Silence is Complicity

The Tipping Point: The thing about Trump is that everything feels like it’s the beginning of the end and then it’s not.  Trump started his day by tweet attacking Tennessee Senator Bob Corker “who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts.” Corker, who had opposed the Iran agreement tweeted back “same untruths from an utterly untruthful president” before putting down his tweeter and going old school.  He went down to the Senate halls and launched into a verbal attack of Trump to virtually every news outlet he could find.  Among other things he said that Trump is not a role model, he debases our country, the White House staff should figure out a way to control him, he has great difficulty with the truth, world leaders are aware that much of what he says is untrue and when his term is over he will be most remembered for debasing the nation.  Corker’s decision not to run for reelection has freed him to speak his mind and did he ever, he now has some more company.  Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, who didn’t support Trump during the 2016 election and who published a book criticizing Trump earlier in the year, has joined the Corker-McCain speak your mind train.  Facing a tough primary in Arizona against a Bannon supported wingnut, Flake announced that he won’t be seeking reelection in 2018.  He announced his decision in a blistering speech to his Senate colleagues, saying among other things that he can’t win the Arizona primary without wholeheartedly supporting Trump and he won’t compromise his values to do so.  He added that it’s time to stop pretending Trump is normal, because he is reckless, dangerous and undignified.  Silence is complicity, and he doesn’t want to be complicit.  Freed of the constraints of the election process, the two Senators, both conservatives and both highly respected for their integrity, will be thorns in Trump’s side until the end of 2018 and maybe, just maybe a few other Republican Senators will join their chorus. A complicit Majority Leader McConnell praised Flake, saying that he was highly principled and a fine man and said he was “grateful” that Flake would be around through the end of 2018, because Republicans had big things to do.  Then the Republican senators went to lunch with Trump to discuss priorities and tax reform and what a good job he is doing.  Louisiana Senator John Kennedy reported that the lunch went well because “nobody called anybody an ignorant slut or anything.”  Only time will tell if Flake and Corker’s willingness to speak up was a tipping point or another nothing burger.

Tax Reform:  There’s still no finalized tax plan, but the push to begin the legislative process continues.  Without providing much in the way of details Trump talked about the importance of getting it done, telling the Senate lunch crowd that though he appreciates Lamar Alexander’s great work on health care, he wants tax reform done before he’ll even consider the Obamacare “fix.”  Tonight, the House is scheduled to vote on the budget that has to be passed before tax reform can be addressed but they may have encountered an impediment that could hold up its passage.  A number of Republicans from New York and New Jersey say they won’t vote for the budget plan unless Republican leadership retreats from plans to eliminate the state and local tax deduction.  Trump and Pence were working the phones, but so far the issue has not been resolved to the satisfaction of the high tax state crowd. For their part, Democrats, frustrated by the Republicans’ one party approach to passing legislation, are taking a hardline on the tax reform plan.  Senator Schumer’s position is that “there is a path forward, but only after this tax bill fails,” an indication that he is going to press his red state Democratic Senators like Joe Manchin, Claire McCaskill and Joe Donnelly to hold out until a more middle class friendly plan is presented.     

Russia, Russia, Russia:  Despite concerns that the House Intelligence Committee review of Russian related issues is growing increasingly political, the committee is still ploughing ahead.  Yesterday they held closed door sessions with Trump’s in-house lawyer Michael Cohen and campaign digital director Brad Pascale.  Pascale is the guy who appeared on 60 Minutes a few weeks ago to brag about all of the “neat” work he’d done directing tailored political “ads” to voters.  At that time he denied that he’d provided any of his targeting information to anyone named Boris or Natasha; there is no indication as to whether he was more forthcoming with the committee.  Paul Manafort’s life just got a bit more complicated.  He is now being investigated for money laundering by the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York, the Manhattan court is collaborating with Special Counsel Mueller.  At the same time the Brooklyn US Attorney’s office is investigating the Kushner Companies.  Trump has been personally interviewing candidates to lead both of these offices, and in both cases the individuals under consideration have ties to his personal lawyer’s firm and to political allies.  Why is this not surprising?  In other investigative news Trump’s favorite congressional toady Representative Devon Nunes announced that the House Intelligence and Oversight panels will be looking into the 2010 sale of a majority stake in a Canadian company called Uranium One to an arm of the Russian government.  The deal was cleared by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US , a national security panel, at the time it was done.  Hilary Clinton was not involved but investigating the sale plays into Trump’s much tweeted narrative that Congress should be investigating Obama and the Clintons for what he alleges to be their Russian involvement.  Budget cuts for health care, diplomacy and the social safety net, but plenty of funds for bogus investigations, it’s no wonder that the public hates Congress more than almost any other institution.   Although we still don’t know the name of the Republican who commissioned the Fusion GPS opposition research firm investigation into Trump that led to the hiring of Christopher Steele and the production of his infamous dossier, yesterday we learned that once Trump secured the nomination, a lawyer related to the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign stepped into the original sponsor’s shoes, funding Fusion GPS’s continuing activities.  This isn’t all that surprising or unusual, but it does make for more Fox News fodder and falls into Trump’s other narrative that the Democrats invented Russian collusion accusations to make excuses for their election losses.

A Few Other Tidbits:  Kid Rock said  he will not be running for Senator in Michigan, his exact words were “F-ck No.”  He admits that his assertion that he was seriously considering a run was just a publicity ploy to spur album sales. Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow who is up for reelection in 2018 had been taking his candidacy seriously, a skilled pianist, singer and guitar player she’d been brushing up her musical skills in anticipation of his run.  Proving that Democrats can be just as dysfunctional as Republicans, Bernie Sanders and his Our Revolution Group will not endorse Ralph Northam, the Democratic Candidate for Governor in Virginia.  Northam is struggling to hold on to a shrinking lead and could have used their boost but he doesn’t meet their progressive standards.  Also, despite his promise during the 2016 campaign that going forward he would run as a Democrat,  Sanders announced that though he will continue to caucus with the Democrats he will be running for reelection to the Senate as an Independent.  Uranium resources may be one of the reasons that Niger is important to the US and the west and may explain why we have almost 1000 soldiers in the country.  Niger is the world’s fourth largest producer of Uranium, a key component of nuclear weapons. Interior Secretary Zinke, already receiving attention for his questionable private plane usage and government funded campaign travel, is now getting a little more unwanted coverage.  Whitefish Energy, a tiny Montana company, was recently awarded a $300 million contract to help restore Puerto Rico’s power grid.  The company has only two employees but does know Zinke, because as he says “everyone in Montana knows every else.” This definitely smells fishy.