Gobble, Gobble, Trump

Talking Turkey:  On Turkey Day, the NY Times reported that lawyers for former security advisor Michael Flynn, the guy in trouble for representing the interests of Turkey and Russia, have formally notified Trump’s legal team that they will no longer discuss or share information about the Special Counsel Mueller investigation.  Prior to this notice, Trump and Flynn’s attorneys had a “defense agreement” to share information, a typical arrangement among defense attorneys involved in the same case that helps them glean as much as they can by sharing what they learn from their individual conversations with prosecutors and from their clients’ interviews.  Those days are over probably because Flynn is now cooperating with Mueller’s investigation.  Earlier in the week it had been disclosed that Mueller is also putting the screws on Bijan Kian, an Iranian-American who had been a partner in the now defunct Flynn Intel Group, the focus on Kian is viewed as another point of pressure on Flynn and, together with the threats to indict his son, may have been what pushed Flynn to flip on Trump.  Jay Sekulow, the clueless White House legal spokesman, responded to the reports that Flynn has gone over to the other side by saying “No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the president, it’s important to remember that General Flynn received his security clearance under the previous administration,” not that that last part is relevant.   Despite Sekulow’s assertion, the possibility of Flynn spilling his guts to Mueller is a bigly problem for Trump.  Trump’s concerns about Flynn go way back to the beginning of his administration.  Why else would he have ignored former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates’ warning that Flynn had been compromised and why else would he have asked former FBI Director Comey to lay off that “good guy” Flynn? While the turkeys were being carved we also learned that Paul Manafort, another one of Trump’s really shrewd picks,  took at least eighteen trips to Moscow and met with Putin allies many times before being hired to run Trump’s campaign, leading to speculation that Manafort may have been on Team Putin well before he joined Team Trump.  In other Turkey news, the country not the bird, on Thursday Trump tweeted that he “will be speaking to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey this morning about bringing peace to the mess that I inherited in the Middle East. I will get it all done, but what a mistake, in lives and dollars (6 trillion), to be there in the first place!” Having once again slammed Obama and having ceded the determination of Syria’s future to Russia, Turkey and Iran, Trump told Erdogan that the US will stop supplying arms to our allies, the Syrian Kurdish rebels, something that Erdogan has demanded for a while. The US press and more disturbingly, the Pentagon learned of Trump’s concession from the Turks, who announced it during a press conference following the call.     

Watchdog Confusion:  Richard Cordray the outgoing head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau pulled a fast one on Trump on Friday.  Taking advantage of provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act, the bureau’s authorizing law, he appointed his chief of staff, Leandra English, as his deputy setting her up as his immediate successor in a brazen attempt to prevent Trump from putting his own pick into the leadership role.  Not to be outdone, Trump responded by quickly appointing Budget Director Mick Mulvaney as the Bureau’s acting head.  The bureau is well hated by Republicans who essentially believe consumers don’t need a whole lot of protection from the finance industry.  While in Congress, Mulvaney attacked the bureau, calling it “a wonderful example of how a bureaucracy will function if it has no accountability to anybody.” He added that the CFPB has been a "sick, sad" joke.  After Trump appointed Mulvaney, Senator Elizabeth Warren who was the architect of the bureau, weighed in by tweeting “The Dodd-Frank Act is clear: if there is a @CFPB Director vacancy, the Deputy Director becomes Acting Director. @realDonaldTrump can’t override that.”  It’s not clear who’s now in charge and where things go from here.  This is another dispute that could end up in court.

Boys Behaving Badly:  Somewhere in the new employees handbook for incoming Congressmen and Senators there should be a reminder that it’s never okay to text out pictures of your private parts to anyone, unless of course you want to join the Anthony Weiner hall of fame, and, in another chapter, there should be a section on where to place your hands during photo ops. After pictures of his “anatomy” appeared on social media, Texan Republican Congressman Joe Barton released a statement saying that “while separated from my second wife, prior to the divorce, I had sexual relationships with other mature adult women, each was consensual. Those relationships have ended. I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down."  He doesn’t plan to resign. Two more women are now accusing Democratic Minnesota Senator Al Franken of inappropriate tushy touching during photo-ops at a Minnesota state fair.  Franken’s response is that "I've met tens of thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs, often in crowded and chaotic situations, I'm a warm person; I hug people. I've learned from recent stories that in some of those encounters, I crossed a line for some women -- and I know that any number is too many."  At least for now, he doesn’t plan to resign either.  More stories have emerged about embattled Democratic Congressman John Conyers, one of his former staffers said that he once called her into a meeting while sporting only his briefs. Another chapter for the incoming legislator handbook should probably cover appropriate office attire. As of now Conyers doesn’t plan to resign either.

Tax Returns:  Trump and Republican leadership are pressing forward with their reverse Robin Hood tax reform plan, the one that blows up the deficit while redistributing wealth from the poor and middle class to the wealthy and from blue states to red states, with the goal of getting anything passed before Christmas. Alaska’s Senator Lisa Murkowski, previously viewed as a potential hold out, now says that she could vote for a bill that strips the individual mandate from Obamacare because she doesn’t like forcing anyone to do anything they don’t want to do.  However, she also said that she would want to see the dormant Alexander-Murray Obamacare fix legislation passed and that she is still reviewing the other components of the bill.  As to those components, one indication that the votes for passage aren’t there yet, is that many of the major provisions, including the size of the corporate tax rate, remain in flux.  Trump is scheduled to put the squeeze on Senate Republicans when he meets with them on Tuesday.         

Tragedy in the Sinai:  Over three hundred people were killed yesterday in a horrific terrorist bombing of a Mosque in the Sinai peninsula. Trump expressed his condolences to the people of Egypt and their leader President al-Sisi and then used the tragedy to throw in a plug for his wall and Muslim ban by tweeting “We have to get TOUGHER AND SMARTER than ever before, and we will. Need the WALL, need the BAN! God bless the people of Egypt." God bless them but they’d better not try to visit the US anytime soon.

Time Person of the Year:  Egotist Trump claims that he’s turned down the opportunity to be 2017 Time Person of the year. He tweeted that “Time Magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named ‘Man (Person) of the Year,’ like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway.” Time refuted his claim by simply tweeting “the President is incorrect.” Though Trump is not in the running, quarterback Colin Kaepernick, the perpetual football free agent and king of the “take a knee” movement is one of the people under consideration. A Kaepernick cover would be nice, if only to witness Trump’s reaction.  Other contenders are the women who make up the “me too” movement.  On the “me too” front the Alabama race for the Senate between “alleged” child molester Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones remains neck and neck.  It’s hard to believe any polls because of concerns that many Moore supporters may be pulling a “Trump,” denying they’ll vote for Moore even as the they remain firmly in his camp.  Moore has lost his communications director and is reportedly down to a bare bones staff, though he may get a big boost next week if Trump, the campaigner-in-chief and “alleged” serial molester, joins him on the trail. As much as I’d like to see Trump go nuts over a Kaepernick cover, at this point a “me too” cover would probably be more appropriate.