Channeling Little Marco

Road Trip Over: Trump returned from his Asian junket looking a little worse for wear.  He promised a real bigly speech with a real bigly announcement but didn’t have much to announce so instead he delivered a little Stevie Miller special, a brooding American first speech which summarized how well he was treated and respected at every country and summit that he’s attended since inauguration day, starting with his trip to Saudi Arabia and finishing with his sojourn in the Philippines.  He’d hoped to be able to announce a big trade deal or two but none of the countries he visited had much interest in a bilateral trade agreement with the Donald, they were far more focused on finalizing multilateral agreements, the ones without the US. With nothing dramatic to report, he instead provided a list of mostly previously negotiated arms sales combined with some promises that the US will no longer be party to all those crappy unfair trade arrangements negotiated by all of his predecessors.  All the travel must have left him very dehydrated because in the midst of his impassioned delivery he had an urgent need for water and since no one on his staff thought to position a glass on his podium, he had to rely on someone in the audience telling him where he could find a bottle of water.  Remember when he skewered Marco Rubio for inelegantly drinking water from a bottle during one of the primary debates, well Trump pulled a clumsy “Marco,” inspiring a tsunami of mocking tweets, including one from Marco who said that he ”needs to work on his form.”  Sloppy slurping aside, the most notable thing about Trump’s speech was what he didn’t address.  In addition to having no new trade agreement announcements he also had nothing to say about Alabama’s chief molester Roy Moore.  Favorite daughter Ivanka did provide a few comments to the Associated Press about Moore, saying that “there’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children” but she didn’t explicitly call for Moore to drop out of the race nor did she comment on whether people like her father who prey on women over the age of consent share that special place.   

More Moore:  After all those years as a judge you would think that Senator wannabee Moore would have better taste in lawyers.  One of his lawyers went on MSNBC’s Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle news show and instead of firmly denying that the Alabama candidate had preyed on adolescents, he defended Moore’s actions by saying to Ali Velshi that a guy “like him” with his background should understand that in some cultures it was okay to have sex with young girls. Velshi, politely seethed while Ruele ripped into the lawyer and his ignorant suggestion that sex with minor girls was ever appropriate, and she pointed out that Velshi was Canadian.  Anyone from Alabama should be horrified with Moore’s lawyer and his implication that child molestation was just fine in their home state. Later in the day another one of Moore’s lawyers, a virtual doppelganger of the first one, held a press conference where he attacked Moore’s fifth accuser, the one with the signed yearbook.  He questioned her story and allegations, suggesting that the signature from Moore in her high school yearbook was a forgery.  He demanded that the yearbook be released for a forensic analysis.  Unfortunately for him, as he was speaking two additional accusers came forward to the Washington Post, their stories were similar to those of all the other accusers.  In one case Moore asked a minister’s daughter out, she turned him down telling him that she was too young for him, he responded, not a problem, I date young.  After she rebuffed his overtures, he showed up at her high school and had her called out of her trigonometry class to the principal’s office so he could ask her out again.  He persisted, flattered by the attention she went on one date, at the end of which he drove her to a dark parking lot and gave her an unwanted “forceful” kiss. Like the other accusers, she is a Republican and is only coming forward now because she feels empowered to tell her story in the company of the others.  Senator McConnell and Republican leaders in Washington are trying to come up with a strategy to either forestall the upcoming December 12 election or to present a viable write-in candidate. They’ve considered asking the current Alabama Senator, Lucas Strange, to step down because that would trigger a different special election and they’ve also considered asking Attorney General Sessions to resign and accept an interim appointment to his old seat.  A survey conducted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee indicates that Moore is trailing Democratic candidate Doug Jones by 12 points, the same survey indicates that Sessions wouldn’t do that much better.  Other polls show a closer race.  Local Republican party officials met last night, emerging to say that they are sticking with Moore because they have no problem with their candidate being a child molester. Reports are that Steve Bannon, who is out of the country, is still backing Moore, but he’s not saying much himself.  Last night Fox’s Sean Hannity told voters to “make their own informed decisions” about Moore.  His show focused on Bill Clinton’s unwanted sexual advances. The guy with the twitchy twitter finger remains silent unable or unwilling to say anything about Moore’s actions because they hit too close to home, and besides he may need his vote for tax reform.  

Tax Reform is Complicated:  Tax reform really is complicated, especially when you throw Obamacare repeal into the mix.  The Senate is moving forward with a version that eliminates the Obamacare individual mandate. Maine Senator Susan Collins isn’t all that happy about that and could again be in the “no” column. She rightfully fears that the elimination of the mandate would increase health insurance premiums, wiping out the anemic savings that the tax reform plan would provide to the middle class.  Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson also came out against the plan yesterday for different reasons.  He doesn’t like that the tax plan favors large corporations over smaller companies and is holding out for some changes.  No Democratic senators are on board so McConnell is again facing the Obamacare repeal conundrum. The House version is still expected to come up for a vote today, an indication that Speaker Ryan believes that he has enough votes for passage even without the support of a number of his blue state representatives.  Economic Advisor Gary Cohn, who has promised that the large corporate tax cuts will lead to economic growth, more employment opportunities and more investment in US industry has been out marketing the plan to CEOs.  At a meeting of the Wall Street Journal’s CEO conference, when the audience was asked how many of them would reinvest their tax savings in America, only five attendees raised their hands. The rest admitted that the extra money would go to stock buy backs not growth related investment.  The not so pleased Cohn was stunned by the response.  So much for the benefits of trickle-down economics.

More National Embarrassments:  Frances’s President Emanuel Macron announced that France would cover the amount the US had previously contributed for climate science research to a United Nations panel.  Arguing that killing of endangered species is good for the species, Trump’s US Wildlife Service plans to lift prohibitions against importing trophies of elephants killed by US hunters in Zimbabwe and Zambia.  To the extent that Special Counsel Mueller doesn’t confiscate  his passport, expect Trump son and WikiLeaks colluder, Don Jr, to grab his brother Eric and head out on a hunt soon.