Naturally

Who’s on First:  Ty Cobb, Trump’s in house lawyer for all things Russian, wants us to believe that Trump is cool, calm and collected about this morning’s pending pick-up of the not so innocent person or people who were indicted on Friday but judging by yesterday’s tweet tsunami, that’s just another trumped up alternative fact.  No doubt on the advice of counsel, Trump avoided directly threatening Mueller, instead focusing his onslaught on Hillary the DNC, the uranium deal, phony Trump collusion, and the Steele dossier, that he claims without any evidence cost the “Dems” $12 million.  For the record, the “Dems” paid their law firm around $9 million or so, but that was for all their services, we don’t know how much of that money went to Fusion GPS for the production of the dossier. Trump also questioned the timing of the upcoming indictment, suggesting that it was taking place now in order to interfere with his tax reform plans.  One word about that – delusional.  With regard to the dossier and the uranium deal, Trump was joined by a squadron of surrogates, who all want to know why Hillary, the women who is not the current president of the United States, isn’t already hanging by her toes in a guarded Guantanamo Bay prison cell.  As to Special Counsel Mueller, the swords are out for him too.  The Rupert Murdoch controlled Wall Street Journal editorial board has called for him to step down for collaborating with the Democrats by using the dossier.  The WSJ suggestion that Mueller is relying on the dossier for his indictments is nonsense and they know that but it appeals to the right and the Breitbart set.  The WSJ used to be good at investigative reporting, but they’ve stayed largely on the sidelines when it comes to the Russian investigation, ceding any  future Pulitzer prizes to the NY Times and Washington Post.  WSJ stories come out late and with the exception of their story about Peter Smith, the Republican operative who confessed that together with Michael Flynn, he tried to obtain Hillary’s elusive 33,000 emails before committing suicide, they’ve added little to the dialogue.  Soon to be ex-Governor of New Jersey Christie said that whoever leaked the indictment to the press should be arrested, but at least he had the good sense to also say that he doubted that Mueller or anyone on his staff was the leaker.  Surprisingly, Representative Trent Gowdy, who thought that the Benghazi witch hunt was awesome, actually said something nice about Mueller, pointing out that he was well respected, and should be allowed to continue with his investigation, at least until he’s not.     

What’s on Second:  The small group of Republican legislators spent the weekend trying to make $5 trillion worth of “square” tax cuts fit into a $1.5 trillion “round” slot.  They are still tinkering with 401K plans and are likely to try to convince those Americans who save for their retirement, that less savings are better than more and that they’ll be just as happy if they shift some of their hard earned dollars to Roth plans paying income tax now, avoiding taxes later when funds are withdrawn.  They are counting on the fact that few Americans understand present value or discounted cash flow analysis.  The plan still eliminates the deduction for state and local taxes but in an effort to get the high tax state Republicans back on board, it now allows for the deduction of local real estate taxes.  New York Governor Cuomo, isn’t buying their compromise, he’s already started slamming the few upstate House Republicans who voted yes on last week’s budget bill.  One influential group, the National Association of Home Builders, which initially had said that they were open to changes in the mortgage interest deduction, have now withdrawn support, saying the bill is bad for the housing sector.  Later this week, once the full terms of the bill are made public, the line of special interest lobbyists joining them in protest is expected to wind around the Washington DC Tidal Basin.  Democrats who have been completely excluded from writing the tax bill are so far uniform in their opposition.   Despite Republican claims that the bill is, as a disingenuous Ohio Senator Portman alleged, all about lowering middle-class taxes, the Democrats are calling it out for what it is, a gift to the very rich, tied in a big red bow and because it is largely a gift to the rich, red state Democrats still feel emboldened enough to join their blue state colleagues in opposition.  The Republican’s keep on citing the Reagan era tax cuts as their model but forget that those cuts came to pass with the help of Democrats, including former NJ Senator and NY Knick Bill Bradley.  They also forget that some Reagan era cuts subsequently had to be adjusted up after the deficit ballooned. 

I Don’t Know:  In other news of note, the $300 million fishy Whitefish contract that the White House insists was only a local Puerto Rico problem has now been cancelled by the Puerto Rico Electrical Authority and Governor Rosello.  The White House was nervous enough about the optics of the contract to call Interior Secretary Zinke in to discuss it, he still alleges that he had nothing to do with the contract that benefited one of his Montana friends, but while he was in town with Trump the two agreed to shrink the Bears Ears National park down to size because who needs pristine park land anyway?  Steve Bannon notified Trump that he plans to do all he can to destroy the wellbeing and career of Republican supporter billionaire investor Paul Singer, the man who funded The Washington Beacon website that initially hired Fusion GPS to do opposition research about Trump.  Trump is off to Asia this week to improve or further diminish the US world position and prospects for peace and trade.  North Korea spent the weekend practicing nuclear preparation drills. Jared Kushner spent part of his weekend traveling back from Saudi Arabia where he is still the man of the moment but will be spending less time with Trump in China, where his role has been scaled back, perhaps because screwing up in China is potentially more deadly than delaying Middle East peace talks.  And lastly, it’s 7:15 AM and we still don’t know who’s door got the Mueller knock this morning.