweet attack of the San Juan mayor, he smiled and said that given the storm he hadn’t seen the tweets because he has no internet service and limited cell phone service so he couldn’t comment.  Like Governor Rosello, Governor Mapp has decided that flattering Trump’s fragile ego is part of the game he has to play.  Expectations are that Trump will ask Congress for another $10 to $15 billion for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands over the next few weeks.  Another dinner with Nancy and Chuck could be imminent. Assuming he gets out of the Caribbean before any rolling electrical outages shut the airports, Trump plans to head to Las Vegas to spread some presidential compassion in a state where votes count.  

Russia, Russia, Russia:  Jared and Ivanka had a third previously unreported email account on their personal domain.  They’ve been using the account quite regularly to transmit non-public travel documents, internal schedules and some official White House materials.  They shared this account with their assistants and household staff, ignoring warnings that they weren’t supposed to be using home emails.  Somewhere along the line they forgot Trump’s favorite exhortation that someone else who used home email should be “locked up,” because, when you are a member of the ruling family, rules and exhortations don’t apply.  Michael Cohen, Trump’s sometimes lawyer and dedicated employee, the guy who’s been voted most likely to fall on a sword for Trump, had two other interactions with Russians related to an invitation to attend an economic conference with Putin and a proposal for another  Moscow real estate project.  In and of themselves the conversations are not that big a deal, especially since he responded that he was too busy with the campaign to go to the conference and declined participation in the real estate project because of what he called a prior commitment to another Russian developer, but the failure to report them is a problem and raises concerns that Trump loyalist Cohen has been keeping secrets about Russian things from intelligence committees and Special Counsel Mueller.    

Sanctions are Complicated:  A few months ago, Trump withheld $300 million in military aid from Egypt, providing little explanation for his action.  At the time it wasn’t clear why he was holding back the funds given his affinity for Egypt’s President Sisi and Egypt’s strategic importance to Jared’s Middle East peace initiative.  It turns out that Sisi had gotten caught violating sanctions prohibiting trade with North Korea when US intelligence detected a North Korean vessel carrying Egyptian purchased Pyongyang military equipment and missiles heading towards the Suez Canal.  Egypt now says they were just “helping” the US find and destroy contraband.  Russia is violating the sanctions too and as a result North Korea now has a second internet carrier, courtesy of TransTeleCom, a Russian state owned company that just provided the hermit state with another way to engage in cyberwarfare, one that circumvents China and diminishes the value of the UN mandated sanctions.  Chalk another one up for Putin.